BYU will have another QB competition this fall — but the Cougars’ best seasons under Kalani Sitake have all started that way

As Kalani Sitake enters his 10th campaign at the helm of BYU football, he once again finds his program in the midst of quarterback uncertainty.

But if history is any indication, questions at QB might actually benefit the Cougars. No, seriously.

Since the Sitake era began in 2016, BYU is 48-16 (.750 winning percentage) in seasons where the team’s Week 1 starting quarterback was not chosen and/or announced until the end of fall camp:

• 2016 — 9-4, Poinsettia Bowl victory
• 2018 — 7-6, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl victory
• 2020 — 11-1, Boca Raton Bowl victory, No. 11 final national ranking
• 2021 — 10-3, Independence Bowl loss, No. 19 final national ranking
• 2024 — 11-2, Alamo Bowl victory, No. 13 final national ranking

Conversely, in the four seasons during that span where the Cougars opened with a long-established starter under center, they’ve gone 24-27 (.470 winning percentage) with just one bowl victory and two losing campaigns:

• 2017 — 4-9, no bowl game
• 2019 — 7-6, Hawaii Bowl loss
• 2022 — 8-5, New Mexico Bowl victory
• 2023 — 5-7, no bowl game

With Jake Retzlaff now withdrawing from BYU, Sitake will oversee his sixth quarterback derby of the past 10 years, with McCae Hillstead, Treyson Bourguet and Bear Bachmeier all gunning for this year’s starting job.

“First of all, there is competition at every position. The one that gets the most attention is quarterback, on every program,” Sitake said at Big 12 football media days this past week. “But everybody in our program has to be committed, and has to fight for their spot. And then you have to balance it out with loving each other and mentoring and taking care of each other. So that is a fine line.”

Sitake continued: “If you are going to play at BYU you have to be able to throw the ball. So we have guys that can sling the ball. They all have different skillsets. The fortunate part for me is I have a coaching staff that I was able to keep intact, and so there is always a knowledge of the offense from the guys who are there. We have incoming talent that I think will be really special for us.”

Here’s a look back at the QB competitions at BYU over the past decade and how they all shook out.

2016: Taysom Hill and Tanner Mangum

Sitake’s first year back at BYU opened with a unique quarterback conundrum: should he go with the proven, dynamic but oft-injured Taysom Hill, or the recent freshman phenom Tanner Mangum?

Ultimately, it was the fifth-year senior Hill who emerged victorious to earn his fourth consecutive Week 1 starting nod for the Cougars.

“Coming back for my senior year, this obviously wasn’t ideal, right? Being here for four years and then being in a quarterback battle,” Hill said at the time. “But I felt like I got a lot better because of it and I thought the situation was handled really well.”

While Sitake referred to Hill as “the best guy” upon being named the starter, he acknowledged that Mangum’s preseason performance made the decision “really hard.”

“The best guy won. A great player was second place,” Sitake said. “It’s a great spot to be in where we have two great ones competing for it. We just felt like Taysom was the guy that earned the spot.

“... Consistency is something we wanted to look at. … Tanner is way better than he was a year ago. But there are things Tanner brings to the table that Taysom can’t and there’s things that Taysom does that Tanner can’t. We feel like, for the team, and where we sit right now, this is the right move for us. … I think having those guys compete and earn the spot the right way was the way to do it."

Hill threw for 2,323 yards with 12 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2016, adding another 603 yards and eight scores on the ground as well. In 12 starts, he led the Cougars to an 8-4 record — with the four losses coming by a combined eight points.

But for the fourth-consecutive year, Hill’s season ended prematurely.

An elbow injury in the regular season finale against Utah State brought Hill’s college career to a frustrating end. Mangum was summoned to replace Hill and ended up starting in the Poinsettia Bowl against Wyoming, dueling with future NFL Most Valuable Player Josh Allen as the Cougars notched a 24-21 victory.

2018: Tanner Mangum and Zach Wilson

Following a dismal 2017 season, where the Cougars finished 4-9 and saw four different quarterbacks play meaningful snaps, albeit with little success, BYU felt an immense urgency to fix its passing game.

The two fall camp candidates to lead such an effort were Mangum, now a senior and recovering from various injuries the previous year that resulted in a subpar showing, and true freshman Zach Wilson, who was already turning heads from the moment he arrived on campus.

While the young Wilson put up a strong fight, BYU’s coaching staff decided to open the year with Mangum as its starter, banking on the veteran being able to pilot his squad throughout a number of challenging early matchups.

“There was a huge sense of urgency. The fact that he knew he had to compete for the spot, you saw him change his body but that’s not the only thing he changed. He prepared himself in a lot of different areas to be the quarterback,” Sitake said of Mangum. “The competition was really more on how ready Zach was. It wasn’t that we weren’t sure who was going to be the guy. We felt like there were two guys that did extremely well. We felt Tanner had earned the starting spot. But we feel really pleased with the progress that we saw with Zach.”

The coaches’ decision to start Mangum paid early dividends, as he led the Cougars to dramatic road upsets over Arizona and No. 6 Wisconsin amid a 3-1 start to the season.

However, consecutive blowout losses to Washington and Utah State resulted in Mangum’s benching in favor of Wilson, who became the youngest starting quarterback in school history.

In his first career start, Wilson accounted for four total touchdowns in a 49-23 drubbing of Hawaii and would never look back. He sparked BYU’s offense to average more than 32 points per game over their final seven contests, culminating in a Famous Idaho Potato Bowl victory where he finished a perfect 18 for 18 in passing attempts.

In all, Wilson threw for 1,578 yards to Mangum’s 1,104, with 12 touchdowns and three interceptions compared to five and four each from Mangum.

2020: Zach Wilson, Baylor Romney and Jaren Hall

While Wilson was widely expected to open 2020 as BYU’s starting quarterback, he was still required to earn the role and fend off rising talents Jaren Hall and Baylor Romney. Perhaps it was less of a quarterback battle and more of a skirmish.

In 2019, Wilson was plagued by injuries and inconsistency. When Hall and Romney filled in for him, the pair combined for 11 total touchdowns and led the Cougars to a 3-1 mark.

Wilson responded to his sophomore slump with an increased dosage of work — including his famous road trips down to California to train with former Cougars great John Beck — which helped make the decision to keep him penciled in as BYU’s starter rather obvious.

“I would say the best thing about that is that he earned the job, based on what he did this fall,” said then-BYU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. “What he did in fall camp earned him the job, and we really didn’t have to say, we’re looking at the entirety of his career or the larger sample size that’s there for him because he earned it based off what he did in fall camp.”

You probably know the rest of the story.

Amid the unique COVID-altered season, Wilson emerged as college football’s breakout star by throwing for 3,692 yards, completing 73% of his passes, tossing 33 touchdowns against just three picks and rushing into the end zone another 10 times. He propelled the Cougars to an 11-1 record, a Boca Raton Bowl victory, a No. 11 final national ranking, and ended up being drafted No. 2 overall by the New York Jets.

It was a dream season — and one that may not have been possible without a little extra preseason motivation to keep his starting spot.

2021: Jaren Hall, Baylor Romney and Jacob Conover

Wilson left big shoes to fill at quarterback, but BYU had a solid crop of potential replacements waiting in the wings.

There was Hall, the explosive dual-threat with an NFL ceiling who had previously flashed but struggled to remain healthy.

There was Romney, the poised pocket passer who was efficient and productive in his previous appearances.

And of course, there was Jacob Conover, the former four-star recruit who was hailed by many as the Cougars’ QB of the future upon his signing with the program.

The competition was stiff, but as the Deseret News previously reported in August 2021, “Hall was offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick’s man all along.”

“He’s done a great job during camp and earned the job,” Roderick said of Hall at the time. “He had the fewest turnovers and most explosive plays during fall camp, and those two things matter a lot.”

Hall opened the year with a bang, leading the Cougars to three straight victories against Power Five foes, which included besting future NFL superstar Jayden Daniels of Arizona State and snapping BYU’s nine-game losing streak against Utah with a 26-17 takedown of the Utes.

An injury kept Hall out for a pair of midseason contests, in which Romney filled in admirably with a 2-0 stretch to keep the Cougars unbeaten stretch alive. Hall threw for 20 touchdowns, Romney threw for six with no picks, and the pair combined for 3,362 passing yards in an exciting 10-3 campaign.

Romney left BYU following 2021 and didn’t play another snap of college football.

Hall stuck around for another season in Provo, throwing for 3,000+ yards and 31 touchdowns to become an NFL draft selection.

Conover backed up Hall in 2022 but never developed into the starting-caliber talent he was once projected to be, transferring to Arizona State before landing at his current home of Utah State.

2024: Jake Retzlaff and Gerry Bohanon

Of all of BYU’s quarterback battles under Sitake, none took longer to decide — or at least publicly announce — than that of this past season.

Less than two hours before kickoff in the Cougars’ season opener against Southern Illinois, Sitake finally declared Jake Retzlaff as the team’s starting QB, with the junior college transfer beating out fellow transfer and former Big 12 champion Gerry Bohanon for the job.

While Retzlaff had replaced Kedon Slovis as BYU’s starter for the final four games in 2023, his starting spot was far from guaranteed going forward. He later expressed gratitude for his competition with Bohanon and how it pushed him to grow and develop further as a passer.

“Bringing in Gerry was incredible for me. It was incredible for Gerry, and it was incredible for the team,” Retzlaff said at the time. “When you are in a competition, you are forced to play better every day. I truly believe that iron sharpens iron. He made me better and I hope I made him better in some ways. Having a guy like that is incredible, his leadership is second to none.”

Retzlaff started somewhat slow in 2024 — prompting a number of fans to call for his benching — but turned in a solid stretch from mid-September through October as the Cougars became one of the nation’s most surprising, exciting squads.

Despite a late-season regression, Retzlaff still finished 2024 with 2,947 passing yards, 26 total touchdowns and 12 interceptions, with BYU posting a 11-2 record, tying for first place in the Big 12 and pummeling Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.

Retzlaff was expected to return for his senior campaign in 2025, but following his admission of having consensual sex with a Salt Lake County woman who filed a civil lawsuit against him alleging sexual assault and battery (a judge later dismissed the suit following a joint request to dismiss the suit), he is withdrawing from BYU rather than serving a multi-game suspension for violating the school’s honor code.

And thus, a new quarterback battle was born.