The next year he won the Southwest Conference Championship, Cotton Bowl and National Championship with Texas, but as the 3rd string QB who only threw 5 passes all season and scored a single rushing touchdown against California in the first game of the season.
After some time at Alvin Junior College, he transferred to UTEP where he was the starting QB for the two seasons and set records for single-season rushing TD for quarterbacks, career completion percentage.
[4] Playing for the St. Louis Cardinals primarily as a backup to Jim Hart, he had a 0.0 passer rating in each of his first two career starts in 1973, the only quarterback in NFL history to do this in back-to-back games.
Despite the dubious statistic, Keithley won in his first start against the Atlanta Falcons, a 32–10 victory in which he completed just two of ten passes for nine yards and an interception that was returned for a touchdown.
[5][6] The following year, Keithley lost his backup role to Dennis Shaw, who played for Cardinals head coach Don Coryell in college, while his punting duties were reassigned to rookie punter Hal Roberts.