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Wyoming coach: 'The odds of us ... winning are small' |
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JaredCowley | Wednesday, November 8, 2006, 7:33 am
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Brandon Judd
DAILY HERALD
Picked to finish last in the conference by the Mountain West media in July, the Wyoming Cowboys appeared to be proving the prediction right after going 1-4 in September.
But behind the strength of a swarming, physical defense and a young quarterback who has made enough rights decisions to get wins, the Cowboys (5-5) have ripped off wins in four out of their past five games.
And now for the ironic part.
BYU qualified for postseason play with a win against Wyoming last year up in Laramie, and this year, the Cowboys can become bowl eligible on Thursday with a victory over the No. 25 Cougars in Provo.
Still, Wyoming coach Joe Glenn knows it will take more than irony and a solid defense to take down league-leading BYU (7-2), which has won six straight and is 5-0 in conference play.
“The odds of us going in to Utah and playing BYU and winning are small,” Glenn said.
The Cowboys may have to wait until their final game of the season — a Nov. 18 matchup with 1-8 UNLV — to try and pick up a postseason-qualifying sixth win.
“We’re thinking about getting bowl eligible,” Glenn said. “We’re working hard as we can to make that work out.”
The Cougars, meanwhile, are just one win away from clinching at least a share of the MWC crown. But BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said the team is focused on winning the title outright, not just sharing it.
“There are two more games after this as well,” he said.
The Cougars’ latest road block between them and their first conference crown since 2001 is a Cowboy squad that is fourth in the nation in pass defense, allowing only 140.1 passing yards per game. During the offseason Wyoming, like BYU, made a switch to a 3-4 defense.
“We’re playing better in the secondary than we ever thought,” Glenn said. “We have two senior safeties who have played well, most of the time. Our linebacking corps has better than my wildest dreams.”
Another key for the Cowboys during their current winning stretch has been the emergence of redshirt freshman quarterback Karsten Sween, who has completed more than 60 percent of his passes while throwing for 1,023 yards and eight TDs in leading Wyoming to a 4-2 conference mark, second only to BYU.
Still, it’s the Cowboy defense that is capturing the attention of opposing coaches.
“I think they’re confident,” Mendenhall said. “That’s something they started with, and it’s grown each week.”
Glenn said it’s also important, though, for the Cowboys to get their offense going against the Cougars. BYU is No. 11 in the country in scoring, averaging 34.44 points per game, while giving up just 14.22 points a game, also good for 11th in the nation.
“Somehow we’ve got to find a way to get a short field. We have to score with regularity,” Glenn said. “We have to find a way to get some points on the board, light up some scoreboard light bulbs.
“There isn’t anybody else in the league who can get 65,000 fans (out to a game). BYU is the strength of this league, and they will continue to be the strength of this league.”
Goal-line gaffe: The last time Utah and Colorado State met on the field, in October of ’05, the Utes couldn’t punch in the ball from less than a yard out on four tries late in the fourth quarter as the Rams prevailed, 21-17.
On Saturday, the two teams will meet again, this time at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said it was an emotional game for the Utes.
“We’re not a team that plays the revenge-factor card, but I don’t think there a player who doesn’t have strong feelings about that,” Whittingham said. “It was tough to swallow. They had a great goal-line stand. We don’t try to block it out like it never happened. We try to learn from it.
“It was devastating. It was emotional. Some losses you can put behind you quickly, and some you can’t. That was one you can’t. You’ve just got to be able to move forward. I thought we recovered from it last year.”
While the Utes did lose their following game, a 28-19 setback to San Diego State, they bounced back to win four of their final five games in 2005, including a 38-10 win over Georgia Tech in the Emerald Bowl.
Handing out honors: For the first time this season, a BYU defender was named MWC Player of the Week when Cougar linebacker Cameron Jensen earned the honor on Monday.
The senior captain led BYU in tackles with nine in a 24-3 victory over Colorado State on Saturday. He also had two sacks as the Cougar defense held the Rams to just 151 yards of total offense. BYU had five sacks in the game.
“They don’t give you the big play,” said Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick. “They are very difficult to move the football on.”
Wyoming running back Devin Moore was named MWC Offensive Player of the Week, while TCU kicker Peter LoCoco earned special teams honors.
On the national scene: On Tuesday, two MWC players were named to national award semifinalists lists. BYU senior quarterback John Beck was named one of 18 semifinalists for the Davey O’Brien Award, while Utah defensive back Eric Weddle was one of 11 players named a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award. The O’Brien Award is given to the nation’s top quarterback, while the Thorpe award is given to the nation’s top defensive back.
“More important even than his ability to be a successful quarterback at BYU, John is an incredible person,” said former BYU standout and NFL Pro-Bowl tight end Chad Lewis. “He treats other people with kindness and patience. He represents BYU in such a positive light. I feel grateful to know him and to be his friend. I know that after the lights of football fade, John will still be the quality individual that he is now. Every coach should be lucky enough to coach someone like John."
The list for the finalists for the O’Brien Award will be announced Nov. 21. The winner of both the O’Brien and Thorpe Awards will be announced on Dec. 7 at the college football awards show on ESPN.
Pageantry of the Golden Dome: Air Force has another difficult contest on its schedule this week when the Falcons host No. 8 Notre Dame. It’s the first time Air Force and the tradition-rich Fighting Irish have played since 2002, a 21-14 Notre Dame victory when both teams were ranked.
The Fighting Irish are led by senior quarterback Brady Quinn, a Heisman hopeful who’s thrown for 2,579 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2006. Notre Dame (8-1) is on a six-game winning streak and ranked No. 16 in the country in scoring, averaging 31.67 points per game.
“Notre Dame’s always Notre Dame,” said Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry said. “They do a great job of recruiting. They’ve got a senior-dominated football team this year.”
DeBerry said the pageantry of Notre Dame goes beyond the field, though.
“The fans of Notre Dame are some of the greatest fans in the country,” he said. “They really understand the game.”
They said it: “This will be a very telling week as to which teams will become bowl eligible.” — MWC Commissioner Craig Thompson. This week, three MWC teams — Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming — could become bowl eligible with wins. The Utes play Colorado State, the Lobos host TCU and the Cowboys are at BYU. BYU (7-2) is already bowl-eligible.
Brandon Judd can be reached at
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