How Good Was Bear Bachmeier in Week 1? Benchmarking the QB Against Big 12 Peers

Second-year BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier kicked off his sophomore campaign against Utah Tech on Saturday. Bachmeier, who is the reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year, is competing to be one of the best quarterbacks in the Big 12.

This article compares Bachmeier to his Big 12 (and national) peers. Yes, there is only one week's worth of data and yes, Bachmeier played one half against an FCS team. These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, multiple Big 12 quarterbacks faced FCS foes in week one, so it's fair to see how Bachmeier fared compared to other quarterbacks in the league.

Yards Per Attempt

Since some Big 12 quarterbacks have attempted a lot more passes than others at this point, we will look at yards per attempt instead of passing yards per game. Bear Bachmeier threw for 9.9 yards per attempt against Utah Tech. That ranks fourth in the Big 12 and 40th nationally. ASU quarterback Cutter Coley leads all quarterbacks in the league, averaging 14.3 yards per attempt.

On-Target Rate & Catchable Rate

Aaron Roderick called Bear Bachmeier as accurate as any quarterback he has coached. Bachmeier's accuracy was on full display against Utah Tech. We are introducing two new metrics: on-target rate and catchable rate, metrics from Sports Info Solutations. On-target rate is the number of times a quarterback's throw hits the receiver in stride (excl. spikes, throwaways, passes batted at the line of scrimmage, etc.).

Catchable rate is the percentage of pass attempts that were deemed catchable, even if the defense prevented a reception. Excluding Bachmeier's throw that was batted at the line of scrimmage, all of his passes were catchable against the Trailblazers. That includes the ball that traveled ~60 yards, intented for Reggie Frischknecht. Frischknecht got tangled up with the defensive back and the pass fell incomplete. Bachmeier was one of only five quarterbacks in college football to have a 100% catchable rate in week one.

Bachmeier was on target on 89.5% of this throws. That was good enough for second in the Big 12 and 14th nationally. Bachmeier is tied for first nationally with a perfect 100% catchable pass rate.

Big 12 quarterback accuracy | BYU On SI | Data Credit: Sports Info Solutions

Explosive Plays

Generating explosive plays is one of the most important metrics in college football, and it all starts with the quarterback. It's hard to sustain 10+ play scoring drives. Most scoring drives consistent of one or more explosive plays. In this chart, we track how often a quarterback generates an explosive play. An explosive play is defined as a run of 10 yards or more and a pass of 15 yards or more.

Bear Bachmeier generated an explosive play on 37.5% of his dropbacks and/or runs which ranked 6th nationally and second in the Big 12.

Big 12 quarterbacks - explosive play rate | BYU On SI | Data Credit: Sports Info Solutions

Accuracy & aDOT

Next, we'll look at quarterback accuracy relative to the average depth of their target. Intuitively, the more a quarterback pushes the ball downfield, the less accurate they will be. Relative to other quarterbacks, Bachmeier didn't push the ball downfield as much. Still, Bachmeier was among the most accurate quarterbacks at his average depth of target.

TD/Turnover Ratio

College football fans are familiar with TD/INT ratio. In this article, we are looking at total touchdowns compared to total turnovers. Bachmeier is tied for first in the league with a ratio of 4:0.

Big 12 quarterbacks total touchdowns to total turnovers | BYU On SI | Data Credit: Sports Info Solutions

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