Fresno State transfer quarterback Mikey Keene has committed to Michigan. He has one season of eligibility remaining.
Keene is a 5’11”, 200-pounder who spent two years at UCF before transferring to Fresno for the 2023-2024 seasons. When he was at UCF with Gus Malzahn as head coach, new Michigan offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey was his offensive coordinator for one season, a 2022 campaign that saw Keene complete 60/83 passes (72.3%) for 647 yards, 7.8 yards/attempt, 6 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
Hit the jump for more.
This past season, Keene went 6-6 as the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs (they finished 6-7 after a bowl loss without Keene), who faced a bit of adversity when head coach Jeff Tedford stepped down over the summer due to health issues. They opened the season with a 30-10 loss to Michigan in which Keene completed 22/36 passes for 235 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions, including a pick-six to Will Johnson. Overall, though, Keene put up decent numbers in 2024 with 70.5% completions (277/393 passing), 2,892 yards passing, 18 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.
For his career, Keene has completed 793/1170 passes (67.8%) for 7.0 yards/attempt, 65 touchdowns, and 28 interceptions. He’s not much of a rushing threat, with just 2 rushing touchdowns in four years and a career average of -3.1 yards per attempt (including sacks).
As a high school player coming out of Chandler (AZ) Chandler in 2021, he was a 3-star, the #57 quarterback, and #819 overall. Along with UCF, he had offers from the likes of Coastal Carolina, Hawaii, Iowa State, Nevada, Tulane, and Yale. Keene never lost a game as a starter in high school and led Chandler to two straight state championships in Arizona in 2019 and 2020.
Diehard Michigan fans are probably more intimately familiar with Keene than they should be, because we spent all off-season looking forward to the season-opener for 2024 and wondering how the small but efficient QB for Fresno would play. He threw for 366 yards and 4 touchdowns against Purdue in 2023, so there was a healthy bit of respect for how he might perform on a big stage. And while Fresno State lost to Michigan by 20 points, I thought Keene acquitted himself fairly well. He just was playing with one hand tied behind his back against a talented Michigan defense.
As a thrower, Keene has a little bit of Russell Wilson moonball in him. Since he’s a short quarterback, he has to try to find passing windows, and his lack of great arm strength requires him to be accurate and put air under the ball. The numbers show that he can be accurate and efficient. When given a throwing lane, he has a quick release and can put the ball on the money on short throws with a little bit of zip.
Obviously, Keene is not a runner; he can move around in the pocket a little bit and can get on the edge with some boots or sprint-outs, but he’s not going to add anything in the run game – much like Davis Warren and Cade McNamara in recent years. He is also not someone who is going to be able to push the ball downfield on long-developing deep routes. If he hits deep throws, they’re going to have to come on short drops where he can toss up 50/50 balls against press man coverage.
Overall, I’m a little disappointed but not surprised that Michigan took someone like Keene. It’s a plus that he has experience with Chip Lindsey and his coaching points, but the athletic limitations put a cap on what the offense can do. It was always going to be a long shot that any noteworthy transfer QB would want to come to Michigan, considering the #1 overall recruit in the 2025 class will be waiting to take over at some point. If a quarterback has one or two years left to make an impact, does he want to spend that time looking over his shoulder at Bryce Underwood? In the cases of Miller Moss (USC to Louisville), Billy Edwards (Maryland to Wisconsin), and Brendon Lewis (Nevada to Memphis), they all chose to play for inferior programs rather than risk losing playing time to Underwood.
Michigan’s quarterback room for 2025 now consists of Keene, Underwood, Davis Warren, Jadyn Davis, and Chase Herbstreit; both Jayden Denegal (San Diego State) and Alex Orji (destination TBD) have entered the transfer portal. I suspect Keene probably jumps to the top of the depth chart for the season opener, but by the end of the year, it would not be surprising at all to see Underwood take over the starting job.
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