Fri Feb 10 2012
By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
Spencer Keith is getting a kick out of proving all of his doubters wrong.
Less than a year after rewriting Arkansas’ high-school passing records, the true college freshman well step into a Division I starting job at quarterback today when he leads Kent State into battle against Bowling Green on Homecoming at Dix Stadium.
Keith won the job by consistently moving the Golden Flashes’ offense in three relief appearances and one start in place of injured former first-stringer Giorgio Morgan.
It took Keith just four college games to prove not only that he could play at the Division I level, but that he deserved to start. Despite all of the gaudy numbers Keith posted in high school, most of the scouts who watched him sling the ball around for Pulaski Academy in Little Rock assumed he’d never get this far.
“A lot of people said things, that I couldn’t play Division I college football,” Keith said, as he finished his first week of practice as the Flashes’ official No. 1 quarterback. “I like to prove people wrong, and you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself to be able to do that.”
Scouts liked to use the word “system quarterback” to account for the state-record 5,310 passing yards and 70 touchdowns he racked up during his senior season.
In all fairness, Pulaski’s spread offense is a bit odd, but mostly because head coach Kevin Kelley refuses to punt the ball — ever.
Playing the statistical odds like a poker player, Kelley’s teams go for the sticks on fourth down even if they need 30 yards and the ball is spotted on their own 3 yard line. Those types of decisions alone lead to a Pulaski quarterback throwing the ball more than the typical high schooler.
What the scouts may have missed is how the unconventional decision making can help prepare a prep athlete like Keith for the Division I college game.
Athletes get better with repetitions, and after 625 pass attempts as a high-school senior — another Arkansas state record — Keith arrived in Kent with more passes under his belt than the typical freshman quarterback.
Facing all of those high-stress fourth downs gave Keith another edge.
“It definitely helped me handle pressure,” said Keith. “I’ve dealt with a lot of situations in high school. You go into those fourth downs knowing that if you don’t get it, you are turning the ball over, even if you are inside your own 10-yard line.”
If college scouts weren’t scared off by the Pulaski system, they pointed to Keith’s surgically-repaired knee as a question mark. Keith tore his ACL during basketball season in February of his junior year, but the injury didn’t keep him from returning in time to lead Pulaski to a 13-1 record and a Division 5A state title the next fall.
Despite recovering from a seven-month injury in just five months, Keith found most of his college offers from Ivy League schools ,who were as attracted to his 4.3 grade-point average and the 30 on his ACT, as they were to the numbers he posted on the football field.
Kent State’s Doug Martin was one of the few Division I coaches who never shied away from his interest in Keith, and now he is being rewarded earlier than expected.
Keith arrived in Kent in the summer with the hope of getting a jumpstart on learning the KSU system. Similarities between the Pulaski spread and KSU’s offense helped to speed up that process.
When backup quarterback Anthony Magazu was injured in preseason camp, Keith ended up with more and more practice reps with both the first and second teams. The freshman ended up finding a comfort zone with the entire receiving corps, helping him to spread the football around and avoid locking in on just a few receivers.
It didn’t take long before Keith was game ready. Ever since throwing an interception on his first college pass on Sept. 12 at Boston College, Keith has shown steady improvement. He hasn’t been perfect, but in four games he has completed 60 percent of his passes (53-for-88) for 587 yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions and an un-freshman-like 124.44 efficiency rating.
“Spencer is really unlike any freshman quarterback I’ve had,” said Martin. “He is now our starting quarterback, and he is ready for the challenge.”
•••
David Carducci can be contacted at dcarducci@recordpub.com
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