With a second loss to Texas Tech in the 2025 Big 12 Championship Game, BYU fell out of the College Football Playoffs entirely, proving that the game was indeed a must-win. The Cougars have now fallen just short of the goal in two consecutive seasons, forcing everyone involved to reflect on the devastating result.
BYU fell by a final score of 34-7, giving the team its second double-digit loss to Texas Tech in 2025. Their lone loss in the regular season also came against Texas Tech on Nov. 8.
Although BYU beat every team not named Texas Tech on its schedule, it was still not enough to make the 12-team playoffs. The Cougars' strength of schedule was not deemed enough to earn an at-large bid as a two-loss team, even with Kalani Sitake lauding the Red Raiders as the best team in the country.
BYU entered both games as a double-digit underdog, but the pair of blowout losses was still devastating to its College Football Playoff case. Sitake and his coaching staff had one month to prepare for the rematch, which they ended up losing by an even worse margin.
Texas Tech did everything asked of it to lock up a top-four seed — the Red Raiders could arguably be seeded as high as No. 2 — but BYU's performance was still highly disappointing, particularly with everything on the line. The Cougars can blame the committee for its decision, but they did not deliver when they needed to most.
QB Bear Bachmeier
Bear Bachmeier has been sensational in 2025 and has exceeded his expectations by a country mile, and likely should be a first-team freshman All-American. He unfortunately had the worst performance of his career on the biggest stage.
Bachmeier's box score was horrific; he ended the game with just 115 passing yards, zero touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble. His performance was somehow even worse than those numbers indicate.
After leading BYU on a flawless, 90-yard touchdown drive to begin the game, Bachmeier appeared to be ready for the moment. He became the first quarterback to lead his team to a touchdown on its first possession against Texas Tech in 2025. Little did anyone know, that one drive ended up accounting for almost half of the Cougars' offensive production the entire game.
The poise, confidence and maturity Bachmeier had been praised for throughout the season all went away after his first interception. Everything fell apart from that point, as Bachmeier committed three turnovers within four drives in the second half to turn a 13-7 game into a 24-7 rout.
Games like those are to be expected with a true freshman quarterback, but it had just never been an issue for Bachmeier and BYU in the regular season. He ended with his second-lowest passing yardage of the season, and a passer rating of 80.2, his lowest by a wide margin.
Bachmeier will be back, but his first Big 12 Championship Game went about as poorly as possible.
OC Aaron Roderick
BYU's coaching staff has arguably been the best in college football all season, making what happened in the Big 12 Championship Game a true head-scratcher. Sitake's leadership has been a bigger weapon than any singular player on the roster, which set the table for an intriguing rematch, even with Texas Tech dominating the regular season meeting.
Instead, it was Joey McGuire's team and Shiel Wood's defense that showed more improvement. The Red Raiders were even more aggressive on defense the second time around, forcing Bachmeier into the most uncomfortable and miserable game of his life.
Sitake deserves some blame for getting out-coached by McGuire, but offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick was exposed to a larger extent.
To Roderick's credit, he had the perfect response to Texas Tech's aggressive defense on BYU's first drive of the game. The play-calling was on point, leading to a clock-draining drive that ended with a 7-0 lead.
Roderick landed the first blow, and Wood responded accordingly. Roderick's failure to adjust from that point was painfully evident, as the Cougars' offensive stallouts got worse each time out.
BYU's offensive struggles were the worst after halftime. If it was not already obvious, Roderick's inability to match Wood's in-game realignments became blatant in the second half, when Texas Tech pulled away.
The Cougars' defense has been the backbone of their success all season. Roderick has not been up for the challenge in the two games where their offense was forced onto its heels.
WR Jojo Phillips
BYU needed to get its passing game going to beat Texas Tech, but ended up having its worst passing game of the season. While the Cougars have beaten teams on the ground all year, a one-dimensional offense was never going to work against the best rushing defense in the country.
Most of the Cougars' lack of offensive success falls on Roderick's shoulders, but the players on the field did not deliver. While Roderick clearly had no answers, he also lacked the tools to match Texas Tech's elite defense.
BYU's passing offense has funneled through Parker Kingston and Chase Roberts all year. Neither did much in the loss, but it was the third starter, Jojo Phillips, who was virtually invisible on the field.
Injuries have limited Phillips to just six games in what was supposed to be a breakout 2025 season. He entered the Big 12 Championship Game with just 10 catches before having his worst performance of the year.
As disappointing as Phillips has been, nothing compared to the goose egg he posted in the title game. The speedster got zero separation all afternoon and caught none of his three targets, including an egregious drop in the fourth quarter. The game had already been decided by that point, but it epitomized the type of season Phillips has had.
BYU ran the ball more effectively in the rematch than it did against Texas Tech in the regular season, but it still needed to stretch the field to pull off the upset. Phillips is the guy who is supposed to be that threat, but he instead posted a 49.7 player grade on Pro Football Focus, the worst among the Cougars' skill players.
