Where Is Jake?
In a state known for giving its top athletes the silent treatment when scandal strikes, it appears BYU senior QB Jake Retzlaff is now learning this firsthand.
Few have seen Jake Retzlaff.
» Not in photos. Nor in media day shoots. In fact, this writer has now witnessed dozens of BYU players in action in photos and videos, in shots taken by various photogs—none of the Riverside, California resident and senior Cougar quarterback.
Retzlaff is not in any of the media at summer workouts nor at team functions, either.
Is Jake there? Is he hiding? What’s going on?!? Where is Jake?
Odd, since Retzlaff is supposed to be BYU’s day one starter, a senior who threw for 2,947 yards and 12 TDs and ran for another 417 yards and six tuds, as a junior.
And now, Retzlaff appears to be on the run from anyone pointing a camera his way.
If BYU’s own eyeballs spotted Retzlaff, and if they knew where he was, it’s likely they wouldn’t say.
It’s as if the senior quarterback, who led the Cougars to an 11-2 record and Alamo Bowl win over Colorado, has disappeared.
You don’t know if BYU administration is waiting for Retzlaff, who is Jewish, to withdraw from the LDS church-owned school and transfer elsewhere.
Though this pales in comparison to the treatment Trey Burke received when the Jazz guard was outed posting a picture of his genitalia on an Instagram chat message, it could never be conflated with that which Retzlaff is accused of doing inside his Provo home.
The mere fact that this incident is alleged to have occurred more than once is unsettling and you certainly hope none of it is found to be true.
And yet a tribunal of sorts is already underway to the dismay of Retzlaff’s attorney, who stated this case wouldn’t be “tried in the media.” The Deseret News has filed GRAMA requests from a Provo police department that has already denied it said anything of the sort to Doe. The News has either compiled information, is in the process of compiling it, or is waiting for the green light from BYU since the newspaper is also owned by the LDS church.
In the meantime, it is clear that in a staunchly conservative state Burke was given the silent treatment, and so is Retzlaff.
Burke played in Utah—but only until the end of that regular season.
As was reported last week in this newsletter, sexual assaults by male student-athletes have continued at an alarming rate of frequency in Utah, dating back to 2019 and 2020 when two University of Utah football players were charged with rape less than a year apart.
Sione Lund, then a Utah linebacker, was charged with a sexual assault of Utah Valley University student Marissa Lund at a September 2019 house party held at—Lund’s home. In a Salt Lake Tribune report, Root said the University of Utah staff told her this:
“At the U., staff said there was nothing they could do for her, either. They told her their obligation was instead to the player, because he was their student, Root said, and never even asked for his name.
In fact, the U. only wanted to know the player’s identity months later, she recalls, after another football player at the university had been accused of raping a minor. They asked then if he was the same student she had said attacked her. When she said he wasn’t, they didn’t contact her again.”
So, Root filed a lawsuit against both Utah and UVU—and the Utah System of Higher Education, or USHE. [Her case was dismissed on the grounds that the rape occurred “off-campus,” and thus the universities had no “control” over the incident, whereas a rape by Utah wide receiver Terrell Perriman in January 2020 of a 17-year-old girl led to an immediate suspension and expulsion.]
Said Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham:
“Obviously, this does not reflect the values and standards of our program and we will continue to monitor the situation as it moves through the legal process," he said. "We are cooperating with the authorities and university personnel and will continue to assist as requested. Due to the ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
In the months since the rape allegations came forth in that 3rd District Court of Salt Lake City civil court filing by Jane Doe against Jake Retzlaff, local media has been extremely careful in the handling of it—more so than its coverage of a half-dozen other student-athletes in Utah that have been arrested for rape offenses.
It should be made clear that Retzlaff has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing—even if the court of public opinion has had the BYU QB tarred, feathered and placed near a rope for his “hanging in the town square.”
In the case of the mid-August 2022 daylight rape of a U student by Utah Utes diver Ben Smyth [far right in video cover photo], who was from Canada, he fled to his home country before being forced to return to the U.S., and is currently awaiting trial. In the November 2024 incident involving Utes tennis player and Macedonian Berk Bugarikj, there were no kid gloves issued by Utah media nor by the university for repeated sexual assaults on the same night, at the tennis player’s home.
“We are aware of the criminal charges filed against a men’s tennis student-athlete. Upon initially learning in November 2024 of an accusation against the student-athlete, the Athletics Department immediately suspended the student-athlete. In January 2025, when no charges had been filed against the student-athlete, the suspension was lifted with the condition that it would be reapplied should charges be filed in the case.
We treat allegations of significant misconduct very seriously, and the student-athlete has again been suspended.”
Make no mistake about any of it, the accusations by Jane Doe, a person who has known Retzlaff for more than 20 years back in his hometown of Southern California and is a friend of his family, are both graphic and disturbing. The following is NSFW:
To be fair to both parties, only two people were there at the time of the accusations alleged to have occurred at Retzlaff’s Provo home, the BYU QB himself and the Jane Doe named in the civil filing.
BYU football players in attendance were reported to have left before Retzlaff and the female, and so did the girl’s friend, reportedly the last to have been at the home according to Doe's civil court filing.
The numbers themselves as pertains to rapes of student-athletes are mind-boggling.
In 2021, 1 in 4 student-athletes, or 25 percent of 1,500 surveyed across America, reported they have been sexually assaulted by those in positions of power at those universities.
According to a 2016 report by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, “26.5 percent of females will experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation during their time in college.”
In what is probably not the best news for BYU, at least for this season, Retzlaff has had a history of transferring schools.
The Riverside, Calif. native played one season at Golden West College in California as a freshman before transferring to Riverside City College for his sophomore season.
At that point in time, Retzlaff—who prepped at Corona Centennial, the same national power that produced current USC QB Husan Longstreet and ex-Arizona State/NFL star LB Vontaze Burfict—received offers from Hawaii [2021], and New Mexico and Texas-El Paso [2022] before settling on BYU for his uppergraduate studies.
Finally, if something is further revealed, and if Retzlaff does have a real fight on his hands, the Southern California native would have two more years to play one.
With other guys in BYU’s QB room that include Stanford transfer Bear Bachmeier (brother of ex-Boise State QB Hank) and redshirts such as junior Treyson Bourguet and sophomore McCae Hillstead that transferred in from Eastern Michigan and Utah State, the Cougars have some depth at the position.
While it would be unfortunate for BYU to have to go without Retzlaff from strictly a football standpoint this season, the Cougars have options even beyond 2025.
On Tuesday, June 24, one of BYU's most highly coveted prospects in the history of the program committed to the Provo school.
5-star QB Ryder Lyons out of Folsom (Sacramento) California High School announced that he would be playing for BYU—after he serves a 2-year LDS Church mission.
In the meantime and in lieu of the very serious allegations levied against his client, Jake Retzlaff’s attorney says the BYU QB is “a nice young boy.” That will obviously depend on the outcome of Retzlaff’s civil trial, set to begin after he’s graduated from the Provo school or another school, and possibly, the NFL, from which Jane Doe is seeking unspecified damages.
» Big Time Branden
Holding the NBA Championship trophy high above his head, Oklahoma City Thunder center and former Utah Utes legend Branden Carlson won his first big-time trophy as a pro, and strutted down a street filled with screaming, adoring fans Tuesday:
It was the first big-time trophy Carlson has won since his Bingham High Miners captured a state title in the 2016-17 season.
#BullshitOrNot:
» Aaron Rodgers says he’s only playing one more season, but how on Earth can anyone believe what the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback is telling them? Even his family doesn’t believe he’s married:
Thanks for reading; be safe and be well. I’ll see ya next time. «