Instead of critiquing QB Bear Bachmeier’s play ahead of the Big 12 championship game, Texas Tech HC is hyping the BYU star. The 19-year-old became the fifth FBS true freshman QB this century to lead his team to 10+ wins. Yet, he was left out of the acclaimed award. And Joey McGuire made sure to remind everyone of the impact the Cougars’ star athlete had this year.

“Congrats to the finalist, well deserved and earned, but how does BYU’s 11-1 TRUE freshman QB Bear Bachmeier get left off this list?!?!?,” wrote Joey McGuire on X.

The HC tweeted his response about the 2025 Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year award. Bama cornerback Dijon Lee, Miami WR Malachi Toney, North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker, Notre Dame’s C.J. Carr, and Ohio State’s Julian Sayin. The Red Raiders’ head coach, however, blasted the decision to exclude the BYU QB. This comes despite Texas Tech’s history of defeating BYU in the regular season.

Bear Bachmeier was limited to just 188 passing yards against BYU, and it remains the only loss for the Cougars. The 19-year-old deserves to be on the list since his 2,593 passing and 529 rushing yards speak for themselves, and the Bear has also won the Big 12 Freshman of the Week award a whopping 7 times. Add his leadership quality to the mix, and Bear should have been the top name on the list.

“Once our players got to know him, he was the undeniable leader of our offence,” said BYU OC Aaron Roderick.” It’s amazing how they were attracted to him, guys on the team who are 21- and 22-years-old, following this kid.”

Apart from that, Bear was given the QB1 onus at a time BYU lost its veteran QB Jake Retzlaff to Tulane after a controversy. It wasn’t a simple task to enter Retzlaff’s shoes, who had 2,941 passing yards in 2024. Moreover, the 19-year-old QB has displayed elite rushing and passing prowess throughout the season.

He averaged 216.1 yards per game passing, with an efficiency rating of 144.1. In addition, Bachmeier is second on the team in rushing, with 137 carries for 529 yards (3.9 yards per carry) and an average of 44.1 yards per game.

When he started throwing those passes and making plays with his legs, everyone was in awe. And all his heroics quickly gained widespread praise, despite scepticism at first.

Bear Bachmeier has been a road dog throughout the season

When BYU faced Colorado on the road, the brilliance of Bear Bachmeier was on full display. He not only passed for 179 yards and two touchdowns but also rushed for an unprecedented 98 yards on 15 carries. He ran riot on the Colorado team that had Heisman winner Travis Hunter in 2024. A similar thing happened when Bachmeier went to Arizona and rushed 89 yards for two touchdowns. At first, people denied his quality, but eventually, his consistency made a solid case for him.

“36 rushes, 206 yards, giving up a touchdown,” said Shannon Sharpe after the BYU vs Colorado game.”Hell, they ran like a handoff to the wide receiver, and then nobody touched him with a 32-yard touchdown, and nobody touched him till he got to the two. Ain’t no way I’m losing to a guy wearing 47. I get it. In the 1920s and 30s, quarterbacks had 60 numbers; they had all kinds of numbers. Yeah. In today’s game, this man got 47.”

All in all, Bear Bachmeier absolutely deserves to be on the list, and not having him there is a travesty. It’s not that the players on the list don’t deserve to be there. Julian Sayin has unparalleled numbers, Dijon Lee is utterly dominant, and Malachai Toney has been lethal in every game. Joey McGuire, though, is right by all accounts, and someone like C.J. Carr’s numbers are quite similar to Bear Bachmeier’s. Should the BYU QB have easily made the list in place of the Notre Dame QB1?

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