TUCSON, Ariz. — Through five games of his freshman campaign, Bear Bachmeier has been as-advertised for No. 18 BYU: a 68.7% passer with 1,048 yards and seven touchdowns, just one interception, and three Big 12 freshman of the week honors.
On Saturday night, the freshman was just that: a freshman.
Yet, somehow, the youngster overcame two interceptions, calling his own No. 47 jersey with a 2-yard touchdown run with 19 seconds remaining to force overtime after rallying from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit.
With 2:55 remaining, Bachmeier directed an 11-play, 47-yard drive and — aided by a pair of pass interference penalties inside the 10 by Arizona — forced overtime with his 17th carry of the night.
Noah Fifita threw for 219 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. But the redshirt junior’s pass fell off the finger tips of Javin Whatley in overtime — with BYU’s Evan Johnson in coverage — as the Cougars survived 33-27 against the best pass defense in the Big 12 at Arizona Stadium.
In back-to-back Big 12 games — at home against West Virginia and on the road, though against a largely faithful crowd in Arizona — BYU faced a stomach punch of adversity. But like last Friday, Saturday was a “tough game” that ended with a rare result: the first time in program history the Cougars have started 6-0 in back-to-back seasons.
“I felt like it was a good moment for us,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “We welcome the adversity right now, but we’ve got to stay positive and work through this. But it’s a lot of fun. We got our sixth win; we’re bowl eligible — and there are a lot of things we can keep building off. But we’ll worry about that on Monday.”
The comeback is what will be remembered, though.
Michael Salgado-Medina and Will Ferrin exchanged field goals in the first overtime, with Ferrin nailing a 45-yarder with ease to force a second extra period.
Bachmeier called his number again in the second overtime period, diving in following a 7-yard run as the Cougars took a 33-27 lead before Johnson, who had four tackles and a pass breakup, led the defense to finish the job.
LJ Martin ran for a career-best 162 yards and a touchdown for BYU (6-0, 3-0 Big 12), topping the 600-yard mark just one quarter into the sixth game of his third collegiate season.
Bachmeier finished with 172 passing yards and a touchdown, and ran for 89 yards on 22 carries. But his two interceptions must’ve felt like daggers as the Wildcats overturned a 14-0 first-quarter deficit with 24-0 run around an hour-long weather delay to start the second quarter as remnants of Hurricane Priscilla rolled through southern Arizona.
Ferrin connected on a 24-yard field goal with 4:08 remaining — his first make after three consecutive misses for the school’s record-holder for consecutive made tries — after Kedrick Reescano capped a 24-0 run with a 36-yard rushing score to put the Wildcats up 24-14 to open the fourth quarter.
Reescano finished with a team-high 90 yards on 13 carries for Arizona (4-2, 2-2 Big 12). But the Wildcats didn’t score again, save it were for Salgado-Medina’s field goal in the first overtime.
“We just executed and mitigated the mistakes,” Bachmeier said of the fourth-quarter comeback. “We had a couple of false starts in the third quarter; nothing was going our way. But we had each other’s backs and it’s a credit to the boys up front for being really physical, guys on the perimeter making plays — and then LJ being LJ.”
So, too, was Jay Hill’s defense.
Absent star linebacker Jack Kelly due to an upper-body injury, Siale Esera led BYU with a career-high 16 tackles, a pass breakup and shared a tackle for loss. He also led a group of younger players stepping into new roles, as safety Raider Damuni left early with an injury and defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa was ejected in the first half for targeting.
Esera got some help from Faletau Satuala, who totaled 11 tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup; and Isaiah Glasker, the other half of BYU’s star-studded linebacker duo, who had five tackles and picked an interception off Fifita near the goal line.
“We have trust in the guys who stepped in,” Esera said. “We knew they were going to do their jobs, we were going to do our jobs, and we were going to get after it. We were able to play a physical game up until the second overtime, and we were able to get that win.”
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