Welcome back! Football season is officially here tomorrow, August 1st! As we move closer to the football season, I wanted to get this up and running again. Its been a long time since my last post. But, we have a ton of news to cover!
BYU Football Fall Camp
BYU reported yesterday to fall camp. There is a lot of excitement right now for the football program. They are coming off one of their best seasons last year at 11-2 in which they rose as high as #6 in the CFP rankings and ended the season with a thumping of Colorado in the Alamo Bowl. BYU ended the season as the #13 ranked team in the country. This has lead BYU to gain some serious momentum in the recruiting trail. Their 2026 recruiting class is ranked in the top 20, at #19. Good for the best recruiting class, #1, in the Big 12. Its also one of BYUs best recruiting classes ever, so far. More on that later.
Top Question
As we head into fall camp for football, there is still one main question. Who is going to be BYUs QB? That is the most obvious question after Jake Retzlaff announced that he is entering the transfer portal and committed to Tulane.
Right now, its a 3 person race. Those guys are McCae Hillstead, Treyson Bourguet, and Bear Bachmeier.
McCae is a transfer from Utah St. Hes a redshirt Sophomore. Hes a dual threat QB who is probably better running than he is throwing the ball. Similar to Retzlaff, he is quick and has a strong arm but isnt the most accurate.
Treyson is a transfer from Western Michigan. He is a redshirt Junior who you could classify as a game manager. He isnt known for his running but has shown he can run sometimes. He is smart and makes good, safe throws. He has a good arm. He wont win you any games because he isnt a risky QB, but he wont lose you any games either making stupid mistakes.
Bear is a true freshman. But he has the highest ceiling of any of the QBs. He is a former 4 star recruit. He originally committed to Stanford out of high school but decided to transfer when the Stanford head coach was let go and his brother hit the transfer portal. He and his brother both committed to BYU shortly after. (Before the news of Retzlaff leaving). Bear is similar to Taysom Hill. He is big and strong and is a dual threat QB. He can run people over and has a big arm, but isnt the most accurate passer.
Who Comes Out on Top?
If you were to ask me who I would pick right now, I would say McCae Hillstead is the leader. He is the type of QB that Roderick likes to use. Hes played at this level and knows what to do. Hes quick and fast and can sling it. I dont think Treyson does enough or would make enough plays for him to be the starter, but they may choose him because they know hes the safe bet. My thought was that it would be these two as the two guys competing for the starting position. But reports from the first day of fall camp are quite interesting.
Reports Coming Out of Fall Camp
Jarom Jordan from BYUtv gave some insight on how the first day of fall camp went. New this year, BYU isnt allowing any outside cameras, (photo or video) including phones, to fall camp. The media had a limited amount of time to watch the end of practice yesterday, but Jarom said that at the end of practice Bear had reps with the first team on day one and was getting the ball out quickly and on time. He also said that they learned that Bear had a pretty good day.
That is some good praise coming out of the first day of fall camp for the true freshman. Itll be interesting to see how this guys for the next 4 weeks. I imagine that Bear will have a legitimate shot at the starting job.
BYU Football 2026 Recruiting Class
Its never too early to look forward to the upcoming recruiting class, especially when it seems like recruiting is a year round sport aside from the actual sport that they are being recruited to play.
BYU, again, has the #19 ranked recruiting class in the nation. They are the best recruiting class right now in the Big 12. It is highlighted by the one and only Ryder Lyons. He is an LDS, from California, and one of the best QBs in the nation. According to 247sports, he is a 5 star recruit, ranked as the #5 QB, and #21 overall. This is followed by 3 other 4 star recruits. They are TE Brock Harris, OL Bott Mulitalo, and TE Ty Goettsche. Needless to say, the offense is humming right now in the recruiting trail. But the rest of the class is mainly defensive focused. There are only 5 other offensive commits.
All of the class except for one is rated as an 85 or higher. An 85 is a middle 3 star recruit, higher than an 85 is a high end 3 star recruit. That is pretty amazing that BYU has been able to pull this off. Some other notable recruits are 89 rated 3 star WR Kaue Akana, 87 rated 3 star EDGE PJ Takitaki, and 87 rated 3 star LB Legend Glasker. You probably recognize some of those last names. Any time you can get a Glasker or Akana or Takitaki to come to BYU, youre doing well. BYU also got a huge boost to their secondary with the commitment of Jaxson Gates. Hes a corner from California is rated as an 88 3 star. BYU usually dont get commitments like him in their secondary and this is nice to see that the narrative is turning around.
BYU Basketball Starts Practices
The hype for BYU basketball is off the charts. I have never been more excited than this year. The number 1 recruit in the nation is on BYUs campus and playing basketball in BYU blue, we have an NBA head coach who led the team last year to the Sweet 16, and we have brought in some very good transfers in Rob Wright from Baylor and Kennard Davis from Southern Illinois. Tomorrow marks two months till they start playing exhibition games and 3 months till the first official game against Villanova in Vegas. It is insane how much talk BYU is getting right now. It is mostly because of AJ but it is also because people see BYU as an up and coming place for basketball.
If BYU didnt make the Sweet 16 last year, I dont think the hype would be as big as it is right now. But since they did, it showed that BYU basketball has a legit coaching staff and good enough players to compete. They also ended the season as the #13 ranked team in the country because of it. BYU now returns two big contributors in Richie Saunders and Keba Keita, as well as quality bench players in Boskovic and Baker.
I wouldnt be surprised if BYU has a similar rotation to last year. There are too many quality players on this team. Lets breakdown the depth chart.
- PG: Rob Wright, Nate Pickens, Dawson Baker
- SG: Kennard Davis, Dominique Diomande
- SF: Richie Saunders, Tyler Mrus
- PF: AJ Dybantsa, Brody Kozlowski, Khadim Mboup
- C: Keba Keita, Mihailo Boskovic, Xavion Staton
I bet BYU goes about 10 deep which means 3 of these guys are not playing. I think those 3 guys are Brody Kozlowski, Khadim Mboup, and Boskovic. Not i realize that takes up 3 of the 6 players I have in the PF and C depth chart, but BYU will still have some big guys play coming off the bench. Mrus is 6’7, Staton is 6’11. The reason why I think its Kozlowski, Mboup, and Boskovic is because the other guys on the bench are either too good and are now an upgrade over these guys not playing, or they were brought in as a transfer and expect to play. I think itll look like this with the 10 deep rotation.
- PG: Rob Wright, Nate Pickens
- SG: Kennard Davis, Dawson Baker
- SF: Richie Saunders, Dominique Diomande
- PF: AJ Dybantsa, Tyler Mrus
- C: Keba Keita, Xavion Staton
If you really want to see what the hype is like right now, CBS Sports published an article saying that BYU could be one of the most improved teams this next year and thats after coming off of a Sweet 16 appearance. Gary Parrish also mentions that he has BYU ranked #3 in his Top 25 and 1. Not to mention, ESPN has BYU projected as a 2 seed in March Madness. Lastly, ESPN previewed the mens college basketball season 100 days away from the start of the season last week. BYU was all over the article. They were mentioned in the top 10 storylines to watch, top 10 title contenders, top 10 non conference games to watch, top 10 freshman to watch (AJ, of course), and top 10 transfers to watch (Robert Wright). The hype is legit and its not just from blue goggled BYU fans.
