Bear Bachmeier looked like his freshman self at times Friday night, though his final stat line didn’t show it.
Despite giving up his first career interception and fumble, he threw for a career-high 351 yards on 18-of-25 passing and a touchdown in a 38-24 win against West Virginia Friday in Provo.
It helped to have a pair of veteran receivers at his disposal, who notched career-highs themselves to boost the cub quarterback.
Roommates Chase Roberts and Parker Kingston recorded single-game bests of 161 and 111 yards receiving yards, respectively, and combined 168 yards after the catch.
“It’s just letting us do our thing,” Kingston said. “(Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick) opened the offense up to Bear and let Bear make plays. And we’ve always known we can throw the ball around, and it was good to get it out on film, letting teams know they can’t stack the box against us and that we have weapons on the outside, too.”
Roberts said going into the game they liked the matchups they saw on film against West Virginia, and knew they could “make plays and throw it up.”
They put that to the test the first offensive play, when Bachmeier connected with Roberts on a 47-yard throw. The big plays continued throughout.
On the offense’s third drive, Bachmeier gave the ball to Kingston on a screen pass, who used his 10.53 100-meter dash speed to race down the field for a 54-yard touchdown.
Roberts tried to one-up Kingston in the second quarter, beating his man one-on-one to make a catch, shedding a tackle at midfield and racing downfield. His 85-yard reception ended four yards short of the endzone, when a safety caught him from behind.
“He came off the field and was like, ‘I wish I had your speed,’ and I was like, ‘I know, you gotta unhook the trailer,” Kingston said.
“I knew he would say something,” Roberts said. “As expected.”
Kingston added a 1-yard rushing touchdown and a 20-yard reception, while Roberts added a 21-yard catch, rounding out a memorable night for the two buddies.
“That’s my best friend on the team,” Kingston said of Roberts. “So it was awesome to be able to go over 100 yards with him. We grind film together. We’re always talking about, ‘hey, it’s going to be sick when we get 100 yards together in one game,’ and then it finally happened, and now we’re just going to keep building.”
Their big plays helped BYU overcome some critical offensive miscues in the second quarter, including a Bachmeier interception that ended a promising drive, and a Bachmeier pitch that was batted away and recovered by a West Virginia defender to give the Mountaineers the ball inside the BYU 5-yard line.
Roberts was pleased with how Bachmeier looked past his mistakes and kept slinging the football.
“Bear’s just a level-headed dude that’s going to keep playing,” Roberts said. “I think that’s what BYU football is. Adversity comes. You’re going to make mistakes. And as a quarterback, and when we’re throwing the ball this much, it’s going to happen. So I think he did a great job bouncing back.”