The Heaps Reclamation Project

[jay santos]

There are bigger flaws than that. I'm not sure what 15 games he's talking about certainly not Heaps's first 15. I'd love to know because my suspicion is that it took about 150 more attempts.

Right. So to translate this for Mark Grace, since he doesn't trust PER, it would be like saying look at two pitchers who both had 20 wins through two seasons. But one pitcher started 30 games to get those and another started 50 games to get them.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Right. So to translate this for Mark Grace, since he doesn't trust PER, it would be like saying look at two pitchers who both had 20 wins through two seasons. But one pitcher started 30 games to get those and another started 50 games to get them.

The one flaw of PER is that interceptions, regardless of reason, put a huge ding on your rating. But it also includes yards per attempt which, in my opinion, really tells the story (although ints is still really important). When Matt Leinart resurfaced last week for the Houston Texans, the guy immediately went back to his old ways and was just checking down. He went something like 12 for 15 with about 60 yards or something. The question comes down to what's more important-- avoiding mistakes or throwing the ball down the field as opposed to the flat. Peyton Manning, iirc, set the rookie record for most ints in a season. But he also threw the ball down the field. The idea is that eventually the ints start decreasing as you get more experience. Heaps wasnt getting this experience and it wasn't because Doman wasn't calling the plays for him. I have a hard time believing that Doman would call a bunch of 4 yard outs for Heaps and then open things up for Nelson. Heaps was just checking down.

Heaps simply refused to throw the ball down the field. On top of that his TD to int ratio in the first five games this year was 3 to 5. That's why he was rated as one of the worst QBs in division 1 football. Btw, before we glamorize our first five opponents, it needs to be noted that they combined went for 28-32 this year.

[NorthwestUteFan]

The only thing we will agree upon is that our HC and OC belong in I-AA ball.

Are you suggesting they should follow Jake Heaps to Eastern Washington?

[Coach McGuirk]

it wasn't because Doman wasn't calling the plays for him. I have a hard time believing that Doman would call a bunch of 4 yard outs for Heaps and then open things up for Nelson.

Which is it?

Besides you are wrong, and this isn't to defend heaps, but he wasn't checking down he was making a read right off the snap andfor some reason he was locking on to the 8-10 yard (not 4) out on a 3 step drop (hard to check down on 3 step drop). Very frustrating. I kept wondering, as I was frustrated why he kept doing that and after 5 games I came to the conclusion that is what the staff wanted, and if not, the offensive staff absolutely sucks at coaching a QB on making correct reads.

Again this doesn't excuse Heaps for not preforming, but the fact that doman was new and that the play calling was much better when heaps returned should point to this isn't just a Heaps sucked thing.

[MarkGrace]

Right. So to translate this for Mark Grace, since he doesn't trust PER, it would be like saying look at two pitchers who both had 20 wins through two seasons. But one pitcher started 30 games to get those and another started 50 games to get them.

I hope you are not being serious. This comparison right here is exactly why I don't trust per.

[jay santos]

I hope you are not being serious. This comparison right here is exactly why I don't trust per.

Because PER shows Barkley was a hell of a lot better than Heaps despite being able to show alternate stats that show they're similar? No wonder you don't like PER.

[jay santos]

The one flaw of PER is that interceptions, regardless of reason, put a huge ding on your rating. But it also includes yards per attempt which, in my opinion, really tells the story (although ints is still really important). When Matt Leinart resurfaced last week for the Houston Texans, the guy immediately went back to his old ways and was just checking down. He went something like 12 for 15 with about 60 yards or something. The question comes down to what's more important-- avoiding mistakes or throwing the ball down the field as opposed to the flat. Peyton Manning, iirc, set the rookie record for most ints in a season. But he also threw the ball down the field. The idea is that eventually the ints start decreasing as you get more experience. Heaps wasnt getting this experience and it wasn't because Doman wasn't calling the plays for him. I have a hard time believing that Doman would call a bunch of 4 yard outs for Heaps and then open things up for Nelson. Heaps was just checking down.

Heaps simply refused to throw the ball down the field. On top of that his TD to int ratio in the first five games this year was 3 to 5. That's why he was rated as one of the worst QBs in division 1 football. Btw, before we glamorize our first five opponents, it needs to be noted that they combined went for 28-32 this year.

This is solid analysis of some of Heaps' issues and why his PER is so (justifiably) low. Also, it's OK if all you do is dink and dunk. PER doesn't necessarily penalize a dink and dunk passer. It's just that if you are going to be a dink and dunk passer, you had better complete a higher (relative) percentage. Throw five yards outs all you want, but if you throw 1/2 of them in the ground, you're going to be a low PER.

[jay santos]

Which is it?

Besides you are wrong, and this isn't to defend heaps, but he wasn't checking down he was making a read right off the snap andfor some reason he was locking on to the 8-10 yard (not 4) out on a 3 step drop (hard to check down on 3 step drop). Very frustrating. I kept wondering, as I was frustrated why he kept doing that and after 5 games I came to the conclusion that is what the staff wanted, and if not, the offensive staff absolutely sucks at coaching a QB on making correct reads.

Again this doesn't excuse Heaps for not preforming, but the fact that doman was new and that the play calling was much better when heaps returned should point to this isn't just a Heaps sucked thing.

Agree with the point wrt to three step drops. But three step drops didn't account for more than 10% of Heaps' plays.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Which is it?

Besides you are wrong, and this isn't to defend heaps, but he wasn't checking down he was making a read right off the snap andfor some reason he was locking on to the 8-10 yard (not 4) out on a 3 step drop (hard to check down on 3 step drop). Very frustrating. I kept wondering, as I was frustrated why he kept doing that and after 5 games I came to the conclusion that is what the staff wanted, and if not, the offensive staff absolutely sucks at coaching a QB on making correct reads.

Again this doesn't excuse Heaps for not preforming, but the fact that doman was new and that the play calling was much better when heaps returned should point to this isn't just a Heaps sucked thing.

Was Nelson throwing these outs with the same frequency when he came in for Usu and the game that followed? Again, judging by Nelson's performance immediately upon coming in and in the game that followed, it seems likely that Heaps wasn't making the correct reads while Nelson was. I doubt on all of these out routes that the other receivers were running the same routes. Heaps just had an aversion to throwing in the middle of the field. He made his mind up before the play that he was going to throw to the outside.

Sitting and watching Nelson must have helped Heaps in his last couple games. But I doubt Doman completely reworked his play calling between the USU and SJSU games.

Edit, in addition which team and particularly which offense made a living off of three step drop? San Francisco made a living off of it back in the 80s and 90s and I promise you that they weren't throwing a bunch of outs. They were throwing high percentage slants and it was predicated on the QB being able to complete the throw and not being bothered by throwing to the middle of the field.

[Indy Coug]

This is solid analysis of some of Heaps' issues and why his PER is so (justifiably) low. Also, it's OK if all you do is dink and dunk. PER doesn't necessarily penalize a dink and dunk passer. It's just that if you are going to be a dink and dunk passer, you had better complete a higher (relative) percentage. Throw five yards outs all you want, but if you throw 1/2 of them in the ground, you're going to be a low PER.

As a quick snapshot into the ineffectiveness of extreme dink and dunk, teams that have completed at least 70% of their passes but for 8 or fewer yards per completion, they have lost 2/3rds of the time.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Doug Robinson slams Heaps. Ouch.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...-playbook.html

If Jake Heaps isn't embarrassed about transferring from BYU to a school to be named later, then he ought to be. Talk about an awkward exit.
Two years ago, the kid had the audacity to hire a public relations firm and call a press conference to announce his arrival at BYU. Now he is, well, running from a fight.
What kind of field general does that?

Ready or not — and he was not — Heaps was given every opportunity to prove himself and lost the job. At first glance, his stats look pretty good. He completed 363-of-635 passes for 3,768 yards, 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. But he averaged a paltry 5.9 yards per attempt. This season, the Cougars struggled to win when he was on the field.

[jay santos]

Heaps just had an aversion to throwing in the middle of the field. He made his mind up before the play that he was going to throw to the outside.

Many times i've thought Heaps QB's the way an NFL QB with a defensive minded, field position coach wants. He tries too hard to make the perfect throw. If you have a great D and the QB's primary purpose is to take what the D gives you and avoid making a mistake, you throw passes with high velocity away from the defense where only the offense can catch it. You throw passes over to the middle low and hard and away from the D. 50% completion, 50% incomplete, 0 % INT is better than 80% completion, 10% incompletion, 10% INT. I wonder if this could be how Doman is coaching him.

[MarkGrace]

Because PER shows Barkley was a hell of a lot better than Heaps despite being able to show alternate stats that show they're similar? No wonder you don't like PER.

No, I have nothing invested in the argument of whether Heaps is better than Barkley or not -- I didn't make that argument and I'm not going to, because I've never watched Barkley and I have no idea how he's played or what his stats look like.

My comment was because you used an example (pitchers and wins) that exactly illustrates my problem with with making conclusive comparisons based on PER. And to the extent that you use other QB stats to underlie it, you still can't get to anything that isolates performance (INT's is probably the closest you can come, though that would also be highly debatable) like you can with pitchers.

[jay santos]

No, I have nothing invested in the argument of whether Heaps is better than Barkley or not -- I didn't make that argument and I'm not going to, because I've never watched Barkley and I have no idea how he's played or what his stats look like.

My comment was because you used an example (pitchers and wins) that exactly illustrates my problem with with making conclusive comparisons based on PER. And to the extent that you use other QB stats to underlie it, you still can't get to anything that isolates performance (INT's is probably the closest you can come, though that would also be highly debatable) like you can with pitchers.

I propose we use PER, you propose a better stat to use for discussing QB efficiency, or we don't bother with comparing QB's ever.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Interesting article from the Spokesman-Review (Spokane paper) yesterday:

http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2011/...s-leaving-byu/

I have no idea where I’m going to end up, and haven’t talked to anyone. There are a lot of great programs out there, and I’m excited to do some research and find the right fit.

Did he have an actual landing site in mind when he leaped from the cliff? I do not believe this will end well for young Mr. Heaps.