5 Takeaways From No. 8 BYU's Win Over Iowa State

BYU rolled past Iowa State and improved to 5-0 for the fifth time in the last seven seasons. You can tell that BYU fans have grown accustomed to this level of performance because almost no one was happy about how that particular win played out in the aftermath. On paper, BYU dominated. On the scoreboard, it looked like BYU struggled with another unranked opponent. What is the truth? Let's discuss. Here are my takeaways from another business-like BYU win.

1. BYU is awesome and refuses to let anyone else know

BYU Football wide receiver Legend Glasker against Iowa State | BYU Photo

This could be a copy and paste every week. Once again, BYU controlled a game, but sloppy play in key moments kept the win from being a true statement. It’s incredibly frustrating to dominate a game for 60 minutes and not have that reflected at a glance. It would be natural to walk away feeling like BYU’s performance was a canary in a coal mine of sorts, chirping that BYU is a paper tiger. I am not so convinced.

There have been times when BYU has “won ugly” and it’s proven to be a harbinger of things to come. In 2023, BYU started 5-2 with three wins over P4 opponents in which they averaged 33 points per game with an average margin of victory of two scores. The problems was they were also outgained by an average of 152 yards per game and proceeded to lose five straight games. This was not one of those games.

BYU became the sixth team this season to outgain a P4 opponent by 300 total yards. The average margin in the other five was 49-7. Saturday was the first time in program history that BYU gained more than 500 yards of offense and allowed 200 or less against a P4 opponent. Beyond yards, BYU recorded 7 TFLs to ISU’s 1, 16 QB pressures to ISU’s 2, and had a 187.5 pass efficiency rating to 94.9. In terms of advanced stats, BYU was +21% in success rate and .352 in EPA per play.

Why does this matter? Over their two-year run, BYU has become known as a team that “finds a way to win”. A clutch turnover here, a special teams touchdown there. That’s fantastic, but it isn’t always predictable. A critic would call it luck. This win was different because four find-a-way-to-win-type plays had a 21-point swing against BYU and they still won by two touchdowns. That is the kind of thing top 10 teams do.

2. This is the best BYU defense in a generation

BYU cornerback Therrian Alexander III against Iowa StateBYU Football | BYU Photo

This has been said before but I am ready to have that discussion. Against FBS opponents, BYU ranks 12th in yards per play (4.4) and 10th in scoring defense (15 ppg). That becomes more impressive considering those offenses, when not playing BYU, average 6.4 and 34 points per games. Saturday’s game was arguably one of the programs' best defensive performances ever. Iowa State’s 200 yards and 10 points was the second lowest to only 2025 Stanford for the lowest totals against a Power Four opponent. Even more remarkable, they did it without forcing a turnover.

BYU had the Cyclones in a torture chamber, recording a sack, tackle for loss, or pass break up on nearly 1 out of every 3 plays defended. BYU allowed 69 yards on Iowa State's first 9 drives, including a stretch of seven straight drives of four plays or less netting 25 yards. More than 70% of Iowa State's plays constituted a failure. Just all-around domination.

Cougs were creating havoc last night pic.twitter.com/o1kXWVDIYo
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) October 10, 2026

A huge part of this group's success has been the defensive line. BYU recorded 16 total pressures on 34 dropbacks and allowed -.6 yards before contact per carry. Their 3 sacks against the Cyclones added to their Big 12 leading 10 sacks in conference play, which already matches or exceeds their conference play totals from the 2023 (6), and 2024 (10) seasons. There's a lot of names to mention here, as 10 different defenders recorded a pressure, but Keanu Tanuvasa was the best of the bunch. The senior was BYU’s highest-graded defender per PFF and recorded two passes batted to go with two solo tackles for loss. If BYU is able to knock off the Irish, he and his compatriots will be a huge reason why.

3. BYU’s sloppiness requires more of a spring cleaning than a remodel

BYU wide receiver Kyler Kasper against Iowa State | Jaren Wilkey/BYU

Lets talk about the not-so-fun stuff. Multiple muffed punts, dropped passes, missed calls and missed tackles kept this game way closer than it should have been. Special teams was the biggest culprit to the outcome, but most people will focus on the red zone. Coming into Saturday, BYU ranked 7th nationally in red zone touchdown percentage, but only went 2/5 on Saturday. Some will blame play calling, but let's look at each play. BYU ran 15 red zone plays in this game with 7 of them being successful. Of the remaining plays, 3 were run plays that netted 5 yards, 2 were completed passes for 8 yards, and 3 were incompletions. I have two takeaways:

1. BYU desperately misses LJ Martin in short-yardage, especially when they are trying to protect Bear

2. BYU’s two fourth down failures were not only open, but hit the receivers in the hands.

We can talk about end zone corners and back shoulders being low-percentage throws, but the throws were made and just not completed. That happens in football. If BYU’s entire offensive output is capable of being negated by throw throws that could have been completed, BYU is in for a long season. Otherwise, BYU’s failures were more about BYU figuring things out in a post-LJ world rather than BYU now having structural issues in the red zone.

4. Two close incompletions is not going to keep me from being very encouraged by what I saw from BYU’s offense

BYU QB Bear Bachmeier against Iowa State | BYU Photo

Whether or not you came away encouraged by BYU’s offense is really going to come down to what you were expecting to see. Coming off an abysmal pass performance against TCU, I wanted to see if Bear Bachmeier was still capable of carrying this offense without a real running back threat. That answer is unequivocally yes. Bachmeier accounted for 438 of BYU’s 506 yards, 329 of which came through the air. Bachmeier's 300/100 passing/rushing performance has only been done two other times in BYU history and is arguably the best game of his young career. Bachmeier recorded three big-time according to PFF, one of which was an incompletion.

Everything Bachmeier did minus one throw was on the money. He hit another deep bomb to Legend Glasker, proved he can throw an accurate back-shoulder fade, and nailed Roger Saleapanga under duress 20 yards downfield. 83% of his throws were on target and he was perfect on throws of 20 yards or more. Not bad for a fullback. Outside of the TCU game, Bachmeier’s 186.9 rating would make him the seventh most efficient passer in all of college football. It appears a sloppy game in the rain was just that.

Bear Bachmeier passing when it’s not raining:
971 yards
72% cmp
10.6 y/a
8/1 TD to INT
186.9 rating
— Joe Wheat (@joewheat27) October 10, 2026

For BYU to have any shot of beating Notre Dame without LJ Martin, Bachmeier is going to have to be superman, or at the very least, Tim Tebow. A performance like that one on Saturday gives me immense confidence that Bachmeier is capable of doing that if he has time to operate from the pocket. Fortunately, BYU’s dominant offensive line has made him the second least pressured quarterback in all of college football after being pressured just twice on 32 dropbacks.

5. BYU fans need to enjoy this stretch way more than they are

LaVell Edwards Stadium BYU vs Iowa Statedefault | BYU Photo

BYU fans have been beaten over the head into believing that a 14 point conference win is not enough. While the game was closer than it should have been, none of it matters when you have a Notre Dame on the schedule. The reality is BYU has taken care of business. BYU is 5-0, 5-0 against the spread, and has won four of their five games by double digits. BYU is 28-4 since 2024 and currently in their best 32-game stretch probably ever given the competition. Now, BYU hosts its first home top 10 matchup in program history on ABC with College GameDay coming to town. Whatever mistakes BYU has or hasn’t made in the past five games have no bearing on Saturday. All that matters is one game. With the way Bear Bachmeier and these defense is playing and the home crowd behind them, why not BYU?

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