On Dec. 8, 2013 former North Dakota State head coach Craig Bohl was announced as the new head coach of the University of Wyoming football team. Ever since then Wyoming and national sports media have swooned over the hiring.
Bohl, who coached his NDSU Bison to three consecutive FCS National Championships before accepting his new position, has been viewed as the best possible choice by just about anyone you talk to.
Hell, there’s already a billboard devoted to the guy on I-80.
From an outsider’s perspective this might all seem a bit premature. Wyoming football has years of mediocrity to overcome and has celebrated the new arrival of countless head coaches who have failed to change the culture around the program.
But here’s the thing: Bohl is worth the hype.
A self-described “hard-nosed Midwest guy,” Bohl has shown time and again he is indifferent to trends in college football. His coaching style is based in the power run tradition, which is exactly what Wyoming needs.
Bohl’s predecessors at UW have failed for a number of reasons, but perhaps the biggest has been trying to make Wyoming into a program that it isn’t. Wyoming will never win games because we manage to get the fastest recruits or because we run an innovative offensive scheme.
There is only one way the Wyoming football program can be successful – with tough recruits who play a fundamental style of football. Fortunately for Pokes fans, that is exactly the kind of team Bohl puts on the field.
Bohl will succeed where other Wyoming coaches have failed because he is not going to waste his time hunting flashy recruits who either will not come to Laramie, or will hate it once they get here.
He will instead do exactly what he did at NDSU and focus on getting a solid offensive line and unselfish offensive backs who do not turn the ball over. Fortunately for head coach Bohl, these are types of athletes who are content living in a place like Laramie that lacks the zest of other Mountain West college towns.
He should not have any problems getting them either. He managed to bring arguably better talent than Wyoming had last season to Fargo, N.D., a town that is—if at all possible—even less appealing to a recruit than Laramie (and colder).
A few publications have called Bohl’s move to UW a downgrade after he won his third FCS championship and sadly, they might be right. Pokes fans should rejoice, however, because Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman may have finally found the guy who can turn this program around.
