Max Hall's Legacy

Thoughts on BYU and Max Hall

Max Hall is still likely to pass Ty Detmer as the BYU QB with the most wins.  A lot of people are down on BYU after the loss to TCU in spite of this.  Does Max Hall belong with the BYU greats?  There are two things that all the greats have done that Max has not yet accomplished and one of those goals seems to be out of reach.  First, all the others won a conference championship as a senior.  The other, a signature come-from behind victory.

To be fair, Jim McMahon did not have a conference with two other juggernauts.  But John Beck did.  Beck shook off two close non-conference losses to Arizona and Boston College and directed the Cougars to a conference championship and the largest bowl victory in BYU history. Max Hall's two losses this year are by a combined 57 points. In 2008, BYU's losses were by a combined 59 points.  It seems that with Max at the helm, BYU has lost the ability to claw back once they get behind.  It was not always this way.  In 2007, when MAX was a sophomore, BYU's two losses were by a combined 18 points.  Only in the 55-47 loss at Tulsa in 2007 was BYU within one score when the final gun cracked   Max has lost 7 games in his career as a starter, by an average margin of 19 points.

It is not all bad.  Max has been good at winning close games.  In games that were within one score, Hall has only lost that one game at Tulsa.  In 2007 there were four games decided by less than one score: 31-24 at New Mexico, 27-22 vs TCU, 17-10 vs Utah and 17-16 win against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.  In 2008, a 27-28 win at Washington, a 42-35 win vs UNLV and a 45-42 win at Colorado State.  This year, there was the 14-13 win against Oklahoma.  That is an 8-1 record in games that were decided by one score.  In these eight games, BYU never trailed by more than seven points.  In the Tulsa game, the Golden Hurricane did have a two touchdown lead at one point and Max and company were never able to get closer than 7 at that point.  Max Hall has never led his Cougars back from the brink, but most of the other have.

-Beck did against Utah in 2006.  The Utes held a 24-14 lead at one point in that game.  Beck brought the Cougars back in a thrilling 33-31 finish. 
-Bradon Doman did against UNLV in 2001, the Cougars won after the Rebels had a 21-10 lead.
-Steve Sakisian erased a 15-5 deficit in the 1996 Cotton Bowl.
-Ty Detmer worked the his magic several times, once erasing a 34-14 Oregon lead in Provo as a Sophomore.
-Robbie Boscoe led BYU back from a 14-3 deficit against Pittsburg in his first start.
-Steve Young, in 1982, helped BYU erase an early Utah State 14-3 lead in Logan.
-Jim McMahon: who can forget the 1980 Holiday Bowl?
-Marc Wilson did it at New Mexico in 1978.
-In 1975, Gifford Neilson entered the game for the first time as a BYU Quarterback against the Lobos in the 3rd quarter when New Mexico held a 12-0 lead.

In  the fourth quarter against TCU on Saturday, with the Frogs well ahead, did the Cougars have some punch?  BYU's last two possesions were killed by penalties and ended in downs in the red zone.  Is there are difference between loosing 38-7 vs 38-21?  Absolutely.  It's called momentum.  It could have helped the Cougars remain in the top 25 and would have helped the chances that a Mountain West Team would bust the BCS again.  The momentum could have helped carry BYU into the important roadie in Laramie in two weeks.

Cougar fans are used to seeing their team claw their way back from big deficits.  That has not happened since that Beck to Harline pass in 2006.  What used to be routine, has become a problem.  Down 14-0 against Florida State, O'Neil Chambers drops the ball.   Penalties allowed TCU to score on their first three drives.  The Cougars have not displayed that once-famous ability to claw back into games in the last two seasons.  Last season, BYU cut the Utah lead to 4 before allowing the Utes to score the last three touchdowns in the game.  In the Las Vegas Bowl, Arizona cruised once getting a ten point lead.

This season, Max Hall's senior season, he has written his legacy.  A legacy that so far falls a little short of what is expected out of the famous BYU quarterback factory.