Wyoming Cowboys football (2-2) is ready to take on the Boise State Broncos (2-1) in Laramie at War Memorial Stadium with kickoff being scheduled for 5 p.m. this Saturday.
This will be the opening conference game for both teams as they start their quest to win the Mountain West Championship this year. Boise was predicted to win the division with Wyoming coming in second. These two teams have won the division the past two seasons and had to go through each other to do it.
“Ultimately if we want to win a Mountain West Championship we will have to beat Boise,” said linebacker Logan Wilson. “It will be a good challenge for us and we are looking forward to Saturday.”
Coming off the bye week Wyoming was able to return running backs Nico Evans and Jevon Bigelow to the lineup along with tight end Austin Fort. Both Forts and Evans are senior leaders on the offensive side of the ball.
“I hate not being out there,” said Evans “I hate being on the sidelines and not being able to help this team win. It is going to be an amazing feeling to be back out there on Saturday.”
Evans started the season out by rushing for 190 yards and added another 89 yards in the second game against Washington State before he sustained an injury to his ribs that would keep him out for the next two games.
Evans is a captain for the team along with Fort who also gets to return this weekend and Head Coach Craig Bohl believes both leadership and skill will be added to the field with Forts return.
“His voice carries a lot of respect in the locker room and he adds maturity to the locker room,” said Bohl “Our offense utilizes tight ends a lot and we had gotten handcuffed. He is a guy that can stretch the field along with being able to block, move and has a good understanding of our offense.”
With improving health on the team and starters returning to the field the Wyoming offense hopes to gain traction to be able to move the ball as they face a tough Boise Sate defense. Boise is returning a talented defensive line that had multiple players receive All-Conference honors and has received solid play throughout the entire defense.
Boise is not the only team with a talented defense however. Wyoming is also returning All-conference defensive linemen Youhanna Ghainfan and Carl Granderson. Wyoming will have to focus on the talented Boise quarterback Brett Rypien who has been starting for the past three seasons and has a lot experience to go with his talent.
“As a defense we are focused on executing and doing what we have to do to get the ball back to the offense,” said Wilson
While the talk may be around Rypien Wyoming will also keep an eye on the run game as Boise State has a productive running back each year.
“You always have to focus on both the run and pass game,” said Wilson. “They will get into a lot of personnel groupings made to run the ball and will also pass out of them too.”
Wyoming will look to get Rypien uncomfortable during the game and hopefully force some turnovers to get he ball back to the offense.
Turnovers played a key role in the game two years ago that Wyoming would eventually win. Timely interceptions allowed the Wyoming offense to close the gap against Boise before halftime. Wyoming would win the game thanks to a safety cause by the defense late in the fourth quarter.
Last year when the game took place at Boise State Wyoming would not force a turnover and would eventually lose the game 24-14 despite having a 10-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
This week is the American Football Coaching Association (AFCA) Coach to Cure MD. This is a cause to raise awareness and money to fight against Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Wyoming coaches will be wearing Coach to Cure Patch on their game day attire. To help with the cause you can either donate online at CoachtoCureMD.org or you can also help by texting CURE to 50555 to make a $10 donation.
