To Air Force, Hall is the raw deal

PROVO, Utah - The first half of Brigham Young’s 38-21 victory over Air Force was the Max Hall Show.

Hall led BYU’s Cougars to a 24-0 lead while completing 19 of his first 22 passes. He enjoyed good time in the pocket and used the time to pick apart AFA’s secondary.

“He was good,” said AFA coach Troy Calhoun. “He was really good. He was excellent. And we weren’t. You got a guy playing at that caliber, you can’t help him a lick.”

Hall, a senior, claimed his 30th victory as BYU starter and also threw his way to second place on the Cougars all-time passing yardage list. Hall has thrown for 11,039 yards, second behind Ty Detmer’s 15,031 yards.

He finished with 33 completions, 377 yards and five touchdowns against AFA’s defense.

“What can I say?” asked AFA safety Anthony Wright Jr. “Max Hall is a great quarterback, and we let him get hot.”
Wright did enjoy one encouraging moment against Hall.

Hall led the Cougars on an 85-yard drive to the Air Force 2-yard line in the third quarter. On fourth and goal, Hall begged coach Bronco Mendenhall to go for the touchdown.

The Cougars led, 31-7, but Hall was hungry for another score.

Hall threw the fourth-down pass right into Wright’s arms at the goal line. Wright caught the ball, looked upfield and saw only green spaces and Hall.

“I thought it was 100 yards,” Wright said.

It almost was, but Hall showed his technique as a tackler. He dropped Wright, one of Air Force’s most elusive players, ending a 19-yard return.