BYU Beats Notre Dame 28-24 as Bear Bachmeier Accounts for Four Touchdowns in Provo

PROVO, Utah

Bear Bachmeier threw a go-ahead touchdown pass with 1:47 left, and No. 8 BYU stopped No. 2 Notre Dame one last time at the goal line to preserve a 28-24 victory on Saturday night — the Cougars' first win over the Fighting Irish since 2004, in front of 65,179 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium, the largest crowd there since Notre Dame's last visit, also in 2004. Bachmeier ran for two touchdowns, caught another and threw the winner, accounting for all four BYU scores on a night when the Irish became the fifth top-seven team in the country to lose on the same Saturday.

A quarterback who did everything

Start with the stat line, because there has rarely been one like it in a top-10 game. Bachmeier completed 23 of 36 passes for 224 yards with one touchdown and one interception, rushed 13 times for 45 yards and two scores, and caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Kyler Kasper on a trick play in the second quarter. He opened the scoring himself, sprinting untouched around the right side for a 5-yard touchdown to finish an 11-play, 75-yard opening drive. After Notre Dame answered — a 46-yard Spencer Porath field goal, then an 8-yard Nolan James Jr. touchdown run that put the Irish up 10-7 — Bachmeier caught Kasper's pass for a touchdown, then ran one in from a yard out, and BYU went to halftime ahead 21-10 after marching on touchdown drives of 75, 75 and 72 yards against a Notre Dame defense that had entered the night ranked fourth in the nation in scoring, allowing just 11 points a game.

There was history folded into the performance, too. Bachmeier told ESPN's Adam Rittenberg afterward that Notre Dame "disrespected me and my family pretty badly" during his high school recruitment — the Irish, USA Today reported, had held out for another quarterback when Bachmeier tried to commit in 2023 — and that "there are some receipts kept." He declined to elaborate. "I wasn't going to lose to those guys tonight," he said. Preston Rex added 66 yards on 10 carries for the Cougars, who started 6-0 for the third consecutive season, according to the Associated Press.

Notre Dame's comeback, and the interception that nearly ended it

The Irish (6-1) spent the second half climbing back. Two Porath field goals in the third quarter — 31 and 39 yards, set up by a muffed BYU punt return and a failed Cougars fake punt — cut the lead to 21-16. Early in the fourth, Jonaz Walton plowed in from three yards out and ran in the two-point conversion as well, and Notre Dame led 24-21 with 9:31 to play, having scored all 14 second-half points to that stage. It was Notre Dame's first real test of the season, and for most of the fourth quarter it looked like one the Irish would pass.

Bachmeier drove BYU back into Irish territory, only for Jayden Sanders to intercept him at the Notre Dame 15 with 8:05 remaining — the kind of play that usually closes a game like this. Instead, the Cougars forced a three-and-out, and Bachmeier got his second chance. This time he finished it: a 10-play, 55-yard drive in 3:56, keyed by a 26-yard completion to Legend Glasker, ending with a 6-yard touchdown pass to tight end Walker Lyons with 1:47 left. Lyons, a transfer who arrived this year from USC, gathered the ball sliding to the turf in the end zone. "They wanted some pressure, we gave it to them," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said in his on-field interview afterward. "And it worked out for us."

Four seconds, nine yards, and an argument that will run all week

CJ Carr was not done. The Notre Dame quarterback, who finished 27 of 49 for 261 yards, drove the Irish down the field one final time, converting a fourth down to Micah Gilbert that put the ball at the BYU 9 with four seconds left. One play for the game. Carr's final pass, lofted toward Jaden Greathouse in the end zone, fell incomplete — and the argument started immediately. ABC analyst Kirk Herbstreit said on the broadcast that he believed BYU cornerback Evan Johnson's contact on Greathouse warranted a pass-interference flag; ABC rules analyst Matt Austin agreed. Replays also appeared to show a second remaining on the clock after the ball hit the turf, which would have given Notre Dame one more down; officials did not review it. No flag came, no extra play came, and BYU's fans stormed the field as the Irish walked off with their ninth straight loss to a top-10 opponent on the road, a streak dating to 2012.

The Irish had played much of the night shorthanded on defense: edge rusher Boubacar Traore was disqualified for targeting on the game's opening series after a high, late hit on Bachmeier, and BYU scored its first touchdown on that same drive. It set a tone — Notre Dame chasing the game, and Bachmeier, from the first minutes to the last.

What it means

This was the 10th meeting between the programs, with Notre Dame leading the series 7-2 coming in, and it existed because Notre Dame asked for it: with its USC rivalry unraveling in the spring, the Irish called BYU and proposed the game. The stakes turned out to be enormous. Earlier Saturday, No. 1 Georgia, No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Texas and No. 7 Alabama all lost as well, making Notre Dame the fifth top-seven team to fall in one day — and the Irish had been positioned to wake up Sunday as the possible No. 1 team in the country. Instead, BYU is one of six remaining undefeated teams in the FBS, owns exactly the kind of resume win it lacked last season when the playoff committee left it out of the 12-team field, and can expect to climb into the top five when the new polls arrive. Next up on the Cougars' horizon is the one date already circled in Utah: fellow unbeaten rival Utah, on November 7. For the rest of Saturday's carnage, see our coverage of Auburn's walk-off upset of No. 1 Georgia and the full news file.