Michigan QB Mikey Keene has missed all of the spring with an undisclosed injury, but head coach Sherrone Moore isn’t fretting about it because of this very reason:
Michigan brought in former Fresno State quarterback Mikey Keene via the transfer portal this winter, and it was widely expected he would compete with Bryce Underwood and Jadyn Davis to be the starting quarterback this fall.
What wasn’t expected, however, was that the veteran quarterback would miss the entire spring with an undisclosed injury. Even though Keene has started to throw the ball a little bit recently, he did not participate in Michigan’s spring game on Saturday and was unable to go through any of the spring practices this year.
But head coach Sherrone Moore isn’t as worried as some may have expected, as he told reporters following Saturday’s scrimmage.
“(Keene got hurt) right before the spring that kind of came upon us, (we) handled it,” Moore said. “He’s doing well now, he’s throwing, he’s in a good place and just didn’t (feel) like pushing it to end the spring that way, so he’s in a great place. I did a study about guys who’s played the most college snaps in football and he’s played like 2,228 snaps in college football, so he’s okay to miss the spring.”
Moore was so, so very close to nailing that stat — according to Pro Football Focus, Keene has registered 2,233 snaps during his college football career. Keene began his career in 2021 at UCF and played 584 snaps his first year in college football. Following an injury-plagued 2022, he bounced back in 2023 with 713 snaps and then 744 snaps last season.
Keene’s experience is one of the reasons Michigan pursued him out of the portal in the first place. He’s thrown for 8,245 passing yards and 65 touchdowns over his four years of college football, and the 2022 season was spent with new Michigan offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey at UCF. Thanks to his overall experience level and familiarity with Lindsey’s offense, Moore and the Wolverines aren’t worried Keene hasn’t been able to practice yet.
However, Keene has been staying busy off the field since getting hurt. He has honed in on helping develop the younger guys in the quarterback room.
“I go into those quarterback meeting rooms and (Keene is) like a coach,” Moore said. “He’s run a lot of the stuff that Chip’s done before, so that’s been cool watching him teach those young guys. But he’s just played college football for (so long) — he’s got a pretty good grasp of how to execute our playbook.”
Keene is expected to be ready to compete for fall camp, but it’s encouraging that even though he hasn’t been able to do anything on the field just yet, he has already shown value off the field.