BYU football: Hall not distracted by wins record

PROVO — BYU quarterback Max Hall is one victory away from becoming the all-time leader in wins, but he said that potential milestone is not a distraction as the Cougars prepare to host Air Force.

"It's not a distraction at all. It's a big deal. It's going to be quite an accomplishment if I can get to that, if I can win this game and be considered to have the most wins as a quarterback," Hall said. "I put it in the back of my mind, though. It's not like I want to win the game for the record. I want to win it for our guys and for the season. But if we do win the game, it will be something special to think about."

Hall's teammates said they're eager to help him reach that record.

"Anytime you can be the all-time wins leader at a school, especially with so many quarterbacks that have come through this university, that's an amazing thing to do," said wide receiver McKay Jacobson. "Things like that are very important, but you focus on the game and everything will take care of itself. We want to do all we can to achieve that goal. He's had a great career so far and we want to finish the year strong."

Said defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen: "It's something a lot of us take pride in, that we've been a part of it, helping him to get to that point. If anybody deserves it, it's Max. He works hard and he plays hard every day. He definitely deserves it."

Asked how Hall ranks among the great BYU quarterbacks through the years, coach Bronco Mendenhall said: "Usually, I gauge quarterbacks by championships won. Winning games is certainly very, very important. The great ones are the ones that inspire their teams to win conference championships. Max's accomplishments can't be diminished because of the number of games he's helped us win. We're all, myself included, especially at BYU, we measure ourselves by that mark of being able to be the conference champion. That's what the expectation is here. But just short of that, I'm not sure, when you look at number of wins, you couldn't consider him one of the best to have played here. I hesitate saying that because I didn't coach nor was I around the other ones. But to say Max wouldn't be part of that group, I'd be hard-pressed not to do that."

BYU quarterbacks coach Brandon Doman is looking for Hall, and the Cougar offense, to play much better than last week's performance in a 24-19 squeaker last week at New Mexico.

"Our last football game wasn't quite the way we should have or wanted to play," Doman said. "Looking at these next two opponents, who else would we want to play? We've got Air Force and Utah — two teams that we have a long, long history of playing ball against and a history of great football games. I wouldn't want it to end for him in any other fashion than playing at home, in our stadium, against Air Force, which is playing as good as its played in a long time, and then Utah — a great challenge. He has played some of his best football in those types of games. I'm looking forward to seeing him finish."