What caught my attention at midway point of BYU football spring practice
Mar 17, 2026, 8:19 PM | Updated: Mar 18, 2026, 2:07 pm
PROVO, Utah – BYU football completed the eighth day of spring practice on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day on the Zions Bank practice fields at the Student Athlete Building.
Temperatures reached up to 67 degrees for St. Patrick’s Day.
St. Patrick’s Day media observation of BYU football practice
Some BYU football support staff were on the sideline sporting green in honor of the holiday. A football communications staffer was wearing a throwback green Zach Wilson t-shirt.
St. Patrick’s Day is typically a day centered around luck and good vibes. As we’ve seen in the past few years from the College Football Playoff Committee, the 2026 BYU football team will probably need a little luck to earn an at-large bid for the postseason. That means you probably need to win the autobid by being a Big 12 Champion.
Lucky for BYU, sizing up the personnel at the midway point of spring ball, this should be the most talented team Kalani Sitake has fielded since becoming the head coach at his alma mater.
Sitake is entering his 11th season as BYU’s head coach.
On Tuesday, the media got an opportunity to watch BYU football in action for the second time during spring practice. There was a 20-minute observation.
Bear Bachmeier is preparing for his true sophomore season
Much of BYU’s work during the media window took place in the red zone. Sophomore Bear Bachmeier, donning the fitting for St. Patty’s Day green no-contact jersey, is making quicker decisions than he did seven months ago when he was going through a fall camp contending for the starting quarterback spot.
Bear Bachmeier continues to have a strong spring camp as he prepares for his true sophomore season as BYU's QB1.
Bachmeier to Jojo Phillips. pic.twitter.com/O7rmtrLx6Z
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) March 18, 2026
Bachmeier completed a touchdown pass to Reggie Frischknecht near the end of the media observation.
One decision for Bear that didn’t pay off was a rollout to his left. He tried to pump fake, and junior Tausili Akana was there to stop him. Obviously, with Bachmeier wearing the green jersey, there was no contact on the play.
Day 8 practice notes
Treyson Bourguet appeared to be with the second team offense. He had a touchdown pass to Legend Glasker in red zone work.
We got a glimpse of BYU’s kickers on extra point attempts after touchdown grabs. Matthias Dunn was the first kicker, followed by Ian Sanches. All of the extra point attempts were converted. The holder on those attempts was punter Fuller Shurtz.
One of the emerging players is a new transfer portal addition along the offensive line. That’s Washington transfer Paki Finau; he was lining up with the first team offensive line at left tackle, with Andrew Gentry at right tackle.
One of the top plays from Tuesday's BYU spring media observation was Bear Bachmeier connecting with second-year wide receiver Reggie Frischknecht for a touchdown. pic.twitter.com/im88qqWiH9
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) March 18, 2026
On the defensive side, Kansas State transfer Jake Clifton and true freshman Braxton Lindsey caught my attention; they also teamed up with Ace Kaufusi at linebacker. It’s a talented position group, potentially the deepest on BYU’s defense entering the 2026 season.
To close out the media portion of practice, we saw true freshman quarterback Enoch Watson. He completed a pass to redshirt freshman Jared Esplin, then a play later had a pass broken up by cornerback Jordyn Criss. Then, a few moments later, Watson found Trey Roberts, Chase Roberts’ younger brother, for a touchdown grab.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSL and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast daily on KSL Sports YouTube and KSL NewsRadio (SUBSCRIBE). Harper also co-hosts Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL NewsRadio.
Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYUathletics in the Big 12 Conference on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @Mitch_Harper.
