The Wyoming Cowboys football team is looking to improve upon an unorthodox season that included cancellations and unknowns that ended with UW ending with a 2-4 record.
They will start Spring football in just two weeks on April 6th and have their usual Spring game on May 8th. With no opportunity for practicing in the Spring last season this will come as very beneficial for Craig Bohl and this Cowboys team who will need to improve this year.
Since Josh Allen, this is a program that has suffered mightily on the offensive side of the ball with last season only having one touchdown pass all year. The obvious rebuttal to that would be that losing starting quarterback Sean Chambers didn’t help in that effort but the problems for the Cowboys are more residual than that.
This goes back to even when Allen was here and slinging the rock, in 2017, his last year under center, UW ranked 9th in passing offense. That number has gotten worse with 2018 being last and then in 2019 being 11th.
No one is trying to change the way Bohl coaches his teams, but something has to shift this season regarding the passing game. Doesn’t mean to be a pass first offense, but it has to be a threat that the defense prepares for.
Currently defenses want them to pass.
There are positives to look out for in the coming 2021 season regarding the passing offense and I think the main one that needs to be discussed is the All-Mountain West Honorable mention selection Isaiah Neyor.
The guy can straight up fly.
With his speed and size at 6’3” he was able to average 31 yards per reception. That is really freaking good if you were wondering. A small sample size with only eight catches but we can expect Neyor to be the lead option on what is a group of wide receivers that are inexperienced and without a leader.
Expect Neyor to be that.
In a year that is featuring a new offensive coordinator Tim Polasek, who was the offensive line coach at Iowa for four seasons, he will have more than enough to deal with and set straight.
What about the defense?
This defense has a lot of ups and downs for what was an extremely short, six game season. They gave up as a secondary, over 200 yards through the air a game. On the ground, they fared much better allowing just over 120 yards on the ground at less than 4 yards a carry.
For a defensive line that lost four starters to opting out and another to injury in week 2 against Hawaii it was a very impressive showing last season. Jordan Bertagnole was a large reason for that. The walk-on from Casper is an all out beast that came to play every snap and ended up with 30 tackles and 2.5 sacks.
With some of those players that opted out coming back for the 2021 season, the hopes are high that the Cowboys can field a monstrous front four.
Regarding the secondary, the depth is what will be in question this year.
Sophomore Rome Weber who missed all of last season due COVID-19 along with the two seniors in Braden Smith and Esaias Gandy are going to be the safeties that will more than likely compete for major playing time.
With cornerbacks, it will be the junior duo in CJ Coldon and Aziz Hearn holding down the fort on the edges. They were a solid tandem last year on the outside and will look to replicate their play this season. It will be intriguing to see which younger guy will step up and help as a lockdown presence.
The Mountain-West may not be filled with top talent five stars, but if there’s one thing the conference has in spades is talented and athletic receivers across the board.
The Cowboys will open up their schedule at home against Montana State on September 4th.
