By now you’ve probably heard that the Kansas Jayhawks recruited two new quarterbacks yesterday in one of the most memorable recruiting days on record for KU. Charlie Weis had fans quite excited yesterday about transfers Dayne Crist from Notre Dame and Jake Heaps from BYU. But while most of the attention was on Crist, who will immediately be the favorite to start in 2012, Heaps might be the more promising of the two.
That’s because his current coach at BYU, Bronco Mendenhall, believes that Heaps has pro potential. As he recently told the Deseret news of his frustration that Heaps was leaving:
“I would much rather have had Jake stay. I wanted him to stay. I love him as a young man and he has such great football skill,” Mendenhall said. "I’ve said many times that I believe he is an NFL quarterback. I thought he would have done a great job leading our football program here.
“I was hopeful that the hard, valuable lessons of watching another quarterback while biding your time through a redshirt year next year would have been what he chose. But I agreed to help him. That’s what I’ve continued to do through the transfer process. I wish he would have chosen to be here.”
Even more revealing is that Heaps started more as a freshman at BYU than any other quarterback in their storied history — one that also features names like Ty Detmer, Steve Young, Max Hall and Jim McMahon. Heaps will sit out this season and then will have two years left to play at KU. While Crist will provide some headlines and notoriety for this year, it might be Heaps who pays the most dividends for KU in the long run.