Bear Bachmeier Reshapes Future of the QB Position at BYU
On Saturday, BYU added Stanford quarterback transfer Bear Bachmeier. Bachmeier signed with Stanford a few months ago. When Stanford head coach Troy Taylor was fired in March, Bachmeier opted to enter the transfer portal. He will be a true freshman in 2025.
The addition of Bachmeier reshapes the future of the quarterback position at BYU. With the caveat, of course, that the transfer portal makes future roster planning more difficult than ever before. However, it appears that by adding Bear Bachmeier, BYU has mitigated some future risk at the quarterback position. Allow us to explain.
There is risk associated with relying on the December transfer window, especially at quarterback. It’s impossible to know which players will be available and what their eligibilty will look like. Even if you find a starting-caliber quarterback, there are unknowns in terms of fit within BYU’s scheme and fit within the locker room. What BYU needs to avoid, in the opinion of this author, is one-year solutions at quarterback. That is a slippery slope to mediocre offense in the long run.
Ideally, BYU would like to have players in the system for at least a year. That allows the players to get comfortable in the offense and it allows BYU to evaluate whether that quarterback is truly capable of starting in Aaron Roderick’s offense.
Before Saturday’s news, the Cougars had just three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster: Jake Retzlaff, McCae Hillstead, and Treyson Bourguet. With Jake Retzlaff entering his senior season in 2025, the future of the quarterback position appeared to be either McCae Hillstead/Treyson Bourguet or a transfer quarterback that BYU could add after the 2025 season.
Even if BYU felt good about either Hillstead or Bourguet in 2026, they would have needed a transfer quarterback from purely a numbers perspective.
Now, BYU has more options at its disposal and more clarity in the future. McCae Hillstead, Treyson Bourguet, and Bear Bachmeier will compete against each other for the backup quarterback job in 2025. They will also be proving to Aaron Roderick that one of them can become the starter in 2026.
Hillstead and Bourguet will have the advantage in Fall camp with more knowledge of the playbook, but Bachmeier will be given the chance to push for that spot throughout the season. Don’t be surprised if that battle extends into the season. As long as Retzlaff stays healthy, BYU can let that battle play out in practice.
After the 2025 season, BYU can evaluate the progression of those three quarterbacks. If they have seen enough to feel good about one of them being the full-time starter, they can go into the 2026 with the guys that were on the roster in 2025. If not, BYU can dip into the transfer portal like they would have needed to do otherwise.
By adding Bachmeier, BYU has increased their chances of finding a quarterback of the future. Bear comes into an ideal situation. Barring injury, he will not be forced to play as a true freshman. By 2026, he will have all of his eligibility remaining and a chance to compete for the starting job.
However, he will have to earn in. McCae Hillstead is entering his second year in the program and he showed flashes of greatness during Spring camp. In our opinion, he was the favorite to beat out Bourguet for the backup job. Hillstead has big-play ability and he showed that as a true freshman at Utah State in 2023.
That competition is exactly what BYU wants. The Cougars will let the competition play out in 2025 and go into 2026 with a few options at their disposal.
