Sweet 16 has a familiar look at BYU.
After 16 starts, Bear Bachmeier is 14-2, and that matches the record Brandon Doman posted through his first 16 games as the Cougars’ quarterback. The similarities don’t stop there, either.
Doman’s run came late in his BYU career, when he was 24. Bachmeier is doing it as a teenager, and he still doesn’t turn 20 until Monday.
“I think (Bear’s) a leader. I think he’s composed.
I think he’s consistent,” Doman told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show this week. “There is a gritty stick-to-it-ness that Bear has, that for me is endearing.
I think the players have a lot of respect for him, which means they trust him. If we can keep him healthy, he’s gonna be a heck of a leader for that team.”
Doman knows a little something about carrying a BYU offense. In those same 16 starts, he threw for 4,175 yards and 34 touchdowns. Bachmeier has put up 3,448 passing yards and 21 touchdowns so far.
The run game is where the comparison gets even tighter. Doman rushed for 546 yards and 10 touchdowns as a starter, while Bachmeier has already totaled 594 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns.
With 31 yards Saturday at Colorado State, Bachmeier can pass Doman’s career rushing total of 626 and move into seventh all-time among BYU’s mobile quarterbacks. He needs 49 yards to move past Zach Wilson, who started 28 games, and take over sixth.
“I think (Bear) feels a ton of confidence (and) he’s on the same page with coach (Aaron) Roderick and has a good grasp of the offense,” Doman said. “I think his skill, plus the confidence that he has, we have ourselves a pretty dang good quarterback.”
BYU has gotten more than one star out of the backfield, and Doman sees that part of the offense as another strong link between eras. He had Luke Staley beside him. Bachmeier has LJ Martin.
“That two-player punch is amazing,” Doman said. “I look back at being able to run a speed option once in a while.
We didn’t really have run-pass options in those days, but we had a version where we could hand the ball off to Luke or keep it or throw a swing route out to Reno Mahe. Those types of things are really hard to defend when they are having to bring a safety down in the box to defend the run game.”
Doman pointed to the 2001 group in the Mountain West Conference and the current 2025 team in the Big 12 as the last BYU squads to finish 12-2. In 2001, Doman, Staley and Mahe combined for more than 7,000 yards of offense and 78 touchdowns. This season, Bachmeier, Martin and Parker Kingston have produced 6,189 yards of offense and 46 touchdowns.
Kingston is no longer in the mix, but Bachmeier and Martin picked up right where they left off in BYU’s 28-17 win over Arizona, combining for 379 yards and four touchdowns.
“They are just going to have to do that with Bear and LJ and now they have a couple of really solid tight ends that are pass threats and can run-block, get in a three-point-stance and help physically in the run game,” Doman said. “That internal 7-8-9 man front that they can put on the field with some big solid receivers - BYU has got a really solid offensive group.
It starts with Bear and then it goes through LJ. They are really fortunate to have that duo back there.
It’s pretty lethal, and we are going to see a lot of it this year.”
That Arizona win moved BYU up to No. 11 in the AP Top 25, and Doman didn’t mince words about what a conference win means in the Big 12.
“Any victory in the Big 12 right now for me is a massive victory,” Doman said. “It doesn’t matter how clean it looks or how the spread looks like.
I think it’s a big win. A conference win is a big deal.”
The Cougars now head out on the road for the first time this season, visiting Colorado State on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. on CBS.
“I think BYU is proving to be a really established football program now,” Doman said. “There are still some depth issues that we’ve got at different position groupings, but for the most part, we are now starting to show that we are a really strong, capable program.”
Doman also looked back on his five favorite BYU wins, starting with a 24-21 comeback against New Mexico on Oct. 13, 2001, when Luke Staley’s eligibility was in question before the game and Doman threw the late touchdown to Andrew Ord.
At No. 4 was BYU’s 41-38 win over Mississippi State on Dec. 1, 2000, when Doman threw for 390 yards and five touchdowns and Matt Payne’s 25-yard field goal won it as time expired. Staley had rushed for 148 yards before breaking his left leg on the final drive.
His third pick was the 37-13 win over New Mexico on Nov. 18, 2000, the night Cougar Stadium became LaVell Edwards Stadium and Doman made his first start. President Gordon B. Hinckley attended, and Doman passed for 349 yards and rushed for 51, including an 8-yard touchdown run.
At No. 2, Doman chose BYU’s 24-21 win over Utah on Nov.
17, 2001. Doman threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Staley to cut the lead to 21-18, then later ran the option right and pitched to Staley for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:16 left.
Jernaro Gilford sealed it with an interception.
His top memory was BYU’s 34-27 win over Utah on Nov. 24, 2000, a finish that came in LaVell Edwards’ final game as head coach. Trailing 27-26 and facing fourth down and 13 from the 17 with less than a minute left, Doman completed back-to-back passes to Michael Pittman for 34 and 36 yards, then ran in the winning touchdown two plays later.
“Most people that I talk to that remember, they only remember those two games. They remember Luke Staley running down the sideline and us carrying LaVell off the field that last game.”
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BYUs home crowd picked up some unexpected praise after the recent game at LaVell Edwards Stadium, this time from Les Fifita, the father of Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita. After the Wildcats visit to Provo, he publicly thanked BYU fans for the kindness and hospitality his family experienced, describing a game-day atmosphere that went well beyond the usual back-and-forth of a high-profile college football matchup.
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The bigger takeaway is that BYU is no longer just part of the conversation by default. With UCF and Kansas having a rougher weekend and Texas Tech staying in place despite some defensive concerns, the margins in the Big 12 already look tight, and performances like BYUs can matter quickly. The next few weeks will go a long way toward showing whether this was a strong early statement or just the first step in a longer climb. [Read more 🡒]