The Miami Hurricanes’ efforts to sway Jake Garcia were nearly two years in the making.
Miami first locked in on the four-star quarterback early in 2019, offering him a scholarship and luring him to Coral Gables for a pair of unofficial visits. Even after he orally committed to the USC Trojans later in the year, the Hurricanes kept pitching him even after overhauling its offensive staff in the offseason.
Last Wednesday, Miami officially completed the flip. Garcia decommitted from USC on Dec. 3 and signed a national letter of intent with the Hurricanes on the first day of the early signing period.
Danny Hernandez, Garcia’s long-time personal quarterback coach with Team Dime LA, was one of the elite prospect’s most important confidantes throughout the process. Hernandez has worked with him since Garcia was in eighth grade, even as Garcia bounced around between five different high schools in less than four years. In the end, there were reasons practical, personal and aspirational reasons as to why Garcia finally settled on Miami, at least in Hernandez’s view.
The practical: “The opportunity to play for Rhett [Lashlee].”
The personal: “The opportunity to play for someone like Rob Likens, who I think is an amazing human being and there was a relationship obviously there already.”
And the aspirational: “I’ve always said, ‘Hey, man, use that good-looking face. Get in front of the TV screen if you can when things are done.’ I nicknamed him ‘Telemundo’ saying that he’ll be on one of these Spanish soap operas when it’s all said and done.”
Hernandez also saw Garcia fall in love with the fan base and the senior has become a part of Hurricanes Twitter since committing. There’s also the idea, Hernandez said, of Garcia being a Latino quarterback at Miami.
“In the community over there,” Hernandez said, “I feel like he’ll really be embraced.”
None of it would matter without a fit in the offense and a belief in the Hurricanes’ turnaround in Lashlee’s first year as offensive coordinator.
When Garcia first started considering the Hurricanes, Dan Enos was the offensive coordinator, running a traditional pro-style system. Garcia, who’s the No. 5 pro-style quarterback in 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2021, felt comfortable in the old-school system. Garcia played in a pro-style offense as a freshman at Long Beach Poly in California, and he and Hernandez still work on five- and seven-step drops in their private sessions, even as he has gone to play in spread systems the last three years.
Once Lashlee arrived in January, the new quarterbacks coach picked up where Enos left off on the recruiting trail. Garcia was still the top priority after two impressive seasons at Narbonne in Harbor City, California.
Two vastly different coordinators viewed Garcia as an ideal fit in their offenses. His demeanor is a major reason why.
“He walks into a room, his smile lights it up and he just always has had that personality,” Hernandez said. “It’s funny because he comes in and has that big smile, and then he has the football in his hand, he just starts doing his thing. It’s like, Oh, OK, this guy’s legit. He’s not just a nice guy with a pretty-boy face, smile over here. This guy can play.”
It was obvious even when Garcia was in middle school, Hernandez said. Back then, college football teams ran satellite camps at high schools across the country, and Garcia went to work out for the Texas Longhorns and Tennessee Volunteers before he ever even played a high school game.
“He’s throwing side by side with some of these guys that are juniors and seniors in high school,” Hernandez said, “and you’re the most impressed with Jake.”
Much of it comes from Garcia’s father. Randy Garcia played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the 1970s and he taught his son the basics of the position.
As he got older, Garcia improved through sessions with Hernandez and self-critique. Every Saturday, Hernandez hosts a group session — Clemson Tiger star quarterback D.J. Uiagaleilei is perhaps Hernandez’s most notable pupil — and he’d also typically work with Garcia privately once or twice a week. The two only lived about 15 minutes apart in Southern California, which made it easy for Garcia to call up Hernandez, tell him something he felt like he needed to work on and then go meet the coach at a nearby park for an impromptu session.
Miami coaches envision Garcia as a quarterback who can operate quickly and make fast decisions in Lashlee’s spread to make up for his lack of mobility. Hernandez has drilled this, too.
“He can be really quick,” Hernandez said. “We’ve done drills where I’m giving him rapid fire with four, five, six footballs in a row and it’s just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. He’s very clean with that.”
Once the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, Garcia also made Hernandez’s house a frequent stop to work out in the weight room in Hernandez’s garage.
In August, Garcia and his father moved from California to Georgia to ensure Garcia would get to play a senior season. He started at Valdosta for one game, then transferred again to Grayson in Loganville after he was ruled ineligible at his first stop.
Now those sessions with Hernandez are all conducted remotely. Garcia will send Hernandez some film and they’ll break it down over Zoom.
Ultimately, it fits well with what Garcia has tried to work on in his new home. Most of their discussions now are about what happens before the snap. If he took a sack, could he have audibled or changed his protection to prevent it? His new teams have asked him to do more than he has ever done before
“There’s been a little bit more on his plate where he’s had to identify a lot more things and check into other plays,” Hernandez said. “It really helped increase his football IQ. He’s been excited about that.”
