Gordon MonsonWith so many people looking ahead a week to what will happen on the day BYU faces Notre Dame at LaVell Edwards Stadium, as significant as that game is, focusing instead on what happened in that building on Friday night against Iowa State was of equal importance. Or, OK, let’s get real … just slightly less.
Here’s why: This game was an indicator not just of how the Cougars matched up against the Cyclones; rather, it was evidence of how they matched up — will match up — against the world, at least for the next month or two, without …
You Know Who.
Everyone saw how that went six days ago against TCU. Ugly. Sloppy. Gross. Good for the win, bad for the football soul.
BYU’s offense playing without the injured LJ Martin is like an Indy car running with blown turbochargers. He is that attack’s most important engine part.
Was.
What the Cougars showed in his absence on attack was … what’s this? … fantastic? … lousy? … impressive? … inconsistent? … troubling? … terrific?
It was all of the above.
The positive components came mostly from Bear Bachmeier — on the ground and through the air, enabling BYU to go ahead and win, 24-10. He threw for 329 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 109 yards, averaging 12 yards a pop.
“Bear’s a good player,” Kalani Sitake said afterward, earning the trophy for the understatement of the night. He added more truth: “He ran the ball quite a bit today, took some shots, but he’s a tough kid. I don’t know if we want to keep depending on him to get yards for us. We’ve got to see the other guys — Preston [Rex], Journee [Tonga] and Devaughn [Eka] — grow up real quick here. … Overall, I felt like we were ready for this game. It’s not disappointing because we got the win, but I think we can play better. I know we can play better.”
BYU, in the immediate future, will have to play better.
But, fitting for the game’s theme, as sweet as victory was for Sitake, that margin might have been three times greater had the Cougars not made boneheaded mistakes and boneheaded decisions. Among them were three failed fourth-down attempts, including two from inside the Iowa State 5-yard line; one of them on fourth-and-1 at the Cyclone 2 when a pass attempt failed. Why a pass? Said plainly, Bachmeier could have picked up that first down in his sleep using his legs. Later, a muffed punt set up Iowa State’s only touchdown.
Moreover, without Martin, the Cougars will have to find another back who can haul the rock. A back other than their quarterback. Bachmeier can carry the load, can work his wonders, but, as Sitake suggested, at what cost? How many hits can the QB take? How effective can he be against the best teams BYU has coming up, including Notre Dame at home and Utah on the road?
One of the tired mantras of modern college football, applied especially when an irreplaceable player is unavailable, comes in three weary and worn-out words: next man up. The problem with that saying is that the next man up is never as good as the one who is down. And optimistically pretending it to be otherwise is usually foolish, a fantasy, if not an outright lie.
So it was that Preston Rex, Journee Tonga and Devaughn Eka are not Martin. They tried to be, alternating carries against Iowa State, but … no, sorry. The three of them combined gained half the yards Bachmeier got by himself.
“Those guys are all capable runners,” Sitake insisted, acknowledging that the run game, other than Bachmeier, definitely needs a boost.
What that left the Cougars with on Friday night was diminished production — 54 yards combined — from those three running backs and profound dependence on the quarterback. It worked out. All through the summer and fall, Bachmeier had been proclaimed to be an enhanced model of what he was last season. That was on display here. The sophomore QB was fully acclimated to the offense, sophisticated, too, running when he had to, passing when that was the better option.
All told, BYU soared for 506 total yards, Bachmeier accounting for 438 of them. He hit seven different receivers; foremost among those targets was freshman Legend Glasker, who caught five passes for 99 yards and a 75-yard TD. Tight ends Walker Lyons and Roger Saleapaga were useful, as well, with seven catches and 133 yards between them.
“It’s nice that Bear’s growing up so quickly,” Sitake said. “… I feel like I’m coaching a big-time vet now. It’s nice to see his demeanor and his leadership come through.”
Said Bachmeier: “It felt good, just playing the game you love with the guys you love.”
That was the offense.
The Cougars’ defense was lights out. It held the Cyclones to 200 yards, a mere 98 via the pass, and, as mentioned, the only touchdown it surrendered came after a fumbled punt. That resistance kept Iowa State’s talented runner Aiden Flora caged, holding him to 86 yards.
“We can do really good things when the defense plays at that level,” Sitake said.
What and where all that left BYU was imperfect but undefeated at 5-0, ranked eighth in the polls and fully licensed now to look forward to a game against the third-ranked Irish. That contest is everything BYU football has ever hoped and longed for — a prime-time game of national significance played on national television on its home field. Somewhere, sitting in the bleachers up there, out there in the great beyond, LaVell Edwards, whose long-ago team beat Notre Dame in South Bend, is grinning.
If Notre Dame was watching on this occasion, and the Irish most certainly were, they know what they’ll face in Provo — a crowd out of its mind, a defense worth respecting, and a quarterback who puts — has to put — the oomph in his O. More than just that, Bachmeier seems to have become refined enough now to send the ball where it needs to go, by way of the right read to the right receiver at the right time and for the right reason.
Iowa State isn’t Notre Dame, but the Cyclones are kind of OK. Not bad. And alongside his team’s defense, Bachmeier worked them over.
“I trust Bear,” Sitake said. “… [He’s] going to be the guy who’s going to be the key to all of it.”
So, he is.
That was the major part of the story here — a BYU QB who could be counted on to repair and rev up the Cougars’ blown turbochargers. Maybe that next-man-up thing doesn’t have to be linear, running back for running back. Maybe up is down, down is up, and BYU has a quarterback who can match up against the world.
