byu football

Early bye week might be a blessing in disguise for BYU after offense, QB had some issues in win over Stanford

Cougars (2-0) are idle this weekend and won’t play again until Sept. 20 at East Carolina (1-1)

Published: Sept 7, 2025, 6:02 p.m. MDT

Brigham Young Cougars quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) looks over the defense before a pass as BYU and Stanford play in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. BYU won 27-3. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Jay has covered sports in Utah for more than 30 years and has been writing for the Deseret News since 2019.

After outscoring opponents 96-3 in its first two games of the 2025 college football season, BYU (2-0) will do something it hasn’t done in quite some time, perhaps ever.

The Cougars will be idle in Week 3.

That doesn’t seem optimal, obviously, but receiver Chase Roberts and running back Sione Moa said they will make the most of the bye this week after BYU dumped Stanford 27-3 in front of 64,692 at LaVell Edwards Stadium late Saturday night.

Special Collector's Issue: "1984: The Year BYU was Second to None"

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football's 1984 National Championship season.

Buy Now

Actually, both those guys, and head coach Kalani Sitake, acknowledged that BYU’s offense can probably use the down time more than the defense, which has been nothing short of spectacular in two games, albeit against two of the worst offenses in college football.

In particular, the time off should be good for quarterback Bear Bachmeier, as life has come at the true freshman fast the past six weeks.

“I think healing up, resting up, as well as getting those reps with Bear (will be the focus),” Roberts said after catching five passes for 84 yards against the Cardinal. “Being able to get the pass game going, and then getting on the same page and learning and growing, getting that confidence in each other as an offense, as receivers, and just keep rolling (is the plan). I think it has been a perfect first couple of games for us, and we will start rolling.”

If there was a distressing development for the offense Saturday, other than the three sacks on Bachmeier for a loss of 19 yards, it was an apparent injury suffered by wide receiver JoJo Phillips. The redshirt sophomore emerged from the halftime locker room with his right arm in a sling after catching three passes for 30 yards in the first half.

“We are going to evaluate a little bit more. Looks like there is going to be some time (out), but not sure exactly the details of it,” Sitake said of the injury.

Defense carries BYU to a 27-3 rout of punchless Stanford

3 Takeaways from BYU's 27-3 win over Stanford

BYU’s offense was also without starting left guard Weylin Lapuaho for the second straight game. In that sense, the bye comes at a good time. On the defensive side, lineman Justin Kirkland has been out both games and linebacker Choe Bryant-Strother missed the Stanford game.

Sitake said Kirkland, a transfer from Oklahoma State, is close to returning.

As for the defense allowing just 14 rushing yards through two games — BYU is No. 1 in the country in rushing defense (7.0 yards per game) and scoring defense (1.5 points per game). The Cougars are No. 2 in total defense and No. 3 in third-down conversion defense.

“Well, having No. 57 (Keanu Tanuvasa) there makes things really difficult (for opponents) to run the ball,” Sitake said. “The front seven is playing at a high level right now, especially the run defense.”

Sitake said as the offense struggled to score touchdowns in the red zone Saturday night — or struggled to get the officials to acknowledge a touchdown, in one instance — the leaders on the defense stayed positive and offered encouragement to the offense.

“This was a physical team, Stanford,” Sitake said. “They want to get the run going. It was nice not letting them do that.”

The coach attributed some of BYU’s struggles in the red zone, and the pressure that was put on Bachmeier, to Stanford having had an extra week to prepare for the Cougars.

“Hopefully we can take advantage of the extra week ourselves and get ready for East Carolina,” he said. “Stanford did some really good things on defense, threw us off a little bit. They were a little bit more familiar with our quarterback (who participated in Stanford’s spring practices). We just have to control things that we can control. All that being said, we were happy to win the game.”

Bachmeier seemed to get more comfortable as the game wore on, and finished 17 of 27 for 175 yards, with a long of 41. He had nine carries for 26 yards, netting 7 yards on the ground when the 19 yards were subtracted due to the sacks.

“We don’t want our quarterback getting hit like that. We will try to find ways to fix it. I thought Stanford had some really good answers to things we were doing. So we gotta prepare for it,” Sitake said. “It is good that this happened to us and we were still able to win 27-3. So now we got to learn from it because East Carolina and every other team that sees Stanford’s game plan is probably going to try it on us.”

Cougars on the air

BYU (2-0) at East Carolina (1-1)

Sept. 20, TBA
At Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium
Greenville, N.C.
TV: TBA
Radio: 102.7 FM/1160 AM

Comments

Ever the optimist, Roberts said BYU’s passing game “is going to start soaring” as receivers and tight ends get more comfortable with Bachmeier’s abilities.

“We will learn from our mistakes — the little stuff that we need to clean up. If we clean up that little stuff we are beating Stanford by a lot more than we did today, scoring (more points) in the red zone,” Roberts said. “So I think that’s really it, getting on cue as an offense and putting up more points.”

East Carolina (1-1) fell 24-17 at North Carolina State in its opener, then walloped Campbell 56-3 on Saturday at home. The Pirates play at Coastal Carolina on Saturday night, and will have a quick turnaround after hosting BYU on the Sept. 20. They host Army on Sept. 25.

The Pirates are No. 9 in the country in passing offense, averaging 383.0 yards per game through the air.