Thanks to the return of two of the top offensive players in the country — quarterback Bear Bachmeier and running back LJ Martin — expectations are sky-high for the BYU football team in 2026, as this outlet and many others have predicted in the days leading up to one of the most anticipated seasons in school history.
Add at least one opposing Big 12 assistant football coach to that list of admirers. In fact, this guy goes overboard a bit, perhaps with his own agenda in play, in praising head coach Kalani Sitake’s crew some four months before the Cougars open against Utah Tech on Sept. 5 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Speaking anonymously, the assistant coach recently called BYU the best team in the Big 12, with the best coaches, and the most physical team as well.
They’re the best team in our conference. They’re the most physical team. They have the best coaches, and they have great energy. They play complementary football — offense, defense, special teams.
— Anonymous Big 12 assistant coach on BYU
Suffice it to say, his comments will certainly find their way to Lubbock and Salt Lake City, as the Utes and Red Raiders pride themselves on having those attributes, and a case could be made that Texas Tech, at least, was better than BYU in terms of physicality in the trenches last year.
One of the best parts of the annual Athlon Sports college football preview — which hit newsstands last week — is that the publication lets coaches throughout the country talk about other programs without making that coach’s identity known.
Overall, the publication still picks Texas Tech to win the league, and that was with the knowledge that projected Texas Tech starting quarterback Brendan Sorsby, a transfer from Cincinnati, is currently ineligible to compete for wagering on NCAA sporting events, including his own team while playing for Indiana.
The publication also knew that BYU will be without starting receiver Parker Kingston, but did not know that another receiver expected to be in the 2026 rotation, Cody Hagen, has medically retired from football. Athlon picked BYU to finish second, Houston to finish third and Utah to finish fourth.
It predicts that BYU will face USC in the Alamo Bowl and that Texas Tech will make the College Football Playoff once again and face Oregon in the first round.
Of note, last year Athlon predicted BYU to finish sixth in the Big 12, and at that time there was no reason to believe that quarterback Jake Retzlaff wouldn’t be with the Cougars in 2025.
Kansas State was picked to win the league in 2025, followed by Arizona State and Texas Tech. My advice: Take all this with a grain of salt.
A disclosure is in order
Martin, center Bruce Mitchell, Cal transfer linebacker Cade Uluave and safety Faletau Satuala made Athlon’s All-Big 12 Preseason First Team; curiously, Uluave did not make the publication’s list of 10 top transfers.
Four-star quarterback Ryder Lyons, who is currently on a church mission in Florida, is among the “top 10 recruits” to keep an eye on. BYU’s games against Arizona (Sept. 12), vs. Notre Dame (Oct. 17) and at Utah (Nov. 7) are among the top games involving Big 12 teams to watch, according to Athlon.
Full disclosure: I have been writing BYU’s season preview for Athlon for the past seven years, and wrote the article previewing BYU’s season on page 91 of this year’s publication. However, even though I write the piece and put together the depth charts, I am not involved in any of the predictions and do not know the identities of the anonymous coaches who are used in the “Scouting the Cougars” section of the BYU preview.
So let’s get to it; here’s what an “opposing Big 12 assistant coach” said about BYU prior to the 2025 season:
An over-the-top assessment?
“They’re the best team in our conference. They’re the most physical team. They have the best coaches, and they have great energy,” the coach said. “They play complementary football — offense, defense, special teams.”
Maybe Athlon just talked to the wrong assistant coach. Clearly, Texas Tech was better than BYU last year, evidenced by a 29-7 win in Lubbock and a 34-7 win in Arlington, Texas, in the Big 12 championship game. Granted, Tech had a huge home-crowd advantage in both games, and Bachmeier was injured early in the championship game and clearly not himself after engineering an opening touchdown drive, but there was no comparison in the trenches, as the Red Raiders and their four highly compensated defensive linemen dominated.
And the high praise continues
OK, that was last year, when the Cougars went 12-2 and edged Georgia Tech 25-21 in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. What about this year?
“At the line of scrimmage, they look totally different than any other Big 12 team. I think that program is about to skyrocket. … This is the year that they will get over the top,” the coach said. “If they don’t this year, I don’t know that they ever will.
“The reason I say that is because of the influx of money they got with their roster. … Year 2 with Bear Bachmeier, Year 4 with LJ Martin, who is one of the best backs in the country.”
Yes, but what about the loss of Jay Hill, key defenders?
The assistant coach didn’t seem fazed by the fact that highly successful defensive coordinator Jay Hill left BYU to join Kyle Whittingham’s staff at Michigan. Or that stars such as Tanner Wall, Jack Kelly, John Taumoepeau, Mory Bamba and Logan Lutui have graduated.
“You return a lot of guys on defense that were really productive,” he said. “(Faletau Satuala) was one of the best — if not the best — safeties we played all year.”
Brendan Sorsby situation has clouded everything
The biggest stories in college football this offseason have been the push for an expanded CFP by several conferences, including the Big 12, and the Sorsby situation. Tech could be in trouble at the quarterback position, at least until backup Will Hammond recovers from an ACL injury.
The one-time BYU recruit is not expected to be cleared until a couple games into the 2026 season.
Here’s what one anonymous assistant coach said about the Red Raiders this year:
“Will Hammond is talented, but we all know with an ACL, it takes a long time to recover … I think they’re still ultra-talented, so they can still (win the Big 12). It is just not gonna be easy. To me, it was BYU vs. Texas Tech for the Big 12 championship (before the Sorsby situation),” the coach said. “Can you say that now? I don’t know.”
