Ex-QB’s switch a Hail Mary
When Jacob Huesman took the field for all those snaps in all those college games, he had one prime directive when it came to any and every linebacker: “I was trying to get away from him,” Huesman said. And now, with the Giants? “Now I have to run right down the pipe,” he said. It has not ta ken Huesman long to realize the football world he knew and thrived in no longer exists, the glitz of his days starring at quarterback replaced by the grind of the grunt life of a fullback.
“It does take a different kind of guy to want to run full speed at another human being and hit him as hard as you can ,” Huesman told The Post on Monday after training camp practice inside the Giants’ field house.
As he spoke way off to the side, Eli Manning was up at the podium, surrounded and the center of attention, as per usual. Not long ago, that was Huesman, always in the spotlight as the four-year starting quarterback at Tennessee-Chattanooga. He threw it and he ran it, operating the Mocs’ high-octane spread offense and when the numbers finished tumbling he had amassed 8,197 passing yards, 64 touchdown passes, 4,051 rushing yards and 43 rushing touchdowns.
“I do miss the quarterback days a little bit,” Huesman said, “but I’m happy to be here, whatever they want me to do.”
What the Giants want him to do is develop into a punishing lead blocker, which is diametrically opposed to his training. Of course, Huesman wanted to give it a go at quarterback in the NFL but it was not going to happen. He threw at his Pro Day but was not selected in the 2015 NFL Draft. He had try outs with the Steelers and Titans. He had a brief stint with Saskatchewan of the Canadian Football League. Eventually, his future at quarterback dried up and his agent told him it was time for a position change if he wanted to keep alive his dream of playing in the NFL.
Huesman figured he should pick up long-snapping and the weight he needed to gain would work in concert with a move to fullback.
“Somebody gave me a look at it and I’m forever grateful,” he said. “The New York Giants are that somebody.”
After playing his senior year at 6-foot-1 and 225 pounds, Huesman bulked up to 240 and last December, after a workout with the Giants, was signed to the practice squad. He weighed in this week at 235, too light, he knows, for his new position, and, nodding in the direction of the team cafeteria after practice, promised, “I’m about to go in there and hammer some lunch.”
There are plenty of roadblocks ahead. There is a brand-new position to learn and no guarantee the Giants will even include that position on their final roster.
In Monday’s two- minute drill, Huesman got some snaps with the third offensive group and looked smooth hauling in a fourth-down pass from Geno Smith to pick up a first down.
“We put him in there and he transitioned nicely,” McAdoo said. “So, he can pick up some of the running-back stuff, the single-back stuff. He can be in a fullback-type because he’s played quarterback. I think he gets the game from that standpoint.”
Every day after practice, Huesman works on his long-snapping with special teams coach Tom Quinn, applying the “more you can do” rule to his quest to latch onto the roster in any way he can. He says he never picks up the football and throws it like a quarterback, not anymore.
“I’m happy to be here, man,” he said. “It would be very selfish of me to sit here and complain and say ‘I wish I was playing quarterback here, I feel like I’m good enough to play quarterback.’ I’m not gonna do that. I’m very grateful to be here doing whatever the New York Giants want me to do.”