When two of the BYU Cougars’ top threats in 2024, Darius Lassiter and Keelan Marion, left the football program earlier this year, it was assumed that important part of the offense would be virtually nonexistent in 2025.
Fears that BYU would fail to produce big plays outside of star running back LJ Martin’s occasional burst were only exacerbated when BYU decided not to bring in another proven ball carrier from the transfer portal and replaced the dynamic Lassiter-Marion duo with a possession receiver from Stanford, Tiger Bachmeier, and a promising but unproven athlete in Snow. College, Reggie Frischknecht.
Bachmeier, the brother of rookie quarterback Bear Bachmeier, has shown flashes here and there in limited playing time, while Frischknecht suffered a hamstring injury in fall camp and has yet to see the field.
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However, despite all that, Aaron Roderick’s offense has been a pleasant surprise in the explosive plays department. That was especially true in the 38-24 win over West Virginia, when Bear passed for a career-high 351 yards, including completions of 47, 54 and 85 yards in the first half alone.
Before that game, No. 18 BYU’s longest pass in 2025 was 41 yards.
“It was the most explosive game we’ve had in a long time,” Roderick said. “Tons of big plays. We kind of unleashed our passing game more than we had in a while.”
In the second half, after Parker Kingston and Chase Roberts recorded receptions of 20-plus yards, Martin added a 32-yard run to finish with 90 and nearly recorded his fourth 100-plus yard rushing game in five starts.
“Yeah, it felt good (to air it out),” Bear said. “We had a lot of explosive plays. We have to keep it up.”
You have to give credit to Bear Bachmeier, Roberts, Kingston, Martin and speedster Cody Hagen for making people forget about Jake Retzlaff, Miami’s new playmaker, Marion and Lassiter, in that regard. BYU is tied for fifth in the country in most scrimmage plays of 40 yards or more, with 11.
Thanks to Martin and Hagen, BYU is tied for second nationally in most rushing plays of 40 yards or more, with six.
“Earlier in the season, we didn’t need to (open up the offense),” Roderick said. “This last game, they were pretty determined not to let LJ get involved, so we had to throw the ball up the field a little bit more. I thought our execution was really good.”
From the initial play, more or less.
Bear and Roberts connected for 47 yards on BYU’s first offensive play from scrimmage. BYU hasn’t hesitated to throw deep early in the Roderick era.
“We’ve always been like that. We’re a team that’s going to run the ball, and passing is our bread and butter,” Roderick said. “But there’s no point in waiting. We’re always going to be aggressive.”
Two other offensive weapons, receiver JoJo Phillips and running back Sione Moa, were injured early in the season, allowing Hagen and Tiger Bachmeier a little more playing time. Roderick said Tuesday that Phillips and Moa “will be out for a while” but did not elaborate.
If nothing else, the WVU game also showed that Bear can let it go when asked to throw it downfield. More of the same will be needed on Saturday if No. 18 BYU hopes to defeat Arizona (6 p.m. MDT, ESPN2) in Tucson. The Wildcats (4-1) have yet to allow a touchdown pass this season and conditions are expected to be rainy and difficult for the passing game.
“Yeah, he’s a really good passer and he showed it in the game,” Roderick said of the true freshman from Southern California. “In the four games before that, we didn’t really need to throw as much. Every game we threw it a little more and opened things up a little more. But yeah, he’s a very capable passer.”
YAC is becoming a thing at BYU
Bear’s 85-yard pass to Roberts in the first half (Roberts did most of the work, with 98 of his 161 receiving yards Friday coming in yards after the catch) was BYU’s longest pass play since Tanner Mangum and Mitchell Juergens connected for 84 against Boise State in 2015.
Roberts has 20 receptions for 395 yards, which ranks 41st in the country in receiving yards. He has four receptions for 40 yards or more, tied for fifth in the country, and 177 YAC, with three touchdowns.
He was clocked at 21.2 miles per hour on the 85-yard play – “I felt like I was moving pretty fast” – but a minimal tackle denied him a touchdown. He told Kingston in the dugout that he wished he had Kingston’s speed, to which the junior catcher responded, “Yeah, you gotta unhook the trailer.”
Kingston also had 70 yards after the catch on Friday, of his career-high 111 receiving yards.
“Chase, Parker, those guys make people miss. They’re strong and they break tackles,” Roderick said. “Cody Hagen too. And we know JoJo is capable of that. We hope to get that back at some point too. That’s a big part of our offense, yeah.”
PK ‘changeable as heck’ is making steady progress
Kingston missed fall camp with an injury and had only caught about 10 Bear passes in practice before the season started, according to Roderick. Naturally, the Roy High product got off to a slow start, with a couple of fumbles on punt returns and a few dropped passes.
But since the Colorado game, when he had five catches for 38 yards and two carries for 25 yards, he’s been crying.
“They opened up the offense to Bear and let Bear make the plays,” Kingston said after the WVU game. “We’re letting the teams know that they can’t stack the box against us and that we have weapons on the outside as well.”
Bear provided a fun comment when asked about Kingston’s emergence on offense.
“Yeah, it’s been great,” Bear said. “He’s a great receiver and he’s as sharp as a double hockey stick, and he’s just a great player.”
Asked if he would have used the word real if he were still at Stanford and not BYU, Bear looked at the array of microphones in front of him Tuesday and smiled.
“Uh, no, I mean, I guess, hell,” he said, drawing laughter. “I’ll say heck.”
