It's now July of 2009, and Jake Heaps is doing his best to make sure Cougar fans don't have to relive the end of 2008 again. Heaps, a junior quarterback from Skyline High School in Sammamish, Wash., has become the most-recognized face for BYU recruiting this side of Cougars Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall. It all started when Heaps, Texas receiver Ross Apo, and California linebacker Zac Stout all verbally committed to the Cougars during a June press conference in Salt Lake City.
It's a day Brandon Gurney, Managing Editor of Total Blue Sports, calls 'the biggest day in the history of BYU recruiting'. "It sounds like hyperbole to say that, but it's true," Gurney said this week when asked about what appears to be a sea change with regard to how the Cougars are currently kicking butt and taking names for the class of 2010.
The irony isn't so much in the numbers: BYU currently has 19 verbal commitments, which ranks them 13th in Scout.com's national team recruiting rankings. If you look historically at how Mendenhall has put together recruiting classes, he likes to get his work done early: 65 percent of the Cougars' signees for the last two classes were already committed before the month of August the year before. What is ironic about the 2010 class is its makeup; not only in terms of quality but also in terms of diversity.
BYU is a private school sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Being the only Division-1 LDS institution, the connection between the school and prospective LDS student-athletes has been a natural wellspring for talent. "When your major focus is LDS kids, they know about BYU," Gurney said. "You don't have to convince them of something."
The Cougars recruit non-LDS athletes, but they have to be selective about the type of prospect they recruit. Those prospects have to be willing to accept unique situations they wouldn't find at state universities. The Honor Code is one such example: Created six decades ago, the Honor Code emphasizes being honest, living a chaste and virtuous life, abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, using clean language and following other values encompassed in the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ. The code is supplemented by additional guidelines on dress, grooming and housing.
That's pretty heady stuff for today's student-athletes, but the Cougars have been able to ride a perfect recruiting storm of circumstances that would make Slim Pickens mighty proud.
"What's been different is getting Jake Heaps," Gurney said, matter-of-factly. "By getting him, Ross Apo and Zac Stout, it has put BYU on a national level. The level of recruit they are now going after has been raised."
Heaps is Scout.com's number-one rated quarterback for the class of 2009. He's never lost a game in high school; he's won two state titles for the Skyline Spartans, in two different classifications, while throwing for over 6,000 yards and nearly 70 touchdowns along the way.
Not only is Heaps a winner, but he's a leader. And when he decided to verbally commit to BYU in June, he initiated a Ty Pennington-sized recruiting makeover for the Cougars. No longer would they simply settle for the best LDS athletes in the country; they would supplement those players with the best non-LDS prospects too.
It's been an ambitious undertaking and Heaps has attacked it with relish. Right after his announcement, the affable signal-caller was on his phone, texting players about the news. "It was a great opportunity to talk to a lot of guys and get a chance to let them know why I made my decision," he told Scout.com this week. "A lot of kids believe in what coach Mendenhall's program is all about. They are on the rise. They are a program that wants to win a national championship and bust the BCS."
No pun intended to BYU Nation, but Heaps is on a mission. After being courted by some of the finest football programs in the country, he's sick and tired of the national perception that no one in the Mountain West matters. It's a perception that lingers simply because the Utah's, TCU's and BYU's of this world aren't wedded to one of the six power conferences.
But if Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has his way, the BCS might end up as the B(usted) C(ollege football) S(ystem). Heaps is one of many that sees Hatch's crusade as part of a larger plan to bring the Cougars back into national prominence. It's a stage they haven't been on since 1984, at a time when the BCS didn't exist.
Utah broke the mold, and Heaps is hoping the Utes' rival can duplicate their effort. "As much as I don't want to say it, they did open a lot of eyes," he said of the U. "The more it happens, the better it will be for everyone. It's showing kids across the country that they can go to wherever they want to be at, not where the BCS is. The BCS shouldn't dictate where you play at, and that's such a huge recruiting tool."
Starting to get the gist of BYU's message to recruits? It's a message that's being heard loud and clear, and from coast to coast. The latest to hear the message is Jordan Johnson.
Johnson is a 5-foot-10, 175-pound cornerback prospect from the Brooks School of North Andover, Massachusetts. Johnson is not LDS. His uncle works in the Boston Celtics organization with former BYU star Danny Ainge, and that's where his interest was kindled. It turned into a bonfire once Johnson took part in one of BYU's camps, learning as much about life off the field in Provo, Utah as on it. For a kid from the east coast, a move out west just fit - especially with his mother moving to Texas.
“I feel that BYU is a program on the rise,” Johnson told Gurney in a recent interview to Total Blue Sports. Johnson chose the Cougars over Connecticut. “I have a great chance with the guys that are coming in to take BYU to new heights. That was a big factor in my decision.”
It shouldn't surprise anyone that Heaps played his part. "He was one of the kids I really had a focus on," he said of Johnson. "He's a great player and a great athlete. We're really stoked to have him as our newest commitment."
"Heaps seriously believes that he can get anyone he goes after," said Gurney. "His goal is to convince people that BYU is a great program and to join him and win championships."
It worked on Ross Apo.
Apo, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound LDS receiver prospect from the Oakridge School in Arlington, Texas - a suburb of Dallas - was already verbally committed to Texas before becoming friends with Heaps. They kept in touch, and even hit a couple of camps together. With three other early receiver commits, Apo wasn't sure about his place with the Longhorns, so he was rethinking his original decision before meeting Heaps.
"It happened the second time we threw, in Palo Alto (Calif.)," Apo told Scout about the moment he knew his future would be tied to Heaps. "That was a big deciding factor."
That, and the fact that BYU made it clear to Apo from the outset that he was the only receiver they planned on taking. "I always kept hearing from fans that were like, why don't we get 6-4, sub-4.5 guys? They have one now in Ross Apo," Gurney said.
What no one knew at the time was that Apo would come with his own package deal. He was hoping he could sway a couple of his Oakridge teammates - Teu Kautai and Tayo (Terry) Fabuluje - but he wasn't pushing them into anything.
"I didn't want them to go through what happened to me at Texas," he said.
Kautai is LDS, and quickly committed to BYU after their Junior Day, just one day after Apo's own verbal commitment. But it was Fabuluje, a 6-foot-6.5, 265-pound lineman, that blew the doors wide open.
When Heaps saw Fabuluje at the Cougars' Junior Day, he was in shock. Who was this guy? No one had to tell him twice that an athlete of Fabuluje's caliber could become a difference-maker in his own future. Armed with support from fellow future Cougar Apo and Provo (Utah) Timpview prospects Tui Crichton and Bronson Kaufusi, Heaps quickly went to work.
"That was one I really wanted to make sure we got because he's such a great kid and a tremendous football player," Heaps said. One week later, Fabuluje chose BYU over offers from schools in the Pac-10, SEC, Big-10 and Big-12.
"I hoped for it, but he really wanted to go to USC bad," Apo said of the commitment of Fabuluje, who actually lives with Apo's family. "I figured he would go there."
Colin Keoshian, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound athlete who plays for Santa Clarita Christian in southern California, a seven-man team, verbally committed to the Cougars back in May. “When I committed to BYU it was based on the fact that I felt it was the best place for me to grow as a person and as a football player," Keoshian told Gurney when news of his commitment broke. “But wow, after seeing everything that’s happened since then with all the top recruits they’ve signed since I committed, I really had no idea that we’d get such great players to sign with us this next year. It’s really exciting.”
Getting these types of prospects, especially non-LDS prospects, happens in Provo once in a blue moon - until now. Now it's all about Happy Valley and putting Cougar football back on the Division-1 map. "There's a lot of non-LDS players looking to go there," Apo said of BYU. "I think it's good. It shows that we made a statement."
"These kids aren't just regular kids that are committing," added Heaps. "They are top-flight football players. They are great players. It's a really exciting time for BYU right now. We've got the ball rolling right now and we're doing a really good job of communicating to recruits what BYU is about and what we're looking forward to in the future."
Next on Heaps' to-do list: Help BYU find themselves a running back as the heir apparent to Harvey Unga. Drew Phillips, Joshua Quezada and Brandon Bourbon are three prospective RB's that definitely fit the bill, and Mendenhall isn't the only one that has them all on speed dial. Could Heaps help sway one of them into the shadows of the Wasatch?
Don't put it past him, because he's done it before. And other prospective student-athletes are paying attention and listening to him like E.F. Hutton.
"I just talked to Josh Shaw," Apo said, adding that he and Heaps have been in contact with a number of top prospects from all over the country. "He's one of the top DB's out of LA. He was asking me about what it was that made me want go to BYU and be there for the next four or five years. They definitely call and text and ask about it."
This is the same Joshua Shaw from Palmdale, Calif. that has scholarship offers from schools like USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Tennessee, Washington, Oregon, UCLA, Notre Dame and many others.
"It's been interesting," Heaps added. "I've been getting calls that I never would have expected, guys asking why BYU hasn't offered them. I think things are going to get very exciting in the next couple of months. I think we're going to shock a couple of people with how well our class ends up."
The only thing shocking is the fact that Heaps hasn't picked up a paycheck or two for his work on this class. He's scheduled to finish high school in time to enroll at BYU, sign with the Cougars and take part in spring football.
"If he can get that guy (Shaw), he can get anyone," Gurney said. "I firmly believe that."
The only problem for Heaps, Apo and BYU is that the NCAA allows only 25 enrolled signees per class. And that's about the only thing standing in the way of the Cougars signing a group that is shaping up to be one for the ages.
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