BYU Football Quarterback Analysis For 2025 Season
May 20, 2025, 2:51 PM | Updated: May 21, 2025, 9:44 am
PROVO, Utah – The spotlight is always big for BYU football quarterbacks.
That spotlight grows larger when a starting signal-caller is back entering a season.
That’s the case in 2025 as Jake Retzlaff prepares for his senior season as BYU’s top quarterback.
Diving into Retzlaff and the rest of the BYU football quarterbacks in 2025, in this latest installment of the position analysis series.
2025 BYU Football Position Analysis Series
Cornerback | Running Back | Safety |
Note: As of this publication, no official settlement has been reached in the House v. NCAA case, so we’re not currently capping personnel at the 105-man roster limit.
Personnel Snapshot
BYU enters the 2025 season with a veteran quarterback in Jake Retzlaff, who started all 13 games in the Cougars’ 11-2 campaign last year after going through an offseason quarterback battle with Gerry Bohanon.
Behind Retzlaff is a pair of returning lettermen who redshirted last year in their first season with the program.
Then, BYU brings in two new freshmen to the position group.
BYU Football Quarterbacks returning for the 2025 season
- Jake Retzlaff (Redshirt-Senior): 2,947 passing yards; 20 TDs-12 INTs; 417 rushing yards, 6 TDs in 2024.
- Treyson Bourguet (RS-Junior): Redshirted last season.
- McCae Hillstead (RS-Sophomore): Redshirted last season.
Gone from the 2024 roster
- Gerry Bohanon (Eligibility expired)
- Noah Lugo (Transfer Portal, UTSA)
- Cole Hagen
2025 Newcomers
- Bear Bachmeier (Stanford Transfer)
- Emerson Geilman (2025 signee)
Breaking down the BYU football quarterbacks for the 2025 season
BYU finished ninth in the Big 12 last year in passing yards. That ranking dipped to 11th during conference play as BYU averaged 220.9 yards through the air.
BYU was more balanced offensively and took its time, running 28.5 seconds per play last season.
If you look at the 11-2 record and see a returning starting quarterback, it could be easy to assume that BYU has arrived offensively. There’s another level or two that BYU wants to reach with its offense this season. It all starts at QB.
Can Jake Retzlaff become one of the best QBs in the nation this fall?
BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick is bullish on the potential of Jake Retzlaff. He told ESPN announcers Dave Pasch and Dusty Dvoracek at the Alamo Bowl last year that he believes Retzlaff could be a Top Five quarterback in college football in 2025.
Retzlaff enters his third year with the BYU football program. After starting 0-4 as the starter, he’s now 11-6. Retzlaff will quickly point out that those stats are a team deal, but everyone knows how critical high-level play from quarterbacks is to success in college football.
Look at the recent history of the Big 12 Championship Game. The past three years have shown that to make that game, a team needs one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12 and the country.
Arizona State’s Sam Leavitt and Iowa State’s Rocco Becht played in the game last year. Before that, Texas QB Quinn Ewers led the Longhorns to the league title. In 2022, it was Heisman finalist Max Duggan of TCU against Kansas State’s Will Howard.
Roderick is confident that year three could lead to a bigger jump from Retzlaff, who improved from his redshirt season after joining as a JUCO transfer in 2023.
“In my experience in coaching, usually that third year is the big year for quarterbacks,” Roderick said to KSL Sports in March. “Whether it’s Zach Wilson’s third year in the program … you can go back through BYU history, the guys that are second, third-year starters are usually the ones that play really great. So that’s what I expect from Jake, just keep getting better every day.”
During the Kalani Sitake era (since 2016), BYU has had four quarterbacks reach a third year as starting quarterbacks.
Three of the four made it to the NFL: Taysom Hill, Wilson, and Jaren Hall. The lone miss was Tanner Mangum, whom Sitake and Roderick benched in favor of Wilson in 2018.
So it’s a high bar for Retzlaff, and no one has higher expectations for him in 2025 than himself.
At the end of spring ball, Retzlaff said he wants to be at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York this year.
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A key for Retzlaff to get there will be putting up bigger numbers through the air. Last year, he was 53 yards short of 3,000 yards. Roderick has also challenged him to improve his completion percentage from 57.9% last season and bring down the 12 interceptions.
Retzlaff completed 70% of his passes during spring practices and had only one interception. That was a ball thrown to linebacker Jack Kelly.
Along with his ability to make plays through the air, Retzlaff’s contributions on the ground are valuable to BYU’s offense.
Retzlaff was BYU’s leading rusher until the UCF game in week nine last year. He finished last season with 417 yards on the ground and six touchdown runs.
Physically, Retzlaff is working on adding some weight to his 205-pound frame. He wants to be 208 pounds entering fall camp and settle in at 212 pounds during the season.
Underrated strength of Retzlaff in BYU’s offense
Jake Retzlaff and Aaron Roderick have what Retzlaff calls an “incredible relationship.” From the moment BYU signed Retzlaff in the winter of 2023, Roderick has viewed the former JUCO star as a potential face of the BYU program.
That time has arrived as Retzlaff will look to lead BYU to a Big 12 Championship game this season.
Roderick highlighted one of the strengths he’s seen in Retzlaff’s development, which he believes will help BYU’s offense progress this fall.
“I think one thing that people don’t see a lot of, because it’s not always obvious, is how often he gets us into the right play,” Roderick said to JJ & Alex on the KSL Sports Zone in May.
“We give him a lot of freedom. There are a lot of calls that are really two-play calls and get us into the right one. Then in some cases, it’s three play calls, get us into the right play. Sometimes it’s just maybe a four-yard gain on a run play, but he just avoided a disaster by getting us into that run play to make four yards. Which keeps you on schedule for the next play.
“So there’s a lot there that he does a really good job with. I think in his senior year, we’re going to be able to take that to another level, because of his experience now. There’s not a lot of defense that he hasn’t seen at this point. So I think that you’re going to see him get us into a lot of good plays, and I think that’s going to lead to more points.”
The last time a Senior quarterback led BYU football to a double-digit win season was in 2009
If you go back through the LaVell Edwards era of BYU’s quarterback factory, the senior QB typically led BYU to a big season that produced 10 or more wins.
That hasn’t been the case yet under Kalani Sitake, who is entering his 10th season this fall.
BYU hasn’t had a senior quarterback lead to a 10+ win season since Max Hall did it in 2009. Jake Retzlaff has a chance to end that drought.
Staying healthy will help the cause. Since Hall, the senior quarterbacks who began their respective seasons didn’t start in the bowl games or season finales.
- 2023: Kedon Slovis – Finished: 5-7
- 2022: Jaren Hall – Finished: 8-5
- 2018: Tanner Mangum – Finished: 7-6
- 2016: Taysom Hill – Finished: 9-4
- 2012: Riley Nelson – Finished: 8-5
- 2009: Max Hall – Finished: 11-2
The backup quarterback spot is where the intrigue resides in 2025
One of the big questions for BYU football entering fall camp will be the backup quarterback spot.
Neither Treyson Bourguet nor McCae Hillstead cemented themselves as the No. 2 behind Jake Retzlaff, exiting spring.
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Aaron Roderick was content with carrying the battle into fall camp. Both Bourguet and Hillstead were additions in the 2024 transfer portal cycle.
Hillstead, a former Utah State quarterback who started four games for the Aggies in 2023, has been at BYU for 12 months after joining during the summer bridge last year. He’s a dual-threat player who showed his ability to take off and run during spring practices in March.
Treyson Bourguet was a player who BYU recruited out of high school as a preferred walk-on. He ended up going to Western Michigan, where he started in eight games for the Broncos.
He reminded people of his arm talent during media observation windows, taking deep shots down the field. At Western Michigan in 2023, he was 7-of-14 on pass attempts of 20 yards or more.
Beyond the battle for the backup spot in 2025, whoever wins this battle could have an inside track at being BYU’s starter in 2026 after Retzlaff’s eligibility expires.
Will Bear Bachmeier jump into the No. 2 QB conversation?
BYU pulled some national headlines, landing former four-star quarterback recruit Bear Bachmeier out of the transfer portal this spring.
Bachmeier was a prospect that BYU football coaches had high on their recruiting board for the 2025 cycle, but he committed early to Stanford. After spending a few weeks competing in Stanford spring practices, Bachmeier hopped in the portal and landed at BYU.
Committed!!! #GoCougs 💙🤍 pic.twitter.com/bzWHL91RW7
— Bear Bachmeier (@bearb47) May 4, 2025
Coming out of Murrieta Valley High School in California, Bachmeier was pursued by blueblood college football programs like Alabama.
Can Bachmeier make up ground on Hillstead and Bourguet in fall camp to potentially win the backup job this season?
We will see.
One thing is for sure: Aaron Roderick believes the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Bachmeier has a bright future at BYU.
“He’s a very good football player, a super athlete, also highly intelligent, like his brother, and a very accurate passer,” Roderick added on Bear Bachmeier to the KSL Sports Zone. “I don’t usually make bold predictions, but I think he’s going to be a great player at BYU.”
Tidbits on the rest of the quarterback unit
Emerson Geilman: Preferred walk-on signee out of Bountiful High in the 2025 cycle. Geilman was at BYU spring practices observing the quarterbacks. He had an impressive Elite 11 performance in Las Vegas last year, putting together the second-best athletic rating. He helped lead Bountiful High to a 5A State Championship last season.
Projected depth chart at QB for BYU football in 2025
Starter: Jake Retzlaff
Backup: McCae Hillstead
Next in line: Bear Bachmeier / Treyson Bourguet
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
