The current college football season may be coming to an end, but BYU’s campaign will live on forever in Cougars lore.
Kalani Sitake’s squad finished the year 12-2 — with the losses only coming to Playoff-bound Texas Tech — appeared in the Big 12 championship game and captured a Pop-Tarts Bowl victory over Georgia Tech.
Just as they’ve done plenty of times under Sitake, the Cougars defied all previous expectations, becoming one of the nation’s best teams in the process in and are arguably a top 4-5 group in program history as well.
Seriously — aside from 1984, 1996 or even 1983, what other BYU team could you argue was better than the 2025 Cougars?
This past summer, I attempted to predict how BYU would fare in 2025 by throwing out five bold claims for the coming season.
My predictions — which you can read here — were largely successful, as I batted 3 for 5 on the exercise. But perhaps my predictions were too conservative, and next year I’ll have to get even crazier.
Let’s revisit everything I predicted before 2025 to see where I was a ball-knower and where I fell short.
Prediction 1: LJ Martin will rush for 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns
Result: YES
Where would BYU be without LJ Martin?
The bruising junior was outstanding in 2025, rushing for 1,305 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per carry and scoring 12 touchdowns to earn Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year honors.
It was undoubtedly one of the most prolific tailback campaigns in program history and a major benefit to an offense breaking in a true freshman at quarterback.
Martin tallied six total 100-yard outings, including a 222-yard outburst at Cincinnati, 122 yards against rival Utah and 162 yards in BYU’s double overtime win at Arizona.
Seven of Martin’s 12 touchdowns came in his final four contests, thanks in part to a hat trick of three scores in the regular-season finale against UCF.
Most impressively, Martin’s late season surge came as he played through a shoulder injury sustained in late October. Aside from the Pop-Tarts Bowl, he didn’t miss a single start, with his health only leading to one early exit.
You can’t deny the toughness. The kid is a freight train.
As Martin returns to BYU for his senior year, he’s just 1,361 yards away from passing Jamaal Williams for the all-time Cougars rushing record. The chase is on.
Prediction 2: BYU’s defense will record 26+ total sacks
Result: YES
At long last, BYU’s pass rush finally broke out in 2025.
The Cougars ranked fourth in the Big 12 with 30 collective sacks, their highest season total since 2016 and an increase of 10 from 2024.
Linebacker Jack Kelly accounted for 10 sacks on his own, leading the team for the second straight year and becoming BYU’s first player with double digit sacks since Bronson Kaufusi in 2015.
Aside from Kelly, 11 sacks came from the Cougars’ defensive line, with the remaining nine being provided by other linebackers and members of the secondary.
Half of BYU’s sacks came in a single four-game stretch against Utah, Iowa State, Texas Tech and TCU — arguably the toughest month of competition for the Cougars all season. When the stakes were highest, the pass rush came to play.
While defensive coordinator Jay Hill left for Michigan earlier this month, BYU has managed to keep practically its entire defense intact to run it back in 2026.
Under new coordinator Kelly Poppinga, the Cougars will have the likes of Isaiah Glasker, Bodie Schoonover, Nusi Taumoepeau, Keanu Tanuvasa, Tausili Askana, Hunter Clegg and others to attempt to shatter 2025’s sack total.
Prediction 3: Will Ferrin will earn first team All-American honors at kicker
Result: NO
Expectations for Ferrin were high following his 2024 Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year campaign.
While he did put together a solid 2025, struggles from more than 40 yards out kept him from legitimate All-American consideration.
“Big Game Bill” did set a new career best with a 56-yarder in Week 1 against Portland State, while also finishing the season a perfect 49 for 49 on extra point attempts, not having missed one since 2023.
But Ferrin missed more field goals (seven) than he had in 2023 and 2024 combined. Perfect on 17 attempts inside the 40-yard line, Ferrin went 2 of 7 on kicks between 40 and 49 yards and missed another two from beyond 50.
Across a three-week stretch against Colorado, West Virginia and Arizona, Ferrin missed a field goal in each contest. He also missed kicks in both meetings with Texas Tech and two more in the regular-season finale against UCF.
While he wasn’t an All-American contender by season’s end, I must reiterate that Ferrin was not bad at all in 2025.
Making 23 field goals, four 50-yard tries and not missing a single extra point is all excellent, and Ferrin should be remembered as one of the most prolific and talented kickers to ever play at BYU.
Prediction 4: BYU will open the season with six straight wins
Result: YES
For the second straight season, it took more than two months for anyone to finally beat BYU.
Just as I proclaimed in my predictions story, the Cougars started 6-0, first going 3-0 in nonconference play for the third year in a row before outlasting Colorado in Boulder, handling West Virginia in Provo and escaping Arizona with a double-overtime road win.
Two of those games may have been much closer than previously anticipated (I originally believed BYU’s toughest early test would be facing East Carolina on the road), but 6-0 is 6-0 nonetheless.
But I didn’t have the courage to predict what would happen in BYU’s seventh contest — the famed rivalry matchup with Utah, where the Cougars defeated the Utes for their third straight victory in the series.
Maybe next year, for the sake of boldness, I’ll actually try to call my shot for that game. It would be quite the full send on my part.
Prediction 5: McCae Hillstead will be BYU’s Week 1 starting quarterback ... and keep that role for the entirety of the season
Result: NO
Not only did Hillstead not win the starting quarterback job in fall camp, but he didn’t make a single start at all in 2025 and has now transferred to Utah State. Big swing and a miss on my end.
To be fair, I wrote my predictions piece in late July before BYU even began fall camp. No one covering the Cougars had seen Bear Bachmeier throw a pass yet. At the time, Hillstead winning the starting job seemed to make the most sense.
But Bachmeier didn’t take long to make us all believers.
After a few media viewing portions of fall camp, it became obvious to everyone that the true freshman from Stanford was the guy. BYU finally confirmed our suspicions on Aug. 19 by officially announcing Bachmeier would start at quarterback in the season opener.
He would never look back.
The first true freshman to ever open a season as BYU’s starting quarterback, Bachmeier started all 14 games for the Cougars and threw for 3,033 yards, ran for 527 more and accounted for 26 total touchdowns.
After having lost previous starter Jake Retzlaff late in the offseason, the unproven Bachmeier ended up becoming an undisputed upgrade, turning in one of the most prolific true freshman QB campaigns in the history of the sport.