BYU Stuns No. 2 Notre Dame 28-24 in Provo: Bear Bachmeier Scores Three Ways, Walker Lyons Catches the Winner

BYU fans in the student section during the second quarter, moments after BYU went ahead 14-10. Photo courtesy of Tavia and Johnny Chapman.

PROVO, Utah. BYU fans have spent decades hearing that their program's big wins come with an asterisk. On Saturday night the Cougars beat the No. 2 team in the country, in the first top-10 matchup ever played in Provo, on a touchdown with 1:53 to play.

No. 8 BYU 28, No. 2 Notre Dame 24. Quarterback Bear Bachmeier scored touchdowns three different ways: two on the ground, one as a receiver, and the game-winner as a passer, a 6-yard throw to Walker Lyons. BYU is 6-0. Notre Dame, unbeaten coming in, is 6-1. And by the end of the night, five of the AP poll's top seven teams had lost.

The final

Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026 · LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, Utah · ABC. BYU is 6-0; Notre Dame is 6-1.

How it happened

A targeting call five plays in

BYU took the opening kickoff after Notre Dame won the toss and deferred, and the night turned almost immediately. Notre Dame defensive end Boubacar Traore hit Bachmeier helmet to helmet; replay showed the crown of his helmet striking the quarterback's face. Traore was ejected for targeting, the roughing-the-passer penalty moved BYU 15 yards, and Bachmeier, whose head snapped back on the hit, stayed in the game. He finished the drive himself, running it in from 5 yards out for the first points of the night.

Bachmeier, the receiver

Notre Dame answered with a 46-yard field goal from Porath and then took a 10-7 lead on an 8-yard run by Nolan James Jr. early in the second quarter. BYU went back in front with the play of the half: wide receiver Kyler Kasper threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to his own quarterback, and Bachmeier caught it in the end zone. That is the moment in the photo above, the scoreboard reading BYU 14 with 5:52 left. With 1:32 left in the half, Bachmeier dove in from a yard out, and BYU went to the locker room up 21-10.

Notre Dame comes back

The Irish controlled the third quarter. Porath kicked field goals of 31 and 39 yards, the second with 16 seconds left in the period, and BYU turned the ball over twice in the second half, once on an interception and once on a lost fumble. Early in the fourth, Jonaz Walton, Notre Dame's leading rusher this season, scored from 3 yards out and then ran in the two-point conversion. With 9:36 to play, Notre Dame led 24-21.

The winning drive

BYU's answer came late. With under two minutes left, Bachmeier found Walker Lyons for a 6-yard touchdown, Lyons' first of the season. Dunn's extra point made it 28-24 with 1:47 left. Notre Dame got the ball back with time to work and came away with nothing.

Scoring summary

Team stats

BYU's passing line includes Kasper's touchdown throw. BYU played without its leading rusher, LJ Martin, who missed a second straight game with an ankle injury, and still ran for 121 yards. Notre Dame was held without a passing touchdown.

Why this one matters

It is BYU's third win over Notre Dame, after 1994 in South Bend and 2004 in Provo. It keeps BYU unbeaten at 6-0, and since the start of the 2024 season the Cougars are 29-4.

The setting made it bigger. Notre Dame came in as the highest-ranked team to visit LaVell Edwards Stadium since No. 1 USC in 2004, and ESPN's College GameDay spent the morning on campus for its first Provo visit since 2009. During the show, BYU freshman Carter Smith won $3 million with one kick.

A Saturday of top-10 chaos

BYU's win was the loudest result on a wild day. Five of the top seven teams in the AP poll lost.

Georgia's loss was the second straight week a No. 1 team fell, which had not happened since October 1990, according to NCAA.com. Auburn trailed 14-0 early, scored 24 straight points, and won it after a Georgia fumble with 1:12 left. Its last win in Athens had come 31 years earlier. In Knoxville, Tennessee fans stormed the field after the Vols handled Alabama. In Austin, Florida rallied to beat Texas by three.

The 1990 note fits Provo, too. The last time the No. 1 team went down in back-to-back weeks was the same season BYU beat No. 1 Miami.

BYU's big nights, and the respect question

Cougar fans will tell you their program has spent decades proving people wrong. Saturday was another entry in a long file.

• 1984: the national championship. BYU went 13-0, beat Michigan in the Holiday Bowl and won the national title under LaVell Edwards, the coach the stadium is now named for. It has been argued about ever since, usually by people pointing at BYU's schedule.
• 1990: No. 1 Miami. BYU beat the defending national champion and top-ranked Hurricanes 28-21 in Provo, the same 28 points it scored Saturday. Quarterback Ty Detmer threw for 406 yards that night and went on to win the Heisman Trophy.
• 1994 and 2004: Notre Dame. BYU won 21-14 at Notre Dame Stadium in 1994, and 20-17 in Provo in 2004, the last time the Irish had come to town before this weekend.
• 2013: Texas. Taysom Hill ran for 259 yards and three touchdowns in a 40-21 win over the Longhorns in Provo.
• 2023: the Big 12. After 12 seasons as an independent, BYU joined a power conference, and since the start of 2024 it has won 29 of 33 games.

The respect question never quite goes away. Some of it is geography. BYU's home games kick off late on the East Coast, where much of the national media works. Some of it is history: a 1984 title won outside the big conferences, and a decade as an independent when the Cougars had no league to measure them against. Beating the No. 2 team on national television, on a night when the top of the poll fell apart, is the kind of result that makes that argument harder to make.

What's next

New AP and coaches polls come out Sunday.