Before the Utah-BYU game on Saturday, Cougar quarterback Bear Bachmeier said, in so many words, that it was just another “away game.”

Well.

It was not just another game. It was a freeway onramp to darn near everything BYU football had scripted out as its intention this season.

His four interceptions, in large measure, cost his team a huge win that would have bumped BYU up the rankings and into serious position for a Big 12 championship, an invitation to the College Football Playoff, and possibly even a playoff home game. Further, it would have given his team and its fans both a lasting memory and in-state bragging rights for another year. And one other thing — it would have left a favorable impression on stellar recruits watching and deciding what football program they’d like to be a part of.

Yeah, it was a lot.

After the loss, Bachmeier was not present for postgame interviews, not presented by whoever makes such decisions at BYU to answer questions about what just happened.

The sophomore quarterback, it was said, was heartbroken.

From a human perspective, that’s wholly understandable. The pregame shrug over the cauldron he was diving face-first into — that it was the same as any other contest he’d prepare for — was partially true. The Cougars were 7-1 and holding out and risking those aforementioned goals in every game. After their loss to UCF, any defeat against any team would carry some of the same competitively devastating consequences as the loss to Utah did. But then, there was the other stuff, too.

Bachmeier is a smart kid, and he is just a kid. At least he’s a kid to those of us who have considerably more rings around the trunk than he has. He’s a 20-year-old sophomore with a whole lot more football — and life — ahead of him. As everyone, including himself, is fully aware, he’s also the Cougar quarterback, a position that carries with it the weight and responsibility every major college starting QB bears — forgive the word usage — but at BYU, that burden and blessing is amplified by tradition.

You know the names of the quarterbacks who have come and gone before him. He knows the names, as well.

And another thing he should know: Those names lost games and threw their share of interceptions, just like he did on Saturday. Uh, maybe not exactly like that, but within shouting distance. Nielsen, Wilson, McMahon, Young, Bosco, Detmer, Hall, and all the rest messed up games with bad decisions, bad throws, bad performances.

They felt their own pain.

There’s the story told about Young when he led the Cougars against Georgia early in his progression. He threw one pick, came off the field and LaVell Edwards told him, “Don’t worry about it, kid.” He threw a second interception, and Edwards said, “Don’t sweat it, kid.” He threw another interception, and when he came to the sideline, he supposedly told LaVell, “I’m not worried about it, coach.” And Edwards said back, “Isn’t it about time you started worrying about it?”

Something like that.

BYU lost that game. And many others, led by guys who went on to have fantastic careers, some of them to play in the NFL. They won a ton of games, too.

The season Ty Detmer won the Heisman, he threw 28 picks, the all-time record for most interceptions thrown by a recipient of the Heisman Trophy. And in the game immediately following his award, that same day, he and his fourth-ranked Cougars got throttled by Hawaii, 59-28.

Not good.

The point here isn’t to excuse Bachmeier for his poor performance, not to attempt to stick a binky in his mouth to soothe what ails him, not to excuse any quarterback from a lousy showing.

The point is, it happens.

That doesn’t lessen the trouble or the steep climb BYU now experiences. The Cougars, headed by their quarterback, lost a game they could have won. And that bumped their 2026 season off its rails. Whether it stays off those rails remains to be seen. It should also be noted that Utah is a really good football team, led by a gifted college quarterback who also has known and endured pieces of pain.

Where Bachmeier goes from here will say a lot about him, where BYU goes from here will say a lot about it.

The QB could roll into a ball. Already, for as intelligent as he is, his answers to questions from reporters before and after games, wins and losses, are often brief, almost trite. He lets out authentic feelings now and again, but here’s the thing — like every other human, especially one who exists under a spotlight, he can live and learn. He can hurt and then grow. He can extend his talents. He can prosper.

He also can hurt, and let his heartbreak spin him into a funk. He can get sad or angry or distracted, as can his teammates, who are faced with playing Baylor at home this weekend. The games, whether elevated or downgraded in importance, will keep coming, until they don’t.

Another season will also come. Will Bachmeier stay at BYU? Will he fight through adversity and look to win? Will he handle the criticism? Will he run from the negativity he feels now, perhaps to another program somewhere else, a program with deep pockets that will offer him a stack of cash and a fresh start? Will he welcome the competition with and stave off another highly-recruited, talented quarterback coming to the team off a church mission?

What will Bear Bachmeier do now? What will he do next?

Beats me.

They say he’s a tough-minded competitor, a young dude with lots of character and determination and fortitude and moxie. And potential to be great, to be far better consistently than he was against the Utes on Saturday.

The main thing left for him to do is to show it, and the thing for his teammates, his coaches, his fans to do is watch to see if it happens.