Jake Heimlicher (born October 5, 1999) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

. He was most recently a member of the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) (Canadian French, French: ) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

(CFL). He played college football at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and Penn.

Early life

Heimlicher grew up in

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe, Adams County, Colorado, Adams, and Douglas County, Colorado, Douglas List of counties in Colorado, counti ...

and attended

Regis Jesuit High School Regis Jesuit High School is a private, Catholic, college preparatory high school administered by the Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus in Aurora, Colorado. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1877. The high school shares much of ...

. During high school, he achieved a state leading record of .22 sacks. He committed to play college football at Penn over offers from Air Force, Brown, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana State, Northern Colorado, Princeton and Wyoming.

College career

Penn

During Heimlicher's true freshman season in 2018, he only appeared in one game which was against

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

. During the 2019 season, he appeared in all 10 games as a linebacker and finished the season with 14 tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss and 1.0 sacks. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

canceled fall sports for the 2020 season. During the 2021 season, he appeared and started in all 10 games while on the defensive line and finished the season with 51 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hurries. During the 2022 season, he appeared in all 10 games and was the co-captain of the team. He finished the season with 47 tackles with 28 solos, nine sacks and 13.0 tackles for a loss of 51 yards. He was named the

Buck Buchanan Award The Buck Buchanan Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding defensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football, and was first given in 1995 after the Walter Payton Award was ...

finalist and the FCS Defensive Player of the Year. On November 22, 2022, Heimlicher announced that he would be entering the transfer portal. On November 29, 2022, he announced that he would be transferring to

UCLA

Heimlicher enrolled early in January 2023 and participated in the spring training. He made his debut as a Bruin in the Week 1 game against Coastal Carolina.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2024 NFL draft The 2024 NFL draft was the 89th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft was held at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza in Detroit on April 25–27, 2024. The draft had an attendanc ...

, Heimlicher joined the

' practice roster on October 8, 2024. He was part of the final training camp cuts on May 31, 2025.

References

External links

Penn Quakers bio

UCLA Bruins bio

Ottawa Redblacks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heimlicher, Jake 1999 births Living people American football defensive ends Players of American football from Aurora, Colorado Regis Jesuit High School alumni UCLA Bruins football players Penn Quakers football players Canadian football defensive linemen Ottawa Redblacks players Players of Canadian football from Colorado