{"id":342219,"date":"2025-09-04T23:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/342219\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T23:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:41:10","slug":"heres-how-byus-oc-described-bears-debut-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/342219\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s how BYU’s OC described Bear’s debut \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aside from a few early throws that were a bit off-target, Bear Bachmeier did everything he was supposed to<\/a> do in BYU\u2019s 69-0 romp over Portland State last Saturday.<\/p>\n

The freshman quarterback<\/a> threw for three touchdowns and ran for two while completing 7 of 11 passes for 97 yards. Bachmeier, 19, will always have that performance to fall back on in 2025, but the degree of difficulty rises exponentially<\/a> on Saturday against Stanford (8:15 p.m. MDT, ESPN).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t even compare the two (opponents),\u201d said tight end Noah Moeaki, who caught the 5-yard touchdown pass from Bachmeier in the second quarter that gave BYU a 21-0 lead.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

Head coach Kalani Sitake praised Bachmeier\u2019s play, after the game Saturday and again on Monday in his weekly press briefing, saying that the first freshman to start a season-opener for BYU handled the \u201ccrazy environment\u201d well once he got settled in and comfortable.<\/p>\n

Cougars on the air<\/p>\n

Stanford (0-1) at BYU (1-0)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 8:15 p.m. MDTAt LaVell Edwards StadiumTV:\u00a0ESPNRadio:\u00a0102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question was whether we keep him going into the second half or not, and we felt like he accomplished enough for what we wanted in the first half,\u201d Sitake said.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said he agreed with the head coach\u2019s decision to play the backup quarterbacks in the second half, noting that Bachmeier had gotten his feet wet enough and that the Cougars wanted to display good sportsmanship in the mismatch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were almost trying not to score at the end,\u201d Roderick said.<\/p>\n

Although BYU is now a 20-point favorite against Stanford, points will be far harder to come by<\/a> at LaVell Edwards Stadium late Saturday night, even if the Cougars are 29-4 in their last 33 night games.<\/p>\n

Assessing Bachmeier\u2019s debut, Roderick said it went as well as could be expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmall sample size. We didn\u2019t have to throw very much, but I thought he played well. The best part was I agreed with every decision he made in the game. He didn\u2019t make any bad decisions with the ball,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cThere was one throw early in the game where I think he could have thrown it into the next window. But I thought his decision-making was excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderick said he would like to see \u201cmore of the same\u201d against the Cardinal, which fell 23-20 at Hawaii on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just needs to continue to do his job,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cObviously he is going to have to throw more than 11 times to win this game. We are playing a quality opponent that we have a lot of respect for. \u2026 He doesn\u2019t need to do anything special. Just keep doing what he did last game, with a little bit bigger sample size this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most interesting thing that Roderick said Tuesday about Bachmeier\u2019s performance is that the freshman already has the green light to change plays and call audibles.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, more (freedom) than I\u2019ve ever (given) a freshman. We had a good number of check plays in the last game, and we have a bunch (ready) in this game, too. He\u2019s handled them very well in practice,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cTypically you wouldn\u2019t want to overwhelm a freshman with those, but he\u2019s handled them so well in practice that we are just treating him like anybody else who has ever played quarterback for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cougars (1-0) will have a rare mid-September bye after Saturday\u2019s game, then turn their attention to their first road game of the 2025 season \u2014 at East Carolina on Sept. 20. Coaches blasted crowd noise at practice on Wednesday, but Roderick said that was to prepare the defense more than the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cJay (Hill) mentioned last year that early in the season they had some miscommunications on defense when our crowd was getting noise against the opponent\u2019s offense,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cSo yeah, that was for the defense to practice \u2026 We (the offense) will practice with crowd noise during the bye week next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderick said that receiver Tei Nacua \u201cis still a little bit ginger with that hamstring\u201d injury and probably won\u2019t play against Stanford. He said receiver Reggie Frischknecht \u201cis really close\u201d to returning and might play this week.<\/p>\n

Has Bear Bachmeier\u2019s backup emerged?<\/p>\n

Three backup quarterbacks got into last week\u2019s game \u2014 McCae Hillstead, Treyson Bourguet and walk-on Cole Hagen, who was not even on the roster this spring or summer but was welcomed back when Jake Retzlaff left the program.<\/p>\n

Hillstead got the first snaps, and completed 4 of 5 passes for 33 yards, while also rushing twice for 23 yards. Bourguet completed one pass for 8 yards and ran once for 21 yards. <\/p>\n

However, Roderick said it has not been decided yet which of the two has won the backup QB job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will depend on (the opponent). We are just going to keep competing and if the time comes we will decide on the situation, who we think gives us the best chance to win,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cThey both played well. I know Treyson got two pass attempts and McCae had (five) and they both made good decisions and managed the team really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

True freshman Emerson Geilman was listed as QB4 on the first depth chart of the season, but has received a mission call and will depart for the Brazil S\u00e3o Paulo Interlagos Mission in January. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe put Cole (Hagen) in because we appreciate what a great teammate he has been in his time here, and felt like he deserved it,\u201d Roderick said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a great member of our team. He contributes a lot behind the scenes that people don\u2019t see in our quarterback meetings. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe plays scout team receiver. He plays scout team quarterback. He helps us with our call sheet, our wrist band every week. He does a lot of things like a coach, but he is also a player on the team. He has a really unique role and he deserved a chance to get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Brigham Young University Cougars quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) takes pictures with fans after the game against the Portland State Vikings at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from a few early throws that were a bit off-target, Bear Bachmeier did everything he was supposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,3309],"class_list":{"0":"post-342219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-news-feed-local"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115148677774723432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}