BYU football: Is Joe Critchlow the Cougars’ new starting quarterback?

There seems to be only two reasons that Joe Critchlow would have played against Boise State, and the most likely is that he is now BYU football’s starting QB.

Being down 24-7 late in the fourth quarter, BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Ty Detmer decided to put in redshirt freshmen Joe Critchlow. The second that he entered the game, he immediately lost his redshirt status.

Coach Sitake said that they replaced Mangum “to provide a spark.” However, being down 24-7 with less than three minutes to go, and with Austin Kafentzis and Koy Detmer Jr. able to enter the game, the coaches put Joe Critchlow in.

Instead of being able to have four years of eligibility after this season, Critchlow now only has three more seasons.  There are only two reasons for this, and it probably isn’t the first one.

The unlikely reason

One possible reason of the coaches doing this is because maybe Critchlow didn’t want to redshirt. After all, Tanner Mangum did that last year when he entered the game against Michigan State.

He said on Twitter, “And to everyone freaking out about me “burning” my redshirt… There was never a plan for me to redshirt! I’m already 23!”

Is it possible that Critchlow felt the same way? Sure. But Sitake had already said he’d hoped to keep redshirts on both Critchlow and Kody Wilstead.

The likely reason

I understand pulling Tanner Mangum from the game on the last possession. He was limping, struggling and the team was out of the game.

But if Critchlow’s redshirt was so important, then why not put in Kafentzis or Detmer Jr.? Put in Mo Langi if you have to. Do anything you can before you have to burn a redshirt player, especially for the last 2:17 of the game.

Unless…

Joe Critchlow is going to be BYU football’s starting quarterback from here on out.

There is absolutely no other logical reason to do it. None. What good is it to burn a redshirt in the last 2:17 of an already decided game just to put Mangum as the starting quarterback again next week?

Perhaps one could argue that now Critchlow is the backup quarterback. Again, if that is the case, why burn the redshirt in this game? Why not hold on to it until he is really needed in a game? (And perhaps never need to use it).

I would understand it if Mangum went down in the second quarter and the coaches deciding that Critchlow needed to burn his redshirt as to give the Cougars their best chance to win, however not at the end of a already decided game.

There have been some questionable calls by the coaching staff since Kalani Sitake took over, however this would be the most questionable if Critchlow is not now the starter.

The only potential caveat might be if Mangum’s ankle was in worse shape than we thought, and he’s heading back to the bench to recover.

The Cougars are officially in rebuilding

Last week, I wrote about how the Cougars should start to rebuild for the future.  I think that Sitake is officially doing that now.

I believe that in the coming weeks, Cougar fans will see more and more freshmen and sophomores in the game to get game experience.

By taking Tanner Mangum out and putting Joe Critchlow in, Coach Sitake is officially looking forward to the future.

The only question now is, how good is Joe Critchlow?