Bobby Keasler, ex-coach at McNeese St. and UL-Monroe, dies at 80

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- Bobby Keasler, a former Louisiana-Monroe and McNeese State football coach who led teams to four Southland Conference titles and an appearance in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision national championship game, has died. He was 80.

McNeese State spokesman Matthew Bonnette said Keasler, who had retired in Lake Charles about two decades ago, died Tuesday night.

Keasler took his first college head coaching job in 1990 at McNeese State, where he led the Cowboys to Southland titles in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, and seven appearances in the FCS playoffs.

His 1995 team went undefeated in the regular season and achieved a No. 1 national FCS ranking before losing its only game to Marshall in the national semifinals.

His 1997 Cowboys team appeared in the FCS national title game, falling to Youngstown State.

After going 78-34-2 in nine seasons at McNeese, and receiving Southland Coach of the Year honors five times, Keasler was hired in 1999 to coach Louisiana-Monroe, then in its sixth season as a Division I FBS program.

Keasler went 8-28 with the Warhawks, stepping down in 2002 after an 0-3 start.

Keasler was a high school coach in his native New Iberia, Louisiana, before accepting his first college post in 1981 as an assistant at Louisiana-Monroe (then known as Northeast Louisiana).

In 2006, Keasler was inducted into the McNeese Hall of Fame and became a member of the Southland Conference Hall of Honor in 2014, a year after being named the Southland Conference Coach of the Decade for the 1990s.

Funeral arrangements are pending.