For a few hours after BYU’s 28-24 win over then-No. 2 Notre Dame, the conversation could have gone almost anywhere.
The sellout crowd. The national spotlight.
The kind of victory that can reshape a season.
But the first thing worth revisiting was the play that helped tilt the game.
It came in the first half, when receiver Kyler Kasper took a double-reverse and fired a 15-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Bear Bachmeier, pushing the Cougars ahead 14-10. It was the kind of snap that lands fast and sticks around even longer, and BYU fans who had seen the blueprint before probably recognized it immediately.
The design matched the Chase Roberts-to-Jaren Hall pass against Baylor in 2022. Same play.
Same call. Same finish.
Kasper ended up with the trick-play quarterback role after a practice competition, and offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said the decision didn’t take long.
“He won it on the first throw,” he said, “and he threw it perfectly all week in practice.”
“He’s already asking for more throws,” Roderick later added. “So we’ll see.”
That was only one piece of a night when BYU’s offense looked sharp, varied and fully comfortable taking what Notre Dame gave it. The Cougars rolled up 360 yards, including 224 through the air and 45 on the ground from Bachmeier, and did it against a defense that had entered the game at the top of the national rankings. BYU’s opening drive produced just the second touchdown against that defense all season, and the attack never really slowed down from there.
The Cougars did it without injured running back LJ Martin for a second straight week, but the run game still held up. The passing game spread the ball around, with Bachmeier completing 24 passes to six different receivers. And when the moment called for one more wrinkle, Roderick had it ready.
Head coach Kalani Sitake credited the entire offensive staff afterward.
“A-Rod, Fesi (Sitake), TJ (Woods), just the entire offensive staff did a great job planning this one,” he said after the game, “and I feel like they were on point.”
The praise didn’t stop there. Roderick stayed typically measured, but his players were eager to point out how well the offense was put together.
Tight end Walker Lyons, who caught the go-ahead touchdown from Bachmeier with 1:47 left, said the coordinator’s value is in how he places players where they can actually make something happen.
“I thought we were pretty dialed on offense,” Lyons said. “I think something that [Roderick] does really well is put the playmakers in good positions.
“There wasn’t one person who had this crazy game, and a lot of other people didn’t really contribute much. But I think that’s one of the strengths of him as a coordinator; he puts all of the people who have different strengths in the right opportunities to make the plays. He called a great game.”
Even with the win over Notre Dame, the message inside the program stayed restrained once the celebration ended. Roderick said the coaches emphasized that there was still plenty to clean up.
Has BYU arrived? Roderick wasn’t interested in that kind of label.
“We made mistakes in that game,” he added. “I think there are a lot of things we could’ve done better in that game.
“I think it’s really important that we all stay grounded and just keep working one day at a time.”
The victory gave BYU a lift in credibility and shined a brighter light on the Big 12, but it also ensures the Cougars will draw more attention from here on out. Sitake said the staff and team have talked all week about staying focused and not getting carried away.
Wide receiver Legend Glasker said the group understands what the moment means, even if he had to get caught up on the details of the national stage. He admitted he didn’t know what “College GameDay” was until teammates explained it to him last Wednesday, when the ESPN trucks started showing up on campus.
“We’re blessed to be there, and we’re all happy about it,” he said. “But our team knows that we’ve got way more work to do, new things to accomplish, and that’s not the only thing we’re chasing for.
“I would say the best thing for our team is that we always stay hungry.”
That message matches what Sitake has preached all along: stay hungry, stay humble, keep building. And while BYU has room to grow - the Cougars rank 49th nationally in yards per game and 40th in scoring - the offense has clearly made real progress.
Lyons said the 6-0 start is exactly what the team wanted, but nobody inside the building plans to stop there.
“I think it’s been a testament to our team as a whole,” he said, “but also the mindset that we try to play with as an offense: We try to be physical, we try to be fast, we try to make plays when they come our way. I thought we did that.”
“We’re grateful to be here. But there’s also a lot of football left, and we know that.”
Next up is UCF in Orlando, and the Cougars know the Notre Dame win won’t carry much weight if they don’t handle that one too. UCF is 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12, and the Knights haven’t lost at home this season.
“Everybody knows it’s a one-game season every week,” Roderick said. “UCF hasn’t lost at home this year, and we’ve got to go play at their place.
“They’re playing much-improved football from last year, and last year they had us down 14-0 from the start. We have a lot of respect for these guys.”
As for whether Roderick has another trick waiting? That part is still to be determined.
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