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Rich Rod on BYU QB Bear Bachmeier: 'Hand Him the Heisman'

Casey Lundquist|
BYU QB Bear Bachmeier against WVU
BYU QB Bear Bachmeier against WVU | BYU Photo

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BYU Cougars

On Friday night, no. 23 BYU cruised to a 38-24 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers that was more convincing than the final score might indicate. A late fumble deep in BYU territory setup WVU for a late touchdown and a garbage-time touchdown allowed the Mountaineers to cover the spread.

It was BYU true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier that stole the show on Friday night. Bachmeier put up a career high 351 passing yards on 18/25 from the field. Bachmeier averaged just over 14 yards per attempt while completing 72% of his passes. He also added 43 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

After the game, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez was very complementary of the true freshman signal-caller. In fact, he quipped that it might be time to put Bachmeier in the Heisman conversation.

"We made him look like the Heisman winner in the first half. Hand him the Heisman. And he's a good player. Tough, runs, [he's] everything we thought. His accuracy on his deep balls was great. Their guys made some nice plays and we didn't, but I thought he was outstanding."

Bachmeier and the BYU offense moved the ball seemingly at will all night long. BYU punter Sam Vander Haar had as many attempts (1) as punts (1). Perhaps most impressively, Bachmeier responded exceptionally well after committing his first turnovers in a BYU uniform.

Bachmeier threw his first interception of the season early in the second quarter. WVU linebacker Chase Wilson stepped in front of a screen pass and gave the ball back to the WVU offense. Bachmeier's very next throw was an 85-yard completion to Chase Roberts. Bachmeier threw a laser to Chase Roberts that allowed Roberts to maintain his stride. Roberts did the rest, outrunning the WVU defense all the way inside the WVU five.

It was perhaps Bachmeier's best throw of his BYU career up to that point.

Then just before halftime, Bachmeier had another turnover deep in BYU territory. Bachmeier's speed option pitch was tipped and WVU recovered, setting up an easy touchdown. And how did Bachmeier respond? By throwing an even better ball than the one to Chase Roberts earlier. Bachmeier threw a perfectly-placed deep ball to Parker Kingston for a long completion. That setup BYU to score another touchdown before halftime. Bachmeier finished the first half with 249 passing yards.

While Bachmeier won't actually be in the Heisman conversation anytime soon, his improvement from week-to-week has been remarkable. Every week, Bachmeier takes another step forward. He has quickly gone from a quarterback that won't lose the game, to a quarterback that can go out and win you a game. And he's just getting started.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.

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