Barnburner?  Pah!

Saturday's matchup between Wyoming and BYU will highlight the offensive struggles that both teams have experienced this year so far.  While BYU had a fairly impressive win against Washington at the beginning of this year, they have fizzled to a large degree and have only beaten one other team in that time (SDSU).  Wyoming is not sitting any better.  Their only wins come against FCS opponent Southern Utah and a decent Toledo team.  Both teams reside at the bottom of nearly all offensive statistics, though Wyoming is a few spots lower than BYU.

Wyoming has arguably had the tougher schedule, and they played very strong against a non-depleted Air Force team.  BYU did not play so well against Air Force in comparison.  BYU has also lost against Utah State, which seems quite comparable to Toledo.  BYU had a better showing against TCU than Wyoming did, but that comparison is like judging the merits of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" vs. "Gigli".

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Apparently the mystery behind Coach Christensen's decision to close Wyoming's practices to the media (and everyone else) had to do with the injury that Austyn Carta-Samuels suffered to his hand during the Toledo game.  His hand was stepped on, and it received a few lacerations, but did not seem to have been injured enough to miss a game.  I'm guessing that after the flight home he was evaluated and the injury was much more serious than expected.

Dax Crum, a senior at UW, will be starting in his stead.  Dax is a solid backup quarterback, but so far has not shown himself to be the playmaker that ACS is.  He played in the final quarter at Texas this year, but has not actually started a game since 2008 (Joe Glenn's last year).  He also took some snaps in the Boise game, but again was not able to really break out with a signature performance.

Few people were expecting Wyoming to come to TCU and be very competitive.  After the blowout at the hands of Boise State, it is hard to imagine that UW would have the tools to upset TCU.  Stranger things have happened, but without the talents of Austyn as a passer and runner, those chances have slipped even further.  But who knows?  If UW's o-line can give that extra split second of time for Crum to pass, and they have a running game, then the Pokes could surprise the Frogs.  Here's hoping that Dax can step up with a performance to remember!

Where does one start?  Oh yes, a win.

Wyoming received its second win this season against what appears to be a somewhat disjointed and beat up Toledo Rockets team.  Toledo was coming off from a big win at Purdue, and perhaps the 1-3 record that Wyoming held at that time caused them to feel overconfident in their playing ability, or perhaps they were looking ahead to next week when they visit Boise State on the blue turf.  Needless to say, Wyoming came away with an interesting, if not surprising win against a solid Toledo team.

Defense for the Cowboys was the highlight of the game.  Even without star linebacker Brian Hendricks in the lineup, the defense showed up big.  Ghaali Muhammad played in that position throughout the game, and looked to have had a career night (admittedly, he has a short career at that position).  His highlight was of a sack of the Toledo QB on a 4^th and 5 yard play, which helped to seal the Wyoming win.  Part of the reason the defense showed up so big is due to the marginal weather that the game experienced.  It was wet and drizzling for most of the game, and the evening was very much on the cool side.

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If there are two teams out there that are nearly mirror images, it would appear to be Wyoming and Toledo.  The Cowboys and the Rockets share a similar makeup of personnel, offensive schemes, defensive standouts, and even some history with the current UW coaches.

The Cowboys had a solid performance against a very tough AFA team this past week, and they look to build upon that.  The running game finally got off the ground against a fairly stout AF defense, but the passing game took a backseat as compared to previous games.  The defense played well and played their assignments with a discipline which held AF 20 yards below their season average.  Two turnovers really cost UW the game, and that has been an area where they are lacking as compared to last year's team which excelled at taking the ball away.

Toledo has a sophomore quarterback who has played very well so far this year.  UW of course has a sophomore QB as well.  Toledo runs a spread offense, which until last week UW ran as well.  Toledo utilizes a 4:3 defense, ditto for UW.  Toledo has a stable of active and talented receivers.  UW: check.

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What a difference a week makes.

Two weeks ago the Wyoming Cowboys were thoroughly demolished by a Boise State team that is currently ranked #3 in the nation.  The Pokes played an amazingly sloppy game, with any kind of momentum change negated by penalties and turnovers.  Dropped balls, an inability to run, poor blocking, and continued suspect tackling made it easy for BSU to rack up 50+ points against Wyoming's only touchdown (in which the extra point was missed).

Spring ahead to this past weekend, and we saw a completely different Wyoming team take to War Memorial Stadium.

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Wyoming takes on the Air Force Academy Falcons this Saturday at noon.  While this is not a rivalry game, the competitiveness between these two programs has always run at a high level.  Air Force has played a lot of hard-nosed, yet smart games over the decades.  Their ability to focus on their positions, and retain a high level of discipline makes them a tough team to play for anyone around the nation.

The Cowboys are coming off of a rough, and mostly embarrassing, loss to Boise State.  While BSU is a top 3 team, Wyoming did almost as much to hurt themselves as what Boise's outstanding offense and defense did.  The good news for Wyoming is that they have few major injuries, and essentially all of the players available for last week's game should be available again.  The team seems to be in good physical shape, and their conditioning is probably better than in years past.  This is likely the biggest reason for the so far apparent lack of major injuries this fall.

Air Force is coming off a very tough loss to a good OU team.  Oklahoma very nearly was beat by Air Force, and a couple of extra plays on defense could have given the Cadets a win.  This was a really rough game, with some pretty hard hitting on both sides.  AFA was able to effectively move the ball against a stout Oklahoma defense that dominated Florida State the week before.  Air Force seems to be a little beat up, after having a couple of weeks that were quite similar to UW's.  The first game of the AFA season was against a FCS opponent that they dominated.  Then they played, and upset, the BYU Cougars the next week.  Then of course the OU game.  Unlike UW though, they are 2-1.

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There is playing tough football against a more skilled opponent, and then there is what the Cowboys did on Saturday night before a packed house.  Boise State came to play at War Memorial Stadium with a chip on their shoulder.  Wyoming came to play for respect.  What we saw was a mixture of a well coached, disciplined team that dominated both aspects of the game, as well as a team that continually missed opportunities, shot themselves in the foot, and played with very few smarts.

First and foremost, Boise is very deserving of their ranking.  After watching UW play a pretty spirited game against Texas, and actually playing some decent football, Boise simply came in and dominated.  Boise played better against the Cowboys than Texas by a long shot.  BSU came into a hostile environment, played at 7220 feet, and absolutely controlled the game from beginning to end.

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If there is one small advantage Wyoming holds over Boise State, it is that they perhaps know where they stand a little bit more clearly than where the Broncos are at.  Boise certainly must feel in limbo due to the loss of Virginia Tech, their much hyped opening rival for this year's season, to a FCS team in rather disturbing fashion.  So now Boise is obviously struggling with doubts about the game.  Was it in fact a signature win against a strong national opponent?  Or was it a lackluster game against a mediocre (at best) ACC team that struggled fruitlessly against a FCS team?

Wyoming on the other hand has a win against a solid FCS team, but did not look impressive in doing so.  A lot of weaknesses were exposed, and these things were worked on in practice.  Wyoming was still able to take the best shots of this team and pull out an 8 point win.  The Texas game was a lot closer than expected.  Though the score was lopsided, the actual performance of the team was pretty competitive.  A few mistakes in tackling, and going for 4^th and short instead of kicking field goals, inflated the score more than the actual play indicated between the two teams.

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The game with Texas this year was an eerie reminder of what happened last year.  In the middle of the second quarter, Wyoming was improbably ahead 7-6.  Then Texas woke up, and we missed some big tackles, and the scores came rolling in for the Longhorns.  This game was not expected to be an upset for Wyoming, or even having a small potential for upset.  Texas is a major football power, and they have athletes three deep for every position.  Wyoming is still in the midst of building the program up so it can compete more effectively with Tier 1 teams from the AQ conferences.  But when we start breaking a few things down, there were a lot of positives from the Texas game.

Wyoming played the first 1.5 quarters pretty tough against Texas, allowing only two field goals.  Some smart plays and some lucky penalties kept the score from being run up.  Wyoming's only TD drive was also saved by some penalties on the Texas side, and the mobility of Austyn Carta-Samuels certainly caused the Texas defense fits at time.  Wyoming did get into field goal range a few times after the only scoring drive, but at that point Texas had really pulled ahead, and making field goals would not have gotten Wyoming any closer to winning than going for it on 4^th down deep in Texas territory.

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Last weekend's game signaled the second year of head coach Dave Christensen, and expectations were high for a University of Wyoming Cowboys team that had gone 6-6 during a tough schedule, and won the New Mexico Bowl against a tough Fresno State team.  Most were expecting a lot of offensive fireworks with the team adding some faster wide receivers to the spread offense, as well as other members of the team better understanding the system.  Austyn Carta- Samuels was a highly touted freshman quarterback with an impressive season,  and his second year promised to continue and improve his performance at QB.  The change from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 was supposed to put a lot more pressure on the quarterback, and to help shore up the run game.  The secondary was thought to be deep enough, and talented enough to handle more man on man coverage, which would allow more defenders to put pressure on the offensive line and pack the box.

So how did UW fare against its FCS opponent, Souther Utah?  It was a win, but it did not impress most viewers.  Austyn actually did a pretty tremendous job, and had a career passing night.  He completed 26 of 32 passes for 319 yards, two TD passes, and one interception in the end zone.  His performance allowed several sustained drives leading to 28 points on the board.  The interception was costly and certainly disappointing in the red zone.  The team had two turnovers in total, the other being receiver Mazi Ogbonna fumbling the ball, which lead to a Southern Utah touchdown.

The running game was nearly non-existent.  36 yards on 25 carries is certainly one of the low points of the game.  What is interesting about that stat is if all the positive rushing yards were added up, there would be around 86 of them.  Unfortunately, rush blocking and protection was fairly poor, and there were a lot of tackles for loss (think 50 yards of losses).  This includes three sacks on Carta-Samuels.

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Expectations are always tough to deal with, and coming off of a surprisingly successful season certainly has expectations high for UW from its fans.  When we look at the press though, expectations are pretty limited.  Few polls have the Pokes above 5^th or 6^th place in the MWC, and certainly few expect them to beat last year's top four teams in the conference.  I'm not going to sugar-coat things, but this could in fact be a very rough year for Cowboy fans.

Dave Christensen enters his second year after having a very surprising season.  In 2009 UW was picked to finish last in the MWC, but due to quite a few last minute heroics in a handful of games, the team finished at a respectable 7-6, and 4-4 in conference play.  UW also contributed to a very successful bowl season with its come from behind win over Fresno State in a double overtime thriller.  Quite a few pundits were taken by surprise with the quality and excitement of the game, and the unexpected outcome.  I'm sure most everyone remembers the heroic goal line stand on the 1 in the first overtime, with UW stopping Fresno's first round draft pick, running back Ryan Matthews.

Last season is starting to become a distant memory, and the hurdles that UW faces in repeating even a 6-6 performance are quite staggering.  Christensen has his work cut out for him, but he has set in place tools to help the team overcome the minimal expectations that have certainly plagued them since the schedule was released early this year.

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I feel sorry for Karl Benson. The guy had a gift lined up for him by BYU, everything looked in place to capture a series of football games with a strong national contender for the WAC, and provide further strength in sports with the non-football programs. Apparently on Friday of last week, everything looked to be set in stone for BYU to announce its football independence, and the WAC would welcome back BYU as a prized member.

Amazing how things can change in a matter of days.

We can only assume that word of this deal leaked out to other MWC members and Craig Thompson. In that time Craig had several conference calls with the members of the league, and then boarded a plane for Pennsylvania to discuss with the TV partners their potential situation. On Tuesday, unofficial invites from the MWC to Fresno State and Nevada were delivered, with official invites coming from Craig on Wednesday afternoon.

As we start to hear from more schools and individuals, it appears as though the timeline looked like this. Sometime this summer, BYU approached Karl and the WAC with a proposition. BYU wanted to further leverage their TV network to allow the football team to go independent, which would have allowed a far greater monetization of that particular commodity. Unfortunately, such a move would have probably resulted in expulsion from the MWC for the other non-football sports. So to mitigate and minimize the damage from having those other teams also being independent (and the resulting scheduling nightmare) BYU worked a deal with the WAC to give these other sports a solid landing place.

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