The Case for Keenum

Since the Sooners have more wounded than a M*A*S*H* episode, we're now going to cover Case Keenum, LandThieves choice for Player of the Year.

Many people would dismiss Keenum because he plays in Conference USA, so he "doesn't play the schedule" that some of his peers play. Actually, courtesy of the Cougars playing 3 BCS automatic qualifiers in non-conference competition.

Case Keenum vs Miss State in Starkville: 39-52-434, 4 TDs, 2 Ints; 3-13 rushing, 0 TDs
Tim Tebow vs Miss State in Starkville: 12-22-127, 0 TDs, 2 Ints; 22-88 rushing, 1 TDs

Case Keenum vs Oklahoma State in Stillwater: 32-46-366, 3 TDs, 1 Int; 5-16 rushing, 1 TD
Colt McCoy vs Oklahoma State in Austin: 16-21-171, 1 TD, 0 Int; 11-34 rushing, 0 TDs

Case Keenum vs Texas Tech in Houston: 38-58-435, 1 TD, 1 Int; 8-27 rushing, 1 TD
Colt McCoy vs Texas Tech in Austin: 24-34-205, 1 TD, 2 Ints; 8-5 rushing, 0 TDs

Tebow has passed for 1531 yards this year and run for 578, for a combined total of 2109. Keenum has accomplished that yardage total in five games on four separate occasions. There is only one five game stretch to date that Keenum has not met that mark in passing yards alone. In their game against common foes, Keenum outgained Tebow by 219 yards and accounted for three more TDs.

McCoy has passed for 2447 yards, 17 TDs and 9 picks to date. Keenum has thrown for 3815 yards, 28 TDs and 5 picks. In their two games against common opponents, McCoy was 40-55-376 yards with 2 TDs and 2 picks. Keenum was 70-104-801 yards with 4TDs, 2 picks and 2 rushing TDs. Sure, Keenum threw nearly twice the number of passes, but his yards per attempt was almost 8, while McCoy's ypa was less than 7.

Pick the Heisman Candidate

Pick out the Heisman Trophy candidate from these two players

Passing Yards-Tds-Rush Yards-TDs


Game 1: A) 51-0-(6)-0; B) 188-1-1-1
Game 2: A) 286-3-4-0: B) 234-4-71-1
Game 3: A) 336-6-0-0: B) 115-0-76-1
Game 4: A) 188-1-(17)-0; B) 103-1-123-2
Game 5: A) 0-0-0-0; B) 134-1-38-0
Game 6: A) 250-1-(4)-0; B) 255-1-69-16
Game 7: A) 252-2-11-0; B) 127-0-88-1
Game 8: A) 294-4-(3)-0; B) 164-2-85-2
Game 9: A) 245-0-(17)-0; B) 208-1-27-1


Season Totals: A) 1902-17-(32)-0; B) 1531-11-578-9


Player A is Landry Jones, Player B is Tim Tebow. The difference between the two? 7 interceptions, 3 losses as a starter and a lot of hype. I'm a big Tebow fan, but the discussion involving him as a Heisman finalist this year is baffling. The leadership is there, but the stats just aren't. If you're voting for the Heisman and reading this blog (let's be honest, they're probably mutually exclusive lists) pick someone else. Choose McCoy. Or Shipley. Or Case Keenum. Or Mark Ingram. Or even, heaven forbid, Jimmy Clausen.

Heisman Finalists

As expected, Sam Bradford was selected as a Heisman finalist, along with McCoy and Tebow. TT QB Graham Harrell was not invited to NY, and Coach Leach is less than happy. I don't blame him. Harrell had a great year, coming up big in the Texas and Okie State games. I would imagine his performance in the OU game hurt him in the eyes of the electorate.

As for how the final Heisman voting plays out, I expect it to be 1) Tebow; 2) McCoy; 3) Bradford. I believe this because: a) Bradford, McCoy and Harrell split the Big 12 vote; b) I think nationally many discount the Big 12's perceived lack of defense (at least Tebow does); c) there' s a part of the electorate that will vote for Tebow because he's had decent numbers, and he won it last year, much like Archie Griffin's back-to-back Heisman trophies in the mid 70s.

Heisman Comparison

From the LandThieves Research dept:
The following data is presented courtesy of data at cfbstats.com. Each of the players below quarterbacks a one-loss, top 10 team:

Player A's passing stats: 168-244-2450 with 27 TDs and 4 interceptions
Player B's passing stats: 160-246-2299 with 25 TDs and 2 interceptions
Player C's passing stats: 186-232-2142 with 19 TDs and 3 interceptions
Player D's passing stats: 228-327-2567 with 25 TDs and 5 interceptions


Which would you vote for?
Which would I vote for if I told you that Player B is Tim Tebow's regular season statistics for the entire year, and that A, C, and D are the FIRST HALF statistics for Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Graham Harrell respectively?

Baylor U Plants Seeds for "Weed for Heisman" Campaign

By HeadThief, LandThief Press Editor-in-Charge

A trip to the McIntosh County Courthouse yielded an impromptu interview with former Oklahoma Univeristy gridiron star Jamelle Holieway. Holieway revealed that he has principal ownership in the sports marketing firm Do You Know Me, Inc., and that Baylor University Athletic Department has engaged DYKMI to launch an aggressive marketing campaign toking - I mean toting - John David Weed as a dark horse Heisman candidate. Mr. Holieway, presently limited to one phone call a day in his present accommodations, has leveraged the entire campaign to a newcomer on his staff, Jeff Spicoli. Spicoli was a classmate of Mr. Holieway's at Ridgemont High in the early 1980s. Mr. Spicoli was unable to break from his busy schedule to sit down for a chat, but we were able to convince him to pose for the photo above.

Baylor has been reluctant to fund Heisman marketing campaigns in the past as a result of an ill advised campaign 39 years ago. Baylor football is still recovering from the remmants of that 1968 Heisman marketing campaign when BU touted the prospects of RB Pinkie Palmer. While Mr. Palmer, a senior, led the Bears in rushing and total yard, he was unable to unseat Orenthal James Simpson in Heisman voting that year. Mr. Simpson tallied 2,853 points that year, to Pinkie's zero.

It is this reporter's opinion that Mr. Spicoli should start a grass roots campaign on behalf of Mr. Weed, and hope the campaign grows from there.