Appreciating Tanner Mangum: QB's football journey comes full circle in Potato Bowl win


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BOISE — BYU quarterbacks completed 19-of-19 passes Friday afternoon in a 49-18 win over Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

You’ve already read about 18 of them, completed by freshman phenom Zach Wilson, who tied a BYU bowl-game record with four touchdown passes and set himself up for three more years (potentially) as the starting quarterback.

There’s a lot to unpack on Wilson’s performance, as has been illustrated here and here.

But what about that other pass?

Every player has a story, and every play has its own role in shaping that story.

But the story behind the last pass of BYU’s 2018 season, completed by a former starting quarterback playing his finale series set of downs with the Cougars, thrown to a wide receiver whose career began and ended in Provo but took a detour from Virginia to the Hawaiian Islands, is the focus of this story.

Because not all passes end up complete. Not all quarterbacks go down in hall-of-fame infamy.

BYU quarterbacks Zach Wilson and Tanner Mangum as BYU defeats Western Michigan 49-18 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho Friday, December 21, 2018. (Photo: Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)
BYU quarterbacks Zach Wilson and Tanner Mangum as BYU defeats Western Michigan 49-18 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho Friday, December 21, 2018. (Photo: Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)

Not all players get remembered.

But if anyone deserves to be remembered for his BYU career, it’s Tanner Mangum.

From backup to starter and back to backup quarterback again, to call Mangum’s career a roller coaster is not only cliche — it’s disingenuous and a little unfair to a player who meant so much to the program in his six years since that fateful National Signing Day.

Mangum has been called a lot of things, mostly on internet message boards, on Twitter, and by the University of Utah’s sports information department, who insisted that his name was “Tyler Mangum” in the Cougar seniors’ final rivalry game last month.

But Mangum was never a bad teammate.

“All I know is that I gave it my all,” Mangum said. “Throughout my time here at BYU, I gave it my whole heart and soul.

“It wasn’t perfect, and that’s OK. That’s life. But I can say I gave it my all, and I’m happy for that.”

***

Tanner Mangum entered the game midway through the fourth quarter, with BYU holding a 42-18 lead over Western Michigan after Wilson had spurred a 28-0 run through the third quarter.

The freshman had just thrown for a perfect game, 18-of-18 for 317 yards and four touchdowns — but you wouldn’t know it by asking him (even if Dylan Collie argued to the contrary during the postgame press conference).

“To be completely honest, I actually had no idea until they told me I was done playing,” Wilson said. “When they told me they were going to put Tanner in and give him the rest of the game, honestly it was kind of surprising.

“The game flashes by so quick. I was way off; I thought I had at least six or seven (incompletions), to be honest. I didn’t realize it was that low.”

Then he turned to Collie, and motioned at home while signaling to the rest of his receivers.

“But these guys, that’s really where everything falls,” Wilson added.

So now it was Mangum’s turn.

“I think it's only right,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said of the moment. “We still felt comfortable with the game and I felt comfortable with our scheme and the things that our guys are doing fundamentally on the football field.

“Yeah, it just felt right.”

Accustomed to last-minute snaps in blowout games in now his second season as a backup quarterback (he also sat behind former starter Taysom Hill during the current New Orleans Saints special teams star’s senior year), Mangum knew what he had to do.

Hold on to the football. Avoid turnovers. Run the ball. Manage the game.

Mangum’s first drive started with five-straight run plays, including a 10-yard rush by Riley Burt that helped the junior tailback finish with 110 yards and a touchdown.

But how about one last throw? Maybe Mangum could let it rip, for old time’s sake, on the royal blue artificial turf where his football career began, more than a decade ago as an 8-year-old Little Leaguer.

Sitake wasn’t so sure; the game was already well in hand. But his offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes and passing game coordinator Aaron Roderick assured the third-year head coach that such a move wouldn’t be a sign of showboating or poor sportsmanship against the Broncos or coach Tim Lester.

So Sitake told Mangum to let it fly.

“That was kind of the theme of the night. We let him throw,” said Sitake, who offered a brief apology and explanation to Lester at midfield after the game. “Yeah, I thought it was the right thing to do, even though we had a little conflict on whether to throw it or not.

Then he deadpanned, in a way few like Sitake can: “But if it was incomplete, then I would have been really upset.”

Dylan Collie catches a 47-yard pass from Tanner Mangum as BYU defeats Western Michigan 49-18 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho Friday, December 21, 2018. (Photo: Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)
Dylan Collie catches a 47-yard pass from Tanner Mangum as BYU defeats Western Michigan 49-18 at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho Friday, December 21, 2018. (Photo: Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)

What that moment created was a memory that lasted a lifetime.

Collie broke for the corner of the end zone, sprinting at the goal line while Mangum wound up his arm. The two seniors’ career paths intersected for a brief moment — Mangum, as an Eagle, Idaho, native who was six years removed from signing with BYU and leaving home, and Collie, the younger brother of BYU’s all-time leading receiver who transferred to Hawaii after his freshman year on the Cougar scout team.

Then, the catch.

Collie came down with the ball and rolled toward the pylon, stretching every bit of his 5-foot-10, 180-pound frame in an attempt to break the plane.

But the play was ruled down inside the 1-yard line, a 41-yard play ending with a tackle by Western Michigan’s Curtis Anton at the goal line.

“As soon as I came off the field, I had to look at everybody,” Collie said later. “They were asking why, and I felt pretty bad. But we always want a little more.”

Another senior, fullback Brayden El-Bakri, crossed the goal line on the next play, a 1-yard rumble up the middle that gave the Cougars a 49-18 lead.

And on Mangum’s final drive, he let Burt ran for a 27-yard first down that pushed the junior tailback over the century mark for the first time in his career, then quietly knelt on the ball.

Just like that, the Tanner Mangum Era was over at BYU.

“I was glad to get out there and just throw one last pass,” Mangum said. “It was too bad he couldn’t get one more yard and have a touchdown. But Dylan had a great game, he ran a great route, and it was just fun.

“As a whole, this game was fun. For us to come out and finish the season how we did, I was really happy with our effort and how we finished. To be able to play a part in that was fun, and I’m glad I could finish my career off like that.”

In many ways, deferring to his teammates embodies the legacy of Mangum, as well. After replacing Hill following a dramatic injury against Nebraska, Mangum deferred to the then-senior during his final season, and lost his own starting spot to injury a year ago at a time when Beau Hoge, Koy Detmer Jr., Austin Kafentzis and Joe Critchlow all saw time as his replacement.

“To put on the Cougar blue and to do that was special,” Mangum admitted. “There have been some lows, too, but both the highs and the lows have taught me a lot about myself.”

***

Friday’s final go was a tribute to Mangum’s career.

The senior finishes his time at BYU having thrown for 6,262 yards and 39 touchdowns. But his best season, by far, was his freshman year in 2015 when Mangum completed 60 percent of his passes for 3,377 yards and 23 touchdowns en route to Freshman of the Year honors by the Touchdown Club of Columbus. It was also the only season where he played in all 13 games, including 12 starts.

Yes, in many ways, Mangum’s career has played out in Benjamin Button-style fashion: in reverse.

But it all came full circle with that one pass to Collie on the blue turf in Boise.

Mangum played his first football at Albertsons Stadium, when he was invited to with his 8-year-old pee wee team to play a halftime game for the Broncos in front of friends and family.

That his college career ended in the same spot, then, is serendipitous, if nothing more.

“Just thinking about that is weird, how it’s come full circle,” Mangum said with a shrug. “My first game was here, and now my last college game was here, on this blue turf. I have many good memories on this turf, and that was one of them. I’m glad I could get one more on this field.”

It’s been a wild ride for Mangum, the hero of the Hail Mary, the embattled quarterback star who rose, then fell, then rose up again in his time at BYU. He’s been named a quarterback hero in Provo, a goat for the team’s worst losing season since the ’70s a year ago, and a byword and speakeasy in certain corners of campus.

But through it all, Mangum has been a great teammate and a classy individual, never taking himself too seriously, humbly accepting compliments, and letting criticism roll off his back like a wet duck.

He’s also been BYU, through-and-through.

Mangum graduated last April with a degree in sociology, but returned for his senior year of eligibility. His younger sister Abby is a redshirt freshman forward on the women’s basketball team. Even his parents are BYU grads, each with an undergraduate and a master’s degree from the university. They were among those celebrating the loudest when Mitch Mathews’ catch over the goal line at Memorial Stadium was ruled good, even while watching hundreds of miles away in Pocatello, Idaho, supporting another son, Madison, during his senior year at Idaho State.

Mangum credits his family for helping him stay grounded, even when times were tough — with injuries, with losing quarterback battles, with benchings. His family taught him that the only truly debilitating injury is a bad attitude, and he was going to make the most of his career with what he could control.

“As a leader, as a team captain, it was up to me to set an example,” Mangum said. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just a leader when I was playing well, but I wanted to be a leader in good times and bad.”

***

BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum (12) warms up as BYU and Hawaii prepare to play at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum (12) warms up as BYU and Hawaii prepare to play at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (Photo: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)

Mangum started the season as the starting quarterback, ready to ride out his senior year with a go-big-or-go-home attitude. After a 3-1 start that included a road win over then-No. 6 Wisconsin, it seemed like the BYU sociology graduate was doing just that. The momentum behind the program, newly ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2015, brought memories of BYU’s last great start — behind a then-freshman Mangum and Hail Mary wins over Nebraska and Boise State.

But similar to 2014, the wheels fell off.

Back-to-back losses to Washington and Utah State forced a quarterback change, and Wilson — the freshman signal caller just a few months removed from his senior season at Corner Canyon — heard his number called.

Wilson performed admirably in his first year of collegiate experience; he finished with 1,578 passing yards and 12 touchdowns with three interceptions. He also ran for 221 yards and two scores.

But Mangum’s role on the team was altered since losing the starting job after a 45-20 loss to in-state rival Utah State, which went on to tie a program record with 11 wins and a New Mexico Bowl berth. Wilson won his first start, 49-23 against Hawai’i, and the teenager kept a hold on the position — even through narrow losses to Northern Illinois and Boise State in ensuing weeks.

No longer the starting quarterback at BYU, Mangum fell off the radar, relegated to backup minutes and mop-up time, something of an afterthought in the overall experience of Cougar football in 2018, if nowhere else than in the relative ambiguity he now enjoys around campus — a footnote in his senior season.

Those who know and have met Mangum won’t forget him soon. That includes a TV reporter and a handful of producers who drove from Salt Lake City to Boise overnight in 2012 to meet the Elite 11 co-MVP who had just committed to play for the Cougars.

It includes a writer who sat down with Mangum for 45 minutes after the BYU signal caller opened up about his struggles with depression and anxiety, trying to shine a light and be a beacon in a world that so often feels like it has none.

It includes a coach who inherited him as a former-starter/now-backup quarterback in his first Division I head coaching responsibility.

And it includes every teammates and player who has gotten to know Mangum, both on offense and defense, during the 21 wins, 13 losses in his four years with the program — including a 5-3 record in games he played in during his senior year.

Likewise, Mangum will never forget BYU.

“The lessons that I’ve learned are things that will stick with me throughout the rest of my life,” he said. “I look back on who I was during that interview in 2012 and who I am now — I’m a different man.

“I’ve learned a lot and I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve had at BYU, and how they have shaped me for the better. It’s set me up for a promising life.”

Contributing: Rod Zundel, Hema Heimuli Jr.

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