Provo • Even in his worst-case scenario, Jake Retzlaff figured he might miss one spring practice — maybe two, if the surgery really took its toll.
But missing two weeks of camp, and potentially more? That wasn’t in the picture when BYU’s new quarterback signed up for surgery the Wednesday before spring practices began.
Retzlaff had talked to the doctors about the typical timeline for a tonsillectomy and a deviated septum. They assured him recovery was typically a couple of days. The doctors recommended they do both surgeries at once; the nose would heal faster and the tonsils would be healed a couple of days later.
“Pretty much the plan was to get it all done before spring practice that next Monday,” Retzlaff said. “But it has all been just a mess.”
As the third week of spring practice begins, Retzlaff still hasn’t been fully cleared for football activities. The complications from a surgery that was supposed to keep him out a few days have dragged on for weeks. It subsequently led to two additional surgeries and a messy start to Retzlaff’s first spring in Provo.
“He has been struggling,” offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said. “Things got infected. ... He has only been able to play a little up to this point.”
In the initial days after the first surgery, Retzlaff felt there was something wrong. The doctors brought him back in for a checkup, and said there were “complications.” They ended up performing a second surgery that Sunday to fix the initial procedure.
Once that was finished, doctors told him to restart the recovery process. But a week into that, Retzlaff developed a sinus infection in his newly repaired nose. Doctors then had to perform a third surgery on his nose last Tuesday — nearly three weeks after his first one.
“This whole recovery system, nothing has gone smoothly,” Retzlaff said.
Now as he starts the third week of spring camp, he has mostly watched practices from the sidelines. Occasionally he can throw in some drills.
His hope is to be cleared this week but that is still up in the air.
All of this has further complicated what was already going to be a complicated spring for Retzlaff. After coming to BYU from Riverside City College in January, this spring was a chance for Retzlaff to establish himself in the quarterback pecking order.
Outside of starter Kedon Slovis, Retzlaff was entering a wide-open quarterback battle to be the primary backup. If he won the job, he would have likely established himself as the probable starter in 2024, after Slovis left the program.
In his longer absence, Cade Fennegan has taken the majority of the backup snaps and looked sharp. Fennegan was already going into his third year in the program and now looks to be taking command over the quarterback battle. Retzlaff hasn’t even had a chance to compete.
“Fennegan is having a really good spring,” Roderick said. “A lot of growth there. I’m very impressed with him. It is not anybody else isn’t doing well. All the other guys have gotten better every day. But Cade is really doing well.
“You can just tell this is his third year in the offense now. He is just running the show out there like a veteran player, with no hesitation of getting people lined up where they need to be.”
Retzlaff still believes he can compete this spring with Fennegan once he is cleared, even if he is behind. He doesn’t think the backup quarterback battle is over.
By his estimation, Retzlaff says he has “total command” over the offense and comes in with a strong resume of being a proven quarterback. In other words, he is ready to hit the ground running when he is cleared. He was rated the No. 1 overall junior college quarterback prospect by ESPN last year after throwing for 4,596 yards, 44 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 13 games at Riverside.
“I’m not extremely worried about being behind,” Retzlaff said. “Of course, reps, reps, reps make a difference at the end of the day. And so that’s the only thing. It’s just things might not be as smooth as I want them to be in my first team segment, but that just gets better with reps.”
Retzlaff also believes his skill set matches well with what BYU is trying to run once he is fully healthy. He was recruited by Roderick and quarterback analyst Matt Mitchell for over a year because of it — dating back to last summer. He chose the Cougars over Troy and Louisiana Tech.
“We haven’t really had enough reps with him yet to really make a statement one way or the other,” Roderick said of where Retzlaff stands in the competition. “But I really believe in that guy.”
For now, Retlzalff will have a little over two weeks left to compete with Fennegan if he is cleared by midweek.
“It has been a wild timeline,” Retzlaff said. “But I’m feeling good, feeling better every day. Getting there.”
