What The Heaps Decision Means for UW

Today heralded Washington state recruit Jake Heaps is expected to make his decision to play for Brigham Young University. Washington was in late with the Sammamish quarterback, but lost out to BYU's considerable lead. This could probably be considered the first disappoinment of the Steve Sarkisian era.

The problem revolves around the Willingham staff waiting to long to open up his recruitment. Because of his Mormon faith, BYU opened up his recruitment after his sophomore season. 

The question now is where the Huskies go from here. Sarkisian has stated that signing a quarterback is a must for the 2010 recruiting class. They are recruiting two big name athletes in Jesse Scroggins from Lakewood, California and Nick Montana, son of the 49er great Joe Montana.

However, since Washington went 0-12 last season, the chances of signing those two players were long even before Heaps committed. Heaps would have been the most likely out of that trio to sign with UW.

That being said, many pundits have stated that this may turn out well for the Huskies in the long run. Heaps was thought to be a better fit for the BYU offense than for Sark's offense, with BYU's being predicated on much shorter timing routes. 

The Washington offense under Sarkisian is going to have longer timing because of Sark's desire to work out of play-action. Many pundits have also stated that the best choice of the three big name quarterbacks is Scroggins.

Bruce Feldman had this excellent piece detailing Scroggins, who received his first offer back in February from the Washington staff. Since then he's gone on to receive some big name offers from around the country, including Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Pittsburg, Cal, Nebraska, and many others.

While a long-shot still, Sarkisian and Co. are highly recruiting two of his teamates at Lakewood in wide receiver Kevin Anderson and safety Dion Bailey. Getting any one of those guys would be great, any two would be wonderful, and god forbid all three would count as a major coup. 

The Huskies also signed defensive end Talia Crichton from Lakewood in last seasons class. It would certainly help recruiting Scroggins to have some of his friends and teamates on the field.

Montana, on the other hand, is the longest shot. He is scheduled for an unofficial visit this weekend and Husky fans can only hope that Sarkisian makes a big enough impression on Montana and family.

Washington has made the last cut down to seven, mostly on the back of Sarkisian and offensive coordinator Nussmeier's reputation as quarterback groomers. Many feel that while Washington has its merits, it won't make it through the next cuts.

Many have said that Notre Dame will be the destination because of his dad's legacy there. However, as evidenced by the Jack Elway situation at Arizona State, following a big name athlete father isn't always the easiest.

My bias would love to see a Montana at UW because I'm a life long 49ers fan, but I think that UW is a huge long shot for both of these quarterbacks. If one looks at the offer lists for both the remaining of the three, there is some tough selling to do considering UW was 0-12 last season.

Sarkisian and staff are sure to be looking at other quarterbacks that are down their list. Andrew Manley of Wahiawa, Hawaii has stated the Washington staff have been looking at him along with four other quarterbacks. It's unclear who the last one of that group is. 

While Sarkisian has stated a quarterback is a must for this class, it seems to point to a lack of confidence in Fouch to take the reins from Locker. 

Locker will most likely have this season and next to mature before going into the NFL, leaving Fouch with an extra year of eligibility after that. There's no reason why any of these big name recruits are going to want to wait two years at least to play. Therefore, Fouch must be scheduled for backup duty.

Don't forget as well that highly regarded recruit Keith Price is arriving this summer on campus, and will also be developed.

The conventional logic is that Sarkisian is looking for a quarterback of his own, with the physical tools he wants, that he can groom and shepard into his system. Fouch and Price were both Willingham recruits.

This isn't as much of a critical juncture for the Huskies under Sarkisian, because there is only so much recruiting he can do on hope for the future. It's hard to deal with that 0-12 hanging over the program right now.

He's done extremely well on the recruiting front so far, especially in state, but the loss of Heaps stings a little for a lot of Husky fans. The best they can do is cross their fingers and hope Sark and Co. can get it done with Scroggins and/or Montana.

It will all come into place. Hopefully.