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BYU freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier (47) laughs with a teammate in practice during fall camp in the summer of 2025.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier (white shirt) sits in a meeting before fall camp on Tuesday, July 29, 2025.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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BYU freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier throws a pass during practice on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025.

Aaron Cornia, BYU Photo

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At some point shortly after Saturday’s 6 p.m. MT kickoff at LaVell Edwards Stadium, freshman Bear Bachmeier will take his first official snap as BYU’s starting quarterback.

Since offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick announced Bachmeier as the starter on Aug. 19, the talented freshmen’s name has been on the lips of every Cougar fan and media outlet. He’s the first freshman to ever start an opening game at quarterback for BYU in its long history.

Other players will be taking their first college reps in a Cougar jersey as well — transfers, freshmen, returned missionaries and backups who’ve never had a chance to get on the field, even Bear’s older brother, Tiger, a wide receiver — but it’s Bear Bachmeier that will demand the most attention on Saturday.

The pressure of that position comes with the territory in college football, but there’s a special history of BYU quarterbacks. Until now, no former Cougar signal caller has ever taken the route that the Settlers of Katan fan and “Wagon Wheel” guitar-playing phenom navigated to end up in Provo.

A four-star recruit out of Murrieta Valley High School in California, Bachmeier decided to follow his brother to Stanford. He participated in spring football for the Cardinal but opted to transfer to BYU along with Tiger.

In the limited time between the end of spring football and roughly three weeks into fall camp, Bear Bachmeier learned the Cougar offense and won the starting quarterback job. With the aid of quarterback assistant Matt Mitchell, Bachmeier memorized the playbook so well that Roderick declared he could call any play previous signal callers had handled.

Long before he’s played a down in college, everyone wants to know, “Who is Bear Bachmeier?”

His high school coach at Murrieta Valley in California, George Wilson, knows.

“He was a national recruit who could have gone anywhere in the country,” Wilson told ESPN the Fan earlier this week. “From the start, he looked like a guy who could come in and play right away. Early on, when (college) coaches came to practice, they’d see his physique and then watch the ball explode out of his hand. That got their attention right away. Later, his high school film was unbelievable, which made him an easy offer for just about everyone.”

Wilson described the kind of quarterback he was fortunate enough to coach.

“From a throwing perspective, he’s got an extremely strong arm and freakish accuracy,” Wilson said. “He’s over 200 pounds, he’s athletic and that combination made him stand out. He’ll be unusually poised for a freshman. By the time it was his turn to perform in front of coaches or at camps, it was all business as usual. He’s been on the sidelines for a lot of big games already, and that experience will serve him well.”

Former BYU standout John Beck, who trains quarterbacks for QB3D, has worked extensively with Bear Bachmeier.

He knows.

“Whenever you have a freshman who gets the starting job out of the gates, he must have been doing a lot of really good things,” Beck said on ESPN The Zone. “You don’t just hand somebody the reins if he didn’t earn it, especially as a freshman.”

Beck was also impressed with how quickly Bachmeier learned the BYU playbook.

“Any playbook requires hours of study,” Beck said. “You can’t just absorb it by being in meetings. It’s hours outside of practice on your own time and outside of position meetings. It’s one thing to get up to speed. It’s another thing to know it and execute it at a high level. The most impressive thing is for him to absorb the playbook and execute on the field so the coaching say, ‘You are our best chance to go out and win football games.'”

Beck himself started several games as a freshman at BYU, but not Game 1.

“It’s so unique that Bear’s first snap ever has a BYU quarterback, his first offensive play will be in LaVell Edwards Stadium as the starting quarterback,” Beck said. “That’s a bit crazy.”

Bachmeier gave credit to Beck as well.

“He’s such great resource to utilize,” Bachmeier said. “I started working with him in seventh grade. I don’t want to nerd out but we get into the weeds of biomechanics and we riff on my kinematic sequence. I just called him last week about his process going into game day, what it is from Sunday to Friday night.”

You know who else knows Bear Bachmeier?

His older brother, Hank, who played quarterback collegiately at Boise State, Louisiana Tech and Wake Forest.

“I think about my own experiences, about my successes and failures and adversities,” Hank Bachmeier told KSL Sports this week. “But it’s his own journey. I’m just his big brother. I can give him advice but we’re different players. He’s a more athletic and talented player. There will be growing pains but I think the sky is the limit. I’ve seen him since he was three years old. He could throw the ball. He had a whiffle ball and bat and was hitting all the time. He could dribble between his legs.

“I tried to bestow on him that in this NIL landscape, you are a professional. I had a lot of fun playing football, but at the same time when I stepped on the field I tried to be as prepared as I could.”

Bear Bachmeier and the Cougars are facing an FCS team, Portland State, in the 2025 opener on Saturday. How will he do in his first college game? Will he live up to the incredible hype? Will he struggle with nerves?

We’re about to find out.

“The expectation is to win a championship,” Bachmeier said. “I think the individual expectation is we want to complete the ball, we want to put the ball in our playmakers hands and we want to go score touchdowns. But the end goal is to win a championship.”