When it comes to playing true freshmen quarterbacks, seeing is believing. After 10 games of watching Bear Bachmeier put No. 11 BYU in contention for the Big 12 championship game, former Cougar Brandon Doman is a converted soul.
“For a freshman to do what he’s doing — I’ve seen enough football in my life and in August I questioned whether or not he was capable of doing it,” Doman told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show. “But kudos to the coaching staff. They knew him, they recruited him, they had enough background to know who this young man is and what he’s all about.”
Doman went 14-2 as a starting quarterback at BYU (2000-01) and he was selected in the fifth round of the 2002 NFL draft by San Francisco. He returned to the Cougars as the quarterback’s coach (2005-10) and worked with 11,000-yard passers John Beck and Max Hall before being elevated to offensive coordinator (2011-12) when his signal callers were Jake Heaps and Riley Nelson.
Doman knows his stuff and when he sees Bachmeier, he sees a special talent.
“He’s so impressive. Just the grit, the stick-to-itiveness, the intellectual capacity that he has to manage college football at his age and the mature manner in which he does it — that is really rare. It’s not very common and he’s uncommon,” Doman said. “BYU is lucky to have him on their team. Now I know why they picked him. They picked the right guy.”
The Big 12 honored Bachmeier for his performance at Cincinnati by naming the 6-foot-2, 230-pound surprise story from Murrieta, California, as the Big 12 Freshman of the Week — for the sixth time.
Staying healthy
BYU is contending in the Big 12 for a second consecutive season with a combined 21-3 record. There have been blowouts and nailbiters and through them all, the Cougars have remained mostly healthy.
“They still have some weak spots in that depth chart that they are still developing,” Doman said. “But to be able to maintain reasonably good health and maintain a quarterback that can finish the season that is playing the way these two quarterbacks have played the last two years is remarkable.”
Even as the quarterbacks combine for a risky 1,061 yards rushing, 17 touchdowns — and a bevy of bruises, former starter Jake Retzlaff (11-2) didn’t miss any playing time last season and Bachmeier (10-1) has made every start in 2025.
Jay Hill factor
BYU’s defense enters Saturday’s game against UCF (11 a.m., ESPN2) ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 in both scoring defense and total defense and No. 1 in red-zone defense. The Cougars also have 38 interceptions over the last two seasons, including 16 in 2025.
“Jay Hill (defensive coordinator) and that defense has been unbelievable. The fact that he’s been able to put back-to-back seasons like this, the turnover margin, the takeaways,” said Doman. “There have been so many positive things that have happened, it’s now enhancing their ability to recruit, so their depth chart is going to continue to get better.”
A lot to prove
The Cougars (10-1, 7-1) arrive at Thanksgiving with everything on the table. A win over the Knights (5-6, 2-6) will clinch a date in the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 6 in Arlington, Texas.
“It’s there for the taking. You watch Kalani and the way he is leading this team. I think their mindset is right. I think we’ll see a good, solid football team on Saturday,” Doman said. “They have a lot to prove. No one believes in them.”
No one knows how it feels to be discredited more than Doman. Hours after his 10th-ranked Cougars won at Mississippi State in 2001 to improve to 10-0, the Bowl Championship Series told BYU they were no longer under consideration for their big money bowls.
Times have changed. BYU has changed. The Cougars even belong to a Power Four conference, but Doman contends BYU’s lack of national respect remains blatantly obvious.
“There is no reason for them to be overconfident right now because all the pundits out there don’t want to believe in them anyways. They already want to write them off,” he said. “So, they have everything in the world to play for, and they need to play like that on Saturday and put themselves in the championship game.”
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.