"tired of being disrespected" byu makes a statement

Notre Dame vs BYU In-Depth Game Recap

Saturday marked the biggest win at LeVell Edwards Stadium since 1990, when the Cougars knocked off first-ranked Miami. BYU physically dominated Notre Dame, winning 28-24, and ending the night with a field storm.

After the game, BYU QB Bear Bachmeier stated that his team was tired of being disrespected, and dissed Notre Dame for "disrespecting" him out of high school. For Bachmeier, this game was personal.

1st Half:

The Cougars started off with a bang, with an 11-play, 75 yard touchdown drive, ending in a 5-yard touchdown run from Quarterback Bear Bachmeier.

Arguably more important was the fact that Edge Rusher Boubacar Traore was ejected for targeting for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Bachmeier. Notre Dame responded with a 46-yard field goal from Spencer Porath, who has missed just one field goal this season.

Notre Dame would force a punt and would take the lead with their best drive of the night: a 12-play, 84 yard touchdown drive. The drive consisted of a 26-yard rush and 16-yard rush from Nolan James Jr., a 13-yard one-handed reception from Micah Gilbert on third down, and was topped off by a 8-yard touchdown run from Nolan James Jr. on 3rd&6.

However, BYU would retake the lead with a touchdown of their own on a drive where Bear Bachmeier threw for 29 yards, ran for 14 yards, and caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Wide Receiver Kyler Kasper on a trick play. 

Notre Dame would go three-and-out on their next drive, and BYU would take their biggest lead of the night after another touchdown. Wide Receiver Legend Glasker had 16 yards receiving and 11 yards rushing on this drive, ending with a 1-yard run from Bachmeier to go up 21-10.

Notre Dame would attempt to cut the lead to one score, and it looked like they would have success doing so. This was until CJ Carr had a disastrous fumble when attempting to spike the ball at the BYU 5-yard line with 5 seconds remaining in the half.

While a controversial call, this was a monumental miscue from the Fighting Irish quarterback. However, there is definitely an argument that a delay of game should have been called on BYU prior to the snap for preventing Notre Dame from getting set up at the line of scrimmage, or that the call shouldn’t have been reversed to a fumble recovery for BYU because the whistle blew immediately after the attempted spike.

BYU Defensive Lineman Justin Kirkland also admitted to yelling “hut” before the snap, which could’ve resulted in Carr not being ready for the quarterback-center exchange. Whether this is true or not, or even had any impact on the play, it is still an absolutely inexcusable mistake from Carr. Now, the Irish would head into the break down 11 points.

2nd Half:

The third quarter started out slow with two punts from Notre Dame and a punt from BYU (BYU had a touchdown nullified by a “pick play” penalty).

However, Notre Dame gained some much needed momentum on their second punt, when Cannon DeVries muffed the punt and it was recovered by Notre Dame’s Bubba Frazier.

The BYU defense would stand tall to hold the Irish to a field goal, despite a 4th down conversion from the Irish earlier in the drive. BYU would have another special teams collapse on their next series, this team a completely botched fake punt attempt that Notre Dame was totally ready for.

Once again, Notre Dame would fail to capitalize on this BYU mistake, kicking another field goal after gaining just 3 yards. 

The Notre Dame defense would continue their elite 2nd half performance, forcing another Cougar punt. And finally, the Notre Dame offense would respond to a clutch defensive stop with a touchdown, set up by a 38-yard pass to Jaden Greathouse who was left wide open by the Cougars.

The touchdown was ultimately scored by the True Freshman Running Back Jonaz Walton on a 3-yard run, and gave Notre Dame their first lead since their 7-3 lead in the first quarter. The Irish ran the ball six out of nine times on this drive and really seemed to be wearing down the BYU defense and establishing the run.

On the next drive, Cornerback DJ McKinney was injured for Notre Dame, and BYU looked to take a shot on his backup, Jayden Sanders.

However, the former Michigan Wolverine would intercept Bachmeier and it seemed as if Notre Dame was now in full control of the game, especially after getting the running game going the previous possession. 

The previous drive consisted of many inside runs down the middle for Notre Dame, but this one started with a fancy misdirection outside run for a 4-yard loss. The next play was a 0-yard run from CJ Carr, and then the Irish were unable to convert on 3rd down.

In the second half, a muffed punt, failed fake punt and interception from BYU only resulted in 6 Notre Dame points. The Fighting Irish had a chance to put the game away after the interception, despite all their miscues, but poor playcalling from veteran Offensive Coordinator Mike Denbrock gave the Cougars the ball right back.

The Notre Dame defense had performed way better in the 2nd half, forcing two punts, a failed fake punt and an interception, but they would be unable to hold strong for much longer. A 26-yard pass to Legend Glasker got BYU moving, and runs from Bear Bachmeier brought the Cougars to the 1-yard line before committing a false start penalty.

In the end, the penalty wouldn’t matter, and BYU would score a touchdown on a 6-yard pass to Walker Lyons on third down to go up four. Notre Dame would have 1:47 and two timeouts to score a touchdown. 

Notre Dame would convert a 4th down on a 7-yard pass to Jaden Greathouse and later would have a 3rd down conversion on another pass to Greathouse, this time for 24 yards. An 11-yard reception by Jordan Faison would put the Irish in the red zone and a huge 4th down reception by Micah Gilbert would give Notre Dame the ball at the 8-yard line with four seconds remaining.

On what ended up being the final play of the game, CJ Carr rolled out to his right and targeted Jaden Greathouse on a fade route. While there was some contact, and the broadcast argued for a pass interference call, a flag was not thrown. The clock also clearly showed 1-second left when the ball hit the ground, but BYU fans instantly stormed the field. The Big 12 since acknowledged their mistake, stating that Notre Dame should have had one more play.

It’s a shame that this great game had such a controversial ending, and that this is the main topic of discussion after the game, instead of focusing on BYU’s performance and marquee win over the second-ranked team. Head Coach Kalani Sitake had a great gameplan, and BYU executed it perfectly (for the most part), leading to the program’s greatest win in the 21st century.

Cougar fans had argued that they were the most disrespected team in the country for the past few seasons, and a win like this will certainly earn them the respect that they deserve.

Game Stats:

Going into this game, we knew that for BYU to win Bear Bachmeier would have to do it all. And he quite literally did it all. He threw for a touchdown and 224 yards, ran for two touchdowns and 45 yards, and caught a touchdown. He willed his team to victory with pure grit and toughness. 

Preston Rex, the third-string running back for BYU ran for 66 yards on 10 carries, a very efficient game in the absence of Star Running Back LJ Martin. Legend Glasker and Kyler Kasper each had 66 yards receiving, with Kasper also throwing a touchdown. Tight End Walker Lyons had 49 yards and the game-winning touchdown. 

Cade Uluave led BYU with nine tackles, followed by Raider Damuni with seven. Isaiah Glasker, who was questionable heading into this game had six tackles and three pass deflections. The BYU defense held CJ Carr to his lowest completion percentage in his 19-game career as a starter. Neither team recorded a sack in Saturday’s contest.

Outside of the fake punt, BYU had a great gameplan and playcalling performance, mixing up the run and pass, and making an undisciplined Notre Dame defense pay with trick plays. The BYU offensive line battled all night, not allowing a sack, and giving BYU ball carriers great holes to work with.

On the Notre Dame side, CJ Carr threw for 261 yards, a season-high for the Fighting Irish quarterback. However, he threw 49 passes, which is his career-high by 17, and he had not recorded 30+ passing attempts this season until Saturday’s game.

The road environment definitely got to Carr who seemed a little bit out of rhythm with some throws, notably missing a wide-open Jordan Faison for what should have been a long touchdown on their opening series.

The fact that he had to scoop the ball off the ground on half of his dropbacks due to horrid snaps from center Ashton Craig couldn’t have helped either. While he made some great throws in tight windows, I am sure that CJ would love to have some throws back. 

Nolan James led the Irish with 77 yards on the ground and a touchdown on 16 carries. He also had three receptions for 18 yards. Jonaz Walton had 17 yards and a touchdown on just 5 carries, after totaling 362 rushing yards on 43 carries (8.4 YPC) in the previous three games.

Aneyas Williams, who was supposed to be Notre Dame’s main back heading into the season, had just three carries. 2024 CFP Jaden Greathouse was back, totaling 125 yards and eight receptions, both game-highs for the Fighting Irish. Jordan Faison added 64 yards, and Micah Gilbert had 31 yards, including the one-handed catch on third down and the crucial reception on fourth down on the final drive.

Luke Talich and Drayk Bowen led the Irish with nine tackles each. Jaylen Sneed also had seven. Jayden Sanders had the lone interception in the game, filling in for the injured DJ McKinney. The Irish will certainly want him back for the November 7th matchup against Miami.

Overall, Notre Dame’s star-studded defense was very undisciplined and showed a lack of aggressiveness on Saturday, especially in the first half. Whether this should be blamed on Defensive Coordinator Chris Ash, who has now given up 27, 41 and 28 points in his three biggest games as the Notre Dame DC, is up for interpretation. Objectively, he has had one of the top defenses in the nation for all three of these games, loaded with talent on all three levels.

What This Win Means for BYU

This win means a lot for BYU and the Big 12 conference has a whole. It gives them a marquee win that will be a main point of argument if the Cougars are ever on the bubble for a CFP bid. It also legitimizes the entire conference, as it shows that the conference can compete with anyone.

Beating Notre Dame now allows BYU to drop a game or two and still be able to make the CFP. They are now a very serious at-large contender and do not necessarily need to win the Big 12 to make an appearance in the playoffs. BYU will need to carry this momentum with them the rest of the season, as they have now emerged as one of the nation’s top teams.

For the program, this is a defining win. It will only help them in the recruiting process and their recent success labels them as one of the nation’s most consistent teams over the past few seasons. Kalani Sitake could’ve packed his bags this offseason, but he chose to stick with the school he loves because he knew that something special could be built in Provo. 

What This Loss Means for Notre Dame

This loss just means more fuel to the fire for Notre Dame haters. The Fighting Irish talked all offseason about how special this group was, and to lose in their first big game was nothing short of a disappointment.

Despite playing 18 ranked opponents in the regular season since the start of 2022 (more than Georgia, 17, Ohio State, 15, Miami, 10, Indiana, 10, BYU, 10, Texas Tech, 14, and comparable with Alabama, 21, Texas, 20) and winning more ranked games over this time period than every team except Georgia, the Fighting Irish need to win their hardest games to prove their capabilities. 

We will see what they are made of on November 7th against Miami, in a rematch of the game that kept them out of the CFP last season. Ultimately, all that Notre Dame hoped for this season is still achievable and in their control. If the Fighting Irish play to the level they think they are capable of, a National Championship run can still be in front of them. They just can’t perform like this on the big stage for the rest of the season, it won’t be enough.