Madison Mangum always dreamed of being on ESPN. He never thought it would come true. Especially not in the fashion it did last weekend.
The Idaho State senior made a ridiculous touchdown catch on Saturday, one of three scoring receptions the wide receiver notched against Division II Black Hills State. On a play from inside the 10-yard line in the first quarter, Mangum ran up the left sideline and jumped. ISU quarterback Michael Sanders threw a fade to the back corner of the end zone. Mangum reached with up his right hand and caught the ball behind him, cupping the ball with his large hand and securing the touchdown.
Meanwhile, Brigham Young University, Mangum’s former school, was locked in a battle with Nebraska at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. The BYU game started before the ISU game. Shortly after Mangum’s highlight reel catch, BYU quarterback Taysom Hill went down with a season-ending foot injury. That meant Tanner Mangum, Madison’s 22-year-old freshman brother, would try to guide Cougars to a comeback.
BYU assumed control of the football with 48 seconds to play trailing 28-27. Tanner Mangum engineered a 76-yard drive, capped by a 42-yard Hail Mary pass on fourth down as time expired.
“The equipment guys told me and I was going pretty crazy on the sidelines, cheering and going nuts,” Madison Mangum said.
The highlight lit up the college football world, reigniting Tanner Mangum’s story of Elite 11 QB who chose BYU and then went on an LDS mission. It also put the Mangum brothers squarely in the spotlight. When ESPN’s SportsCenter rolled out its Top 10 plays of the first weekend of college football, Madison’s catch was No. 2. Tanner’s Hail Mary was No. 1.
“I never imagined this, not like that,” Madison said in an interview on Wednesday morning. “I could’ve never foreseen this. I’ve always wanted to be on SportsCenter. Who doesn’t want to be on the Top 10 plays? But to be on it with my little brother going No. 1 and No. 2, that was surreal. I couldn’t believe it. A really cool experience.”
Tanner Mangum’s story had a national revival — he shared MVP honors at the Elite 11 finals with Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL Draft pick Jameis Winston back in 2011— due to the highlight, reminding folks why he was one of the top prospects in the country once upon a time. In 2012, he gray shirted at BYU in order to delay his eligibility, then embarked on an LDS mission in July of 2013 to the Atacama Desert in Chile. The 1-2 SportsCenter debut also put Madison on the national stage, but his ridiculous catch is something those who follow the Big Sky Conference are getting used to.
Mangum
“He plays the ball in the air better than almost anybody and he’s a big receiver, one of the biggest receivers we have in our conference this year so he can use his size to his advantage, especially when he’s attacking the ball,” said Portland State senior cornerback Aaron Sibley, a 2014 All-Big Sky selection who will try to slow down Mangum as PSU takes on ISU on Saturday. “Those two components make him a dynamic receiver. I respect him a lot.”
Like Tanner and oldest Mangum brother, Parker, Madison went to BYU after a standout prep career in Eagle, Idaho, a suburb of Boise. Like his brothers, Madison went on an LDS mission after his first year in Provo. Unlike his brothers, when his mission was finished, Madison decided he was finished with football. He returned to Provo and worked out with the Cougars for a few weeks in 2012 before deciding to hang it up.
“In my mind, I felt like it was going to be the same story of my redshirt freshman year, which was a tough year for me,” said Mangum, who was buried behind other standout freshmen like Cody Hoffman and Mitch Mathews. “I did not have a good experience football-wise. I was so low on the depth chart. I didn’t get any recognition or chances. So when I came back from my mission, I felt like it was going to be the same thing. I just decided to stop playing football. My heart wasn’t in it.”
Former ISU quarterback Riley Sessions, a fellow LDS missionary who spent time working with Madison in San Antonio, began courting Mangum to come to Pocatello. By the summer of 2013, he missed the game so Mangum came on a visit to Idaho State, a school that had offered him out of high school.
The 6-foot-2 Mangum started at ISU as a 180-pounder. He caught one pass in two games against Division II opponents to open the 2013 season. In ISU’s 56-0 loss at Washington, Mangum got manhandled. By the end of the 3-9 campaign, Mangum had just seven catches for 76 yards. In the off-season, he decided that if he wanted to compete, he’d have to transform his body. He essentially locked himself in the weight room and the kitchen, forcing himself to put on more than 30 pounds.
“Madison is a freak in the weight room,” ISU senior running back Xavier Finney said in July. “Every time I see him, I think he has food in his hand. He’s eating always. He’s in the training room constantly. He’s the most dedicated guy on our team when it comes to taking care of his body.”
By the beginning of last season, Mangum was a specimen, a 6-foot-2, 212-pound block of chiseled muscle. By the end of last season, he was one of the top receivers in the FCS. As a junior, he caught 83 passes for 1,234 yards and 10 touchdowns. Entering his senior year, he was a preseason All-Big Sky selection and an All-America candidate.
“The biggest part that has changed for me is my overall confidence and I think that came from a lot of work that I put into getting bigger, faster and stronger,” Mangum said. “It gives you a mental edge when you are going up against somebody that you are bigger and you are stronger than that guy.
“Last year, that transferred over to making plays. I was confident enough in myself that I knew that every ball that was thrown my way, I was going to get it and game by game, my confidence continued to grow. It’s continued on into this year. I still feel like I am on the rise. I’m still getting better every single week and my confidence level has continue to increase.”
Mangum credits a revamped diet to his physical transformation. He’s been lifting weights for most of his life but he didn’t start to gain mass until he adopted a “body builder’s mentality of eating myself sick.”
“It’s definitely a grind,” Mangum said. “There’s definitely days you don’t ever want to eat again. But that’s how it goes. I want to be successful so bad, putting myself through that is not a big deal.”
Mangum finished his breakout season as a first-team All-Big Sky selection He was third in the league in yards, catches and touchdowns with Sacramento State senior DeAndre Carter and Eastern Washington sophomore Cooper Kupp the only receivers to out-do him. Yet ISU head coach Mike Kramer has even loftier goals for Mangum this season.
“He surprised me and he surprised everyone,” Kramer said in May. “The problem I have with Madison outside the tremendous accolades he’s had up until now and the prowess and progress he’s made is, he finished the Eastern Washington game on the sideline (a 56-53 loss) and on the last drive against Montana State those last two plays (a 44-38 ISU loss), he was on the sideline. He needs to have some big game ability not just big stat ability.
“For him to make that next step up, that will begin right away. He has to be a finisher. He has to be a closer. He hasn’t shown that ability in big games yet so the book is still open on Madison. I believe he can be a great one.”
Idaho State opens Big Sky play against Portland State on Saturday. The matchup is as week earlier than any other league contest and two weeks earlier than the rest of the league save Southern Utah and Northern Colorado, who open on September 19. SportsCenter Top 10s may or may not be in Mangum’s future, but he hopes to ride his confidence throughout his final season producing highlight reels.
“The mentality I have is it doesn’t matter what corner I’m lining up against, I feel like I can go up against anybody and beat them,” Mangum said. “That’s just the confidence and mentality I have. I know we will bring our A game on Saturday and every time out.”
Photos courtesy of Idaho State Athletics. All Rights Reserved.
