No one will be in a better spot to witness BYU's quarterback competition when spring practice beings on Thursday than Connor Pay. The 6-foot-5, 312-pound fifth-year senior center will be right in the middle of it.
The signal-calling showdown pits Jake Retzlaff , who started the last four games of last season, against South Florida transfer Gerry Bohanon , who sat out 2023 with shoulder surgery.
"He looks great," Pay told the "Y's Guys" podcast after watching Bohanon's workouts. "I would have never known anything had happened to his throwing shoulder unless someone had told me. I've been impressed with him. It will be fun to watch him and Jake duke it out."
Pay has played in 42 games, including 32 starts. Over his four seasons, he has snapped the ball to Zach Wilson , Jaren Hall , Baylor Romney, Kedon Slovis and Retzlaff. He doesn't expect a starter to be named until fall camp.
"Spring practice is not super different, whether there is quarterback battle or not," Pay said. "In spring ball, you are trying to see what the whole roster can do. Even in 2020, Zach and Jaren were splitting reps evenly right until a week before the first game. I didn't know who it was going to be. We had two NFL quarterbacks on the roster. That was fun to watch."
Pay was determined to finish his BYU career last fall and transfer elsewhere or take a shot at the NFL. It wasn't until head coach Kalani Sitake hired TJ Woods as his offensive line coach that Pay decided to stay.
"For me, individually, having a new position coach has been a lot of fun for a lot of reasons," Pay said. "For one, coach Woods is a fantastic coach and it's been great to learn from him. But also, now that I'm going into my fourth season as a starter, I have to prove myself to somebody new, which is exciting. I have to go into spring ball and show coach Woods that I belong in the position that I'm in and try to do what he wants me to do."
BYU learned in its first season in the Big 12 that the offensive line needed an infusion of nastiness and physicality and Pay believes that starts with Woods.
"I think coach Woods is that 'mean and nasty.' He brings that," Pay said. "He brings a different level of accountability and expectation to the room, but he is also a fantastic teacher. I think that will do more to elevate the room — that mixture of both accountability in learning and expectations also paired with someone who can teach it really well is a good combination for us."
BYU's inability to run the football last season showed up in the first game and lingered throughout most of the year. Woods was hired to fix that, and he is leaning on leaders like Pay to lead the way.
"I think the added commitment of never wanting to have a situation like last year again is one piece of it, and I think the enthusiasm and excitement for a new system, the guys are fired up about it and really putting their heads down trying to learn it," Pay said. "I think we've put more time in the film room together these past two months than any other January-February since I've been here and I have been putting a lot of pressure on my teammates to learn and be better and they have accepted it really well and they are doing a great job, so I'm pretty excited."
Pay wants to play in the NFL and he believes Woods can get him ready. He also returned to win more games.
"That's what I'm trying to do right now is to help my team, the coaches, anybody I can, to put us in a position to win because if you go out and perform well and win games, everything takes care of itself," Pay said. "Going 5-7 hurt a lot of our draft stock on the team. Everybody who was preparing for the NFL, it hurt their stock, including my own. We need to go and we need to win and that's the focus."
BYU offensive lineman Connor Pay signals a first down during spring football practice at the Indoor Practice Facility in Provo on March 10, 2023. | Ryan Sun, Deseret News
