back you over a guy whose skill set is inferior and who is playing out of position. Check Heaps' freshman stats vs any other BYU freshman QB in history. He objectively appears to have done fine by the numbers. The wins/losses those years are more on the coaching brain-trust and other glaring positional deficiencies than either QB.
I didn't have a dog in the Heaps vs Riley debate; I do know that if that scenario plays out most places the loser is the OC and head coach.