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Provo

Kalani Sitake and Ty Detmer say they are waiting, waiting for separation between their quarterback candidates to determine a starter.

But it's a bit of a charade.

It's a misdirected statement, and they are fully aware.

Neither Taysom Hill nor Tanner Mangum is going to set himself apart from the other in overall ability. Each is a quality quarterback. Each has his talents. Each could adequately do the job — in different ways.

"It's all-inclusive," Sitake said after Thursday's scrimmage. "The variables are all over the place. You have to analyze everything. They're both picking it up as far as the best way for them to lead the team. They're getting comfortable as far as what they do, how they compete, how they lead."

Opaque enough, then.

But more time given to the QBs, more time observing and judging them, isn't going to clarify or solve anything. The factor that will set the unsettled in its proper order isn't figuring which of the quarterbacks is "better," it's figuring out and judging the way the rest of the offense reacts as individuals and as a group to Hill and Mangum. That's the deciding factor.

Everybody knows Hill is mobile. Check that. He isn't mobile; he's the wind. Not only can he move the team down the field, he can embarrass defenders, most of whom are flat unable to stay with him. He can drop back, look for a receiver or two, hit one of them if he's wide open. If his target is not wide open, the senior QB can scamper — a term only proudly used in football — to and through spaces which most defenders cannot effectively cover. Not on one of Hill's good days. That is his gift. He probably does that better than 99 percent of the quarterbacks on the planet.

He has his weaknesses. He has a strong arm, but he isn't always the most accurate of passers. He'd just as soon knock a receiver over with a throw as float it in to him. Touch is for lesser men. Word is he's improved in this regard. Still, Hill is full throttle. He's a bull in a china shop.

Unfortunately for him, and for everyone who might have enjoyed watching a full four years of him, he's also china in a bull shop. Injury has been an enemy, an unlucky friend, a constant companion. It seems his joints and ligaments and tendons and bones are not the equal of his muscles and his sheer will.

Detmer said Hill's a better passer than he's been given credit for, and that his ability to move has obscured his passing. That may be true, but the senior is not the equal in arm talent to the sophomore.

Mangum is a pure passer, an accurate guy who can drop the ball into a Styrofoam cup from 25 yards out. He's always had that kind of aim, back to the days when he was the co-MVP, along with Jameis Winston, of the Elite 11 quarterback camp for prep prospects. That was no fluke. He was that good.

When he was called upon to step in for the injured Hill after 30 minutes of football at Nebraska last season, winning BYU's first game with that famous deep heave to Mitch Matthews in the closing seconds, it was unfair. Mangum had been home from an LDS Church mission for two-and-a-half months. Taking a dude who had been preaching love and peace and prayer to the people of South America for two years and sticking him into that kind of hyper-competitive environment in that sort of pressure moment is like sticking a toddler at the playground behind the wheel of the family Buick and telling him to drive the thing home.

With that unreasonable request comes smashing into a few things.

That happened to Mangum on a handful of occasions, in situations in which his answer was to drop into the pocket, bail out, drift right and chuck the ball as far as he could. He did not, could not completely master his circumstances. But anyone with eyes could see the rudiments of his game, the possibilities for what he might be able to accomplish. He's a passer's passer. In camp, he's been a bit too careful, wanting too much to make the right play. But he's the type of thrower that put BYU football on the marquee back in the 1980s.

So, it comes down to what Sitake and Detmer want and need.

That's where the rest of the team comes into play.

If the Cougars need a quarterback who can use his feet to move the football, Hill is the guy. If the offensive line is going to struggle against defenses scattered through one of the toughest schedules BYU has ever faced — including Utah at Rice-Eccles and Michigan State in East Lansing — then, Hill is the call. If Jamaal Williams can't consistently get loose in back of those defenses, Hill, again, is the answer.

If the offensive line can, in fact, protect the passer and grade road, if BYU's receivers can run great routes, get open, hold onto the ball, and Williams can handle his business on the ground, Mangum is the best choice.

It's pretty obvious.

There's one other component to Hill or Mangum: Which one makes better decisions?

If Hill is constantly pulling the ball down and running, at the expense of the rest of the offense, that's a problem. Not just because other players will get discouraged by being left out, but because Hill likely won't survive that kind of pounding. If he makes wise decisions, running when necessary and getting the ball up on time and on target, that's a wicked combination. If Mangum learned from what happened last season, and is better prepared to deliver timely passes, and those receivers can put themselves in position to catch them, that's tough to beat.

None of this is surprising to Sitake and Detmer.

They know all of this better than anyone.

"Nobody's worried about which one it will be," said Sitake. "It could be either. We're watching everything."

They must watch the other guys.

They just have to observe what those players can do, and pick the man who can thrive alongside them. That match is the real answer to the quarterback question in Provo.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.