Taysom Hill has suffered three season-ending injuries in four years. (USATSI)

BYU quarterback Taysom Hill announced Tuesday that he will be returning to the Cougars football program in 2016 and seeking a medical hardship waiver in hopes of continuing an injury-plagued career that started back in 2012. 

Hill has suffered three season-ending injuries at BYU: a midseason ACL tear as a freshman starter in 2012, a major leg injury in 2014 and then a foot injury in the first game of 2015, his senior season.

Tanner Mangum, a former blue-chip prospect out of high school just playing his freshman season in 2015, took over at quarterback in Hill's absence last season and impressed, throwing for 3,377 yards and 23 touchdowns in 13 games.

With Hill having an extra year of eligibility, there was a school of thought that he would transfer elsewhere. Backing up that notion were reports that Hill had an offer to follow Bronco Mendenhall to Virginia for his final year. 

SB Nation's Matt Brown, whose BYU opinions we trust as much as anyone's, wrote last month that Hill's return to Provo seemed like the least likely option, particularly with reported offers to play at Virginia -- a team without a steady quarterback situation -- and elsewhere immediately. 

So what does it mean for Mangum? For one, he's going to get some more experienced competition for the starting job, which I'm guessing will be treated as an "open race" given the changeover in coaching staffs. But Tanner Mangum has a much higher ceiling given his rating out of school -- remember, he was a part of the same Elite 11 quarterback class as Jameis Winston, if you missed the most-repeated game note of BYU's 2015 season -- and many of the marks against him from the fall (10 interceptions) seem appropriate for a first-year player thrown into the lineup after an unexpected injury to the starting quarterback. 

First-year head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Ty Detmer are the real winners here, carrying a loaded backfield into 2016 with Hill, Mangum and the potential return of running backJamaal Williams (personal reasons).