BYU football: Scouting Cougar quarterback Beau Hoge

 It’s looking more and more likely that BYU football will be without Tanner Mangum on Saturday against Wisconsin. The next man up? Beau Hoge.

BYU football hasn’t been good on offense this year. Unfortunately, against a stingy Wisconsin defense, things didn’t look good even with Tanner Mangum under center.

But, the more the coaches talk, the more it seems like BYU football won’t have Mangum on Saturday.

Instead, it seems that backup signal caller Beau Hoge will get the start.

So here’s what we know (spoiler alert: it isn’t much) about Hoge.

Firstly, we’ll get the easy stuff out of the way.

Beau is the son of Merrill Hoge – a current ESPN analyst and former NFL running back. He’s also the cousin of BYU football offensive lineman Tristen Hoge – who is redshirting the 2017 campaign.

When it comes to on-the-field analysis, we don’t have much to go off.

Hoge played in three games during the 2015 season and redshirted last year. In limited time/mop-up duty, Hoge completed 10-of-17 passes for 137 yards (8.1 yards per attempt) with one touchdown and one interception. He also took 16 carries for 49 yards and two touchdowns.

The three opponents Hoge played against were East Carolina, Wagner and Fresno State. Against ECU, he was unexpectedly thrown in for two series when Mangum was dealing with an injury. He completed just one pass and threw an interception.

Wagner and Fresno State went much better, but Hoge did the vast majority of his damage against the Seahawks.

Hoge completed eight passes for 117 yards and a touchdown against Wagner, adding 47 rushing yards and two scores.

It wasn’t exactly the best competition, but it did highlight his athleticism – something that really made him stand out in high school.

At Highlands High School (KY), Hoge played wide receiver for three seasons before switching to quarterback as a senior.

In one year, Hoge threw for 3,459 yards and 35 touchdowns while adding 865 yards and 26 touchdowns on the ground.

Need more? Check out this circus run where Hoge okey-dokes an entire team.

Hoge also looked pretty good during fall camp. But at this point, there were plenty of players who looked good in practice that aren’t totally panning out right now.

Ty Detmer said earlier in the week that Hoge doesn’t get much run in practice, which is typical of a backup QB, but doesn’t really inspire much confidence for Saturday’s game with No. 10 Wisconsin.

Still, his mobility adds a dimension to his game that Mangum didn’t have. And there’s a chance that Hoge plays loose because most BYU football fans have already written this game off as a loss.

We’ll see what happens on Saturday.