BYU football: Jake Heaps, Bronco Mendenhall should check out their options

SALT LAKE CITY – There's a decent chance Jake Heaps will transfer from BYU, sometime after this month's Armed Forces Bowl. He hasn't said so, but he'd be crazy not to look around.

While he's at it, maybe he should invite Bronco Mendenhall to do the same.

That would make two guys who could get a lot of love someplace besides BYU.

As speculation continues that the Cougar quarterback will leave after this season, there is also the matter of his coach. Mendenhall has built a 64-24 record in seven seasons at BYU, been to a bowl game every time. The man is as consistent as fast food.

Yet he is nearing the end of another season, knowing he's playing in the low-rung Armed Forces Bowl. If BYU qualifies for bowl status in coming years, the next two stops will likely be the Poinsettia and the Kraft Fight Hunger bowls.

I know. Hold on to your hat.

So Mendenhall's immediate future looks a lot like Heaps' — pretty limited. Which makes for an interesting irony. It was Mendenhall who benched Heaps in favor of Riley Nelson. Yet in a way, Mendenhall and Heaps are in the same canoe.

Neither is getting what, or where, he should.

Mendenhall has been a nice fit for BYU. He's pleasant, successful and measured. In other words, he's glad to take the party line. So when BYU announced it was going independent, he was, to borrow a phrase, fully invested.

But thanks to TV considerations, BYU has now missed chances to play in the Big 12 and Big East conferences. That bothers a lot of people and deep inside, Mendenhall has to be among them. BYU wanted exposure and it's getting quite a bit. But competition? He can't be pleased with a schedule that includes Idaho, New Mexico State, Hawaii, Idaho State and San Jose State.

What, was Cornell booked?

Thanks to his winning percentage, Mendenhall's name is bound to get mentioned around the country. UCLA, Arizona State, Illinois and Kansas have fired their coaches. Mendenhall could help any of them. If Washington State can hire Mike Leach at an exorbitant salary, after he was fired at Texas Tech, plenty of schools could use a scandal-free, winning coach such as Mendenhall. At least some of them have to be looking his way.

And he has to be looking back.