1) We've been over this before with that Saban defense. It was his first year at Bama and only 4 guys from that starting defense were eventually drafted (and 2 were freshmen the year Keenum played them). That defense was literally nothing like the ones he's fielded the past 4 years.
2) "Reading" defenses in college is much different than the NFL, especially in an offense like Sumlin's at UH. All the adjustments were made on the sideline by the coaches. The progressions aren't full-field reads, they are half-field reads designed to make it easy for the QB to hit quick passes. He's not really even "reading the defense" on most of those plays. A lot of the time they would overload and get a 3-2 or run a combo route with a chip to get someone open. He usually would read a S or LB and whichever guy he didn't cover is who the ball went to.
I know you're a Keenum supporter and I'm not trying to start another argument here. Just pointing out some things I disagreed with in your post.
1. You're right. I mean 8 or 9 of all players on the team were drafted (maybe even more); and we know the offense can keep the opponent's offense off the field, limiting the opportunities.
Don't forget that Prince Hall was an All-American freshman the previous year, and was destined to be a first round draft pick until his career went astray.
And don't forget that the Tides was winning big until they had several players suspended.
Regardless, that team still had a lot of defensive players joining the NFL as UDFAs, some of them are still active.
What about Oregon that year? They had a good defense, including the entire backfield (I think) being drafted to the NFL, and Keenum was gaining on them, too.
The key is that he was a freshman.
2. Whether it was Sumlin or Briles, the offense was not a half-field read.
When I broke down a couple of games, play by play, in the college football forum at the time, I mentioned complete, whole-field read.
It was the same misconception as with Cam Newton, whose games I also broke down, not quite as extensively, but in depth enough to show that at times, he even made five reads (which means all reads), and I noted that it was one of the reasons why I strongly endorsed Newton as 1.1
I even mentioned some article in which Montana wasn't asked by Bill Walsh to go to a full read until his fourth or fifth year in the NFL, so yes, I do know about them things.