The Unquestionable Swagger of Taysom Hill

The great American poet Chingy once professed,"I'm fresh to death so baby check my swag."

As much as I want to go into an in-depth discussion on the rich nature of St. Louis-based hip-hop (which is highly underrated), I will simply focus on this declaration from Chingy and how BYU quarterback Taysom Hill is the natural embodiment of this lyric.

It can be confirmed in more ways than one that Taysom is "fresh to death" so much so that everyone around the country, specifically opposing defenses, should "check his swag."

Now when I say check his swag, I'm not talking about his 1000+ total yards and ten touchdowns in his first three games. I'm also not telling you to look up his highlight reel runs that have been running ad nauseam on ESPN. The swagger that I'm talking about will surely make Taysom Hill a player that the opposition will love to hate.

And yes, you heard me right. Taysom Hill will be someone that people hate. Trust me when I say that if I had to see Taysom Hill run over, under and through my team's defense, and then see him leisurely saunter into the end zone, I would absolutely hate the guy too.

To make it clear, I'm not associating Taysom with people like Lance Armstrong or Ryan Braun, who have a specific propensity for dishonesty which drives people to hate them. I'm also not including guys like Dwight Howard or Tim Tebow, who drive people crazy because they seem more concerned about their public persona then their actual profession.

The type of hated athlete category that Taysom Hill falls under are those who only have one flaw: they're dang good and they know it. You know the type. They walk the walk and do just a little bit of talking to remind you. It's pure swagger in every sense.

Let me explain.

The first time we saw it was in the Texas game last year. Sure there were moments in games previous that Taysom made some great plays, but it wasn't until that record breaking night that we got to see some personality from the signal caller.

At the tail end of his first touchdown, Taysom turned back to the defense as he lightly backpedaled into the end zone.  Maybe it was because he was genuinely looking back to see where the defense was -- but when he did it a second time, I had a hunch that this was more gamesmanship than anything. On his third and final touchdown he waltzed into the end zone and simply crossed his arms as if to say, "my work is done here."

Was it necessary? Probably not. Was it arrogant. Maybe a little. Was it swagger? Oh, most definitely.

In the first game of this season after a seven yard touchdown run, he gave a long look into the student section at Rentschler Field. Against Texas, Taysom gave the entire north end zone the "Are you not entertained?" expression after hurdling over the Texas safety.

On this last Friday against Houston, a defensive back did his best to bring down Hill. The DB could barely push him out of bounds, falling to the ground in the process. Taysom, still standing, waited for the guy to get him so he could let him know that it was going to take a lot more than that to take him down. (Or something to that effect.)

It's that kind of stuff that begins to get you hated -- and I love it more than just about anything.

After having to suffer through the exuberant cheerleader days of Riley Nelson and dazed and confused era of Jake Heaps, it's good to have a "fresh to death" man of swagger behind center at BYU.