The pre-season watch list nominations just keep rolling in for sixth year senior Case Keenum and the Houston Cougars. After being named a watch-lister for the Maxwell Award earlier in the off-season, Keenum picked up the same honor for the Davey O'Brien Award. Keenum was one of the three finalists for the O'Brien during his last healthy season in 2009.
Also on the list were fellow Texans Ryan Tannehill of Texas A&M, Robert Griffin of Baylor and Kyle Padron of SMU. Incredibly, half of C-USA's member schools had quarterbacks named to the watch list, with Keenum, Padron, Austin Davis (Southern Miss), Dominique Davis (East Carolina), Jeff Godfrey (Central Florida) and G.J. Kinne (Tulsa) all being honored. That gave Conference USA the second-most O'Brien watch list nominees, with only the Big Ten (seven) earning more. The Pac-12 came in third with five nominees.
In addition to Keenum's nominations, fellow Cougars Chris Thompson (Outland Trophy, Lombardi), Marcus McGraw (Lombardi), Bryce Beall (Doak Walker), and Patrick Edwards (Biletnikoff) have also received pre-season watch list honors. I guess the 5-7 season isn't killing off the hype surrounding the Cougars.