Taysom Hill "ready to go"

In Saturday’s season opener against the University of Arizona, senior starting quarterback Taysom Hill will make some BYU history—regardless of the outcome. When he takes the field at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, he will become the first-ever Cougar quarterback to start a fourth consecutive season opener.

Finishing the season, however, has been a persistent challenge for Hill, who suffered campaign-ending lower-body injuries in 2012, 2014 and 2015. His full 13-game run as a sophomore in 2013 accounts for the majority of his 25 games played at BYU. He was limited to six games as a freshman, five games as a junior, and only a single game as a senior. Despite the health-related setbacks, Hill enters his medical-redshirt senior season as the only BYU quarterback ever with 4,000-plus passing yards and 2,000-plus rushing yards.

“It didn’t go as planned,” says Hill of his Cougar career, “but I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. I certainly wouldn’t wish injury on anybody, but I have learned a lot of valuable lessons because of it, and it has allowed me to be here in 2016, playing under Coach (Kalani) Sitake and Coach (Ty) Detmer. It has been a great experience.”

Sitake recalls “basically begging (Hill) to come back” for his fifth season at BYU, at a time when Hill’s future plans were still undecided. In the winter of 2015, BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was destined for the University of Virginia, and Hill says “it was like I was back to square one.” It was during Hill’s drive home after BYU’s appearance in the 2015 Las Vegas Bowl that the newly appointed Sitake reached out for the first time.

“We had a great conversation,” says Hill, “and then I went and met with him the following Monday. From then on we have had a great relationship, and it was a pretty easy decision for me to come back and want to play for him.”

Sitake says his first impressions of Hill were “just what I expected. He is exactly what you want in a leader and in a quarterback.”

“It was a great conversation. I could just sense his spirit over the phone and then when I met him, he was everything that everyone thinks he is. He is class, just a great young man; you can feel it from him. Coach Mendenhall felt it from him and a lot of our team and our fans feel it. I’m just glad he’s back to do it one more time.”

It is what Taysom Hill does as well as any multi-tool quarterback in the college game. A steadily improving passer, Hill’s running ability is unparalleled at BYU. He is the Cougars’ career leader in quarterback rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and yards per carry—a career number that at BYU ranks second only to Doak Walker Award-winning running back Luke Staley. He is one of eight FBS QBs all-time to have recorded a game with 400-plus passing yards and 100-plus rushing yards.

Yet, in the spring of 2016, Hill was still in rehabilitation mode, working his way back from a Lisfranc injury suffered in 2015’s season-opening win at Nebraska.  His spring-practice routine was limited, as sophomore signal-caller Tanner Mangum got the lion’s share of meaningful reps.

“I really didn’t do a lot in spring ball,” Hill says, “but in May I started to do everything with the team. I would say the month of May was a really clear indication to me that I was going to be fine. My foot responded really well and at that point, I knew that I was going to have a full recovery and have nothing that is going to limit me in terms of my playing capability.

“I feel like I'm back. I'm ready to go.”

While that’s music to the ears of Coach Sitake and BYU fans everywhere, it also means that last year’s freshman sensation will be Hill's understudy in 2016. Hill says Mangum has been a supportive teammate, even as both players battled to win the starting job.

“The media are going to take this quarterback competition--especially at BYU--and blow it up into something that it wasn’t,” said Hill. “Our mindset was to be as good as we possibly can right now and the support the other (guy), and that was what happened.”

Of Mangum, Hill says “he is a great player and an even better guy.” The fifth-year senior says the first person he told about his decision to return to BYU was the quarterback who filled in for him last year.

“He was the first guy I told,” says Hill, “just so he didn’t get blind-sided by anything, and I think that kind of got us off on the right foot. There has been nothing but love and support through the entire relationship. We’ve talked about going into Arizona in terms of how we can support each other and be as successful as we possibly can this year.

“I couldn’t think of a better guy to go into the season with.”

What kind of player will Hill be going into BYU's challenging 2016 campaign? According to him and his head coach, the same game-breaking playmaker he has always been.

“I slid one time at the stadium (during training camp), and I ended up with a big raspberry on my leg,” says Hill, “so I told Coach I'm not sliding anymore.

“I know the drill. I'll protect myself when I can, but if we need to get a first down and it’s third-and-short, or we’re on the goal line…I’ll go get the first down or I’ll score the touchdown.”

“One thing I’ve learned about guys like (Taysom) is, you just let him go,” says Sitake. “I don’t want to put any limitations on him, because the sky is the limit for this guy.

“He wants to do everything. He's 100 percent, he's a resilient young man and nothing can break this kid. I can’t believe how strong he is. Why wouldn’t you let him go? He has earned that right. He has freedom to do a lot of things. I kind of have to say ‘be careful,’ but there’s going to be a lot of ‘no…yes!’ from me.”

Hill says that despite his remarkable success in open space and unprecedented abilities as a runner, he makes every effort in practice to let pass plays develop downfield before considering a break out of the pocket. If a play doesn’t develop as planned during the game, there will be no hesitation to do what he does best.

“When we break down the film,” says Hill of such plays, “it always comes down to, ‘well, there was nothing there,’ so Ty will end the conversation by saying ‘just go do what you do.’ It's just one of those unwritten rules.

“I've been doing it for the last four years, and I’ll continue to do it.”

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