After a head start on spring, BYU freshman Enoch Watson adapting to QB role

PROVO — BYU's quarterback competition for the 2026 season is in full-go.

The Cougars' starting signal caller is cemented in rising sophomore Bear Bachmeier, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound quarterback who started all 14 games a year ago while completing 64.9% of his passes for 3,033 yards and 15 touchdowns with seven interceptions en route to a 12-2 campaign and runner-up finish in the Big 12.

Behind him is redshirt senior Treyson Bourguet and true freshman Enoch Watson.

Bachmeier has been the clearly defined started through all of spring camp, where head coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick have begun rolling out even more of the playbook for the established veteran who graduated from high school in three years and enrolled at Stanford before transferring to BYU last summer after a coaching change.

But the competition behind him remains strong.

After former backup McCae Hillstead transferred and returned to Utah State, Bourguet opened spring practices with a handful of freshmen and newcomers. He's currently the frontrunner for the backup spot as the Cougars wrap up spring practices, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick noted.

But Watson shouldn't be discounted — and less after returned missionary has been with the team since at least mid-December.

"Treyson's a veteran player, and knows our offense very well. I have lots of confidence in him," Roderick said. "Enoch Watson is learning what to do, but he's super talented. He has a very high ceiling, a super athlete, a live arm — and he's just in the process of learning the offense each day. He's right on schedule."

The former three-star prospect who played for BYU alums Ty Detmer and Max Hall at American Leadership Academy in Queen Creek, Arizona, joined the team during the 2025 postseason, traveling to the Cougars' Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando as the former 2,581-yard, 29-touchdown passer a month after returning from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile.

"I wanted to come home from the mission and get in a rhythm," the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Watson said. "I used a period in Arizona to get a little sun, and then come up here to get situated before Dec. 15 when I could officially join the team."

He also reconnected with his older brother Pierson, a freshman linebacker last season who played against Arizona, Utah, UCF and Texas Tech (as well as the Big 12 championship game and Pop-Tarts Bowl) while redshirting his first season back from a mission in Argentina.

"We joke that he's been my guinea pig, going through everything that I'm going through," Watson said. "I just listened to him throughout the whole process. It was very nice to have.

"As the youngest of four brothers, I have the chance to follow their good and learn from their bad," he added. "I talk to my mom and dad about that a lot. We make jokes about how the youngest always gets special treatment; I'm not saying I did, but I definitely have the chance to follow in their footsteps.

Watson returned from a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile in October, when he and his dad Nate — a former college basketball player at Idaho — made a trip to Provo before signing day in December.

The younger Watson couldn't formally join the team until the end of the fall semester. But while in Provo, he met several teammates, worked out with a few, and even made use of the Cougars' practice field a couple of times after team training sessions during the second half of the season.

And while spring practices don't always guarantee regular-season success, those extra reps — whether by himself, in Orlando before the team's 25-21 win over Georgia Tech, and through the penultimate week of spring — are starting to pay off.

"You can definitely see how he's comfortable with the reps and the timing of it all," Sitake said of Watson. "He just got home from his mission, but having him do the extra practices in bowl prep was really cool. I think that was really good for Enoch's progression and development, and even now if you look at practice he's improved quite a bit."

A lifelong athlete, Watson's dad played basketball at Idaho before a spleen injury prematurely ended his hoops career, and his mother Shelo also played college basketball in Canada. His cousin, Hattie Ogden, is a senior on the BYU women's basketball team.

So how does the offspring of two college basketball players wind up excelling in a football-mad family?

"Basketball was my first sport; I grew up loving basketball," he said. "But during that COVID year, we had a break from basketball and I switched to football. I was a running back until then, but that switch to quarterback during my freshman year definitely helped me realize that football was my sport, too."

And soon, he hopes to be running onto the field at LaVell Edwards Stadium, as well.

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