The BYU Cougars are going to be without Taysom Hill at quarterback for another season, this time not completing one full game before finding out it’s over for him in 2015. They did beat Nebraska on a hail mary from Tanner Mangum to Mitch Mathews, but that probably wasn’t too much of a consolation.
Hill has now suffered his third season-ending injury in four years with the Cougars. He played six games his freshman year before a knee injury took him out. In 2014, after leading BYU to four wins over Texas, Houston, Virginia and UConn, he was hit with another knee injury on the fifth game. His only full season with BYU has been in 2013, rushing and passing for 4248 yards and 29 touchdowns.
He had a fine start to his 2015 season with 268 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception while running for 72 yards and two more touchdowns. But this time it was a Lisfranc fracture. Hill actually came back to play after the initial injury but another hit following an 8-yard run took him out for good, and Mangum, the freshman quarterback, had a chance to step up and win the game for the Cougars with time expired, leaving him with just one option: A hail mary that worked.
Some thought that BYU, and independent, would be part of the College Football Playoff discussion last season with a very promising road towards an undefeated season. Hill was supposed to be in the Heisman candidacy talk. Now it’s back to another season with a backup at quarterback, while Hill suffers another blow, physical and mental, that might be one too many for him to overcome this time.