Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Yesterday's question #1 in my "Ten Questions for Camp" asked whether Jake Heaps could emerge from camp as BYU's starting quarterback for the season opener.
Heaps may be good enough to do just that, and if he does, he will do something no other BYU QB has ever done.
Never before has BYU handed the season-opening signal-calling reins to a freshman--whether a true freshman straight out of high school, a redshirt freshman, or a return missionary (with or without a redshirt season).
In fact, since 1972 (when freshman eligibility was restored by the NCAA), only four BYU rookies have ever started a game for the Cougars (year, first start, freshman eligibility):
Ty Detmer (1988, 8th game of the season, RS)
Drew Miller (1997, 8th game of the season, HS)
Matt Berry (2002, 7th game of the season, RS/RM)
John Beck (2003, 4th game of the season, RM)
*******
So, Drew Miller remains the only true freshman, non-redshirt, non-return missionary to start a game at quarterback for BYU; Jake Heaps would be the second, if he starts any games in 2010.
--
Most Starts by a BYU Freshman:
Matt Berry 6
John Beck 4
Ty Detmer 1
Drew Miller 1
*******
Only eight BYU QBs have thrown touchdown passes as freshmen (number of TD passes, year, freshman eligibility):
Jim McMahon (1, in 1977; HS)
Ty Detmer (14, in 1988; RS)
Kevin Feterik (1, in 1996; HS)
Drew Miller (3, in 1997; HS)
Todd Mortensen (1, in 2001; RS/RM)
Lance Pendleton (2, in 2002;RS/RM)
Matt Berry (7, in 2002; RS/RM)
John Beck (5, in 2003; RM)
*******
I hope you will note the return of ksl.com's "BYU Countdown Clock" to the upper right! The clock will count down to kickoff of every BYU football game on KSL Newsradio--from now until the Washington season opener, then every week throughout the season.
*******
Watching ESPN's "College Football Live" on Tuesday, I noted that Florida State was named as the team with the hardest non-conference schedule in college football--not bad for a team opening the season at home against an FCS outfit (Samford). Once that game is out of the way, the Seminoles' non-league docket looks like this:
@ Oklahoma (Sept. 11)
v. BYU (Sept. 18)
v. Florida (Nov. 27)
*******
