How ‘The Mangler’ went from small-town hero to key part of No. 11 BYU’s defensive line

Blake Mangelson grew up moving sprinkler pipe, working with cows, riding horses and branding cattle on his grandparents’ spread in central Utah, among other chores associated with a rural lifestyle, but BYU’s starting defensive tackle doesn’t consider himself a full-fledged cowboy or farmer.
Rather, the 6-foot-5, 280-pound senior who was an all-state football star and state heavyweight wrestling champion prefers another nickname that has picked up speed the past few months: “The Mangler.”
“I like it, it’s awesome,” Mangelson said last week. “I think (BYU Radio analyst and former Cougar defensive lineman) Hans Olsen was the first person to call me that, and it has kinda stuck. It’s great.”
It has stuck so much — just like the football stuck to his mammoth hands when he intercepted a tipped pass against Baylor — that teammates now call him “The Mangler” all the time and his grandmother had T-shirts made with the new moniker to distribute to family members and friends.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Mangelson, who generally doesn’t like attention, hoopla and fanfare.
“Blake is a real quiet guy,” acknowledged fellow senior defensive tackle John Nelson, the teammate who tipped the pass that Mangelson intercepted on BYU’s first defensive play of the game in Waco to set up the Cougars’ second TD in the 34-28 win over the Bears.
Mangelson’s description of his first-ever pick: “I put my hands up, and I see the ball. I kinda gave a little hop, and as soon as it was in my hands I was like, ‘Holy crap, I got it.’ All the guys gave me grief about not trying to take it for six, but I was just happy to get the pick.”
Mangelson is also happy with the way he’s played this season, his first full season as a starter after making the move from defensive end to defensive tackle last spring. He’s one of the reasons why the Cougars are ranked No. 11 in the country, 7-0, and being seen as a possibility to make the College Football Playoff.
Mangelson has recorded a sack, four tackles for loss and 21 tackles, in addition to the interception.
“I think for sure this has been my best season since being here,” he said. “I struggled with injuries my first few years, and then last year I kind of had a coming-out year. This year, moving down to D tackle, being on the field more, I feel a lot more comfortable, and am just having a blast.”
Defensive coordinator Jay Hill said Mangelson has made the transition to the interior line seamlessly, which was to be expected for a guy who puts so much effort and energy into improving his craft.
“Well, he is a great player. He is physical. He has played a lot of football for us. He is one of our best guys. And yeah, I can’t say enough about Blake and what he means to our program, because he truly is one of the most important guys we have,” Hill said.
Mangelson, Nelson and their front seven mates will be tested again Saturday when the Cougars (7-0, 4-0) travel to Orlando to take on upset-minded UCF (3-4, 1-3) at FBC Mortgage Stadium. Oklahoma State had some success running the ball against the Cougars in last Friday’s BYU victory, and the Knights figure to employ the same strategy.
Head coach Kalani Sitake said Monday that through seven games the defensive tackles have “made their presence known” and adjusted well to their new roles.
“They need to be more consistent. The team is kinda banged up. We are going into the eighth game of the year. There are a lot of teams that are banged up right now,” Sitake said. “There are a lot of guys that are playing that aren’t 100 percent. It is usually the guys up front, they have some soreness here or there, dealing with some type of flaw in their health.”
Working with director of football nutrition Dan Wilcox, Mangelson says he’s gained some weight since spring, pounding “nasty protein shakes” and the like in an effort to get to 285 pounds, or more. That’s quite a leap for a guy who was 215 pounds coming out of Juab High in 2020.
Playing big-time college football wasn’t really on Mangelson’s mind when he was raised by a single father in Nephi and spent a lot of time with his grandparents in Levan, some 10 miles south of Juab High. His father, Michael Mangelson, said young Blake played fullback until his junior year of high school, then was moved to the line because he got “too big” to play a skill position.
“He was a good fullback,” Michael said. “He could really run the ball.”
At Juab, Mangelson recorded 159 tackles and 22.5 sacks, while also placing second in the 3A state wrestling tournament his junior season, and first his senior season. He had offers fairly early to walk on at Snow College or Southern Utah, but didn’t really hear from BYU until late in the recruiting process.
“I cheered for Utah growing up. I never thought I would ever come to BYU,” Mangelson said. “My high school coach (Mike Bowring) would always tease me and say, ‘Blake, I got a feeling you are going to go to BYU.’ I would say there was no way, that’s not going to happen. … I wasn’t the biggest Utah fan — I had a couple of their shirts — but I did support the Utes over BYU.”
When BYU entered the picture before Signing Day in January 2020 with a preferred walk-on offer, Mangelson said it was “a no-brainer for me to come up here and take a shot at major college football,” but his wife since the summer of 2023, Hannah, said she almost talked him out of it.
The former Hannah Holden is also from Nephi and had been his girlfriend since they were in middle school, although Hannah says they weren’t “officially” a couple until they were ninth graders. She accompanied him on his official visit to SUU and thought that might be the better choice because his chances of getting playing time were greater.
“I am glad he didn’t listen to me because he pushed through and did it,” she said. “It has been pretty special watching him grow and turn into a Division I athlete out of a 3A school with a graduating senior class of about 170, 180 kids. Everybody still loves him down in Nephi. It’s been quite special.”
Hannah, who graduated from Snow College and Weber State and now works as a nurse at a hospice in Utah County, still remembers the excitement around town when word got out that BYU coaches were making an in-home visit.
She and the girlfriend of one of Mangelson’s brothers rushed over to their house to clean it up a little bit before Sitake and a few assistants paid a visit.
“His dad was a single father at the time, so I kinda helped those guys throughout high school, just kinda doing the mother duties as well as his older brother’s girlfriend,” Hannah said. “I’ve loved it.”
His wife, and father, said one of the gentle giant’s best qualities is his empathy for the underdog, the undersized, and the underprivileged.
“Blake has always been one of those kids that always sticks up for the less fortunate guy. If someone was getting picked on in school, or if somebody was getting harassed or something like that, Blake has always been someone who would stand up for that kid,” Michael said. “Even if it meant him not being the most popular kid in school, he was always that kid who would watch out for others. He always had a positive influence on a lot of people, even his friends.”
Mangelson is now 23, and Hannah is 22. While quite a few BYU football players are married, more than at any other college football program in the country, not many, if any, knew their future wife for more than eight years, like Mangelson did.
“She was very patient for quite a while,” Blake said.
“We knew we wanted to get married eventually,” Hannah said. “We just waited a bit and made sure it was right and let him focus on football and not have to worry about preparing for a marriage.”
So the football player eventually proposed just before a family Christmas party at his grandmother’s house in Levan, a proposal that really wasn’t a surprise since the couple had been out ring shopping some three months prior.
As for the new nickname, The Mangler, Hannah said the entire family loves it.
“We all kinda giggled about it at first. Once it became a bigger thing, we were like, ‘Oh, this is kinda cool. Like, you are big enough to have a nickname,’” Hannah said. “It is special for people to know more of him than just his name.”
Mangelson greyshirted the 2020 season and got his first taste of playing time in 2021, appearing in seven games and recording at least one tackle in four different games. As a sophomore, he started in one game, played in nine, and made 13 tackles.
Then he got put on scholarship, an award for his tenacity and loyalty to the program that enabled him to quit a part-time job as a janitor at a power plant in Payson.
“Those who have experienced being a walk-on know you are at the bottom of the barrel,” he said. “But I am blessed that I was a walk-on, and given the opportunity to play up here. It has brought me a lot of blessings. It was a struggle at first. But I am lucky enough to have a very supportive family.”
And a very patient girlfriend, who is now his very appreciative wife.
“The thing you need to know,” Hannah said the other day, “is that Blake is a really great guy. He really is.”