During the middle of a season. Christian Stewart was a little shaky his first game and was lighting teams up by the bowl game. Once Tanner Mangum settled in he showed a lot of growth in 2015. But those guys were backups and not expected to play so they really are in a different category. Hill & Wilson improved each offseason, but not necessarily over the course of a given season. Both Max & Jaren were great QBs but they were both really good from the time they were named the starters. Beck is really the last starter we saw a lot of growth from in 2005, but he was learning a new system so there was a steep learning curve involved there too.
The final two games of last season Jake showed flashes of the ability to move this team up and down the field, but the mistakes were absolute killers. The SMU game made us all worry that he'd continue to be plagued by similar issues this season, but in that game he put together a final drive that could be absolutely monumental when we look back at this season as a whole with what is still on the table for BYU.
Against K-State he played a clean game and took advantage of opportunities that the defense set up for him. Against Baylor he came out and absolutely carved them up before injuries and drops caused the offense to stall in the 2nd half.
And then came Saturday vs Arizona. Just look at these drives the offense put together:
12 plays, 70 yards
10 plays, 75 yards
7 plays, 99 yards
10 plays, 54 yards
6 plays, 75 yards
That is four drives of 70+ yards and no turnovers from Jake. That is high level execution. And the crazy thing is that this offense has not reached its potential. There were 3 or 4 throws where he and his receivers were just a bit off on their timing and ball location. If that gets cleaned up, this passing game could go to another level. And when you consider the fact that we are just now getting to see LJ and a true running game join the party, with the way this defense is playing, this team has a much higher ceiling than even many BYU fans realize.