Quarterback guru explains why Bear Bachmeier’s deep ball works (+predictions)

It's a footnote of sorts, but it makes a huge difference in BYU's offense heading into its third game of the season at Colorado State.

It is Bear Bachmeier's added skill to go deep . And somebody who can get deep.

The Cougars are favored to beat CSU in Fort Collins and Utah is expected to run over Utah State at home on Saturday.

The 11th-ranked Cougars feature Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year LJ Martain as a run threat. The offense fields a very tall receiving corps alongside a talented tight end group. The addition of sensational freshman Legend Glasker , who can take the top off a defense by going deep, is a big deal for offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick.

This was the case in BYU's second-half surge against Arizona last week when Bachmeier used a play-action fake to set up a drop-back throw to Glasker for 61 yards and, well, all but seal the win in the fourth quarter.

What did Bachmeier do in the offseason to add this to his arsenal? Why is he able to throw from the 20 to the 20, making Glasker a weapon that must be either double covered with a corner and safety, or at least make defenses account for that ability?

Well, it took some work and some focus during the summer.

Bachmeier, like Arizona's Noah Fifita and many of the top college and NFL quarterbacks around the country, has worked with 3DQB in Southern California. One of the instructors, former BYU quarterback John Beck , explained exactly what that entailed for Bachmeier entering his sophomore season.

"I would just say he recognized it was an area that he wanted to be able to improve on, and that was just driving the ball downfield. And so, it's not a capacity thing," said Beck in a Thursday telephone chat with the Deseret News. "It is being able to kind of harness what's there and really get it in sequence. He's a very powerful kid, you know. That's easy to see.

"He wanted to be able to drive the ball down the field easier and not have some of his balls downfield kind of hang on him and float, so that was a bit of an emphasis in some of our training things."

Beck said on that 61-yard throw to Glasker, Bachmeier didn't have to take a big move, like climbing the pocket with a big hitching movement. "He just was able to set his feet and send a ball down that field that he was really happy about."

What Bachmeier has done doesn't have anything to do with his athleticism or capacity as a quarterback, but more to do with positioning with his launch.

Beck explained that quarterbacks these days have spent most of their careers throwing passes behind, at or 15 to 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That's where their plays are designed.

So QBs get used to throwing those passes using their skill and athleticism and in their minds, they can do that, throw off different platforms, throw on the move or sprinting out and hitting targets at different angles.

But to throw deep takes a different position and mindset, breaking the mold of what they are used to doing with a pass play.

"Bear is a very twitchy individual, and he can get the ball out really fast, and he can change arm angles. He has all those things.

"And sometimes what happens is you build so much of your pattern based off of the throws that you make the majority of the time. And so for today's offenses, there're a lot of balls that are at the line of scrimmage, barely beyond the line of scrimmage. You know, you play a lot of your game within 15 to 20 yards and in. So what can happen sometimes is a quarterback just builds his positions and his sequence in something like, 'Oh, I can make that throw really quick.'

"They can build a body position where, because their upper body alone can just get the ball out there, it works. So for Bear, it was more of getting him to feel the right position and the right timing to be able to utilize his full capacity in delivering those balls downfield."

Beck said Bachmeier has a baseball background, and he can sometimes put himself in a body position that is not necessarily the best, but he can make the throw because of everything else around him by just sheer arm talent and twitchiness.

"Bear can do that. He doesn't always have to be in the best platform to make a lot of the throws that he makes, and he gets the ball out very quickly when he does that.

"But the tough part is, when your body starts to learn that pattern and it starts to utilize that pattern the majority of the time, then when you go to find the position that you need to deliver a ball downfield, that's less familiar, right? And so you're utilizing a position and a platform that is built for the short to intermediate throws when trying to deliver a downfield throw."

In BYU's first two games, Bachmeier is 32 of 46, completing 69.6% of his passes for a 9.0 average per completion with six touchdowns, zero interceptions and 188 pass efficiency.