Jake Haener moved to Newport Beach, Calif., this summer — temporarily, anyway. His dad found a good rate on an Airbnb and rented it for six weeks, during which time Haener immersed himself in a multi-faceted training program that would lay the foundation for his upcoming debut as Fresno State’s starting quarterback.
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During his time in Newport Beach, Haener worked four days a week with John Beck, the former BYU and NFL quarterback. He also did shoulder mobility work with the trainers at the biomechanics-focused facility 3DQB, where Beck works as a motion mechanics instructor. Working with Beck, Haener threw with a number of high-profile college quarterbacks — Zach Wilson from BYU, Ian Book from Notre Dame, ex-USC and current Georgia quarterback J.T. Daniels — and even threw for a time with Jacob Eason, the former Washington Huskies quarterback whom Haener battled for the starting job in 2019 before transferring to Fresno State.
“He got to be around a lot of those guys that have had a lot of experience and compete with them and see how he matched up to them, which was great for him,” Ryan Haener, Jake’s dad, said. “He really, really enjoyed that.”
He also worked on team-building and chemistry to compensate for what was missed with no spring practices. As soon as local restrictions allowed it, Haener hosted some of Fresno State’s receivers — Keric Wheatfall, Jamal Glaspie, Zane Pope — at his place in Newport Beach for a week of workouts. After that, he invited some offensive linemen down.
“I think he probably had 15 teammates roll through there over that six-week period,” Ryan said.
Back at his parents’ home near Danville, Calif., Haener worked with local trainer Nathan Kenion, his high school 7-on-7 coach, on agility and speed training, then moved back to Fresno near the end of August and resumed throwing with teammates.
So Haener did all he could to ensure that Monday’s announcement went his way, and it did: First-year Fresno State coach Kalen DeBoer named him the Bulldogs starting quarterback after a tight camp competition with third-year sophom*ore Ben Wooldridge. Haener, a fourth-year junior, sat out last season after transferring and helped run the scout team. He left Washington the week before the start of the 2019 season, after then-coach Chris Petersen named Eason the starter. It was a difficult move, but one Haener felt was necessary if he wanted to be a starting quarterback.
He will accomplish that Saturday for the first time as a collegian when Fresno State takes the field for its season opener against Hawaii.
Here’s our QB1 🚨#GoDogs | #PrideOfTheValley pic.twitter.com/fkHE7pLcP0
See AlsoRiver Station by My Home Communities2024 June 21 Central Valley Regional Board Meeting Agenda— Fresno State Football (@FresnoStateFB) October 19, 2020
“I’m going to put a ton of time into the process and what it takes to be completely prepared for Hawaii and what we think they’re going to do,” Haener said during a Tuesday Zoom call. “I think they’ve got a really good squad, and we’re all ready for the challenge. I’m ready.”
It’s been about 14 months since Haener left Washington, though in some ways it might feel like 14 years. Petersen was UW’s coach when Haener left, and Jeff Tedford was coach at Fresno State when he transferred to the Mountain West school. Both have since resigned. Still, Haener has no regrets.
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“It matured me as a young man, and I think it was a really good experience to go through,” he said. “It taught me a lot about myself and how to handle things as a 20-year-old young man at the time, and what I had to overcome and persevere through. A lot of quarterbacks have had to do that, and a lot of guys have had to transfer and find a new beginning somewhere else. So I took it as a learning curve, I took it as a challenge, and I took it as a building block for me, personally.”
Haener always planned on competing for the starting job in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the timeline and limited the number of reps he could take in an 11-on-11 practice setting. For as much as Haener got done with individual training sessions and Zoom calls with coaches during the shutdown, he said Tuesday that, “I’ve only been doing our offense really for three weeks, so it’s a lot of new stuff, a lot of new material. But I’ve clicked with it and I’ve really gelled with the receivers and gelled with the offensive line in those three weeks, and I feel really comfortable come Saturday.”
There will be at least a few interested parties rooting for Haener from Seattle.
Pleased as he is to be starting for Fresno State, Haener still fondly recalls his time at UW, primarily because he made so many friends there. He is particularly close with former UW offensive linemen Trey Adams and Nick Harris, and he mentioned receivers Terrell Bynum and Ty Jones, running back Sean McGrew and former tight end Hunter Bryant as others he still speaks with regularly.
“You name it, I talk to all of them,” he said.
UW’s junior kicker, Peyton Henry, was a high school teammate and one of Haener’s best friends since kindergarten — in fact, Haener was the first to convince Henry to try out for the team at Danville (Calif.) Monte Vista. Another former high school teammate, fourth-year junior Corey Luciano, is an offensive lineman for the Huskies. And Haener still is part of a group chat with his fellow 2017 signees.
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“We still check up on each other and see how things are going,” Haener said. “I told them the news, and they saw what happened (Monday), and they were fired up for me. I think that’s a tribute to what Coach Petersen taught us up there — it’s all about building relationships that will last for a lifetime. I think I’ll stay close with those guys for the rest of my life and will cherish those moments I had there, for sure.”
Bynum smiled wide when asked about Haener’s starting status on a Zoom call Tuesday.
“That’s dope. Jake is one of my closest friends,” said Bynum, a member of the 2017 recruiting class. “I’ve known him since high school. We’ve talked about it — I knew he was going to get (the starting job) because he’s super talented. But I’m just happy to finally see it, because we’ve been grinding for a while.”
When Haener left, Bynum said, “I gave him a hard time for it, for sure, because I was a little heartbroken. I hung out with him all the time. He’s just a goofy dude that I loved. Him being gone, I knew it was the best opportunity for him, so I was happy for him, but I just gave him a hard time because I wish he was here and I could hang out with him again.”
Haener wasn’t a coveted recruit, and many wondered how a little-known, 6-foot sophom*ore could possibly battle into late August with a passer of Eason’s stature, profile and NFL potential. But Haener always was popular with coaches and teammates, earning their respect with his work ethic and confidence, unafraid to throw it deep and give receivers a chance to make plays in practice.
“He’s just a competitor. That dude really competes at everything,” Harris said in July 2019. “It’s kind of irritating at times. Everybody loves Haener, but he’s just a competitor. He’s a football head. He’s a football fanatic. He’s always in the film room, always bothering me about the playbook. I hang out with Haener outside the stadium and stuff. We go golfing, he’s trying to win. I’m like, ‘Dude, we’re just casually playing golf.’ He’s like, ‘No, I need to win.’”
Haener backed up senior Jake Browning in 2018 while Eason redshirted after transferring from Georgia, and though nearly everyone (correctly) assumed Eason would win the job the following season, Haener decided to stay and compete.
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He appraised the situation with a dry wit. After one spring practice, Haener and Eason both were summoned for media interviews. When a handful of reporters approached Haener, he jokingly suggested they talk to Eason instead. By that point, Haener already had deactivated his social media accounts, knowing there was little point reading fan comments about a quarterback battle so few wanted him to win. Yet he embraced the role of underdog all the same, relishing the opportunity to make a run at the job and believing he’d put himself in position to pull off the upset, so to speak, after coaches let the two duke it out for the first three weeks of camp. That’s why he was so crushed when the Huskies went with Eason, as obvious as that decision might have appeared to outsiders. Petersen told him it was like splitting hairs, but that Eason’s upside was too great to ignore.
Haener’s decision to transfer, announced exactly one week before UW’s season opener, didn’t sit well with some. Petersen and then-offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan both wanted him to stay, and Petersen described the timing as “awkward.” But Haener wanted to enroll at a new school as soon as possible in order to establish residency and guarantee two years of eligibility in 2020 and 2021 (though due to the NCAA’s eligibility pause, he could play in 2022 if he wanted to). With a starting job secured ahead of his junior season, it would be difficult to argue he made the wrong call. As it turned out, Haener wouldn’t have played much last season, as Eason took every meaningful snap at quarterback. And there wouldn’t have been any guarantees in 2020, either, with Jacob Sirmon and Dylan Morris both returning, and new coach Jimmy Lake eventually landing Kevin Thomson on the grad-transfer market.
Petersen’s abrupt resignation surprised him from afar, Haener said, but he believes the Huskies are in good hands.
“Jimmy Lake’s the best there is,” Haener said. “He’s a really good defensive mind, and he taught me a lot of things on defense. He’s a really positive coach and a great leader, so I think he’s going to do really well there.”
There was some nostalgia associated with Haener’s matriculation at Washington; both his mother, Julie, and grandfather attended the school, so the scholarship offer from Petersen meant a lot, and it wasn’t easy to say goodbye to Seattle.
“He knew that he needed to go, but his heart was there,” Ryan said. “It was tough for him.”
But there already are happy memories for the Haener family to associate with Bulldog Stadium. In fact, that’s where Jake’s parents saw each other for the first time. Ryan had graduated from UCSB and returned home to Fresno, and Julie was working her first TV job there as a reporter and anchor, and one weekend, they both happened to attend the same game. Ryan remembers standing near the top of the stadium at halftime and catching her eye a few times from maybe 30 yards away. “Is she looking at me?” he wondered. He found out she was a news anchor, bought two-dozen long-stem roses and delivered them to the TV station with his name and phone number.
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“It kind of went on from there,” he said, “and the rest is history.”
It will be surreal, then, to watch Jake make his starting debut at the same stadium, even if Ryan and Julie can’t be there. Instead, they’ll be watching at a friend’s house in Fresno — Jake’s godparents live there — with a half-dozen close friends they’ve known for years.
“I can’t believe it’s finally happening after three long years, and seeing the hard work that the young man has put into it, and the dedication and the sacrifices he’s made,” Ryan said. “I’m just happy for him that he’s finally realizing his dream that he’s worked for since he was 8 years old.”
(Photo: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
