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PROVO — The Cougars' starting quarterback for the final four games of the 2023 season will be the starter for the opening game of the 2024 season.
BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff retained the starting job following an offseason challenge from incoming transfer Gerry Bohanon Jr., KSL.com confirmed Saturday before the the Cougars' first game of the 2024 season that starts against FCS Southern Illinois (6 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).
BYU Radio first reported the decision, which BYU coaches said all week would not be revealed until the first snaps of the opener. The Cougars will also be without wide receiver Darius Lassiter, due to an NCAA issue.
The senior who grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, received a waiver from the NCAA to get back a season of eligibility but part of the requirements of the waiver was a decision to miss the season opener of the 2024 season.
Lassiter appeared in 13 games at Eastern Michigan two years ago, catching 40 passes for 471 yards and four touchdowns for the Eagles during a 9-4 season before transferring to BYU. That followed a three-year career at Butler Community College, including a 19.1-yards-per-catch and 70.7 yards per-game season en route to NJCAA All-American honorable mention honors in 2021.
But he played in one game with the Bulldogs in 2019, making him a senior last year at BYU. The player and school sought a waiver to recoup that season of eligibility, and part of the terms included the one-game suspension.
"He always wanted to come back, but we had to paint a real picture with an appeal, which is really hard to get," wide receivers coach Fesi Sitake told KSL.com in the spring. "It's been case-by-case lately, but more appeals have been denied than are accepted, so we had to have low expectations with high hopes. Luckily, his case was very understandable and we're grateful the NCAA granted his year back, because he deserved it."
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake says in our pregame interview that Jake Retzlaff has won the starting quarterback competition; Gerry Bohanon is the backup.
— Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) August 31, 2024
WR Darius Lassiter will miss tonight's game—and only tonight's game—to satisfy terms of a granted NCAA eligibility waiver.…
As for Retzlaff, the 6-foot-1 redshirt junior from Corona, California, took over last season following the season-ending injury to Kedon Slovis and led the Cougars to an 0-4 record as a starter that included a five-game losing streak to end their first season in the Big 12.
Retzlaff completed 50.4% of his passes for 648 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions, and ran for 116 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
The turnovers were an issue, Roderick admitted following the season, which led to the offensive coordinator meticulously tracking Retzlaff's turnover ability through spring practices.
He revealed on the final day of spring that Retzlaff hadn't committed a turnover through mostly closed-door practice sessions with the new unit that included four of five returning offensive linemen and a bevy of riches at wide receiver including Chase Roberts, Kody Epps, Darius Lassiter, Keelan Marion and Keanu Hill, who moved to tight end.
The continuity — as well as the competition from Bohanon, the former Baylor starter and Sugar Bowl champion who transferred to BYU a year after playing one season at South Florida — led to enough improvement and progression for coaches to feel comfortable in Retzlaff's growth as a quarterback.
But coaches have maintained throughout the offseason that one quarterback likely won't be enough for BYU — and that Bohanon, along with backups Treyson Bourguet and McCae Hillstead — will need to be ready to play, as BYU hasn't had a starting quarterback play the entire season (and a bowl game) since Zach Wilson in 2020.
For now, that quarterback job belongs to Retzlaff, though.
Roderick had hoped the starting quarterback would make itself known before the final week of fall camp, but the back-and-forth competition revealed both signal callers pulling ahead at different times in their own ways.
Retzlaff had a greater command of the offense, though Bohanon was catching up by the final week of training camp, the offensive coordinator admitted. But Bohanon's veteran presence, leadership and athleticism as he prepares for his sixth season of college football couldn't be ignored, either.
In previous years, the competition took care of itself, with players eventually coalescing around a singular QB1. That's what happened with Wilson and Jaren Hall, and even to an extent Slovis a year ago, Roderick said.
"It's a combination of things: someone who just moves the team, and scores touchdowns," Roderick said in explaining how that team decision would look. "I was hopeful that would be more clear than it is by now. But it's been a matter of both of them playing well, and not that neither one of them has seized the job."
