As the entire college football world focuses on recruiting today, one commitment raising some eyebrows around the country. That would be Jake Heaps, the nation’s top quarterback, who commited to BYU earlier this year. He’s already enrolled out in Provo, and both Scout and Rivals have him ranked as the nation’s top passer. But is worth all the hype?
Is BYU Commit Jake Heaps Worth All The Hype?
SB Nation’s Mountain West Connection investigates:
Nationally Heaps is first by Scout, 63rd by Rivals, and not ranked in the ESPNU 150. A side not on ESPNU, they have zero quarterbacks in the top 150 and this quarterback crop seems to be one of the weakest in years.
More evidence that this class is not up to par with the past eight is that zero quarterbacks have a five star rating by Rivals compared to three in '09, three in '08, four in '07, three in '06,two in '05, five in '04, one in '03, and five in '02. Also, in that span every class had at least one quarterback in the top ten. These stats only go back to what Rivals has in their online database. [...]
The perceived lower level of quarterback play could be the reason that Heaps was not as heavily recruited or by as many schools. He did receive offers from Cal, Notre Dame, Washington, and Tennessee. Those are power schools in name, but a closer look shows that Cal has been the best of the bunch over the past five years, Notre Dame has been a mess, Washington had zero wins in 2008, and Tennessee who was only average in the SEC. It could be that the 2011 class has a better set of quarterbacks, so not all of the big schools kept after Heaps.
This is not meant to be a bashing of a kid who has yet to play a single down for BYU and who knows if he will be the next Ty Detmer and win a Heisman trophy or a flop like Ben Olson was who transferred after he served a Mormon mission, and ended up being injury prone at UCLA.
There’s a lot of great stuff there, and it’s an interesting question. Is Heaps the best of a bad crop of quarterbacks, or will be the next great signal caller for the Cougars? A lot of BYU fans are expecting the latter, but it’s worth asking the former question, as well. Read the whole post here.
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