Miami becomes third school to bench Jake Heaps

By Staff     Aug 25, 2014

Nobody wanted it more and studied harder than Jake Heaps at three different Football Bowl Subdivision schools. But landing a starting quarterback job requires far more than trying. The University of Miami became the third Heaps school to hand the football to someone else, the only difference here being that he lost the job before winning it.

True freshman Brad Kaaya beat out Heaps, Hurricanes coach Al Golden announced Sunday.
The easy answer for why Heaps, who has a strong enough arm to zip passes into tight spots, didn’t become a productive college quarterback is to point to his lack of mobility. But it’s more than that.

How quickly the mind reaches the conclusion as to when and where to throw the ball can predict success every bit as well as the quickness of a quarterback’s feet and the velocity of the ball that flies out of his hand.

Heaps always looked like a guy who had trouble pulling the trigger, a fatal flaw for that position. That’s a quality not easily scouted at a quarterback combine, where physical tools are emphasized. Heaps came out of high school ranked by recruiting services as the No. 1 pro-style quarterback prospect in part because of what he did at camps.

Heaps has played or at least practiced for five different offensive coordinators and has watched three different quarterbacks chosen as start over him at various stages of his career: Riley Nelson at BYU, Montell Cozart at Kansas and now Kaaya at Miami.

Heaps’ best statistical season came at BYU as a freshman (57.2 completion percentage, 6.05 yards per pass, 15 touchdown passes, nine interceptions), his worst at KU as a junior (49 percent, 5.42 yards per pass, eight TD’s, 10 interceptions).

[Heaps told the Miami Herald][1] he is not considering transferring and that he does not think missing the team’s second scrimmage because of elbow soreness had anything to do with the coach’s decision. At the moment, he is listed at No. 2 on the ‘Canes’ quarterback depth chart.

Under ideal circumstances, Kaaya, because he is a true freshman, and Cozart, because he didn’t play the position regularly until he was a junior in high school, would be holding the clipboard, learning the ins and outs of the job and refining mechanics, before leading teams. That’s why both schools presented good opportunities for Heaps. So it doesn’t appear to be a case of Heaps choosing the wrong schools, rather a case of not quite having the right stuff.

[1]: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/umiami/2014/08/backups-williams-heaps-talk-and-more-notes-from-canes-practice.html

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