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PROVO — Jake Retzlaff was in a good mood after No. 14 BYU's 41-19 win over Arizona on Saturday afternoon — for obvious reasons — but he didn't want to flex for himself.
The redshirt junior didn't want to talk much about his 18-of-32 passing, his 218 yards, or the two touchdowns he had without an interception. He wanted to flex, but for his teammates.
Like Parker Kingston, the former Roy High quarterback-turned-BYU-speedster who threw for a touchdown pass and caught another in the Cougars' win over the Wildcats.
"He's probably got a better QBR than me," Retzlaff deadpanned.
The first Jewish starting quarterback at BYU (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) was in a good mood during an epic nine-minute long press conference with local reporters after Saturday's win, cracking jokes, inserting one-liners into his thoughtful conversations, and even cutting off a few questions to make sure his point got across.
As for Kingston: his 1-for-1 passing for 33 yards and a touchdown to LJ Martin will give almost anyone a QB rating of 707.2. Add three completions for three scores, and ... well, it's probably hard to find a single quarterback with better numbers, thanks to Kingston's limited sample size.
"PK is awesome. He can do everything," said Retzlaff, whose QBR of 134.1 pales in comparison — but with, uh ... slightly larger sample size. "He's a great player. He's a guy who didn't have a great few weeks to start the season, frankly. He had a drop or two in our first home game, but the guy just kept his head down, kept working and now he gets to reap those rewards. The touchdown catch today, that was awesome. I didn't have a doubt he was going to make that play."
For the second time in his career, Kingston had a receiving and a passing touchdown in the same game, and a passing touchdown for the third time after hurling a touchdown against Arkansas and Iowa State last year.
He's one of just two active FBS players with multiple career games with a passing and a receiving touchdown (San Jose State's Nick Nash is the other), and the third player in Big 12 history with multiple career games with each — the first since TCU's Kenny Hill in 2017.
So Kingston deserved a moment of glory, and Retzlaff was happy to give it to him. Even if the redshirt sophomore just wanted to make up for a flubbed pass before the Cougars' bye week, when he probably could have added another.
Did Saturday make up for it?
"Yeah, I did," Kingston said. "That Baylor one was terrible; I had to do something."
Kingston's performance would've been enough for a breakout performance in the Cougars' win over the Wildcats. But he wasn't alone.
There was Tanner Wall's first career interception, a goal-line stop that sparked a 99-yard drive capped by Retzlaff's 20-yard TD strike to Kingston. Isaiah Glasker and Harrison Taggart combined for another defensive gem, combing on a fumble that led to another score.
Glasker added another turnover late in the contest, a 21-yard interception return for a touchdown with 1:02 remaining that came as the Wildcats try to get back into the game with quarterback Noah Fifita (26-of-52 passing, 275 yards, 1 touchdown) and star receiver Tetairoa McMillan (5 catches, 78 yards).
Or maybe you prefer Jakob Robinson sparking the Cougars out of the halftime break, when he tipped a pass to himself with a slam dunk-like motion for his 10th career interception, tying Andrew Rich for the most at BYU since 2000.
Robinson is now tied for the sixth-most interceptions by an active FBS players. His team is tied for fourth nationally with Miami and SMU with 10 interceptions.
"Coach Hill puts us in the best position to make plays," said Robinson, crediting defensive coordinator Jay Hill. "He scouts the other teams super well, and he knows what plays are coming. Everyone tries to trust their job and come up with a play."
That defense is the a big reason why the Cougars keep winning, starting the season 6-0 for just the sixth time in program history — the first time since 2020 and just the third time in the last 20 years.
"Our defense is doing it week in and week out. It's so awesome," Retzlaff said. "The national attention is definitely something. But at the same time, keep the main thing the main thing. I don't think any group of people I've been around is better at that than this football team."
Retzlaff added that the team can go from "joking around and having fun to executing football plays."
"I don't think there's a better place to be for that. Thursday practice is a helmets-only day, and that was the most intense day of practice. That just goes to show the profesionalism of these guys and how great they are at taking care of business on the field. We all have that mindset.
"The national attention's great ... and it's so great for the BYU image, making BYU even better than it is. We love it, but we're also so good at making the main thing the main thing."
