Don’t count out Keene in Knights’ QB clash
You knew it was going to happen. It always does in the eyes of fans. Just as soon as it was announced that coach Gus Malzahn had convinced electrifying dual-threat quarterback John Rhys Plumlee to transfer from Ole Miss to UCF during the offseason, Mikey Keene immediately became the darkhorse challenger instead of the incumbent starter.
College football fans are like kids on Christmas morning. They are always looking forward to opening up and playing with their next new toy while casting aside the one they happen to be playing with at the time.
In the wake of UCF’s spring game on Saturday, I’m here to tell you not to just throw Mikey in the toy box and shut the lid. To paraphrase the classic poem by Dylan Thomas, “Mikey Keene will not go gentle into that good night. He will rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
“Mikey’s got a chip on his shoulder,” Malzahn acknowledged.
After the spring game, that chip might be the size of Mount Everest because Plumlee Mania will undoubtedly
continue to sweep through the Knight Kingdom. Whoever put out the word that Plumlee’s initials — JRP — should stand for “Just Run, Please” couldn’t have been more wrong. Plumlee, who had been moved from quarterback to wide receiver by Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, transferred to UCF because he wanted another shot at the position he’s played since boyhood.
Plumlee, who ran a hand-timed 4.39 40-yard dash in high school, is known for his speed and elusiveness, but his passing ability Saturday was much better than advertised. He completed 11-of-15 passes for 189 yards and four touchdowns — two of which went for 44 and 57 yards.
“I recruited him hard out of high school,” Malzahn said of Plumlee. “I knew what we were getting. He can flat-out throw and he throws the deep ball very well. “
Keene, too, had an impressive stat line with 21 completions in 28 attempts for 282 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. It’s clear that he is a much different quarterback than last year when he was thrown into the fire as a true freshman after star quarterback Dillon Gabriel went down with a season-ending injury early in the season.
Keene isn’t a skinny freshman anymore. He’s put on 10 pounds of muscle with 10 more pounds to come. He’s done speed work and worked on extending plays with his feet. His teammates say he’s a much more confident and vocal leader in the huddle and in the locker room.
Plumlee may, in fact, turn out to be UCF’s starting quarterback, but I definitely wouldn’t count out Keene. The reason I say this is because of something former UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton said at the Hula Bowl in January when a bunch of UCF fans in attendance cheered Milton vociferously throughout the game. Milton pointed out how far he’d come since his freshman season at UCF when he was booed off the field by fans after a Cure Bowl loss to Arkansas State.
Milton, of course, grew up immensely after his inaugural season and would go on to become arguably the greatest quarterback in UCF history. Not to say the same will happen with Keene, but I do believe we all undervalued what he was able to accomplish as a true freshman.
He led injury-riddled UCF to nine wins and a monumental school-first chest-puffing victory over the Florida Gators in the Gasparilla Bowl. And if you’re scoring at home, Keene’s stats as a true freshman were actually better than Milton’s.
In Milton’s first year as a starter at UCF, he completed 57.7 percent of his passes for 1,983 yards with 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. In comparison, Keene completed 63.3 percent of his passes last season for 1,730 yards with 17 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.
When I asked Keene on Saturday if he has that chip on his shoulder because some are overlooking him and discounting his chances of beating out Plumlee for the starting quarterback job, he replied: “I have a chip on my shoulder because I know that I can be better than I was last year. I want to put us in the best position to win so that we can run the table this season.”
Quite honestly, whether it’s Keene or Plumlee who’s taking the bulk of the snaps, you can count on UCF’s offense being significantly better. Just hearing the excitement level in Malzahn’s voice after the spring game, you can tell the coach likes what he sees from both of his quarterbacks.
“We’re in really good shape at the quarterback position,” Malzahn said. “Nowadays, you need to have two. With spring ball now complete, I can tell you that we can win with both these guys. As a matter of fact, we can win a lot of games with both of these guys. It’s a good feeling right now.”
It was a feel-good day all the way around with UCF players abuzz with excitement about the backs of their jerseys, which replaced their numbers with a giant QR code that linked to that player’s bio page and social media channels. Malzahn compared it to the QR code you scan at restaurants to bring up the menu on your cell phone.
If the quarterback cuisine we scanned on Saturday is any indication, UCF fans should be in for a delicious treat this fall.