NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff recalls being “shocked” last spring when he learned he would not play his final season of college football at Brigham Young University.
His passion for performing in big moments and his public embrace of his Jewish heritage made him a notable novelty at Utah schools run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he was known as “BYJew.”
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Suffice it to say, he has established himself at Tulane University—a university with a relatively large number of Jewish students, about 3,000 in total.
The “Bayou Jew” helped the Green Wave (11-2) win the Conference USA championship and reach the College Football Playoff for the first time. No. 11 seed Tulane will visit No. 6 seed Mississippi State on Saturday.
Retzlaff is a “perfect fit” for Tulane, said Dave Cariello, owner of Campus Connection, which sells Green Wave merchandise and works with players on name, image and likeness deals.
Cariello, a graduate of Tulane University in the New York area, has designed two T-shirts featuring Retzlaff, one calling him a Shabbat shotgun and another calling him the aforementioned Bayou Jew.
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“He’s definitely our best-selling NIL athlete,” Carriello said. “There seems to be a greater interest in Jack’s stuff, and I believe part of that is because of his Jewish background. The other part is that he’s the starting quarterback.”
Retzlaff went 11-2 as a starter at BYU in 2024, narrowly missing out on a chance to compete for the Big 12 championship. He was looking forward to returning to the Cougars in 2025, when he was named in a civil sexual assault lawsuit that was later dismissed.
While Retzlaff claims the relationship in question was consensual, it is an issue at Brigham Young University, where the university’s honor code requires students to avoid premarital sex. If he had continued to attend there, he would have been suspended.
Retzlaff believes he will receive offers from other competitive college programs. But at Tulane, he discovered that and more.
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“God has a plan. That’s the hardest thing to do in the worst of times,” Retzlaff said. “I had everything good. It was taken away from me. Now I have to make lemonade.
“I was able to meet all these people and make all these relationships” at Tulane and the surrounding New Orleans area.
Retzlaff didn’t arrive at Tulane until July, giving him a compressed time to learn the Waves’ offense and connect with his teammates. First, he tried to sit with a different player during each team meal inside Yulman Stadium.
“People had their groups and they usually had lunch or dinner together, and I thought, OK, I’ll just join in,” Retzlaff recalled.
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The dual-threat quarterback from California thrived under offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, an Alabama native who said the speed with which Retzlaff compressed the package reminded him of a NASCAR race at Talladega.
Retzlaff passed for 2,862 yards, 14 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. He also became Tulane’s leading rusher with 610 yards and 16 touchdowns, a single-season rushing touchdown record for a Green Wave quarterback.
Jon Sumrall, who would take over as Florida State’s head coach after Tulane’s playoff run, was struck by Retzlaff’s “courage and competitive nature.”
“There’s a little bit of guile about him,” Samral added. “He has a little bit of edge, a little bit of toughness that rubs off on other people.”
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Sumrall also appreciates Retzlaff’s humility and emphasis on team building.
“Jake dealt with some things that were less than ideal,” Samral said. “He’s very sincere in his appreciation for the opportunities he’s been given here.”
Retzlaff still misses BYU, staying in touch with former teammates and attending all of the Cougars’ games this season.
It was easier to practice his faith at Tulane.
He regularly visits Rabbi Yochanan Rivkin of Tulane University’s Chabad Institute. They pray while wrapped in tefillin (a leather band with a small scroll attached). He attended a Rosh Hashanah dinner hosted by Chabad, attended by about 600 students.
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“I was really impressed by his Jewish pride,” Rifkin said on Monday, a day after at least 15 people were shot dead during Hanukkah celebrations in Australia. “Now is not the easiest time to be a proud Jew.”
Prominent figures in the New Orleans Jewish community also have ties to Retzlaff.
He once dined with Israeli-American celebrity chef Alon Shaya. He attended the Saints game against Tampa Bay with Tulane graduate Jill Glazer and her husband, Avie, who is a part owner of the Buccaneers. He met with the director of a local Jewish community center and recently sat courtside at a Pelicans game with an attorney whose area firm sponsors the NBA team.
“Everyone wants to meet Jack,” said Michael Arata, director of the Fear the Wave NIL group, who made some introductions. “He met a great group of people who embraced him.”
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Retzlaff has done them proud; he’s probably being congratulated more this year on his use of the Hebrew “mazel tov” than at any time since his bar mitzvah.
“That’s what we’re in the College Football Playoff for,” Retzlaff said. “‘Jewlane’ and ‘Bayou Jew’ made headlines and were more positive about Judaism and faith and how that was possible.”
As of early this week, Mississippi was favored to beat Tulane by about 17 points.
Retzlaff noted that the game will take place during Hanukkah, a holiday celebrating miracles.
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