It doesn’t appear that BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick will name a backup quarterback behind sophomore Bear Bachmeier when the Cougars wrap up spring practices this week in Provo.
But Roderick played his hand a little when talking to reporters after last Friday’s practice, saying that redshirt senior Treyson Bourguet knows the offense better than freshman returned missionary Enoch Watson and is popular with his teammates.
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“He’s been taking most of the reps with the twos (second string),” Roderick said of Bourguet, who sort of shared the QB2 designation last season with McCae Hillstead. “Enoch has had some (work with the twos) as well. We’re letting that play out until we get to the season. But right now, Treyson has just got the advantage of having been here, and Treyson’s doing a good job.”
“Treyson’s a veteran player. He knows our offense very well. Has a lot of respect from his teammates. He’s playing good football. We have lots of confidence in him.”
BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick on Treyson Bourguet
Hillstead has transferred back to Utah State, while the only other quarterbacks on the spring roster are Snow College transfer Max Barker and freshman returned missionary Owen Geilman, a walk-on and the older brother of Emerson Geilman.
Emerson redshirted for BYU in 2025 and is currently on a church mission in São Paulo, Brazil; Owen Geilman served in Thailand.
That means QB2 will either be Bourguet or Watson, because coaches have said they don’t plan to add another quarterback from the transfer portal.
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Of course, they said that last spring when Jake Retzlaff was the clear-cut No. 1 and Bourguet and Hillstead were battling to be the No. 2 guy. But when Bachmeier became available out of Stanford due to a coaching change there and entered the transfer portal, BYU pounced.
That turned out to be incredibly fortunate, because a few weeks after Bachmeier signed, Retzlaff was served with a civil lawsuit that was eventually dismissed at the request of both parties but led to him leaving for Tulane in the face of a seven-game suspension for violating the honor code.
The problem this year is that there’s no post-spring ball opening of the transfer portal, as there was last year. BYU made a run at a couple of quarterbacks when the portal opened in January, but came up short. It was a tall task, obviously, with Bachmeier entrenched as the starter after a phenomenal freshman campaign.
Head coach Kalani Sitake said in late February that he was “happy” with the signal-callers in camp, and Roderick repeated that sentiment Friday.
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“Yeah, I have a lot of confidence in both of them,” he said. “Again, Enoch has a lot to learn. But his upside is very high. And in Treyson’s case, I think Treyson is an underrated athlete, and he knows our offense very well. When he goes in, we don’t skip a beat. We can operate at a high level with Treyson right now.”
Bourguet has been in the program since he transferred from Western Michigan in January 2024, but has appeared in only one game for the Cougars — last fall’s 69-0 win over Portland State. He completed one of two passes, for 8 yards, and ran once for 21 yards.
Remarkably, he’s still on the team, displaying a loyalty that is rare in this day and age of college football, NIL, revenue sharing and the transfer portal.
“Treyson’s a veteran player. He knows our offense very well. Has a lot of respect from his teammates. He’s playing good football. We have lots of confidence in him,” Roderick said. “Enoch Watson is learning what to do, but is super talented. He’s a very high-ceiling guy, super athlete, live arm. He’s just in the process of learning the offense each day. He’s right on schedule to be a really good football player.”
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A three-star prospect out of Queen Creek, Arizona, where he played for former BYU quarterback Max Hall, Watson was part of BYU’s 2024 signing class before a church mission to Chile. When he signed, Roderick said he didn’t put up a lot of gaudy stats his first couple years of high school because he played in an offense where he didn’t get to throw the ball a lot.
But at American Leadership Academy in Queen Creek his senior year, he threw for 2,581 yards and 29 touchdowns and ran for 356 yards and eight scores in 2023. Watson actually joined the team in December and participated in some practices before the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando and accompanied the Cougars to Florida.
BYU quarterback Enoch Watson makes a throw during practice March 27, 2026, in Provo. | Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo
“The chance to go to Orlando was such a blessing, especially for what they did, going 12-2. That was such a good experience,” Watson said. “Getting thrown into those practices was kind of different, for sure, to be thrown into live play like that not really knowing too much about the playbook. That was definitely cool to just kind of get that mission rust off.”
“As a quarterback, you want to be as confident as possible, but also still be as humble as possible. As long as I keep stacking the days, I think God’s plan will prevail.”
BYU quarterback Enoch Watson
Watson acknowledged that Bourguet knows the playbook and the offense better at this point, but credited new assistant quarterbacks coach Tyler Hughes and Roderick for helping make huge strides in his understanding of the offense in the offseason and this spring.
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Watson said he’s been getting his fair share of work with the twos in camp and will accept whatever role he gets this fall.
“As a quarterback, you want to be as confident as possible, but also still be as humble as possible,” he said. “As long as I keep stacking the days, I think God’s plan will prevail.”
Bourguet has a similar mindset.
“You’re always one play away from playing, no matter where you are on the depth chart,” he said. “I am just taking each day and trying to be the best person I can be on and off the field so that when Game 1 does come, I am ready to take the field if that is for the first snap, the last snap or the last play. I am going to be ready no matter what.
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“Whenever my teammates need me, I am going to be there to deliver for them,” Bourguet concluded.
BYU quarterback Treyson Bourguet delivers a pass during practice March 27, 2026, at the outdoor practice facility in Provo, Utah. | Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo
