Utah St. QB Keeton gets fifth year from NCAA

Chuckie Keeton has missed 19 games the past two seasons. (USATSI)

Utah State quarterback Chuckie Keeton will get his shot at giving his college football career a happier ending.

The Aggies announced Friday that Keeton has received a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA and will return for a fifth season of eligibility in 2015. Keeton has played four seasons without a redshirt, but missed the final 11 games of 2014 after suffering an injury to his surgically repaired left knee.

Keeton initially injured the knee against BYU in 2013, tearing both his ACL and MCL. He would miss the final eight games of that season, cutting short a campaign that had begun with an 18-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio and 241 rushing yards. Keeton announced himself as one of the nation’s most exciting players as a sophomore in 2012, throwing for 3,733 yards and 27 touchdowns while also rushing for another 619 yards and eight touchdowns.

But his return in 2014 didn’t go according to plan, with Keeton throwing for just 4.6 yards per attempt and a 2-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his two-plus games before reinjuring the knee.

Keeton may have to be sharper to earn the starting job back from rising junior Darrell Garretson or rising sophomore Kent Myers, two of the four Aggies quarterbacks to start a game during USU’s injury-riddled 2014 season — one that thanks in part to freshman Myers (who started the final six games) nonetheless ended with a 10-4 record and New Mexico Bowl title.

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