According to several BYU defenders, it was Max Hall. While leading the scout team, he learned the offense of every team in the MWC, and then, while scrimmaging against our 1st team defense each week, he picked them apart in ways our opponents never could. During one memorable practice when he seemed to score at will, the defense finally intercepted a pass, and a spontaneous celebration erupted on the field as the defense rejoiced in their rare achievement. That Saturday, the same defense smothered UNLV’s offense, holding them to a single score.
Said Bryan Kehl, an outside linebacker and one of the BYU best players: “Max Hall is awesome...I love how confident he is.” And Ben Criddle, a star cornerback echoed that, saying, “He’s an incredible player, and he’s going to be great....He’s going to lead our team to success.” (TBS, 10-18-06) Amazingly, these comments were made before he was named the starting quarterback.
Who is this man with the keys to BYU’s future? Here are some facts:
He is the nephew of NFL great Danny White and the grandson of Wilford “Whizzer” White, who played at ASU.
He is 6-1½, 205, and was once timed in a 4.55 forty. He benches close to 300 and is said to be able to throw the ball nearly 70 yards.
At Mountain View High School, in Mesa, Arizona, he broke many of John Beck’s passing records. They included: TD passes (61); Passing yards (4,789); Passing yards per game (171); and Career all-purpose yards (5,257). He was also on the Dean’s list every year.
He was Arizona’s Offensive Player of the Year for the 2003 season and was recruited by many D-1 football powers.
He accepted a scholarship to Arizona State, where within weeks he rose to 2nd string behind Andrew Walter, last year’s starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders. When Hall reiterated to his coach that he wanted to serve an LDS mission after his freshman year, he was promptly red-shirted, thus prevented from seeing any playing time at ASU. He transferred to BYU after his mission to Des Moines, Iowa.
On September 1st, in LaVell Edwards’ Stadium, Max Hall will take his first official snap in a football game since 2003. He can’t wait, telling reporters this spring that he has been working hard and is stronger and more prepared than he has ever been.
Earlier this spring he was running stairs with the team and got into a spirited competition with one of the receivers. Every time Coach Omer (the weight and conditioning coach) blew the whistle, Hall gave it everything he had but kept coming up short. As other players dropped out, in some cases to vomit, Hall kept fighting for victory. On the last rep he took the lead but got beat at the very end. As he came back down, he thanked the receiver for pushing him so hard then complimented him for being in great shape. This is a quarterback! Talk about competitive.
Having personally watched him play this past spring, I am as excited for a new quarterback at BYU as I have ever been.
How good is he now? Let me share a play from a scrimmage this spring: He took a snap, waited a beat, then checked off his receivers, 1 - 2 - 3. They weren’t open, so he turned to his right where a running back was waiting in the flat. Hall made eye contact, cocked his arm, and hesitated. The defense collapsed on the running back, then Hall turned and fired a laser to Pitta for a 15-yard gain over the middle. The poor guy covering him nearly broke his ankles trying to reverse directions. The whole play took maybe three seconds. It was a thing of beauty, a work of art. It was devastating, and I am confident that 95% of college quarterbacks could not make that play. Fortunately, Hall still has three years left at BYU.
It’s going to be a lot of fun watching him treat other teams like they are nothing but scout teams this year.
My 3 Cents: Thanks as always to Cruiser for the great information.
Tomorrow's piece will be about BYU's second commit this week, Jake Murphy.
7 comments:
I know the family and Danny White's dad is Wilford "Whizzer" White, not Byron (and not the Supreme Court Justice). He also played football at ASU back in the day.
I hope you're right about how he will handle defenses other than ours...however, to be cautious in our optimism, he knew our defense inside and out when he made that play!
Wow! He must have been a great missionary! Why leave out the details on that? What was he? D.L.? Z.L.? AP?
Hall returned early from his mission for undisclosed reasons which are neither my business (nor yours) and has nothing to do with his ability to play QB at BYU.
Being assigned as a DL, ZL, or an AP says nothing about commitment to the gospel or dedication to preaching. Sometimes the missionaries with the best teaching and preaching skills are used to train other missionaries, never being assigned to leadership positions, while other are given leadership positions to prevent them from slacking off.
I'm excited to watch him. Thanks for the inside scoop.
Thank you so much. Hopefully he will hold up the BYU quarterback tradition.
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