PROVO – After a wild ride through the 2020 season and a whirlwind three years in Provo, BYU quarterback Zach Wilson has made his decision.
Corner Canyon High School’s 6-foot-3,210-pound product officially goes to the NFL.
Wilson made his decision Friday and announced it on social media, a moment long awaited since the Cougars’ QB1 took the college football season by storm in 2020.
In a lengthy social media post, Wilson thanked BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, athletic director Tom Holmoe, strike coordinator Jeff Grimes, quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick, and a host of other private and personal trainers and teachers who helped him get from Corner Canyon to a projected first-round NFL draft pick.
He also thanked “the world’s largest fan base” at BYU.
“Thank you for the best three years of my life,” wrote Wilson. “On our own property or on the road, there was no doubt that the Blue Wave would be fierce. BYU is a special place. I am blue forever.
“To all my boys on the team and everyone else involved in my time here: without you I am nothing. You never forget those who went to war with you; they are a part of you forever. Forever grateful to you. my line and receivers. The strength staff and training staff for their endless dedication to me. “
COUGAR NATION pic.twitter.com/pEa9RUMCTQ
– Zachary Wilson (@zachkapono) January 1, 2021
The junior is the sixth Utah high school football product to be signed up early for the 2021 draw, joining Stanford’s Simi Fehoko (Brighton), USC’s Jay Tufele (Bingham), Oregon’s Penei Sewell (Desert Hills), Bingham’s Dax Milne (BYU) and grabbing his left hand at BYU, Brady Christensen (Bountiful). The latter is probably the most important for Wilson, who will follow his trusty tackle as he did throughout his BYU career – including the 2020 11-win season.
Wilson finished his junior season with 3,692 yards and 33 touchdowns with just three interceptions, taking the Cougars to an 11-1 season with a performance that finished just outside the top-10 in passing yardage in school history (Robbie Bosco is at No. his 3,874 yards in 1984).
He ran away from the record of passing accuracy in one season, completing 74% of his passes to top Steve Young’s previous record of 71% in 1983. (he also set a new record of 162.91 for career pass efficiency. , a Detmer posted a 162.74 during his career).
Wilson finished eighth nationally in the Heisman Trophy balloting, a top-10 score that finishes BYU’s best since Ty Detmer’s second season in 1991.
Detmer. Bosco. Young. Jim McMahon. John Beck. They’ve all gotten into BYU’s mystique of a quarterback, and Wilson has been mentioned in the same breath as each of them on several occasions.
In three years of BYU, Wilson completed 68% of his passes for 7,652 yards and 56 touchdowns with just 15 interceptions. Nine of those choices came in 2019, as he struggled through multiple injuries as a sophomore, including to his shoulder and thumb.
He also ran for 642 yards and added 15 touchdowns to the ground. He lost just three fumbles in his entire career, all in 2019.
Wilson ended his career with a brilliant show at the Boca Raton Bowl, a 49-23 win over UCF – a team that entered the game with one of the biggest fouls in the country, led by up-and-coming sophomore quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
But the Corner Canyon product fared better than its Hawaii counterpart, whose father Garrett beat Gabriel Detmer and the Cougars twice during the standout career of the former Heisman Trophy winner. Wilson completed 26 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair of scores for the dependable freshman tight-end Isaac Rex and a miracle throw for Neil Pau’u.
Wilson turned each of his receivers into lethal weapons, led by former walk-on Dax Milne, who caught 70 passes for 1,188 yards and eight touchdowns and became BYU’s first 1,000-yard receiver since
The Cougars put together an explosive foul, with fourth in violation scoring (43.5 points per game), fourth in passing efficiency (189.35), seventh in aggregate violation (522.2 yards per game) and eighth in passing offense (332.1 yards per game), via bowl games played on December 26.
COUGAR NATION pic.twitter.com/BLQtiKWygT
– Zachary Wilson (@zachkapono) January 1, 2021
A season previously in danger of being played, with just two opponents on the pandemic-ridden schedule as late as August, turned into an 11-win tour de force – the Cougars’ best fall since 2009 or 2001 or even 1996 depending on who you ask (or which metric you use).
But the numbers aren’t what Wilson will remember about his 2020 team. Like the T-shirts they wore during warm-ups, he will remember the “love” they had for each other.
“The excitement we had playing this game was special,” said Wilson. “Just looking around and taking it all in was the coolest part. We will never have the same team again, with guys leaving next year, and things are always different.
“I love these guys, and that was the best part: we came out with that excitement and energy, and guys were excited to play.”
Wilson also had a brilliant career. He won his first start as a freshman in 2018 to help BYU to a 7-6 season, culminating in a perfect passing performance against Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
A year later, Wilson struggled through multiple injuries – namely his shoulder and thumb – before moving BYU to another 7-6 season. But the son of former Utah defensive lineman Mike Wilson has saved his best season for last, as he is expected to announce in the coming days for the 2021 NFL Draft.
Faced with a season where all but two of the Cougars’ matches were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson went on the hunt for Group of Five football that aired on ESPN. Rather than taking on the likes of Utah, Arizona State, Michigan State and Missouri, he pitted gaudy numbers against a group including Navy, Troy, Louisiana Tech and Houston, to name a few.
He spurred BYU to its first-ever win at the Blue Turf in Boise, where he was once determined to play, threw for 360 yards and three touchdowns in a 51-17 win over the then No. 21 Broncos and propelled his team so high Ranked # 8 in the Associated Press Top 25.
Instead of coming back for a 2021 season that kicks off September 2 against Arizona in Las Vegas – and features six Power Five opponents, including former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall’s return to Provo with Virginia on October 30 – will Wilson taking over his talents. to the NFL.
He is expected to be one of the first five quarterbacks selected by most design analysts, leaping behind supposed No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence of Clemson and mixed with a group that includes Justin Fields of Ohio State, Mac Jones of Alabama, Kyle Trask in Florida and North Trey Lance in the state of Dakota.
The Jacksonville Jaguars closed the No. 1 pick in Sunday’s draft with a 1-14 finish and one game to go in the 2020 season. As many as eight teams were able to select a quarterback in the first round, by most projections, including the Jets (No. 2), Falcons (No. 3), Dolphins (No. 4), Lions (No. 8), Panthers (No. 9) and 49ers (No. 14).
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Sean Walker