BYU’s Kalani Sitake ‘cheering’ for Jake Retzlaff at Tulane as Cougars’ QB battle gets underway

BYU training camp will include an unexpected quarterback competition after last year’s starter, Jake Retzlaff, withdrew from the university and transferred to Tulane. As the Cougars began camp Wednesday, coach Kalani Sitake expressed support for Retzlaff and addressed the early stages of the position battle.

Facing a seven-game suspension for violating BYU’s honor code, which stemmed from a now dismissed sexual assault civil lawsuit, Retzlaff chose to leave school and continue his college career elsewhere. Retlzaff landed at Tulane, which lost starting quarterback Darian Mensah to Duke, and Sitake is rooting for his former quarterback.

“It’s awesome,” Sitake said. “I’m happy for him. Obviously, you guys know I love Retzlaff and appreciate all that he’s done for us. We’ll be cheering for him and wishing him the best. Love him.”

Last season, Retzlaff helped guide the Cougars to an 11-2 record which left them just outside the College Football Playoff. He threw for 2,947 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while completing 57.9% of his passes.

For much of the offseason, Retzlaff was expected to return as the starter, providing the Cougars with proven talent at the most important position on the field. Instead, BYU will sort through a few options over the next month.

Treyson Bourguet and McCae Hillstead, both of whom transferred to BYU last year, will go up against true freshman and Stanford transfer Bear Bachemeier for the starting role. Sitake said he wants to see how all three signal callers perform when put in a position to make plays.

“There’s competition all the time,” Sitake said. “Obviously, we had a competition last year. Luckily, this staff has been through quarterback competitions before many times. The goal is for our staff to get these guys in a situation where they can play football and see how they can function. I thought they did a great job today.”

As far as a timeline for announcing a starter for BYU’s Week 1 game against Portland State, Sitake kept it simple.

“As soon as we can,” Sitake said.

On the first day of camp, all three players took reps with the first-team offense. Bourguet and Hillstead are the more experienced quarterbacks on the roster, but neither one attempted a pass in 2024.

Bachmeier may be the least experienced, but he might be the most interesting. The No. 34 quarterback in the 2025 signing class, according to 247Sports, Bachmeier originally enrolled at Stanford but hit the transfer portal after the school fired coach Troy Taylor in March.