Hall vs. Wynn

At first glance, the two quarterbacks who will lead their respective teams in this week’s BYU-Utah game couldn’t be more different. BYU’s Max Hall is a senior who just broke Ty Detmer’s school record for career wins (Hall now has 31) and surpassed former Cougar John Beck’s conference record for career passing yards (Hall now has 11,039). Jordan Wynn? He’s just a true freshman who has started three games.

A deeper look, though, reveals some startling similarities between the two.

Coming out of high school, Scout.com ranked Hall as the No. 46 quarterback in his class (2004) while Wynn was ranked No. 34 last year’s class. Both measured in at 6-foot-1 1/2 and 175 pounds as high-school seniors and ran nearly identical times in the 40-yard dash: Hall ran a 4.7 and Wynn ran a 4.69.

Both quarterbacks won their first college start at home (BYU beat Arizona; Utah beat New Mexico) and lost their second on the road against a ranked opponent (BYU lost to No. 13 UCLA; Utah lost to No. 4 TCU). Hall completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 679 yards, four touchdowns and one interception in his first two games, while Wynn completed 56.7 percent of his passes for 516 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in his first two starts.

While the statistics are similar, Hall’s experience in tough games should give him an edge over his younger counterpart.

“TCU had some success making [Wynn] move in the pocket and making him uncomfortable because of their pressure, and that’s what we’ll probably try to do,” BYU linebacker Matt Bauman said. “An experienced quarterback with four years under his belt can can step back there and do a really great job reading a coverage, and, not to take anything away from him because he’s been very good, but he’s still a freshman and we feel like we can really challenge him by disguising our defense and giving him lots of different looks.”