Still stinging from their 29-7 defeat at Texas Tech, No. 12 BYU (8-1, 5-1) returned to practice to prepare for TCU (6-3, 3-3). With the Horned Frogs coming to Provo on Saturday (8:15 p.m., ESPN), the Cougars have limited time to process what went wrong in Lubbock and work to prevent it from happening again.
During BYU’s eight-game winning streak, the Cougars took care of the ball, they excelled on special teams and played solid defense. The Red Raiders flipped the script on BYU and gave the Cougars a reality check and a lesson that only a loss can teach.
“There is just something about the kick in the butt you get from losing and being embarrassed on the national stage that just brings a certain kind of urgency that you can’t really get anywhere else,” former BYU offensive lineman Connor Pay told the “Y’s Guys Livestream” show.
Pay and former Cougar linebacker Isaiah Kaufusi, both team captains, won a lot of games at BYU. Pay’s group went 11-2 last year. Kaufusi’s Cougars finished 11-1 in 2020. However, they also suffered through plenty of disappointments and those moments were educational.
BYU’s loss at Coastal Carolina late in the COVID 19-impaired 2020 season taught Kaufusi how to process anger, frustration and heartache.
“That was our first loss (9-1) and kind of a devastating one. We (were) this close to being really great and playing a great, complete game,” he told the Y’s Guys. “What you learn in that loss is it’s the small things. There are one or two guys that are almost there. If we can tighten that up, we are a phenomenal football team that is really hard to beat.”
The eighth-ranked Cougars’ quest for acceptance into the four-team College Football Playoff ended on the 1-yard line, where receiver Dax Milne was tackled as time expired in a 22-17 defeat.
Prior to Pay’s 11-2 senior season, the Cougars went 5-7 in 2023 and ended the year with five-straight losses. The losing triggered a lot of learning and BYU changed its approach to the offseason. The Cougars returned with a sharper focus and an edge that has fueled their 19-3 record since — including this year’s 8-1 start.
The 2025 Cougars don’t have the luxury of an offseason to regroup from last week’s lackluster performance. With just a few practices that remain before Saturday’s kickoff, they will need to be fast learners.
“Being great is being consistently good, that’s what the great teams do, and we lacked consistency last week,” said Pay, who works with the offensive line as a graduate assistant. “Every guy needs to look in the mirror and be like, ‘OK, why didn’t I execute my job on this given play?’ Don’t turn around and point fingers, all you do is look in the mirror and ask, ‘What did I do that hurt the team and how can I fix it?’ You make a plan, and you attack practice this way through the week.”
Losing also calls out the leaders in a way that is a lot different from when you win.
“It exposes the leadership,” Kaufusi said. “One thing I love about a loss is (to see) how the leaders are going to respond because they are the ones who are going to drive and right the ship with the rest of the team.”
Bullish on Bear
For two guys who spent their respective careers either protecting a quarterback or trying to tackle one, Pay and Kaufusi both agree that the sky is the limit for freshman Bear Bachmeier.
“As his confidence starts to skyrocket you are going to see someone who is going to be unstoppable,” Kaufusi said. “When you have to play against someone like that on defense, that is a kind of a mind game — where he is pounding the rock; he’s not scared; he’s physical; he’s hard to tackle. He will start to get into the minds of a lot of defensive coordinators and defensive players.”
At 6-foot-3 and somewhere between 230 and 260 pounds, Bachmeier has thrown for 11 touchdowns and rushed for nine. For a teenager that joined the team over the summer and won the starting job in fall camp, Bachmeier’s fearless and physical approach won over the older players.
“Knowing you are willing to run someone over to get into the end zone or put your body on the line the same way we put our body on the line for you is very endearing to an offensive lineman,” Pay said. “I think the way he plays earned the respect of the entire offense very quickly.
“When you watch him being willing to run through someone, don’t get me wrong, we don’t want him doing it all the time, but in those critical moments, when you need a yard or a first down or when he runs someone over to get into the end zone, or knowing that he’s willing to put his body on the line for his teammates in situations where it’s necessary, that’s a very special thing for an offensive lineman to see and it makes you want to (work even harder) to keep him upright.”
BYU-Pathway Worldwide
Pay and Kaufusi share a new passion for helping BYU-Pathway Worldwide graduates find jobs and improve their lives.
In April, they will travel to Tonga, where BYU football coach Kalani Sitake and Kaufusi’s father, Jeff, were born and where Isaiah served his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Using donated funds through their We Are One Foundation (givebutter.com/weareonefoundation), their group will buy and renovate an employment center where BYU-Pathway graduates can work remotely for U.S.-based companies.
“In the last three months, we have gone from zero remote employees in Tonga to 20,” Kaufusi said. “In the next week and a half, we’ll be hiring another 20. This is the start.”
It’s not just Tonga. The master plan is to provide employment centers all around the world. A message from a BYU-Pathway graduate in Mexico deepened the foundation’s determination to make a difference.
“Connor and I were able to find a U.S.-based company to hire her,” Kaufusi said. “She sent me a video saying, ‘My husband just lost his job. I’m a recent convert to the church, but I am so grateful to have this opportunity to work because now I can support my family.’ There have been a lot of miracles, but that was the first one that was like, ‘Hey, what we are doing here is impactful and it’s what we are supposed to be doing.’”
We are one
Sitake eagerly embraced BYU-Pathway’s mission to provide affordable, online education opportunities worldwide and he tethered his football program to it. Many of his players serve as mentors to (BYU) students living a world away and in many different circumstances.
“The reason we named our foundation We Are One is because it truly is what it means,” Kaufusi said. “Regardless of where you are in the world, Kalani’s vision that we are one BYU, we are one in Christ, (is motivation to) do this thing together and be a vehicle to shepherd (it) along.”
Pay always thought his payday would come in the NFL, but just as those opportunities started to shrink, his involvement and optimism with BYU-Pathway began to grow.
“It’s amazing. It’s the gathering of Israel at the highest level. It’s not just the physical gathering or the spiritual gathering; it’s an intellectual gathering as well. Being able to bring high-level education to people all over the world is a special thing,” Pay said. “BYU-Pathway is going to open doors for these students to have full-time employment and careers that they have never had and open up economic doors for them to support not only their immediate families, but their communities too, and that is life-changing and generational changing.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.