BYU lands a pair of former California high school football stars

Tiger and Bear Bachmeier will get the chance to play together in Provo this season

Nov 16, 2024; Stanford, California, USA; Stanford Cardinal wide receiver Tiger Bachmeier (24) turns the corner during the second quarter against the Louisville Cardinals at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images / Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

The Brigham Young football program just got a whole lot stronger. With the Stanford Cardinal firing former head coach, Troy Taylor, at the start of last month, a mass exodus ensued that saw a handful of key contributors from the 2024 team depart.

As reported by ESPN last week, among those that departed were a pair of brothers that were destined for big things in 2025-- Tiger and Bear Bachmeier, who each starred at Murrieta Valley High School.

Bear, a former four-star recruit, enrolled at Stanford ahead of spring practices, but with a deep quarterback room and uncertainty regarding the long term direction of the program, he opted to enter the transfer portal right as the spring window opened and decided to join BYU. While Bear is expected to be the backup to incumbent starter, Jake Retzlaff in 2025, the expectation is that he will compete for the starting job in 2026 once Retzlaff is out of eligibility.

As for Tiger, he departs after two seasons on the Cardinal. While he put together a strong freshman campaign, catching 36 passes for 409 yards and two touchdowns, he took a considerable step back in 2024, catching only 10 passes for 67 yards. On the Cougars, he is expected to have a big role right out of the gate at wide receiver. Also graduating in only 2.5 years with a degree in computer science, Tiger will enroll in a graduate program at BYU with two seasons left of eligibility as a player.

A star at Murrieta Valley under head coach, George Wilson, Bear's talent is undeniably elite. Totaling over 6,400 passing yards with 56 touchdown passes and 30 rushing touchdowns, Bear's breakout prep season came as a sophomore, where he passed for 2,853 yards, 26 touchdowns and four interceptions, also contributing 644 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns. In his final high school season, despite only playing in six games, he passed for 1,260 yards, 12 touchdowns and two interceptions while rushing for 439 yards and eight scores.

His strong high school career earned him a plethora of accolades, including being named a First Team All-Big West Upper selection from 2022-2024, an All-Inland Empire honoree from 2022-2024 and was an all-CIF-SS selection in 2022 and 2023.

As for Tiger, his high school career was also very successful. In four seasons at Murrieta Valley, he finished with 238 catches for 3,958 yards and 40 touchdowns with his best season being his senior campaign. That season, he caught 97 passes for 1,525 yards and 15 touchdowns, ending the year as the top ranked receiver in California and the 10th best in the nation. He also was one of the best return specialists around as well, ending his high school career with six career kickoff return touchdowns.

Holding three-top 20 records at his school in career yards, receptions and touchdowns, Bachmeier's prep career was filled with accolades including being named the Murrieta Valley Special Teams MVP, earning All-League honors, the Cal-Hi All-State Team, All-state honors, All-Trinity League honors, and being a four-time All-CIF award winner among others.

With a fresh start, the Bachmeier brothers will look to really make a name for themselves in college football while guiding the Cougars to glory. Finishing 11-2 and beating Colorado in the Alamo Bowl in head coach Kalani Sitake's ninth season, 2025 will be all about building off of that in order to be one of the 12 teams to make the College Football Playoff.