3 takeaways from BYU’s season-opening win over Portland State

What a start to the season for BYU.

The Cougars opened the 2025 campaign in dominant fashion, defeating Portland State 69-0 Saturday night in Provo.

With the win, BYU improves to 9-1 in season openers under Kalani Sitake. The Cougars also scored more points than any other game thus far in the Sitake era, recorded the largest margin of victory for a shutout in program history and saw the highest single-game attendance at LaVell Edwards Stadium (64,494) since 2009.

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3 takeaways

Bear Bachmeier had a night to remember. In his first career collegiate start, the Cougars’ true freshman QB had as many total touchdowns (five) as incomplete passes.

Sure, he started a bit slow, and Portland State isn’t exactly the toughest competition, but Bachmeier’s performance remains impressive regardless — so much so that BYU elected to end his night at halftime after orchestrating a 49-0 lead.

He connected with Chase Roberts, Noah Moeaki and Carsen Ryan for touchdowns and ran for another 32 yards on five carries for two more scores.

BYU’s upcoming opponents will only grow more challenging, but as far as a first-ever start for a freshman is concerned, Bachmeier looked about as good as anyone could have hoped and offered plenty for fans to be optimistic about moving forward.

BYU ran wild. The Cougars did plenty on the ground to make Bachmeier’s life easier, running for 468 yards as a team at an average of 9.8 yards per carry.

LJ Martin led the way with eight carries for 131 yards, with eight other BYU players adding at least 20 yards each as well.

Receivers Cody Hagen and Dominique McKenzie both scored on well-designed reverse and jet sweep plays respectively, Charlie Miska added a touchdown in the game’s final minutes and Bachmeier himself found the end zone twice.

The overall rushing effort marked BYU’s best since running for 550 yards against Texas in 2013.

The Cougar defense is still a major strength. Jay Hill’s unit was the star of the show for BYU in 2024, and such a trend looks like it could continue into 2025.

The Cougars pitched a shutout against the Vikings — their first since blanking Sam Houston State in 2023 — and allowed just 53 total yards at an average of 1.4 yards per play.

Additionally, BYU held Portland State to -5 yards rushing and recorded two sacks — one from Anisi Purcell and another from Choe Bryant-Strother — with nine tackles for loss.

But perhaps the most impressive element of the Cougars’ defensive effort was that only 45.9% of the team’s snaps on defense were played by starters, meaning backup and reserve players played the majority of the shutout.

Again, Portland State is far from a powerhouse, but BYU allowing just 53 total yards and no points will always be impressive no matter the competition.

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