Jake Has The Last Laugh
Having left BYU due to an Honor Code that levies suspensions for premarital sex, Jake Retzlaff was again facing adversity Saturday at his new school and won.
Jake Retzlaff and his Tulane boys had just about had enough of Northwestern refusing the Green Wave’s request to wear the same white uniforms worn during Hurricane Katrina.
“When we found out about that it fired this room up ... I mean, it fired them up,” said the former BYU quarterback after Tulane’s 23-3 win Saturday in New Orleans. “We were like, 'alright...we're gonna go handle business...is the best way I can put it.'”
For a player who himself has had to battle some adversity the past few months, Jake and the Green Wave showed some moxie and some poise in a 23-3 victory.
Retzlaff engineered a 7-play 51-yard drive early in the first quarter that he capped by throwing a 1-yard TD pass. Late in the second, the former BYU quarterback wriggled free and sprinted up the field for a 69-yard rushing TD, giving the team he'd only been with for 38 total days a commanding 23-3 lead.
Regardless of your feelings toward the former BYU quarterback and Alamo Bowl champion, a part of you has to admire that Retzlaff’s only been at Tulane University a little more than a month after he left Provo, and can still lead the Green Wave, who are in the Group of Five, to a victory over a Power Four team like Northwestern.
If Tulane keeps playing like this they'll be in the running for a spot in the College Football Playoff, no question.
The postscript to Retzlaff's story is that the Corona, California resident is playing somewhere. Whether or not Bear Bachmeier was so good in so many ways compared to Jake, or whether or not Retzlaff was ostracized on campus because he made BYU look bad is not a question that most of us may ever know. BYU’s Honor Code is what it is; some students and alums swear by it—others don't. But, the Cougars weren't important enough to Retzlaff for him to wait out six games, and then play in the final six games of his college career while serving out his suspension for premarital sex.
As of now, no other female has come forward and accused Jake of doing anything. Does that mean one won't? Does that mean his lawyer didn't get a Rolodex, I mean, list of cell numbers and start doling out settlements? How does anyone know what went on!?!
The short answer is we don't, and ... likely, we won't.
When you hail from a questionable background, money cures most things. I mean, it doesn't, really—and yet there are many that think it does and it will. The sad commentary about life is that ours will end before we know it, and that people with influence will use and abuse people beneath they feel are beneath them on a regular basis, only to have problems lawyered away if they become too big to handle.
Also, people, such as Jane Doe perhaps, who sell you a sad story that sounds a bit too good to be true, and that has more holes in it than Swiss cheese are often lying about most, if not all of it. So, where does one find the truth?
One decided he'd tell the truth to the Honor Code Office and admit to having premarital sex with Jane Doe, claim he was still happy on BYU's football team, get a 6-game suspension from Code Enforcement and then bail on the team he led to victory in the Alamo Bowl.
The craziest part to this story about this new team that Retzlaff is on is that he isn't guaranteed to even start this week against South Alabama, according to Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall.
The Green Wave currently have "four capable quarterbacks on the roster" per what the coach said—though Sumrall has had his eye on Retzlaff since Jake was at Riverside City College and the coach himself was still the head man at Troy.
Of course, Jake went to BYU and the rest was history, as they say.
The kid, formerly known as "The BYJew," and the Cougars’ only Jewish QB in school history, finished his first day at Tulane with a tidy 78 percent completion percentage and 151 yards passing, with one touchdown. (Retzlaff also had 10 carries for 113 yards and that score).
And yet despite Jake’s outstanding performance on Saturday, whether or not Retzlaff plays another down at Tulane appears to be up in the air. «
Overthink This Photo 📸
If this looks like the reenactment of the New Mexico State team walk before that Quick Lane Bowl victory, you wouldn’t be wrong.
That both teams making this walk are Aggies is only icing on the football players rocking those Farm Fresh Football T-shirts.
Utah State went on to defeat UTEP 28-13 in a game that consisted of a good first half before the Ags let the Miners back in the game late.
An announced attendance of just 16,000 at Maverik Stadium in Logan was due to a number of factors. New head coach Bronco Mendenhall’s lockdown of all the football facilities this past spring and summer probably contributed to the lack of interest in the Aggie community, and so did the past two years of futility.
But, Bronco has a big game this Saturday morning at more Aggies—No. 19-ranked Texas A & M. Win that game at humid Kyle Field, and he can expect a full house for USU’s next home game against a vastly improved Air Force team in the conference opener a week from Saturday. »
#BullshitOrNot
Alright, we need to bring this to everyone’s attention immediately. Sit down in your seats at the Utah Utes football games, Karen!
Thanks for reading; be safe and be well. I’ll see ya next time. «