By now everyone should know that the long-winded quarterback battle came to an end this week with Jaren Hall named the starter heading into the season opener against Arizona.
Hall has been around the program for a while, but you may not know a lot about him. Here’s where I come in.
During BYU Football’s annual media day back in June, I got to speak to Hall for a few minutes. It was toward the very end of the day and instead of barraging him with a load of questions about the depth chart that wouldn’t even be resolved until now, I asked him some silly, fun, personal questions.
“Oh my heavens, man,” Hall said. “I’m an open book that’s not very interesting.”
Outside of sports, Hall wishes he could play piano better. The Spanish Fork native has an uncle “who’s very talented” at piano, who sends Hall all sorts of stuff to help the quarterback improve his playing.
He may not be the best, but it helps him to relax.
“I’ll learn how to play [what my uncle sends me],” Hall said. “Something about playing piano music, I kind of get lost in. So, it’s a way to unwind.”
While Hall’s wife does dabble in reality TV, Hall hasn’t gotten into it. He does, however, really enjoy movies.
That is, when he has time for them.
“I like to be entertained — I don’t like to sit there and do nothing,” Hall said.
At the time when we spoke, Hall hadn’t seen some of the biggest movies of the summer like “In the Heights” or “Cruella”. But that’s when I found out he’s a huge Marvel fan.
Hall was watching “Loki” like a lot of us and was enjoying it, but felt it was slow to build early on. However, he didn’t care for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and didn’t like “WandaVision” (I took that personally).
So, for all you curious fans: What’s Hall’s favorite Marvel movie?
“I love the Iron Man [movies],” Hall said. “I didn’t love ‘Endgame’ — I liked ‘Infinity War’.”
As far as his favorite Marvel character, Hall said it’s Iron Man.
“Captain [America] gets too much love, you’ve got to spread the love,” Hall said. “Tony [Stark] was the bad guys in a lot of ways. People saw him as the arrogant dude.”
Basically, Hall just loves the “mindless action movies.”
So, there you go. Now you know a little bit more about the guy who just became the face of BYU.
Quick hits
• In case you missed it, here’s what coaches had to say about how and why Hall won the starting quarterback job. Essentially, he took command of the offense and has plenty of experience having been on the team for four seasons.
• Over the weekend, Zach Wilson played a preseason game against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Here’s what people, including Rodgers, had to say about Wilson.
• Before BYU named its starting quarterback, Dustin Smith of QB Elite spoke to The Tribune about the quarterback competition and why he thought Hall was the man for the job.
Other voices
• FanNation wrote one fast fact about every player on the BYU football roster.
• For those eager for BYU Football’s first game, here’s a look at why Arizona coach Jedd Fisch went with two quarterbacks instead of one.
• Has Taysom Hill lost his bid for Saints’ starting quarterback? It seems that way.
• Per The New York Post, the Jets were right to make Zach Wilson their clear No. 1 QB.
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