BYU vs UCLA 2015: Josh Rosen vs Tanner Mangum tale of the tape

Saturday night, two of the brightest young quarterbacks will take the field to see if they can get their team to 3-0 on the year

Week 3 of the college football season is bringing us some exciting match ups. Alabama vs. Ole Miss, Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech, Stanford vs. USC, and for a nightcap, we get the UCLA Bruins welcoming in the BYU Cougars.

Or, when you really delve into this one: Josh Rosen vs. Tanner Mangum.

Yes, football is a team sport with 11 men on one side, but when you have a match up like this it’s really hard to ignore the intrigue you begin to feel. Here are two true freshman quarterbacks that, through two weeks of the college football season here in 2015, have opened everyone’s eyes and made you pay attention. Now, Saturday night, they’re going to do battle against one another. What more can you really ask for?

What’s maybe so intriguing about these two phenoms is how different their paths to this point are. While they’re both true freshmen quarterbacks wet behind the ears when it comes to major college football, how they got here is two completely different stories.

Josh Rosen

Ah, the “Rosen One.” Josh Rosen was the most coveted pro-style quarterback recruit in the class of 2015 and Jim Mora was ultimately able to land him. This youngster out of St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California was recruited by virtually every major program in the country, but now we know that he made the right decision in choosing UCLA. With Brett Hundley on his way out the door and Jerry Neuheisel not really having full confidence of the coaching staff, this prodigy had the chance to come in and start right away. This summer, he was given the nod by Mora.

In Week 1 against Virginia, it was pretty easy to see why.

He ran that offense as if he’d been there for four years. He had the poise of a veteran and some of his throws made NFL scouts already begin to drool. Right theN and there, everyone could see that we have someone special on our hands here in college football. He finished the first game he ever started 28-of-35 for 351 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Last week in the win over UNLV, he was a little less efficient, yet still impressive as he threw for 223 yards on 22-of-42 passing with a touchdown. He did throw his first pick of the season, but, that will happen from time to time.

Against a BYU defense that’s giving up 308 yards passing per game so far, there’s no telling what we could see from Josh Rosen on Saturday night.

Tanner Mangum

Mangum, well — his path has been a little different. You see, although he’s a true freshman, he is 22 years old. For those who forget about this, he does play for BYU, meaning that he had to perform his mission duties before he was able to step onto a college football field. He was able to put the pads on this season, but the thing was, he wasn’t supposed to be the one matching up with Rosen on Saturday night.

No, that honor was supposed to go to BYU’s Heisman-contending quarterback Taysom Hill. When you looked at the schedule before September 5, you looked at a match up between Hill and Rosen, not Mangum and Rosen. But, the injury bug would once again grab a hold of Taysom Hill in the opener against Nebraska, so Mangum had to step in quickly.

All that happened in that one was … this…

Wow, how about that luck for a true freshman, huh? Too bad that the next week he has to play Boise State, so there’s no way that’s happening again. Just eat your first loss, son, and move on. It’ll be okay.

Oh, wait …

So, yeah, OK — we apparently have a wizard on our hands here. That’s pretty neat. BYU’s first four games of the season is a brutal slate, yet here they come into this match up with UCLA at 2-0 on the year because Mangum refuses to die. He refuses to let his team die. And, by all accounts so far, he refuses to let the College Football Playoff hopes of the Cougars die.

One little tidbit about Mangum that people tend to forget, mainly because he was gone for a few years, is that he was the co-winner of the 2011 Elite 11 competition with a guy you may have heard of before: Jameis Winston. So, when it came to recruiting, he was no slouch either.

Prediction

Again, yes, this game is ultimately about the two teams on the field, the UCLA Bruins and BYU Cougars. But you cannot ignore that you’re going to be completely fixated on what Mangum and Rosen are doing when they’re under center.

As for which quarterback will actually win this battle on Saturday for their team?

Tanner Mangum is a magician so, you know. But, Josh Rosen looks like he might be able to take over an NFL team right now.

Know what? Let’s just sit back and enjoy watching these two duel on Saturday evening and whatever happens, happens. We as college football fans will be better of for it.

Saturday night, two of the brightest young quarterbacks will take the field to see if they can get their team to 3-0 on the year

Josh Rosen

Tanner Mangum

Prediction

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