Portland State (0-1, 0-0 Big Sky) at BYU (0-0, 0-0 Big 12)
- Kickoff: Saturday, 6 p.m. MDT
- Venue: LaVell Edwards Stadium (capacity: 62,073)
- TV: ESPN+
- Livestream: ESPN.com/watch
- Radio: KSL 1160 AM/102.7 FM/BYU Radio Sirius XM 143.
- Series: BYU leads, 1-0
The trends
For BYU: The Cougars are looking to follow up last year’s surprising and magical 11-2 campaign, in which they finished tied for first place in the Big 12 and earned a compelling win over Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.
BYU is 19-0 lifetime against FCS foes, having defeated Southern Illinois 41-13 in the 2024 opener.
Under Kalani Sitake — who is entering Year 10 at the helm of the program with a 72-43 lifetime record — the Cougars have won their FCS matchups by an average score of 43-14.
For Portland State: The Vikings went 3-8 in 2024 and have been picked to finish 10th within the 12-team Big Sky Conference in 2025.
Against Tarleton State last week, Portland State fell by a 42-0 score, managed 277 yards of total offense, and coughed up four turnovers.
The Vikings have beaten four FBS programs in their history, with their most recent such win coming in 2015.
What to watch for
The most obvious answer here would be Bear Bachmeier, BYU’s true freshman starting quarterback making his first collegiate appearance. But we’ll get to him later.
The Cougars will roll out a new-look defensive line headlined by nose tackle Keanu Tanuvasa, so keep an eye on how the pass rush performs against the Vikings — particularly BYU’s young crop of edge players.
Transfer tight end Carsen Ryan gives BYU a true alpha at the position for the first time since Isaac Rex, while also serving as a security blanket for young Bachmeier to look to in case of emergency. Additionally, backup tight end Keayen Nead was impressive during fall camp, so he could see extended playing time in the second half along with BYU’s other intriguing reserves.
BYU has pitched just one shutout in the past decade. Given the talent on Jay Hill’s defense and Portland State’s offensive struggles, perhaps the Cougars could extend the Vikings’ scoring drought for another week.
Key player
Bear Bachmeier, freshman, quarterback, BYU:
There is no greater storyline for BYU’s opener, and perhaps 2025 season as a whole, than that of Bachmeier.
The former Stanford commit from Murrieta, California, will become the first true freshman in BYU history to start a game at quarterback, having been crowned QB1 following a fall camp battle with veteran transfers McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourguet.
Portland State appears to be the perfect first opponent for Bachmeier, offering him the chance to ease into the college game against a lower level FCS squad before facing tougher competition moving forward.
Bachmeier likely won’t be asked to do too much against the likes of the Vikings, especially in his debut, but he’ll still need to display the accuracy and decision-making his coaches raved about during fall camp in order to further solidify his status as BYU’s long-term solution at quarterback.
He doesn’t need to be perfect, but if he can take care of the football and keep the offense moving, good things will happen.
Quotable
“I think the approach is just to make sure that we’re playing at our best. It’s one of the 12 games we have guaranteed on our schedule, and this one happens to be week one.
“... We want to make sure that we do what we want to do in terms of executing the plays and being fundamentally sound. But you still have to have respect for your opponents. You still have to. You see it on film, they do everything that you do, too. They work hard. They’re not just going to show up and bow down to us. They’re going to give us a game. So we need to make sure that we give it to them, too.” — BYU coach Kalani Sitake
“Formidable opponent, storied program. Kalani Sitake, I’m a fan … but Saturday, no. We’ll take our shot, we’ll take our best shot at them and see what we can do.” — Portland State coach Bruce Barnum
Next up
- BYU: vs. Stanford on Saturday
- Portland State: at North Dakota on Saturday
BYU schedule
- Aug. 30 — Portland State
- Sept. 6 — Stanford
- Sept. 20 — at East Carolina
- Sept. 27 — at Colorado
- Oct. 3 — West Virginia
- Oct. 11 — at Arizona
- Oct. 18 — Utah
- Oct. 25 — at Iowa State
- Nov. 8 — at Texas Tech
- Nov. 15 — TCU
- Nov. 22 — at Cincinnati
- Nov. 29 — UCF