The door flings open Monday for Miami quarterback Jake Garcia. He’s fired up to enter
The University of Miami’s newest elite quarterback said he doesn’t party, doesn’t have a girlfriend, doesn’t watch Netflix and doesn’t check out YouTube.
But he does sleep with a football, he said, and has since he was 13.
“My football and I are going to be together all the time,’’ Garcia told the Miami Herald by phone, laughing.
In addition to the candid admissions by the 19-year-old, who arrived in Miami with his parents in late January and spoke to the Herald before he moved into his campus dorm, Garcia said this:
▪ He wants Hurricanes starting quarterback D’Eriq King, rehabilitating from reconstructive right-knee surgery after tearing his ACL in the bowl game, to get well ASAP.
▪ He wants to win the starting job.
What quarterback for a major college program wouldn’t?
The Hurricanes begin their first of 15 spring sessions on Monday, previously saying that King, who obviously won’t be practicing, was ahead of schedule in his rehab to start in the 2021 season opener against reigning national champion Alabama. But should King, the Canes’ record-setting sixth-year graduate, not be ready and Garcia be named starter, Garcia won’t complain — even if it seems somewhat unfathomable now. He said he never expected former UM backup N’Kosi Perry, still attending school but no longer on the roster, to decide to transfer.
“It does open a door,’’ said Garcia, the 6-3, 200-pound, nationally heralded freshman from Whittier, California. “Now that D’Eriq is rehabbing, I know I’m going to get a bunch of reps. I’m looking forward to it.”
Garcia won’t get as many reps as perhaps he’d like. Coach Manny Diaz said Friday that Garcia will be limited “for the first few spring practices’’ because of a foot injury he sustained before his recent high school playoffs. “He played through it the last five or six weeks and they won a state championship,’’ UM offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. “So it was nothing major that he couldn’t play. Since he got here we’ve just been trying to do things to help that situation totally heal to where there’s no issues or setbacks. ...He’ll be throwing, he’ll be taking reps.’’
Van Dyke, Matocha
Second-year freshman Tyler Van Dyke and repeat redshirt freshman Peyton Matocha are the other scholarship quarterbacks who have been studying offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee’s up-tempo, no-huddle scheme more than a year. Keep in mind that because of the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all players, which is why Van Dyke is still designated a freshman and third-year player Matocha a redshirt freshman.
Van Dyke is the 6-4, 220-pound signal-caller out of Suffield Academy in Connecticut, where he was a four-star prospect recruited by former UM offensive coordinator Dan Enos. Coaches have raved about his progress despite his limited playing time in two games, with two incomplete passes.
Diaz called Van Dyke “a beast’’ on Friday, when asked about offseason, off field workouts. “That guy scores highly in everything, every way you can measure a person in this program.”
Matocha, 6-4 and 205 pounds and out of Houston St. Thomas, has played sparingly in one game, against Duke on Dec. 5, when he completed two passes. He is considered the dark horse candidate.
The media has not spoken formally to Van Dyke and Matocha since they started their collegiate careers, but that could change in spring. As for Garcia, he’s the baby, so to speak.
Bring on Alabama
“People always ask me, ‘Are you going to redshirt? Have they told you you’re going to start?’ ” said Garcia, who has been playing football since he was 7 (including flag football from ages 10-12 because his father Randy said there was too much unnecessary pounding in tackle for growing bones). “No. They haven’t told me anything. I’m going in there to compete for it. Honestly, I’m going in with the mentality that I am the starting quarterback on Sept. 4 against Alabama in Atlanta. I’m going in with the mentality that I need to have my team ready to play in the national championship game come January. And if D’Eriq comes back, which hopefully he does, I’m completely fine with redshirting.”
Before he began classes this semester, Garcia said he texted King prior to the bowl game, which UM (8-3 in 2020) lost to Oklahoma State.
“He’s a cool guy who holds himself to a higher standard,’’ Garcia said. “That’s a good person to surround yourself with. I’m excited to work with him. My goals this spring are to get a good grasp of the offense and build chemistry with my teammates and coaches.’’
Danny Hernandez, Garcia’s longtime private quarterback coach whose company, Los Angeles Dimes, is based in Pico Rivera, California, said Garcia was thrilled when King announced he’d be returning to UM instead of entering the NFL Draft.
“God willing he ends up healing and Jake has an opportunity to learn under him for a year,’’ Hernandez said. “But if that’s not the case, the mindset is to get ready.”
Garcia was asked to describe his game in one sentence to Miami fans.
“I like to throw touchdowns and win football games,’’ he said.
High school star
The upbeat, talkative teenager will wear jersey No. 13, the same number worn by 1992 Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta. Garcia was rated the nation’s No. 2 pocket passer by ESPN and No. 5 pro-style quarterback prospect in the 2021 signing class by 247Sports and Rivals. Last season he completed 71 of 125 passes (56.8 percent) for 1,237 yards, 14 touchdowns and six interceptions, per Max Preps, to lead the nation’s No. 2 prep team at Grayson High in Loganville, Georgia, to the Class 7A state title. He also ran for two touchdowns.
His high school career stats: 279 of 420 (66.4 percent), for 4,278 yards, 47 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He ran for four touchdowns.
Garcia, who attended five schools in four years, temporarily moved from California to Georgia last August because the California Interscholastic Federation canceled football in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Garcia, thus, never even got to play at La Habra High, near his home. He played in one game last season at Valdosta High in Georgia, going 21 of 34 for 332 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. When he was ruled ineligible because of transfer rules, he left for Grayson.
He played for Long Beach Poly as a freshman, then transferred to LA’s Narbonne High when his coach left. In Garcia’s junior season, Narbonne was prohibited from the playoffs for rules violations that involved another player’s residency, and that’s when Garcia transferred to La Habra.
Dad played at Nebraska
Randy Garcia, 65, a quarterback for Nebraska’s legendary coach Tom Osborne in the mid 1970s, said his father, Raymond — Jake’s 93-year-old grandfather — died last July from COVID-19. Randy, a retired Los Angeles Police Department lieutenant in charge of a unit that oversaw vice, narcotics, gang-related officers and detectives, recently moved to a Miami-Dade condo with Jake’s mom, Yvonne — a career executive assistant — so they could be close to their only child.
Randy’s father’s parents were from Mexico, and he said he speaks “broken Spanish,” always helpful when you live in South Florida — though Jake doesn’t speak Spanish. Yvonne, who is fluent in Spanish, was born in Los Angeles, with her mom a Mexican-American and her dad, from Louisiana, of Creole heritage.
“It’s beautiful down here,’’ Randy said last week. “What’s not to like? We don’t bother Jake. You want him to grow up and have his space and make his own decisions. But he’s still a kid inside.
“He has to be there weightlifting at about 5 a.m. That’s a huge development for him. Sometimes it would take a spray bottle for him to wake up. Now he’s got roommates, and a couple times he told me he woke up at 2 a.m. and didn’t go back to sleep because he didn’t want to be late. They’re strict with him and don’t give these kids any slack, whether you come in as a four star or five star or not. But he really likes it here a lot and loves the campus and coaches. He’s put on some really good weight, without much body fat. Whatever they’re doing is working.’’
Said Garcia: “I like being able to go over and hang out with them and still have them around.’’
Garcia fell in love with the recruiting class and UM fans who made an all-out social-media effort to lure him to the U after he had been committed for a year to Southern Cal.
“Great fans,’’ he said. “Just keep supporting us and pack the stadium once this coronavirus stuff is over. That has an impact on the game, definitely.
“We’re going to turn it up.’’
When fans do have a chance to watch Garcia — spring practice concludes April 17 but a spring game has not yet been announced — they’ll notice he wears a brace on his left leg for purely preventative measures, explained Randy, who tore his ACL as a Nebraska freshman.
“When you stand up in the pocket and are throwing, it’s that front, left knee [for right-handed quarterbacks] that is exposed to sometimes getting rolled on by linemen,’’ Randy said.
Fan friendly
If Garcia’s game is as proficient as his engaging demeanor, the fans will likely come.
“Jake is the kind of guy who walks into a room, introduces himself and makes friends,’’ said Hernandez, who also coached Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, a second-year freshman who was the nation’s top-rated dual-threat quarterback entering college and is expected to win the starting job and face Miami this fall. “Jake benefited from being in multiple locker rooms throughout his high school career, and he’s always been able to win people over — and that matters. You’re never going to forget Jake is there because he has a presence — the way he walks in, the way his shoulders are pinned back, his smile, the way he makes eye contact.
“He’s present in the moment, and it’s natural, not forced.’’
UM recruiting director David Cooney recalled Garcia’s workout at a seven-on-seven camp on UM’s campus during the summer of 2019. “His confidence just oozes off him,’’ Cooney said. “I’ll never forget when he did that workout — it was all eyes on him and he didn’t flinch. You rarely see Coach Diaz smile when a kid is working out, but when Jake finished that workout it was one of those, ‘Hey, I think we have one in this one ...’ ’’
Garcia said he felt as though Coral Gables was home the minute he arrived to begin school.
“It’s a warm feeling,’’ he said. “I want to set the tone for myself from the jump. This is a very hard place to do it. But if you can do it the right way, you can be very, very successful.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 11:13 AM.
