TEXAS — Ryan O’Keefe has always been a dynamic football player no matter what position he was in. At Round Rock High School, he did everything from playing defensive back to quarterback and was a highlight reel every time he touched the ball. His skills translated to college, where he became a receiver and all around playmaker for 4 years at UCF.
“He was our guy, he did everything,” says GJ Kinne. “He was our deep ball guy, our gadget guy, our reverse guy, speed sweep guy. It didn’t matter what we told him to do, he came with the right mental makeup.”
Kinne, now the head coach at Texas State, was the offensive coordinator at UCF in 2021, O’Keefe’s junior season. He saw the speedster make big time plays all season, including in a bowl win over Florida. O’Keefe was the MVP of that game with over 100 yards rushing, 85 yards receiving and a TD catch.
“The best moments were just having that bond with my teammates,” says O’Keefe. “On the field the biggest moment was beating Florida. That was probably one of the funnest things and most memorable.”
During his 4 years at UCF, O’Keefe had almost 2,500 yards rushing and receiving to go along with 16 total touchdowns. After the 2022 season, he decided to transfer to Boston College, to play in an offensive system he thought would fit him and get him ready for the NFL. But in the 5th game last year against Virginia, O’Keefe reached out to make a catch and was hit in the head by a defensive back.
“I remember getting hit really hard, I remember pushing myself up and as soon as I pushed myself up, my arms dropped and my whole body goes numb,” O’Keefe recalls of that moment. “I can’t feel anything. I start freaking out. You feel like you’re paralyzed and I’m like this is crazy.”
O’Keefe had to be taken off the field on a stretcher and transported to a local hospital. He would regain feeling in all his limps and after weeks of testing and waiting, he returned to the doctor to find out about his football future.
“I go into that meeting thinking I’m either going to medially redshirt and transfer or get back to the field so I can enter my name in the draft,” says O’Keefe. “When I went in there the doctor told me about my condition. The doctor said I can play again, but the likelihood of me being paralyzed the next time I get hit like that was extremely high.”
Tests discovered that O’Keefe had a condition called congenital spinal stenosis. It meant stepping back on the field would be extremely dangerous. If O’Keefe was only worried about himself, he might have taken that risk, but he had recently found out he was going to be a father.
“I wanted to keep playing but at the end of the day my son was the biggest thing for me,” says O’Keefe. “I knew football was always going to be there for me someway, somehow but I’m still trying to adjust to the next step for me.”
While O’Keefe contemplated his future without playing, the news of his injury hit his former coach pretty hard.
“To me, the way his career ended, it crushed me,” says Kinne. “It crushed me, it made me sick to my stomach.”
Kinne credits O’Keefe for the success he’s had as a coach. His season at UCF helped him become a head coach at UIW and now at Texas State. So when O’Keefe returned to Texas last fall, he gave his old coach a call to get some advice.
“I came in here and talked to him and just trying to figure out what I want to do, do I want to be a coach,” says O’Keefe. “He encouraged me to be around the guys and figure out what I want to do.”
A few months later, an opportunity for Kinne to help out his former player came up. He offered O’Keefe a position on his staff and O’Keefe jumped at it. Less than a year removed from playing college football, Ryan O’Keefe is now a college football coach. He’s the Recruiting Strategy Coordinator and Offensive Quality Control coach at Texas State.
“That’s what I feel I can bring, it’s not me just yelling at you and never done it before, I was just in their shoes,” says O’Keefe. “We can be friends off the field but on the field I want to make sure you’re good because I want to see y’all succeed.”
O’Keefe can definitely relate to his players. In fact, he was teammates with Texas State WR Jaden Williams last year. Both played at Boston College. But O’Keefe can also bring perspective for all the adversity he’s overcome in life.
“I want to be that mentor for them, because at the end of the day football is going to end,” says O’Keefe. “When football ended for me I was lost. I didn’t know what I was going to do. Football is not all you are, but at the end of the day, that’s not who you are. It’s the sport you play.”