During a trip to New Orleans for Super Bowl week last month, Jake Retzlaff got to do something most fellow college quarterbacks can only dream of: pick Tom Brady’s brain.
Retzlaff was in the Big Easy for a Unity Summit hosted by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, which Brady attended, as well.
The gathering was focused on combatting antisemitism, racism and hate of all kind, but Retzlaff managed to find a spare moment to seek football counsel from the seven-time Super Bowl champion.
“I just asked him, ‘What would you tell senior year you at Michigan?’” Retzlaff told reporters Saturday, recalling his conversation with Brady. “He said, ‘Dude, you’re never done. You never arrive. Just keep getting better. Look for ways to get better constantly, just constantly find the next edge, the next tweak.’
“The more I’ve done that, the more I realize is there’s always another tweak, another tell, another key, another thing you can pick up on, whether it’s reading the defense, whether it’s throwing the ball, whether it’s getting to reads, understanding blitzes, all of that stuff is ever improvable.”
Brady’s advice couldn’t be more relevant for Retzlaff, who is currently locked in as BYU’s starting quarterback as the Cougars participate in their spring practices.
It’s a bit of a change for Retzlaff, who has spent much of his time in Provo engaged in position battles for either the backup or starting role on the team.
However, his current job security isn’t keeping him from being competitive, but rather pushing him to be even more so.
“It’s totally a new dynamic for me, but it’s still the same mentality,” Retzlaff said. “I’ve still got to get better, push the envelope and still try to match the details of the game, but I feel like I’m doing a great job. I told somebody the other day, the first year in this offense, you’re getting your (general credits) done. Your second year, you’re getting your degree, and your third year you’re getting your master’s. And so I feel like that’s where I’m at with this offense, where it’s like the master’s program where you can major in these specific little details and dial them in perfectly, and it’s been a blast.
“So it’s nice to have that kind of leash made a little longer, but at the same time, it’s still all gas, you know, foot to the pedal, we’re still getting better every day, we’ve still got to push ourselves,” Retzlaff continued. “I’ve got to find ways to push myself without being in a (quarterback) competition, and that’s always to beat the defense.”
BYU runs each play of practice with a set down and distance, allowing the offense to better familiarize itself with various game situations — and thus improve the team’s fortunes on third down and in the red zone.
Cougars offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick believes intense focus on situational football will be crucial for Retzlaff’s further progression as a signal-caller.
“Every single day, whatever period of practice we’re in, there’s a situation there, and we talk about the context of that situation every play,” Roderick said. “... I think that’s the next step for Jake this year. Now he knows the offense really well, and he’s not thinking about what everybody’s doing on every play, so now he can take in the play call and really process it according to what the situation is, and I think that’s a big part in his development and taking that next step.”
“It’s not like it has to be these big, revolutionary ideas to improve this offense,” Retzlaff added. “It’s getting a little better at all these little things, and a lot of that is situational football. That’s why I love the way we set up our practices, there’s always something in mind going into every drill, and that’s exactly what a game is, right? You don’t ever go into a game and just run base downs, you don’t ever just go run three first downs in a row or five or six first downs in a row, it’s always about situational football, so that’s what I love the way we structure these practices ... (Roderick) is calling the plays on the headset and off a call sheet, and so that kind of stuff makes it super fun to be like, ‘OK, this is the situation we’re in, right now it’s third and three on the eight yard line, and we’re driving in the red zone. We get the first down, and now we’ve got to score.’”
According to Retzlaff, the game situations have added more energy to spring ball, especially with the group of Cougars on the field with him.
“We don’t feel like it’s a grind right now, the grind is the winter workouts when there’s not even a ball. It’s the weight room, it’s the sprinting on the turf, that’s the grind,” Retzlaff said. “But when there’s a ball on the field, we have so much fun as a team. This group of guys is incredible to play with. I love to play with them all, but the more competition you add, the harder our guys are going to play, and the more fun it ends up being.”