Steve Retzlaff stood still as he looked out of a suite at LaVell Edwards Stadium when he saw a miracle happen for the first time.

Son, BYU quarterback Jake RetzlaffI just went by car 75 yards downfield against Oklahoma State to bring BYU back from the dead with 10 seconds to play. Before the elder Retzlaff could fully process what he saw, LaVell Edwards’ son entered the room, shook his hand, and issued a statement straight from BYU royalty.

“I’ve seen legends in this place,” the father recalled Edwards saying. “And that’s how they’re made.”

Fast forward three weeks and Steve Retzlaff was once again pulling off a miracle. But this time he was on the Rice-Eccles Stadium 20-yard line, trying to make sense of something even more improbable.

“He got sacked in the end zone to lose the game,” Steve Retzlaff said, almost in denial about what he had just seen.

It was true: Jake Retzlaff was fired. It was a turnover on downs. With one minute left, the game was over and BYU was down two points.

Until the holding call gave BYU new life and cleared up the mistake.

Then Retzlaff created magic again. A 30-yard dart to Chase Roberts, a 12-yard pass to Darius Lassiter, and suddenly BYU scored a field goal from long range to beat Utah 22-21 in a place no BYU quarterback had won in 18 years. .

A 65-yard, 11-play drive that almost never happened.

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan called it a stolen victory. Steve Retzlaff had a different approach.

“I don’t believe in fate, but how can you not?” Steve Retzlaff said.

Maybe it’s time to believe. Because now BYU’s supernova quarterback has launched two game-winning drives with BYU’s odds of winning less than 0.3%.

It’s the magic, or otherworldly talent, of Retzlaff, who has BYU 9-0, that catapulted them to the College Football Playoff and secured the Big 12 title in Arlington.

And perhaps even sooner — as a group of BYU fans chanted “Heisman” toward Retzlaff in the early minutes of Sunday morning — he became a BYU legend. There is nothing to debate anymore, it will be talked about in the same breath as John Beck, Max Hall and Steve Sarkisian.

That’s how you beat Utah, and there’s no doubt about it.

“People always ask me, ‘How does it feel? I don’t have words,’” Steve Retzlaff said. “Great, great, great. It doesn’t feel like it. It’s like your baby is being born. That’s what it feels like.”

For the past two decades, BYU has been unable to gain the upper hand against its in-state rival. The team, which has won only four since 2002, has not won in Salt Lake since 2006.

That year, it took Beck making a last-second rainbow pass to Jonny Harline to put Utah away. Since then, the Cougars have been banging their heads against the wall more often.

Some good quarterbacks couldn’t get the job done.

Tanner Mangum was 0-4 in his four years. Taysom Hill was equally unsuccessful. Zach Wilson left Provo empty-handed in this regard.

“You don’t want a loss to Utah on your resume,” former national championship quarterback Robbie Bosco said of Retzlaff’s legacy.

And now he won’t

Retzlaff now has something that all BYU quarterbacks envy.

“I think you have to go back and look at all the BYU wins because there hasn’t been much in the last twenty years and that’s where you made your name as a quarterback,” former BYU wide receiver Austin Collie said. Beat Utah in 2007.

“Max Hall, John Beck, Steve Sarkisian and Brandon Doman. “The Utah game is a sign that they are the quarterback for BYU,” Collie said this week. “So if Retzlaff goes out there and commits to Utah, I think that would put his name among today’s quarterbacks who are leaving their fingerprints on the program.”

Retzlaff’s fingerprints on this game will long be remembered in BYU lore. Not only did he have a 65-yard haul to cap it off, but there were also the final 20 minutes where he put BYU back.

For most of the night, BYU’s offense looked listless. Retzlaff started the second half 1-for-7 and was 10-for-22 overall. Without his production, the Cougars were down 11 points and facing their largest deficit of the year.

But he managed to keep them in the game. Starting from his own 5-yard line in the third quarter, Retzlaff went 95 yards to get BYU back within two points. On that drive alone, he completed three passes of 19-plus yards and finished with a rushing touchdown.

It wasn’t a perfect performance. He would finish 15/33 for 219 yards and one rushing touchdown.

But when things got worse, he was almost fired and came back in the final push to end it.

“It wasn’t a good feeling when I was in the end zone and my back was going down. The guys were confident when we looked up and saw we had a new life,” Retzlaff said. “That initial, initial drop is the catalyst. And once we got it we started rolling.

Head coach Kalani Sitake was happy they got this chance.

“Whatever the referees decide, I don’t think they’re trying to get it wrong,” he said. “It’s just part of the game. Referees are part of the game. We were able to take advantage (of the holding) and make a big play. … We were given nothing.”

When the game ended, Retzlaff found his parents waiting for him in the end zone. As the cheers poured in, he felt what he had just done and the community he had just joined.

And Retzlaff’s legacy continues to grow. In a few months, he could lead BYU to its first College Football Playoff, something Collie said would put him on “a modern-day Mount Rushmore” at BYU. And Retzlaff is starting to get a taste of it.

“At the end of the year, you can’t ask for anything more than being in control of your own destiny,” Retzlaff said.

As for his father, he’s just trying to take it all in. When he looked up, he saw that the stands were filled with Retzlaff jerseys. His son was heaping praise. His name is now securely placed among BYU legends.

“Aren’t you having fun?” he joked.

Then he finished.

“I’m a grumpy old football coach here, now I’m a romantic (about football),” he said.