Temple coach Geoff Collins offers support for staffer fighting leukemia

After Saturday's 19-17 loss to Villanova, Temple football coach Geoff Collins was visibly upset and it had nothing to do with the game's outcome.

Collins told the media in his postgame press conference that a member of the Owls family was ill and asked everybody to keep him in their prayers. Temple's team also got word after the game about the situation.

At the time, Collins didn't identify the person, but he did during Tuesday's press conference and said an online fundraising campaign has begun for Kane Ivers-Osthus, who is fighting leukemia. Ivers-Osthus was hired at Temple in 2017 as a graduate assistant and promoted full-time to his current job as equipment assistant.

Ivers-Osthus, 24, was one of the first people Collins hired after being named head coach in December 2016.  Collins had been the defensive coordinator at the University of Florida, where for two years Ivers-Osthus was his student assistant.

"He is just a tremendous young man and obviously I was broken Saturday with the news," Collins said during Tuesday's weekly press conference. Obviously, he is getting tremendous care, his family is up here so please keep him in your prayers because he just means a lot to this football program, he means a lot to a lot of people. The GoFundMe page if you can see it or retweet it however that works I appreciate it because he means the world to us."

More than $28,000 had been raised on the first day.