Jake had talent, had parents that could afford a QB guru individual coach, and clearly understood the game. Unfortunately, Jake wasn't as strong mentally, chose to work out with private coaches rather than with the team, and most of all was derailed by a tough family situation. My guess is that Riley didn't exclude Jake from his posse but that Jake excluded himself. BYU is unique in that it has a lot of RM players. A freshman, no matter how entitled, needs to come in humble and earn the respect of the older, more mature players. This isn't wrong or right but is just reality at a place like BYU.

There's a part of me that thinks Jake also maximized his potential his freshman year. All the individual coaching initially put him ahead of the curve but it's possible he lacked the capacity to go much further. You see this quite often with elite high school players that had all the tools to dominate the high school game but didn't have the growth potential to develop that talent into a dominant college football player.

I think Jake would have been much better off backing up Riley for a year or two and developing his game with less pressure on him. This would have allowed him to deal more privately with the stuff happening in his family life. Also, it might have helped him develop camaraderie with his older teammates.

It was a strange and exciting time at BYU. I wish things had worked out better for both Jake and Riley.