Wyoming
BYU Coaches Set Expectations For Jake Retzlaff Before Wyoming
PROVO, Utah – BYU football heads into week three against Wyoming with a 2-0 record.
For a team that many prognosticators projected to win five games or less, the 2-0 start is a positive. However, as Kalani Sitake noted, they didn’t improve enough from week one to week two.
“We didn’t make a good enough improvement, in my opinion, from week one to week two,” Sitake, a ninth-year head coach, said. “Now we need to make up for it from week two to week three and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Most of that lack of improvement was tied to the offensive side of the ball in the 18-15 win at SMU.
Starting quarterback Jake Retzlaff shined in week one against Southern Illinois. The following week in Dallas, Retlzaff had three turnovers.
Retzlaff, who emerged as the “clear-cut” starter at QB out of fall camp, had similar turnover problems in losses a season ago.
“Take care of the stinkin’ football”
Sitake was asked if he considers Retzlaff’s performance a one-off compared to his performance against Southern Illinois.
“No, there’s no one-offs,” Sitake said.
The head coach, who has always remained consistent in having players battle for their jobs every day, then followed up with a strong message for Retzlaff.
“Take care of the stinkin’ football. That’s what it comes down to.
“I’ve said it over and over and over again. I don’t want guys to play tight and feel like they can’t take a chance, but the football belongs to everybody. It belongs to the fans. It belongs to the team. It belongs to the program. It’s not just one player. It’s not his ball. It belongs to all of us. So they need to start thinking about it more like that.”
During his six games as BYU’s starting quarterback, Retzlaff has thrown five interceptions and lost four fumbles.
Jake Retzlaff on staying aggressive
“We never talk about avoiding things because your mind doesn’t process that,” Retzlaff told KSL Sports. “It only processes what you say. It doesn’t matter when you say, ‘Not this!’ Or ‘for this!’ So, I believe in protecting the football. That’s something I can tell myself. I believe in ball security. That’s something I can tell myself and making plays.”
BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick praised some of the highlights from Retzlaff’s performance in the win over SMU. However, he notes that ball security is critical.
“The most important thing is we were always in a good position to win the game. No one has a license to just make mistakes at any position indefinitely, but we were always in a good position to win the game. He did make a lot of good plays in the game as well,” Roderick said. “There are some things in that game that were outstanding, but yeah, I’ll just say no has a license to play poorly forever. But he did a lot of good things as well.”
Will the license for Jake Retzlaff remain in place?
Could the license from Retzlaff be revoked, causing BYU to turn to backup Gerry Bohanon?
“We have trust in Gerry. But we didn’t think about changing in that [SMU] game,” said Roderick. “We were always in a good position to win. It felt like a couple of those mistakes were very preventable. We need to protect the ball better for sure. But there was a lot going on. Sometimes it isn’t always perfectly readily obvious to everyone who’s watching.”
Despite the struggles, Retzlaff, a former two-time JUCO transfer who has faced adversity during his college career, is enjoying the opportunity to be BYU’s starting quarterback.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity that A-Rod has put in front of me, and I know the coaches are all behind me,” said Retzlaff. “Being able to run out with this group of guys is second to none. So I’m grateful to be able to do this every week.”
Retzlaff and the BYU offense return to action this Saturday night against Wyoming. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on CBS Sports Network and KSL NewsRadio.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
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Wyoming
Wyoming authorities call on Rocky Mountain Power to explain role in massive November power outage
by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile
The massive, multiple-utility power outage last fall that left some 250,000 customers across parts of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana without electricity was the result of miscommunication and inadequate procedures during planned maintenance that required de-energizing a power line in southcentral Wyoming, according to a report.
The Nov. 13 incident left thousands of homes and businesses without power for 9.5 hours — longer, in some cases — and knocked out a coal-powered generator outside Glenrock. The unit at the Dave Johnston Power Plant remains offline, leaving Rocky Mountain Power to backfill some 300 megawatts of electricity — enough to power about 225,000 homes.
Without expressly assigning blame to any one party, the report — conducted by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation — indicates a series of communication breakdowns between PacifiCorp (parent company of Rocky Mountain Power), the Western Area Power Administration and, to some degree, electrical grid coordinating teams.
While it’s unclear whether authorities such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation might pinpoint fault and assess penalties, the Wyoming Public Service Commission has called on Rocky Mountain Power to appear at a hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. The commission wants to hear from the utility about “the specifics and details of the event and report,” a public notice announced, and it “may consider and take any action that is in the public interest.”
The hearing at the Public Service Commission’s office located at 2515 Warren Avenue, Suite 300, in Cheyenne, will also be livestreamed at this link.
What happened
According to the 49-page report published in June, PacifiCorp and the Western Area Power Administration were coordinating maintenance on their respective systems that, together, required temporarily de-energizing PacifiCorp’s Aeolus–Clover 500 kilovolt line, which runs east-west and is anchored, in part, by a substation near Medicine Bow.
The effort also required curtailing some local wind energy from feeding the grid, according to the report. But on the day of the planned maintenance, Nov. 13, there was confusion about whether the Western Area Power Administration would scrap its work, so wind energy wasn’t curtailed as originally planned.
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Wind turbines near Cheyenne poke into a colorful sunrise in January 2025. (Tennessee Watson/WyoFile)
The report indicates that modeling tools might have failed to accurately measure local grid conditions, so when the power line was de-energized, “power flow rapidly redistributed throughout the northeast portion” of the local grid. “Within six seconds,” according to the report, “an electrical island formed and collapsed, causing widespread effects across that portion of the interconnection.
“The disturbance,” the report continues, “culminated in the loss of more than 4,800 [megawatts] of generation from coal, natural gas, photovoltaic and wind resources.”
The cascading power failure began at about 12:45 p.m. on a Thursday, dragging down portions of service territories operated by Rocky Mountain Power, Black Hills Energy, Montana-Dakota Utilities and some rural electric co-ops.
The report points to failures in communication, process deficiencies and inadequate modeling tools. Wind energy was not “identified as a contributing factor,” according to the report. It credits both battery storage and wind energy throughout the impacted area for supporting “a faster frequency recovery across the interconnection” and for providing “readily available capacity during system restoration.”
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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