PROVO — To the discerning listener, it’s no surprise the BYU coaches have decided to include Bear Bachmeier in the two-man competition for the starting quarterback position.
From beginning of training camp two weeks ago, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick has consistently stated the first-year freshman would get every opportunity to compete with program veterans McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourguet.
He has also praised Bachmeier for quickly learning the offense, a compliment that illustrates the player’s intelligence despite joining the team less than three months ago.
Two weeks into training camp, Roderick announced Bachmeier was getting most of the reps with the first-team offense. Going forward, Hillstead will be mixed in the rotation.
Coach Kalani Sitake and Roderick stopped short of naming a starter for the Aug. 30 opener against Portland State, but it does appear Bachmeier is the leading candidate. He likely will solidify his position over the next two weeks.
“He throws a lot of completions,” Roderick said after Tuesday’s practice. “That’s one thing, he doesn’t take sacks and he’s very accurate.”
There it is, as planned. Sort of.
Originally, once Bachmeier committed to BYU after graduating high school early and participating in spring practice at Stanford, the coaches intended to have him learn Roderick’s system behind incumbent starter Jake Retzlaff and then take over in 2026. But the plan was dashed basically before it even started once Retzlaff got entangled in honor code issues that eventually led to him leaving the program.
Upon learning of the lawsuit against Retzlaff that became public in late May, the BYU coaches quickly adjusted to the strong possibility of starting an inexperienced quarterback. Neither Hillstead nor Bourguet, both of whom transferred from lower FBS programs, has played in a game for BYU.
But at least they did start some games for Utah State and Western Michigan, respectively. Bachmeier’s history as a starter consists solely of three years at Murrieta Valley High in California.
Roderick “knows where he is going with everything,” Sitake said. “The key is, we settled it on the field. I don’t control it; it’s the players. If you want to win the spot, it’s there for the taking. Our job is to put them in position where they can win the spot. And that’s for every position, including quarterback.”
During his senior season last year, Bachmeier missed the first eight games with a knee injury. He returned to lead Murrieta Valley to the Division 2 title game and was rated as a four-star quarterback, with offers from powerhouses that included Alabama, Michigan and Notre Dame.
He chose to play for coach Troy Taylor at Stanford, where his brother, Tiger, was a receiver. Taylor, the former Utah offensive coordinator, was fired in March in conjunction with investigations for allegedly mistreating staffers.
Bachmeier entered the transfer portal after spring practice, ultimately choosing BYU in part due to an existing relationship he established with the coaches during the recruiting process. Already having gone through a coaching transition when David Shaw left Stanford in 2022, Tiger Bachmeier followed his brother to BYU.
“It’s not like we were a package deal, but it worked out that way,” said Tiger Bachmeier, who has two years of eligibility left. “It’s not a non-coincidence that it worked out.”
The brothers, who played together for two seasons in high school, come from a football family — older brother, Hank, played quarterback at Boise State before transferring to Louisiana Tech and Wake Forest. Their youngest brother, Buck, is a high school freshman.
Tiger Bachmeier said his teammates are confident the coaches will choose the best quarterback in camp regardless of grade classification.
“I don’t really think age or anything matters,” he said. “The coaches have said that they’re just going to play the best guy and leave it up to them.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
