Gordon Monson: BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier is the real deal, and getting more real.

College football games pretty much fall into five categories: Cat 1 — games you will win; Cat 2 — games you should win; Cat 3 — games you might win; Cat 4 — games you shouldn’t win; Cat 5 — games you won’t win.

When you have a capable quarterback, the first two categories come smoother, quicker and easier, with some reliable measure of comfort. Look here, BYU freshman QB Bear Bachmeier is capable. He’s more than that, he’s legitimate.

BYU’s and Bachmeier’s melded game against visiting West Virginia on Friday night was a solid Cat 2. Not only did they combine to have more talent, more drive, more creativity than the other guys, they were playing in their building in front of their fans and they were favored by upward of three touchdowns. All of that edged this deal toward a Cat 1. Not quite, but darn near.

The numbers that shined off the scoreboard at LaVell’s Place into the late-night Provo sky reiterated the Cat 2 fact: BYU 38, West Virginia 24.

Kalani Sitake was not fully pleased, though, with the way his team performed, nor should he have been. He made that clear immediately afterward, saying he was happy with the win, but, he barked, “We have to keep working.”

“Got the win,” he added later. “Did some really good things. Obviously, I’m frustrated by some of the things we didn’t do well. Winning is hard.”

Victory’s margin, indeed, could have been more substantial had the Cougars not made dumb mistakes. Their two lost fumbles led to two West Virginia touchdowns. There were other goofs, too — an interception chucked up by Bachmeier, his first of the season — and a slew of penalties, 10 in all. None of that threatened to change the game’s outcome, but it sullied what could have been more pristine.

Bachmeier’s play was indicative of that, having tossed the aforementioned pick, and also pitching a ball deep in his own territory that should not have been pitched, it being tipped near the Cougars’ own end zone and recovered by the Mountaineers. “Right now we can’t be patting him on the back,” Sitake said. But there were reasons to do exactly that.

Sitake did concede that he saw “a lot of growth” from Bachmeier. “He’s usually right where you need him to be, never too high, never too low. …This was a good step for him.”

Before we get to BB’s better business, let’s blow through one significant incidental (an oxymoron, I know) on the other side of the ball.

BYU’s defense is good, although two of its best players — Jack Kelly and Isaiah Glasker — were hurt to varying unknown degrees on this night. West Virginia’s offense is not good.

The collision of those two polar truths made Bachmeier’s job a little simpler, although WV’s defense is decent. With the Mountaineers themselves being unsettled for various reasons at quarterback, falling back on a plan to start their own freshman, Khalil Wilkins, their attack misfired too often to make much of a difference. They tried to run the ball, often with Wilkins doing the running. They had to make the attempt because nobody else could advance the durn thing, and they couldn’t pass it, not with any consistency. In total, West Virginia gained 291 yards against BYU’s 516.

BYU had struggled early on to contain fleet-footed Colorado freshman QB Kaidon Salter last week. This time, it yielded 89 rushing yards from Wilkins on a whopping 23 carries and a mere 81 passing yards.

Meantime, more to the subject at hand, it’s official — BYU has itself a quality quarterback. There were hints of that in previous games, but hints they are no more. The 19-year-old Bachmeier, having started five games now and having won every one of them, is the real deal. He can move on the ground (43 yards and a touchdown), he can spin the ball (351 yards and a score). But he can do more than that, he can lead a team.

Not bad for a kid who just a year ago was guiding Murrieta Valley High’s offense against Los Alamitos, Oaks Christian and Newbury Park. Now, he’s beaten in consecutive outings Portland State, Stanford, East Carolina, Colorado and West Virginia.

Yeah, he threw a pick and made a bad pitch, and while Sitake is being careful not to lay it on too thick, too quick with his guy, Bachmeier still hasn’t suffered defeat. He bounced back from his Friday night frights to coolly and calmly lead his teammates in the aftermath. He especially favored Chase Roberts (161 receiving yards) and Parker Kingston (111 yards).

“[Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick] opened up the offense to Bear and let Bear make the plays,” Kingston said. “… It was awesome to see Bear, I mean he threw an interception and the way he handled it was awesome. He said, ‘My bad,’ brushed it to the side and kept slinging it. … He’s a baller.”

Said Roberts: “We’re a dangerous offense that’s hard to prepare for. … Bear’s just a level-headed dude who’s gonna keep playing.”

Let’s go ahead and say it all plain, then, the way it is here: Bachmeier is good, real good, and is likely to get better. He’s ahead of schedule. Considerably ahead of schedule. Just like against the Mountaineers, the fresh-faced frosh hasn’t always gotten the ball to the right place at the right time for the right reason, but he’s been close and consistent enough.

He’s mostly played with purpose, polish and poise. He hasn’t shattered the earth for the Cougars, but he’s not been called on much to even try to do that. His teammates say he’s a different dude, a fun-loving, easy-to-hang-with teenager, mature for his age, smart, with a quick wit, a serene kind of glide — attitudinally, not physically — to his game, a demeanor built for pressurized situations, if and when they ever come. And they will come — in a hurry now.

BYU’s schedule thus far has been the perfect onramp for the young quarterback to get up to speed on and acclimated to FBS football’s freeway. En route, he says he feels fine, fully willing to depend on his defense, his run game (of which, as mentioned, he is a part), his receivers and his offensive line. The Cougars are 5-0, just about what they should be — should have been— in and over that span of Cat 2 games. That’s what they were, what they were bound to be, as long as Bachmeier didn’t mess things up.

He hasn’t.

The stretch ahead is more difficult — Arizona on the road, Utah at home, Iowa State and Texas Tech on the road, with a bye mixed in. Thereafter, there’s TCU at home, Cincinnati on the road, and UCF at home.

Somewhere along that steep path, Bachmeier will be asked to do more than he’s done to date. He’ll climb or slip, win games or lose them. The Cat 3s and 4s are on their way, maybe a couple of Cat 5s. The kid won’t view them like that. He as much as — more than — any other Cougar will be the one who determines what game goes where, in which category, and why.