Utah and BYU football face major QB questions as Retzlaff exits and Dampier rises

It’s remarkable how things can change or can be thought to change for Utah and BYU football with the altering, basically, of one player at one position.

It does happen to be the single most important position not just in football, but in all of team sports, so there is that. And that fact has become more and more apparent, more and more significant in the college game over the past decade. Maybe it’s always been true in college, and in the NFL. It was Don Shula who so famously said, “Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.”

Having a good quarterback is a ticket to ride. A ticket a team must ride, if it has designs on doing anything, going anywhere outside the ordinary.

So it is that the fate of an endeavor that includes 22 starters and more than double that number of important contributors, along with a double-digit coaching staff, and the rooting interests of a million fans, all depends on getting the right guy under center in order to keep it from wasting everybody’s time.

To that point, you can argue over who was more important to the New England Patriots and to all of New England — Bill Belichick or Tom Brady, but you’d only be right if you said Brady.

That’s a load of pressure, but it was Brady himself who in so many words said he, like all quality QBs, craved that responsibility, to put the team and its outcomes on his shoulders, to unabashedly stand out and stand in with his team — on and off the field.

That sentiment brings to mind a quirky aside — a past image of Max Hall. The long-ago BYU quarterback had his faults, but he also knew how to win games. He was fiercely and fully aware that playing quarterback was a different deal. I remember interviewing him in the parking lot outside of LaVell Edwards Stadium, discussing details of his important role, what it meant to him, what it meant to his team, how it was unique.

His responses were thoughtful and sincere. When the conversation ended, decked out in street clothes, he put on his BYU football helmet, climbed aboard his crimson-colored scooter and rode off, as though he were Clint Eastwood on his trusted steed, riding into the sunset. He looked ridiculous, but he couldn’t have cared less. The Cougars were his team, LES was his stadium, BYU was his school, Provo was his town.

Such is the quarterback’s kingdom and crown.

Sometimes it’s a crown, sometimes it’s a curse.

Utah flipped and flopped its way through a difficult 2024 season, when so many figured the road was graded for the Utes to thrive in their first go-round in the Big 12. Their quarterback play, which was counted on to be a strength of the team, at least with any happy health there, ended up having no happy health, causing the Utah offense to collapse, leading to a 2-7 record in a league it supposed it would dominate.

There were other factors at play, but the quick unavailability, the absence of Cam Rising had an adverse effect that began with winnable games being lost, pain furthered by an attack that could neither throw or run the ball with consistency, and that was ultimately punctuated with the postponement of Kyle Whittingham’s retirement, according to him, stirring the coach to return because he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the program he’d led to impressive heights cratered in such a sinkhole.

The program was in such a singular mess that the addition of Devon Dampier — and offensive coordinator, Jason Beck — from New Mexico has helped lift spirits and pump predictions in 2025 for the Utes back up almost to the lofty level Utah hovered at last year at this time.

There are, though, some hold-on-a-seconds, some yeah-buts in the promising equation.

Dampier is a notable young talent, but how notable is yet to be determined.

The Lobos had a Mountain West record last season of 3-4, and an overall mark of 5-7, which happens to be the same exact disappointing record the Utes stumbled and bumbled to. Dampier is the kind of versatile quarterback that Whittingham favors, able to throw and run, but he also has a tendency to turn the ball over, which Whittingham loathes. He threw for 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, completing a marginal 57.9% of his passes for 2,768 yards. The better news is he ran for 1,166 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Apologies, I buried the lede there.

If he can limit the mistakes — a big-bottomed if — and hit enough throws to force Big 12 defenses to cover the entire field, not just the front end, Dampier could give the Utes what they need. If he can’t … well, then he won’t, and Whittingham might have to postpone that retirement yet again.

Beck’s offense scored 33.5 points per game with Dampier in command and gained 484 yards against MWC competition. The Utes last season scored 23.6 points per game and gained 329 yards against Big 12 teams.

QB or not QB, that is the question.

BYU, conversely, flew through its season in 2024, storming to an 11-2 record, a near-miss on making the Big 12 title game, a near-miss on qualifying for the College Football Playoff, and ended the season with a high-flying win over Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.

Quarterback Jake Retzlaff was just a junior, all of the Cougars’ success putting into advantageous place what was to be an auspicious senior year for him, and then … auspicious morphed into suspicious and suspicious faded into I-loved-my-time-at-BYU-but-it’s-time-for-me-to-move-on. You know the story.

What was all teed up for another run at a possible league title and maybe more with an experienced quarterback leading the way, coming back for what many BYU quarterbacks had enjoyed in the past — a stellar final year — vaporized. And now, it’s the Cougars scrambling for someone, anyone, who can pick up the pieces to lead them forward.

Truth is, Retzlaff was rarely a great quarterback, but he understood the offense and stood now on the precipice of doing better things. If he progressed the way he had from his short-term sophomore season to his junior year as he moved to his senior run, who knows what might have been accomplished. No one knows, no one will.

What comes next is a four-way quarterback competition featuring McCae Hillstead, Treyson Bourguet, Bear Bachmeier, and the shadow of five-star recruit Ryder Lyons, who obviously won’t actually edge into the picture for a couple of years, after he finishes high school and goes on an LDS mission, but everyone in the program knows he’s en route.

Hillstead was a proficient high school quarterback who had a cup of cocoa at Utah State, where he played in eight games and started four, showing some dynamic artistry. He’s listed at 5-foot-10, which, if the same generous measure were used on Tyrion Lannister, he would have checked in just an inch or two shorter. Still, heading into camp, Hillstead is the front runner because of steadiness of play. At Skyridge High School, he threw for nearly 7,000 yards and 73 touchdowns, and ran for 1,791 yards and 35 TDs. In Logan, he threw for 1,062 yards and 11 TDs.

Bourguet is a 6-2 junior from Arizona who played in 10 games over two years at Western Michigan, where he completed 111 of 212 passes for 1,314 yards and six touchdowns. He’s more a stationary thrower, not as fleet-footed as the others.

Bachmeier, who transferred from Stanford after signing there in December and then committing to BYU in May, is 6-2, 225 pounds, a dual-threat quarterback who has more upside than either of the other two candidates. He also has less experience, no experience at the college level. He’s got talent, but does he have the time to ascend to the top at BYU over the next month?

The late, great quarterback guru Mike Leach once listed the most important attributes a successful QB must possess. Last on the list was a strong arm. What came before that included leadership, acumen, decision-making, intuition, awareness, taking care of the ball, poise. “Get the ball to the right place at the right time for the right reason,” he said.

If Utah and BYU can find that, a leader with a measure of that, they’ll have the luck Shula talked about, not the kind he meant to avoid.