PROVO — It's a fact stated clearly by BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick at the outset of fall camp, but is probably a facet of football that too many fans are given to ignore.
As most Cougars fans anxiously await the announcement of whether it's Jake Retzlaff or Gerry Bohanon who will be named the starter, the better question should probably be: How ready is either player to be the starter, along with both McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourget.
"There's a really good chance that we're going to need both of those guys at some point anyway," Roderick said when fielding the first of many questions regarding who is winning the quarterback battle between Retzlaff and Bohanon.
Since 2010, BYU has completed the season with the same starting quarterback only twice, with Taysom Hill playing out the duration of the season in 2013 and Zach Wilson in 2020. All of the other seasons involved varying degrees of injury or lack of proficiency, forcing at least two quarterbacks to man the position throughout the season.
So why should the 2024 BYU season prove outside the norm?
The fact is, there's every reason to believe that it will not; and, perhaps, even more so than in any season since 2010.
Intent to run
It's no secret that BYU struggled mightily to run the football last season, with the numbers largely speaking for themselves. The Cougars ranked No. 118 nationally in rushing last season and the overall offensive output suffered considerably because of it.
"That's the No. 1 priority since the end of last season," Roderick said of the need to improve the rush game. "We need to be more physical and we need to get back to the way we were playing the three years prior where we were a physical team that can run the ball. I believe that we're headed in the right direction. … It's an 11-man deal. Everyone on our offense has to be physical, everyone has a role in the run game."
Roderick's statement is key to what I believe will ultimately prove to be BYU's best opportunity for an improved run game in 2024. Indeed, it's an 11-man deal with whoever is manning the quarterback position presenting himself as a real threat to run the football on every single down and in any given situation.
Roderick stating the "need for everyone to be physical" doesn't begin and end with the other 10 players on offense absent the quarterback, strongly indicating a responsibility far beyond just handing off the football and scrambling for yards when coverages break down.
Mitigating injury
Of course, BYU, or any football team, would prefer fielding its best option at quarterback in every game played throughout the season, so why present an offense that would increase the contact incurred by the signal-caller?
But the better question may be if whether increased hits taken by the quarterback necessarily translates to a higher proclivity to being injured. We recently conducted an interview with former BYU quarterback Riley Nelson regarding this very topic, and he added some valuable insight.
Nelson played for BYU from 2009-12 and accumulated 4,032 passing yards and 858 rushing yards during that time. He operated under both Robert Anae's system and then Brandon Doman's pro-style system in both 2011 and 2012, while carefully noting the results of Anae's go fast, go hard offense instituted in 2013 when Anae returned to Provo.
Anae's initial 2013 campaign had BYU field Taysom Hill at quarterback, where he produced 1,344 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns while playing out the season relatively healthy. The fact that Hill was able to finish out the season while running the ball as much as he did may not have been a coincidence, according to Nelson.
"When you design QB run, and you do it, injuries actually have not been that much of a problem for BYU, at least inside of the designed QB run game," Nelson said. "Injuries are an existential risk across the game all the time, but when BYU has embraced the concept of QB run and design as an integrated part of its offense, the result has actually been far more favorable than unfavorable."
The idea is that when you anticipate contact and embrace contact, you're oftentimes able to absorb and even deflect it better. Three out of the four season-ending injuries of Hill occurred when he was working to avoid contact rather than delivering it. Hill's 2015 lisfranc injury was sustained while not being tackled.
"When a (running back) takes a hit, they're expecting contact," Nelson postulated. "To me, what contributes to injuries more than anything else is that the quarterback and wide receiver are the only two players on the field, for the most part … who take collisions that they aren't expecting. So that contributes a lot to (injuries.)"
Nelson is a big advocate of playing to your strengths, and believes that if BYU is to institute an offense that features a bevy of quarterback-designed-runs, RPOs and zone reads, then Roderick can't do it half way.
"It's when the offense tries to serve two masters, and we know that no man can serve two masters. It's when you try and serve two masters that it puts the quarterback in a middle-ground situation, and when we experience the most injuries," Nelson said.
Pound the rock … throw it over the top
Given BYU's offensive personnel, the offense that I believe will bear the most fruit is something I term as "pound the rock and throw it over the top."
Simply-stated: Focus on the run game, and when the opportunity arises, usher forth a pass game that largely leans on throwing the ball downfield where top receiving talents like Darrius Lassiter, Chase Roberts and JoJo Phillips can use their superior length, size, athleticism and ball skills to turn those single coverage 50/50 footballs into 80/20 footballs.
It's questionable whether BYU has a quarterback on the roster currently who can prove to be a legitimate NFL quarterback who can dissect defensive coverages consistently, so why try and be something you're not?
I will say I've been pleasantly surprised at how well Retzlaff has been throwing the ball the last two weeks of fall camp. That being said, the best offensive coordinators play to their team's inherent roster strengths, and Roderick's current strengths, given the ability of his top four quarterbacks to run the football, is to utilize the QB-run game consistently, and then taking the opportunity to beat a defense deep when the opportunity arises.
Criddle's conclusion
The best coaches in college football adjust their schemes to the personnel that they have on their roster. For the first time since I've been covering the Cougars, BYU has a bevy of dual-threat QBs that possess a good ability to tote the rock.
Retzlaff is a career 1,000-yard rusher, Bohanon is a career 1000-yard rusher, McCae Hilstead ran for 1,800 yards and 35 touchdowns at Skyridge High, and even Treyson Bourguet has shown a good ability to pull on a zone read and make the defense pay.
Last week on ESPN 960, we decided to dedicate an entire segment to what we would deem as controversial or "fiery" takes. Talk radio is a haven for strong opinions that many times prove erroneous. Ideas there are often hatched, but intermittently come to fruition.
Nevertheless, after evaluating the strengths of this QB room, I have arrived at the opinion that BYU should run the quarterback a bit more than they are used to. I believe this will translate into at least six wins this season and a subsequent bowl berth.
In any other given year at BYU, a boost in QB designed run game would be somewhat frowned upon by not only the fans but also the coaches. Running the QB is the antithesis of what put BYU on the map in the first place; however, for the first time in a long time, the depth chart skill set of each of these quarterbacks would allow for such an endeavor to take place.
After all, Roderick stated: "There's a really good chance that we're going to need both of those guys at some point anyway."
BYU will need both Retzlaff and Bohanon to get bowl eligible this season, and they'll probably see them running the ball almost as much as passing the ball this season.
