2024 BYU Football - Year 2 in the Big 12

[Sizzle]

Some thoughts on the season since it's (essentially) over:

1) Jake Retzlaff
He is who he is – and honestly he reminds me very much of another polarizing BYU QB of years past. Look at the statistical comparison:

Mystery QB: 58% Comp, 4,032 yards passing, 35 Passing TDs and 21 INTs to go along with 858 yards rushing and 6 TDs.
Jake: 56% Comp, 3,444 yards passing, 23 Passing TDs and 13 INTs to go along with 504 yards rushing and 9 TDs.

Mystery QB was a 2-year full time starter for BYU, so his stats are split across two years. He went 14-8 in games he started, including a 9-3 year.

If you're not sure who it is yet, Jake Retzlaff is the righty version of Riley Nelson.

Can make / extend plays with his legs. Not the most accurate passer. Not a bad QB. Not a great one either. Good enough to keep you in games and good enough to make plays that can win you same games. But also very capable of making dumb plays that cost you the game too.

Jake still has one more year to improve. However, after a fast start, he's fallen back into some of the same issues he had last year. I'm more confident that he can be serviceable as an option, but not thrilled at his upside and what it means for the team. Maybe he'll make another jump between this year and next year and I'd love that for him. But I'm not counting on it.


2) Close Games
We played in seven games this year that were one possession games in the 4th quarter. We went 5-2 in those games with wins against Houston, Utah, Baylor, SMU and Oklahoma State. We needed a wild unlikely finish against Utah (loss probably at 95%+ in this one) and Oklahoma State (loss probability at 99.9% in this one) that could've easily had us at 3-4. We were also Kudos to the team for finding ways to win those games. We were also four yards and a really awkward quick kick away from being undefeated. It shows to me we belong, but that this level of success isn't sustainable – it's a little (lot) bit of luck.


3) OL / Run Game
As a team, we've totaled 1,913 yards in 415 attempts (4.6 ypc) with 17 TDs this year so far. Compare that to last year where we had 1,252 rushing yards on 360 attempts (3.5 ypc) with 15 TDs. A part of that is the difference between having a mobile QB for most of the year v. not last year. But overall, this is definitely a trend in the right direction. I think the swap on the staff was the right one. If I'm going to gripe, our longest rush of the year is for 39 yards – I'd love to have a few more "bigger hitters" but that may not be LJ's strength.


4) Defensive Coordinator / Turnovers
If you wanted to point to the biggest reason we've had a better year this year, it's Turnovers. BYU has 27 takeaways – with 20 INTs. That's second best in the country behind Notre Dame, and tied with Alabama and San Jose State. I think a lot of credit should go to Jay Hill – I don't always love the pressure he brings and putting guys in coverage who shouldn't be. But you have to be willing to accept that sometimes your blitzes are going to get beat if you run them, and I think the overall takeaway is that the pressure has been a plus more than a minus, leading to more turnovers this year than last.


I believe we're headed in the right direction. Good momentum. Not there yet – I do hope that this season isn't fools gold or false hope like Crowton's 2001 season was. It'll be interesting to see the impact of the transfer portal – both who we lose and who we add – to really get a good feel for where players view our program and prospects for the future.

[BigPiney]

To be fair, maybe BYU massively over performing in year 2 of P4 membership has distorted my sense of realistic expectations of improving recruiting. This class is still an incremental improvement, which is good. BYU hasn't had the money flow to create the recruiting apparatus to compete with legacy P5 teams. And most recruits in CFB commit before the season even started. I'm still concerned about recruiting on the offensive side of the ball though.

The coaches continue to fail to get the players in areas of significant need. DT and QB. I'll add RB in there as well.

[USUC]

After such a great season BYU has the 13th best recruiting class in the conference. That's not going to cut it.

To be fair, maybe BYU massively over performing in year 2 of P4 membership has distorted my sense of realistic expectations of improving recruiting. This class is still an incremental improvement, which is good. BYU hasn't had the money flow to create the recruiting apparatus to compete with legacy P5 teams. And most recruits in CFB commit before the season even started. I'm still concerned about recruiting on the offensive side of the ball though.

[Bo Diddley]

My earliest exposure to Manischewitz was a mention of wine in a Chaim Potok book and the NOFX song "We're the Brews" where the Jewish punk rockers sing about getting drunk and getting anti-Swastika tattoos. I always assumed it was just a Jewish winery. About 10 years ago I was in an international grocery store in Cincinnati (Jungle Jim's, it's the best) and came across Manishewitz products in the Middle Eastern aisle. I was surprised to learn it was like a Jewish Keebler, Kraft, or Nabisco. Even with that knowledge, my first thought when seeing Jake's new sponsorship was surprise they let him promote a wine brand.

Anyways, I love it. Jake isn't the best QB we've seen and he's figuring out how to operate after being figured out, but I'm all in on him. He's inherited the non-Mormon BYU QB legacy of McMahon, Detmer, and Sark and gave us one of the most fun and surprising seasons in our lifetimes.

[YOhio]

My earliest exposure to Manischewitz was a mention of wine in a Chaim Potok book and the NOFX song "We're the Brews" where the Jewish punk rockers sing about getting drunk and getting anti-Swastika tattoos. I always assumed it was just a Jewish winery. About 10 years ago I was in an international grocery store in Cincinnati (Jungle Jim's, it's the best) and came across Manishewitz products in the Middle Eastern aisle. I was surprised to learn it was like a Jewish Keebler, Kraft, or Nabisco. Even with that knowledge, my first thought when seeing Jake's new sponsorship was surprise they let him promote a wine brand.

Anyways, I love it. Jake isn't the best QB we've seen and he's figuring out how to operate after being figured out, but I'm all in on him. He's inherited the non-Mormon BYU QB legacy of McMahon, Detmer, and Sark and gave us one of the most fun and surprising seasons in our lifetimes.

[BlueK]

https://www.jta.org/2024/12/04/sport...h-manischewitz

BYU’s star Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff scores sponsorship deal with Manischewitz

Retzlaff is the first athlete to reach a deal with the iconic Jewish food brand.

Awesome. Good for Jake.

[myboynoah]

https://www.jta.org/2024/12/04/sport...h-manischewitz

BYU’s star Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff scores sponsorship deal with Manischewitz

Retzlaff is the first athlete to reach a deal with the iconic Jewish food brand.

Embedded Tweet

[USUC]

After such a great season BYU has the 13th best recruiting class in the conference. That's not going to cut it.

[byufan4ever]

https://www.jta.org/2024/12/04/sport...h-manischewitz

BYU’s star Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff scores sponsorship deal with Manischewitz

Retzlaff is the first athlete to reach a deal with the iconic Jewish food brand.

After a historic football season at BYU, Jake Retzlaff’s latest honor places him in the company of Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali: having his face grace an iconic box of food.

Manischewitz declined to share how much it is paying Retzlaff for the deal, which runs from Hanukkah through Passover.

[byufan4ever]

Lol.

goatnapper byufan4ever

It was not my intent to roast or flame or whatever, but I got a really good chuckle out of that graphic!

[Goatnapper'96]

Lol.

goatnapper byufan4ever

Indeed he did-always good to go off data rather than feelings or anecdotal memories!

That is why we keep him around.......

[The_Tick]

In a vacuum, I have no problem with the matchup with Colorado. It would be a fun game and it would be entertaining to see how the teams stack up. But I don't like the precedent it sets, i.e. "hey, every year when the B12 only gets 1 team into the playoff, we'll have some great B12 v B12 matchups to throw into our meaningless non-playoff bowls". I've been saying it for 20 years--any bowl game that isn't directly tied to a route to the national championship is meaningless. The players see it as a free trip, the programs see it as a financial benefit, the fans see it as bragging rights, but in the end, it's meaningless.

It definitely felt that way when the BCS selected the 1 v 2 title game--every other bowl was meaningless. If felt even more that way when the system was changes to select 4 teams for the playoff, and now I think it's going to feel even moreso for the teams left out of the 12 team playoff. In the era of NIL and opting out, I just dont' think these are going to be good games.

My hope is that this leads to a 24 team playoff, because that's really the only way to keep postseason games meaningful.

So then the B10 and the SEC only have to decide which of their teams don't get in...

[Pelado]

I would like to see that contest and was kind of expecting to see that matchup...in the conference championship game.

I would prefer to see both teams matched up against high-level nonconference P4 opponents. Winning those bowl games might help shift the narrative about the strength of the Big 12 relative to the rest of the P4. But probably not.

[Donuthole]

In a vacuum, I have no problem with the matchup with Colorado. It would be a fun game and it would be entertaining to see how the teams stack up. But I don't like the precedent it sets, i.e. "hey, every year when the B12 only gets 1 team into the playoff, we'll have some great B12 v B12 matchups to throw into our meaningless non-playoff bowls". I've been saying it for 20 years--any bowl game that isn't directly tied to a route to the national championship is meaningless. The players see it as a free trip, the programs see it as a financial benefit, the fans see it as bragging rights, but in the end, it's meaningless.

It definitely felt that way when the BCS selected the 1 v 2 title game--every other bowl was meaningless. If felt even more that way when the system was changes to select 4 teams for the playoff, and now I think it's going to feel even moreso for the teams left out of the 12 team playoff. In the era of NIL and opting out, I just dont' think these are going to be good games.

My hope is that this leads to a 24 team playoff, because that's really the only way to keep postseason games meaningful.

[USUC]

How are we all feeling about the likely bowl game vs Colorado? Even though it's a conference foe I kind of like it. Not sure we can win it, but I like it. The other option being thrown around seems to be WSU. That would be a real let down.

The other bowl I've heard is the Pop Tarts bowl against the loser ofvthe ACC championship. Clemson or Miami would be much bets than WSU. I don't hate the Colorado game, but don't love it.