Wyoming Cowboys Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players
Wyoming Cowboys Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Wyoming season with what you need to know and keys to the season.
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Wyoming Cowboys Preview
Head Coach: Craig Bohl, 45-50, 9th year at Wyoming,
20th year overall, 149-82, 2021 Preview
2021 Record: Overall: 7-6, Conference: 2-6
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Wyoming Top 10 Players | Wyoming Schedule
Wyoming Cowboys Preview 2022
Head coach Craig Bohl hasn’t been able to take all of the success he had at North Dakota State and turn Wyoming a dominant force, but the program is in a nice groove.
Mountain West championships would be nice, but pushing for winning seasons and bowl games on a regular basis is okay. This year, though, might be a tad more challenging.
A slew of key parts left through the transfer portal or are done, but there’s a good base of players on both sides, and the schedule isn’t all that bad – and least until the last three weeks of the conference slate.
This is a year of overall transition, though.
The program has to figure out how to at least be transfer portal neutral – it can’t be a farm system going forward – but it’s a testament to Bohl that he knows how to find the right players and coach them up.
He’ll have work to do, but he has succeeded with far less.
Wyoming Cowboys Preview 2022: Offense
The offense is all but starting over when it comes to the skill parts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s all doom and gloom.
Yes, some very, very talented players are gone, but the offense averaged just 374 yards and 25 points per game, failing to get past 21 points seven times. But when the attack was rolling, it was all but unstoppable in a feast-or-famine way.
Sean Chambers led the team in passing, and now he’s off to Montana State. Levi Williams is gone to Utah State, and in a flip, in comes Andrew Peasley from the Aggies. He isn’t all that accurate, but he has a little experience being a key backup over the last four years, and he can run.
There is no positive in losing Isaiah Neyor to Texas – he averaged 20 yards per catch with 12 scores – but Joshua Cobbs is a decent midrange threat finishing second on the tea with 25 catches, and Trenton Welch is a decent pass catching tight end. However, the depth has to rise up fast, and the recruiting class – particularly DeShawn Woods – will play a big role.
The Cowboy running game always gets production out of its backs, but it still hurts to lose Xazavian Valladay to Arizona State. Titus Swen fits the offense, too – he ran for 785 yards and seven scores – and there are a few options behind him.
The O line should be great again. It’s missing a few parts from the group that was among the best in the Mountain West in pass protection and in keeping defenses out of the backfield.
The starting five should be okay, but there’s no depth – freshman DeShawn Woods will have to play a huge role.
Wyoming Cowboys Preview 2022: Defense
The defense was hit by the transfer portal, too. It’s not quite as dramatic as the losses on offense, but it’s a factor.
The D wasn’t anything special – allowing 370 yards per game – but it didn’t do a whole lot of breaking allowing 24 points per game and that many or fewer nine times.
The biggest concern is the secondary with lost corners CJ Coldon (Oklahoma) and Azizi Hearn (UCLA). On the flip side, Deron Harrell is coming in from Wisconsin and Jakorey Hawkins is in from Ole Miss to help at corner. Isaac White is a veteran starting safety, but the depth and rotation are a bit lacking.
The line has a great interior pass rusher in Cole Godbout on the nose, and Jordan Bertagnole is a good part of a solid tackle rotation – but they all have to hold up better against the run. the ends have to rise up, but there’s size and quickness in the mix.
Losing leading tackler Chad Muma and his 142 tackles from the linebacking corps is a problem, but second-leading tackler Easton Gibbs can get all over the place on the outside. The combination of Shae Suiaunoa and Michigan State transfer Cole DeMarzo will try taking over for Muma.
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Wyoming Top 10 Players | Wyoming Schedule
Wyoming Cowboys: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT
Wyoming Cowboys: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats
Wyoming Cowboys: Key To The 2022 Offense
Just hit the throws that are there to be completed.
The offensive style doesn’t stop – the idea is to run the ball, control the tempo, and let the defense take over. Of course, when the ground game is working like it’s supposed to, the offense blows up.
No one’s asking for the Wyoming quarterback to be Bryce Young, but as long as the passing game is making the throws to keep things moving – along with an occasional deep ball – it’ll be doing its job.
The Cowboy quarterbacks only hit 55% of their passes, but the big plays were there late in the season. Levi Williams – now at Utah State – was on, and now the offense has to keep pushing past the 60% mark on a regular basis.
With that said, the 55% of last year was Aaron Rodgers compared to Wyoming passing games of the past few seasons. More on this in a moment.
List
Wyoming Cowboys Top 10 Players: College Football Preview 2022
Wyoming Cowboys: Key To The 2022 Defense
Do more to get into the backfield.
Of course, this all ties into the problem of third down stops – there weren’t enough of them.
The Cowboys only generated 24 sacks on the season – 10 of them came against the two MAC teams they played, Ball State and Kent State – and they were 112th in the nation in tackles for loss.
The 2020 defense came up with 7.7 tackles for loss per game, and no Wyoming D has been under five per outing since 2015. Last year’s defense generated 4.39 a game.
Wyoming Cowboys: Key Player To The 2022 Season
LB Shae Suiaunoa, Jr.
And throw in Michigan State transfer Cole DeMarzo.
It’s not just that Chad Muma made a ton of tackles as the all-star leader of the defense – he made 264 stops with 5.5 sacks and 19 tackles for loss in his final three seasons – it was that he had the talent to do all of that. There’s a reason the Jacksonville Jaguars took him with the 70th overall pick.
The 6-3, 232-pound Suiaunoa only made four tackles and has mostly been a special teamer so far, but now he and DeMarzo have to become major factors.
Wyoming Cowboys: Key Transfer
QB Andrew Peasley, Jr.
Here’s how weird the Wyoming quarterback situation has been over the last several years – Josh Allen wasn’t even that great in the system.
Obviously the talent was all there, and he ran well, but he only hit 56% of his passes with 21 interceptions in his two main seasons.
Peasley connected on 54% of his throws in his time at Utah State, but he never had the full-time gig. As long as he’s able to keep things moving, limits his turnovers, and can hit the occasional deep ball, the offense will be okay.
Wyoming Key Game To The 2022 Season
Air Force, Sept. 17
It would seem like Air Force is the perfect team for Wyoming to face. Mostly about the run, likes to keep the tempo even, low scoring games …
But Air Force has won the last two games in the series, ending Wyoming’s 4-0 start and kicking off a four-game losing streak last year, and winning the 2019 regular season finale.
But both of those were in Colorado Springs. This time it’s in Laramie. With winnable games against San Jose State, at New Mexico, Utah State – that’s at home – and at Hawaii, there’s a shot to go on a big Mountain West run before a rough November finishing kick.
Wyoming Cowboys: 2021 Fun Stats
– Total Yards: Wyoming 4,867 – Opponents 4,815
– Wyoming 1st Quarter Scoring: 52 – 2nd Quarter Scoring: 113
– Punt Return Average: Opponents 9.1 yards – Wyoming 3.8 yards
Offense, Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Wyoming Top 10 Players | Wyoming Schedule
Wyoming Cowboys Season Prediction, What Will Happen NEXT
Wyoming Cowboys Season Prediction, What Will Happen
It seemed like it was a total disaster when Wyoming lost key player after key player through the transfer portal, but that’s what happens when other programs want your top skill guys and good corners.
There’s still a good base of parts in place, the lines are fine, and the overall system is good enough to keep the production going.
There still might not be the consistency needed considering everything about this program is about control, but there should be enough wins to push for a winning season, even if it comes after winning another restaurant quality bowl game.
Set The Wyoming Cowboys Regular Season Win Total At … 6
There will be a stunner somewhere along the way, but considering that, fine, losing the skill parts will matter early on, road games at Illinois and BYU are going to be a problem.
But there’s no San Diego State to deal with, the Utah State and Air Force games are at home, and there’s a good chance the team is deep in the hunt for the Mountain West title going into the finishing kick of at Colorado State, Boise State, and at Fresno State.
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Wyoming Top 10 Players | Wyoming Schedule
