As Jake Retzlaff’s Tulane era begins, New Orleans adopts him as their ‘Bayou Jew’

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“Jake’s fit in really well,” Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said. “Our quarterback room exploded after last year. And so when you're rebuilding it, there is a component to what fits more. It's not just, does the guy have a big arm. And as we went through that process with Jake, I felt good about adding him to that (quarterback) room.”

“I stepped into a different world, a different galaxy,” Retzlaff said. “This is polar opposite of Provo (Utah). … The team is awesome. The guys on the team have been nothing but great to me, especially the quarterbacks. I’m excited.”

If Retzlaff takes care of business, he has a chance to become a cult hero at Tulane. Unlike Brigham Young, a Mormon school with only a handful of Jewish enrollees in its enrollment of 33,000, Tulane has one of the largest Jewish enrollments in the nation. The Jewish population makes up roughly 37% of the school’s 13,078 students.

Assuming Retzlaff wins the job, he’ll be the first Jewish starting quarterback at the school in the modern era. You have to go back to the early 1930s when Dick Baumbach was under center to find another Jewish quarterback in the 121-year history of the program.

Retzlaff said he’s already been given contact information for local rabbis and has even heard a few early attempts at nicknames, among them: Bayou Jew; the Hucking Hebrew; Shabbat Shotgun; and Kosher Kannon.

“It’s a cool deal,” Retzlaff said of Tulane’s rich Jewish heritage. “My faith is super important for me. And so that fact just made it so much sweeter to come here.”

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