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PROVO — It was no secret before BYU football's first spring practice Thursday afternoon that the Cougars had a quarterback competition.
The two-man race between Jake Retzlaff, last year's second-stringer to Kedon Slovis before starting the final four games of the season, and Baylor/USF transfer Gerry Bohanon won't be decided right away.
But the duo saw the majority of the reps as the Cougars returned to the school's practice field for team-wide sessions for the first time since finishing their first season in the Big 12 on a five-game losing skid.
If there is a hostile competition between the two on Day 1 of the spring, Retzlaff wasn't showing it. The two are actually pretty close friends, according to the one-time junior college transfer from Corona, California.
"Gerry's awesome," said the redshirt junior who completed 50.4% of his passes for 648 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions a year ago before training with former BYU signal caller John Beck and 3DQB in the offseason. "Me and him had inside jokes on Day 2. It's cool to see a guy like that with experience to come into the room and bounce some things off him. He's a great dude, and I like being able to bounce things off of him."
Retzlaff added that he has "plenty to work on" in his mechanics, throwing style and tweaks to offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick's playbook to be concerned about a cutthroat competition (for now). Iron sharpens iron, to cite his favorite cliche.
The other corner of the QB1 title bout has his own work to do, too.
Bohanon will be a sixth-year senior at BYU, the product of playing in one game during the 2020 season at the height of the COVID pandemic.
But the veteran from Earle, Arkansas, hasn't taken a live snap in over a year. After four seasons at Baylor, Bohanon transferred to South Florida in 2022 and completed 56.9% of his passes for 1,070 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in the seventh game of the year.
He entered the transfer portal when USF turned to then-freshman Byrum Brown, but did not play during the entire 2023 season due to his surgery.
"I still have some stuff I need to get better on," said Bohanon, who was medically cleared to return to play in November and again when he got to BYU prior to the winter semester in January. "But it felt good just to be back out there, in the huddle, with the linemen looking at you."
Still, a quarterback with six years of experience — including passing for 2,200 yards and 18 touchdowns with seven interceptions in helping Baylor to a 12-2 season with a 21-7 win over then-No. 8 Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl — was hard to pass up.
Can he re-capture any of that previous magic? That's what spring football will decide.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake would prefer to have a starter named "as soon as we can." But offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Aaron Roderick will ultimately have the largest say in the decision, and the ninth-year head coach understands how the process works.
So how is Bohanon faring right now, with all that background?
"He looks good," Sitake said. "In the throwing they did in the offseason leading up to this, I thought he had done a great job, too. I don't see a lot of issues with his health. He's feeling confident, and he's in his element.
"The guy belongs on the football field, running an offense, and he deserves an opportunity to compete with Jake. They have a really good thing going right now. … The competition is really, really tough, and we need all the best players we can have. Looking at the way college football goes, it's not good to just have one quarterback. Why not have as many as we can?"
Beyond Retzlaff and Bohanon, the Cougars have 10 quarterbacks on the roster, with former backup Cade Fennegan and Western Michigan transfer walk-on Treyson Bourguet also taking snaps during the 20-minute media-viewing portion of Thursday's practice.
The list also includes seldom-used backup Nick Billoups; recently redshirted freshmen Ryder Burton and Cole Hagen; and new freshmen Noah Lugo, Micah Fe'a and Dane Christensen.
It's almost enough to start an all-quarterback offense, Retzlaff joked. The Cougars just need to add one more — though Lugo may be the odd man out to play center, he quipped.
"It is a big room. In our meeting room, we have 10 chairs; I never thought they'd all be filled," Retzlaff added. "But it's pretty fun."
But when it comes down to pinning a full-time starter for the 2024 season, the race begins with Retzlaff and Bohanon. That's why the JUCO product stuck around Provo in the age of the transfer era, and what prompted the one-time signal caller of a Jeff Grimes offense at Baylor to move on to his third school.
Retzlaff isn't regretting either decision. Neither is Bohanon.
"It's honestly been everything when I came on my visit, and a little bit better," the newcomer said. "Everybody is so welcoming, it's so peaceful, and everybody here loves ball and sports. It's been an amazing atmosphere to be a part of."
