Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 8 – Wyoming | Sports



The fourth game of Utah State’s Mountain West schedule will be the third conference game against a team that won at least eight games last year — the Wyoming Cowboys. Like most of the conference, Wyoming has a new head coach this season but it may not have a significant impact on the style of play the Cowboys were known for under Craig Bohl.

This is the eighth installment in a series of 12 opponent previews that will go in-depth on each of the Aggies foes for the 2024 football season.



Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 1 – Robert Morris


Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 2 – USC


Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 3 – Utah


Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 4 – Temple


Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 5 – Boise State


Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 6 – UNLV


Utah State Football Opponent Preview Vol. 7 – New Mexico


Game Info

  • Game Day: Oct. 26
  • Location: War Memorial Stadium (Laramie, WY)
  • Kickoff Time: 5 p.m.
  • TV Broadcast: CBS Sports Network

Quick-Hit Info on Wyoming

  • Head Coach: Jay Sawvel (1st season at Wyoming)
  • 2023 Record: 9-4 (5-3 in MW)
  • 2023 Offense Rank: 80th (25.3 points per game)
  • 2023 Defense Rank: 37th (22.3 points allowed per game)
  • Returning Production Rank — 72nd
  • 2024 Preseason Consensus Ranking — 86th

History of Utah State vs Wyoming

  • All-Time: Utah State leads 40-28-4
  • Current Streak: Wyoming has won the last two meetings
  • First-ever Meeting: Nov. 21, 1903 (Utah State won 46-0)
  • Last Meeting: Oct. 22, 2022 (Wyoming won 28-14)

Wyoming Players to Watch

  • Evan Svoboda (QB)
  • Harrison Waylee (RB)
  • John Michael Gyllenborg (TE)
  • Jack Walsh (OL)
  • Jordan Bertagnole (DL)
  • Shae Suiaunoa (LB)
  • Wyett Ekeler (S)

The Cowboys in 2023

Wyoming posted its best overall record in nearly 20 years with its 9-4 mark. The last time the Cowboys won at least nine games was 1996 (10-2). They also made a bowl game for a third straight year, something the program had never done before. A year like that saw plenty of highlights, such as beating Texas Tech in the season opener, holding their own with Texas for three quarters (we’ll just ignore what happened in the fourth quarter of that game) and a win over at-the-time No. 24 Fresno State.

Unfortunately, the great overall record was marred by losses in nearly every important game of the year standings-wise. Of the top four teams in the final Mountain West standings, Wyoming played three — Boise State, UNLV and Air Force — and lost each time and by an average of 17.3 points. The Cowboys were clearly not in the upper tier of the conference based on those results.

Despite not really being in contention for the conference title game late in the year since they lost all the relevant tiebreakers because of defeats in October, Wyoming finished the year strong. The Cowboys blew out both Hawaii and Nevada and then downed Toledo in the Arizona Bowl to send Coach Bohl out on a high note.

2024 Season Prospects

Repeating a nine-win season with a new coach sounds like a fairly tough task on its face, but Wyoming is well-positioned to reload and be just as good as last year. Bohl didn’t leave the cupboards bare as the Cowboys return 13 starters. A lot of that returning experience is in the trenches (seven of those 13 are on the OL/DL) which is where Wyoming has typically see the strength of its teams come from. Jack Walsh on the interior O-Line is a preseason All-MW selection as is defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole. They’ll be the leaders of the team in both experience and in talent.

“We have a number of defensive players that played well last year that are back, that we’re gonna expect more of this year. And we’ve got four starters back on an offensive line,” Sawvel said. “We’ve got a lot of talented pieces back that did not leave. And so we’re really fortunate to have the type of chemistry and culture within the building and within the program.”

Where most of the new faces will be for Wyoming is in its passing attack. Nearly every aspect will be new, from the quarterback to the majority of the wide receiver corps. There are returners among the WRs, but most were limited producers last year like Alex Brown (eight receptions, 106 yards) and Devin Boddie (six catches, 48 yards). Projected QB1 Evan Svoboda has also logged snaps for Wyoming, but only in one notable sample size. He started one game last year, filling in for an injured Andrew Peasley against Texas, and completed 17 of 28 passes for 136 yards and one interception.

The most significant returner at the skill positions is running back Harrison Waylee who, were it not for Ashton Jeanty, would be a popular pick for top running back in the Mountain West. But Waylee injured his right knee during fall camp and underwent surgery. According to Sawvel, the team believes it won’t be a season-ending injury and as of a few days ago was still confident in that assessment. Waylee has had a history of minor injuries, such as a preseason surgery that held him out of the first two games of 2023 and being on the bench for one other game because of an ankle injury.

When healthy, Waylee is clearly a good running back. Across four seasons (three at Northern Illinois and one at Wyoming), he’s averaged 5.4 yards per carry and should pass the 3,000 career rushing yards mark after a couple games played this season (he’s at 2,876 now).

Waylee’s injury may or may not impact this game between the Aggies and Cowboys. If Sawvel’s optimism is well-founded, Waylee will probably be back at this stage of the season. If not, then USU may benefit from facing a less-capable back. But that would also be assuming that the reserve corps of DJ Jones, Sam Scott and Jamari Ferrell aren’t able to find a way to produce (it’s not uncommon to see backup RBs outperform the starters when called upon due to injuries at the top of the depth chart).

Wyoming’s defense will have to overcome the loss of Easton Gibbs, a first team All-MW linebacker last season and the team’s leader in tackles (109). Aside from him, though, the Cowboys return the next six leaders in tackles from a year ago, including the top four in TFLs and five of the top six in sacks. Almost every key player (i.e. pretty much everyone save for Gibbs) is back for a defense that was top 40 in points allowed and top 50 in yards allowed last year.

With so much production returning at so many positions, the prospects for 2024 really come down to the new faces. The most important of those new faces is that of Svoboda. The 6-foot-5, 245-pound QB will draw comparisons to one of his predecessors, Josh Allen, due to his size and in wearing Allen’s No. 17. If he lives up to that comp in the slightest, the Cowboys probably don’t have a ton to worry about. Of course, the wide receivers playing in larger roles also need to step up to make the passing game go smoothly, especially while Waylee is on the sidelines.

Preseason Game Prediction — Close Loss

This should be a very winnable game for Utah State provided the Aggies aren’t collapsing under the weight of so many tougher opponents in the previous 4-5 weeks. Wyoming were a bit of a paper tiger last year with them not being in the same league as the top teams in the conference and also not beating teams like Colorado State and New Mexico by as large a margin as one might expect from a nine-win team.

What tips the scales here is USU’s relative struggles when playing in Wyoming. The Aggies are 2-2 in Laramie since joining the conference but the two wins were in 2018 and 2014 — two of Utah State’s best seasons in program history — and those wins were 24-16 (a game where Jordan Love threw for 53 yards against a team that was 2-6 at the time) in the 2018 season and 20-3 back in 2014. Both were wins but Wyoming went 6-6 in 2018 and 4-8 in 2014. Those games probably should have been separated by more points (maybe excuse the 2014 Aggies slightly since a 17-point win shouldn’t be considered close and the offense only averaged 26 points that season, so it was only a little under the average).

In short, Utah State has struggled a bit more than it should have when playing at Wyoming. But if the Aggies are up for a grind-it-out game, and are tough enough to succeed in that environment, this is a game every USU fan can go into expecting a victory, even if the odds are slightly in favor of the opponent.



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