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How BYU QB Bear Bachmeier Stacks Up Against Big 12 Peers After Three Starts

Originally posted on BYU Cougars on SI
By Casey Lundquist | Last updated Sep 22, 2025 9:30 AM ET

BYU true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier is growing up before our eyes. After an up-and-down first quarter against ECU, Bachmeier settled in and found a rhythm against an ECU defense that was designed to make him beat them. And Bachmeier did just that.

Bachmeier appears to be on the verge of going from doing enough to win games to being a weapon for BYU. There will still be growing pains and his progress won't always be linear, but he is clearly heading in right direction. In this article, we will compare Bachmeier's stats to those of his Big 12 peers after his first career starts.

Yards Per Attempt

Since the number of pass attempts varies so widely across the conference, we will look at passing yards through the lens of yards per attempt. Bachmeier threw for 246 yards on 25 attempts for an average of 9.8 yards per attempt. Bachmeier ranks eight in the Big 12 in yards per attempt this season and in the 60th percentile nationally. Bachmeier is climbing the rankings in this metric. He ranked 13 out of 16 Big 12 quarterbacks before the ECU game.

10.5 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
10.3 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
9.7 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
9.2 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
9. - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
8.6 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
8.3 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
8.1 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
8.0 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
7.8 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
7.6 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
7.2 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
6.6 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
6.3 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
6.3 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
5.2 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)

Accuracy & Aggressiveness

Bachmeier currently ranks in the middle of the road in terms of accuracy rate among Big 12 quarterbacks. 73% of his passes have been accurate which is in the 46th percentile nationally.

However, accuracy rate is typically a function of how aggressive a quarterback is. The more they push the ball down the field, the more inaccurate balls they will throw. While the data is still a little skewed given the limited sample size and the varying levels of competition, Bachmeier's accuracy rating appears to be impacted by his average depth of target.

Bachmeier is one of five Big 12 quarterbacks with an average depth of target exceeding 10 yards.

Sam Leavitt and Sawyer Robertson are the biggest surprises on this list. Leavitt and Robertson are in the 17th percentile, and 20th percentile, respectively in accuracy and the average depth of their targets is low. In other words, they should be way more accurate than they have been this season. Both ASU and Baylor will underperform preseason expectations unless those two quarterbacks improve.

First Downs per Dropback

Jake Retzlaff was good in some areas and bad in other areas. The one area where Retzlaff was elite in 2024? Getting first downs with either his arm or his legs. That was the biggest void for BYU to fill with Retzlaff's departure.

Bachmeier hasn't replaced the Retzlaff level of production in this regard, but he has been above average nationally at racking up first downs both through the air and on the ground. Bachmeier is in the 64th percentile nationally in first downs accounted for per dropback.

.49 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
.41 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
.41 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
.40 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
.38 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
.35 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
.35 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
.34 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
.33 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
.32 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
.31 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
.31 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
.3 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
.28 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
.27 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
.27 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)

Turnover-Worthy Plays

One area where Bachmeier has been great is taking care of the football. Traditionally, that's an area where true freshmen struggle, but that hasn't been the case for Bachmeier. Bachmeier hasn't thrown any interceptions through three games and PFF considered only one of his throws as "turnover worthy."

Bachmeier ranks fourth in the Big 12 in turnover-worthy play rate and in the 87th percentile nationally. If Bachmeier continues to take care of the football in conference play, BYU will be in every game.

0.0% - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
0.9% - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
1.3% - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
1.4% - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
1.8% - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
2.2% - Devon Dampier (Utah)
2.3% - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
2.6% - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
2.7% - Josh Hoover (TCU)
3.2% - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
3.5% - Conner Weigman (Houston)
3.7% - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
3.7% - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
4.2% - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
4.3% - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)
7.5% - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)

Average Time to Throw

If you have watched Bear Bachmeier and thought that he looks decisive, your eyes are not deceiving you. Bachmeier has the fastest time to throw (ATT) in the Big 12 and he is in the 98th percentile nationally. ATT can be driven by play design, but that doesn't appear to be the case for Bachmeier since he ranks in the the top five of Big 12 in depth of target. Bachmeier is processing quickly.

2.29 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
2.47 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
2.49 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
2.57 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
2.58 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
2.60 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
2.63 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
2.66 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)
2.67 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
2.67 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
2.75 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
2.81 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
2.96 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
3.09 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
3.24 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
3.46 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)

NFL QB Rating

The NFL QB rating is "a statistic that measures a quarterback's overall passing performance based on completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown percentage, and interception percentage." Bear Bachmeier has a QB rating of 111.4 through two games. That is 77th percentile in college football and seventh in the Big 12.

136.4 - Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati)
126.9 - Behren Morton (Texas Tech)
126.7 - Josh Hoover (TCU)
123.2 - Jalon Daniels (Kansas)
113.5 - Noah Fifita (Arizona)
112.5 - Tayven Jackson (UCF)
111.4 - Bear Bachmeier (BYU)
111.3 - Rocco Becht (Iowa State)
108.9 - Kaidon Salter (Colorado)
107.1 - Conner Weigman (Houston)
103.7 - Sawyer Robertston (Baylor)
99.0 - Devon Dampier (Utah)
92.3 - Avery Johnson (Kansas State)
86.6 - Nicco Marchiol (WVU)
85.0 - Sam Leavitt (ASU)
60.2 - Zane Flores (Oklahoma State)

Offense Grades

PFF grades are a decent (although imperfect) way to split out the impact a quarterback had on a game versus the pure statistical output. PFF attempts to strip out the noise and grades a quarterback on how they performed relative to the situations that they were put in. Were they making the right reads? How did they perform under pressure? Were they throwing receivers open or throwing to wide open receivers? All those things go into PFF grades. Bachmeier ranks fifth in the Big 12 in overall offensive PFF grades and he ranks in the 79th percentile nationally.