Brock Huard has advice for Washington’s top prep QB
Dec 2, 2015, 3:25 PM | Updated: 4:37 pm
Brock Huard worries Lake Stevens' 5-star recruit Jacob Eason might regret leaving home. (AP)
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Brock Huard has some advice for Lake Stevens’ QB Jacob Eason, as the highly touted prep prospect considers which college to choose.
“There is no place like home to have success,” said Huard on 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Brock and Salk.”
“You go to Georgia and you become the king of Athens, that’s great,” he said. “But you won’t ever reap the benefits of the roots of having your community.”
Eason is a 5-star recruit who originally committed to Georgia, but reportedly re-opened his recruitment after the Bulldogs fired their head coach Mark Richt. The 6-foot-5-inch Pro-style quarterback is reportedly visiting the University of Florida.
Huard, who was the 1995 Gatorade National Player of the Year while playing for Puyallup High School, said he left a visit with UCLA smitten with the school, then-coach Terry Donahue, sunshine, the beach — everything.
“I loved it!” he said. “I’d have been great, I’d have been perfect.”
Related: Huard: Seahawks’ Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor have had to compensate
Huard remembers returning home, though, and being counseled by his father and older brother Damon Huard, a University of Washington grad and NFL QB, who told him that he could win Heisman at UCLA, but it will never be celebrated back at home. That Washingtonians would feel as if he left everyone behind.
“For me, my family was here – grandma, grandpa, mom and dad. At that point a lot of family and friends,” he said. “…I wouldn’t have this job if I didn’t make that decision.”
Co-host Mike Salk said it’s pretty clear from Eason’s initial choice of Georgia and visit to Florida, that the teenager wants to be about as far away from Washington as possible. That may be true, Huard acknowledged, which is why he also cautioned against following the top-tier QB coaches, such as Jim Harbaugh at the University of Michigan.
“You get banged up, you get injured, you may never see the field at that spot,” Huard said. “So yeah, it’s highly desirable and there’s going to be an immense amount of the top-supply coming into Ann Arbor in (Eason’s) tenure.”
Winning is key in this area, and Huard hopes UW’s newly extended head coach Chris Petersen will continue to improve in recruiting, which he calls “the life-blood of schools.”
“Winning begets winning in college football so much more than it does in pro football,” he said. “And if Chris Petersen wins, as Don James once did, guess what happens to the in-state recruit? I wanna go there and get to the League.”
