One of the best storylines in college football as the midway point of the 2024 season approaches has been the hot start by BYU. The Cougars sit at 5-0 in their second year of Big 12 play heading into a Week 7 home showdown against Arizona.
BYU was no stranger to success as an independent, and in fact this is the Cougars third time in the last five seasons beginning the season 5-0, but the 2024 season strikes a different note considering BYU went 5-7 last year. Much of its early success can be attributed to the standout play by quarterback Jake Retzlaff, the only Division l starting quarterback of Jewish faith.
Retzlaff's path to becoming the starting signal caller for the Cougars has been anything but conventional. Earlier this week, Retzlaff and those closest to him sat down with CBS Sports Network for an Inside College Football feature to discuss a variety of topics, including his Jewish faith and why he transferred to BYU.
"I didn't know what to think, to be honest with you," Retzlaff said when asked about coming to BYU as someone with Jewish faith. "Like I didn't know what I was getting into. ... And what I didn't realize is how much the faith would actually benefit me. I thought it was just something that would be lingering around, but how much it benefited me is something that was like a great surprise that I got to really, you know, embrace when I got to BYU and my time at BYU is just because everything is so centered around faith, it just allows you to become stronger and grow in your faith."
Retzlaff's road to BYU has been unique. The Los Angeles native attended two junior colleges in Southern California before transferring to the Big 12 program ahead of the 2023 season. He finally got his chance as an FBS starting quarterback last fall when former Cougars starting signal caller Kedon Slovis went down with an injury against West Virginia.
From that moment on, Retzlaff has solidified himself as BYU's starting signal caller. He started the final three games last season before winning the starting job in fall camp over former Baylor and USF quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who missed the entirety of last season due to injury.
Retzlaff has completed 61.2% of his attempts for 1,208 yards and 12 touchdowns in the first five games. With wins over SMU, Kansas State and Baylor already on the résumé, BYU is firmly in contention to earn the automatic bid to the 12-team College Football playoff by winning the Big 12. The Cougars are one of five teams in the conference (with Iowa State, Texas Tech, Colorado and West Virginia being the others) to have a perfect record in conference play.
Retzlaff was ranked the No. 2 overall JUCO quarterback by 247Sports and committed to BYU over interest from other programs such as New Mexico State, UTEP, and Hawaii. What drew Retzlaff to BYU, in his own words, was the success the staff had with recent signal callers Zach Wilson and Jaren Hall. Wilson was selected No. 2 by the New York Jets in the 2021 NFL Draft, while Hall was selected in the fifth round two years later.
"(As I) looked into BYU deeper, looked into the team, looked into the schedule, looked into the big 12, it was appealing from the beginning," Retzlaff said. "It was like, okay, that's the top college football in the country. And so I want to go play there."
On perhaps his last leg of football, Retzlaff was also drawn to the football-only mindset at BYU.
"We know that it'll be easy to stay focused on football because there's no real distractions in Provo around the school or anything like that. You got to go find distractions away from here in order to be distracted," he said. "And so we knew that I'd be focused on school and football the whole time I was here. And like that was ideal, especially thinking about where do you want to go to college, where you want to succeed in college? It's like, let's go get a degree and play football without any of the outside nonsense going on."
Steve Retlaff was initially worried when his son made the decision to the move from the comforts of Southern California to Provo, Utah. The elder Retzlaff was quickly assured by his son that he was making the right decision.
"Jake is a Southern California kid, grew up going to the beach, hanging out, having fun, so I was more than concerned," Steve Retzlaff said. "Just straight. Not football wise, just father wise. What do you want to do, Jake? Do you know what you're getting involved with? Do you know about this? You know about that? That this is a no-joke community. And his best friend in high school was a Mormon kid. I said, so it's a little bit different than you think."
Steve added later, "He was really single minded about why he wanted to come (to BYU). That's the place that can make me become the best football player I can become."
Retzlaff was asked how his worship has changed in a LDS community, especially juggling the role of QB1.
"It's definitely hard and I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss a single Shabbat service," he said. "and so I just find sanctuary, as corny as it sounds, on the field."
Retzlaff continued:
"Somebody asked me last year about the Sandy Koufax story on how he sat out during the High Holy Days in the World Series, the biggest stage in baseball. And he ended up coming back and winning the game in Game 7 and winning the World Series for the Dodgers. But and they asked, like, would you do something similar? Like, if we had a game on Yom Kippur, would you sit out? And I'm like, I can't see myself doing that because on the field is where I find so much sanctuary, where I where I find so the feeling of God behind me and what I'm doing."
Yom Kippur is this Saturday, Oct. 12, when BYU hosts Arizona.
With the spotlight on him and his team, the younger Retzlaff has a goal of providing more visibility to athletes of Jewish faith and hopes to inspire the next generation of (quarterbacks) and football players to dream big.
"I feel like I'm here for a reason," Retzlaff said. "I'm on the stage for a reason. I get to go play out there on television, and hopefully somewhere there's a Jewish kid watching (thinking) I can do that too. There's not a lot of Jewish athletes at a high level. So (being) able to show one kid, that's enough for me. That's enough to be out there every Saturday to do that, to get one kid inspired to do something better than he might have thought he had. Show people that there's not the limits that you think you have to kind of break the stereotypes."
BYU is currently projected as the Big 12 champion, which would give the Cougars a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.
