BYU to Start Quarterback Jake Retzlaff Against Iowa State

Retzlaff will get his second career start against the Cyclones

On Wednesday, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick announced that Jake Retzlaff will start at quarterback for BYU against Iowa State. Retzlaff made his first career start last week against West Virginia, replacing an injured Kedon Slovis.

"Right now, we're planning on Jake starting," Roderick said. "Kedon's improving. He made a few throws today. He's healing but he's not all the way there yet and we're unsure if he'll be available on Saturday or not."

If there was a silver lining in an otherwise disappointing performance against West Virginia, it was the play of quarterback Jake Retzlaff. The JUCO transfer made his first career start at quarterback for the Cougars, throwing for 210 yards on 24/42 passing. He also had 26 rushing yards on 10 carries.

He wasn't perfect - he missed on a few throws to the outside, but he didn't make critical mistakes and he gave the BYU offense some life. The box score doesn't tell the full story. He threw two intermediate/deep balls that should have been caught. If they would have been caught, he would have finished with 265+ passing yards. Per PFF, BYU had four drops against West Virginia. His adjusted completion percentage (completion % + drops) was 66.7% instead of the 57.1% completion percentage in the box score. All things considered, he played well.

Iowa State fields one of stingiest defenses in the Big 12. The BYU offense is going to have to play much better to make this game competitive. Retzlaff's mobility was an undeniable benefit to the BYU offense against West Virginia. His mobility opened up a few things for BYU's offense and kept a few plays alive that otherwise wouldn't have had a chance. His mobility will be needed once again against the Cyclones.

Retzlaff preserved his redshirt by not playing in the first eight games of the season, so will still have two years of eligibility remaining after this season.

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