This one has been circled on the calendar all year. Now it’s here and we have a pair of top 10 teams who meet on the field as unbeatens. The question many Irish fans are asking, and one we’ll tackle in the preview today, is how good are the BYU Cougars? They opened with a blowout over Utah Tech (they are currently 0-7 in the FCS ouch), an 11-point win over Arizona, 18-point road win at Colorado State, 7-point road win at TCU, and a 24-10 victory over Iowa State last time out. With Notre Dame coming to town, BYU is coming off a bye week.

#2 Notre Dame (-10.5) at #8 BYU

LaVell Edwards Stadium
Provo, Utah
Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026
Time: 7:30 PM ET
TV: ABC

Notre Dame is also coming off a bye week of sorts, thanks to Stanford football continuing its quest to field a team, and will be hoping to get a couple of key players back off the injury list on Saturday night. The Irish are an admirable 5-5 under Marcus Freeman in games against teams who are ranked inside the top 10 prior to kickoff. Even though Notre Dame is a decent favorite, a win on Saturday would still be the first time Freeman has beaten a top 10 team on the road. Three of those wins (Clemson 2022, USC 2023, and Indiana 2024) came at home with the other 2 wins coming at bowl sites during the 2024 playoffs. Notably, Clemson in 2022 (13th) and USC in 2023 (unranked lol) finished outside the top 10 by the end of the season.

Vegas Corner

The line opened up this week with Notre Dame favored by 13.5 points but that was pushed down fairly quickly to 10 points. In recent days, the line has ticked back up to 10.5 points where it seems to be settling at the time of this writing. The over/under from Vegas is just 46.5 points so a low-scoring affair is definitely expected.

Weather Report

Another great day of football weather is expected in Provo so the tailgating scene should be on point. Temperatures are expected to climb up to 69 degrees during the day with plenty of sun. So, it should still be plenty warm for the 5:30 PM local kickoff time and there is very little wind in the forecast right now, as well.

Series History

Notre Dame leads 7-2-0

It seems like Notre Dame has played BYU more than in reality but a 10th meeting over the last 34 seasons, or one meeting every 3-4 seasons, is more than some super conference mates are playing each other these days. Plus, the meetings have come in little bulk packages first 1992, 93, 94, then 2003, 04, 05, followed by 2012-13, and the last meeting back in 2022.

It was a weird uniform matchup last time out in Vegas. 

We have this weekend’s meeting in Provo and a return trip to South Bend next season–and you get the vibes that both schools would like to sign further game in the future. Notre Dame has won 4 straight in the series, although the last 3 meetings have been very close games with Irish victories by a combined 21 points. This is only the 3rd visit to LaVell Edwards Stadium for the Irish and the last since the 2004 opener that saw BYU win 20-17 as the team’s combined for a whopping 33 rushing yards that day.

Fun Fact(s)

BYU’s football stadium was originally called Cougar Stadium and was re-named in 2000 after former head coach LaVell Edwards who won 257 games at the school and the 1984 National Championship.

Yeah, that’s proper cool. 

Their football stadium was renovated after the 1993 season. Months earlier, Notre Dame’s visit set the attendance record for a BYU home football game. When the Irish returned in 2004, they set the new attendance record that has since stood over the last 22 seasons. Third time’s a charm this weekend for a new record?

The white “Y” in the mountain near BYU’s campus was made in 1906 from rock and concrete. It measures 380 feet tall and 130 wide.

Coaching Staff

BYU lost their defensive coordinator Jay Hill and cornerbacks coach to Michigan, moved their outside linebackers coach to special teams, while safeties coach Gavin Fowler left to be the defensive coordinator at Weber State.

Demario Warren (safeties) was brought in from Boise State, Chad Kauha-Aha’A (outside linebackers) was moved up from senior analyst, and Lewis Walker (cornerbacks) came to BYU after being DC at Monmouth.

Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick has been at BYU since 2018 with the OC tag  on him since 2021. Kelly Poppinga was the special teams coach and has now taken on the defensive coordinator job.

Sitake has been with BYU for 11 seasons.

Kalani Sitake is in year 11 with the Cougars and is the longest tenured coach in the Big 12, by a lot (Dave Aranda at Baylor is 2nd most tenured after being hired in 2020). Despite a couple blips (4-9 in 2017 & 5-7 in 2023), Sitake has been a success for the program and guided them to be one of the best teams in the Big 12 after moving over from the independent ranks. Since 2024, BYU is 28-4 overall and 18-3 in league play coming into Saturday.

His flirtation with Penn State in December of last year threatened to blow things up though, but BYU opened up the checkbook to ink Sitake to a contract extension worth over $9 million per year, and perhaps more importantly, commit significantly more resources to his coaching assistant pool and NIL efforts.

Portal

BYU lost 14 players to the portal but judging off the destinations they certainly weren’t hemorrhaging talent out of Provo. According to On3, 7 of those exits did not find a home for 2026 (I’m not fact checking that) and from the other half, only 2 players found homes at power conference schools. From the 9 players they brought into the program this off-season, 5 are making a big impact.

Wideout Kyle Kasper (Oregon) plus tight ends Walker Lyons (USC) and Roger Saleapaga (Oregon) have boosted the offense as primary pass catchers. On defense, linebacker Cade Uluave (California) and corner Jayven Williams (Miss State) are also working in starting roles.

Top Players

QB Bear Bachmeier

Notre Dame offered Bachmeier in July 2023 as they were navigating the trials and tribulations of the Deuce Knight saga (the Mississippi product would commit 2 months later after this offer to Bachmeier). After visiting and coming close to making Notre Dame his home, Bachmeier eventually committed to Stanford only to transfer to BYU last summer after the suspension of starting quarterback Jake Retzlaff (he’d leave for Tulane shortly thereafter).

Bachmeier ended up winning the job as a true freshman summer enrollee and has won 16 out of his 18 starts, a sign that he’s a proven gamer. Listed at 6’2″ he’s 230 pounds (he’s thicc and does not seem to be quite this tall on the field), Bear looks more like a running back from the old days with his non-traditional #47 jersey. His stoutness and aggressiveness make him a dangerous runner–totaling over 500 yards and 11 rushing scores last year and 4 more touchdowns so far in 2026, including going for 109 yards on just 9 carries against Iowa State in their last game.

Bachmeier will be fired up to play ND.

His passing ability has long been a question mark. Bachmeier was not thrown into the fire last year and BYU didn’t ask him to throw much early in the season. After not throwing more than 29 passes in any game for the first half of the year, Bachmeier threw 30+ passes in 4 out of BYU’s final 7 games in 2025. The Cougars were rebuilding their receiving corps heading into 2026, and while the start to the year was solid, things looked really bad though the against TCU in the rain. However, Bachmeier returned with maybe his best career performance against Iowa State, throwing for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns. He joins Drew Mestemaker (Oklahoma State’s win over Oregon) as the only quarterbacks this year to have a 300 yard passing/100 yard rushing game.

WR Legend Glasker

Rarely would we be including a true freshman in this section but this is a legitimately amazing name and Glasker is currently leading BYU in receiving so far in 2026. He grew up in Lehi in between Provo and Salt Lake City but it was the Cougars who offered months earlier to their in-state rivals. He’s exploded on the scene for BYU and has at least 3 catches in every game so far, good for 378 yards and 3 touchdowns on the season. Also, Glasker gets involved in the run game a little bit with 11 carries for 83 yards and 2 more touchdowns.

LB Cade Uluave

While BYU didn’t take in a bunch of transfers, they’ve hit on the few they did sign. Uluave spent 3 seasons at California where he was a freshman All-American in 2023, honorable mention All-ACC in 2024, and first-team All-ACC last year. Coming into the weekend, Uluave has 263 career tackles with 24 tackles for loss and forms a really strong linebacker corps for the Cougars.

Prediction

These are the fun game previews to write. Expectations are high, Notre Dame is expected to win, but BYU is dangerous, playing at home with GameDay in town, and are underrated enough with a specific mix of playmakers to pull off the upset. I have 3 main points before a score prediction:

#1 Bottle Up Bachmeier

I need to be blunt here. This is not a BYU offense that should have a lot of success on Saturday night if we believe Notre Dame’s defense is as elite as they’ve shown.

Star running back LJ Martin is out with injury. Backup running back Jovesa Damuni got hurt during the spring and hasn’t played in 2026. Fellow backup Sione Moa got hurt in the opener and hasn’t played since, either. Fifth-year player Preston Rex converted from safety last year (he wears #12 so the backfield looks super weird with Bachmeier wearing #47) and is now the starting tailback with 145 career yards. Rex is now backed up by a pair of true freshmen.

Captain and two-year starter Andrew Gentry is out at right tackle, as well. BYU has been rotating redshirt freshman Siosiua Latu-Finau with true freshman Bott Mulitalo–the latter their top 2026 recruit and high 4-star prospect with a very bright future.

For sure, BYU has done a nice job rebuilding their pass game. A trio of transfers, plus the aforementioned true freshman Glasker, account for 814 yards so far–or nearly 78% of their production.

I don’t think they’ll need to spy Bachmeier to a tremendous degree (I have him averaging nearly 5.4 yards per carry in his career with sacks removed) but this looks like it’ll have to be a game where Notre Dame dares him to win the game with his arm.

#2 Grind Things Out

I’ll be fascinated to see how Notre Dame’s offense attacks this BYU defense. They are extremely stout up front, and while they don’t have well known stars along the defensive line, this is an impressive front that should cause a lot of problems for the Irish offense line.

The Cougars are also expected to get back linebacker Isaiah Glasker (cousin of the aforementioned freshman receiver) from injury this week which is a huge boost. He was scouted as a 4th round pick after last year but decided to return to BYU. Glasker combines with Uluave to form the best linebacker duo that Notre Dame will see this year.

Glasker is expected back this weekend.

This BYU front moves around a lot so expect some boom and bust plays. It’ll be important for Notre Dame to stay patient and be happy with 3-4 yards on the ground at times.

There’s a possibility that the Irish come out throwing the ball a ton and CJ Carr is going to check into some passes that he likes. There will be opportunities against this man-heavy coverage and Notre Dame’s receivers will have to win one-on-one battles, particularly on shorter routes where Carr can get the ball out quickly.

#3 Don’t Beat Yourself

Many have compared this to the Wisconsin game, but tougher for Notre Dame. I think there are a lot of parallels involved. BYU doesn’t move very quickly and actually has ran the same amount of plays through 5 games as the Badgers (61 per contest). In the opener, the Irish also ran only 61 plays. So, somewhere in that range of 55 to 65 plays sounds likely and anything over a 400-yard performance for the Notre Dame offense will be a good day.

F/+ Rankings for Week 7

I brought this up in the Q2 report earlier this week that Notre Dame has been so so good at limiting bad plays on offense, creating havoc on defense, while leading power teams in fewest penalties and with the best turnover ratio. This is the one game on the schedule where this type of proficiency and smart play needs to be reinforced (whereas against Miami I think Notre Dame is going to have to take some more chances, particularly offensively).

I do think there’s a decent chance Notre Dame comes out and really dominates this game in a way that really shocks part of the country. BYU has rarely played outside their Big XII/West/Western Coast bubble since the SEC gobbled up part of this league. Six out of their last 7 meetings against ranked teams have been in the Big XII and the other team is culturally Big XII program SMU. The last real big talent disadvantage they faced was Texas back in 2023, a 35-6 loss.

But, a road game at night in this atmosphere creates an interesting brew for an upset. I have faith in Notre Dame’s defense (especially with Leonard Moore and KVA set to return) although I expect Bachmeier to be incredibly frustrating to play against. I don’t expect a ton of great stuff to happen offensively for Notre Dame.

Ugly or not, this is a game the Irish just have to win. Not only to stay unbeaten and in line for the playoffs (and maybe a first round bye) but mostly because it’s time for Freeman & Co. to make a statement and show us that the program is operating on another level to BYU (no disrespect intended). The 2024 playoff run was a long time ago now and, despite the 16-game winning streak, this is a moment to deliver after an easy run-in to this part of the season.

BYU 16

Notre Dame 24