Sure, why not?
At first, Jake seems like a regular guy, with no outstanding abilities. Rachel is brave, Cassie has strong morals, Marco is a strategist, and Tobias...I'm not sure.
Leadership is a great burden to bare, and he didn't ask for it. Sometimes it makes me wonder how things would have gone if there wasn't a designated leader. Everyone in the group is connected to him in some way. His best friend, his girlfriend, his cousin, and his admirer. Kind of funny how when the Ellemist practicaly confesses to stacking the deck, this isn't mentioned at all. Like Rachel, he seems to be just a pleasant addition to the important members of the group.
Eventually he gets more and more used to being a leader. At some point he also starts studying up on historical leaders. In the end, he is one of the two most suffering survivors of the war. His cousin and brother are dead, Cassie left him, and he alienates Tobias (or the other way around).