Provo • Jake Retzlaff’s first full season as the Cougars’ starter resulted in 11 wins and an Alamo Bowl victory.
For an encore, the senior has his sights set on something more.
“I want to be at the Heisman ceremony. That’s my goal, personally,” he said. “I don’t think my ability is going to hold me back from that.”
Retzlaff threw for more than 2,900 yards, 20 touchdowns and a league-leading 12 interceptions last year. He wants to be over the 30-touchdown threshold next year with single-digit interceptions.
And he thinks that will get him into the conversion for the Heisman.
“I think I’m the caliber player who can be there [in New York],” he said. “That’s going to start with success on the field as a team. That’s what it really comes down to is making sure I’m the best quarterback for this team.”
Retzlaff is a former junior college quarterback from California who transferred to BYU in 2023. He’s always been confident, even when he was fighting for the starting job last fall.
“If you told me two years ago that I’d be talking about [the Heisman], I don’t think I would doubt that very much,” he said. “I always believed in my process, that it would bear some great results. For me, it’s about the process. It’s weird talking about goals. Like, obviously having goals is a good thing. But the goal doesn’t matter if you don’t have a process to get to it.”
He started thinking about the Heisman Trophy last year if he took another step in the offseason. He is BYU’s undoubted starter on a roster expected to be at the top of the Big 12.
“I should be talking about a Heisman Trophy,” Retzlaff said. “I never thought about the NFL until I was getting recruited to play Division I college football. … Heisman Trophy, obviously, that’s on the mind of a quarterback at a Division I college."
Retzlaff grew up watching highlights of USC running Reggie Bush’s Heisman season.
Now, he wants those highlight reels to have his name on them.
“He was a Heisman Trophy winner. And so it was like, ‘Oh, that means he’s really good. That means he has high status.’ I think you see the Heisman Trophy as a college fan a lot,” Retzlaff said. “Of course you want to win it. But when I talk about actually winning the Heisman Trophy, I think it [became a reality] while I was at BYU.”
