Case Keenum: Is Houston Cougars Star a Lost Name in the Heisman Conversation?

Case Keenum is having a tremendous year. In fact, he's having a borderline ridiculous year. Actually, scratch that, there's nothing borderline about it. He is having a flat-out ridiculous year.

How ridiculous is it? It's so ridiculous that Brandon Wheeden, who is having a ridiculous year in his own right, looks positively pedestrian next to Kennum. 

Look at the comparison:

				Passing
Rk	Player	Year	School	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Int	Rate
1	Case Keenum	2011	Houston	279	376	74.2	3951	37	3	193.3
2	Brandon Weeden	2011	Oklahoma State	313	428	73.1	3635	31	9	164.2

Think about that. On 52 fewer attempts Keenum has 300 more yards. He has six more touchdowns and only three interceptions on the season. 

Yet, in spite of that incredible season, he's an afterthought, a nicety, a mere ticket to New York in the Heisman race. 

Now granted, Keenum plays for the Houston Cougars, a non-BCS school. They're in Conference USA, which isn't even the best mid-major conference. That distinction, according to Sagarin, goes to the Mountain West. 

The Heisman Trophy supposedly goes to the "most outstanding football player in the country." It doesn't go to the "best." Nor does it go to the "best player offensive player on a team that has the chance win the national championship." Neither does it go to the "most outstanding football player in the country that plays in a BCS conference." 

After Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal fell, by default almost it seems that the Heisman favorite torch has been passed to Brandon Weeden. Should Oklahoma State fall to Oklahoma it would seem likely that the conversation will recycle to LaMichael James or Trent Richardson or Landry Jones or back to Andrew Luck. 

Keenum will be penciled in on virtually every ballot as the second or third choice but not get a single first-place vote, in spite of the fact that he is statistically the most outstanding player in the country. Yes, I know that he's not the best. And I fully realize he plays the weakest schedule. 

It's also true though that he doesn't have the same types of players around him as Brandon Weeden. Does anyone want to make a case that Patrick Edwards is on the same level as Justin Blackmon?

There used to be a time when you didn't have to be a major-conference quarterback to win the Heisman. Ty Detmer won with BYU in 1990, "only" 21 years ago. Andre Ware won the year before that with Houston. 

Ah, Houston. See, a quarterback from Houston can win the Heisman, or at least he used to be able to. There was something gloriously egalitarian about the award. If you truly stood out, i.e. were outstanding, regardless of which school you went to, you could win the award. 

Now it's become an award that is essentially nothing more than best player on a Top Five team. Most of the schools don't have a real chance. Keenum has done everything that could be asked, leading his team to an undefeated record and, well, standing out. 

Whether he deserves to win or not is almost not even the point. It's whether he deserves consideration. I just hope that if anyone has a vote, they haven't just dismissed him out of hand because he's not on one of the "sexy" schools. Let a player prove himself, voters. At least give him honest consideration.