Zack Wilson

Zack Wilson did good against a weak defense, but his over all numbers aren't any better than Mangum's who had 2 games where he passed for 198 and 196 yards. Granted there is only few yards different between them and Wilson's game against Hawaii. Both of Mangum's games came against much better defenses than Hawaii. It is obvious that Wilson is the future BYU QB and will only get better. But until he plays this way against a good defense like Washington's or Wisconsin's it is hard to say if he is good or it is just the defense he played against.

TheDean wrote:

Zack Wilson did good against a weak defense, but his over all numbers aren't any better than Mangum's who had 2 games where he passed for 198 and 196 yards. Granted there is only few yards different between them and Wilson's game against Hawaii. Both of Mangum's games came against much better defenses than Hawaii. It is obvious that Wilson is the future BYU QB and will only get better. But until he plays this way against a good defense like Washington's or Wisconsin's it is hard to say if he is good or it is just the defense he played against.

He's going to get that chance against the utes at the end of the season. Hopefully he plays well and we get the win.

The kid has a lot of poise for a true freshman. Is a better passer than Mangum and can run when needed.



Yes, we were playing Hawaii. The team also came with a motivation that we hadn't seen the last two games.



We'll get a better idea of where Wilson is against Boise State and Utah.

In his first game, Wilson led us to the most scoring we’ve seen since Taysom left.



There is reason be excited even if the jury is still out.

It was nice to see a qb who actually came off his primary target and made a completion to his 2nd or 3rd target. It was nice to see a qb who hit his receivers in stride not behind them or at there feet or above there head. The RPO kept Hawaii guessing. I know Hawaii has a horrible defense but Wilson looked good and has a great throwing motion he doesn't look like he is throwing a javelin. Also of course the passingg yards weren't that statically much better the Tanners but they ran for 280 yards! Your not going to pass for 250-300 yards when you rush for 280.



Hopefully with no game this week and then NUI he can get the needed reps and experience to go in and show Boise State they really lost out on a great qb.

It's probably just because I have glory day memories and long for the good old days, but Wilson's dropback and body language reminded me a lot of Jim McMahon.

jadesroom wrote:

It's probably just because I have glory day memories and long for the good old days, but Wilson's dropback and body language reminded me a lot of Jim McMahon.

I thought the same thing on his first long throw when he overthrew the receiver. I thought, “That looked like Jim McMahon.” That would be great if Wilson had a similar career.

He throws a pretty ball, and seems to have a good measure of the game (game clock, etc). With that said, he has a lot to learn, with some growing pains. He is very locked on to his first receiver, and doesn't have a ton of poise in the pocket, opting to run.



I'm still not sure that playing him right now is the right call. He isn't the deciding factor (over Tanner) between winning and losing any of these games. You don't just want game experience, you want good game experience. If he settles into bad habits early on that could be very bad.



I hope he and the Cougs continue to do well, and build up for a tough couple games at the end.

We would have won yesterday with Magnum in there. Yes, Wilson looked good, but we won that game on the ground. Fine, the oline played more aggressively and Wilson was a "spark," but it shouldn't require benching your senior QB that led you past Wisc to light a fire within the team.



Mangum took one on the chin for Sitake. Sitake owes him dinner.

Gunk wrote:

We would have won yesterday with Magnum in there. Yes, Wilson looked good, but we won that game on the ground. Fine, the oline played more aggressively and Wilson was a "spark," but it shouldn't require benching your senior QB that led you past Wisc to light a fire within the team.



Mangum took one on the chin for Sitake. Sitake owes him dinner.

Couldn't agree more! Except that Sitake owes him a heck of a lot more than dinner. I've been very unhappy with how Mangum has been treated through all this. TM carried us through the meat of our schedule. Then when ZW comes in and goes against a weak team and gets stats remarkably similar to TM's against the prior 6 teams (including the meat of the schedule) people hail ZW as some great player.



Sitake made TM a scapegoat. That is really unfair to TM. But it is also Sitake's MO (remember what he did to Detmer?).



I want success for Wilson. He's clearly a talented kid and it could mean good things for BYU. BYU will probably go to a bowl game this year (they'll beat NMSU and should beat NIU ... though that one really depends on the defense, in my mind) ... and Wilson will get the credit for it. It'll be telling how he responds to the losses I fully expect against Utah and BSU. If the team does well and looks alright in those games, we could have a respectable opponent and do alright in the bowl game.

Uh, did I miss something here?



Mangum is handling this with class and all but Sitake doesn't owe him anything. Mangum just hasn't been cutting it. Certainly not playing the way a senior QB should. That's not excusing anyone else on the team who has contributed to the poor offense but it was probably past time to play Wilson.



That said, we should all keep our claims and expectations about Wilson in check. He's shown a lot of potential but so did Heaps.

KingCoug wrote:

Uh, did I miss something here?



Mangum is handling this with class and all but Sitake doesn't owe him anything. Mangum just hasn't been cutting it. Certainly not playing the way a senior QB should. That's not excusing anyone else on the team who has contributed to the poor offense but it was probably past time to play Wilson.



That said, we should all keep our claims and expectations about Wilson in check. He's shown a lot of potential but so did Heaps.

I agree Tanner wasn't cutting it. I think there is a few on here that are forgetting the Mcneese State game when Tanner went off for an impressive 118 yards against a D2 secondary. Kalani gave Tanner more then enough chances and being a senior doesn't mean your exempt from change.

Gunk wrote:

We would have won yesterday with Magnum in there. Yes, Wilson looked good, but we won that game on the ground. Fine, the oline played more aggressively and Wilson was a "spark," but it shouldn't require benching your senior QB that led you past Wisc to light a fire within the team.



Mangum took one on the chin for Sitake. Sitake owes him dinner.

The team that showed up on Saturday would have beat Utah State and gave Washington a good game if it had showed up for those 2 games regardless of who played QB. I am really excited for Wilson but he was not the entire reason BYU won.

Here are the numbers so far:


BYU QB Ratings 2018.PNG

But beyond the numbers Wilson just looks and feels better to me. It was just one game so it's still really hard to gauge how good Wilson will be.

a1247 wrote:

It was nice to see a qb who actually came off his primary target and made a completion to his 2nd or 3rd target. It was nice to see a qb who hit his receivers in stride not behind them or at there feet or above there head. The RPO kept Hawaii guessing. I know Hawaii has a horrible defense but Wilson looked good and has a great throwing motion he doesn't look like he is throwing a javelin. Also of course the passingg yards weren't that statically much better the Tanners but they ran for 280 yards! Your not going to pass for 250-300 yards when you rush for 280.



Hopefully with no game this week and then NUI he can get the needed reps and experience to go in and show Boise State they really lost out on a great qb.

Frankly, I saw tanner do this all year. It was nice, however, to see receivers running crisp routes and fight for balls. It was nice to see receivers catch tough balls instead of dropping stuff that hit them in the numbers. Saturday was the best the receivers have looked since Kalani has been HC.

From Jared Lloyd via FB:

After looking at every one of the 32 plays Zach Wilson had on Saturday to write this breakdown, my conclusions were these:

1. Clearly the easiest game for a QB, since Hawaii played so far off the WRs (more than three yards away on average). Other than the mis-reads on the pick and near-pick, Wilson didn't have to put the ball in a tight window all night.

2. He did his job well, getting the ball generally in the right spot to open guys who then made plays (more than a third of the passing yards were YAC).

3. I'm cautiously optimistic about his immediate future because he didn't force too much, although I'm not getting too high yet because he still has plenty to prove against better competition.

4. I'm VERY optimistic about his long-term potential, as long as he can stay healthy.

The one thing Wilson did that Mangum couldn't was extend drives with his legs. He didn't show breakaway speed, but he got positive gains to set up more favorable 3rd down situations. I think that (combined with the defense deciding to try and touch a quarterback) was the difference in what we have seen in weeks prior and what we saw Saturday night--drives that lasted a few plays longer because of what Wilson's legs added to the mix, and shorter fields from a defense that actually got stops and turnovers (in the first half, at least).



When the defense took the rest of the night off in the second half and Wilson was asked to drive the length of the field and Hawaii adjusted to his scrambling, it kinda became more of the same.



If he can extend a few drives a game with his legs, and do just at least as well as Mangum was doing when actually throwing the ball, then Wilson needs to be QB1, no ifs ands or buts. Wilson gives a so-so offense the better chance to put points on the board. We can argue about whether or not he's more likely to be injured scrambling for yards, but hey -- if he gets hurt, we got Mangum ready to come in.

I only remember a couple scrambles for positive yards, one being his TD run. Not sure what drives you are talking about that he extended with his legs.

Frankly, I saw tanner do this all year. It was nice, however, to see receivers running crisp routes and fight for balls. It was nice to see receivers catch tough balls instead of dropping stuff that hit them in the numbers. Saturday was the best the receivers have looked since Kalani has been HC.

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Have the receivers played this well before this game? If they had, what would Mangum's stats be and would he have been replaced?

It was interesting to see receivers catch balls that hit them in the hands. Tanner was never able to reliably get that out of the same receivers. Not sure if it's because Zach throws a more catchable ball, or the receivers were infused with excitement from the change, or even if they just like Wilson better. But it was a huge difference.