If there's one thing I've learned about myself while writing articles for Lawless Republic, it's that I have a wide range of moods. One day, I'm writing super serious articles advocating for officials and people with strict moral standards. And then the next day, I'm writing silly articles about useless, nerdy information and possible bad beats. Well, guess what? I'm in the mood for one of the sillier ones today.
I used a random number generator to select one of the four quarters of a football game, and I got the first quarter. Then, I randomly selected a number between 1 and 30, and I got 22. So that means I will be looking at the 22nd play of the first quarter of each BYU football game from the 2025 season and ranking them (spoiler alert: Most of these are random, forgettable plays).
A couple clarifications: One, with the exception of extra points, I'm including special teams plays and penalties. As it turns out, there aren't any of either of those on the list, but it still affected the counting. And two, this ranking is purely based on how good the 22nd play was for BYU. It has nothing to do with how well the game went as a whole. Now, let's get right into it.
14. Colorado: After the Buffaloes had scored a touchdown on their opening drive to make it 7-0, BYU was facing 4th and 2 on their opening drive at the Colorado 38. Bear Bachmeier faked the handoff to LJ Martin and then found Chase Roberts running across the middle. Unfortunately, he threw it behind Roberts, who was unable to haul it in as he slid away from it to the ground, resulting in a turnover on downs. It was kind of like water kickball, except that Roberts was trying to slip n' slide into home base and catch the ball to get himself out at the same time. It was the closest thing to a turnover on this list.
13. Iowa St: The Cyclones were leading 10-7. This was the only game where there had been more than one score before the 22nd play, and there were three, so it was looking like one of those games where BYU was going to have to score on almost every possession. That only made this play an even bigger disaster.
On 1st and 10 at the BYU 17, Bachmeier dropped back to pass, and Iowa St linebacker Will McLaughlin shot through a huge hole to sack him for an eight yard loss right as he was pulling his arm back to throw. Thankfully, this did not lead to a fumble like it often does, but based on the way things went after that, it might as well have. The Cougs got a taste of their own medicine with Iowa St's students section forcing two consecutive false starts and a 3 and out, and after the punt, Iowa St scored a touchdown to make it 17-7. So yeah, it might as well have been a fumble.
12. Texas Tech (Big 12 Championship): I thought we might actually get a good 22nd play from this game because I knew it would be during BYU's one and only touchdown drive, but alas, it ended up being an incomplete pass. Bachmeier threw it deep over the middle, and it was too high for Carsen Ryan, and his effort to catch it with one-hand came up short. To make matters worse, Ryan took a big hit on the play and appeared to be injured. Thankfully, he only had to sit out for a few plays. If it had been a more serious injury, I would've ranked this one dead last.
11. UCF: Throughout the first quarter of this game, not a lot was going right for BYU, and while the 22nd play wasn't the worst play of the quarter, it was the kind of play UCF was making over and over again. The Knights were already leading 7-0, and they were threatening to score again. On 1st and 10 at the BYU 30, Tayven Jackson completed a short pass in the left flat to Duane Thomas, who was wide open, and he ran out of bounds for a gain of 7. The Knights scored a few played later to make it 14-0. I've got nothing else to say about this play other than Duane is a lovely spelling of Dwayne.
10. Cincinnati: As I was counting the plays, it was looking like the 22nd play might be a BYU touchdown. But no, it was was the play before. On 2nd and Goal from the Cincinnati 7, Bachmeier saw Jojo Philips isolated one-on-one on the left side of the endzone, so he lobbed it up. It was too high for Jojo or the defender to have a chance to catch it, which probably ended up being a good thing because if it had been intercepted, Jojo may have been the only one with a chance to prevent a 100+ yard pick-6.
And considering Bachmeier ran it in for the touchdown on the next play, that could've been a 14-point swing. Man, if only Jake Retzlaff's endzone pass had been too high for Billy Bowman in 2023 against Oklahoma. Then, that play would've been just as forgettable as this one, and that's how I would've liked it.
9. West Virginia: There were a lot of interesting plays in this game, like the batted down pitch and the fake double-snap fake field goal. (You know a trick play is good when it has the word fake in it twice.) But the 22nd play wasn't one of them. It was just a 3-yard run for Khalil Wilkins on 3rd and 2 at the West Virginia 33. He did have to run over some BYU players to get that first down, which I guess was pretty cool for a quarterback, but we're just so used to seeing Bear Bachmeier do that that it's not really memorable when the other team does it.
8. East Carolina: This time, it's BYU with the 3-yard run. It was LJ Martin on 1st and 10 at the ECU 17. This ended up leading to a 4th and 1 stop, so theoretically, if Martinhad gotten more on first down, BYU would've eventually gotten the first down, and if he had gotten less, it would've been 4th and more than 1, and BYU may have kicked the field goal. So either way, this play may have cost BYU points. This is the kind of thing you only think about when you're doing stuff like this.
7. Arizona: Now, we're getting to the more positive plays. although technically, this one wasn't a positive play or a negative play. On 2nd and 9 at the BYU 48, Noah Fifita completed it in the right flat to Javin Whatley, who was stopped at the line of scrimmage by Faletau Satuala followed by several other BYU defenders. The play literally would've had the exact same result if he had just dropped the pass. It led to a punt two plays later and helped BYU get out to a 14-0 lead.
6. Texas Tech (Regular Season): BYU didn't have a lot of great offensive plays this game, but this one was pretty solid. On 3rd and 3 at their own 42, trailing 3-0, Bachmeier faked the fly-sweep hand-off to Parker Kingston and ran it straight ahead for 5 yards. It was one of only 3 third down conversions BYU had the entire game. Still, I didn't exactly go to bed thinking, "Man, we lost 29-7, but at least we did have that 5-yard run on 3rd and 3 in the first quarter that ended up leading to a punt. Someday, I might talk about that play in a BYU sports article."
5. Georgia Tech: This may just be another 3-yard run, but it may have been the best 3-yard run of the season. On 3rd and 1 at the Georgia Tech 38, Enoch Nawahine ran into a pile that literally included all 22 players and pushed the pile for 3 yards and the first down. The Cougs scored a touchdown just two plays later. BYU was playing without their top two running backs and with Bear hobbled and unable to run, and while BYU's run game wasn't exactly explosive, they had just enough solid runs like this one to keep the defense from being able to completely commit to the pass. Enoch Nawahine, Preston Rex, and Jovessa Damuni all earned their share of the giant pop tarts.
4. TCU: A lot of great things happened in this game, and the 22nd play was one of them. On 1st and 10 from the BYU 24, Bachmeier dropped back to pass, appeared to be looking to go deep, and then scrambled for a 13-yard run and a first down. The ball came out at the end, but he was down, and he jumped on it like a frog anyway. This was the second play of a beautiful 10-play 91-yard touchdown drive that put BYU up 10-0, and it was the 22nd play of an even more beautiful win.
3. Portland St: This play was actually a pretty significant one. After a turnover on the Parker Kingston punt return, the Vikings took over in BYU territory with a chance to open up on top. But on 2nd and 7 at the 34, Choe Bryant-Strother came in on a delayed blitz and took down CJ Jordan for 9 yard loss. Because of this play, Portland St ended up being forced to attempt a long field goal, which was blocked and returned for a touchdown, and that was the play that totally opened the floodgates. This play is a big part of why BYU won 69-0 instead of 20-6.
2. Utah: I was hoping we would get a good play from the Holy War, and sure enough, we did. On 2nd and 6 from the BYU 17, BYU's offensive line absolutely shredded Utah's vaunted front 7, creating a big hole for LJ Martin, who ran over some Ute defenders for a 9-yard run and a first down. And you want to know the best part? This got the ball from the 17 to the 26. Do the numbers 17 and 26 sound familiar? They're my favorite pair of numbers because 26-17 was the final score of the Holy War that ended Utah's streak.
1. Stanford: And the award for the best 22nd play of the season goes to... LJ Martin's 47-yard run against Stanford. In terms of yardage, this nearly quadruples the next biggest play on this list. The offensive line created a hole almost as big as the ones in the logic of people who argue that expanding the college football playoff will make the regular season feel less important, and LJ Martin broke more tackles than Tom Felton has hearts. This led to BYU's first FBS touchdown of the season several plays later.
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