It’s Bear season at BYU.
The Cougars will start Bear Bachmeier at quarterback in their season opener against Portland State, BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick told reporters Tuesday.
“Bear has earned the job,” Roderick said. “He’s had a great camp and he’s our guy.”
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The news was first reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN Tuesday morning.
The decision to go with Bachmeier is unprecedented in Provo, as he will be the first true freshman to begin a season starting at QB in BYU program history.
Originally a Stanford commit, the former four-star prospect Bachmeier participated in spring ball with the Cardinal earlier this year before entering the transfer portal in April. He then landed with the Cougars in May alongside his brother, wide receiver Tiger Bachmeier.
Upon Jake Retzlaff’s surprising departure from BYU this summer, Bachmeier was given the opportunity to compete against veteran transfers McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourguet in fall camp for the Cougars’ starting job.
Aaron Roderick shared last week that the QB battle had been trimmed down to Hillstead and Bachmeier, with the latter receiving most of the first team practice reps and now being named as the victor of the competition.
“(Bachmeier) throws a lot of completions, he’s really accurate,” Roderick said. “He’s done a great job in camp of taking care of the football, he’s thrown the fewest interceptions of all the guys … (he produced) a lot of explosive plays and threw a bunch of touchdown passes.”
Bachmeier will be the eighth true freshman to start a game at quarterback for BYU, joining Drew Miller (1997), John Beck (2003), Jake Heaps (2010), Taysom Hill (2012), Tanner Mangum (2015), Joe Critchlow (2017) and Zach Wilson (2018).
“He’s very mature, our players gravitate toward him,” Roderick said of Bachmeier. “It’s rare to see a freshman lead the team the way he does every day.”
The Cougars will host Portland State on Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. MST.
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