BYU football: Comparing Beau Hoge’s first start to other Cougar QBs
BYU football’s Beau Hoge made his first career start last week against the No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers. His inexperience showed frequently, but how did his day stack up to others?
BYU football’s struggles on offense are well documented. The Cougars have just four touchdowns through four games, and rank either towards or at the bottom of every significant offensive statistic.
But now the Cougars have a bye week, giving them an extra week to get healthy and rally around Beau Hoge before heading north to take on Utah State.
At this point it’s unclear whether or not Tanner Mangum will be ready to play against the Aggies, but judging from the way he looked last week, I’m going to assume he’s going to miss a few more weeks.
Which means it’s time to believe in Beau.
It’s easy to be frustrated with the Cougar offense – but it really wasn’t all bad. Granted, we’re talking about moral victories and little things, but that’s what we have to do at this point.
So let’s take a look at how Hoge’s first start for BYU football stacked up with other Cougar quarterbacks over the last 10 seasons.
Beau Hoge vs No. 10 Wisconsin, 2017
11-of-20, 111 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT
6 carries, -10 yards, -1.7 YPC
Result: 40-6 loss
Hoge was thrown to the wolves last Saturday against Wisconsin. The Badgers are a stout defense and Hoge’s inexperience led the Badgers to stack the box and stop the run. The loss was a tough one, but it was also expected.
Tanner Mangum vs No. 20 Boise State, 2015
17-of-28, 309 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT
11 carries, -49 yards, -4.5 YPC, 1 TD
Result: 35-24 win
After throwing the Hail Mary to knock off Nebraska in 2015, Mangum got his first start against a ranked Boise State team. Mangum threw another Hail Mary in this game, but didn’t look perfect. Half of his yards came off of two completions, but he did enough to get the win for BYU football.
Christian Stewart at UCF, 2014
22-of-37, 153 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT
13 carries, 52 yards, 4 YPC
Result: 31-24 loss in OT
BYU football had a 24-10 lead at the nine-minute mark of the third quarter, then the Cougars never scored again. Stewart was fine, totaling 205 yards and three touchdowns. He was given a lot of safe throws, set up by the rushing attack. Still, a loss is a loss (even if there were some questionable calls from the referees).
James Lark at New Mexico State, 2012
34-of-50, 384 yards, 6 TD
5 carries, 1 yard, 0.2 YPC
Result: 50-14 win
This is the gold standard of backup quarterback starts. Lark carved up New Mexico State for six touchdown passes and BYU football rolled. Sure, the competition wasn’t top notch, but you can’t deny all those points. Lark looked great (granted, having Cody Hoffman as your No. 1 receiver helps in that department) and took command of the offense.
Taysom Hill vs Hawaii, 2012
12-of-21, 112 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
15 carries, 141 yards, 9.4 YPC, 1 TD
Result: 47-0 win
Taysom Hill only needed one start to show BYU football fans his freakish athleticism. Hill dashed Hawaii, looking particularly spry on a 68-yard touchdown run. Hawaii was nothing to write home about – but Hill looked incredible. Unfortunately, he’d be injured the next week against Utah State.
Jake Heaps vs Nevada, 2010
24-of-45, 229 yards
3 carries, -2 yards -0.7 YPC
Result: 27-13 loss
BYU football couldn’t stop Nevada’s running game, leading to a disappointing loss to Colin Kaepernick and Nevada. Heaps averaged just 5.1 yards per attempt and completed 53 percent of his passes. But, he was just a true freshman.
Next: Three Things We Learned From Wisconsin
Riley Nelson vs Washington, 2010
11-of-17, 131 yards, 2 TD
8 carries, 45 yards, 5.6 YPC
Result: 23-17 win
Nelson split reps with Heaps in this game, but the lefty was far more effective than the highly-touted recruit. Doing with his arm and his legs, Nelson led BYU football to a win over the Washington Huskies to open the 2010 season.
Max Hall vs Arizona, 2007
26-of-39, 288 yards, 2 TD
4 carries, 4 yards, 1 YPC
Result: 20-7 win
We all know how good Max Hall was for BYU football. His 32 wins as a starter will be an incredibly tough mark to break and his grit and toughness will be remembered for a long time. But in 2007, no one was exactly sure just how good Hall was. He proved to all of Cougar Nation in week one of 2007 that he was legit, knocking off the Arizona Wildcats.
The Takeaway
I think the first takeaway from this list isn’t what Hoge did or didn’t do last week. But rather it’s the fact that BYU football has had eight different quarterbacks make their first career start over the last 10 seasons.
You could even expand that number to 13 different quarterbacks (making their first start) over the last 17 seasons.
That just shows that there’s been a lot of inconsistency under center in Provo. Some of this was due to injury, some was due to overall ineptness at the position. Some was just plain bad luck.
In terms of Hoge’s start, I thought he showed a lively arm and shiftiness in the pocket and on the run. He also showed his inexperience, especially taking a safety on a bone-headed play. But he hadn’t taken a snap in a live game since 2015, so I fully expected mistakes.
With an extra week to get him ready, I think Hoge can be a capable fill-in until Mangum is ready to return.
But only time will tell.