BYU did not walk into Big 12 Media Days acting like July owed it a parade.
Good. That would have been weird.
The Cougars have real preseason attention now: six Preseason All-Big 12 picks, LJ Martin as the league’s preseason offensive player of the year, a quarterback story everyone wants to poke, and a 2025 season that changed the tone around the program. That is not nothing.
It is also not a down payment on September.
The most useful part of Tuesday’s official BYU Athletics quote sheet was how little it sounded like a victory lap. Kalani Sitake kept coming back to work, autonomy, humility, and avoiding complacency. Martin brushed off the award talk. Bear Bachmeier talked like a quarterback trying to move from survival to command. That is the right posture for a team with buzz. BYU fans should enjoy the respect, then ask the colder question.
What does any of it change?
Here is the BYU Sport Nuts read.
The quote sheet, translated for BYU fans
| Topic | What was said | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Complacency | Sitake said the key is focusing on what BYU can accomplish, finding ways to improve, and getting players ready to play their best 12 times. | This is the whole offseason. BYU cannot treat 2025 like a trophy case and 2026 like a sequel that writes itself. |
| Player ownership | Sitake described giving players autonomy and trying not to “mess it up” as their coach. | That sounds soft until you remember this is an older roster in spots. Veteran teams need standards, not babysitting. |
| LJ Martin’s preseason honor | Martin said the award “doesn’t mean much” because he was not on those lists a year ago. | Perfect answer. His value is Saturday durability, not July applause. |
| Bear Bachmeier’s jump | Martin said Bachmeier is better at knowing what he is looking for and making decisions. | That is the sentence fans should circle. BYU’s offense changes if the quarterback is processing instead of reacting. |
| CFP talk | Sitake said he is not in the campaigning business and BYU has to do its job. | BYU’s best Playoff argument will still be wins. Revolutionary stuff, I know. |
| Big 12 conduct | The Salt Lake Tribune reported Brett Yormark said anti-LDS chants directed at BYU would get “zero tolerance,” though specifics are still to be discussed. | This matters, and it should stay sober. BYU should get the same basic respect any league member should get. Then the football still has to be played. |
That table is more useful than pretending every quote is a grand philosophical statement. Media Days are full of polished answers. The trick is finding the ones that survive contact with a depth chart.
For BYU, three did.
Martin is treating the award like a sticky note, not a crown
Martin had the cleanest veteran answer of the day. Asked about being named the Big 12’s preseason offensive player of the year, he said it did not mean much to him because last year he was not on preseason teams. He wants the results to be the results.
That is exactly how a BYU running back should talk in July.
Martin’s local stat page already gives the award some backbone: 2,541 career rushing yards, 23 rushing touchdowns, 57 receptions, and 398 receiving yards across 33 games. Official BYU’s Preseason All-Big 12 release adds the national 2025 context, including 1,305 rushing yards, 100.38 rushing yards per game, and a Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year season.
So yes, the hype has a case.
But the actual BYU question is not whether Martin looks good on a preseason graphic. It is whether the Cougars can keep him in favorable math. His season looks different on second-and-5 than it does on second-and-11. It looks different when Bruce Mitchell and the line are moving bodies than when Martin is being asked to make a bad play normal.
Martin also said he has focused on reacceleration, the burst after a cut or contact. That detail matters more than the award answer. Big 12 backs do not just need to hit the crease. They need to create the second crease after the first one gets messy.
If that part is real, BYU’s offense has a pressure valve.
Bachmeier’s best quote came from someone else
The quarterback quote everyone wants is usually from the quarterback. This time, Martin gave the useful one.
He said Bachmeier is “a lot better at knowing what he’s looking for and making decisions.” That is the line BYU fans should take seriously.
Bachmeier’s first full season already gave BYU a wild toolkit: 3,033 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, 527 rushing yards, and 11 rushing touchdowns in the local database. The legs are real. The competitiveness is real. The ability to turn broken plays into chaos for the other sideline is real.
The upgrade has to be quieter.
Can he set protections cleaner? Can he get BYU out of the bad look before the ball is snapped? Can he take the ordinary completion instead of trying to win the whole drive with one heroic answer? Can he still run like a problem without making every third down feel like an emergency exit?
That is why Martin’s wording matters. “Knowing what he’s looking for” is command language. It points to a quarterback who might be able to make BYU less jumpy, not just more explosive.
BYU already has enough July material for the hype machine. The better version of this offense is boring in the right spots: cleaner first downs, fewer negative plays, normal third downs, and a quarterback who can choose violence instead of needing it.
Sitake’s autonomy line is worth remembering
Sitake’s answer about trust and chemistry could sound like coach-speak if you skim it. It was not.
He said players do not need him watching everything they do, and that he wants to give them autonomy inside the program. That fits this roster. BYU has older players in the center of its story: Martin, Mitchell, Keanu Tanuvasa, Isaiah Glasker, Evan Johnson, Cade Uluave, and others who have played enough football to know when August is serious and when August is just hot.
That does not mean the roster is finished. Far from it.
BYU still has to settle the offensive line rotation. The edge rush still needs to turn inventory into pressure. The receiver room has to help Bachmeier without making every explosive play a quarterback magic trick. And the defensive backfield has to survive a league that treats space like a personal hobby.
But player ownership can matter when the schedule gets rude. BYU’s 2026 slate does not allow a long warm-up act: Arizona in Week 2, TCU soon after, then Iowa State, Notre Dame, UCF, Arizona State, Utah, Baylor, Kansas, and Cincinnati. That stretch will expose fake leadership quickly.
The best version of Sitake’s autonomy idea is not “players like each other.” It is players correcting problems before those problems need a staff meeting and a dramatic Monday quote.
The zero-tolerance stance should be simple
The Big 12 conduct piece is not a football tactic, but it belongs in the day’s notebook.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that commissioner Brett Yormark said anti-LDS chants aimed at BYU would get “zero tolerance,” with league leaders expected to discuss details later this summer. That is the right direction. It should not require a 900-word lecture. BYU is a league member. Its athletes, coaches, fans, and faith community should not be treated as acceptable targets for religious slurs.
There. Simple.
The important part now is execution. What does the league tell schools? What does game management do in the moment? How clear are the consequences? Vague support is nice. Clear procedure is better.
And then, once that standard is set, BYU has to play football. Respect in the stands and results on the field are separate jobs. Both matter. One does not substitute for the other.
What changes after Media Days?
Not much, if we are being honest. That is not a criticism.
Media Days do not block, tackle, cover, or convert third-and-4. They give us a temperature check. BYU’s temperature is healthy: confident, but not drunk on itself; aware of expectations, but not begging for applause; proud of last year, but not acting like last year can take a snap in September.
The useful takeaways are practical:
- Martin sounds like a veteran who knows awards do not carry the ball.
- Bachmeier’s next step is decision speed, not highlight volume.
- Sitake is betting on player ownership because this roster is old enough in the right places to handle it.
- The Big 12’s conduct standard around religious slurs needs clear follow-through, not just a good quote.
That is the real Media Days story. BYU has earned a more serious conversation. The Cougars also earned harder questions.
Can the offensive line make Martin’s award look predictive instead of decorative? Can Bachmeier become a calmer operator without losing the edge that made him dangerous? Can the defense turn recognizable names into weekly pressure? Can BYU handle being respected without getting weird about it?
July gave BYU a microphone.
September gets the whistle.
Sources and further reading
- Official BYU Athletics: 2026 Big 12 Media Day Quotes
- Official BYU Athletics: Six Cougars named to the 2026 All-Big 12 Preseason Football Team
- The Salt Lake Tribune: Anti-LDS chants aimed at BYU will get “zero tolerance,” Big 12 commissioner says
- BYU Sport Nuts context: football hub, football roster, football schedule, Big 12 standings, BYU’s line-of-scrimmage credibility test, Media Days six-player message, LJ Martin workload math
Want the BYU context before the group chat turns into court testimony? Join The Cougar Report.
