INDIANAPOLIS — The spotlight won’t be on Jake Haener when the quarterbacks take the Lucas Oil Stadium turf Saturday for on-field drills at the NFL scouting combine.
That will be reserved for Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Kentucky’s Will Levis and Florida’s Anthony Richardson, all expected to go in the first round — with Young and Stroud likely in the first few picks.
But Haener is used to plying his trade in the relative shadows.
After his transfer from Washington in 2019, he spent the next four years in Fresno, proving that maybe he should have been regarded as more than an understudy all along.
Haener led Fresno State to an 18-5 record in games he started the past two years, including wins over UCLA and Washington State, and finished his career in the top five of every passing category in school history, setting a record with a pass completion percentage of 68.1.
So maybe people should listen when he makes this prediction of what he expects to happen Saturday.
“Tomorrow, when people see me in person, I think I will be able to stack up with some of the top guys here,” Haener said.
Had things worked out the way Haener long dreamed, he would be at the combine carrying the same big-school pedigree as the likes of Young and Stroud, having hopefully led the Huskies to Pac-12 titles and Rose Bowl berths.
That was the plan when he signed with UW in 2017 out of Monte Vista High in Danville, California, having long been a Huskies fan — his mother, Julie, and grandfather are Washington grads.
“It was really my dream school,” Haener said Friday. “I really wanted to go there as a kid, and I was lucky enough to get that opportunity in 2017.”
But the reality of big-business college football intruded, with former five-star recruit Jacob Eason transferring back home to UW in 2019.
When Eason was named the starter in August of that year after a training camp battle with Haener, Haener said he had to make a business decision of his own.
“When things didn’t work out for me, I wanted to go put tape out there and I knew that was going to be my opportunity to get here (to the NFL) and have a chance at the next level,” Haener said Friday.
So he transferred to Fresno State, where he initially planned to play for Jeff Tedford. When Tedford had to resign following the 2019 season for health reasons, he was replaced by a young, relatively unknown offensive coordinator from the University of Indiana named Kalen DeBoer.
The marriage of DeBoer, Haener and holdover offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was an immediate hit as the Haener finished fourth in the NCAA in passing yards in the COVID-interrupted year of 2020, then led the Bulldogs to a 10-3 record in 2021.
But in another novel-esque twist of fate, that led to DeBoer getting hired at Haener’s old school to clean up the mess of a 4-8 season in 2021 — and led briefly to a difficult decision for Haener.
After DeBoer left, Haener entered the transfer portal, leading to immediate speculation he was heading back to Washington, which Haener had to quickly publicly dispel until anything was official.
“When I had that opportunity to go back up there and follow my coaching staff who helped make me successful at Fresno State, I definitely looked at it,” Haener said Friday. “I definitely weighed out all my options.”
One complication was that Haener would need to quickly graduate from Fresno State to be eligible to play at Washington as a grad transfer, and due to differences in the calendars of the two schools and issues with credits transferring, he wasn’t likely to get that completed until the summer.
In an interview with Pro Football Focus last summer, Haener said there was a moment when he decided he didn’t care what it would take to get back to UW.
“At one point I was like, ‘screw it,’” Haener said. “I called DeBoer. I was like, ‘I’m just going to Washington. I don’t care if I have to get there in July. It is what it is. I just want this to be done, let’s move on and go from there.’”
Haener said in that interview he also considered Nebraska and even gave brief thought to turning pro — he had already been invited to the Senior Bowl.
But then in another unforeseen plot twist, the now-healthy Tedford was rehired as Fresno State’s coach, promoting assistant Kirby Moore, who had been the team’s passing game coordinator, to offensive coordinator.
“When coach Tedford came back, I felt like my best interest was going to be to stay at Fresno State,” he said Friday.
The domino effect of that was Washington landing a transfer named Michael Penix Jr.
And for at least 2022, all lived happily ever after.
Haener led FSU to seven straight wins to end the season, including a 29-6 victory over WSU in the LA Bowl, with a sparkling 20-3 TD-to-interception ratio, while Penix quickly led the Huskies back to prominence.
“Not surprised,” Haener said of UW’s success in 2022. “They build a great culture.”
Haener also said he has no hard feelings about anything UW-related.
He actually spent a few days last summer working out with Penix at UW when he returned to Seattle to visit relatives.
“Great kid,” Haener said. “Super fired up for him and what he’s doing.”
And he said he has kept in constant contact with DeBoer and Grubb during the draft process.
“Just enjoy it,” he said of what DeBoer has told him. “You only get to do it one time.”
The task now is to prove he belongs with the big names in this draft class. Haener faces questions about his size — he’s listed at 6-1, 200 but says he expects to play next year at 207/208 — and arm strength, which have him considered a likely Day Three pick.
But Haener, who has been training at 3DQB in Huntington Beach, California, to prepare for the draft, says he’ll show here and in any other workout that he can make all the necessary throws.
He feels he proved that when he was named the MVP of the Senior Bowl in January after going 12-of-19 for 139 yards and a TD, a week he says “was really important for me.”
After that game, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit tweeted “You lookin for this years Brock Purdy??…my early odds would favor Jake and the grind he’s been on as a College QB.”
It’s a grind that Haener says ultimately has left him with no regrets.
“I have no bad blood with Washington,” he said. “But Fresno is definitely my home. It’s what made me, what gave me this opportunity. I’ve got friends and family up in Seattle so I’m definitely rooting for the Huskies just because of the coaching staff up there now. But Fresno is what made me.”