In my opinion, in terms of the greatest QB of all-time at BYU there are only two possible answers; Ty Detmer and Jim McMahon. Steve Young will get thrown in that group and he had one really great year at BYU and one so/so year. But his NFL work is why he gets thrown into that group. I will note that I am not putting Jaren Hall on the list, but he would already be in the top 17 of these rankings (no reason to put him on yet as his career is incomplete). But here are my rankings:

1. Ty Detmer I will say again there is no right or wrong answer with either Detmer or McMahon. But some reasons why I have Detmer at this spot; He was a QB past the "novelty" of the West Coast System, yet he still excelled. His career numbers are the best. He threw for 15,031 yards at BYU with a 162 PER (Zach Wilson's number is almost identical) and 121 passing TDs. All are career records. All of his teams won and won at a high level. He won the Heisman in 1990 when the team was ranked #4 in the country (yes they lost their last two in no small part to huge injuries to Detmer). His victory over then #1 Miami (and they finished #3 that year) in 1990 was the greatest victory in the program's history (not the most important, but the greatest imo). He was a two time consensus All-American, a two time WAC player of the year, a two time Davey Obrien award winner and a one time Sammy Baugh award winner. Detmer won the Heisman his Jr year and yet there is a good argument that he was even better his Sophomore and Senior seasons. He is the greatest QB and player that BYU has ever had.

2. Jim McMahon I hate saying 2 but also hate 1a's. McMahon was part of a string of QBs to come through QBU, but while others before him were great he really took it to an entirely new level. McMahon finished his career at BYU with 9,536 yards, 84 TDs and a 156 PER (currently 4th behind Detmer, Wilson and Sarkisian). A little known fact for McMahon was that he was actually the team's primary punter his first two seasons at BYU with over 100 punts under his belt in his career. McMahon became a starter his sophomore season due to an injury to Marc Wilson. While McMahon played a little better than Wilson, his sophomore season was by far his worst and they went back to Wilson the following year who was excellent and led BYU to an 11-1 record and #13 final ranking. But 1980 was McMahons year and he put together one of the best season's in the schools history throwing for 4571 yards, 47 TDs and a rating of 176.9 (only recently passed as the best in school's history by Zach Wilson). His 47 TDs are still a BYU record which is remarkable as he averaged just below 4 a game. BYU finished that year 12-1 and 12th in the final rankings after one of the two greatest moments in BYU history in the miracle bowl (Beck to Harline being the other). Statistically, McMahon's Senior year was not as good as his junior year, but the team went 11-2 and finished #13 in the country behind very good numbers. McMahon was a 3 time WAC offensive player of the year, one time consensus All American, one time Davey O'Brien winner and one time Sammy Baugh winner. He finished 3rd and 5th in the Heisman (5th in 1980 behind Mark Hermann was an absolute joke).

3. Steve Young Judging only by their BYU performances Young would certainly have more competition for this spot. But I think it all ties together and Young being the HOF NFL QB that he is I believe he takes the #3 spot pretty easily. Young had the dubious job of following McMahon, well sort of. Young was not the favorite to win the job in 1982, but he did win it. He finished that season with 3100 yards and a 140 rating to go along with 407 rushing yards (I hate the way the NCAA calculated rushing yards for a QB). 1982 was the worst in a 7 year run by BYU that is considered the golden age of BYU football as we went 8-4 and finished unranked. 1983 was different. In that season we went 11-1 and finished 7th in the country. Young had 3902 yards with 33 passing TDs on 168 passer rating and 444 yards rushing with another 8 TDs (he also had a receiving TD in the bowl game). This was one of the greatest seasons a QB has ever had at BYU and if it weren't for a 36-40 loss to Baylor in the opener who knows where we would have finished. It most certainly set up the ability to win the national title in 1984. Young finished 8th in career yards, career TDs and career PER among BYU starting QBs. While these numbers don't blow you away, the 1983 season was immaculate and when adding in the rushing stats he ranks firmly at #3 for me in the list of BYU QBs.

4. Robbie Bosco This is another point in which BYU fans differ greatly. I respect everyone's opinions (except TNT's for obvious reasons). Some will say this is too high for Bosco and others will say too low. What is Bosco's biggest accomplishment, well winning the national championship playing injured of course! In two seasons as the starting QB Bosco led the team to a national championship and a #16 final ranking. He is currently ranked #5 in career yards and #5 in career TDs with 8400 and 66 respectively. His career PER of 149 puts him at #9 for all-time PER. Bosco won the Sammy Baugh in 1984 and was WAC offensive play of the year that same year. That being said give me a winner above all else and the fact that Bosco made play after player, even on one leg at times to win a national title is enough for me to put him at this spot.

5. Steve Sarkisian Sarkisian was the QB of the famed 1996 team, which is one of the greatest in BYU's history finishing #5 (and honestly could have easily been #3 in the final polls). We went 14-1 and dominated for most of the year except for an early loss @Washington. Sarkisian finished his career #3 at BYU in PER a point behind Detmer and Wilson (he played a more difficult schedule than Wilson). Sarkisian's 1996 season produced a PER of over 173 which is 4th all-time behind only one season from Wilson, Detmer and McMahon. He is 11th in career yards at BYU and 12th in TDs, but that is simply a reflection on the number of games he played as he is only 300 yards and 3 TDs behind Steve Young. Sarkisian was clutch time and time again in 1996 and while he had excellent TE's, his WR were certainly not BYU household names. Sarkisian won the WAC offensive player of the year and the Sammy Baugh in 1996.

6. Zach Wilson Zach obliterated the single season PER record at BYU in 2020 with a 196.44 rating. His pin point accuracy and strong arm led to him being drafted the highest any BYU player ever has at #2 overall in the NFL Draft. While we did play a watered down schedule in 2020 (nothing Zach could do about it) he wasn't only that year as he had a really good 2018 freshman season in which he broke many of the records set by Ty Detmer. Career wise Zach is #9 in yards, #9 in TDs and #1 in passer rating. Zach led the team to a #11 final ranking in 2020 and was a key cog in righting the BYU ship after 2017. Another season at BYU might have put Zach at or near the top of this list, but it is hard to pass up being the #2 pick in the draft. Zach also has an ability to boost his rankings through his NFL career after a lackluster rookie season.

7. John Beck I understand this is a bit controversial to put Beck above Hall. But I have my reasons which I will explain. Beck is #3 on the all-time passing yards list for BYU and #4 on the all time TD list. His PER is 13th among starting QBs. Beck became a starting QB in 2003 under head coach Crowton. As we all know Crowton had an incredible year in 2001 and then fell flat on his face. 2002 was awful and in 2003 after Matt Berry didn't make it they threw in the "running QB" John Beck who produced some good moments but was not really ready to play imo. In 2004 Beck became the full time starter and was much better. But BYU was 5-6 playing the most difficult schedule I believe we have ever played. Enter in Bronco Mendenhall as the head coach and Robert Anae as the new OC. 2005 was some tough learning on the job. Everyone remembers the 60 passing attempt day in the opener against BC that produced 3 points. But again Beck improved and by 2006 with a competent, experienced OC/HC Beck had one of the greatest QB seasons in BYU history. He finished that season with 3800 yards, 32 TDs and a 169 passer rating (5th best all time behind Wilson, Detmer, McMahon and Sarkisian's best years). We ended that year on a 10 game winning streak and finished 16th in the country. It was the pinnacle of BYU QB play under Anae. Beck was drafted early in the 2nd round and didn't have a great career in the NFL. Beck also authored one of the two greatest plays in BYU history in the Beck to Harline final play at Utah. He was the 2006 MWC player of the year.

8. Max Hall Many will say I am hating on Hall to put him this far down on the list. Let me first say that I love Max Hall. I love that he called out BYU. I love that he is still involved with the University. I love that he is helping people through addictions. He is a great BYU QB, this is just where I have him listed. Here are the accolades: He is the all-time winningest QB in BYU history. He is #2 behind Detmer in both yards and TDs. He is #7 in PER just ahead of Steve Young. His teams finished 14th, 25th and 12th in the final AP standings. So why not higher on the list? Well for me Hall was the king of dominating the poorer competition, but struggling vs better competition. He was 2-1 against Utah in his career which is good. But in those games he was 50-113 with 2 TDs, 5 Ints and 611 yards for an 86 PER. His numbers against TCU were very similar. In both 2008 and 2009 we went into the TCU game thinking we had an all time team and in both games we came out whooped to the tune of 32-7 and 38-7. Hall had some very high moments in beating #3 Oklahoma and thrashing UCLA 56-0. He was a great BYU QB. But going into a big game I would have preferred all of the above QBs. To me he is the Curtis Martin of BYU QBs. A long career with a lot of starts in which he was always good, but not great.

9. Marc Wilson Marc wasn't the first just like McMahon wasn't, but he also took BYU to heights it had not seen previously. BYU had never finished a season ranked in the AP poll until in 1977 Marc Wilson took over for Nielsen and led us to a 9-2 record and a 20th overall ranking. Then he was hurt in 1978 and came back in 1979 even better leading the team to an 11-1 season and a #13 final ranking. Wilson is #10 on the current passing yards list and #7 on the TD list. He is #16 on PER with a solid 137.23 (which was really sent down due to a poor 1978 season before being injured). Wilson is also one of the most accomplished NFL QBs to come out of BYU starting 60 games (with a 32-28 record) and being part of an NFL team for 128 games. His 86 TDs in the NFL are 3rd behind Steve Young and Jim McMahon. He finished 3rd in the Heisman voting in 1979 and was a consensus All American. He also was a 2 time WAC offensive player of the year.

10. Gifford Nielson Giff is #14 in passing yards at BYU, #10 in TDs and 11th in PER. He was 6th in 1976 in the Heisman voting. He was the WAC player of the year in 1976. Nielsen was an important cog into turning BYU into what it became. He was a very good accurate QB who was drafted into the NFL and played 6 seasons there.

11. Brandon Doman Perhaps underrated here, the Domanator had some special moments at BYU. Who can forget the throw against Utah? The 12-0 start to the 2001 season? Doman finished #18 all-time at BYU in yards and #17 in passing TDs as he started just over a season. He is #6 in career PER with a 152 mark. Doman could also do it on the ground as he gained 956 yards with 11 TDs that way and finished with 626 after sacks. Doman was certainly helped by having Luke Staley in the backfield, but he produced time and time again for a team that didn't have much of a defense.

12. John Walsh Walsh is 6th in career yards and tied for 5th in career TDs. His PER ranks him as 10th best in Cougar history. Walsh was beginning to come into his own his Junior year as he led the team to a #18 final ranking. He took at least some of what Mel Kiper said about him being the #1 pick in the draft to heart and entered the NFL Draft. Well it turned out that Walsh was really, really slow as well as some other items and he fell to the 7th round and was cut and never played in the NFL. What could have been had he stayed at BYU for another season.

13. Gary Sheide Led BYU to their first ever bowl, the Fiesta Bowl in 1974. Finished 8th in the Heisman in '74 and won the Sammy Baugh. Was drafted in the 3rd round to the Bengals but never played in the NFL.

14. Taysom Hill Oh what might have been for Taysom. Taysom finished his BYU career 12th in passing yards, 15th in passing TDs and 22nd in PER (just below Tanner Mangum). Taysom's primary value was in the run game where he amassed over 3,000 yards gained and 32 TDs. He had some great highlight reel stuff against Texas twice, but injuries against Utah St a couple of times and Nebraska ended seasons early. He has had a "fun" career thus far in the NFL where he has done a little bit of everything.

15. Virgil Carter The #2 QB rusher in BYU history in net rushing yards. Carter had good passing stats for his era and was drafted to the Bears and played 7 years in the NFL. He finished 15th in career yards at BYU, 13th in passing TDs and 25th or so in passer efficiency (not really fair). He led BYU to an 8-2 record in 1966 which was quite an accomplishment.

16. Kevin Feterik 7th in career yards at BYU, 11th in TDs and 14th in PER. Had high hopes for a few of his teams and they never lived up to the billing, although they had some good solid years just outside the AP top 25.

17. Riley Nelson Nelson finished 19th in yards and 18th in passing TDs and 15th in PER. He received a lot of flack from Cougar fans as coaches sent him out to the field injured as they felt they didn't have a better option. Perhaps his best moment was leading his team to a comeback over his former team Utah St.