BYU Football Top 100: No. 7 Cody Hoffman, BYU's Best Receiver

BYU Football begins in one week.

We are one week away! ONE WEEK! Normally at this time of year we would be talking 100% about football, but with the news about Zac Seljaas yesterday it was a clear reminder that even during the off season there are injuries and things that happen that can completely change the upcoming season.

It is also a reminder that BYU Football, like BYU Basketball is only a few injuries away from being in serious danger of not reaching the goals that were set in the preseason. The basketball team without the height and experience of Yoeli Childs and Zac Seljaas will be lucky to above .500 when Childs returns to the lineup, something that we wouldn't have believed just three weeks ago. All we can do is hope that both the football and basketball teams are able to stay healthy from here on out.

Today's player in the countdown was the best receiver to ever play for the Cougars.

Cody Hoffman - Receiver/Returner - 2010-2013

When I was a kid my Dad always told me "If the ball hits your hands that means you should catch it." While there is some truth to this, it isn't completely realistic, unless your name is Cody Hoffman.

If Cody Hoffman had played at a different time his stats would have been even higher than they are and he would be compared more with Austin Collie, Mark Bellini and Jonny Harline. But because he played at an awkward time for BYU, he often gets forgotten and ranked much lower than he actually deserves.

In case you haven't read any of the other countdown articles, last season BYU's leading receiver had 511 receiving yards. The year before that it was 520 yards and in 2016 it was 541 yards. Cody Hoffman had 1,248 yards in junior season, more than twice as many as any of the receivers the past three seasons.

Even crazier though is his quarterbacks were Riley Nelson, Jake Heaps, James Lark and a young Taysom Hill. In other words, it wasn't Ty Detmer and Robbie Bosco throwing 500 yard games to him to get all of those yards.

Rankings

Impact A-

I'm not sure there was much that Cody Hoffman could have really done to help out his team more than he did. The teams he played on were decent 8-5 teams that were never great but never terrible. It wasn't the prime of BYU which makes his impact for the future limited. Without him, maybe the team would have gone 6-6 or worse a few of those seasons we will never know. What we do know is he was the leading receiver for all four seasons while at BYU, something that doesn't happen very often to any player on any team other than military schools.

Statistics A+

3,612 yards. That is how many yards a good quarterback is able to throw for in a season. In this case, it is the amount of receiving yards that Cody Hoffman had during his career despite missing two games his senior year. On top of his receiving yards he averaged a very healthy 13.9 yards per catch and 33 touchdown catches. He also averaged 25.1 yards on kickoff returns and added another touchdown there. In total he had 18 games with at least 100 receiving yards and eight games with at least two touchdowns.

Memorable Moments A+

The first one that comes to mind is the Armed Forces Bowl. With just seconds remaining in the game, Riley Nelson appeared to be calling for a Spike. When the ball snapped he faked the spike and found Hoffman in the corner of the endzone for the game winning score. In fact in that game, he caught all three of BYU's touchdowns, two of them coming in high pressure situations.

That was just one of many memorable moments for him though. He had a five touchdown game against New Mexico State and had a huge TD catch against Utah State in the game that defined Riley Nelson's career. At the end of his Junior season he had a four game stretch of at least 108 receiving yards with the highest being 182 yards. Finally, although not a huge play in the game, in a game versus Hawaii Riley Nelson was hit and was falling over when he heaved the ball down the field. Hoffman reached out and made a spectacular one handed grab on his way to the endzone.