‘We gotta be ready to roll, man’: BYU opens fall camp with focus on efficiency, execution, starting quarterback derby

All eyes were on the quarterbacks Wednesday afternoon as BYU opened 2024 preseason training camp under a blazing, smoke-blurred Provo sun, with temperatures in the mid-90s at the newly named Zions Bank Practice Fields.

No surprise there, as the starting quarterback derby figures to be the main headline-grabber the next three weeks.

What was a bit of a surprise was that in the media viewing portion of practice — basically the last 10 minutes or so — there were two “team sessions” going on at once, one on the west side of the field behind the Student Athlete Building, the other on the east side.

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Baylor and USF transfer Gerry Bohanon was with the ones on the east side, while Jake Retzlaff, a four-game starter in 2023, was with the twos on the west side.

Bohanon was spelled by Utah State transfer McCae Hillstead, while Retzlaff was relieved by Western Michigan transfer Treyson Bourguet.

Again, it was just for the last few plays, and nothing can, or should, be read into it, coach Kalani Sitake said.

“We split it to get more reps. It is good for both sides, but it will tax on you a little bit. In order for us to get reps for everybody, and to compete, we have to do that,” Sitake said when asked how many quarterbacks are getting first-team reps.

So we will take that as four. Whatever the case, it was the first time media members have been able to view two 11-on-11 scrimmages — with players wearing shorts and helmets, but no pads — run simultaneously.

Sitake, Retzlaff and Bohanon all said it is nothing new and that they’ve been doing it all summer in player-run practices (PRPs).

“Our guys are in pretty good shape,” Sitake said. “We went through a script of a bunch of plays and we got done early. We did no-huddle stuff, and the guys were a lot cleaner than what we have been.

“You could see that they have put a lot of work in in the offseason, and there were not a lot of mistakes that were made. For Day 1, it was good. We just need to keep improving every day.”

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Notably absent in the team sessions was presumed starting running back LJ Martin, but Sitake said the sophomore “was out there. … Yeah, he was practicing (earlier) with all of (the running backs).”

Rumors persist that Martin is recovering from a shoulder injury and might not be ready for the opener on Aug. 31 against Southern Illinois, maybe several games.

But the most pressing question is at quarterback. Sitake reiterated what he has said all spring and summer — that there’s no timeline to name a starter, but he would like to identify one sooner than later.

“It is not a deadline thing. It is just a feel. Right now, I can tell you it is not going to happen this week,” Sitake said. “Both guys did a great job. I mean, all four quarterbacks did a great job today.

“Their job is to make it hard on us making a decision, but I feel comfortable having a bunch of guys who can do it, so we will go with the best one. Right now, that one hasn’t stood out yet.”

Retzlaff said there was a “world of difference” between last year’s first day of camp and this year’s first day.

“To go out there and get a lot of opportunities to play my game,” Retzlaff said of his expectations for camp. “They haven’t expressed a specific timeline or anything like that. It is just to go out there and do my thing and let the rest take care of itself.”

Bohanon was also made available for a group interview Wednesday, and said reports that he is 100% recovered from the shoulder injury that sidelined him all of last season “are accurate.”

“The reps are even right now. We just kinda rotated with the ones. We split fields and got the same amount of reps. I thought today was a good day,” Bohanon said.

“I gotta go and watch the tape and clean up some stuff. … Everybody was juiced up, so we wanted to have fun, and that’s what we did. We wanted to execute at a high level and we have little things to work on and fix, but it was a good day for everybody.”

Overall, Sitake said the Cougars will play a lot of football over the course of the next three weeks, especially beginning Monday when the pads go on.

“We gotta be ready to roll, man. These guys are in great shape. We obviously gotta be in game shape after the next three weeks,” he said. “We need to be hitting on all cylinders in all three phases. This was a good start for that.”

There was some bad news as well, as two-year starting linebacker Ben Bywater announced he is medically retiring from college football because his surgically repaired shoulder, injured against Kansas last fall, is not close to being ready for contact.

“I had some tough conversations the other day, and I am not cleared to go, and I won’t be medically cleared to go,” Bywater said. “It looks like my days of playing football for BYU are behind me.”