9 Takeaways From BYU Football's First Signature Win of the 2026 Season

It’s a great day to be a Coug. BYU passed its first real test, pulling away late from a solid Arizona squad that’s had this game circled since September of last season. Ultimately, that revenge bid fell short despite an unbelievable first-half performance from the Wildcats because of an even better second half from BYU. Here’s what we learned from BYU’s first signature win of the 2026 season.

1. Second half BYU is the best team in the Big 12 and a playoff team

That was a dominant second half from BYU. +35% or better in both the third and fourth quarters. pic.twitter.com/zNvGg7wTYv
— Casey Lundquist (@casey_lundquist) September 13, 2026

Arizona is a really good football team. The Wildcats found themselves just outside the AP poll this week and came in rated as the 24th best team in the country in SP+. And BYU absolutely dominated them in the second half. Success rate is an advanced statistic that measures down-to-down performance. It’s essentially the percentage of “successful plays” you have in a game as a percent of total plays. Teams with a positive net success rate (higher rate than their opponent) win about 75% of the time. Last week, LSU beat Clemson 51-10 with a net success rate of around 30%. In the second half, BYU’s net success rate was around 37%. That is domination. Not busting a big play here and there. Down-to-down, man-to-man, "my team is better than your team" domination. If BYU can find a way to be that for two halves this year consistently, they are going to win the Big 12.

2. We need to reconsider whether FCS games are actually accomplishing what they are designed to do

In an ideal world, FCS games are designed to work out the kinks in your roster early in the season and get your team ready for the meat of your schedule. Playing Utah Tech did not accomplish that goal. How do I know that? Because in the first half, BYU looked like a team that had played its starters 10 plays each last week. BYU was outgained 240-132, trailed in first downs 15-6, was out-possessed by 13 minutes, and was somehow only outscored 17-14. After halftime, though, BYU looked like everything we hoped they would be, outgaining Arizona 233-87, led in first downs 11-4, out-possessed Arizona by 6 minutes, and outscored them 14-0 (which should have been 21-0 but more on that later). There are a million reasons why BYU looked significantly better in the second half, which we will discuss at length, but maybe the biggest reason is that BYU’s starters finally got an opportunity to get meaningful reps against a real opponent for the first time in 10 months.

3. If BYU can start faster, they are going to win by larger margins than last year

TAUSILI IN BEAST MODE.

📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/JEnKvGrjfC
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 12, 2026

No one likes to see BYU start slow, least of all BYU’s pass rushers. Once BYU started to pull away, though, my goodness did that defensive line look nasty. BYU took its first double-digit lead of the game with 6:10 to go. BYU’s next defensive plays went as follows:

Akana Sack for a loss of 7
Akana/Tanuvasa sack for a loss of 7
PBU by Devries (could have been a fumble - oh well)

These weren’t coverage sacks, either. These were instances of Akana making a left tackle fold like a paper football during sacrament meeting. Akana was unbelievable against the Wildcats for the second-straight year. Akana became just the third BYU player in the last 30 years to record at least 2.5 sacks in a game against a Power 4 opponent. A huge part of that is BYU building a lead, which allowed him to do what made him the highest-rated recruit currently on BYU’s roster: get after the passer when the opponent has no choice but to throw. If BYU can just start a little faster, its defense is going to get opposing offenses behind the sticks early and often.

4. Kelly Poppinga is more than a suitable replacement for Jay Hill

BYU’s defense looked bad in the first half. Like 2022 bad. Three-man rush and all. Bad enough that fans started asking around halftime if BYU made a mistake letting Jay Hill walk out the door. But before we rewrite history, BYU started slow defensively plenty of times last year - Colorado, UCF, and Georgia Tech, just to name a few. What made Hill truly special is BYU was never bad on defense two halves in a row during his tenure. After today, I think Poppinga has that same gene. I’m not smart enough to know what changed at halftime, but I know it worked, holding a potent Arizona offense more than 150 yards under its first half total, including allowing -2 yards rushing and 0 points after half. That’ll do, Popp. That’ll do.

5. BYU is gonna be a redzone juggernaut this season

BYU wide receiver Kyler Kasper scores a touchdown against Arizona | BYU Photo

We predicted it before the season started. I’m telling you. BYU is and is going to be awesome in the redzone this year. There are just too many ways for BYU to attack defenses with this offensive roster. BYU is now 12/12 on red zone touchdowns dating back to last week. A huge part of that is Bear Bachmeier’s improvement as a passer, and having a legitimate redzone target in Kyler Kasper. Kasper’s two touchdowns were the first of his career against an FBS opponent with surely many more to come. What’s more, BYU scored its 3 redzone touchdowns on just 5 redzone plays and never faced a third down. It’s not just that they are scoring. They are making it look easy.

6. Bear Bachmeier: THAT THROW

A BIG 61-yard pass puts @BYUfootball knocking on the door! 👀 pic.twitter.com/kyaztZiI2V
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 12, 2026

Bear redeemed last year's passing performance against Arizona in a big, big way. Bachmeier posted the third-most efficient passing performance of his career, and his first hist first game with three passing touchdowns against an FBS opponent. He was honestly better than his stat line, with two key drops stalling drives in the first half. In the second half, he was nails. 8/11, 126 yards, 2 touchdowns, 228.95 efficiency rating, and the best throw of his career. We wrote last week that if Bachmeier’s arm strength increased as much as his deep ball to Reggie Frischknecht suggested, BYU was going to have a new element to this offense. One week later, we have our answer. Bear’s 61-yard bomb traveled 57 yards in the air from release point to catch point, and only appeared underthrown because Legend Glasker is just that fast. Lower completion rate aside, Bachmeier’s 90.6 QBR is indicative of how clutch he was all game, particularly on that throw. Up three, late in the fourth quarter? GUTS.

7. BYU has found its WR1 and WR2

As the tight ends still find their footing in a new offense, two receivers have emerged as the primary targets to replace Parker Kingston and Chase Roberts. Legend Glasker and Kyler Kasper combined for 125 of BYU’s 217 receiving yards Saturday and demonstrated traits that BYU just does not have in receivers very often. When was the last time you saw a BYU wide receiver just run past a P4 corner like this? When was the last time BYU had a 6’6 receiver with Kyler Kasper’s fluidity? The craziest part is, if they stay healthy, this is likely the worst they are going to be in this offense and it’s only week two.

BYU got a DUDE in Legend Glasker pic.twitter.com/5h0rrkve7z
— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) September 12, 2026

8. BYU needs to learn that good people can still score inside the five at the end of games

Whoever said victory formation is the best play in football was not a fan of BYU. For as many times as BYU has been left just outside the CFP/NY6, you would think they would learn that style points do, in fact, matter. Once again, BYU had the ball inside the opponent's redzone with under a minute to go and once again opted to bleed clock in lieu of points. At the end of the day, a win is a win, but 28-17 says BYU took care of business. 35-17 says BYU made a statement AP voters will notice when they run through the box scores tomorrow morning. If BYU is as good as we think, it's not going to matter, but BYU can’t leave points on the board if it ever wants to abandon the “they just find ways to win” reputation that has kept them on the outside looking in.

9. The Big 12 might run through the state of Utah

After watching Texas Tech pull off a late fourth-quarter comeback against 0-1 Oregon State, I think it's fair to say the Big 12 runs through the state of Utah this year. Oklahoma State had a huge win over no. 6 Oregon, but lost to Tulsa last week. Houston and Kansas State have taken care of business, but they haven’t proven it in previous years like BYU and Utah have. Today, BYU beat a top five(?) Big12 team by 10+ points, while Utah hung 40 on an SEC team, albeit a bad one. Until anyone else in the league puts up wins like that without the catastrophic loss, the Holy War might be played twice this year.

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