No. 23 BYU holds off storm of West Virginia, attrition for 5-0 start

PROVO — BYU's battle Friday night wasn't just with visiting West Virginia or storm cells that spread across the Wasatch Front and over LaVell Edwards Stadium.

The ultimate battle came with attrition, itself.

Bear Bachmeier threw for 351 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and also ran for 43 yards and a touchdown as the 23rd-ranked Cougars improved to 5-0 for a second-straight season with a 38-24 win over the Mountaineers in front of a sellout crowd of 63,917 fans.

LJ Martin added 90 yards and two touchdowns for the Cougars, and Chase Roberts caught four passes for a game-high 161 yards. Parker Kingston caught four passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for a short touchdown as BYU collected its first win in three tries against West Virginia.

"We've always know that we could throw the ball around," Kingston said. "It was good to get it out on film, and let teams know that they can't stack the box against us."

But the Cougars held their defense with duct tape and super glue at times, none more so than following Jack Kelly's injury in the first half. The former Weber State star from Kearns landed awkwardly on his elbow and shoulder while trying to make a tackle, and emerged from the medical tent with a sling and an ice pack over his left shoulder.

Kelly was ruled out for the remainder of the game, and his status remains uncertain moving forward. Fellow linebacker Isaiah Glasker also did not play in the second half for the Cougars, though ESPN reported it was mostly for precautionary reasons.

"He was feeling pretty good," BYU coach Kalani Sitake said of Kelly after the game. "We'll evaluate it tomorrow, him and Glasker.

"(Glasker) wanted to keep playing, and I think there was an argument for it on the sideline," he added. "You usually have to go with the safe side with the doctors and the trainers."

Offensively, the Cougars put together more than 300 yards in the first half with four touchdown drives in seven possessions. Bachmeier's 351 passing yards were a career-high for the true freshman, and Roberts and Kingston both topped 100 receiving yards for the first time this season, a sign that — as Roberts noted — offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick opened the playbook to the young signal caller.

His 351 passing yards are just 14 off a BYU freshman record, set by Tanner Mangum against Connecticut in 2015, and contributed to 516 yards of offense as BYU improved to 24-3 in its last 27 night games.

Yet the postgame celebration was muted late Friday night, either by end of a series of storms that started and stopped over Provo over the previous four hours, a melancholy mood over injuries to Kelly and Glasker, or maybe the 10 penalties for 68 yards — many of them offensive execution penalties that likely contributed to the Cougars not scoring a touchdown on three of their final four possessions against a disadvantaged West Virginia.

"We need to celebrate better," Roberts mused after the game. "I think we won a great game; we made stupid mistakes, and we can learn from them. That's great.

"Hitting adversity is great for our team, especially early in the season," he added. "We're going to hit more adversity later playing Arizona, Utah, Texas Tech. There should be a lot of adversity. These are great moments for us, and we need to be more grateful for the win, for the crowd, for being at home."

Kingston is the first player since Puka Nacua in 2022 to have a rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game, and the first BYU player with a passing, rushing, receiving and punt return touchdown in the modern era.

The former Roy High quarterback scored both in the first quarter, including a 54-yard screen pass from Bachmeier to go up 14-0 with 3:41 left in the opening frame.

Martin stretched the lead to 21-3, finishing off Chase Roberts' career-long 85-yard reception with the 16th touchdown of his career with 5:17 left in the half.

In the first four games of his collegiate career, Bachmeier had a season-long completion of 41 yards.

In the first half of play, he completed passes of 38, 47, 54 and 85 yards — and also threw an interception and fumbled a backwards pass that set up West Virginia's Diore Hubbard for a 3-yard touchdown to pull the Mountaineers within 21-10 with 1:58 left in the half.

But the first-year freshman who wears No. 47 recovered with a two-minute offense, capping a nine-play, 73-yard scoring drive in 1:31 by calling his own number on a 2-yard touchdown to give the Cougars a 28-10 halftime lead.

Bachmeier completed 10-of-14 passes for 249 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and also ran for 17 yards and a score on eight carries with a fumble.

West Virginia only had possession for 4 minutes, 12 seconds of the third quarter after Will Ferrin capped a nearly seven-minute drive with a 37-yard field goal and Tanner Wall plucked an interception off a receiver near the goal line.

But Khalil Wilkins pulled the Mountaineers within 31-17 with 37 seconds left in the quarter after Jovesa Damuni fumbled the ball just 22 yards away.

Still, when BYU took care of the football, the offense did what it wanted. Martin doubled his scoring tally with a 1-yard plunge with 8:50 remaining, capping a 12-play, 75-yard drive over 6:42 to open the fourth quarter and stretch the Cougars' lead to 38-17.

The Cougars weren't just surviving West Virginia, but a growing injury list that included backup running back Enoch Nawahine during the second half.

Wilkins threw for just 81 yards with two interceptions. But the freshman former third-string quarterback also ran for a team-high 89 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries for the Mountaineers (2-4, 0-3 Big 12).

Scotty Fox Jr., who replaced Wilkins at quarterback with less than two minutes remaining, completed 3-of-3 passes for 54 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown to Cam Vaughn with 1:14 remaining.

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