Where BYU Can Improve the Most Heading Into Conference Play

BYU defense against East Carolina | BYU Photo

BYU is set to kickoff the conference slate on Saturday against Colorado. The Cougars are 3-0 and have won every game by at least three scores. Still, there are areas where the Cougars can improve if they hope to compete for a Big 12 championship game. In this article, we'll outline the three areas where BYU can improve the most.

1. Redzone offense

BYU has moved the ball this season, even with a true freshman in his first career starts. The Cougars rank 12th nationally in Eckel Rate, also known as quality drive rate. Quality drive rate is defined as how frequently an offense generates a big-play touchdown or a first down inside the opposing 40 on any given drive.

The problem for BYU has been redzone offense. BYU has had 16 redzone opportunities in 2025. While BYU has scored on 15 of those opportunties, they have had to settle for too many field goals.

One of the most important data points in college football is redzone touchdown rate. Redzone touchdown rate is pretty explanatory: how often does a team score a touchdown when they are in the redzone?

In 2025, BYU ranks 96th nationally in redzone touchdown rate. That will not be enough to beat good teams. That is by far the most pressing issue for BYU to correct in conference play.

2. Pass rush from the defensive ends

After years of trying to improve the pass rush, BYU's pass rush has looked much improved in 2025. BYU generated two sacks against ECU and the Pirates had only surrendered one sack in their three previous games.

So what's the issue? BYU hasn't been able to generate many pressures from the defensive ends. The two sacks came from BYU linebacker Jack Kelly, and the Cougars have mostly needed to blitz to pressure the quarterback.

Against ECU, BYU blitzed on 36% of Katin Houser's dropbacks. While BYU was mostly successful when blitzing, getting pressure on 50% of blitzes, they struggled to get home when they weren't blitzing. BYU generated pressures on just 10% of non-blitz snaps

The BYU defensive ends have accounted for zero sacks this season. The three defensive ends with the most snaps (Viliami Po'uha, Logan Lutuiu, and Hunter Clegg) have combined for eight pressures on 118 pass rush snaps (7%).

For context, other Big 12 teams with great defensive ends are generating pressures without blitzing. Texas Tech's defensive ends and Utah's defensive ends are generating pressures on 21% and 13% of pass rush snaps, respectively.

If BYU's defense is going to reach its full potential, it needs more pass-rushing production from the defensive ends. Getting to the quarterback without blitzing would take this BYU defense to new heights.

3. Unleash the Bear

BYU true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier found his groove against East Carolina on Saturday night. After a shaky first quarter, Bachmeier found a rhythm and never looked back.

In the last three quarters of the game, Bachmeier was 15/19 for 209 yards and 1 touchdown. He also had a 16-yard rushing touchdown to extend BYU's lead to 21 in the fourth game. That score put the game out of reach.

Midway through the third quarter, Bachmeier completed seven consecutive passes and the first six completions went for 10 yards or more.

Over a 9:53 span of game time, Bachmeier was 7/7 for 107 yards and a touchdown. BYU scored 21 points during that time frame.

If BYU is going to be a legitimate Big 12 title contender, they need to continue to give more and more of the playbook to Bear Bachmeier. Bachmeier is making strides - and BYU's offensive staff deserves a ton of credit for the way they have handled Bachmeier so far - and it's critical that he continues to make progress before BYU's most difficult stretch that starts in October.

If Bachmeier plays like he did against ECU, BYU's offense will be balanced and difficult to stop. The progress of the BYU offense is the top storyline heading into conference play.