UnRivaled: BYU Needs To Unleash Jaren Hall

PROVO, Utah – BYU football has a great quarterback tradition going back decades and the next in line could be Jaren Hall. He has been around the Cougars football program in a full capacity by giving up his baseball career with BYU last year.

With just one full year of focusing only on football means that Hall is fairly raw as a quarterback with a lot to learn and improve upon, plus he missed a few games this past year due to injury.

There is potential for a lot of growth with Hall and his game. It also helps that BYU is returning the vast majority of talent back on offense, and that includes receiving weapons such as Gunner Romney returning for “unfinished business.”

Other weapons back for Hall include Puka Nacua who was the leading pass catcher in yards, tight end Isaac Rex and others who will step up as the only significant loss is Neil Pau’u who declared for the NFL Draft.

Hall’s year was one of the best in the country in yards per attempt at 8.7 per attempt, he rarely turned the ball over with just five interceptions to go along with 20 touchdowns in just 10 games.

His use of his legs and a threat to run the ball could make him even better next year. Hall had 307 yards in 10 games which isn’t elite but not bad for a quarterback, and enough to make teams respect his ability to take off and run at a given moment.

If offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick can utilize Hall on the ground a bit more it can open up a lot of things for Hall and the offense.

UnRivaled’s Scott Mitchell is extremely high on Hall and wants the BYU staff to open things up with his legs and that could make him the next great Cougar signal-caller

“I really believe that Jaren Hall can become an elite quarterback,” Mitchell said. “He has the talent and his running ability is scary. His running ability just by itself… is a weapon that most teams don’t have. When it’s at the quarterback it is going to be really hard to stop the offense.

“This happened at Utah when Cam Rising started to play. Cam Rising was a guy that just made things happen on third down, and a lot of times it was running the football. When you have a guy like Jaren Hall — I think they are afraid to have him run and get hurt — is a weapon with him running the football. I believe he will be better throwing the football, but Jaren Hall has the ability to be an elite quarterback if BYU will let them be that guy.”

.@19scottmitchell fully believes that #BYU QB Jaren Hall has the potentially to be an elite quarterback. pic.twitter.com/wKKjg44VhT

— Unrivaled w/Alex Kirry & Scott Mitchell (@KSLunrivaled) February 24, 2022

The Cougars have a really good offensive line coming back for 2022 and return 80% of its offensive production from last year. Finding a running back to replace the departed Tyler Allgeier will go a long way in helping out Hall become a better quarterback.

The Cougars brought in Christopher Brooks from Cal to compete for the starting job along with others on the roster such as Lopini Katoa. If either of those two or anyone else on the roster can get close to Allgeier’s numbers then it will open up the offense and not allow teams to focus on either the passing or running game.

A lot of things are in place for Hall to potentially have a great year and garner respect. The schedule does not look quite as tough as last season, and the Cougars likely will be getting more of that P5 respect as they are going into the Big 12 in 2023.

For Hall to truly take that next step and be a household name nationally it will come down to him getting better and improving every day as cliche as it sounds.

The biggest aid to improvement is having another year of singularly focusing on football with baseball in the rearview mirror and that should expedite how good he can be for the Cougars this upcoming 2022 season.

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Follow @JeremyMauss