College GameDay Podcast Says 'Keep an Eye' on BYU Football

In just over one week, Kansas State and Iowa State will kickoff Big 12 play with a "neutral" site game in Dublin, Ireland. With the college football season just around the corner, the College GameDay podcast previewed the upcoming Big 12 season. In the podcast, ESPN's Dan Wetzel and Rece Davis said BYU is a team to "keep an eye on."

"BYU took Colorado apart in the bowl game last year," Davis said. "[They] looked to have a lot going its way, and then the whole Jake Retzlaff thing leaves them with complete uncertainty at quarterback."

On what he makes of BYU this year, Wetzel said "I think the only reason [BYU] wouldn't be in the first couple of teams as a true title contender in the league: we don't know [the quarterback situation]...[the] program is rock solid. You know they're going to play defense. You know they're going to be physical. You know they're going to be really tough to play in Provo. Absolutely everything that is there, it's really just quarterback. It's just I don't know what to say. I don't know how to predict them, and I don't know that anyone else really does at this point, but keep an eye on them because it's not like 10 wins are out of the question at all."

Wetzel also believes BYU should have been considered more for the playoff in 2024.

"This is a team at the end of the year, you know, they kind of had this argument to make a playoff. It wasn't probably ever going to be a winning argument, but I didn't think they actually were in the discussion enough that they deserved that final playoff spot that ended up kind of getting taken away...This was a great team at the end of the year and had an argument for a playoff."

Naturally, every analyst will be hesitant about BYU until they have a chance to answer the quarterback question. The Cougars went from a consensus preseason top 25 team to being outside the top 25 when Jake Retzlaff left for Tulane. If Bear Bachmeier becomes the starter for BYU and shows well in September, all of the voters that downgraded BYU for losing Retzlaff would join the BYU bandwagon once again. Even though BYU doesn't have a chance to beat a notable opponent in the non-conference schedule, solid quarterback play would propel BYU back into the top 25.

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier in Fall Camp | BYU Photo

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