BYU names starting quarterback

PROVO — The BYU quarterback derby couldn't have taken a more dramatic turn.

Head coach Bronco Mendenhall named Arizona State transfer Max Hall the starter coming out of spring drills on Monday, and Snow College all-American Cade Cooper is not only out of the race but will miss the 2007 football season with a serious foot injury suffered Saturday during his brief appearance in the team's final scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

Cooper's injury is similar to the Lisfranc injury suffered by former Cougar and Philadelphia Eagle All-Pro tight end Chad Lewis in the NFC championship game several years ago. The injury is serious enough to sideline Cooper for a year and involves a tear of a major ligament in the middle of the foot.

"I felt something pop," Cooper said on Saturday, describing his injury. Initially, Cooper thought he had an ankle sprain.

The Lisfranc injury is named after Jacques Lisfranc, a French surgeon in Napoleon's army. At the time of the Napoleonic wars, soldiers who fell off their horses and had their foot caught in the stirrup of their saddle as they were dragged tore a ligament in their foot. At times it was so severe it meant amputation. Modern day surgery can repair the ligament, but it is considered more serious than ACL surgery on the knee, according to Lewis in an interview with the Deseret Morning News.

According to Mendenhall, the quarterback race between Hall and Cooper was "very close" before Cooper's injury. The coach praised Cooper's work and said the announcement shouldn't take away from the work the Snow College transfer has put in.

"The entire team is saddened by what's happened to Cade," Mendenhall said.

The news on Cooper turns BYU's quarterback depth chart upside down behind Hall. Cooper and Hall had split almost all the meaningful reps in spring practice.

Brenden Gaskins, a 6-foot-5 native of New Mexico who signed with Nevada out of high school but played at Glendale Community College following an LDS mission, now appears to be Hall's chief challenger and backup after a sterling effort in the Cougars' final scrimmage.

Gaskins completed 19-of-22 passes and led the squad to 10 points.

"I couldn't be more happy for him and the way he played," said quarterback coach Brandon Doman.

The shocking end to Cooper's spring underscored a point Doman has preached to the quarterbacks all winter and spring.