Known as a fiery, self-assured and emotional leader on the football field, sometimes to his own detriment, former BYU quarterback Max Hall has never lacked enthusiasm in any of his pursuits.
That’s why the 40-year-old father of two had no trouble describing what it has been like to finally get his degree from BYU some 16 years after leaving the school for a two-year stint in the NFL and a subsequent battle with substance abuse and addiction. Hall was scheduled to address fellow graduating student-athletes Wednesday night at the annual banquet hosted by the athletic department.
“Can you believe it, after all these years?” Hall told the Deseret News on Tuesday. “After all these years, I am finally getting this done. Finally.”
Hall made the trip back to Provo from his home in the Mesa, Arizona, area on Wednesday morning. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was not planning to attend commencement exercises Thursday morning at the Marriott Center, or walk in any of the college convocations Thursday or Friday.
“The athletic department graduation is a little more of an intimate setting with people I know and love,” he said. “I don’t think I am going to do the big one on Thursday.”
Still, Hall graduating is big news for the department, which has pushed former star athletes who played professionally to return and get their degrees. For instance, one of Hall’s favorite targets from his sensational career at BYU (2006-09) was tight end Dennis Pitta, who graduated in 2022. Hall and Pitta married sisters, Matya (Hall) and McKinzi (Pitta).
Hall listed a variety of people who were instrumental in helping him finish the two classes he needed to get his degree in property facility management, most notably Pitta and Pitta’s mother, Linda. Other helpers he credited included Jim “Hambone” Hamblin of the Student Athlete Academic Center staff, former BYU offensive coordinator and quarterback Brandon Doman, Dave McCann of the Deseret News and BYUtv, and former BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe.
“The running joke with me and Dennis is the person who has always been adamant that I finish my degree was Dennis’ mom, Linda,” Hall said. “Now that I think about it, I probably need to send here a picture of it and say that I finally did it.”
After watching Pitta get his degree at the age of 37 a few years ago, Hall said he figured it was his time to get it done.
“I am like, shoot, if Dennis can do it, I better do it,” he said. “I can’t be the non-scholar in the family. … So definitely Dennis, and Sister Pitta, Dennis’ mom, were inspirations. But it was also just for me. It was time.”
Although Hall doesn’t plan to walk across a stage and get his diploma handed to him, he said his wife secretly bought a cap and gown and will bring them along on the trip to Utah this week.
“I will probably have to pose for some pictures,” he acknowledged.
Why it took as long as it did
Hall won 32 games as a starter for BYU from 2007-09, a record that still stands. He went undrafted in 2010, and left BYU needing about 24 credit hours to graduate.
After playing for the Arizona Cardinals for two seasons before suffering a string of season- and career-ending injuries, he returned to BYU as a student coach under Doman and planned to finish his degree then.
However, he returned to Arizona to become an offensive coordinator at ALA Queen Creek needing two more classes to graduate.
“In the last 12 years or so, I have always had it in my head that I wanted to finish, but didn’t really have a need to do that,” he said. “Just recently, in this last year, I said to myself, ‘Hey Max, you need to finish that degree.’ So I got it done.”
Hall said he started the process in January 2025, and completed those last two classes last November and actually received the diploma in the mail a few months ago.
“Bro, when that diploma came, that was really sweet,” he said. “That was a really, really rewarding experience.”
One of the classes was an online physical science class, which Hall said he had attempted to pass two previous times, but wasn’t able to due to other circumstances. The other one was an organizational behavior class, which he loved.
“It was basically managerial leadership, and that class was awesome, man,” he said. “I killed that class. That was a great class.”
Is Hall a future Hall of Famer at BYU?
Hall freely acknowledges that there was another compelling reason to get his degree. To be inducted into the BYU Athletics Hall of Fame, inductees need to achieve All-America status, have notable professional accomplishments, a record of community service, and a college degree.
“This kind of makes me eligible for other things that may happen for me at BYU,” he said. “I could get something in that Student Athlete Building, or something in, I hate to say, the BYU Hall of Fame. That would be very important to me.”
Hall paid special attention when Holmoe and others helped former BYU and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon get his degree, and used that as inspiration. “I don’t know if I am in that category or not, but at least I am eligible,” he said. “Guys such as Jim (Hamblin) and Dave (McCann) and Tom (Home) kept on me and encouraged me. I have so much love for those guys and what they’ve done for me. It’s special, man.
“My time at BYU was so awesome, and we did some great things, and I even appreciated the people who covered us, media guys, who were there through the whole thing,” he continued. “It is time, and it just feels right. Dude, I am just super excited.”
What’s next for BYU grad Max Hall?
Hall and ALA Queen Creek parted ways last October after the football team got off to an 0-5 start. His son, Rex, who is a freshman quarterback, transferred to Mountain View High in Mesa, which is the alma mater of Hall and former BYU QB John Beck.
Hall has been asked to be the quarterbacks coach at Mountain View this fall, and he will be joined on that staff by former NFL tight end Todd Heap, who has a son the same age as Rex Hall.
Yes, Max’s son Rex is a quarterback
“I did everything I could to try to get him not to play quarterback,” Hall said. “I told him how about running back, receiver, DB, or something else, man? Because if you’re going to play quarterback, that means I have to coach. Now we are over here at Mountain View. Everything just kind of worked itself out.”
Hall said after he left ALA Queen Creek he considered taking a leap into the college ranks, and talked to some people at BYU, Utah State — where his former coach, Bronco Mendenhall, is the boss in Logan — and even Utah (gasp!) but “things just didn’t quite work out” and he decided to take the offer from Mountain View.
“I don’t know what the future holds. I do know that the next couple years I’m going to stay local. I want to be a present father for my kids. I also have an eighth-grade daughter,” he said. “After that, maybe I find something to do with my degree. Or maybe I get an opportunity to go coach somewhere else. But having the degree gives me more options and more opprortunities, so I’m super grateful for that and the people who helped me get it.”
BYU quarterback Max Hall will play his final game as a Cougar in the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas when he faces the Oregon State Beavers. | Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News