The next step in Keke Coutee's football career started on Friday at the Houston Methodist Training Center.
The former Texas Tech receiver is a Texans rookie after getting drafted in the fourth round a couple weeks ago. His goals in Houston are the same as the ones he had in Lubbock.
"I want to be great in everything I do," Coutee said before the first rookie minicamp practice. "I just want to prove all the doubters wrong."
Coutee, who stands 5-10 and weighs 180 pounds, has been labeled by some as being 'too small'. But don't tell that to him. Or his new head coach, for that matter.
"He's a well-put together guy," Bill O'Brien said. "I think that is a key. Maybe he's not the tallest guy, but he has the body type for that position to be able to go in there and make the tough catches and run some of the things that we want him to run."
O'Brien and the Texans wouldn't have spent a fourth-round choice on a player they deemed too small to produce in the NFL. Nontheless, Coutee keeps that idea around for motivation.
"I was told all my life that I was too small," Coutee said. "I did the best that I could at the Division I level and it got me in a great place."
He was able to haul in 17 touchdown catches and 2,424 receiving yards in three seasons with the Red Raiders, and now, he hopes to continue his football life pulling in passes from Deshaun Watson.
"Being able to play with a great quarterback like that, I'm really excited," Coutee said. "He likes to make a lot of plays. He has a cannon arm. I'm just ready to get out there and play with him."
Coutee and the Texans rookies will practice again on Saturday, with meetings before and after throughout the day. OTAs with the veterans begin on May 21.
Check out some of the best photos from Day 1 of rookie minicamp.
