Why TCU hit a five-star home run with three-star QB prospect Hauss Hejny

AUSTIN, Texas — Hauss Hejny dropped back from the 40-yard line at Westlake High School during Sunday’s Elite 11 Regional camp. By the time he let the ball fly, his feet were near the 50. You could almost hear the ball humming through the air. You could have cued up music from a 1980s sports movie and watched the tight spiral cut through the air before landing in his receiver’s hands in the end zone.

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The reporters standing on the sideline looked at each other with that unmistakable smirk of approval. One of them broke the silence.

“Man,” he said, “if only he were a few inches taller, he could be a five-star.”

A reporter offered an interesting stat about how it’s virtually impossible for shorter quarterbacks to get selected in the NFL Draft. Only one quarterback below 6 feet has been drafted since 2019, and that is Kyler Murray. During that span, 43 quarterbacks have been picked. Yes, Bryce Young is going to be a top-five pick later this month, but you get the point.

“I feel like I’d be in the conversation for a five-star prospect,” Hejny told The Athletic on Sunday, picturing a world in which he were 6 foot 2. “I’ll just keep my head down and work. And if they don’t think as a five-star, I’ll prove it to them in college. I’ll go out and throw for 4,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards. I don’t care.”

This is Hauss Hejny. He’s a three-star quarterback from Aledo (Texas) High School just outside of Fort Worth. He’s 5-11, 185 pounds. He’s rated the No. 785 player and No. 43 quarterback in the 2024 class in the 247Sports Composite. Hejny, who led his team to a state championship in the fall, is committed to TCU.

The Horned Frogs hit a home run.

It’s not often you have a conversation with a prospect about five-stars when he rates outside of the top 700 nationally. But Hejny is worthy of that discussion. The recruiting services spend so much time projecting a player’s potential NFL Draft ceiling, and the height issue is real, even if Hejny isn’t actually a short person. The bigger picture, though, is TCU’s search for a quarterback who is going to light it up in college — not necessarily someone who will be a future NFL Draft pick.

The Elite 11 is an invite-only quarterback camp, and the regionals are designed to identify the best quarterbacks in the country to participate in the final event in June in Redondo Beach, Calif. Players like five-star DJ Lagway of Willis (Texas) High — a Florida commit who is unquestionably one of the best quarterbacks in the country — were participating. Hejny went toe-to-toe with every player on that field and performed well enough to be in consideration for a coveted invite to the Elite 11 Finals.

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Hejny’s passes came out with velocity and force, and they were accurate. You hear the word “repeatability” a lot in this camp circuit, and Hejny had great rep after great rep. He earned the top athletic rating when the camp was over.

Oh, there’s one more thing. Hejny is really, really fast. He runs a sub-11.00 second 100-meter dash. His personal record is 10.6 seconds. That’s flying.

Proud of @HaussHejny for defending his 🥇 District title in the 100 meter, 🥇 in the 4×200 and 🥉 in LJ after doing it for the first time since middle school! Track makes better football players! Congrats Aledo Bearcats!! District Champs! 🏆 Area here we come! @Aledo_Football… pic.twitter.com/B9KxvOG8mK

— JimAnne Hejny (@jimannehejny) April 14, 2023

“I’m not the most highly ranked quarterback in this country,” Henjy said. “There was a few guys up here that were in the top 10 in this class, and I feel like I did way better than them in some drills. I felt like I spinned the ball better and was more consistent than they were, so you know, it gave me a confidence boost and know that I can play at a high level.”

Hejny was born to go to TCU. His father, Jesse, played linebacker and defensive end for Gary Patterson. His mother, JimAnne, played basketball and ran track for the Horned Frogs. JimAnne held multiple high school track and field records and won countless gold medals.

“His mother is where the athleticism comes from,” Jesse said.

When Hejny was born, Jesse had just finished his TCU football career and JimAnne still had basketball and track and field eligibility left. When he was a kid, he lived at TCU sporting events and even hung around the football facility. Jesse will tell you how Hejny used to sit in Patterson’s office and eat peanut M&M’s.

After college, Jesse started a business in the oil and gas industry and appropriately named it Purple Land Management. He later sold it. But it was the TCU network that made it possible.

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“My first small business loan I got when I went into business for myself was from the guy who was the president of the lettermen’s association at TCU,” Jesse said. “He gave me a $250,000 loan and a $500,000 line of credit in less than 48 hours, unsecured. It’s TCU connections, right? Every other bank in town was laughing me out of there. TCU prides itself on the connection culture. We stay connected. We take care of each other, that’s a real thing. We are the living example of that. … We’re not here without TCU.”

But TCU didn’t seem like an option for Hejny for a while. His recruitment got off to a slow start, and spots were being filled all over the country, including with the Horned Frogs. TCU took an early commitment from Marcos Davila of Midland (Texas) High, who also attended the Elite 11 Regional in Austin. But when TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley left for Clemson, Davila decommitted and is now pledged to Purdue.

While all that was happening, Duke made Hejny its primary target. Hejny looked around the country but fell in love with Duke. He committed to Mike Elko and the Blue Devils. A few days after he issued that commitment, new TCU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles — who had built a relationship with Hejny while at Arkansas — showed up at his high school and watched him throw. A scholarship offer came the same day.

“Hauss came home and it was almost like he has seen a ghost,” Jesse said. “It took us a minute to process what had happened. We had already had our mind set that he was going to Duke.”

“We told him,” JimAnne interjected, “that just because TCU was right for mom and dad doesn’t mean it has to be right for him.”

But TCU was right for him. That’s where he wanted to be, not only because of the family history with the program, but also because he has a huge network of family and friends — some elderly — he wanted to play in front of at the next level. Soon after, he was officially a Horned Frog.

That doesn’t seem to be changing, either.

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Hejny was supposed to be at Clemson this weekend. The original plan was to skip the Elite 11 and see if he could earn a scholarship offer from the Tigers. Clemson offers only one quarterback at a time, and Dabo Swinney recently pursued four-star Prentiss “Air” Noland. But Noland committed to Ohio State, so Clemson turned to Hejny as its next quarterback target.

Hejny knows he could have visited Clemson this weekend and earned a scholarship. A jump in the recruiting rankings would likely have followed. As would more offers. Our perception of him as a prospect would have changed.

But he loves TCU.

“I know where I want to be,” Hejny said. “I’m still a high school kid, and I wanted to get this recruitment over. I want to go out and win another state championship with my friends. There’s nothing really left to explore.”

TCU’s recruiting class didn’t get a huge bump in the rankings from this commitment. But there is still plenty of time for Hejny to see his rating improve significantly. That’s entirely possible if (when?) Hejny is invited to the Elite 11 Finals and more people get to see his live arm in person.

Deep and talented crop of talented passers competed at Sunday's #Elite11 regional in Austin – here are the official Top 10 athletic ratings from the combine events 💪🦵💨 pic.twitter.com/6Jt7g5BLOb

— Elite11 (@Elite11) April 17, 2023

As much as TCU would like to land a five-star prospect at the quarterback position, is that what the Horned Frogs really need? They recently put Max Duggan in New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist and played in the national title game. Hejny has that type of upside with an athletic skill set that arguably gives him an even higher ceiling than Duggan.

“He looks like an old-school Olympian,” said quarterback guru George Whitfield Jr., who saw Hejny in person Sunday. “I went with his group to about three different stations to see if he’d keep standing out, and he did. He also puts the ball in a place that allows his receivers to make a play after catching it. He’s not just throwing through people. He’s putting the ball in that perfect spot.

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“Another thing,” Whitfield continued. “He is completely comfortable around the quarterbacks who have big offers. He’ll be like, ‘That’s a good throw,’ but he’s basically saying, ‘That’s a nice throw — now watch mine.’ He has that edge. It allows you to roll. (Former five-star quarterback Cade Klubnik) was like that. … People are going to talk about height, but your skill set is what makes your measurables. Just watch.”

Go on and watch, TCU fans. You got a special one.

(Photo: Ari Wasserman / The Athletic)

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