If you could chart improvement over time, you'd see a number of different shapes, especially for quarterbacks. They're often the best athletes at their school growing up, and among those who compete collegiately, they and their families have often invested a lot of time and money into supplemental training and camps. A few of them transfer to high schools with competitive advantages which compound those strengths further. Sometimes their trajectory versus their peers persists into college and they continue to outshine the competition at their position and against opposing defenses. But, what is much more common is for that development curve to taper off or even plateau in the first few years against high-level college competition.

In college, they find themselves competing against a national pool of candidates for a position on the team. The physical advantages they had in high school are less likely to translate against adult men who might be four or five years their senior. They have a relatively shallow amount of awareness and experience with the offensive system or playbook, while opposing defensive teams and coordinators may have years of experience and sophistication to throw at them. Most often, they are experiencing much higher loads in the weight room and film room than have ever been asked before. My hat is off to all of the athletes who fight their way through the early college years. For most athletes, there's a progressive ripening as their bodies mature along with their game understanding. It may not be visible week to week or even year to year, but there's a reason the vast majority of college football players you see on the field have been on campus a while.

Jake Retzlaff's development curve — to my eye — has been as steep and productive as any QB in decades. From being turned away at Riverside City College, and having to earn his stripes at Golden West Community College (in all honesty, how many on here had ever heard of Golden West before Retzlaff transferred here?), to being the backup on an overmatched BYU squad last year, and being the leader and heartbeat of a top-10 NCAA team this year, he has shown tremendous progress. He seems to absolutely love the game, probably devours film and workouts like a mad man, gets up after every hit, chases down his turnovers, and keeps teammates engaged. He seems to make measurable improvements week to week, and it's really exciting to consider what things look like as this year winds up and we look ahead to next season.

Credit his upbringing, character and work ethic. Some of it might be his innate wiring, but it's also a testament to his parents and previous coaches that they all nurtured his inherent gifts and kept the momentum going. It's a rare player who has the talent and ability to be in position for high levels of coaching, but who also has the humility, intelligence and drive to not self-limit the input and tough love from those coaches. We have seen, and will see players who come in looking more polished with better throwing mechanics, or have a better resume on arrival, but I really appreciate what he's showing all of us about the ability to grow.