During his freshman season in 2025, Bear Bachmeier did a lot of things well. Bachmeier led the Cougars to 12 wins and improved as the season progressed. However, throwing the deep ball was not one of his strengths. According to PFF, Bachmeier ranked 80th in deep ball accuracy among qualified quarterbacks.

In terms of air yards (how far the ball travels in the air from the line of scrimmage), Bachmeier's longest completion in 2025 was a deep ball to Chase Roberts against WVU that traveled 42 air yards. Long air-yard completions were rare for the BYU offense. In fact, the deep shot to Chase Roberts against the Mountaineers was an outlier. According to our custom database powered by Sports Info Solutions (SIS), Bachmeier completed only three balls that traveled 30 air yards or more in 2025:

1. West Virginia - Chase Roberts (42 air yards)
2. Stanford - Chase Roberts (36 air yards)
3. West Virginia - Parker Kingston (30 air yards)

If Bachmeier's arm has looked stronger in 2026 than it did in 2025, your eyes have not deceived you. In two games, Bachmeier has already thrown two passes that traveled further than any pass he threw last season.

Bachmeier's longest pass attempt in 2025 was a deep shot intended for Parker Kingston. Kingston caught the pass but came down out of bounds on the first play of the game. That ball to Kingston traveled 48 yards in the air.

Against Utah Tech, Bachmeier threw a deep ball to Reggie Frischecht that was catchable, but not on-target, and it fell incomplete. The catchable and on-target classifications are based on film review from SIS.

Against Arizona, a deep shot from Bear Bachmeier to Legend Glasker helped the Cougars seal the win over the Wildcats. Glasker got behind his defender and Bachmeier threw a ball that traveled 57 yards in the air and 50 yards from the line of scrimmage. The ball had to travel that far to prevent the cornerback from getting to it. In terms of air yards, it was the longest completion of Bachmeier's career by a wide margin.

Bachmeier's improved arm strength gives the BYU offense a element it didn't have in 2025. Against Texas Tech last season, BYU desperately needed to threaten the Tech defense vertically. Bachmeier wasn't ready to make those throws, so the Red Raiders stacked the box and stopped the run. After the season, Texas Tech head coach Joey McQuire admitted as much when he said Tech's game plan against BYU was to stack the box and force Bachmeier to beat them with his arm.

Bachmeier couldn't beat Tech over the top, so BYU's offense was stuck in neutral in both matchups.

Arizona stacked the box to stop the run on Saturday. On multiple occasions, all 11 Arizona defenders were within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. This time, Bachmeier had the arm strength and accuracy to make Arizona pay for its aggressive alignment.

If Bachmeier can consistently stretch defenses vertically, it will prevent defenses from stacking the box and open up BYU's rushing attack. In two weeks, he has thrown two catchable deep shots. That could be the difference between beating the best teams on BYU's schedule or not.

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