The Heaps Reclamation Project

[Hsaru]

One thing I've noticed since the Heaps benching is that you almost hear nothing of the bad OLine play all year anymore, the poor RB play, the poor secondary play, all of our ills have been thrown at Heaps feet. It is now just, "Heaps sucked, and its his fault only that he sucks and why our offense has sucked".

[SCcoug]

An extra year under his belt?

Really, I meant that as a reason to start riley, not to defend heaps. Riley won't last long anyway.

Like many, I'm curious about lark. I remember people were excited about getting him. Whats to lose? We need to figure out a solid qb for next year.

IIRC BYU recruited Lark over Riley.

[jay santos]

Jake deserves atleast one more real shot this season, now that he is on notice that he won't get to keep playing if he doesn't get results, he should be given a half atleast to see what he can get going.

Garrett Gilbert knew from the get-go this year that he would be benched if he didn't perform as he had people riding his tail all offseason and he played awful from start to finish last year.

I severely doubt Heaps had been told by the coaches that if he doesn't perform soon he will be replaced, the Nelson thing probably came as a shock to him. He shouldn't go from completely entrenched starter to definite backup without even knowing he was on notice. He should get a half against SJSU, call a more up-tempo game no-huddle game with more spread formations and see what he can do before we give up on him until 2013.

This makes no sense. Give Heaps another chance because he was just f***ing around all season knowing he'd never lose his job? Now that he knows it, he'll take it seriously?

[Shaka]

I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out. If Jay Santos is correct Nelson will be screwed as soon as teams stack the box and put in a spy. Nelson is now going to get his chance to prove them wrong. Finally the question is going to be answered. We may have to wait until TCU to truly find out.

This is going to be very interesting.

[Goatnapper'96]

When I say people, I don't mean "everyone". There was a good size contingency that thought we had arrived and were a small step away from BCS games. We were going to get all the "good" LDS athletes. Utah recruiting wise was not a threat.

You may have not thought they could become a national power and I certainly didn't think those 4 10 win seasons was proof we were just around the corner from being a national power, but many did.

As far as winning 9-10 games this year, sure we can. I think the defense is good enough and Nelson is adequate enough. If we schedule like we have this year, we should win 9-10 games every year and plenty of folks will claim we are one of the very good programs.

I will say I don't think the program is eeons away from BCS level play. I thought a few teams from the good run from '06-'09 were "good enough." I have my questions if Mendenhall et all can ever generate that type of consistency and I also think it is going to get impossibly more difficult starting next year, but as far as talent and ability I thought they were relatively close. To be specific I am referencing the 06,07 and 09 teams, the '08 team was not good enough.

[byu71]

One thing I've noticed since the Heaps benching is that you almost hear nothing of the bad OLine play all year anymore, the poor RB play, the poor secondary play, all of our ills have been thrown at Heaps feet. It is now just, "Heaps sucked, and its his fault only that he sucks and why our offense has sucked".

If it makes you feel any better, I think the O-line is average, running backs have been average, receivers have trouble getting seperation. That is why you need a QB who adds another dimension to cover up for all those things.

My knock on Heaps, he isn't that QB. He isn't willing to take the hit or run for his life that is necessary for a QB who is on a team with all those deficiencies. So yea, I will hand out a lot of the blame to other players and the coaches, but what is, is. Riley probably has a better shot at winning in this offensive chaos.

[Flystripper]

97.
I'm not sure why you say that. in what cases are we allowed to use ' scoreboard'?
Was BYU better than utah last year?

Scoreboard works fine, but it isn't necessarily a good predictor. I will take scoreboard every time when talking about my team, but it does not necessarily mean my team is better. Scoreboard means your team was better that day. Riley Nelson magic isn't going to bail us out 9 out of 10 times.

I don't believe that BYU is anywhere near 50th. I would say BYU is worse than its ranking and USU is better than its ranking. It may be overstating by saying that USU is clearly better, but BYU is clearly not 47 places better than USU. That difference demonstrates just how bogus those rankings are.

[Shaka]

One thing I've noticed since the Heaps benching is that you almost hear nothing of the bad OLine play all year anymore, the poor RB play, the poor secondary play, all of our ills have been thrown at Heaps feet. It is now just, "Heaps sucked, and its his fault only that he sucks and why our offense has sucked".

Heaps has had plenty of time to throw. The line is not responsible for Jake not being able to hit a simple out route with consistency. Right now Jake is only money on the medium route where he can cock that arm and rip the ball in. Short stuff that requires touch kills him and he overthrows the long ball.

Where the line is negligent is run blocking. This affects the passing game to a degree but doesn't get Jake off the hook for being inaccurate.

[Goatnapper'96]

One thing I've noticed since the Heaps benching is that you almost hear nothing of the bad OLine play all year anymore, the poor RB play, the poor secondary play, all of our ills have been thrown at Heaps feet. It is now just, "Heaps sucked, and its his fault only that he sucks and why our offense has sucked".

Trust me. Heaps has played poorly this year. With Heaps we get both higher ceilings and lower floors than what BYU would get with Nelson. The question is whether or not Jake can start showing improvement and/or what he needs to demonstrate to get the chance to lead the team again. If he gets to that threshold then I think he will be given the reins, if he falters then my guess is the team coagulates and does enough to win with Riley.

[Shaka]

This makes no sense. Give Heaps another chance because he was just f***ing around all season knowing he'd never lose his job? Now that he knows it, he'll take it seriously?

Ding ding ding. Not holding Jake accountable at this point sends a bad message to the rest of the team.

[Goatnapper'96]

I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out. If Jay Santos is correct Nelson will be screwed as soon as teams stack the box and put in a spy. Nelson is now going to get his chance to prove them wrong. Finally the question is going to be answered. We may have to wait until TCU to truly find out.

This is going to be very interesting.

For all teams on the schedule save TCU, I think he is good enough to hurt many of them. He also is good enough to keep plays alive and make things happen. I also think he will be lucky more frequently than he will be unlucky. I just think that is how it will roll under Mendenhall and Riley.

[Goatnapper'96]

If it makes you feel any better, I think the O-line is average, running backs have been average, receivers have trouble getting seperation. That is why you need a QB who adds another dimension to cover up for all those things.

My knock on Heaps, he isn't that QB. He isn't willing to take the hit or run for his life that is necessary for a QB who is on a team with all those deficiencies. So yea, I will hand out a lot of the blame to other players and the coaches, but what is, is. Riley probably has a better shot at winning in this offensive chaos.

I think the OL is overall average, I think the RBs are average at best and I think the receivers are better than average. What BYU needs is a qb who can make better than average wideouts look real good. I think Heaps has been the biggest problem on offense. That is not to say he has the supporting cast Max Hall had but he is still the biggest shortcoming, well after coaching, but as to player personnel he is the biggest problem.

I think he can be that qb. I do...I really do!

[Flystripper]

For all teams on the schedule save TCU, I think he is good enough to hurt many of them. He also is good enough to keep plays alive and make things happen. I also think he will be lucky more frequently than he will be unlucky. I just think that is how it will roll under Mendenhall and Riley.

Don't sleep on Hawaii. They could rip us at home.

[Hsaru]

For all teams on the schedule save TCU, I think he is good enough to hurt many of them. He also is good enough to keep plays alive and make things happen. I also think he will be lucky more frequently than he will be unlucky. I just think that is how it will roll under Mendenhall and Riley.

Exactly the one tough D we play the rest of the year, Nelson will get a pass for, I don't know if we will be able to get any kind of read on how he will do next year against Utah on the road, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame on the road, Boise State, etc..

[jay santos]

I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out. If Jay Santos is correct Nelson will be screwed as soon as teams stack the box and put in a spy. Nelson is now going to get his chance to prove them wrong. Finally the question is going to be answered. We may have to wait until TCU to truly find out.

This is going to be very interesting.

I think if they go the Nelson route, we're going to see smash mouth the rest of the season. Like Goat says: this team can be about a #50 team in the nation with Riley QB'ing and going smashmouth and relying on our D. It doesn't really excite me, but yeah sure we can grind out wins against shitty teams with Riley as QB and pounding the crap out of defenses with our hogs up front and Kariya and Quezada running right at them, with JJ as change up and Nelson completing enough passes and running around like a wild man keeping drives alive.

Is it better than Heaps throwing ground balls on 3rd and 6? Yeah. Does it get us any closer to where we want to be? Dunno, probably not.