How BYU QB Jake Retzlaff Compared to Big 12 Peers in Week One

Casey Lundquist | Sep 2, 2024

BYU QB Jake Retzlaff against Southern Illinois / BYU Photo

After winning a heated quarterback competition, BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff impressed in Saturday's season opener against Southern Illinois. Retzlaff was 20/30 for 348 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions. It was, of course, against an FCS foe in Southern Illinois, so it remains to be seen how he will fair against FBS competition.

We can, however, compare Retzlaff's performance against his Big 12 peers. 11 of the 16 Big 12 teams played FCS teams in week one. Of the five teams that didn't play FCS teams, two of them played New Mexico (who lost to an FCS team already) and Wyoming. Outside of West Virginia and TCU who played against Power Five teams, the competition level was fairly similar across the board.

Without further ado, let's jump into the numbers.

Passing Yards

Starting off with the most basic metric: passing yards. Retzlaff threw for 348 yards. How did that compare to other Big 12 quarterbacks? Here is the top 10:

Big 12 quarterbacks - 2024 week one passing yards / BYU On SI

Retzlaff ranked sixth out of the 16 Big 12 quarterbacks. The six other Big 12 quarterbacks that didn't crack the top 10 were Dequan Finn (192), KJ Jefferson (164), Garrett Greene (161), Avery Johnson (153), Jalon Daniels (148), and Donovan Smith (135).

Yards Per Attempt

Retzlaff didn't attempt as many passes as some of the other quarterbacks in week one. In terms of passing yards per passing attempt, Retzlaff ranked fifth out of 16 quarterbacks. Here's the top 10 from week one:

Passing yards per attempt - 2024 week one / BYU On SI

PFF Grades

PFF grades are a great way to split out the impact a quarterback had on a game versus the pure statistical output. Retzlaff threw a 57-yard touchdown, for example, that traveled 60 yards in the air. That's a much more difficult throw than a screen pass that goes for 57 yards. That's where stats like passing yards and touchdowns can be misleading. PFF strips out the noise and compares how a quarterback performed relative to the situations that they were put in. Were they making the right reads? How did they perform under pressure? Were they throwing receivers open or throwing to wide open receivers? All those things go into PFF grades.

Retzlaff was one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12 in week one according to PFF (minimum 10 drop backs).

1. Noah Fifita - 91.5
2. Shedeur Sanders - 90.7
3. Jalon Daniels - 90.5
4. Jake Retzlaff - 90.0
5. Behren Morton - 89.0
6. Alan Bowman - 85.0
7. Rocco Becht - 83.7
8. Sam Leavitt - 77.8
9. Brendan Sorsby - 75.8
10. Josh Hoover - 75.8
11. Avery Johnson - 74.0
12. Dequan Finn - 71.3
13. Cam Rising - 60.5
14. Garrett Greene - 53.6
15. KJ Jefferson - 50.6
16. Donovan Smith - 35.3

Passing Under Pressure

Another metric from PFF and perhaps the most important. How did a quarterback perform when under pressure? Against FCS teams, most quarterbacks are throwing from a clean pocket. What happens when the pocket starts to collapse like it will against P4 teams? From that perspective, Retzlaff was one of the best in the conference. Retzlaff ranked third and there was a big drop-off between the top three and the rest.

1. Noah Fifita - 91.6
2. Dequan Finn - 90.7
3. Jake Retzlaff - 90.1
4. Alan Bowman - 74.4
5. Sam Leavitt - 73.0
6. Rocco Becht - 66.2

Of all the metrics BYU fans should be encouraged by, it's this one. Retzlaff was pressured on seven drop-backs. While under pressure those seven times, he threw four passes. He was 2/4 for 26 yards. That's nothing to write home about on the surface, but one of his two completions was a big-time throw. And one of the incompletions was the perfectly-thrown ball to Parker Kingston that was dropped.

Retzlaff showed signs that he is capable of handling pressure much better than he did a year ago.

ESPN QBR

Adjusted quarterback rating. Per ESPN, "Adjusted Total Quarterback Rating, which values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced." Kansas' Jalon Daniels is not ranked since he did not meet the minimum threshold of reps to be ranked.

1. Brendan Sorsby - 93.3
2. Cam Rising - 91.9
3. Noah Fifita - 87.3
4. Alan Bowman - 82.7
5. Shedeur Sanders - 81.8
6. Sam Leavitt - 74.7
7. Behren Morton - 68.4
8. Jake Retzlaff - 67.7
9. Josh Hoover - 65.4
10. Rocco Becht - 64.5
11. Dequan Finn - 61.2
12. Avery Johnson - 39.5
13. Garrett Greene - 37.1
14. KJ Jefferson - 7.5
15. Donovan Smith - 3.9

Expected Points Added

Expected Points Added or "EPA" is defined by ESPN as the "total expected points added with low leverage plays, according to ESPN Win Probability model, down-weighted." In other words, did a quarterback's contribution increase or decrease the number of expected points added? Retzlaff ranked sixth in this metric. Kansas' Jalon Daniels is not ranked since he did not meet the minimum threshold of reps to be ranked.

1. Shedeur Sanders - 12.3
2. Behren Morton - 11.1
3. Brendan Sorsby - 11.0
4. Noah Fifita - 9.2
5. Alan Bowman - 8.8
6. Jake Retzlaff - 6.4
7. Cam Rising - 5.8
8. Rocco Becht - 5.7
9. Josh Hoover - 5.1
10. Dequan Finn - 3.3
11. Sam Leavitt - 2.9
12. Avery Johnson - 2.3
13. KJ Jefferson - (1.2)
14. Garrett Greene - (3.0)
15. Donovan Smith - (9.1)

Regardless of the metric, Retzlaff was one of the better quarterbacks in the conference in week one. If he can even somewhat sustain that level of play throughout the season, BYU will overperform in 2024.