Sophomore Riley Lange catches a pass against Toledo earlier this season.
The Wyoming Cowboys will travel to Moscow, Idaho, Saturday to face the Idaho Vandals in a game that will kick off at 3 p.m., Mountain Time. Both teams are coming into Saturday’s game looking for their first win of their 2012 season.
The UW football team has not played at Idaho since the 1950 season. According to Wyoming Athletics, this will be the sixth meeting between the Cowboys and Vandals. UW led the series 4-1 and has won the last four meetings between the two schools. The series is dated all the way back to 1921.
In 2011, the Cowboys had a great season winning all five games played that were decided by eight points or fewer. But to start the 2012 season, the Pokes have not enjoyed the same success. Wyoming has lost two of its first three games by two points.
Both the Cowboys and the Vandals have experienced similar seasons thus far. According to the University’s Athletics Department, each team has lost its first three games, facing a Big Sky Conference team, a team from the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and a Top 25 ranked squad.
For Wyoming, they lost at then No. 15 ranked Texas in the opening week of the season by a score of 17-37, then lost at home to MAC member Toledo (31-34) and last week lost to Big Sky Conference member Cal Poly (22-24).
Idaho began with a Big Sky opponent, losing to Eastern Washington in its season opener, then lost on the road at Bowling Green . Last week, Idaho traveled to No. 3 ranked LSU and lost to the Tigers.
When Wyoming plays Idaho on Saturday, it will be the latest of many meetings against the Western Athletic Conference — a conference that Wyoming was a founding member of back on July 27, 1962. The University of Wyoming was one of six founding members along with Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, New Mexico and Utah.
The Wyoming passing attack has been among the best in the Mountain West this season. Reports coming from the Mountain West have stated that Wyoming is ranked No. 2, averaging 247.0 passing yards per game. It also states that sophomore quarterback Brett Smith is averaging 307.5 yards passing per game. Since Smith missed last week’s game versus Cal Poly due to an injury, Smith has not played in the required 75 percent of the Cowboys’ games to be ranked in the NCAA statistics this week. But his average would rank him No. 1 in the Mountain West and No. 13 in the nation. His 347.5 yards of total offense per game would rank him No. 2 in the Mountain West and No. 10 in the NCAA this season.
The Cowboys have three senior defenders who rank among the top four individuals in the Mountain West Conference in tackles and rank among the Top 40 in the nation. According to UW athletics, linebacker Korey Jones leads the Mountain West and ranks 15th nationally averaging 11.0 tackles per game, defensive tackle Mike Purcell follows ranking No. 3 in the Mountain West and No. 35 in the NCAA with an average of 10.0 tackles per game, and free safety Luke Ruff ranks No. 4 in the conference and No. 39 in the country with 9.7 tackles per game.
Saturday’s game will be broadcasted live on radio over the 25 affiliate stations of the Cowboy Sports Network, beginning with the pregame show at 2 p.m. The game is also scheduled to be telecasted online exclusively by ESPN3 on Saturday.
