Bowling Green State University Athletics
Omar Jacobs: A Near Miss
September 01, 2005 | Football
Sept. 1, 2005
By RON MUSSELMAN -
BOWLING GREEN - Omar Jacobs was a second-team all-state quarterback as a high school senior in the football factory of talent-rich Florida.
Yet he didn't have many options when it came to choosing a college.
It was either Division I-AA Florida Atlantic, Mid-American Conference whipping boy Buffalo, or bust for Jacobs.
But former Bowling Green coach Urban Meyer intervened two weeks before national signing day in 2002 and rescued the quarterback with the quirky delivery.
Meyer, now the coach at the University of Florida after a two-year layover in Utah, remembers the unusual circumstances that led him to Jacobs' hometown of Delray Beach.
"We had a commitment from a quarterback in Pittsburgh," Meyer said.
"He committed to us at Bowling Green in January, and then two weeks later, he called me and said he changed his mind and decided to go to Boston College.
"I was in a panic, and [quarterbacks coach] Dan Mullen was panicking. I said to Dan, 'Where do we go now to find a quarterback?' Almost all of the quarterbacks we had been recruiting had committed to colleges by then."
Meyer picked up the telephone and started calling quarterback coaches across the country.
Ron Hudson, an assistant coach at Kansas State at the time, recommended that Meyer take a look at Jacobs.
The Wildcats pursued Jacobs for a long time - he was all set to go to Kansas State, but then the assistant coach who was recruiting Jacobs left and the school canceled his official visit.
Not once, but twice.
"Ron Hudson told me Omar was a real good-looking athlete with a lot of upside, but that he had some flaws in his throwing motion," Meyer said. "So I got Omar on the phone and said, 'Who else is recruiting you?' He said, 'The only other visit I got is Buffalo.' "
Meyer had Mullen drive to Notre Dame, where both had previously worked, and watch film of Jacobs. Mullen phoned Meyer late at night with some encouraging news.
"Dan told me, 'This kid is pretty good, you ought to go down there and see him,'" Meyer said.
Meyer caught a flight to South Florida early the next morning and spent the day with Jacobs and his mother, Barbara Bean.
Before he left, Meyer offered Jacobs a scholarship.
Jacobs accepted, albeit reluctantly.
"I didn't know where Bowling Green was," he said. "I didn't know they had a football team. I just didn't know anything about the school.
"Urban was really serious. I'm a really fun guy. I like to joke around. He didn't smile once. The only time I saw him smile was when I told him I committed."
After visiting Bowling Green's campus, Jacobs wasn't sure he made the right call.
"I still had doubts," he said. "As a high school athlete, you always want to go to the big schools, the Floridas, the Florida States, the Miamis. I thought I had the potential to go there.
"At first, I was like, Bowling Green? You kind of wonder what happened. But God works in mysterious ways and things happen for a reason. I'm glad I'm here now."
Jacobs was a redshirt his first year and played in four games in 2003 while backing up Josh Harris, who is now in the NFL.
As the Falcons' starter last season, the 6-foot-4, 226-pound Jacobs had a monster first year.
He led the nation with 41 touchdown passes, and he threw only four interceptions. That calculates to an outrageous 10.25 touchdown passes for every interception, the best in NCAA history.
Jacobs completed 66.9 percent of his passes in his record-setting season and was named the MAC's offensive player of the year and MVP of the GMAC Bowl.
His spectacular sophomore season has helped thrust him into the national spotlight.
Jacobs, a junior, has recently been profiled in USA Today and ESPN The Magazine. And The Sporting News has selected him as a second-team preseason All-American.
His next big test will come Saturday in the Falcons' nationally televised opener at Wisconsin.
If Jacobs lives up to all of his preseason hype, he could be one of the top NFL quarterback prospects in next April's draft, despite having one year of eligibility remaining.
Meyer talked to Jacobs this summer about the possibility of leaving school early.
"I told him to do what Alex Smith did, just have a great year and let everything else happen in December and January," Meyer said.
Smith, a two-year starter, led Meyer's Utah team to a 12-0 record, a No. 4 ranking and a Fiesta Bowl victory last season. He left school a year early and was the first overall NFL draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers, and now owns a top-heavy bank account.
Jacobs won't match Smith's lofty draft status, but he is in much better position than he was three years ago, when Meyer, with an assist from Hudson, rescued him from a four-year sentence to be served in Buffalo.
"Omar's throwing the ball much better," Meyer said. "He looks like a different guy than when I first saw him. He's an NFL-caliber quarterback. I have already had several people call me about him."
He's not at Miami, Florida State or Florida, but it's impossible for anyone to overlook Jacobs now.
His skills, honed and refined on the flat farmland of northwest Ohio, are one of college football's worst-kept secrets.
