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Max Hall has made it official. The pressure is now off of BYU, which means they can start playing their best football.
Senior quarterback Max Hall mentioned in an interview that “the pressure is now off of us.” He went on to explain you can’t let disappointing losses destroy a season.
On one hand, what do you expect Hall to say at this point of the season? It would be a bigger story if he was saying something like, “We really got destroyed by TCU at home. We didn’t deserve to be on the same field as the Horned Frogs. I mean our fans probably were embarrassed when Florida State walked all over us, but that is nothing compared to they must feel now after what we let TCU do to us.
This season is now a complete waste. The only game with any meaning left is playing Utah for second place in the conference, after TCU handles the Utes at home in a little over a week.”
Hall is the leader of the team, and he has to rally the troops to complete a meaningless season. Like it or not, he is now a spin doctor and that means he needs to shine light on the bright side of the season.
Yet, it is still bothersome to hear the leader of a football team happy that the pressure is now off the team. Talking about how much fun it is to just play football. As a fan of BYU what are you suppose to think about such comments?
Is Hall saying he liked beating Tulane as much as he liked beating Oklahoma?
Is he saying he likes that BYU fell off the national radar, and they can just play for fun?
As a fan, don’t you want the players to be excited to even be in the national spotlight? Or to be excited to compete in big games like TCU or Florida State?
The line about how ‘football is supposed to be fun’ is usually a line which losing teams use to motivate their players.
That is the logic people use when their kids are in leagues that hand out trophies to every kid, no matter what they do. These kids don’t compete, teams don’t give scores. Everyone is a winner and there are no losers.
I know college football isn’t a professional level of football, and you can’t kill college players for just competing. Yet, it is still the second highest level of competitive football.
Other teams step on the field hoping to do more than simply have fun. Most of the players are receiving free schooling (SEC and USC players usually get a little pocket money) for competing and winning football games.
Max Hall is simply saying BYU plays their best when there isn’t any pressure. That might explain BYU’s terrible record in big games. Here is a look back at how BYU has played in high pressure games the last two seasons.
Oct. 24, 2009 TCU @ BYU 38-7 loss—College Game Day comes to Provo. The national spotlight shined on LaVell Edwards Stadium and BYU wilted. BYU was never in the game, and played with little to no heart.
Sept. 19, 2009 Florida State @ BYU 54-28 loss—National media members were talking about BYU being in the national title game. BYU crack under pressure and allows Florida State to dominate them at home. The Seminoles follow up the win with three straight losses, with two of those losses coming at home.
Sept. 5, 2009 BYU vs. Oklahoma 14-13 win—While this was a major win for BYU, no one expected BYU to win. There was no pressure. So while this was a huge victory for BYU, does it really say anything about their performance under pressure?
Dec. 20, 2008 BYU vs. Arizona 31-21 loss—BYU tried to save face after losing to Utah, and missing a BCS bowl. They end up playing with no heart and letting Arizona control the game.
Nov. 22, 2008 BYU @ Utah 48-24 loss—BYU was still playing for a long shot chance at a BCS berth, and a piece of the conference championship. BYU kept the score close, but was doing little to slow down Utah. Hall had the worst game in his college career throwing five interceptions and fumbling the ball once.
Oct. 16, 2008 BYU @ TCU 32-7 loss—BYU fans were still wearing their “quest for perfection” T-shirts proudly and national media members were warming to the thought of BYU in a BCS bowl. TCU was the first real test of the year for BYU (UCLA and Washington were both terrible that season), and TCU destroyed the Cougars.
A record of 1-5 in high pressure games (including Oklahoma even though there was no real pressure on BYU to win) in the last two years isn’t very good.
If BYU wins the remaining games on their schedule, Max Hall will have the most wins of all BYU’s quarterbacks; however, Hall will not crack the list of the top five greatest quarterbacks in school history.
Why?
Whether right or wrong, BYU fans judge quarterbacks on how they play when there is something on the line, or how the quarterback will play under pressure.
Hall had fun and was successful in low-pressure games; great BYU quarterbacks had fun and did well when something was on the line. That is just the story about Max Hall’s college career good, but not great.
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