Hall for Heisman?

Over the years, BYU has promoted its quarterbacks for the Heisman Trophy. Thanks to a huge sophomore season, a win over Miami and an aggressive media blitz (remember the Heisman Tys?) Ty Detmer won it in 1990.

Yesterday, Dick wrote about the Heisman talk around the country surrounding Max Hall, who is coming off of a seven-touchdown performance against UCLA, is putting up Heisman-worthy numbers and performances. But coach Bronco Mendenhall says that he’s not pushing for individual honors.

‘Max’s play will speak for itself. As he’s leading us to another conference championship, that’s where he and I both see his role and what it should be,” Mendenhall said. “I think the respect his teammates will have for him as that continues to grow, as the coaches continue to respect him will just be in how he’s carrying himself, and that is with poise, maturity and execution within the system without looking to draw increased attention to himself. That’s certainly coming from the outside already. So he’s not going to have to do anything other than to continue help our football team win games.”

Hall is shooting down any talk about the Heisman. ‘I didn’t come to BYU to win a Heisman,” he said. “I didn’t come here to get here a bunch of individual recognition. I came to be part of a team of guys who work hard and consider it to be very important to have a team unit and to play for each other. We’re not playing for anybody else but each other and our families and our coaches. The individual recognition is going to come, not only for me, but for other guys on our team. We need to stay focused and worry about ourselves and our team and how we perform.”
Hall continued: ‘I always just wanted to play college ball. I don’t think the Heisman Trophy ever even crossed my mind. Just to be mentioned in that category is a pretty phenomenal deal for me. I’m not going to worry about it or start promoting myself for it or do anything but keep playing how I’m playing. It really matters more to me what my guys think on the team and how I conduct myself. Awards and accolades are going to come, but I’m not going to focus on them.’