It seems like every year there’s an area of concern for the BYU football team.
Last year, it was the quarterback position, after projected starter Jake Retzlaff transferred to Tulane in July in the face of a seven-game suspension for violating the honor code. Everybody knows how that turned out. True freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier saved the season, pretty much.
For this season, which begins Sept. 5 when the Cougars play host to Utah Tech at LaVell Edwards Stadium, the primary worry regarding personnel is that BYU has an inexperienced and unproven group of receivers.
If we didn’t have any talent there, I would be really concerned, but I have seen the guys play.
— BYU coach Kalani Sitake on his group of receivers
“I think last year, everyone was questioning the quarterback position,” coach Kalani Sitake said at Big 12 football media days last week. “This year, I think people are wondering about the wide receiver position.”
Is Sitake one of those people?
“Not really,” he said. “If we didn’t have any talent there, I would be really concerned, but I have seen the guys play.”
Gone are BYU’s top two pass catchers from last year, Chase Roberts (54 catches, 802 yards) and Parker Kingston (67 catches, 928 yards). The fourth-leading pass catcher (among receivers), rising junior Cody Hagen, is taking a medical retirement due to lingering injuries.
Roberts reports to the Las Vegas Raiders’ training camp next week and is trying to make the NFL club as a free agent.
The case against Kingston, stemming from a first-degree felony rape charge in St. George, was dismissed without prejudice by a 5th District court judge last month, meaning that it can be refiled by prosecutors at a later date.
Whether it will be refiled or not remains to be seen, but in the interim it has left Kingston “in limbo,” according to a source close to the situation.
BYU athletic director Brian Santiago told the Deseret News on July 7 that if Kingston wanted to return to the school and football program after being expelled in February it would be a “university decision” and that the athletic department was “allowing the university processes to take place.”
BYU will count on these receivers in 2026
That leaves redshirt junior Jojo Phillips (14 catches, 161 yards), senior Tiger Bachmeier (seven catches, 59 yards) and redshirt sophomore Reggie Frischknecht (one catch, 7 yards) as the only returning receivers who registered stats in 2025. Redshirt sophomore Tei Nacua, brother of Los Angeles Rams superstar receiver Puka Nacua, was on the team last year but did not record a catch.
BYU made a move in the offseason to replace Roberts’ production, bringing in 6-foot-6 Kyler Kasper of Oregon from the transfer portal. As of Wednesday, Sitake had not brought in any more experienced, speedy receivers to replace Kingston or Hagen, instead relying on Phillips as the lone deep threat with experience.
The Cougars are also hoping to get contributions from a standout freshman class of receivers that includes Lehi’s Legend Glasker, Lone Peak’s Jaron Pula and Terrance Saryon of Portland, Oregon.
Returned missionary Jett Nelson, from American Fork High, also has the potential to add depth to the group.
“It is hard to replace great leaders like Chase Roberts, and what he brings to the table,” Sitake said. “But we have some great, capable guys, that, along with the (improvement) of Bear from the offseason, from spring ball to now, I feel really encouraged about.
“I understand fans and everyone that doesn’t get to see them on a day-to-day basis, but I feel like we’re in a really good spot,” Sitake continued. “We still have a lot of work to do, though.”
How Bear views the receivers room
The day after spring camp ended, Bear Bachmeier and about 10 of his teammates spoke to reporters in the press box at LaVell Edwards Stadium before the annual alumni game, and the sophomore quarterback was peppered with questions about the depleted receiving corps.
He expressed confidence in the group then, and repeated those sentiments last week in Frisco, Texas.
“I’m very confident in them,” he told the Deseret News. “We have a lot of talent, and we have a lot of guys who can go. They are going to be really good.”
Asked which receivers have stepped up in player-run-practices and the like, Bachmeier mentioned Phillips, Kasper, Nacua, Frischknecht, and his brother, Tiger. He also said the freshmen, Glasker and Pula, have picked up the offense quickly, particularly Glasker, who is the cousin of star BYU linebacker Isaiah Glasker.
“Yeah, I mean, what a dog coming in that (Glasker) has been,” Bachmeier said. “All those guys are looking really good. It is hard learning a college playbook and Legend knows the ins and outs and yeah, he sparks a little fuse in that room. He’s looking good.”
What an outsider sees from BYU’s receivers, Bear
Perhaps nobody knows Big 12 football as a whole more than John Kurtz, a Kansas State graduate who does his own podcast on the league, called the “Open for Business Podcast” in a nod to Big 12 commissioner’s Brett Yormark’s famous proclamation when he took over in 2022.
Kurtz also produces a weekly newsletter that can be accessed through his website, OFBnews.com.
“The one question mark I would have for BYU is, obviously, the pass catchers,” Kurtz said last week in Frisco. “The Parker Kingston deal is a tough deal for BYU, and can’t be (overstated). They are losing a guy who was probably going to be their No. 1 receiver.”
While noting that the two tight ends BYU got out of the transfer portal — USC’s Walker Lyons and Oregon’s Roger Saleapaga — will soften the blow, Kurtz believes Bear Bachmeier will have to use his legs a bit more than BYU wants him to.
That especially could be the case if the receivers aren’t up to the task, or if Sione Moa doesn’t prove to be an adequate RB2 while coming off a devastating injury in 2025.
“The other element to that is that Bear can run the ball so well and he’s so tough that you can run him a lot,” Kurtz said. “He kind of reminds me a bit of Collin Klein, who is walking around here as K-State’s new head coach, and who I covered as a player.
“They just leaned on him as a running quarterback to the tune of a couple 11-win seasons,” Kurtz continued. “I think the same thing can happen for Bear Bachmeier this year, if they need to go that route. So I think we’re going to continue to see better and better play from him.”
