The 4th-ranked Texas Tech is set to face an 11th-ranked BYU in the Big 12 championship game. But currently, the focus is on BYU QB Bear Bachmeier. Why? Despite the shared history of defeating BYU in the regular season. Not to mention limiting Bear Bachmeier to just 188 passing yards, the Texas Tech head coach chose to side with the true freshman QB after his recent snub from a major award.

The official list for the 2025 Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year award has been released, and Bachmeier is nowhere on that list. Instead, it has Bama cornerback Dijon Lee, Miami WR Malachi Toney, and North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker. Other names include 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.

“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.

Bear Bachmeier absolutely deserves to be on the list since not only is he a true freshman, unlike QBs Drew Mestemaker and C.J. Carr, who are redshirt freshmen. Moreover, the 19-year-old QB has displayed elite rushing and passing prowess throughout the season. Those 2,593 passing and 529 rushing yards speak for themselves. Not to mention the Bear has 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. It’s amazing how they were attracted to him, guys on the team who are 21- and 22-years-old, following this kid,” said BYU OC Aaron Roderick. Apart from that, Bear was given the QB1 onus at a time BYU lost their veteran QB Jake Retzlaff to Tulane after a controversy. It wasn’t an easy task to enter Retzlaff’s shoes, who had 2,941 passing yards in 2024.

But when he started throwing those passes and making plays with his legs, everyone was in awe. The funny part? The Murrieta, California, native wore #47, something rarely seen for a QB. 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 top-notch. Not only did he pass for 179 for two tochdowns, but rushed for an unprecedented 98 yards on 15 carries. Simply put, he ran riot on a 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 were denying his quality, but eventually, his consistency made a solid case for him.

“36 rushes, 206 yards, giving up a touchdown. 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,” said Shannon Sharpe after the BYU vs Colorado game.

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 in the list don’t deserve to be there. Julian Sayin has unparalleled numbers, Dijon Lee is utterly dominant, and Malachai Toney is simply put 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?