Michigan State jumped on Wyoming early and cruised to a 56-14 win on Saturday afternoon in East Lansing, Mich.
“A game like this gives you a pretty good pulse of where your team is at,” said head coach Craig Bohl. “Michigan State, and the style of football they play, and how they play is where we eventually want to be and we are a ways from that.”
The Spartans (3-1), opened the scoring on a one-yard touchdown run on a fourth and goal by junior quarterback Connor Cook with 11:11 to play in the first quarter.
Michigan State found the end-zone again with 5:47 to play in the first quarter on a 19 yard TD pass from Cook to senior Tony Lippet.
Wyoming (3-2) was able to answer this score with one of their own on a 57-yard touchdown run by junior running back Shaun Wick.
“I was happy with how we executed that play,” said Wick. “I did not have to do anything it was everyone else.”
It only took the Spartans one minute and 22 seconds to answer the Wyoming score with a rushing TD of their own, a 33-yarder by senior Keith Mumphery.
The Spartans rattled off three more consecutive TDs to make the score 42-7 with 1:42 to play in the half.
Wyoming was able to score just before halftime on a four-yard TD pass from Kirkegaard to senior J.D. Krill which made the score 42-14. Wyoming would not enter the red-zone at all in the second half.
Michigan State added a couple more touchdowns in the second half in route to their victory.
Numerous missed tackles, blown coverages and three turnovers, undid Wyoming.
“When we play teams of this caliber, little things are exposed into larger things,” said junior defensive end Eddie Yarbrough. “You have to be assignment sound.”
The Cowboy defense gave up 533 yards of total offense to Michigan State, 338 of which came on the ground.
Wyoming’s offense only managed 286 yards of total offense, 188 of those through the air and 98 on the ground.
“As an offense we have to better,” said Kirkegaard. “This leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We got to get better.”
Kirkegaard ended the day 16/24 for 188 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He was dropped for six sacks on the afternoon.
Leading receiver for the Cowboys was senior Jalen Claiborne who caught two passes for 59 yards. Senior Dominic Rufran extended his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 42 as he had four catches for 35 yards. Sophomore tight end Jacob Hollister had a career high three catches for 33 yards.
Wyoming’s run game found some success early in the game, but digging themselves into such a big hole early forced the Cowboys to go away from the ground game. Wick finished the day with 85 yards on just five carries. That was good enough for an average of 17.5 yards/rush. Backfield teammate, redshirt sophomore, DJ May added eight rushes for 40 yards.
Senior cornerback Blair Burns was the only Cowboy with double-digit tackles as he recorded 10. Yarborough and sophomore Lucas Wacha accumulated nine total tackles respectively.
The Cowboy’s special teams unit struggled on Saturday as well. Senior Stewart Williams’ only field goal attempt was blocked. Michigan State also averaged 29 yards per kickoff return.
Wyoming welcomes a bye week before traveling to the island to take on Hawaii. That Oct. 11 game in Honolulu, H.I. will kick at 10 MST.
“We have a bye week and we are going to learn from this,” said Bohl. “We are going to make improvements and get ready for Hawaii.”
