His penchant for putting on big-moment skits, as well as publicly embracing his Jewish heritage, made him a celebrated novelty at the Utah school run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he became known as “BYJew.”
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Suffice it to say that he landed on his feet at Tulane, a university with a relatively large concentration of Jewish students, about 3,000 in total.
The “Jewish Bayou” has helped lead the Green Wave (11-2) to an AFC championship and a first-place finish in the College Football Playoffs. No. 11 seed Tulane visits No. 6 seed Mississippi on Saturday.
Retzlaff has fit “perfectly” at Tulane, said Dave Cariello, owner of Campus Connection, which sells Green Wave merchandise and partners with players on name, image and likeness deals.
Cariello, a Tulane graduate from the New York area, designed two T-shirts featuring Retzlaff, one calling him Shabbat Shotgun and another referring to him as the aforementioned Bayou Jew.
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“He has certainly been our best-selling NIL athlete,” Cariello said. “There seems to be a bigger appetite for Jake’s stuff and I think that’s partly because of his Jewish background. The other part is that he’s the starting quarterback.”
Retzlaff was 11-2 as a starter in 2024 at BYU, which narrowly missed out on playing for a Big 12 title. He expected to return to the Cougars in 2025 when he was named in a since-dismissed civil sexual assault lawsuit.
While Retzlaff maintained that the relationship in question was consensual, that was an issue at BYU, where the university’s honor code requires students to refrain from premarital sex. If he had remained enrolled there, he would have been suspended.
Retzlaff was confident he would receive offers from other competitive college programs. But at Tulane he found that and more.
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“God has a plan. And that’s the hardest thing to do in the worst of times,” Retzlaff said. “I had everything great. They take it away from me. And now I have to go make lemonade.
“And I get to meet all these people and create all these relationships” at Tulane and around New Orleans.
Retzlaff didn’t arrive at Tulane until July, giving him a compressed schedule to learn the Wave’s offense and bond with his teammates. He started by trying to sit with different players during each team meal inside Yulman Stadium.
“The kids have their groups that they normally have lunch or dinner with and I say, okay, I’m going to join,” Retzlaff recalled.
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California’s dual-threat quarterback thrived under offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, an Alabama native who said the pace of Retzlaff’s compressed integration reminded him of NASCAR races at Talladega.
Retzlaff threw for 2,862 yards and 14 touchdowns with six interceptions this season. He has also been Tulane’s leading rusher with 610 yards and 16 touchdowns, a single-season rushing touchdown record for a Green Wave QB.
Coach Jon Sumrall, who will take over as Florida’s coach when Tulane’s playoff run ends, was impressed by Retzlaff’s “moxie and his competitive nature.”
“He’s got a bit of cunning,” Sumrall added. “He’s got a little edge, a little toughness that rubs off on other guys.”
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Sumrall also appreciated Retzlaff’s humility and his emphasis on team building.
“Jake has handled some things that came his way that weren’t ideal very well,” Sumrall said. “Their gratitude for the opportunity here has been very real.”
Retzlaff still misses BYU, keeps in touch with former teammates and watched every Cougars game this season.
Practicing your faith has been easier at Tulane.
He has regularly visited Rabbi Yochanan Rivkin at the Chabad house of Tulane. They have wrapped tefillin (leather straps with small scrolls attached) while saying prayers. He attended a Rosh Hashanah dinner hosted by Chabad with about 600 students.
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“I’m impressed with their Jewish pride,” Rivkin said Monday, a day after at least 15 people were shot dead at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. “Right now is not the easiest time to be a proud Jew.”
Prominent members of the New Orleans Jewish community have also connected with Retzlaff.
He has dined with famous Israeli-American chef Alon Shaya. He attended a Saints game against Tampa Bay with Tulane graduate Jill Glazer and her husband, Avie, who is co-owner of the Buccaneers. He met with the director of the local Jewish Community Center and recently sat courtside at a Pelicans game with a lawyer whose regional firm sponsors the NBA team.
“Everyone wanted to meet Jake,” said Michael Arata, director of the Fear the Wave NIL collective, who made some of the introductions. “He’s met a fantastic group of people who have, in a way, embraced him.”
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Retzlaff has done them proud; He may have been congratulated more this year by people who used the Hebrew phrase “mazel tov” than at any time since his bar mitzvah.
“That’s what we can do by playing in the College Football Playoffs,” Retzlaff said. “‘Jewlane’ and the ‘Bayou Jew’ will be able to make headlines and be more positive about Judaism and the faith and how this is possible.”
Earlier this week, Ole Miss was the favorite to beat Tulane by about 17 points.
The game will take place during Hanukkah, which Retzlaff noted is a holiday that celebrates a miracle.
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