His ability to dissect defensive looks and know where to go with the option is about as good as we’ve seen at BYU. We had 7 guys this season go for over 4 yards per carry on at least a dozen attempts. Three of those were over 5 yards a carry. That doesn’t happen without a signal-caller who can read and react proactively to get the ball to the right place. That mind for the game is a big reason why he’s often impressive against zone schemes that are currently popular (looked good against the zone schemes run by KState and Baylor), as he’s generally very good at reading coverage and knowing how to beat it. I’ve liked how he runs the read option in most situations.

I’m still overall a bit down on Jake, though, mostly with how he struggles getting the ball over defenders in tight man coverage. I actually think that’s the bigger problem with blitz looks for him is trying to find a route he’s confident he can hit when outside defenders go to man. You need an element of touch to drop it in beyond the defender but within reach of your target, and Retzlaff doesn’t seem to have it yet. An underthrown ball is likely to get picked off, batted down at best, and I don’t know how he gets better against blitz packages without completely adjusting his velocity and low throwing angles to be more accurate to a target closely trailed. No amount of film study is going to improve that facet of his game, with the speed of BIGXII corners the tight man coverage windows are always going to present that issue.

Regardless, Jake showed this year that there’s a lot more to his game than many realized, and that will always stand out from this season.