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PROVO — The phrase "quarterback competition" has been thrown into the modern lexicon of the game so often that it often gets misused by fans and observers around the country.
In using the term to describe the past 15 practices at BYU between Jake Retzlaff and Gerry Bohanon, it comes with a key disclaimer: these guys are still teammates.
As competition goes, Retzlaff and Bohanon are as friendly as they come.
"It's always funny to me, when I see a graphical comparison before football games or whatnot between quarterbacks, the quarterbacks don't actually play against each other," Retzlaff said with a humble laugh. "Sure, it's a competition between me and him, but I'm not actually playing against him. It's easy to love the guy and to embrace the guy. He's my guy, because I'm on the offense's side — no matter who is in at any position. I hope we dominate every day in every aspect of the game.
"I feel like people drop 'competition' like there's a rivalry, but there's no rivalry whatsoever. That's not how it works. … We're in the locker room every day. We sit next to each other. We lift weights with each other. It's just two guys competing to play a position, and we both see it the same way."
Still, in the modern world of college football — and perhaps that speaks to media and fans' observation of the sport, as much as anything else — the term "competition" raises the stakes.
No fewer than seven questions were asked of offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick as he met with the media for the final time after the Cougars put the finishing touches on spring practices Saturday at the indoor practice facility.
Head coach Kalani Sitake also addressed the quarterback competition between incumbent Retzlaff and Bohanon, the newcomer from Baylor and USF who both also met individually with the media the rest of Saturday afternoon before departing for offseason workouts on campus and in California with former BYU quarterback John Beck.
Sitake has called the quarterback competition "neck-and-neck" several times, with Retzlaff taking the early advantage and Bohanon occasionally taking the lead or finishing the race that is too close to call.
When it comes to naming a starter, Sitake and Roderick will work together in the decision — though Roderick has traditionally had a slightly larger role, due to his work as quarterbacks coach and as offensive coordinator — and both would prefer a starter to be found well in advance of the season opener Aug. 31 against FCS foe Southern Illinois.
"The sooner the better would be nice," Sitake said, "but I think that someone's got to take it. The playing field has positives of both of those guys. In the meantime, other guys are stepping up like Treyson Bourget and others. I think it's done too many good things for Jake and for Gerry, as well."
That's fine by both signal callers. Bohanon, for example, was open that he's "still got some work to do" after missing last season with an injury.
"I felt like I made some big improvements," Bohanon said. "I went into it with an open mindset of learning everything, getting to know the guys, and getting back into the groove. Coming off the injury, it was important to get out there and try to find my feet again."
Here's what Roderick had to say about the quarterback derby.
Q. Obviously, everyone is interested in the QB battle. How is that going?
"It's going well, and you know, it's only 15 practices. We'll get about double that in fall camp. We're still working our way through it, but I thought both of those guys did a lot of good things this spring."
Q. What are their strengths, and how unique are both quarterbacks?
"They're actually more similar than they are different. They're both athletic, they both can make the throws that we need them to make in this offseason, and they're both really smart. Of course, Gerry has a little more experience overall. Jake has the advantage of knowing our offense a little better than Gerry does. It's been a really good battle."
Q. Is the battle going to go into fall?
"It'll go into fall, yeah."
Q. What do you want them to work on this summer, before fall camp?
"In Gerry's case, it's just getting more comfortable with the language of our offense, where you get to the point where he doesn't have to think about what the words mean. You can just go play. In Jake's case, it's continuing to take great care of the ball. Jake had zero interceptions the whole spring; I think that's the first time I've ever had a quarterback go 15 practices without throwing an interception. We've been not talking about it — it's like having a no-hitter — but he made it through practice 15 today without a pick. That was a big deal, because last year he had some critical turnovers. The goal of spring was to eliminate those, and he did a good job of that."
Q. What will be the No. 1 criteria for picking the starting quarterback?
"The guy that takes the best care of the ball and moves the team the best; it's those two things, combined. You can take care of the ball, if you're really conservative and don't ever do anything with it, so we want that balance of being able to be aggressive and move the team, but also still take care of the football."
Q. You noted that Retzlaff had no interceptions in those passes. How much of those passes were downfield?
"That was a lot. We ran our offense. We throw the ball down the field in this offense. It's not like we were being conservative; we were just playing football."
Q. Would you consider adding another quarterback in the transfer portal, post-spring?
"No."
