Saturday's Scrimmage Could be Critical Turning Point in the BYU Quarterback Battle

On Saturday, the BYU football program will host the first full scrimmage of Fall Camp. The scrimmage, which Kalani Sitake noted will likely be the most physical of camp, could be the turning point in the BYU quarterback competition.

Sitake noted that even the starters will go live for a couple drives, creating the most game-like test for the quarterbacks thus far. A game setting is where quarterbacks begin to sink or swim. The quarterbacks will be evaluated on whether they can sustain drives, make critical third-down conversions, command the huddle and operate the offense. Aaron Roderick will be up in the booth calling plays - the coaches will do everything they can to simulate a game environment.

To this point, BYU has been splitting reps between the quarterbacks and giving each quarterback equal opportunity to show what they can do with the first-team offense. Now that BYU is wrapping up the second week of camp, they will need trim the race to two, at minimum, very soon. The Cougars will have just over a week left of camp after the scrimmage before they turn their attention to Portland State.

When will a quarterback begin to separate themselves? The scrimmage on Saturday seems like the most obvious opportunity.

The scrimmage will be the most important data point of the quarterback battle so far. It will be especially important for Bear Bachmeier. McCae Hillstead and Treyson Bourguet have played in scrimmages at BYU before and shown what they can do when the players around them are live. This will be Bachmeier's first opportunity.

Bear Bachmeier showed up at BYU in late May/early June after transferring from Stanford. The true freshman spent the last two months learning the BYU playbook and getting as many reps as possible with his new teammates.

Bachmeier came into this competition with a few critical disadvantages. He is competing with Treyson Bourguet, a fourth-year player who is entering his second season at BYU, and McCae HIllstead. This is Hillstead's third season of college football and his second season at BYU. Both Bourguet and HIllstead got starting experience at their previous schools.

Given those circumstances, we expected Bear to start a few steps behind the other two quarterbacks. While we thought he was talented enough to potentially make up that ground during camp, we expected Hillstead and Bourguet to start out with a lead.

Turns out, Bachmeier isn't as far behind as we expected him to be. On the very first day, Bachmeier looked comfortable and poised. In fact, we thought he had the best day. The disadvantages that he had coming in? His talent was enough to overcome them. While he has had a few moments where he looks like a freshman, the other quarterbacks haven't been perfect either. It begs the question: if a true freshman, with a higher ceiling, is playing at a similar level as two more experienced quarterbacks - that are closer to their full potential - do you roll the dice and go with the freshman?

There would certainly be growing pains, but they might be worth it to find the right quarterback for 2025 and beyond. The scrimmage will be the first time for Bachmeier to show what he can do in a game-like environment.

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