BYU Football: Zach Wilson will get his first start against Hawaii

The Salt Lake Tribune’s Jay Drew has reported that freshman Zach Wilson will replace Tanner Mangum at starting quarterback against Hawaii this weekend.

For better or worse, the change is coming.

According to Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune, freshman Zach Wilson will get his first start for BYU Football when they face off against Hawaii on Friday night.

Drew reported that the freshman quarterback will replace Tanner Mangum at starter unless something drastic happens between now and kickoff.

If Wilson does get the starting nod, he’ll be the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the Cougars since…Tanner Mangum.

Wilson took over as signal caller for BYU during their last drive against Utah State. He led the Cougars in their most impressive drive of the night, culminating in a touchdown pass to fellow freshman Gunner Romney.

That was the second game in which Wilson saw action. His first collegiate snaps came against McNeese State.

He’s been impressive statistically in his limited time on the field. He’s completed four of his six passes for 64 yards and a touchdown, and he’s run the ball four times for 26 yards.

He’s sporting a pass efficiency rating of 211.3, although once against that’s in a very small sample size.

Mangum has been steady but unspectacular so far this season. He’s completed 61.5% of his passes for 1,042 yards, with five touchdown passes and three interceptions. His pass efficiency sits at 115.4.

As Lawless Republic pointed out on Wednesday, now is the ideal time to make that change. Wilson will face Hawaii’s relatively soft defense, then have two entire weeks with the first team in practice due to next week’s bye.

During the last weekend in October he’ll get another relatively easy matchup against Northern Illinois before he faces Boise State, the team he’d originally committed to.

So he’s got four weeks to learn on the job before the first major test of his career.