How BYU QB Bear Bachmeier Stacks Up Against Big 12 Peers After Two Weeks

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier against Stanford | BYU Photo

BYU true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier is slowly getting introduced to college football. Bachmeier kicked off his college career against a bad FCS team in Portland State. Bachmeier got his first start against a P4 team on Saturday against Stanford.

Bachmeier has been doing enough to win games while the BYU defense has stifled opponents. In this article, we will compare Bachmeier's reps to those of his Big 12 peers.

Yards Per Attempt

Since the number of pass attempts varies so widely across the conference, we will look at passing yards through the lens of yards per attempt. Bachmeier threw for 175 yards on 27 attempts for an average of 6.5 yards per attempt. Bachmeier ranks 13th in the Big 12 in yards per attempt this season and in the 45th percentile nationally.

• 11.6 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
• 10.5 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
• 9.9 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
• 8.9 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
• 8.8 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
• 8.5 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
• 8.3 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
• 8.1 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
• 7.9 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
• 7.9 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
• 7.7 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
• 7.7 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
• 7.2 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
• 5.9 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
• 5.6 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
• 5.2 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)

Accuracy & Aggressiveness

Bachmeier currently ranks in the middle of the road in terms of accuracy rate among Big 12 quarterbacks. 76% of his passes have been accurate which is in the 60th percentile nationally. However, 81% of his throws were accurate against Stanford, the highest of any BYU quarterback against a P4 foe in the PFF era (since 2014).

Accuracy rate is typically a function of how aggressive a quarterback is. The more they push the ball down the field, the more inaccurate balls they will throw. Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita has been the outlier through two games (albeit against bad competition), throwing a really high accuracy rate while being one of the most aggressive quarterbacks in the league.

Big 12 quarterbacks | BYU On SI

Sam Leavitt is the biggest surprise on this list. Leavitt had a rough outing against Mississippi State through the air. Leavitt ranks dead last in the league with an accuracy rate of 61% (5th percentile).

First Downs per Dropback

Jake Retzlaff was good in some areas and bad in other areas. The one area where Retzlaff was elite in 2024? Getting first downs with either his arm or his legs. That was the biggest void for BYU to fill with Retzlaff's departure.

Bachmeier hasn't replaced the Retzlaff level of production, but he has been above average nationally at racking up first downs both through the air and on the ground. Bachmeier is in the 61st percentile nationally in first downs accounted for per dropback.

• .46 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
• .44 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
• .43 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
• .39 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
• .37 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
• .36 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
• .35 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
• .34 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
• .33 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
• .33 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
• .33 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
• .33 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
• .32 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
• .31 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
• .25 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
• .24 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)
  
  

NFL QB Rating

The NFL QB rating is "a statistic that measures a quarterback's overall passing performance based on completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown percentage, and interception percentage." Bear Bachmeier has a QB rating of 117.9 through two games. That is 71st percentile in college football and ninth in the Big 12.

• 144.9 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
• 144.4 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
• 134.5 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
• 127.1 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
• 118.5 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
• 117.4 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
• 114.3 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
• 114.2 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
• 110.9 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
• 104.4 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
• 104.1 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
• 99.2 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
• 93.5 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
• 91.2 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
• 67.6 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
• 45.1 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)
  

Offense Grades

PFF grades are a decent way to split out the impact a quarterback had on a game versus the pure statistical output. PFF attempts to strip out the noise and grades a quarterback on how they performed relative to the situations that they were put in. Were they making the right reads? How did they perform under pressure? Were they throwing receivers open or throwing to wide open receivers? All those things go into PFF grades. Bachmeier is in the middle of the pack in terms of overall offensive PFF grades and he ranks in the 60th percentile nationally.

• 87.8 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
• 86.9 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
• 85.6 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
• 84.9 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
• 84.4 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
• 81.2 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
• 79.2 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
• 76.4 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
• 73.8 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
• 73.6 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
• 73.1 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
• 69.2 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
• 65.8 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
• 62.1 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
• 56.7 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)
• 56.2 - Conner Weigman (Houston)