BYU didn’t just beat Notre Dame on Saturday in Provo. The Cougars may have punched their strongest ticket in 42 years to the top of the AP poll.
The 28-24 upset of No. 2 Notre Dame gave Kalani Sitake’s team the kind of headline win that has been missing from the conversation around BYU’s perfect start.
In the Week 7 AP Top 25, only No. 3 Miami and No.
4 Ohio State sat ahead of the Cougars, and Ohio State’s situation took a hit when postgame reports from head coach Ryan Day said quarterback Julian Sayin will be out for several weeks.
BYU was last No. 1 on Nov. 20, 1984, the season it spent the final four AP polls in the top spot. LaVell Edwards’ team stayed there after a 24-17 win over Michigan in the Holiday Bowl and finished 13-0. That BYU squad also topped the AP and UPI polls and remains the last national champion from outside a power conference.
This time, the Cougars have the kind of victory that critics said the 1984 schedule never delivered. Bear Bachmeier did a little bit of everything: he ran for two touchdowns, caught a 15-yard scoring pass from receiver Kyler Kasper and then found tight end Walker Lyons for the go-ahead 6-yard touchdown with 1:47 remaining. On the final play, BYU’s defense forced Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr’s throw to fall incomplete in the end zone.
The Cougars were sharp on the kind of downs that decide big games, converting 8 of 12 third downs. They led until Notre Dame’s two-point conversion trimmed the margin to 24-21 in the fourth quarter.
Sitake spent the week praising the Irish, saying they “ could easily be No. 1.” Now his own team has the stronger argument, especially after Steve Young returned to Provo as College GameDay’s guest picker for the first top-10 matchup at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Miami remains unbeaten after surviving Florida State 43-35 in double overtime, but that resume comes with a different look. Darian Mensah passed for 326 yards and three touchdowns, while Malachi Toney caught the second-overtime touchdown and then threw the two-point conversion to Cooper Barkate.
Florida State had chances. A holding penalty erased a touchdown on fourth down, and Bryce Fitzgerald’s game-ending interception held up on review. Miami improved to 6-0 and already owns a 41-13 road win at Clemson, but it needed two overtimes at home against a 3-4 Florida State team whose coach, Mike Norvell, was under scrutiny coming into the week.
Ohio State, meanwhile, posted its strongest single win of the season by beating Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington and ending the Hoosiers’ 22-game winning streak. The Buckeyes got the stop they needed when Nick Marsh came down out of bounds on a fourth-down catch.
Still, the Buckeyes’ profile took a hit. They lost 24-23 at Texas in September, and the Longhorns have since dropped two straight. Sayin, who entered the week first in my Big Ten QB rankings, left after a fourth-quarter sack that injured his throwing shoulder.
“I don’t have a ton of details, but he’ll probably be out for several weeks,” Day said. True freshman Luke Fahey is now set to take over before an Oct. 31 trip to USC.
If voters follow the usual pattern, Miami’s unbeaten record gives it a real case. But the total body of work still points to BYU, which owns the best win among the unbeaten teams and a quarterback who scored three different ways against the nation’s top-ranked total defense.
That’s why the Cougars have a legitimate claim to No. 1 heading into Week 8, before they visit UCF on Oct. 24.
In Other News...
Notre Dames BYU Loss Just Got Even More Infuriating
The sting from Notre Dames loss at BYU got sharper when the Big 12 acknowledged that an officiating error affected the games final sequence. One second remained on the clock, but it was not properly accounted for, and the replay crew incorrectly cleared the play that ended the game. For Notre Dame, that meant no extra snap on 2nd and goal and no chance to keep pushing for a late score.
The conference said it will review its end-of-game officiating process after the incident, a step that may matter less to the Irish than the result already does. In a tight game, one second is more than a technicality, and the acknowledgment only adds to the frustration over how it ended. [Read more 🡒]
Notre Dame Just Got A Painful Reminder About Its Biggest Problem
Notre Dame got a stark reminder in Provo that the margin for error remains slim, even when the offense does enough to keep the game alive. At LaVell Edwards Stadium, the Irish spent most of the night chasing Brigham Young before briefly grabbing the lead late, only to watch the Cougars answer with under two minutes left in a 28-24 loss.
The result fit a familiar frustration for Notre Dame, which again found itself in a tight game where one stop, one clean sequence or one timely play could have changed the outcome. A significant defensive ejection added to the tension, and the late comeback bid had the kind of urgency the Irish needed, but not quite enough finish to turn it into a road win. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Freeman Addresses What Went Wrong In Notre Dame's Costly Loss
Marcus Freeman spent his postgame time going straight to the two areas that hurt Notre Dame most in a costly loss to BYU: defensive discipline and red-zone execution. The defeat snapped the Irish's 16-game winning streak, and Freeman pointed to the problems BYU's misdirection offense created while also acknowledging that Notre Dame left points on the field with missed chances near the goal line.
Freeman also noted the adjustments the Irish tried to make after halftime, but the broader concern remains the same one that follows any tight loss to a quality opponent: execution in critical moments. For Notre Dame, the answer is not about effort or intent as much as cleaning up the details that determine whether a promising drive becomes a field goal, a touchdown or nothing at all. [Read more 🡒]