Three Goals for BYU Football During the Bye Week

BYU wide receiver Chase Roberts against Stanford | BYU Photo

The BYU football program gets the weekend off as they prepare to take on East Carolina next week. BYU-East Carolina will be the first road test of the 2025 season for the Cougars. Here are three goals for BYU during the bye week.

1. Get Bear Bachmeier More Comfortable in the Passing Game

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier has been taking baby steps in his first two starts - and that's by design. Getting Bear Bachmeier more comfortable in the passing game is by far the most important goal of the bye week.

BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick knows that BYU will need to be more aggressive on offense to win games against better opponents.

"We've been fairly efficient so far [in the passing game]," Roderick said on Coordinator's Corner. "We just, we haven't really unleashed it yet and we haven't needed to be as aggressive as we'll have to be in some other games. So obviously the first game we didn't need it at all. The second game here we were in control, so we wanted to be super smart, and as we as we progress it's going to open up more and more...you get in conference play, you're not going to win just being conservative all the time. So it's a work in progress. Bear is a work in progress and our offense is as well."

Roderick modeled the plan for Bachmeier after the one used to develop Jake Retzlaff.

"Well, if you think about last season, we did almost the same thing with Jake. Early in the year, we played it pretty conservative, pretty safe, and then as he got more experience and he started to play well, we opened it up a little more."

Bachmeier and the BYU offense will look to take a big step forward after the bye week. Bachmeier had only only two weeks of full-time reps with the first-team offense once he was named the starting quarterback. He will have increased his time with the first-team offense by 50% by the time BYU takes the field against ECU. As star wide receiver Chase Roberts noted in the postgame press conference, developing a passing attack takes time.

2. Get a Few Players Back From Injuries

The number of critical injuries are beginning to stack up a bit. BYU went into the season without Justin Kirkland and Jonathan Kabeya

Against Stanford, BYU was without linebacker Choe Bryant-Strother and wide receiver Jojo Phillips left the game with an injury - that injury will keep him out at least the next few weeks.

Speaking of injuries at wide receiver, BYU wide receivers Reggie Frischknecht and Tei Nacua were banged up prior to the season opener. Now that Phillips is out, BYU could really use more depth at that spot. Frishknecht was dressed for the first time against Stanford, but he did not play.

3. Find the New Pecking Order at Wide Receiver

The wide receivers struggled against Stanford with four drops and two that potentially cost points. BYU went into the season with a top three of Chase Roberts, Parker Kingston, and Jojo Phillips. The bye week is a good opportunity to potentially reset the pecking order at wide receiver.

Chase Roberts will still be the go-to wide receiver, but it's the order after Roberts that is up for debate.

There's a real argument for Cody Hagen to slide into the number two spot behind Chase Roberts. Hagen has the speed to be the best deep threat on the roster, and he runs good routes to become a go-to possession wide receiver as well.

In a season where BYU's starting quarterback lacks reps with the first-team wide receivers, Tiger Bachmeier could be an obvious choice to slide into the core rotation. Where Bachmeier lacks in experience in the BYU offense, he makes up for in reps with his younger brother.

Parker Kingston missed a big chunk of Fall Camp and that could be impacting his slow start to the season. Kingston had a drop against Stanford and he has two fumbles in as many games. Kingston will still need to play a big role for BYU this season, so this is a critical bye week for him.

Reggie Frischknecht was turning heads in camp when he suffered an injury. The extra week off could allow Frischknecht to crack the core rotation.