BYU Football: The pros and cons of Mangum and Wilson

It is that time of the year in college football when everything is blown out of proportion. BYU’s quarterback battle is a perfect example.

We two weeks away from the opening kickoff for BYU Football. We have endured the long offseason and made it to what really matters.

Actual football games.

But since there are still a few weeks until the games start, fans like to get caught up in all of the storylines and make them bigger than they really should be. BYU’s quarterback battle is one of storylines that is dominating the preseason discussion.

As fans, we can argue all day why Wilson should be the starter or why Mangum will be the starter, but guess what?

That isn’t our call.

It’s still fun though. And because it’s fun, here is a full breakdown as to why each quarterback should or shouldn’t get the start against Arizona.

These decisions are being considered as if they’re actually neck to neck in talent. This is also based on who should start against Arizona, not play later in the season.

Experience

Winner: Tanner Mangum

This is probably the easiest to explain, and is the most talked about by fans who want to see Mangum get the start. Mangum has played in 25 games in his career. Nine of those games were against Power Five teams.

This time last year, Zach Wilson was picking up his class schedule for his senior year of high school. For that reason alone, Mangum clearly wins the experience battle.

Potential

Winner: Zach Wilson

Wilson is a true freshman. Tanner Mangum is a senior. This is the other side of the experience argument. Zach Wilson has four years to develop his game and hopefully become one of the BYU quarterback greats.

A really good way to do this is to let him start now and let him develop as a player. ESPN’s FPI and just about every other preseason projection have BYU winning 4-6 games, so why not play Wilson and let that potential have a better chance to flourish this year and for the next few seasons?