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NebraskaCougI have been thinking a lot about all of the fallout from Jake Heaps decision to leave, as everyone here has as evidenced by the sheer volume of posts on the subject. Last night, before I went to bed, I saw two tweets in the "Cougarcorner Man Updates" box that got me thinking. I copied the tweets and they are pasted below with my added emphasis:
When I tried to put myself in Heaps' shoes, it really hit me: I feel really, really bad for Jake Heaps.
First, a disclaimer: I may be wrong on some of my facts here, but this is my understanding according to things I have read for the last couple of years, so forgive me if there are inaccuracies in my memory.
With that said, Jake's life-long dream, and all of his life plans have been focused on becoming a star NFL quarterback. It appears that from a young age, he has had a very structured plan and lots of assistance to make the plan a reality. He is very naturally gifted and his talents have been mentored and improved in a focused way for literally half or more than half of his life, and he has been very successful every step of the way until recently. While a lot of other kids were taking their summers off and being kids, he was working on his quarterback craft. He had a highlight film when he was 12 (IIRC) that wowed professionals who analyze players' potential. He didn't get senioritis and coast during his senior year and enjoy the time with his classmates, or stick around for the prom, or whatever, he did extra work in school (in addition to seminary and all of his football training) to be able to graduate early and enroll at BYU.
By all accounts that I have read, he wanted to be a Cougar. It appears that part of his dream to ultimately be an NFL star, was to be a star quarterback at BYU. Regardless of whether he ALWAYS wanted to be a star at BYU or not, when he committed he committed 150%, even taking time to build relationships and make phone calls to recruit other great players to BYU.
When I think about how difficult it was for me to transfer from high school to college academically, emotionally, socially, etc., I imagine it would be even harder to do it a semester early, when you are one of the only new, straight out of high school freshmen on campus. Almost everyone else on campus either had a semester of acclimation at BYU or a mission to increase their maturity and make the transition easier. That had to be a tricky transition academically, emotionally and socially.
How many of you had the experience of going to school year-round without a break at BYU (straight through Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, and then to the next Fall?) I had one year like that right after my mission, and I totally burned out on school. I don't know that Jake was in school straight like that, but between the season and off-season training at BYU and his personal trainers/coaches, I imagine that he was living and breathing football pretty constantly without a break.
Mix into that workload and pressure cooker a new marriage, at 19 years old. Marriage was another huge transition in my life, and I was 24 when I got married. I love my wife with all my heart and I can't imagine life without her, but we had some pretty big arguments during our first year of marriage over some really inconsequential, stupid things. I don't think I'm the only one who has had that experience, and again, I had the additional maturity of a mission, had graduated from college, and had 5 more years of life experience than Jake did before getting married.
When I add all of those factors up, I repeat, I feel really, really bad for Jake Heaps. I'm not saying that his choices haven't brought some of his adversity on himself, but who hasn't made choices that have increased the adversity in life?
I imagine that Jake has been under so much internal pressure, without the benefit of a break (or a childhood for that matter), that he cracked just like an engine block without oil. I think we can all relate. I honestly wish him the very best, and I hope he can still fulfill his dreams.
BrandonCGurney you look at the kid's history, and how he was brought up, and it's easy to see how he could get BURNED OUT...hopefully he gets it back
BrandonCGurney thought I can't get out of my head regarding Heaps' implausible regression this season, and why he regressed is that the kid was BURNED OUT
When I tried to put myself in Heaps' shoes, it really hit me: I feel really, really bad for Jake Heaps.
First, a disclaimer: I may be wrong on some of my facts here, but this is my understanding according to things I have read for the last couple of years, so forgive me if there are inaccuracies in my memory.
With that said, Jake's life-long dream, and all of his life plans have been focused on becoming a star NFL quarterback. It appears that from a young age, he has had a very structured plan and lots of assistance to make the plan a reality. He is very naturally gifted and his talents have been mentored and improved in a focused way for literally half or more than half of his life, and he has been very successful every step of the way until recently. While a lot of other kids were taking their summers off and being kids, he was working on his quarterback craft. He had a highlight film when he was 12 (IIRC) that wowed professionals who analyze players' potential. He didn't get senioritis and coast during his senior year and enjoy the time with his classmates, or stick around for the prom, or whatever, he did extra work in school (in addition to seminary and all of his football training) to be able to graduate early and enroll at BYU.
By all accounts that I have read, he wanted to be a Cougar. It appears that part of his dream to ultimately be an NFL star, was to be a star quarterback at BYU. Regardless of whether he ALWAYS wanted to be a star at BYU or not, when he committed he committed 150%, even taking time to build relationships and make phone calls to recruit other great players to BYU.
When I think about how difficult it was for me to transfer from high school to college academically, emotionally, socially, etc., I imagine it would be even harder to do it a semester early, when you are one of the only new, straight out of high school freshmen on campus. Almost everyone else on campus either had a semester of acclimation at BYU or a mission to increase their maturity and make the transition easier. That had to be a tricky transition academically, emotionally and socially.
How many of you had the experience of going to school year-round without a break at BYU (straight through Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, and then to the next Fall?) I had one year like that right after my mission, and I totally burned out on school. I don't know that Jake was in school straight like that, but between the season and off-season training at BYU and his personal trainers/coaches, I imagine that he was living and breathing football pretty constantly without a break.
Mix into that workload and pressure cooker a new marriage, at 19 years old. Marriage was another huge transition in my life, and I was 24 when I got married. I love my wife with all my heart and I can't imagine life without her, but we had some pretty big arguments during our first year of marriage over some really inconsequential, stupid things. I don't think I'm the only one who has had that experience, and again, I had the additional maturity of a mission, had graduated from college, and had 5 more years of life experience than Jake did before getting married.
When I add all of those factors up, I repeat, I feel really, really bad for Jake Heaps. I'm not saying that his choices haven't brought some of his adversity on himself, but who hasn't made choices that have increased the adversity in life?
I imagine that Jake has been under so much internal pressure, without the benefit of a break (or a childhood for that matter), that he cracked just like an engine block without oil. I think we can all relate. I honestly wish him the very best, and I hope he can still fulfill his dreams.