For nobody is the Las Vegas Bowl more important than Max Hall.

He tossed a couple of gas cans on its significance with his infamous I-hate-hate-hate-hate-hate-everything-about-Utah comments, drawing fire from all around, along with a few sprinkles of support, but the heap was already burning long before that.

Aside from what Hall has come to symbolize for a lot of football fans in this state, there remains the question about what he really is: A good quarterback? A great quarterback? One of the all-time Cougar greats? Or merely a solid custodian of the position who was lucky enough to come along just as the rest of the BYU program had ascended once again to a position of Mountain West prominence?

In his three years as a starter, he won -- a lot. More than anybody at BYU before him. Thirty-one times, he's walked off the field a victor. One more win in Vegas would push the bar to a place that will be tough for any subsequent BYU quarterback to surpass.

His career statistics compare decently to Ty Detmer's and Jim McMahon's and Steve Young's and Robbie Bosco's in categories such as passing yards, touchdowns, interceptions, and, as mentioned, wins.

The only number where he lags behind, and this is part of the reason some BYU football followers are hesitant to put him in the same sentence with the aforementioned illustrious ones, is in championships won.

Detmer won three, McMahon won three, Young won two, and Bosco won two league titles and one national championship. Hall has just one.

The Vegas Bowl won't affect any of that because BYU's second-place finish in the Mountain West is already in the books.

But the other drag on Hall has been that while he wins games against ordinary teams, and most of the teams the Cougars play fit that description, he too often hasn't hauled his team through to victory over top teams. There are always at least two face-plants along the way, and sometimes three. In the world of BCS bowls, and lofty requirements to get in, that's been enough to block Hall's path to a seat at the table of legends.

No matter that Detmer and McMahon and Young never went undefeated. But they worked in a day when playing amped-up offensive football and heading to the Holiday Bowl was enough. Bosco temporarily cranked everything up a notch with what he did in 1984.

But Utah's and Boise State's and now TCU's success in the unfortunate era of the BCS changed the definition of what's great and what isn't.

And, for some, Hall's going 11-2, 10-3, and 10-2 before tonight's game, hasn't quite been enough. Beating Oklahoma was a bonus, but losing to TCU, twice, and Utah, as well as Arizona, Florida State, UCLA, and Tulsa, greatly smudged Hall's legacy.

It is true, those seven losses came against mostly tough opponents, but Hall's inability to magically punch the Cougars past them, regardless of whatever other soft spots were plaguing BYU at the time, has tainted the perception others have of him.

Last season's performance, in particular, when the culmination of the progress that had been made in the program leading up to that point begged for something more, blew a small hole in his status as a BYU great. Hall may have been dismayed by the alleged treatment his family received at Rice-Eccles in 2008, but his showing in that game -- six turnovers -- did more damage to him than anything that happened prior to or since.

He was scrappy. He was plucky. He was a competitor.

But he also had a tendency to blow a gasket.

And, of course, even in triumph's glow, after this year's win over the Utes, that happened again, in another form. First, when Hall, after throwing the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime, bumped into and verbally threw down on Utah linebacker Stevenson Sylvester, and, then, in the postgame interview session.

Classlessness sometimes flows both ways.

Tonight's bowl game in Vegas, against a talented Oregon State team, offers balm for Hall on both counts. He can win a big, not huge, but big game against the Beavers, giving one last bit of evidence that he belongs within shouting distance of the top of the Cougar quarterback collection, and he can wash away the stain he left in the aftermath of the Utah win.

Or, at least, he can try.

GORDON MONSON hosts the "Monson and Graham Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com .