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Wyoming Cowboys vs Utah Valley Wolverines 

Tuesday, Jan 3rd, 7:00pm MT

TV: Fox College Sports

The University of Wyoming men’s basketball team returns to the hardwood tonight after their holiday layoff against Utah Valley.  The Wolverines are a familiar foe this year as the Cowboys have already faced and beaten the Big West school in Laramie on November 30th by the score of 74-41. The Cowboys will have to guard against complacency on the road as Utah Valley is sure to be ready to even things up against Wyoming on their home floor. This is a game on the surface that Wyoming should win and needs to win if they wish to grow as a program before conference play starts up the following week against New Mexico at home. The Pokes have had their offensive struggles and it will be interesting to see what changes were or were not  made after the 11 day Holiday layoff to boost offensive production.

Below are the ‘four factors to winning’ as calculated by statsheet.com. Wyoming has the edge in the field goal and free throw percentage but Utah Valley is just slightly better at ball handing and rebounding. For Wyoming to win on the road tonight they must rebound at a reasonable level and take care of the ball while also making sure they have good shot selection offensively. If they do most of these things the Cowboys should put a 13th victory under their belt. Enjoy the game!

With 2011 coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the year that was for Wyoming athletics. Our top five stories are presented below in chronological order with the date, a link, and a few thoughts.

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February 7

Heath Schroyer fired as Wyoming basketball coach.

After four seasons on the job Heath Schroyer was shown the door. He had a 49-68 record at Wyoming with a dismal 16-41 Mountain West Conference record and home attendance was really dragging. He was marked for success upon his return to Laramie after being an assistant coach under Steve McClain. Schroyer’s team played unorganized basketball and he couldn’t recruit and keep enough good players in the program to compete in the Mountain West.

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March 6

Wyoming wrestling wins second consecutive West Regional championship.

Under head coach Mark Branch the wrestling team has had much success. Yes, wrestling is very much a niche sport but Wyoming athletics has had very few conference champion teams in any sport so this feat has to be a highlight. Five Cowboys won their weight classes and six advanced to the NCAA finals. 

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March 31

Larry Shyatt hired as men’s basketball coach (again).

Athletic Director Tom Burman concluded a lengthy basketball coaching search that had Wyoming fans tracking airplanes in and out of the Laramie Airport by hiring a familiar face. Shyatt previously spent one season at Wyoming in the late 90′s before bolting to Clemson and Wyoming was very happy to have him back.

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September 24

Wyoming hosts Nebraska in football.

In one of the most highly anticipated home games to ever be played at the War the Cowboys were defeated by the score of 38-14 at the hands of the no. 9 Huskers. Nebraska ran wild racking up 333 rushing yards which was a sign of things to come later in the season for the Wyoming defense.

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December 6

Wyoming wins two major Mountain West football awards. 

Dave Christsensen was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year and Brett Smith won Mountain West Freshman of the Year honors. Both deserved their recognition putting him behind only Kellen Moore in terms of QB production in the Mountain West.

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Is there a story we missed that you think should have made this list? If you think so, leave a comment!

One of the worst kept secrets in recent Wyoming football memory became official yesterday with the announcement of Chris Tormey as the new Cowboy defensive coordinator. Marty English the defensive coordinator for the first three years under Christensen will stay on staff as the linebackers coach; a job he held under previous Wyoming head coach Joe Glenn. If you are a Wyoming fan you have to be happy with what Dave Christensen has done at the offensive and defensive coordinator spots over the last two off-seasons. There are not too many head coaches in the country who would hire two coordinators with more head coaching experience than them. Stubbornness and ego have cost many head coaches their jobs as they refused to bring in new ideas and an equal coaching mind into their locker room.

Last off-season Christensen refreshed his offense with Gregg Brandon whom he learned the intricacies of the spread offense from and has known for many years after the departure of Marcus Arroyo. Wyoming could not ask for a better upgrade offensively and the good news is this offense still has a lot of room to grow. Now this off-season Christensen realized that Marty English was not the man to take Wyoming’s defense to the next level and decided to make a change. He has brought in an experienced defensive assistant with head coaching experience who shares his overall coaching philosophy both having cut their coaching teeth under Washington’s Don James. Marty English must be given some credit too. There are not many coaches who would accept a demotion and stay on staff. English is a solid position coach with strong recruiting ties to the state of Colorado that provides Wyoming many players, it was important to keep him on staff for this reason alone. These moves show that Christensen puts winning before his own ego and now gives the Pokes a very experienced coaching staff that should benefit the football program moving forward.

Christmas is not a time nor a season,
But a state of mind.
To cherish peace and goodwill,
To be plenteous in mercy,
Is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

One of my favorite sites Footballscoop.com is reporting that Wyoming defensive coordinator Marty English will be moved to linebackers coach while Dave Christensen searches for a new defensive coordinator. I was planning on running this piece questioning the effectiveness of English’s defenses this week but decided to hold off in the name of holiday spirit. Well this news from Football Scoop changes the game so here are my thoughts on the Cowboy defense under English.

Wyoming had a very solid season this year going 8-5 even though most Mountain West experts pegged the Pokes to be conference bottom feeders. This was for good reason though as Wyoming was unproven at quarterback and no one could have predicted Brett Smith would play as well as he did this year. The offense has gradually gotten better under Christensen increasing the points per game from 18 in 2009 to 19 in 2010 and jumping up to 26 this season. The defense on the other hand is stuck in neutral allowing 27 points a game in 2009, 30 points in 2010 and 27 points again this season. Looking at the points per game splits versus winning FBS teams the trend of our ineffective defense is even more alarming:

Points Per Game vs FBS Winning Teams

2009: 6 winning teams, 33 points allowed per game

2010: 7 winning teams 33 points allowed per game

2011: 7 winning teams 35 points allowed per game

Allowing over 30 points a game puts the offense in a very tight spot forcing the Cowboys to win versus winning teams in a shootout. Not surprisingly Wyoming’s record in these games the past 3 years is just 4 and 16. The main reason for this poor win loss record against winning teams is the inability to stop the run. Here are the numbers under English:

Rushing Defense: National Rank, Yards Per Game

2009: 90th, 171 yards

2010: 106th, 205 yards

2011: 115th, 232 yards

The rushing defense has become worse season by season to the tune of 30 yards in the wrong direction per season. I’m not suggesting that the Pokes will allow 260 yards per game in 2012 if English is kept. Yet, I don’t see a path to significant improvement with three of our best players in the front seven (Hendricks, Knapton and Biezuns) having played their last games in brown and gold. If as a Wyoming fan you are happy with those numbers be my guest but we all know this program is capable of so much more. If I were Christensen I would go in a different direction on the defensive side of the ball.

The bend but don’t break scheme used by English is broken. It did not allow many big plays but it did allow too many sustained drives that kept the defense on the field for too long. The main reason for our success this year was turnovers. The Cowboys did a great job with a +15 turn over margin during the regular season but we all know turnovers are a fickle thing. You can’t expect to force that many turnovers on a consistent basis. The only reason English was retained from Joe Glenn’s staff was to keep some kind of continuity and three years down the road the defense is in much worse shape than it was when Christensen took over. Christensen should bring in his own coordinator who shares his defensive philosophy. Until this happens the Cowboys will never reach the goals they wish to achieve.

In the past I have written that the basketball team this season has gotten a little three point happy at times. Well last night was one of those nights as the Cowboys were defeated by the score of 57-46 at the hands of the Denver Pioneers. The Cowboys shot 1 of 13 from three and the Pioneers shot 9 of 20 from downtown and that was the deciding factor in last night’s game. The Pokes are now 11-2 and with three more winnable non-conference games left before Mountain West play starts up. So there is a good chance that Wyoming could have just as many or more wins as they did all of last year before league play ever gets going. That my friends would be a huge accomplishment and a clear sign Shyatt is already getting the job done. Now if the Wyoming shooters just listen to the “Y U NO” guy Wyoming will surely get some more wins!

As the Cowboy football season is now officially over I am going to refrain from posting the individual unit grades that usually show up on Mondays.  The grades serve as a constructive criticism of a work in progress and as there is no more progress to be made there is not much point in providing grades.  If you really want to see grades then just search for the Utah State review and read that, as a very similar story played out on Saturday.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting overall season grades for units and taking a look into the future.  It is always fun to predict what the future might hold, especially for a young and talented team.  The Cowboys definitely have some holes in their game and some definite room for improvement, but without a doubt this offseason will be filled with a buzz that has not surrounded the program in years.  You can fully expect that Wyoming will be picked to finish 1st or 2nd in the league next season by many writers and magazines.

Enjoy the rest of bowl season.  Enjoy the upstart men’s basketball squad and get excited for spring football and the college football preview magazines that will hit the shelves in June.

 -It’s well known that the Wyoming rush defense is not very good ranking 115th in the country allowing 230 yards per game. While Temple’s rushing offense ranks 7th in the county gaining 256 yards each contest. So the Pokes have absolutely no chance in this game right? To channel my inner Corso, not so fast my friends! Temple is going to get their rushing yards make no doubt about that but there is a clear path to Poke victory. With Temple being so limited in the passing game the key will be keeping the Owls around their average in rushing yards much like Wyoming did versus Air Force giving up 312 yards with the season average for the Falcons being 320. When Wyoming got in big time problems this season it was when they allowed much more yards on the ground than their opponent averaged. Examples include the 333 yards given up to Nebraska (110 yards over their average), the 390 gained by TCU (180 more than their average).

-Betting wise I was shocked when the opening line came out at 6-6.5 points. I thought for sure this number would come down but it has actually gone up to 7. Wyoming at +7 is a very good value and if you can get in on that action I would do so. If you want to look at trends Wyoming is 7-5 against the spread this year but is 2-0 when they are 7-13.5 point dogs. Additionally, the Pokes are 10-4 against the spread in their last 14 games on grass and guess what the field surface at New Mexico is? That’s right…Grass! If you want to take a punt at the over/under it currently sits at 50 points. I project a very close game with each team scoring in the mid twenties and as long as the game is decided in regulation taking the under is your best bet.

-The biggest advantage the Cowboys have in this game is at the QB position. Temple QB Chris Coyer has only thrown 40 passes in his career so far in three starts and has produced 8 touchdowns both passing and rushing. While Brett Smith now has 12 starts under his belt and has proven to be a very productive player with 18 passing TD’s and 10 rushing. As long as Smith moves the chains with both his arm and legs while limiting turnovers that help Temple score easy points I like Wyoming’s chances very much in this game.

The best Cowboy season in over a decade culminates on Saturday.  The Pokes have continued to beat the odds, the odds makers and everyone else that has stood in their way en route to a 3rd place MWC finish that very few saw coming.  The biggest reason for the success, in a rather obvious pick, is freshman phenom, Brett Smith.  However, the surrounding cast has been equally impressive in the respect that no individual skill position player has carried the load of the offense.  Instead there is a constant flux in production, one that has overcome injuries, age and experience.  Ask five different people who is the best/most important player outside of Smith and you will get five different answers.  The question is, who is going to emerge against Temple?
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When the Cowboys Run:

The Temple defense posts some very impressive numbers on defense.  The Cowboys will have to come out firing on all cylinders and establish the offense early.  The best way to do that is to have a successful ground attack.  With the running ability of Smith and the steady feet of Alexander the Cowboys are set to have a productive game on the ground.  It will be interesting to see who spells Alexander in the background, Kody Sutton or Brandon Miller.  The Pokes pulled Sutton’s redshirt showing their confidence in his abilities, but with the game on the line in Fort Collins it was Miller who got the call.

EDGE: COWBOYS
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When the Cowboys Pass:

The Owls give up around 190 pass yards a game and the Cowboys throw for around 210.  Those are fairly comparable numbers but the Owls have not had to face a quarterback like Brett Smith.  Smith’s ability to extend plays with his feet make him a much graver passing threat than the numbers suggest.  Expect the Smith to Doctson connection to show up some more, as Doctson has emerged as the deep threat that the Cowboys have been missing.  Don’t be surprised to see more of Sam Stratton either.  Stratton is shifty, making him the perfect candidate for the short bubble screen plays that the Cowboys frequently use.

EDGE: COWBOYS
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When the Owls Run:

This is where Temple will make their mark on this game.  Bernard Pierce and Matt Brown make for a dynamic duo in the Temple backfield.  The Owls had the 7th best running offense in the nation and rely almost solely on the run game as their passing ranking is a mear 117th.  To success against the Owls, the Cowboys will place a huge emphasis on stopping the run.  Teams have all gotten their rushing yards against the Pokes, but the Cowboys will be okay providing they do not keep their defense on the field for the entire third quarter like they did against CSU.

EDGE: Owls
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When the Owls Pass:

The Temple passing attack is a docile one and as a result the Cowboy secondary will be asked to help bottle up the run game.  The secondary must play aggressive against the run, but must not allow themselves to sleep on the passing game.  The Owls have only thrown for 11 touchdowns on the season, but they do not throw many interceptions either (4).  The tackling of the secondary may be one of the biggest keys to success for the Pokes.

EDGE: COWBOYS
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Special Teams:

Over the course of the season the Cowboys have proven themselves to be very average on special teams.  There has been some good and some bad.  The kicking game has continued to improve throughout the season, but kick coverage has been wildly inconsistent.  Punt returns with Burns and McNeill before him, have been solid, but the kickoff returns have produced very little.  The Owls on the other hand have very similar statistics, some good and some bad.  The Owls have not missed any extra points but they are only 13-19 on field goals for the season.  This game could easily come down to the kicking game so let’s hope the Pokes have one of their better games.

EDGE: COWBOYS
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Coaching:

After the departure of Al Golden, Temple hired Steve Addazio. Addazio was the offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators up until this season.  In this, his first season as a head coach, Addazio has maintained the level of success that Golden brought to the Temple program.  However, as this is Addazio’s first season, most of what he has accomplished has come using Golden’s players, so the Owls are still a few years away from knowing what they have.  Christensen was just named the MWC coach of the year and the award was well deserved.  The Cowboys are young and rolling; Christensen has a lot of positive momentum and the future looks bright.

EDGE:  COWBOYS
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Prediction:

Temple is a quality opponent, but they have faced very few teams that are as good as the Pokes.  The Cowboys are in familiar territory and will have a decided advantage in fan support.  It is hard to pick against a Cowboy team that has improved so much this season.  The Cowboys just find ways to win and there would be no better way to kickoff the holiday season than with another bowl victory.  Go Pokes.

Wyoming 28 – Temple 17

We interrupt your New Mexico Bowl preparation to bring you musings on Wyoming basketball. After last night’s gritty 58-48 win over UC-Irvine the Cowboys are now 10-1 and off to their best start since 1987-1988 (was that team any good?). Yes, the 10-1 record may be a bit misleading considering the schedule hasn’t been very good with only a strength of schedule of 234 out of 300 plus Division I teams.  The schedule was just as poor last year though and at this point in the season Schroyer’s squad with arguably more talent only had a 4-6 record. So the question must be asked, what has been the difference? The answer my friends without a doubt is Larry Shyatt.

We all knew what qualities Shyatt would bring to the table based on his one year in charge of the program before but I don’t think anyone would have thought he could transform this team so quickly. He has the Cowboys playing great team defense number one in the Mountain West in both defensive scoring at 49.7 ppg and defensive field goal percentage with opponents only shooting 35.9 percent. The last few seasons under Schroyer defense seemed like a foreign concept but now it’s clearly the strength of the team. All the credit for this improvement must go to Shyatt and his staff and it shows you how impactful a coach can be in the college game.

Could all this come crashing down once conference play gets going? It certainly could, but I don’t see it happening. By playing this type of  team oriented and defense first basketball even if you have a bad shooting night as long as you provide a good defensive effort you will always be in the game. This team’s 10-1 record may be a little deceiving based on the poor overall quality of the opponents played but this team’s hard working gritty style is 100% authentic and they deserve your support. Let’s start packing the AA again and see where coach Shyatt can take us.