ODU quarterback Heinicke is a program-changer HEINICKE AT ODU 2013 In 8 games, has completed 235 of 337 passes (70.1 percent), 2,725 yards, 19 TDs, 7 INTs, 340.6 passing yards per game. Rushed 69 times for 295 yards and 4 TDs. 2012 In 13 games, completed 398 of 579 passes (68.7 percent), 5,076 yards, 44 TDs, 14 INTs, 390.5 passing yards per game. Rushed 125 times for 470 yards and 11 touchdowns. Won Payton Award as nation’s top FCS player. 2011 In 9 games, 211 of 307 passes (68.7 percent), 2,385 yards, 44 TDs, 1 INT, 269 passing yards per game. Rushed 68 times for 363 yards and 4 TDs. By Harry Minium The Virginian-Pilot © November 2, 2013 NORFOLK It was halftime of a game – a dogfight, really – in Kingston, R.I., when Old Dominion coaches huddled briefly in their locker room. ODU and Rhode Island were tied at 14, and the Monarchs’ running game was struggling. Offensive coordinator Brian Scott said coaches realized their efforts to get the run game going wasn’t tailored to the skills of their freshman quarterback. “We scored a touchdown on a 2-minute drill with four wide receivers, “ Scott said. “We all said, let’s just stay with four wide receivers and let the kid play.” ODU has stuck with that four-wide offense, and Taylor Heinicke has responded by playing himself into the NCAA record books. Perhaps no ODU athlete this side of Nancy Lieberman has racked up the stats and national attention of Heinicke. He was a runaway winner of the Walter Payton Award, given to the nation’s finest Football Championship Subdivision player, last season as a sophomore when he broke half a dozen NCAA records while passing for 5,076 yards. No player had ever amassed more total yards in a game than the 790 he compiled against New Hampshire. He twice led ODU to the FCS playoffs and to two top-10 finishes. Last week, in ODU’s 27-24 victory over Norfolk State, he became the 26th quarterback in Division I history to pass for 10,000 yards and run for more than 1,000. Yet, as Heinicke and his teammates prepare for today’s home game with Rhode Island, much of the acclamation from last season is missing. “The media crush was amazing,” said Heinicke, who combines boyish good looks with a self-deprecating personality. “It was just crazy. This year, it’s been more sane.” The media glare isn’t quite as bright in part because Heinicke’s passing statistics aren’t as eye-popping. In eight games in this transition season from FCS to the Football Bowl Subdivision, he has completed 70.1 percent of 337 passes for 2,735 yards and 19 touchdowns. He’s rushed 69 times for 295 yards and four TDs. Impressive numbers, just not as gaudy as last season’s. Head coach Bobby Wilder and his top assistants say Heinicke is a better player. His stats have been skewed, they said, by the schedule. It includes seven FCS teams, none with a winning record, and five FBS teams – at least four of which have far more talent and depth than ODU. Not playing in the Colonial Athletic Association has hurt Heinicke’s stats, Scott said. “Last year, every conference game was competitive,” he said. “In some games this season, he’s been on the bench in the third quarter. “We’re playing people like Maryland and Pittsburgh, which are much better teams than we faced last year. “He’s better player this year, but to duplicate what he did last year would have been difficult under any circumstances. It was never going to happen with this schedule.” Craig Haley, who covers FCS for The Sports Network, which sponsors the Payton Award, said Heinicke would not be the prohibitive favorite for the award this year. “He’d be a top-five candidate,” Haley said. Because ODU is moving to the FBS, though, Heinicke isn’t eligible for that award or for most all-star teams. The Monarchs have no championship to play for. Their season ends Nov. 23 at North Carolina. “We are playing better teams, so the numbers won’t be there,” Heinicke said. “I thought I had a great game against East Carolina. But I only threw for 350 yards.” He pronounced “only” with a slight exaggeration. “That would have been a down game last year,” he said. “People expected me to throw for 450 yards a game last year. This year, 300 is a good game. The competition is just better.” Coaches who’ve seen Heinicke this season say he’s among the nation’s best. “He’s the most elusive quarterback we’ve ever seen on any level,” said Bob Ford, in his 41st season as Albany’s head coach. “I’m sure in Division I-A they have a few of those cats, but not on our level. He is just phenomenal. “There are some quarterbacks who can just throw a fast ball, but he can make all of the throws.” Rhode Island coach Joe Trainer said “it seems like Taylor Heinicke has been at Old Dominion for 30 years. He has a sixth sense that guys like Johnny Manziel has, where he feels things collapsing around him and is able to gain an extra second or two. “He’s incredibly accurate with the football.” The worst game of Heinicke’s career came in a 47-10 loss to Maryland, in which he threw three interceptions. Yet, Maryland coach Randy Edsall said: “He’s the real deal, a good quarterback, one of the best we’ll see this season.” Wilder said without Heinicke, ODU might not be headed to Conference USA. “Taylor Heinicke is a program-changer,” Wilder said. “There are very few times as a coach that you come across a player like Taylor. The way Conference USA looked at us was partly attendance, partly our market and partly how successful we’d been.” Wilder said ODU’s ascent to C-USA began in the second half of the fifth game of the 2011 season, when Thomas DeMarco went down with an injury and was replaced by Heinicke, then an 18-year-old freshman. He completed 8 of 11 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns. ODU has since won 23 of 30 games. “We were 0-1 in the league at that time,” Wilder said. “If we lose, we’re 0-2. We’re probably not a playoff team and maybe we don’t have the storybook program we’ve had the last two years. Taylor changed everything here.” Heinicke blushes when asked if he has been a transformative figure for ODU. “I was a little, 5-foot-10 quarterback from Atlanta who was fortunate that ODU offered me a scholarship,” he said. Heinicke said when quarterbacks coach Ron Whitcomb met him, Whitcomb looked at how small he was and joked that he wanted to rescind the scholarship offer. “I’m just lucky to be here. The system we have here, the wide receivers, it was perfect for me.” Heinicke calls joining the 10,000-passing-yard, 1,000-rushing-yard list a team award. “I can’t count how many times I’ve thrown a 5-yard hitch to Nick Mayers or Antonio Vaughan and they turn it into a 70-yard touchdown,” he said. “The offensive line here has been amazing.” Heinicke said he’s grown 2 inches since coming to ODU and now stands 6 feet, 1⁄8 of an inch. He said his father, the late Brett Heinicke, grew 4 inches in college. “I hope there’s (another) inch out there for me,” he said. Whether Heinicke is tall enough – or good enough – for the NFL remains undetermined. The NFLdraftblitz website has him listed 28th among the nation’s junior quarterbacks. Scott said many of the two dozen NFL scouts who’ve been to ODU this season to check out seniors have asked about Heinicke. “A lot of them have said, ‘That’s a good quarterback you’ve got there,’” Scott said. “That’s an understatement. We know how lucky we are to have Taylor Heinicke.”
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 02:04:21 +0000
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