Bachmeier Makes Notre Dame Remember Him
BYU stops No. 2 Notre Dame 28-24 in Provo, beaten by the quarterback it once turned away.
BYU 28, Notre Dame 24, Provo.
THE MOMENT
Four seconds. One play. The ball in the air over the end zone in Provo, and 65,179 people holding the same breath.
CJ Carr's last pass, first-and-goal from the 9, sailed toward Jaden Greathouse with BYU cornerback Evan Johnson on him. The ball hit the turf. No flag came. The field turned blue and white, a sea of students pouring over the rails, and No. 8 BYU had beaten No. 2 Notre Dame, 28-24, in one of the biggest wins in program history.
Notre Dame will talk about that no-call all winter. The broadcast crew did before the grass settled, Kirk Herbstreit and rules analyst Matt Austin both said a flag was warranted. Maybe it was. But flags are not what won this game. What won this game had been waiting three years to say so.
THE FREEZE
This one was personal. And everybody in the stadium knew whose it was.
THE HUMAN
Bear Bachmeier is a sophomore. In 2023, coming out of high school, he wanted Notre Dame, he tried to commit to the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame held out for somebody else. He signed with Stanford instead, then found his way to BYU through the transfer portal, carrying the whole story with him in a duffel bag nobody could see.
Saturday night he played like a man who had circled a date. He threw for a touchdown. He ran for two. He caught one, on a trick play, because of course he did, becoming part of a trifecta no scorekeeper could flatten: 23 of 36 passing for 224 yards, 45 rushing yards, three touchdowns with his name on them three different ways. Marcus Freeman knew what was coming, too. Earlier in the week the Notre Dame coach said of Bachmeier, "He's the real deal." He was right in a way that will sting.
THE SACRIFICE
What did it take? Start with what it cost Bachmeier to be in that huddle at all. A rejection at seventeen is a small thing in a man's life, until it isn't. He did not transfer to BYU with a guarantee, he transferred with a grudge and a work ethic, and he paid for Saturday night in the currency nobody televises: the extra years of being the second choice, the quiet practices after other people's depth charts had already decided who he was. Notre Dame's standard is real, and so is this: sometimes the standard misjudges a kid, and the kid spends three years turning the misjudgment into fuel.
And weigh the other sideline, because a loss like this has a ledger too. Notre Dame came to Provo exactly because it wanted hard games in hard places, Freeman said so himself before the trip. The Irish climbed out of an 11-point hole on the road, in front of the largest crowd at that stadium since 2004, and lost on a bounce of officiating luck at the goal line. That costs a locker room something real. The Cougars are 6-0. The Irish are 6-1, and their season just got heavier to carry.
THE RECEIPT
- No-call at the goal line
- Second-ever top-two win
- Personal payback night
SCOREBOARD
The facts, plainly. BYU drove 75, 75 and 72 yards for touchdowns in the first half against a Notre Dame defense that came in ranked fourth in the nation in scoring, allowing 11 points a game. Halftime: 21-10, Cougars. Notre Dame, to its credit, refused the script, field goals after a muffed BYU punt and a failed fake punt, then Jonaz Walton's 3-yard touchdown run with 9:31 left to take a 24-20 lead. Bachmeier threw an interception at the Irish 15 with 8:05 to play, and the game looked gone. BYU's defense forced a three-and-out. Bachmeier then drove 55 yards in 10 plays and, on third-and-goal with 1:47 left, found tight end Walker Lyons, a transfer from USC, Notre Dame's old rival, sliding in the end zone for the go-ahead score. Carr drove Notre Dame to the 9 in the final seconds, converting a fourth down to Micah Gilbert. Then came the last throw, the turf, and the flood of fans.
NOTE 1
Career note for the ledger: it is BYU's first win over Notre Dame since 2004, and just the program's second-ever win over a top-two opponent.
THE VOICES
I wasn't going to lose to those guys. There was no way I was going to lose to those guys.
It was chaos, man... We own it.
Afterward, Bachmeier did what players are trained never to do. He told the plain truth about himself:
"Kalani won't like this because I'm talking about myself, but out of high school, Notre Dame disrespected me and my family pretty badly," he said. "I wasn't going to lose to those guys. There was no way I was going to lose to those guys."
There it is. Not a slogan, a receipt. His coach gave the shorter version on the field, smiling into the ABC cameras: "They wanted some pressure, we gave it to them. And it worked out for us."
And give the losing coach his dignity, because he earned it in the hardest press conference of his season. Asked about the final play, Freeman refused the easy excuse in front of him: "It was chaos, man," he said. "I know people are going to look for me to put blame on somebody else. That's not what we do around here. We own it."
THE TAKE
FINAL VERDICTThe scoreboard says an upset. Watch it closer and it says something older: preparation meets the moment it was made for. BYU did not beat Notre Dame with a trick, though it used one beautifully. It beat Notre Dame with a quarterback who had rehearsed this game in his head for three years, and with a defense that, given four seconds and nine yards, chose pressure over fear.
The non-call will lead the argument shows. Let it. Arguments fade. What stays is the picture a young athlete should tape to the wall: a kid told, in effect, you are not good enough for us, who did not spend three years complaining about the verdict, he spent three years overturning it, one workout, one transfer, one throw at a time.
What did your rejection ask of you? Bachmeier answered his on Saturday night, in front of 65,179 witnesses.
Some doors close so a man learns to build his own.
Andre D. Williams
More than the final score. DRE'S TAKE: the story behind the performance.
Credits: Quotes, Bachmeier and Freeman via On3, Sitake via the Associated Press; facts, Sportradar, AP, USA TODAY, ClutchPoints.
Share
Related stories
See all →
The DRE'S TAKE Newsletter
More than the final score.
Get the stories, interviews, and perspectives behind the performance.