A Case For The Heisman

A lot can happen during the sinuous road of a college football season. It's pointless to even think about handing out season awards until after Halloween. But terms of the Heisman Trophy, here's a candidate who won't show up on any preseason All-America lists. His team won't show up anywhere in the title hunt either.

Yet quarterback Case Keenum has led the Houston Cougars to an undefeated record so far with three wins including two upsets. Keenum is the engine that makes the Cougars high powered offense go with both his arms and legs. He his averaging 386 yards passing (many times scrambling to open up plays), and has eight touchdowns to only two interceptions. He has also rushed for a touchdown in each game.

This was supposed to be the year of the big named quarterback, but Oklahoma's Sam Bradford injured his shoulder in an opening loss to BYU, Colt McCoy of Texas has yet to relax and just let loose with the football, and the college footbal diety named Tim Tebow just concussed his head and had to be hospitalized (he's OKAY people, I repeat, Tebow the great is OKAY. Please continue on with your lives.)

Other dark horse Heisman candidates like Jahvid Best of Cal and Dez Bryant of Oklahoma State have had at least one bad game this season which resulted in a loss for their team. The door is wide open for a shot at the Heisman.

Keenum should be at the top of that list. His Houston Cougars are undefeated and have taken out both Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. In front of a record crowd in Houston this weekend, Keenum had defining drive to beat Tech in the final minute of the game. The Cougars have now gone from a non-entity to a possible BCS bowl buster. They play in the less than respected Conference USA, but have already shown they can beat the big boys, so there would be no reason to keep an undefeated Houston team out of a big bowl game.

As for Keenum, he just needs to keep playing at this level and leading his team to wins. The season is full twists and turns and the Cougars can't afford to lose one game if Keenum wants to even be considered for the trophy over his more celebrated peers.

Keep your eyes on the Cougars. Every game that team wins should give them a bigger Case for the Heisman.