The Cougars are 8-0, lead Conference USA and are ranked in the Top 20. Keenum has 32 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions.

Yes, Rice’s pass defense is deplorable, ranked No. 115 in the nation going into the game. Yes, the contest was played at times in a driving rainstorm. Yes, Keenum looked a little shaky to start with. But my job – especially since I was at the game – is to take you inside the numbers and tell  you why you should pay attention to this guy. I can think of at least three:

He has one of the best deep balls I’ve ever seen. NFL scouts are going to discount Keenum as a system guy because he plays in a spread. Boise State’s Kellen Moore will have the same obstacle. But don’t buy that. Keenum is a good fit for other offenses, including one that employs a vertical passing game like the Raiders. Houston had a complete lack of respect for Rice’s pass defense and threw it downfield every opportunity, so I received a good sampling of Keenum’s deep ball. It has great velocity, it is highly accurate and Keenum seems to have the ability to bend it in a way that allows him to put the ball in the proper location for receivers. Sure, that’s all about the arc you put on it, but Keenum has that ability in spades.

This isn’t the Run and Shoot. Remember the late ’80s and early ’90s when the Run and Shoot ruled the Southwest Conference? The quarterbacks who pulled the triggers on those offenses were Andre Ware and David Klingler, both of which were first-round picks and NFL busts. Why? Some say it was the fact that they weren’t talented enough. Some say it was because the NFL game hadn’t caught up to what was going on in college. The latter has happened, as more NFL teams employ the spread than ever before. But the Run and Shoot never caught on in the NFL during the 1990s, and while you can argue that today’s spread is just the next generation of that, I contend that the spread offers NFL teams something the old Run and Shoot didn’t – the ability to run the ball more effectively. The running game was an afterthought in the Run and Shoot. It’s not in the spread, because these coaches know that an effective running game helps quarterbacks. Keenum benefits from that advancement.

He’s already a pro-style quarterback. There are two types of spreads in college – the spread passing game and the spread option. Houston runs the latter. Keenum is not that fleet of foot. Keenum doesn’t take a center snap, but he’s a pocket passer who surveys defenses well and quickly finds the mismatch. Spread option quarterbacks who go to the NFL usually aren’t prepared to be drop-back passers. Keenum already is.

Keenum, to me, won’t make a serious impact on the Heisman race due to Andrew Luck. But Keenum’s sheer numbers will get him to New York in December and earn him a first-round pick in next April’s draft. He’ll be underestimated because scouts will say Houston didn’t play anyone and that he’s a system quarterback. And at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, he’s a bit undersized for the position. However, as I walked away from Robertson Stadium I kept thinking about another undersized, underestimated “system” quarterback from a texas high school who is now in the NFL, a player Keenum, an Abilene native, reminded me of Thursday night.

You’ve heard of Drew Brees, right?

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