Fight! Fight, you Cowboys, fight!
The Wyoming fight song is typical of most college fight songs. Fight this and Fight that. Boise State’s ends with a rousing “Fight! Fight! BSU!” as well. But, this Wyoming football team has done just that. Last year at this time the Cowpokes were 1-7 and headed to Boise for a 34-14 beating. It was 34-7 Boise state going into the 4th quarter. Wyoming’s stud RB Brian Hill had only 3.3 yards per carry and 76 total yards. The Cowboys lost their quarterback to an injured shoulder in the 3rd quarter as the game went from bad to worse. McNichols, Sperbeck and Rypien controlled the game on the ground and through the air. Wyoming had lost at home to a great Boise State team 63-14 in 2014 so it was an improvement. Head Coach Craig Bohl said after the game last year that his team was a “few classes away from getting there.”
Well I think you are early Coach.
Thanks to a 42-34 win at Reno, Wyoming brings a 3-0 MWC record home to face Boise State with the Mountain Division lead on the line. The ‘Pokes haven’t fared well away from Laramie, 2 wins in their last 11 games on the road, so beating Boise State would still mean they had to handle UNLV and New Mexico on the road and Utah State and San Diego State at home. I can see 2 losses there. Boise State only has San Jose State and UNLV at home and a resurgent Hawaii and spiraling Air Force on the road remaining. Not too bad to win out.
So, Mountain Division title hopes don’t end if Boise State loses.
But, how are they going to win?
They will probably do it through the air. Wyoming just got torched by the backup Nevada QB for over 300 yards. Nevada was averaging 180 yards per game passing. Only 5 other teams in FBS football allow more yards through the air then Wyoming. They lost their best pass rusher to injury, so 25% of their push is gone and the rest of the bunch only has 11 sacks. Boise State has 25.
Where’s Thomas Sperbeck? Where is Thomas Sperbeck?
Sperbeck left the BYU game with what looked like a rib injury to me. He tried to come back for a play but took himself out. Fortunately, Cedric Wilson proved to be 100% healthy and Sean Modster and Jake Knight are finally making moves to be a factor in the pass game. I am afraid the knee brace Jake Roh wears tells me his days in the pass game are gone. He has averaged 34 catches a year but only has 1 this season. So, if Sperbeck is 100%, there is no question Boise State has a huge advantage. Without him, Wyoming has some hope but not total confidence.
The biggest change with Wyoming is at quarterback where Josh Allen is the team leader. He was selected as Team Captain despite only playing in 2 games. Allen is a juco transfer from California and a redshirt sophomore. He broke his collarbone in the 2nd game of last season and missed the rest of the year. Allen has 5 touchdowns running and 10 passing. He can scramble but is a 6’5” 222 lb. pocket passer with a big arm. Wyoming wants to shorten the game by running the ball so he can have as few as 14 pass attempts as he did vs Nevada. But, the team believes in him and he predicted a conference championship before the season.
I expect there will be 29,000 fans to see if Allen can begin to deliver Saturday night in Laramie. The weather, by the way, shouldn’t be a factor with 61 degrees and only a 20%chance of precipitation. Let’s see what kind of fight Wyoming has for Boise State.
