It started with a bang and ended with a disappearing act. Jake Retzlaff wasn’t just BYU’s quarterback in 2024—he was their entire identity. The gunslinger who hurled nearly 3,000 yards, stacked 20 touchdowns, and ran defenses ragged with his legs. BYU went 11-2 with him at the helm, looking more playoff-bound than ever. But instead of gunning for the playoffs in 2025, BYU just got knocked sideways. A lawsuit, a 7-game suspension, and then a silent but slick escape. And on July 11, Jake Retzlaff hit ‘em with the biggest plot twist or loophole of the offseason.

Retzlaff, the Cougars’ gunslinger and arguably the soul of last season’s success, just dipped. Not through the front door of the transfer portal like most players. He cracked open a side window and slid out. On July 11, Retzlaff dropped a heartfelt Instagram post announcing his withdrawal from BYU, thanking the program for its role in his “spiritual, mental and physical” growth. But behind that soft farewell was a move that shook the core of BYU head coach Kalani Sitake’s playoff aspirations. Retzlaff is leaving without officially entering the NCAA transfer portal. Instead, he’s just enrolling somewhere else. Quietly. Strategically.

Enter FOX Sports analyst RJ Young, who peeled the lid off this story on his Adapt and Respond podcast. And he didn’t sugarcoat it. “Jake Retzlaff announced today he is withdrawing from BYU and expects to transfer to somewhere else by simply enrolling,” Young said. “Meaning he is going to forego entering his name into the transfer portal… That’s interesting.”

Interesting? Try chess, not checkers. Retzlaff, who was hit with a 7-game suspension by BYU despite a civil lawsuit against him being dismissed, wasn’t about to waste his final season watching from the sideline. By dodging the transfer portal, Retzlaff keeps everything under wraps. No feeding frenzy from 100 coaches. No spotlight. Just backchannel calls, quiet interest, and maybe even a sneak-deal enrollment at a new Power Five school—if they’ll take him.

RJ Young broke it down further: “If you are just enrolling, you can have impersonal conversations with anybody that you would like to, or you can just show up wherever that place might be and decide that you want to go to school at Notre Dame—if they’re going to let you in.” He wasn’t joking. With the portal, every coach in the country knows who’s up for grabs. Without it, Retzlaff controls his own story. That’s leverage.

Now, before people rush to call it shady, let’s be clear: this is legal. Unconventional? Absolutely. But if there’s one thing college football’s wild transfer era has taught us, it’s this: rules are just suggestions until someone figures out how to game them.

Retzlaff’s move also exposes a bigger conversation—one about how players are starting to outmaneuver the very systems designed to manage them. As RJ Young pointed out, “You still do have to apply to college. There’s no longer any open enrollment… Whenever the old heads try to tell us, ‘I paid off my student loans lickety-split,’ I’m like, dog, you went open enrollment—where you could literally walk up to them, say, ‘I want to go to college at LSU,’ and they just gonna be like, ‘Cool, right this way.’”

The analyst jokes about the old days of “open enrollment,” when you could basically roll up to LSU with $7 and start class—no questions asked. Now it’s way different. Even for football players, transferring means dealing with admissions, applications, and way more red tape. Retzlaff skipping the portal shows how some players are trying to game the system a bit, but it also shows how hard it is to move without a school fully on board. With new roster caps and tighter rules, it’s a risky move that not everyone can pull off.

With Jake Retzlaff out of Provo, will BYU crumble? The reality check

BYU had every reason to feel robbed last year. They went 10-2, tied for the Big 12 crown with Arizona State, Iowa State, and Colorado—only to be knocked out of the title game due to tiebreakers. Strength of schedule did them dirty, and they landed at No. 18 in the final CFP rankings. No playoff berth. No title shot. And now? Retzlaff’s gone, all eyes shift to the depth chart.

BYU’s quarterback room looks like a rotating casting call. McCae Hillstead? Treyson Bourguet? Bear Bachmeier? It’s a three-way standoff—and none of them have tossed more than 1,400 yards in their entire college careers. That’s a steep hill to climb for a program that was knocking on the playoff door just months ago.

RJ Young isn’t completely writing off the Cougars though. “People forget the strength of BYU wasn’t really Jake Retzlaff. He held things together when it was time to hold things together, but they ran the ball well. LJ Martin had 718 yards. I think Chase Roberts had 852 (yards)… But the thing for them last year was the defense.” He’s not wrong. In 2024, BYU’s defense was the envy of the Big 12—No. 1 in points allowed (19.3 per game), No. 1 in total defense (309 yards per game), and No. 1 in turnovers forced (29). That defense didn’t just carry the team—it gave them a legit shot at the College Football Playoff. And yes, the tie-breaker ruined their shot.

RJ nailed it when he said: “Jake Retzlaff had a really great game against Colorado, which made more people believe this was the year BYU could make the College Football Playoff… Stranger things have happened. Stranger things will happen. But I just don’t see that anymore. He was the thing keeping them toward the ceiling, I think they could have. And the floor has changed now, too—because he’s gone as well.”

Statistically, BYU’s chances to win the Big 12 in 2025 have dipped to 10.4%. That’s behind Kansas State (19.9%) and Arizona State (13.0%). Without Retzlaff, they aren’t just missing a playmaker—they’re missing the guy who held their whole season in place. He was their duct tape, their spark plug, their ace.

So, will BYU crumble? Nah. But their ceiling? It’s a whole lot lower. And if they’re not careful, that floor might collapse too.