{"id":869925,"date":"2025-09-02T21:12:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/what-stanfords-head-coach-is-saying-about-facing-byu-deseret-news\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T21:12:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:12:27","slug":"what-stanfords-head-coach-is-saying-about-facing-byu-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/what-stanfords-head-coach-is-saying-about-facing-byu-deseret-news\/","title":{"rendered":"What Stanford’s head coach is saying about facing BYU – Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football <\/p>\n

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\"Football<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jackson has been writing about sports for the Deseret News since 2023. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When Stanford visits BYU this Saturday, the Cardinal will face a young quarterback in Bear Bachmeier<\/a> who they\u2019re already quite familiar with.<\/p>\n

Bachmeier spent spring ball at Stanford earlier this year, playing under interim head coach Frank Reich before ultimately entering the transfer portal<\/a> and landing in Provo.<\/p>\n

Though their time together was brief, Reich still had plenty of praise for Bachmeier during his weekly media availability, saying he \u201cwasn\u2019t surprised\u201d that the true freshman won the Cougars\u2019 preseason quarterback battle.<\/p>\n

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Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMy impressions of him were very positive,\u201d Reich said of Bachmeier. \u201cJust from looking at the film and watching the game, he\u2019s an explosive athlete, has a strong arm, is a threat to run the ball. So I kind of figured that having a little bit of that QB run game would be in (BYU\u2019s offense) with him, and he\u2019s got an explosive arm as well … He\u2019s a talented, talented guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year with Stanford is Reich\u2019s first experience coaching in college. The former 14-year NFL veteran \u2014 he\u2019s considered one of the greatest backup quarterbacks in league history \u2014 won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 as their offensive coordinator and served as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers from 2018-23.<\/p>\n

In scouting BYU, however, Reich feels that the Cougars\u2019 defense is similar to those he\u2019s dealt with at the professional level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very well-coached team, you can see that. They\u2019re a good football team,\u201c Reich said. \u201dTheir schemes are very sound defensively. I feel like I\u2019m watching an NFL defense with everything they do. I mean, they do a little bit of everything. They\u2019re multiple in every way. Their pressure package is quite sophisticated. (It\u2019s) a lot of stuff you see at the NFL level, and they do a good job of executing it.<\/p>\n

\u201c… They have a very good front seven … They have a fair amount of turnover. I think they\u2019re only returning three or four starters from last year, and last year\u2019s unit was really good … They\u2019re tough up front. They\u2019re going to play odd front, they\u2019re going to play some even front. They do it all, and they use their guys well. They mix up what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reich continued, \u201cTeams that are complex and have complex blitzes, a lot of times you don\u2019t see those (blitzes) until third down in the NFL because everybody wants to play sound stuff on first and second down. But (BYU), they\u2019ll pressure on first and second down with stuff that you might not typically see until third down, so it presents a unique challenge like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game marks Stanford\u2019s first visit to LaVell Edwards Stadium since 2003 and just the second ever in program history. While Reich said he wasn\u2019t too concerned about the altitude factor of playing in Provo, he did share that his team has taken extra measures to prepare for BYU\u2019s famously-deafening crowd noise.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously having a bye week, we\u2019ve had a few extra practices, and we\u2019ve been practicing in the noise,\u201d Reich said. \u201cWe know that it\u2019ll be a tough crowd there, we anticipate the noise. That\u2019ll be important for us to keep our poise. I believe our guys will do a good job with it, the way we\u2019ve been practicing with (noise) in practice has been good so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reich never played against BYU during his college days at Maryland, thus never having much direct contact with the Cougars during his career. However, he has spent time both playing and coaching with and against former BYU products over the years, saying he\u2019s gained plenty of respect for the program in Provo.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, as a quarterback, I\u2019ve respected over the years what they\u2019ve done offensively,\u201d Reich said of BYU. \u201cAnd now in recent years, just kind of getting in that Utah mode, that defensive scheme that they\u2019re running is really good. This is a good football program, I think they do it right. They do a good job, recruiting the players that they have that fit their schemes. So we have a lot of respect for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Portland State Vikings quarterback CJ Jordan (7) passes during game against BYU at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. Stanford coach Frank Reich knows his team will face a boisterous crowd Saturday in Provo and said his team has factored that into its preparations this week. <\/span>| Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a> Arden Culton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jackson has been writing about sports for the Deseret News since 2023. When Stanford visits BYU this Saturday, the Cardinal will face a young quarterback in Bear Bachmeier who they\u2019re already quite familiar with. Bachmeier spent spring ball at Stanford earlier this year, playing under interim head coach Frank Reich before ultimately entering the transfer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":869926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3563,3790,50292],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-869925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-coach","8":"category-football","9":"category-stanfords"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}