Miami quarterback Jake Garcia meets media, speaks of ‘Wow!’ moment of college football
It was the day before the Miami Hurricanes’ first spring scrimmage, and freshman quarterback Jake Garcia had just been cleared for team competition after a lingering right foot injury that stemmed from the last several games of his high school career.
“That Friday we went out and practiced just in helmets,’’ UM coach Manny Diaz told reporters Tuesday. “And then all of a sudden — bang! — here goes your first scrimmage. The way he handled himself, because that first scrimmage a lot of times can be overwhelming. The coaches were off the field and you’re kind of out there on your own. You get the real live accountability of negative plays, go backwards and all that.
“Jake just looked like a guy that day that has been around a long time, that was not in awe of the moment, was very comfortable — in addition to the fact of the throws and all that. That was the thing that everybody on the staff was most pleased about.”
The “throws and all that” during the March 27 scrimmage of which Diaz spoke? A fairly insane 78.9 percent completion percentage for Garcia from his 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown.
“I felt good at the scrimmage,’’ Garcia said Tuesday in his first UM media availability since arriving in Coral Gables in January as a vaunted early enrollee out of Grayson High in Loganville, Georgia. “It was a good time to put some stuff on film and go back and review it and learn from it.’’
Garcia seemed as smooth and friendly and approachable in the media session as he must have been with his receivers that first scrimmage. He said he is really enjoying school and practices and working with his coaches and fellow quarterbacks, and that they “push each other but continue to root for each other at the same time.”
QB room ‘really good’
“The quarterback room is a really good room,’’ Garcia said of the other contenders, including fellow scholarship quarterbacks Tyler Van Dyke, who also spoke Tuesday, and Peyton Matocha, while starter D’Eriq King rehabs from a torn ACL but still participates in team activities. “You have some quarterback rooms that you get into and there is one person in the group that kind of brings it down and throws off the mood.
“Everybody comes in ready to work every single day and that’s huge. Coming in with that mentality, like this is your last day of playing football. It’s a blessing to be able to play this game. We all come in with that mentality and we really push each other from the standpoint of getting mental reps.
“I feel comfortable asking questions about ‘Oh, what was the play call right here?’ or ‘Why did you get off of this route?’ They’re not going to give me a wrong answer to try and mess with my reps. So, I feel like we all learn from each other. They’ve pushed me since I’ve been here.’’
Garcia said his first “Wow!” moment of college football was those “early morning lifts.’’
“Those get to you,’’ he said.
First day ‘Wow!’ moment
That other “Wow!” moment was when he came out with his teammates wearing their UM helmets on the first day of practice.
“Me and my dad were talking about it,’’ Garcia said of his father, Randy Garcia, also a former major college quarterback. “He played over at Nebraska so he had that same experience of going away from home from Los Angeles to Nebraska to play. He told me before it happened, ‘When you first get out there with helmets on and you see the logo or you see the colors out there it’s going to be an experience.’
“When we got out there I was like, ‘Yeah, this is crazy. You see them on TV, you dream about it as a little kid and now you’re here.’ It’s crazy. It’s something I don’t take for granted and I just want to make the best of my opportunities.’’
Garcia said all the quarterbacks have been sharing reps — first team, second team and otherwise. Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, he said, does a very good job of rotating the signal-callers.
“There’s not a big drop-off between our 1s, 2s and 3s,’’ Garcia said. “We have a lot of depth, so that’s pretty impressive. Any time I get in is obviously helpful. If I get more reps that day the next day somebody else probably will get more reps. But I’m big on mental reps. If I’m not in, I’m going to stand back and sit there and watch it and go through it. And that’s what Peyton does and that’s what Tyler does and that’s what Ryan [Rizk] does.”
Garcia said Lashlee had worked with him on “just kicking the ball out to open space and really knowing your options. That comes with time. I’ve gotten a good grasp of the offense so far in the little time I’ve been here. Obviously, live reps help. Just to be able to get out there and practice full speed is huge. That’s where you get the most improvement. Even if you mess up, you go out there and do it 100 percent.
“If you mess up, now you have something to base what you need to work on.”
Mobility? No problem
When asked about his mobility on the college level, Garcia, 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, noted he’s “not one who is going to get out and break for 85 yards on a zone read,’’ but that he will do “everything I can do to win, whether that’s me getting the 10 yards for a first down or getting out of the pocket and flushing and throwing it.
“I haven’t had any problems with it all,’’ he said, noting that he has worked for years on his pocket movement with private quarterback coach Danny Hernandez back in Los Angeles, where Garcia grew up. “I’m pretty strong’’ in that area, he said, “to where I feel pressure and I’m able to manipulate the pocket a little bit and just slide up or scoot back or shuffle to the side and get the ball out. So I feel like that’s a strength right now, actually.”
Diaz said most of the UM quarterbacks played very well in the first scrimmage, but that what happens in Friday night’s second spring scrimmage will tell even more.
“What happens is more installs keep coming,’’ Diaz said. “You did a good thing. OK, now you gotta keep going. I think it will be very interesting to see what happens at the end of this week and how it looks for scrimmage 2. There will be more defense in and more stuff coming at you.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 2:12 PM.
