Bye Week Grades 1-Heaps

We've got a bye week coming up. So I'm curious to see how fans rate the current Cougars.

Are we grading on a curve??? :skeptic:

D-he doesn't look good, but he makes the occasional amazing pass through traffic.

if we were going off of numbers alone... probably a D. But due to dropped passes, coaching, and other lack of production around him, I give Jake a C. He hasn't done much to propel us to victory, but he hasn't been the sole cause for any losses either.



PS - Whoever gave Jake an F does not watch much football. I guess that means that truly awful AWFUL quarterbacks get... what... a G?

Cougy_Monster wrote:
I voted for a D. Although like my high school chemistry teacher always said "If you don't all get A's it's my fault since I'm responsible for teaching you."



In case you didn't catch it, Anae is the chemistry teacher here ;)

well said birthday boy

Just enough flashes of brilliance to show us what he has in the tank, if he can ever get to it. And enough timing, footwork, and accuracy problems to earn him a D so far.

I gave him a D. Probably would upgrade to a D+ just because of the 2 passes to ashworth on his touchdown throw drive. Those were Jaw droppers, especially the 20 yard dart he threw right before the touchdown pass. I just wish he would throw like that in his short game.

C-.



Then again, he is a true freshman taking an AP football class.

Lawboy wrote:
C-.



Then again, he is a true freshman taking an AP football class.

Exactly. His performance mirrors my own back when I took ECON 110. I was way in over my head at the start of the semester, but by the end of the semester I had become competent. Jake is getting there. That throw to Ashworth was a thing of beauty. I hope to see more of them in the next games (out of the play action pass from the I formation).

frdbtr wrote:
I gave him a D. Probably would upgrade to a D+ just because of the 2 passes to ashworth on his touchdown throw drive. Those were Jaw droppers, especially the 20 yard dart he threw right before the touchdown pass. I just wish he would throw like that in his short game.

He does throw like that in his short game... unfortunately.

declocoug wrote:

I gave him a D. Probably would upgrade to a D+ just because of the 2 passes to ashworth on his touchdown throw drive. Those were Jaw droppers, especially the 20 yard dart he threw right before the touchdown pass. I just wish he would throw like that in his short game.

He does throw like that in his short game... unfortunately.

I'll admit that is a valid criticism of Heaps. He rifles in short passes to the running backs. They need to get touch passes, out of the back field, and hopefully in stride. I am curious why that has not been emphasized, or if it has, why it has not yet been corrected.



All that being said, its a lot easier to learn to take a little something off of a pass and put some air under it, then it is to learn to throw a dart down field if you just don't have the arm strength. I'm glad Heaps has the arm strength, but like all freshman QBs I've seen play in college, and even some when they first come in the NFL, you have to learn when to use touch and when to burn it in there. His pick on Saturday came from trying to burn it in there instead of putting some air and touch on the ball and getting it out in front of the back and over the linebacker. It was not a bad decision to throw the ball, it was just a very poor decision on how to throw the ball. You expect freshman QBs to make those mistakes and learn from them, so hopefully we don't give up on those passes out of the backfield because it was wide open for a good gain.

declocoug wrote:

I gave him a D. Probably would upgrade to a D+ just because of the 2 passes to ashworth on his touchdown throw drive. Those were Jaw droppers, especially the 20 yard dart he threw right before the touchdown pass. I just wish he would throw like that in his short game.

He does throw like that in his short game... unfortunately.

Yeah, I figured someone was going to read my comment in that way from the way I worded it :) My hope is that he can make his short game as accurate as that bullet he threw to Ashworth. Currently, his short game is completely inconsistant.

I gave him a C and here's my explanation why. (I posted this in another thread so I'm sorry if you've already read it.)



My expectations for Heaps his freshman year was for him to eventually get the starting job, but to be the back-up for the first few games. Well that sort of happened. I figured that when he became the starter that he would be just ok. He's played worse than I expected, but I believe that it's only partly his fault.



The WR's have been by far the bigger disappointment for me. I expected a lot out of them. I don't see guys getting open consistently and we've all seen how many drops there has been. Then there's the things that have effected Jake that he hasn't had much control over. One being the tough schedule we've had and the other being Robert Anae. The way that Anae handled the QB sitation in Spring, Fall, and the begining of the season is one thing. Then there's the play-calling. Some games Jake has been asked to throw the ball too much and some games too little. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there have been series where we have ran the ball a bunch of times in a row and then we get to 3rd and 8 and then ask Jake to throw for a first down when he hasn't thrown one pass all series, not to mention on those plays he usually either doesn't have much time to throw or doesn't have a WR open. That seems like it would be difficult to get into a rhythm. We need more ballance with run and pass AND the types of passing plays that are called. Other than the first pass play called in the first half vs Wyoming (the long pass to Hoffman where he dove and missed it and as the announcers mentioned looked back to early and slowed down a bit) I believe the rest of the passes called were short routes. When the defense knows that almost anytime BYU throws it will be a short route, it makes it much more difficult to complete a pass. It's much easier for a defender to defend a short pass than a long pass for the most part, IMO, or at least it was for me. The times where Jake has looked the best, IMO, is when we've actually had a mix of short, intermediate, and long throws called. It definitely hasn't helped Jake's confidence when Anae calls for a running play on 3rd and intermediate or long either.



Another factor that I believe has retarded Jake's progress is all the chaos that has happened within the program this year(ie. O'neil Chambers and lack of leadership).



Again, I expected Heaps to be better than he is right now, but he's had a much more difficult situation in front of him than I thought I would. I still believe that by the time the year's over, he'll be playing much better and he'll still turn out to be a great BYU QB, and oh btw, so does Bronco.

Italics wrote:

PS - Whoever gave Jake an F does not watch much football. I guess that means that truly awful AWFUL quarterbacks get... what... a G?

He is the WORST quarterback to ever play for BYU at this point in his career. He is truly AWFUL now. Fortunately he is at midterm and is capable of bringing his grade up on the year. However, I have not seen any positive growth since his first outing. And, yes, I do watch football.