Heaps = bad. Heaps Starting = VERY BAD.

This is first post I've written on any forum that is seriously critical of a decision made by Bronco and his staff. But I think they deserve it based on the performance--more expressly the lack thereof--shown in this game.



Wyoming is a bad team, and they were in this game until the end. The defense played well until the end. Allowing a team that had scored only 6 points in the 4th quarter to put up two touchdowns was embarassing. Even so, it was the DEFENSE, that preserved the win. The offense needed help from Wyoming's own ineptness on special teams to help the offense not look so bad in the end.



Jake Heaps looks every bit the untested freshman he is AND MORE!



I have seen Lark and Munns throw in practice. They look better than Heaps IMO. I have seen Heaps play live at the stadium where I could see the defense he doesn't know how to read. The wyoming game was more of the same.



The San Diego State game was won by the running efforts, but Wyoming seems to have caught on to the idea that if they simply stop the running game, they can roll the dice on letting Jake Heaps lose the game for his team and actually have a chance to win.



I cannot believe that Lark or Munns would be THIS bad behind the wheel. You have to go back to Feterik or Jensen to find a QB as uninspiring to watch. Heaps performances are worse than every BYU QB I've watched in the last four decades.



He does not belong as BYU's QB. Now either we've got the wrong QB, or we don't HAVE a decent QB.



I don't buy the bit that this is all Anae's fault. There are open receivers on many plays that Heaps doesn't notice. Heaps chooses well guarded people and throws silly interceptions.



How did we get here?



What flaw is it with the coaching staff that backed off the notion that they will play the best, hardest working individual?



Why are we trashing what could have been a reasonably good year by playing Heaps. I get the sense that Bronco is simply riding inertia here assuming that he can't change horses now.



But is that a good decision? I say no.



If Lark or Munns were to take over now, and if they were actually able to do better than Jake (which I believe they would) then why wouldn't they do even better with all the reps and playing time?



Every game Heaps plays is a display of pride by Bronco, Anae and Doman, whether they admit it or not.



Shouldn't Doman himself understand this? Doman who should have been the starter at BYU all his years, but was stuck in third string, is now perpetuating the same nonsense that victimized him.



I don't understand it. It's wrong and it should change. If this is the way Bronco is going to run his program, he'll never achieve a National Championship--won't ever even come close.

You can't put it all on the freshman QB.



Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.



This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

These are the types of wins we need. BYU wins and Robert Anae still gets fired.



It only gets easier for the next 4 weeks. We win, even if we struggle.

CAFB_04-12 wrote:
You can't put it all on the freshman QB.



Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.



This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

That is true, however, the only reason Wyoming was in this game was because of a terrible pick 6 by Heaps, which has nothing to do with practice or coaches, because it's an easy pass and catch that Heaps simply threw directly to the defender.



Heaps should have improved in this game.

hawkwing wrote:

You can't put it all on the freshman QB.



Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.



This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

That is true, however, the only reason Wyoming was in this game was because of a terrible pick 6 by Heaps, which has nothing to do with practice or coaches, because it's an easy pass and catch that Heaps simply threw directly to the defender.



Heaps should have improved in this game.

He did throw a TD.

CAFB_04-12 wrote:
You can't put it all on the freshman QB.

Yes I can. It wouldn't even have BEEN a game at the end without that mindless interception when BYU was winning 16-0. That play call by Anae was excellent because Hague was wide open in previous plays and again on that play. Heaps threw a ball worse than any Matt Berry duck every thrown and handed 6 points to a team that shouldn't have scored a single point all game.

Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.

Can you really fault that call? DiLuigi was running pretty well today. You want Kariya up the middle again? I liked that call.

This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

On this we agree.

Heaps looks bad. And it doesn't look like he's getting better.



If the coaching staff wants to take him out, that's fine by me. I'm not, however, going to stand behind this:

Yzzazz wrote:

Every game Heaps plays is a display of pride by Bronco, Anae and Doman, whether they admit it or not.

I don't know the details behind WHY Jake continues to start, and if it's nothing more than stubbornness, then sure, a pox upon Bronco's house. But I'm not going to pretend to know all the details. It's entirely possible that, at the current moment, Munns and Lark ARE as bad. (EDIT: or it could be an attitude thing. Or any number of factors that are mostly kept between team members.) I don't know how they'd hold up in a game, and I don't think anybody else does until they actually, y'know, play a game.



That being said, I wouldn't complain if one of them shows up on the field here soon.



Anybody thought about the annoying side of this? Heaps has played so poorly, and Munns, Lark and (I haven't given up on him) Nelson are all talented enough, that once again, we're probably looking at another QB race this off-season. Yay.

Heaps isn't very good, but has the talent to be good. Luckily the offense of line is great. Those five guys are the reason the offense can run the ball.



This season is what it is. A rebuilding season. Look at Texas. They were in the national championship game last year and even with four and five star recruits they are struggling.



I think Heaps will get better every year and its worth it to put a whole bunch of struggles and losses into one season for a successful string of seasons.



While I agree Heaps is bad, he will get better.

declocoug wrote:

CAFB_04-12 wrote:
You can't put it all on the freshman QB.



Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.



This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

That is true, however, the only reason Wyoming was in this game was because of a terrible pick 6 by Heaps, which has nothing to do with practice or coaches, because it's an easy pass and catch that Heaps simply threw directly to the defender.



Heaps should have improved in this game.

He did throw a TD.

He threw two, one to each team.

You know, I just keep giving Heaps the benefit of the doubt. But this was WYOMING. They really are a TERRIBLE team.



We had them 16-0 at the end of the first quarter thanks to our running game. Now in retrospect I see that had we just kept running, we would have run away with this one and it wouldn't have even been close.



Here's what I think Anae was thinking when he started passing the ball, "Hmm. We're running REALLY well. This patsy team can't stop us. We probably won't play an easier team all year and Jake and the receivers really need to get their confidence up. We're blowing them out anyway so lets put it in the air and get some momentum going in the passing game."



The thing is that he should have waited until we were ACTUALLY blowing them out for that so that if misfortune betook us we could go back to running and not have to worry. But this game gave me a heart attack. I see what Anae is doing but honestly the decisions he made were decisions I would have made but he's supposed to be able to make BETTER decisions than I would make, that's why he's the OC and not me.



Jake looks bad. I wouldn't mind one bit him taking off on a mission, handing the reigns over to someone else for the next three years and have him try again after a redshirt year following his mission. Now i know he's expressed no desire to do so and I'm not judging him for that but since football is obviously more important to him than anything I actually think a mission and a redshirt would be a WISE football move for him at this point. He's really not getting any better and I'd love to see someone go in their with more maturity and more energy. Nelson wasn't throwing the ball well but at least he had energy.

Yzzazz wrote:

You can't put it all on the freshman QB.

Yes I can. It wouldn't even have BEEN a game at the end without that mindless interception when BYU was winning 16-0. That play call by Anae was excellent because Hague was wide open in previous plays and again on that play. Heaps threw a ball worse than any Matt Berry duck every thrown and handed 6 points to a team that shouldn't have scored a single point all game.

Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.

Can you really fault that call? DiLuigi was running pretty well today. You want Kariya up the middle again? I liked that call.

This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

On this we agree.

Do you know how many 3rd and 2s DiLuigi has converted on the season? 1 in 4. Still like the call?



Bad pass and interception? Yes. But so many on this board wanted Heaps to start throwing more, and guess what you get? Stupid interceptions by an average freshman QB.



I can't believe you like the DiLuigi call on 3rd and 2. I even called that play before it was run, and I'm not that smart about football. When I can predict the plays Anae will call on 3rd down with DiLuigi in the I formation, then I'm certain smarter football coaches (Wyoming's) will guess the same thing. I like the chances with Juice or Kariya over DiLuigi in that formation. If you need a time out to get set up then call the freaking time out, but don't run the I with DiLuigi on 3rd and 2.

taekwondave wrote:

Jake looks bad. I wouldn't mind one bit him taking off on a mission, handing the reigns over to someone else for the next three years and have him try again after a redshirt year following his mission. Now i know he's expressed no desire to do so and I'm not judging him for that but since football is obviously more important to him than anything I actually think a mission and a redshirt would be a WISE football move for him at this point. He's really not getting any better and I'd love to see someone go in their with more maturity and more energy. Nelson wasn't throwing the ball well but at least he had energy.

Suddenly it makes sense. Divine intervention. It's the only possible explanation.

(note: mostly TIC)

When Heaps has a good throw it is amazing. What a rocket for an arm. His decision making is very slow and he's inaccurate most of the time.



I think this is a complicated problem starting with poor coaching and ending with Heaps having no confidence in himself, the offense and especially the receivers. I hope he can overcome this like Jo Beck did after his beatdown freshman year.



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declocoug wrote:

CAFB_04-12 wrote:
You can't put it all on the freshman QB.



Seriously, Robert Anae calls a sweep to DiLuigi on 3rd and 2. And it gets stuffed. Again. That single play allowed Wyoming to press the game to the end.



This broken offense is a failure of coaching, both at practice and in the game.

That is true, however, the only reason Wyoming was in this game was because of a terrible pick 6 by Heaps, which has nothing to do with practice or coaches, because it's an easy pass and catch that Heaps simply threw directly to the defender.



Heaps should have improved in this game.

He did throw a TD.

He actually threw TWO!!! ;)

CAFB_04-12 wrote:
Bad pass and interception? Yes. But so many on this board wanted Heaps to start throwing more, and guess what you get? Stupid interceptions by an average freshman QB.

I think by now we have to admit that he is below average even for a freshman QB. This isn't to say he cannot become our best QB of all time, but according to the stats, he is the worst QB to throw 100 passes at BYU.

Mars wrote:


With the late TD pass, Heaps did just enough this game to not be benched for Lark next game, IMO. No more.

I agree. But I give him ONE HALF next game to prove it again or else.

Mars wrote:


With the late TD pass, Heaps did just enough this game to not be benched for Lark next game, IMO. No more.

I agree with Mars on this.

Just to make it fair for Heaps, the last time Yzzazz made a earth shattering observation, it was last year before the Florida State game when he declared in a page long epitath we had the best defense in BYU history and would roll FSU and TCU.



There's some value in keeping an even keel and not going overboard in either direction.



We won today and Bob Anae isn't any more secure in his job. I'm happy.

hawkwing wrote:

Bad pass and interception? Yes. But so many on this board wanted Heaps to start throwing more, and guess what you get? Stupid interceptions by an average freshman QB.

I think by now we have to admit that he is below average even for a freshman QB. This isn't to say he cannot become our best QB of all time, but according to the stats, he is the worst QB to throw 100 passes at BYU.

Absolutely. The only reason we wouldn't is because we are still too star struck :love: (5* to be exact) to accept the truth.



I REALLY wish Mendenhall wouldn't have made the comments he did about Jake having the potential to be our greatest ever. Those words may come back to bite him in the sense that if he realizes he should bench Jake he'll feel obligated to keep him in there to show he still has that belief. I know he was trying to motivate and I know it was a nice thing to say and who can blame him but...it just might come back to bite him.