BYU coach Kelani Sitake addresses Jake Retzlaff situation: 'Every school has their standards'

FRISCO, Texas – Brigham Young football coach Kalani Sitake discussed his school’s controversial honor code here Tuesday and said he loves his quarterback Jake Retzlaff even though he violated it for having premarital sex. But Sitake also mostly sidestepped questions about the controversy even after it threw his team into a bind on the eve of the 2025 season.

“First of all, I love Jake Retzlaff,” Sitake said at the annual preseason Big 12 Conference media days event north of Dallas. “We love Jake Retzlaff and appreciate all that he's done for our program. I think it would be inappropriate for me to make a statement in his situation first. I think that's his right. I think it's a private matter that he can speak for himself, and I'm going to give him the opportunity to do that.”

Retzlaff is looking to leave BYU after getting caught up in a scandal for having premarital sex. He faces a seven-game suspension because it violated the school’s honor code, which calls for living a “chaste and virtuous life.”

Before that, he had been sued by a woman in May who accused him of sexually assaulting her at his home in 2023 – an allegation that was denied by his attorney.

His attorney said their relations instead were consensual, which helped his case in court but still got him into trouble with a school that is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

RULES TO LIVE BY:Everything to know about the BYU honor code

The lawsuit recently was dismissed. Retzlaff also is Jewish, not LDS, but it didn’t matter. 

“Every school has their standards,” Sitake said. “We have ours too. … And we expect our students to live to live according to what they what they signed up for.”

In March 2011, BYU men's basketball player Brandon Davies was kicked off the team for the same reason, even as the Cougars were making a run to the NCAA tournament.

In the case of Retzlaff, his loss also puts his team into a bind after he led them to an 11-2 season last year, including a win over Colorado in the Alamo Bowl. After serving as co-captain of last year’s team, he’s now looking for a landing spot elsewhere to avoid the suspension.

A transfer quarterback or two is poised to replace him at BYU: McCae Hillstead from Utah State, Treyson Bourguet from Western Michigan or Bear Bachmeier from Stanford. Hillstead and Bourguet were on the roster last year for the Cougars but did not play.

Sitake noted that at BYU “you have to be able to throw the ball” and that the position is up for grabs in preseason practices.

“Let's settle it on the field,” Sitake said. “Let them compete.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: BYU's Kelani Sitake talks Jake Retzlaff at Big 12 media days