Bear Bachmeier is the Associated Press national player of the week. He is also the Big 12 offensive player of the week. Those are the shiny parts of BYU’s 28-24 win over Notre Dame, and the four-touchdown stat line deserves all the light it can hold.
The conference’s other two BYU awards tell the fuller story.
Cade Uluave was named Big 12 defensive player of the week. BYU’s offensive line was named the league’s offensive line of the week. The quarterback, the protection in front of him and the linebacker who helped repair BYU’s mistakes all received recognition from the same game.
That distribution matters more than the award count. BYU did not beat the No. 2 team because one star dragged everybody else across the finish line. Bachmeier supplied every touchdown. The line kept him upright against a defense averaging 2.5 sacks. Uluave led the unit that repeatedly held Notre Dame to field goals or punts after BYU handed it favorable field position.
The awards fit together. So did the win.
Three honors, one complete receipt
| BYU honoree | Award | Notre Dame evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Bear Bachmeier | AP national and Big 12 offensive player of the week | Four total touchdowns: two rushing, one passing, one receiving |
| Cade Uluave | Big 12 defensive player of the week | Nine tackles, six solo, three quarterback hurries, one tackle for loss |
| BYU offensive line | Big 12 offensive line of the week | Zero sacks allowed, two tackles for loss allowed, 121 rushing yards |
Bachmeier completed 23 of 36 passes for 224 yards, ran 13 times for 45 yards and caught Kyler Kasper’s 15-yard throwback for a touchdown. AP reported that he became the first FBS player in 30 years to score by pass, run and reception in the same game against an AP top-five opponent.
That is the national headline because it is wonderfully strange. Quarterbacks do not usually appear in all three touchdown columns. The playbook had to create the receiving score, Bachmeier had to finish twice as a runner and the offense still needed him to make the winning throw with 1:47 left.
The Big 12’s three-part recognition is less novel and more revealing. It says the league saw a performance with a quarterback at its center but real support at the two places that decided whether his work survived.
The line turned a trick-play night into a repeatable one
The throwback touchdown will live in the highlight reel. Zero sacks can disappear inside a box score.
It should not.
Notre Dame entered the game allowing 214 yards per contest, leading the country in total defense and averaging 2.5 sacks. BYU gained 360 yards. The Irish produced two tackles for loss and no sacks.
This was also the second straight game in which BYU did not allow a sack. A week earlier, Bachmeier threw for 329 yards and ran for 109 against Iowa State without going down behind the line. Against Notre Dame, the passing total fell and the red-zone efficiency rose: four trips, four touchdowns.
The protection did not merely keep a clean jersey. It preserved BYU’s entire menu.
Bachmeier had time to catch the throwback after handing the ball to Kasper. He had lanes for the five- and one-yard rushing touchdowns. On the winning possession, BYU ran him three consecutive times inside the Notre Dame 15. A false start then changed third-and-goal from the 1 to the 6, and the line gave him enough time to find Walker Lyons for the deciding score.
One statistic makes the rushing work easier to appreciate. BYU gained 121 yards against an Irish defense that had held seven straight opponents below 100. Notre Dame’s previous season high allowed was 77 yards, according to BYU Athletics.
BYU did not run wild. It crossed a line that nobody else had crossed against this defense, then kept the pocket intact on the snap that mattered most.
The offensive line award belongs to the group, which is fitting. Linemen rarely produce the single clip that wins a weekly vote. Their proof is cumulative: a quarterback finishing reads, short-yardage runs staying alive, four red-zone touchdowns and a top defense failing to record a sack.
Bachmeier’s versatility gave Notre Dame too many jobs. The line gave those jobs time to become problems.
Uluave’s best sequence came after BYU’s worst throw
Uluave finished with a team-high nine tackles, including six solo stops. His three quarterback hurries were a season high, and he added a tackle for loss.
The most useful piece of his night arrived immediately after Bachmeier’s fourth-quarter interception.
BYU trailed 24-21 when Jayden Sanders intercepted Bachmeier at the Notre Dame 15 with 8:05 remaining. Notre Dame had the lead, the ball and a chance to burn the clock. Uluave dropped the first play for a four-yard loss. The Irish gained nothing on second down and threw incomplete on third.
Three plays. Punt. The interception changed field position instead of ending the game.
That was not Uluave’s only contribution, but it explains the defensive award better than nine tackles alone. BYU’s defense spent much of the second half pricing other units’ mistakes. A muffed punt gave Notre Dame the ball at the BYU 41. A failed fake punt handed it over at the 30. The defense allowed two field goals from those short fields rather than two touchdowns.
Then Bachmeier threw the interception, and the defense returned possession without allowing a first down.
Notre Dame entered averaging 44 points and 195 rushing yards per game. It finished with 24 points and 115 rushing yards. Those are team numbers, not Uluave’s personal property. His pressure and open-field tackling sat in the middle of both reductions.
BYU still has work to do on fourth down. Notre Dame converted all four attempts, including two on the final possession. Uluave’s award does not turn the finish into a shutdown or erase the 15-play drive that reached the BYU 8.
It does identify the player who most consistently kept a difficult defensive night from breaking. BYU needed the ball back after the interception. Uluave started the answer four yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Bachmeier’s four touchdowns were four different assignments
The AP award recognizes production, but the shape of the production is the more interesting part.
Bachmeier’s first rushing touchdown finished an 11-play opening drive. His receiving touchdown required him to sell the initial action, release and follow the play across the field. His second rushing score extended BYU’s lead to 21-10 before halftime. His six-yard pass to Lyons came after the fourth-quarter interception and false start.
Those were not four copies of the same strength.
The two short runs asked him to survive contact and read leverage near the goal line. The catch asked him to become part of the design without the ball. The final throw asked him to reset after his largest mistake of the night and beat tight coverage from a pocket that had just lost five yards to a penalty.
AP’s national selection also gives the performance useful scale. Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown was the runner-up after beating No. 1 Georgia with 115 rushing yards, 150 passing yards and two touchdowns. Bachmeier did not win because the week lacked another quarterback-driven upset. He won with the rarer complete line and a winning touchdown in the final two minutes.
The award should not sanitize his interception. It should sharpen the reason the response mattered. BYU did not ask someone else to hide the quarterback after he gave away a comeback possession. Uluave and the defense got the ball back, the line protected the next chance, and Bachmeier finished it.
That sequence is the whole award sweep in miniature.
The weekly total is becoming a team pattern
BYU Athletics reports that six Cougars have earned nine Big 12 player-of-the-week honors through six games. The offensive and defensive lines have also received league recognition.
Weekly awards are noisy. They depend on the schedule, the pool of candidates and which performances catch voters’ attention. They are not standings points, and BYU cannot take any of them to Orlando.
The distribution still says something about a 6-0 team.
Bachmeier has won Big 12 offensive recognition after Arizona, Iowa State and Notre Dame. The defensive front received the line award after holding Iowa State to 200 total yards. Now the offensive line and Uluave have joined him after Notre Dame.
That spread matches how BYU has won. Arizona required a second-half offensive correction. Iowa State became a 506-yard night paired with a 200-yard defensive allowance. Notre Dame demanded red-zone finishing, short-field defense and one last response after a turnover.
There has not been one permanent weekly formula. The quarterback remains the common piece, but he has not been the only answer.
That matters as BYU moves from beating No. 2 to playing as No. 2. The ranking creates a target. The award sweep shows why the target is attached to more than one player.
UCF changes the test
BYU visits UCF on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Mountain on FOX. The Knights are 3-3, had an open week after losing 42-28 at Oklahoma State and now get the new No. 2 team at home.
The permanent UCF game center carries the confirmed kickoff, venue and broadcast details. Our football schedule keeps the rest of the Big 12 path in one place.
The Notre Dame awards do not predict the UCF result. They do establish the standards that should travel.
The line has allowed zero sacks in consecutive games. That cannot become permission for Bachmeier to hold the ball against a fresh defense. Uluave helped hold Notre Dame 80 rushing yards below its average. That cannot become permission to start slowly against a UCF offense that scored on its first two Oklahoma State possessions.
Most of all, Bachmeier cannot need another national-player-of-the-week line every Saturday. The best use of this award sweep is to recognize how much of the Notre Dame win existed around him.
He supplied all four touchdowns. The line made his full role possible. Uluave helped rescue the possession after his interception. BYU’s three Big 12 honors did not divide the credit. They connected it.
Sources and further reading
- Associated Press: Bear Bachmeier is the national player of the week for the national selection, four-touchdown sequence, 30-year top-five-opponent distinction and runner-up context.
- BYU Athletics: Bachmeier’s Big 12 and Davey O’Brien honors for his game line, season totals and three 2026 conference offensive awards.
- BYU Athletics: offensive line of the week for the zero sacks, two tackles for loss, 360 total yards, 121 rushing yards and Notre Dame defensive baselines.
- BYU Athletics: Cade Uluave named defensive player of the week for his tackle and pressure totals, Notre Dame’s scoring/rushing baselines and BYU’s season award count.
- BYU Athletics: UCF game-week hub for the confirmed Saturday 1:30 p.m. Mountain kickoff, FOX broadcast, radio, venue and live-stat routes.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Notre Dame recap, No. 2 poll analysis, football hub and UCF game center.
