One year ago at this time what kind of emotional response would the name Tanner Mangum trigger for you? Probably none.  For me, being a huge BYU fan, Tanner was a kid from my home state of Idaho that was playing backup quarterback to our beloved Taysom Hill alongside a Detmer.  Tanner was the player that we weren’t supposed to fall in love with, but did. Taysom was supposed to carry our team, leading them to a bowl game,  carry them to be nationally ranked, and be a Heisman finalist.  Then he would enter the draft and go first round.  But things never seem to turn out how they are planned, especially for BYU.

Now a year later we are faced with a quarterback battle here at BYU.  And not a Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson quarterback battle, we are talking a real life quarterback battle.  Unlike 2010, we aren’t trying to find the quarterback that will do the least crappy job. We have two very quality athletes battling it out to play on this national stage, and every BYU fan has an opinion on who should start.  The thing that most of us fail to look at is that we have virtually no idea what kind of offense BYU is.  We really don’t know offensive coordinator Ty Detmer’s plan is in reshaping the offense.  We know that he plans to utilize the tight end and run a similar offense to the traditional BYU offense that led us to a Heisman winning quarterback and national championship but there’s still a lot of unknown.  And as fans we have no way of knowing which young man will be a better fit for Ty’s offense.

While it may be pretty safe to assume that we can expect to see see number 4 in Arizona, nothing is for sure. Taysom is a seasoned veteran.  As a senior he has won a special place in the hearts of BYU fans everywhere.  His versatility and athletisism is unparalleled at BYU.  Former BYU quarterback and LDS general authority Elder Gifford Neilson said, “We know Steve Young, and the talent of Steve Young, and with our quarterback group Taysom is probably the best athlete of all of us. He’s just amazing.Look at his strength and his speed and just his way about him”.  It’s no secret that in full health Taysom is a remarkable athlete.  But Taysom’s success can’t take away from the impact Tanner Mangum has had on BYU football in just one short season.  Two hail marys, a 9-4 record, and a bowl game all just a few months off an LDS mission.  The 2015-2016 BYU football season was not one to look down on and that was with a quarterback that had been out of the game for two years.  I can’t even imagine what he would be capable of with full off season of training.

There’s so much to look at and so much to speculate and so much that we as fans are unsure about.  But there’s one thing that we can be sure about. Whoever we see out on that field on September 3rd will do incredible things for BYU athletics and the whole NCAA.