Now that quarterback Jake Heaps’ transfer out of the Kansas University football program is official, it’s time to put the finishing touches on the former top-rated high school prospect’s time at Kansas.
If there’s one wish I could grant Heaps before his college career is over, it would be for him to finish his career by having fun again. The guy deserves it.
By all accounts, Heaps, who came to KU from BYU and sat out the 2012 season before becoming the Jayhawks’ starter in 2013, was a fantastic teammate while at Kansas and a great leader both in terms of being that veteran presence the younger guys could look up to and a lead-by-example kind of guy both on the field and in the weight room.
Never one to say too much or over-promise in any area, Heaps simply showed up, worked his butt off and did the best he could while in a KU uniform. He always had something positive to say and remained upbeat and optimistic even while the losses mounted and his own game struggled to get going.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about what went wrong with Heaps while at Kansas and, outside of the obvious ways in which his skill set did not fit what the Jayhawks had on the roster — inexperienced offensive line, unreliable receivers, offense that could not stay on the filed — I came to a conclusion that speaks more to the big picture of college football and less to Heaps’ shortcomings.
In many ways, Jake Heaps was a victim of his era. Ten years ago, a guy like Heaps would have been just about every offensive coordinator’s dream — big arm, poised, intelligent and ultra-competitive. But in today’s college game, those traits do not mean quite as much as the one Heaps lacks — mobility.
I’ll be honest, I always thought Heaps was a little more mobile and agile than he proved to be on Saturdays. Maybe I was comparing him too much to Dayne Crist or maybe I put too much stock into his first spring game when he ran around and made plays but did so while wearing a red, no-contact jersey.
Once he became KU’s starter, and as the offensive line broke down around him, Heaps simply did not have enough escapability to avoid trouble and keep plays alive. To be fair, half the time he didn’t have much of a chance, but that’s perhaps the biggest reason that sophomore Montell Cozart beat him out for the 2014 starting job this spring and also why Cozart started the final three games of 2013 as a true freshman.
Coming out of high school, Heaps was rated by Rivals.com as the No. 1 pro-style passer in the country. In just about any other era, the top-ranked pocket passer in the country would have been a lock as a Top 10 guy overall. Not Heaps, though. Heaps ranked 63rd on Rivals.com’s Top 100 during his senior season of high school, and, although hindsight is 20/20, it seems that we should have been onto something back then.
Not that Heaps was not good enough. I still don’t believe that’s the case. More, though, that pro-style passers, particularly those trying to play in the Big 12, would simply not be en vogue a few years down the road.
That time has arrived and it’s not hard to see. Whether you’re talking Vince Young, Tim Tebow, Robert Griffin III, Johnny Manziel or any number of other quarterbacks like them, the dual-threat option has become the preferred choice in college football and appears to be the direction the Jayhawks are headed under new offensive coordinator John Reagan and Cozart.
Cozart’s emergence spelled the end of Heaps at Kansas and although no one made him transfer — think about this, by the way; when is the last time you can remember a major Div. I school losing its senior-to-be point guard and senior-to-be quarterback in the same offseason? — he felt it was in his best interest to find another school that might give him a chance to start. I can’t blame the guy. And I hope it works out for him.
I know Heaps still has NFL aspirations. But he’s also a very grounded dude and I’m sure somewhere in his head he realizes that 2014 could be his final chance to play the game he’s loved since childhood. If that’s the way it shakes out, I’m sure the idea of sitting behind Cozart and only taking meaningful snaps in practice was not the way Heaps envisioned his career ending and that’s why he’s moving on.
Provided he finishes his requirements for graduation this month — and there’s no reason to think he won’t — Heaps will be eligible to play immediately at Miami, which seems to have a need for a guy just like Heaps, a one-year player who has some experience and can help the three freshmen QBs on the roster learn the ropes of college football.
Either way, here’s hoping Heaps gets the chance to play and, perhaps more to the point, hoping that his next stop has the kind of offensive line that will allow him to showcase his skills one final time.
