BYU Football Quarterback Analysis For 2025 Season
PROVO, Utah – The spotlight is always big for BYU football quarterbacks.
That spotlight grows larger when a starting signal-caller is back entering a season.
That’s the case in 2025 as Jake Retzlaff prepares for his senior season as BYU’s top quarterback.
Diving into Retzlaff and the rest of the BYU football quarterbacks in 2025, in this latest installment of the position analysis series.
Note: As of this publication, no official settlement has been reached in the House v. NCAA case, so we’re not currently capping personnel at the 105-man roster limit.
Personnel Snapshot
BYU enters the 2025 season with a veteran quarterback in Jake Retzlaff, who started all 13 games in the Cougars’ 11-2 campaign last year after going through an offseason quarterback battle with Gerry Bohanon.
Behind Retzlaff is a pair of returning lettermen who redshirted last year in their first season with the program.
Then, BYU brings in two new freshmen to the position group.
BYU Football Quarterbacks returning for the 2025 season
Jake Retzlaff (Redshirt-Senior): 2,947 passing yards; 20 TDs-12 INTs; 417 rushing yards, 6 TDs in 2024.
Treyson Bourguet (RS-Junior): Redshirted last season.
McCae Hillstead (RS-Sophomore): Redshirted last season.
Gone from the 2024 roster
Gerry Bohanon (Eligibility expired)
Noah Lugo (Transfer Portal, UTSA)
Cole Hagen
Breaking down the BYU football quarterbacks for the 2025 season
BYU finished ninth in the Big 12 last year in passing yards. That ranking dipped to 11th during conference play as BYU averaged 220.9 yards through the air.
BYU was more balanced offensively and took its time, running 28.5 seconds per play last season.
If you look at the 11-2 record and see a returning starting quarterback, it could be easy to assume that BYU has arrived offensively. There’s another level or two that BYU wants to reach with its offense this season. It all starts at QB.
Can Jake Retzlaff become one of the best QBs in the nation this fall?
BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick is bullish on the potential of Jake Retzlaff. He told ESPN announcers Dave Pasch and Dusty Dvoracek at the Alamo Bowl last year that he believes Retzlaff could be a Top Five quarterback in college football in 2025.
Retzlaff enters his third year with the BYU football program. After starting 0-4 as the starter, he’s now 11-6. Retzlaff will quickly point out that those stats are a team deal, but everyone knows how critical high-level play from quarterbacks is to success in college football.
Look at the recent history of the Big 12 Championship Game. The past three years have shown that to make that game, a team needs one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12 and the country.
Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt and Iowa State’s Rocco Becht played in the game last year. Before that, Texas QB Quinn Ewers led the Longhorns to the league title. In 2022, it was Heisman finalist Max Duggan of TCU against Kansas State’s Will Howard.
Roderick is confident that year three could lead to a bigger jump from Retzlaff, who improved from his redshirt season after joining as a JUCO transfer in 2023.
“In my experience in coaching, usually that third year is the big year for quarterbacks,” Roderick said to KSL Sports in March. “Whether it’s Zach Wilson’s third year in the program … you can go back through BYU history, the guys that are second, third-year starters are usually the ones that play really great. So that’s what I expect from Jake, just keep getting better every day.”
During the Kalani Sitake era (since 2016), BYU has had four quarterbacks reach a third year as starting quarterbacks.
Three of the four made it to the NFL: Taysom Hill, Wilson, and Jaren Hall. The lone miss was Tanner Mangum, whom Sitake and Roderick benched in favor of Wilson in 2018.
So it’s a high bar for Retzlaff, and no one has higher expectations for him in 2025 than himself.
At the end of spring ball, Retzlaff said he wants to be at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York this year.
A key for Retzlaff to get there will be putting up bigger numbers through the air. Last year, he was 53 yards short of 3,000 yards. Roderick has also challenged him to improve his completion percentage from 57.9% last season and bring down the 12 interceptions.
Retzlaff completed 70% of his passes during spring practices and had only one interception. That was a ball thrown to linebacker Jack Kelly.
Along with his ability to make plays through the air, Retzlaff’s contributions on the ground are valuable to BYU’s offense.
Retzlaff was BYU’s leading rusher until the UCF game in week nine last year. He finished last season with 417 yards on the ground and six touchdown runs.
Physically, Retzlaff is working on adding some weight to his 205-pound frame. He wants to be 208 pounds entering fall camp and settle in at 212 pounds during the season.
Underrated strength of Retzlaff in BYU’s offense.
