Where the BYU Quarterback Competition Stands Going Into Final Week of Fall Camp

After a day off on Wednesday, Bachmeier was back in action on Thursday. According to the highlights provided by BYU, Bachmeier got a lot of reps with the first-team offense and he made some highlight throws as well.

In the last week, Bachmeier has started to separate himself from the rest of the room. His upside is obvious. Should he be named the starter officially, there will be growing pains. He has only been on BYU's campus for a couple months after all. How long the growing pains remains to be seen.

McCae Hillstead Hasn't Played Poorly

If Bear Bachmeier wins the job, he will have earned it. McCae Hillstead has not played poorly during camp. Hillstead has been accurate, he has mostly taken care of the football, and he led a succesful touchdown drive with the first-team offense.

The biggest knock on Hillstead has been the lack of explosive plays, at least in the limited media availability. In Fall Camp 2024 and Spring Camp 2025 - when Hillstead was not in the running for the starting job - he was a big-play machine. Seemingly anytime he was given reps, he would come up with a big play through the air or on the ground.

That hasn't been the case this camp. Hillstead has been conservative with the football, throwing it away on a few occasions when he might have been able to push the ball downfield.

The other knock on Hillstead, from the beginning, has been his size. Hillstead was able to overcome his height disadvantage at Utah State, but it remained to be seen if he could overcome it against P4 competition. Hillstead had multiple balls batted down at the line of scrimmage during camp which highlighted his size.

Hillstead may not win the job, but he has shown enough to believe that he could help BYU win games if his name is called.

When Will a Starter Be Named?

Last season, the BYU football program didn't announce the starting quarterback until minutes before the season opener against Southern Illinois. BYU named Jake Retzlaff the start internally at the end of Fall Camp, but they didn't announce it publicly until the season opener.

History suggests BYU will name a starter next week as they wrap up camp. That starter will be given all the first-team reps in preparation for the Portland State game. Based on the comments from Aaron Roderick, it sounds like an official announcement will come sooner than it did in 2024.

"We haven't set a deadline, but the sooner the better, and once it's clear, we'll we'll make a move and as soon as it's clear to us who it is, we'll make that statement."

Prediction

Unless the scrimmage completely flips the momentum in this quarterback battle, this looks like Bear Bachmeier's job to lose at this point. Bachmeier came into the competition with the most upside, and he has started to realize that upside much earlier than anticipated.

We predict Bear Bachmeier to lead the BYU offense against Portland State later this month.