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For the longest time, the idea of a freshman starting at quarterback for BYU was just this side of unthinkable. LaVell Edwards took over as head coach in 1972, and it was 16 years until a greenhorn actually took the reins to start a game, and even then, in 1988, Ty Detmer had already benefited from a redshirt season.
The only first-year player to step under center in the Edwards era was Drew Miller, who as a true freshman straight out of high school, started exactly one game in 1997.
And that was it: in 29 seasons as head coach, LaVell Edwards started a non-redshirt freshman QB only once.
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The Gary Crowton era saw two freshmen starters--one a return missionary redshirt (Matt Berry), and the other a return missionary non-redshirt (John Beck). Berry and Beck combined for 10 starts as rookies.
Beck was a junior to start the Bronco Mendenhall era, and he was followed as starting QB by sophomore Max Hall, who had redshirted at Arizona State, served an LDS mission and then spent a year on the BYU scout team before starting his Cougar career.
Hall's departure ushered in BYU's two-quarterback system of 2010, which saw true freshman Jake Heaps break the mold and become he first right-out-high-school rookie to essentially carry the Cougars for an entire season. After Heaps and junior Riley Nelson split snaps for the first three games (with Nelson getting all three starts), Nelson's season ended due to injury, and Heaps then took over, starting the 2010 season's final ten games, and winning six.
Heaps set every BYU record for first-year signal-callers, but Mendenhall was unsettled with particular elements of Heaps' freshman campaign, implying that it would take special circumstances to ever put another rookie in charge of the BYU offense.
Those circumstances seem to have presented themselves, four games into the 2012 season.
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Senior starter Riley Nelson is dealing with a back injury that has significantly curtailed his ability to play the quarterback position in a way that essentially earned him the starter's nod in the first place.
Nelson's physical limitations have hampered his mobility and affected his throws. Prior to leaving the Weber State game with the back injury, Nelson had passed for 529 yards in a game-and-a-half of work, completing 66% of his attempts, for three touchdowns and a single interception.
In the ensuing two games, Nelson has thrown for 225 yards on a 48% completion rate, with two touchdowns and four picks. With Nelson working into the third quarter at Boise State, BYU put up its lowest passing yardage tally in the Mendenhall era. Nelson ended the evening with a -4.49 passer rating, an almost unfathomable number for a quarterback making anything more than a cameo appearance--let alone a BYU quarterback.
Having been elevated to primary backup in the week of the Boise State game, return missionary freshman Taysom Hill was called on to relieve Nelson, and he sparked the BYU offense.
Hill threw for only 42 yards on 4-of-10 passing, but led BYU on its lone touchdown drive, converting a key fourth down late in a series that Hill punctuated with his four-yard scoring run. Hill's 72 rushing yards on the night not only led all BYU players, but represented BYU's best single-game ground production in the last six games, dating back to J.J. DiLuigi's 75-yard rush effort against New Mexico State on Nov. 19, 2011.
A healthy Hill gave BYU a chance to win a game the Cougars would lose, 7-6, on a failed two-point conversion attempt with 3:37 remaining, but his performance begged the question: would having benched an injured and laboring Nelson for either the Utah or Boise State games in favor of an able-bodied Hill (or James Lark) given BYU a better chance to win either or both games?
On Monday of this week, when asked if he thinks that playing a different QB could have helped turned those two losses into wins, Mendenhall said simply "I don't, or I would have played someone else."
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As Friday night's home game with Hawai'i approaches, it appears more and more likely that playing someone else will be a necessity, as Nelson's injury situation has prevented him from practicing, with Hill getting all of this week's meaningful reps in preparation for Friday.
"I would list him as questionable for the (Hawai'i) game," said Mendenhall on his weekly KSL Radio show last night. "We'll wait 'til the very last second ...to give him an opportunity to play. I believe he's our starter, I believe he's our leader. He's one that our players elected as captain, and I want to do everything I can to give him that opportunity (to play)."
Mendenhall said that Nelson's shaky health status led to the decision to bump senior Lark from second- to third-string last week, as less of a judgment on Lark's skills and more of a situational assessment of which quarterback could best run the BYU playbook as currently drawn up.
"If (Nelson) were not able to go," Mendenhall said Wednesday night, "the one that fits most similar to his skill-set in the game plan would be Taysom Hill."
Mendenhall declined to anoint Hill the Friday night starter, but Hawai'i is undoubtedly preparing for the bigger, faster freshman. That said, the coach refused to rule Nelson out, adding that "I don't ever doubt what he's capable of, or how he might come back...it's just easier for me to say, 'we'll leave him as questionable.'"
"We'll give him every chance (to play on Friday), and if he can't go, that's simply because he couldn't go."
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If Nelson can't go, and Hill, as anticipated, gets his first career start, BYU will for the second time in three seasons be turning the wheel over to a freshman. While Hill is older and more mature than Heaps, Hill's last start came as senior at Pocatello's Highland High School, in 2008--almost four years ago.
Hill's personality is that of a natural leader, and he has the athletic traits to match his moxie. One of the fastest players on the team, he earned off-season raves for his conditioning and work ethic. His 6'2", 218-pound frame allows to deliver a hit as much as he can take one, and his TD at Boise State was notable for the fact he took on tacklers at the two-yard lie and dragged them into the end zone. Acknowledging that he was "banged up" in the game, mobility is very much a part of the Taysom Hill package, and his playmaking penchant will be on display with Hill on the run.
As a thrower, Hill's performance at Boise State was mediocre; he threw some low balls that needed a higher trajectory, and although he possesses a strong enough arm, that strength will need to be more nuanced at times. There is little doubt, however, that he possesses all the skills necessary to be a big-time quarterback at this level--the kinds of skills that got him signed by Stanford.
Hill's time at BYU wasn't expected to truly arrive until the 2013 season--a season featuring the toughest schedule of the Mendenhall era, and perhaps the most difficult slate in BYU Football history.
Indeed, one of the prevailing questions leading into the 2012 campaign was whether it would be beneficial to get Hill meaningful snaps this season, to help prepare him and BYU for the challenges to come next year. With Hill already 21 years of age, a redshirt season was hardly considered, and coaches put the rookie to work from the get-go, using him as a "package" quarterback. In his first collegiate game, Hill threw a fourth-down TD pass against Washington State, and was used for a handful of plays in every game since.
Hill was getting his feet wet, but now, with Nelson down and (maybe) out, the Idaho native may be tossed into the deep end of the pool. There will likely come some frantic treading of water before his strokes get more confident, but Hill appears to have what it takes to navigate the suddenly-choppy waters of the current campaign.
Whether or not Hill has a breakout game against the Warriors, the Cougars will play out the 2012 season with the 2013 slate never too far from the contextual surface. BYU's hopes of a "special season" were scuttled in the last two weeks, so the current quest is for bowl eligibility, another winning season, and although an unlikely prospect today, another double-digit win effort. Worthy stakes, to be sure, but the seeds of next season's successes will also be sown in the weeks to come.
I am confident Mendenhall will give Nelson every benefit of the doubt as he tries to work his way back to game readiness. Unless Nelson's injury situation worsens, I expect he will see the field again this season. But regardless of how it came about, BYU's "quarterback of the future" has been thrust into the pressure of the present, and like Detmer, Miller, Berry, Beck and Heaps before him, Taysom Hill is now poised to take his turn as the latest "kid" to get the call.
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Photo courtesy: Ravell Call, Deseret News
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