A top-25 BYU team is being led by a Jewish quarterback. Yes, you read that correctly

At 4-0 following a rout over Kansas State, the Cougars have been one of the most pleasant surprises in college football, thanks in part to an unlikely signal-caller

When looking over his profile page on ESPN’s website, there’s nothing that stands out as truly unusual about Jake Retzlaff.

He’s the starting quarterback at BYU – a newly minted power conference program with a national title to its name – which is an accomplishment in and of itself. At 6-foot-1, he’s a bit undersized for a major college starter, but with nine touchdowns to three interceptions through four games, he appears to be doing just fine.

It’s what’s just outside of his photo that’s perhaps his most notable trait – not what wholly defines him as a person or an athlete, but what makes his current situation in life that much more interesting.

In the shot, Retzlaff is wearing a necklace, one that dangles down just past BYU’s “Y” logo at the bottom of his jersey’s v-neck. Just below that frame, though, is a pendant that’s dangling from the chain – a Star of David.

Yes, the quarterback at America’s largest and most well-known educational institution for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Jewish.

Among the biggest surprises of the first four full weeks of the 2024 college football season has been BYU. The Cougars entered the season with modest and even pessimistic expectations, picked to finish 13th in the newly reconfigured Big 12 one year after going 5-7 in their debut season in the conference, which included a 2-7 mark in league play.

Through four games, however, BYU is undefeated. The fourth and final victory of that unblemished record was its most resounding triumph, a 38-9 mauling of then-No. 13 Kansas State, the team picked to finish second in that aforementioned preseason poll. The morning after the blowout win, the Cougars vaulted up to No. 22 in both major national polls.

One of the key pieces of that early success – or at least the player at the most visible position – has been Retzlaff, who has taken on, embraced and even trademarked his moniker as the BYJew.

How this odd pairing came to be is a story in and of itself.