Underdog mentality: Jake Retzlaff, No. 11 BYU take another step forward in win over UCF

ORLANDO — (KSL.com) Just when BYU was starting to earn national respect as one of fewer than a dozen undefeated teams in the country, with a No. 11 national ranking and a target as one of two unbeaten teams in the Big 12, Las Vegas came along and offered the Cougars another helping of bulletin-board material.

Whether they sought it out isn’t important. But when the Cougars kicked off Saturday afternoon against UCF, they were as much as 2.5-point underdogs by several prominent sportsbooks.

Still, Retzlaff completed 16-of-24 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 38 yards and another score as the Cougars handed the Knights their fifth straight loss going into the second bye week without a blemish on their record.

Motivation, thy name is Jake Retzlaff — the former 0-4 starter at BYU who improved to 8-0 as QB1 after Saturday’s win.

“Day games. Traveling across the country. I don’t know what excuse the book is going to come up with next,” Retzlaff said. “But, yeah, we definitely took 2.5 (points) personally; I’d say our locker room looked at that and got a little extra fired up, for sure.”

BYU isn’t just 8-0 to start the 2024 season for the fifth time in school history, or the second time under head coach Kalani Sitake. The Cougars aren’t just 5-0 in Big 12 play, considered perhaps not just a favorite to advance to the league championship game in Arlington, Texas, but maybe the favorite (along with fellow unbeaten Iowa State).

They’re also 7-1 against the spread, the only blemish that 38-35 comeback win a week ago where covering against Oklahoma State was very much secondary on a night where so much of BYU’s mystique — from its top-25 defense to its quarterback that was taking care of the football and managing turnovers — seemed to be going wrong.

At a school owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, moneylines don’t matter, and sports betting isn’t encouraged. But the adage remains, even for BYU: Good teams win, and great teams cover.

If they weren’t already, it’s time to consider the Cougars a great team. BYU is the only team in the FBS with 11 different players with an interception, after freshman Faletau Satuala pulled down his career-first against the Knights (3-5, 1-4 Big 12).

The 37 points at UCF is the sixth consecutive game scoring 34 or more, which is a first for the program since 1996.

Are the Cougars a finished product? Not even, Retzlaff admits. And yet ….

“We’re close, man,” he admitted after putting up 480 yards, including a second-straight 100-yard rushing performance by LJ Martin and back-to-back games with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown himself.

“We’re having better and better games each week, getting better and better each week,” Retzlaff added. “It’s fun to watch our progress throughout the season, and know that we’re going to get better and better — and we can peak when the time is right,”

A team’s success is only as strong as its leaders, and on a team with mountains of leadership, Retzlaff — who has drawn multiple headlines both locally and nationally as the first Jewish starting quarterback in BYU history and one of just three Jews on campus — has grown as much into a team leader as he has his particular voice of belief in the locker room.

After starting the final four games of last year’s ill-fated 5-7 campaign — and losing all four — Retzlaff has emerged unbeaten through his first eight starts of his redshirt junior campaign. After previously tracking a reputation for being “careless” with the football, the Corona, California native has thrown for 1,644 yards and 16 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

Perhaps his biggest growth area has been in Retzlaff’s decision-making, said Martin after the Cougars converted 7-of-15 third downs against the Knights along with two more fourth-down conversions.

“We used to make bad decisions, but now we aren’t afraid to take the ball away, or (Retzlaff) just tucks it and runs,” Martin said. “I feel like he’s improved a lot in his decision-making and things like that. But he’s improved a lot.”

One could argue another area of significant growth, though: His off-the-field leadership.

Playing football at a faith-based university has allowed Retzlaff to grow into his own faith, to explain the beliefs of Judaism to groups of teammates and students who he jokes are “all too inquisitive” about his own faith.

He’s not just the “BYJew,” the Jewish starting quarterback at BYU. He’s the only Jewish starting quarterback in the power conferences, a mantle he holds dear with anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head all-too-often.

“The world’s a better place when we’re just positive with each other,” Retzlaff told a reporter from the Jewish Times. “That’s all I can be — super positive in every aspect of life. It’s the law of attraction; coach Kalani talks about it a lot. If you talk about being successful, you’ve got a better chance to be successful.

“When it comes to the global look (at Judaism) and current conflicts, I think if we were just more positive, the world would be a better place. I think if we understood each other more, the world would be better. That’s all I try to do: be positive, and bring people together. I can bring the LDS community and the Jewish community together right now. … That’s awesome to me.”