PROVO – After a wild ride through the 2020 season and a whirlwind in Provo, BYU fullback Zach Wilson has made his decision.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound product from Corner Canyon High School is officially on its way 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 in 2020 by storm.
In a long post on social media, Wilson Kalani Sitake, head coach of BYU, athletic director Tom Holmoe, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, quarterback coach Aaron Roderick, and a host of other private and personal trainers and tutors thank him helped move from Corner Canyon to a projected NFL draft pick for the first round.
He also thanked ‘the largest fan base in the world’ at BYU.
“Thank you for the best three years of my life,” Wilson wrote. ‘On our own home field or on the road, there was no doubt that the Blue Wave would be fierce. BYU is a special place. I’m blue forever.
“To all my sons in the team and all the others who were involved in my time here: Without you I am nothing. You will never forget those who went to fight with you; they are a part of you forever. My gratitude and gratitude recipients. The strength and training staff for their endless dedication to me. “
COUGAR NATION pic.twitter.com/pEa9RUMCTQ
– Zachary Wilson (@zachkapono) 1 January 2021
The junior is the sixth football product in Utah to be declared earlier for the 2021 draft. He joins Stanford’s Simi Fehoko (Brighton), Jay Tufele (Bingham) from USC, Penei Sewell (Desert Hills) from Oregon, Dax Milne (BYU) from Bingham and his left tackle at BYU, Brady Christensen (Bountiful). The last one is likely to be the most important for Wilson, who will follow his trusted suit as he has done his entire BYU career – including the 11-win 2020 season.
Wilson ended his junior season with 3,692 yards and 33 touchdowns with just three interceptions, stretching the Cougars to an 11-1 season with a performance that finished just outside the top-10 in passing yards in school history (Robbie Bosco occupies number 10 with his 3,874 yards in 1984).
He started from the record-breaking accuracy record for a single season and achieved 74% of his passions to set Steve Young’s previous record of 71% set in 1983. Detmer posted a 162.74 during his career).
Wilson achieved a national eighth place finish in the Heisman Trophy poll, a top-10 mark that has been BYU’s best finish since Ty Detmer’s runner-up in 1991.
Detmer. Bosco. Young. Jim McMahon. John Beck. Everyone penetrated them in BYU’s mystique of a quarterback, and Wilson was mentioned on different occasions in the same breath as each.
In three years at BYU, Wilson completed 68% of his passes for 7,652 yards and 56 touchdowns with just 15 interceptions. Nine of these choices came in 2019 when he struggled as a sophomore through multiple injuries, including to his shoulder and thumb.
He also ran 642 yards and added 15 touchdowns on the ground. He lost just three gimmicks throughout his career, all in 2019.
Wilson ended his career with a brilliant performance in the Boca Raton Bowl, a 49-23 victory over UCF – a team that entered the game with one of the best offenses in the country, led by the emerging second fullback Dillon Gabriel.
But the Corner Canyon product surpassed its Hawaiian counterpart, whose father Garrett beat Gabriel Detmer and the Cougars twice during the former Heisman Trophy winner’s striking career. Wilson completed 26 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns, including some counts for reliable freshman Isaac Rex and a miracle to Neil Pau’u.
Wilson turned each of his receivers into deadly weapons, led by former gang boss Dax Milne, who caught 70 passes for 1,188 yards and eight touchdowns to become BYU’s first 1000-yard receiver since
The Cougars put together an explosive offense, finishing fourth in attack (43.5 points per game), fourth in passing efficiency (189.35), seventh in overall attack (522.2 meters) per game), and eighth in the pass game (332.1 yards per game). played by pickups December 26th.
COUGAR NATION pic.twitter.com/BLQtiKWygT
– Zachary Wilson (@zachkapono) 1 January 2021
A season that was previously in danger of playing, with as few as two opponents on the pandemic-ridden schedule as late as August, turned into an 11-win tournament – the Cougars’ best fall since 2009 or 2001 or even 1996, depending on who you ask (or what criterion you use).
But the numbers are not what Wilson will remember from his 2020 team. Just like the t-shirts they wore during warm-ups, he will remember the ‘love’ for each other.
“The excitement that we had to play this game was special,” Wilson said. “Just looking around and pulling it all in was the coolest part. We will never have the same team again, and guys will take off next year, and things are always different.
“I love these guys, and it was the best part that 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 with a 7-6 season, culminating in a perfect performance against Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
A year later, Wilson struggled through several injuries, namely his shoulder and thumb, before heading to BYU after another 7-6 season. But the son of former Utah defensive line Mike Wilson has retained his best season for the last, as he is expected to declare for the NFL draft in 2021 in the coming days.
In the face of a season in which all but two of the Cougars’ games were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Wilson made a rush against the Group of Five football broadcast on ESPN. Instead of challenging people like Utah, Arizona State, Michigan State and Missouri, he showed joking figures against a group that included Navy, Troy, Louisiana Tech and Houston, to name a few.
He encouraged BYU to win for the first time ever at the Blue Turf in Boise, where he was previously dedicated to playing. He hit for 360 meters and three times in a 51-17 victory over the then no. 21 Broncos and his team as high as number 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 incited.
Instead of returning for a 2021 season that will begin on September 2 against Arizona in Las Vegas – and includes six Power Five opponents, including former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall, returns to Virginia on October 30 with Provo – Wilson will take on his talents. to the NFL.
He is expected to be one of the first five quarterbacks selected by most analysts, a jump behind the alleged no. 1-choice Trevor Lawrence of Clemson and mixed with a group that includes Justin State Fields of Ohio, the Macab Jones of Alabama, Kyle Trask of Florida and North. Dakota State’s Trey Lance.
The Jacksonville Jaguars locked up the No. 1 pick in the draft Sunday with a 1-14 finish and one game left in the 2020 season. Up to eight teams could, according to most projections, select a quarter in the first round, 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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