When BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick and starting quarterback Jake Retzlaff met in February to lay out some goals for spring football camp and the 2025 season, Roderick said he would like to see Retzlaff get his completion percentage above 70%, throw 30 touchdown passes, have fewer than 10 interceptions and have the kind of seasons that multi-year starters such as Zach Wilson and Jaren Hall had in their final seasons in Provo.
But Retzlaff suggested the bar should be raised even higher, which comes as absolutely no surprise to those who know the rising redshirt senior from Corona, California, best. Retzlaff wants to complete 75% of his throws, blow past 30 TD passes and throw fewer than half of the interceptions than he did last year.
“We are talking about winning big games, of course, and we are talking about winning a Big 12 championship, of course, and we are talking about going to the College Football Playoff and competing for a national championship, of course,” Retzlaff, who turned 22 last week, told reporters who cover the team in a spring camp-ending interview session last Monday.
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With Retzlaff starting all 13 games, BYU went 11-2 last year, finished in a four-way tie for first place in the Big 12 with a 7-2 league record, barely missed the CFP and drubbed Colorado 36-14 in the Alamo Bowl. So those team goals aren’t too far-fetched.
Neither are the numbers, considering Wilson and Hall made similar leaps under Roderick’s tutelage as their careers at BYU progressed. After starting in BYU’s last four games in 2023, all losses, Retzlaff won the starting QB derby over Gerry Bohanon last fall and completed 57.9% of his passes for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns, with 12 interceptions.
Improving in all those areas “is the standard me and (Roderick) have talked about,” Retzlaff acknowledged.
But that’s not all. The self-described “BYJew” has goals for himself when the season ends that might be considered even loftier, to some.
“When you talk about watch lists, man, I want to be at the Heisman ceremony. That’s my goal, personally,” Retzlaff said. “I don’t think my ability is going to hold me back from that. I think I am the caliber of player who can be there (in New York City).”
The four players who receive the most Heisman votes are invited to the ceremony in the Big Apple; last December, the invitees were Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, Miami QB Cam Ward and Colorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, who ended up taking home the hardware two weeks before losing badly to BYU in San Antonio.
Retzlaff noted that any individual accolades for himself or others on the team “are going to start with success on the field as a team. That’s what it really comes down to, is making sure I am the best quarterback for this team I can be. Because that will lead to all those awards, and all those things.”
Retzlaff said that confidence in himself comes from believing in his “process,” which was established long before he got to Provo. Lightly recruited out of Centennial High in California because the pandemic took away most of his senior season, he played at Golden West College in 2021 and Riverside City College in 2022 before signing with BYU in January 2023.
“When it comes to talking about the standard, the best process is not about the results. The best process is about the process,” Retzlaff said. “I think it is one of the reasons that I have been able to get to the position I am in now, to be able to start at a Division I college, and be able to play football at a really high level, is because I am all about process.”
Even when he joined the program in spring 2023 as Kedon Slovis’ backup, wearing his trademark Star of David pendant and battling to overcome issues with his tonsils, Retzlaff believed he was destined to do great things at the school supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“If you told me two years ago that I would be talking about (making it to the Heisman ceremony), I don’t think I would have doubted that very much,” he said. “I always believed in my process … and that it would bear some great results.
“It is weird talking about goals,” he continued. “Obviously having goals is a good thing, right? Having attainable goals is a big deal. But for me, the goal doesn’t matter if you don’t have a process to get to it. So that is where I start. I start with the process and so that is why I wouldn’t be shocked (back then) if I was talking about great goals, because that comes with a great process.”
Thinking Heisman — when the idea was hatched
During the 2024 season, Retzlaff earned all-Big 12 honorable mention honors, made the Davey O’Brien Great 8 (quarterbacks) list, and was a Manning Award Stars of the Week honoree after helping BYU take a 38-35 come-from-behind win over Oklahoma State.
And he engineered the game-winning drive to beat the rival Utes, a drive and victory that will earn him a place in BYU lore, regardless of how the remainder of his college career plays out.
So it is not like winning the Heisman Trophy, let alone making it to the ceremony, is a pipe dream. Even when he completed just 50.4% of his passes in 2023 for 648 yards and three touchdowns, with three interceptions, Retzlaff was not deterred, he said.
“Like I said, the process came first. It was realizing that, if I continue this process, then I should be talking about a Heisman Trophy,” he said. “Like, it was never goal, then process. It was process, then goal.”
Retzlaff said he grew up watching USCs Reggie Bush win the Heisman, but his first goal was getting recruited to play college football. When that goal was met, he started thinking about playing in the NFL some day.
He said he started thinking about “actually winning the Heisman Trophy” last year when the Cougars recovered from the 5-7 campaign in 2023 with one of the best seasons in program history in 2024.
“The reason I am where I am is because I wanted to play football at the highest level I could, because I just enjoyed it that much, and I love the challenge of it. So that’s why I am here right now (at BYU),” he said. “So when you talk about the Heisman Trophy, like, obviously that is on the mind of any quarterback at a Division I college. If it is not, I hope his process is really dang good and can get him there.”
What are the odds?
A sampling of various publications and oddsmakers’ projections does not produce any mentions of Retzlaff as a top-20 Heisman candidate in 2025, despite the QB’s confidence that there is a path for him to college football’s most prestigious award.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning, LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith and Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleva are getting the most run.
In the Big 12, Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt is getting far more attention for the honor than Retzlaff, who lost to the Sun Devils 28-23 last November, throwing two interceptions.
The website betonline.ag lists Retzlaff’s odds of winning it at 125 to 1.
At least Retzlaff knows he is the starter coming out of spring this year, unlike in 2024 when he wasn’t named the starter over Bohanon until just before the opener against Southern Illinois.
“It has been really fun to start embracing the new role that I have on this team, and to bring this offense along, and being in the role I am, I take such great pride in this offense, and this responsibility,” Retzlaff said. “I believe so much in this offense and so much in the way we can move the ball down the field, and also in this team, obviously.”
A BYU QB goes to SoCal … and Israel
Retzlaff said after spring camp ended that he planned to not touch a football for two weeks, while doing the usual conditioning and weightlifting work and preparing for final exams. Then he will head home to Southern California for a couple of weeks to work out with former BYU QB John Beck and participate in Beck’s 3DQB camps.
He will return to Provo for a few days in late April to participate in graduation exercises, having earned his degree in exercise science.
In the middle of May, Retzlaff and some other BYU offseason team captains will take a trip to Israel, he told BYUtv.
“I have been buzzing about that experience as soon as it crossed my mind. I can’t believe it is actually happening. I am so excited for that trip,” he said. “That trip will be the last of my off (time) break. Then it will be, ‘let’s go.’ We start the training workouts, summer workouts, PRPs, all that.”
Coaches address Retzlaff’s progress
After a practice on March 24, Sitake said Retzlaff was showing a “complete grasp” of the offense and was building chemistry with some of the younger receivers as starter Chase Roberts (shoulder) and backup WR Cody Hagen (undisclosed) were not participating in spring camp.
“It is comfortable having him in there,” Sitake said. “He is coaching the other two quarterbacks (Treyson Bourguet and McCae Hillstead). I have been really impressed with what Jake has done. He has a great football IQ. … He’s also done some new things, things that fit his strengths and what he can do as a quarterback, his style, where we can put him at the best position to have success. I am really excited about what we are seeing right now.”
Roderick said Retzlaff’s goals for the team and himself don’t come as a surprise, given the third-year Cougar’s confidence level.
“Jake, he has got a pretty aggressive personality. I think when he first got here … teammates didn’t really know him. I think a lot of his teammates didn’t really quite get him yet. I don’t know a better way to say that.
“As time has gone on, and he’s grown in our program, and produced in games (he’s found his place),” Roderick continued. “When you produce in games you sort of earn the right to go say something to your teammate that needs to be said. Jake has really learned to manage that part of his personality, where he is really brash and he is really confident in himself, and he brings a lot of juice and energy to the room.
“But I think he has also learned when to back off, when to put his arm around somebody. He is a great competitor, and yes, he is, without question, the leader of our offense and it shows every day.”
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