Greg McElroy Believes BYU is a Big 12 Title Contender Despite Jake Retzlaff Loss

Originally posted on BYU Cougars on SI
By Casey Lundquist | Last updated Jul 12, 2025 12:10 PM ET

When BYU football kicks off Fall camp at the end of the month, all eyes will be on the BYU quarterbacks. What was going to be a three-way battle for the backup quarterback job between Bear Bachmeier, McCae Hillstead, and Treyson Bourguet will now be a battle for the starting quarterback job.

Due to the uncertainty at quarterback, most media members have taken BYU out of Big 12 title contention in their preseason predictions. ESPN's Greg McElroy, however, believes BYU has the roster to contend for a conference championship and a CFP berth.

In his podcast, McElroy put every Big 12 team in tiers for the 2025 season. BYU is one of nine Big 12 schools in the "CFP Contender" category. McElroy notes that the Big 12 is the most wide open of the Power Four leagues.

"It looked like [BYU was] going to have a very experienced quarterback back with Jake Retzlaff. He has since decided to enter the transfer portal. We're not gonna go into the details of that situation whatsoever. But what I do want to evaluate is what is still there for at BYU quarterback, because I look at the rest of the roster...the rest of the roster is ready made and established to contend for the Big 12 title yet again. This team has a lot of depth along the lines of scrimmage. They have really solid secondary play in the back end defensively. They should be pretty dang good at running back to at least take some pressure off what might be a somewhat inexperienced quarterback, but they have some options."

After breaking down BYU's options at quarterback, McElroy said, "The schedule, I think if you look at it, there are some real challenging games, but there are some good opportunities as well...there's some challenging games for sure, but I think top to bottom, you've got to feel pretty good about what the schedule looks like for the BYU Cougars."

In an interview at Big 12 media day, McElroy said he is "not panicking at all" about the BYU quarterback situation.

"I'm not panicking at all because I believe quarterback play is as much about the people around you as it is about the person," McElroy said. "I think it's a real nice luxury to know that this is an offense that is not going to be exclusively on the quarterback's shoulders. It's never been that way...I trust Kalani. I trust the system. I trust the identity and the culture, and I just am not that concerned about it because you have two guys that have played college football and a really talented freshman. So roll the dice and surround them and try to complement the best way possible. I think he'll be just fine."