When taking the big-picture view, BYU’s 2024 football season was an incredible success. Their 10 wins doubled the win total many people predicted at the beginning of the season. The Cougars are nationally ranked, will play in a meaningful bowl game, and beat Utah (again). BYU was one of the biggest surprises in college football this year, and the program and its fans should find joy in that.
BYU answered many questions about the quality and competitiveness of the program this year, but a late-season slide by the Aaron Roderick-led offense will require Kalani Sitake and others who follow the program to ask some pointed but necessary questions this offseason.
As we look back on the Cougars falling just short of an all-time magical season, here are the five tough questions Kalani Sitake will need to answer about Aaron Roderick's 2024 offense:
1. Why was the offense so ineffective when it mattered most late in the season?
After a blowout win against UCF to get to 8-0 on the season, Aaron Roderick’s offense subsequently disappeared when it mattered most. The following week against Utah the offense produced just two field goals through the game’s first three quarters. BYU was fortunate to have a kick return touchdown that kept them close enough for the miracle game-winning drive to win and get to 9-0. The offensive struggles against Utah were particularly concerning after Colorado hung 49 on the Utes the following week.
Now at 9-0, if BYU had won their next game against Kansas they would have clinched a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
How did the offense respond? Aaron Roderick called a poorly-conceived fade pass into the end zone toward the end of the second quarter and Jake Retzlaff's woefully underthrown ball was easily intercepted for a 10-10 halftime score. Between the 8:48 mark in the second quarter and the end of the game, Aaron Roderick’s offense produced just three more points against the Jayhawks in a devastating 17-13 loss.
The following week, in an absolute must-win at Arizona State, the 9-1 Cougars fell behind 21-0 in the second quarter before kicking a field goal in the final minute of the first half. With an invitation to the Big 12 championship game on the line, BYU ultimately suffered a second straight gut-punch loss. Three first half points created just too big of a deficit to overcome in the second half.
In the 10 most important quarters of BYU's season (Utah, Kansas, and the first half at Arizona State), BYU's offense mustered just 31 points.
Let’s state that again: In the 10 most important quarters of BYU’s season, Aaron Roderick’s offense produced just 31 total points.
That equates to just over 12 points per game.
Those 10 quarters of ineffective offense shattered BYU’s dreams of a Big 12 championship and an invitation to the College Football Playoffs. The reasons for the offense bogging down so badly will be heavily debated, but there’s no denying this stretch of 31 points in 10 crucial quarters upended BYU’s magical season.
2. Why was the offense so bad on third down?
BYU’s third down conversion percentage of 33.9% ranks 115th of 134 teams in the nation.
That’s nowhere near good enough for a Power Four contender.
Aaron Roderick’s offense was playing from “and long” situations far too often. Second-and-long turned to third-and-medium, which then too often resulted in fourth-and-short. Now, BYU did convert a number of fourth downs this year, but they also failed on their fair share, too.
The point is, BYU shouldn’t have been forced to gamble on fourth down so many times this year. The strategy of “use third down to set up fourth down” was risky. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it backfired, like the first possession fourth down failure in the loss to Arizona State.
The purpose of third down should be to convert third down, not set up a more manageable fourth down.
Why was BYU’s offense so punchless on third down this year?
3. Why wasn’t Gerry Bohannon strategically deployed like the Saints utilize Taysom Hill?
I will never understand why Aaron Roderick didn’t strategically deploy dual-threat quarterback Gerry Bohannon about a half dozen times per game. Just as the Saints strategically - and effectively - deploy Taysom Hill, BYU should have done the same with Bohannon this year.
Do you want to convert more third-and-short situations? How about putting a 6-foot-3, 226-pound battering ram in shotgun formation with LJ Martin at his side. (Bohannon is literally bigger than Martin, by the way.) Defenses would have gone crazy having to prepare for specialized packages where Bohannon was given the keys on read-options on half a dozen plays per game.
Aaron Roderick’s unwillingness to deploy Gerry Bohsnnon was a strategic error. Roderick should have been using all of his assets to revive his sometimes moribound offense. Bohannon could have been a great asset if used properly, but he regretfully wasn’t.
Many BYU fans would like to know why.
4. Why weren’t the tight ends used more effectively?
The tight end position was an afterthought in BYU’s offense this year. Going into the Houston game - before BYU lost control of its destiny - Keanu Hill had 12 receptions for 108 yards, or about one reception for 10 yards per game. Mata’ava Ta’ase had three receptions for 61 yards in BYU’s first two games, but then over the next nine games he hauled in just five catches for 18 yards.
Talented freshman Ryner Swanson had eight receptions for 61 yards through 11 games, but many of those receptions felt forced. Even nominally aware defenses knew that if Swanson was in the game, he was probably going to be targeted.
Virtually eliminating tight ends as a position group in the passing game put a lot of pressure on both the running game and the wide receivers. Why Aaron Roderick didn’t design at least a few packages to more effectively utilize BYU’s tight ends is a question to be answered.
5. Can Jake Retzlaff be great?
This is the biggest question of them all.
Jake Retzlaff had a number of great moments this year. Heck, the game-winning drives he engineered against Oklahoma State and Utah are legendary. But for the high-highs of the Jake Retzlaff experience, there are also a lot of low-lows.
He reportedly made questionable audibles in key moments. He lacked touch on fade routes. He overthrew too many open receivers with two steps on their defenders for what should have been long, quick-strike touchdowns.
Now, Jake Retzlaff is a good quarterback and BYU is extremely fortunate to have him back next year. This is not a Retzlaff hit piece. He deserves to be a Power Four starting quarterback and he has been one of the better Big 12 quarterbacks this year, despite the inconsistency.
But BYU fans have also seen great quarterbacks over the years, and my guess is most Cougar fans would classify Jake as “good, but not great” this year.
The biggest question going into this offseason is if Jake Retzlaff can make the leap from good to great in 2025.
