-
Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your WyoNation.com experience today!
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
2026-2027 Season - Who's Excited?
- Thread starter LawPoke
- Start date
I just can't get excited until at least mid-August about UW football. The transfer portal and NIL have made me irritated with college sports in general. Another season of Sawvel's coaching might push me into dropping my season tickets which I have had since the mid-90s.
I’m guessing a 4-8 finish in football with Wyoming’s worst schedule ever. Hope I’m wrong. Can’t identify a single game on the schedule I’m excited for. Hope I can find people willing to take my first row tickets later in the season if things go South. This schedule is just so so bad and I don’t think we could have done any more to tank attendance this year with our home dates. My money is on the Bears of Northern Colorado being the largest attended game (and by a lot).
I’m really looking forward to Wyoming wrestling next year. On paper - best team in a long time and maybe ever. Also looking forward to basketball and volleyball - really like the direction of those programs even despite our NIL handicaps.
Hello Everyone,
I'm new to your site...a Lobo Fan here (don't hold that against me). I follow college football and college wrestling extensively when I get the chance... I'm partial to the Big 10 and Big 12 wrestling...not really a Penn State fan, but that's life.
I agree with OrediggerPoke, Wyoming wrestling is going to be much improved this year espcially in tournaments, along with UNI, AFA, and Northern Colorado. Watch out for UNI, I think they're going to surprise some people and knock off a couple of the Rich Kids this year.
Also, Best of Luck to the Cowboys...I predict Wyoming will have a 6 and 6 football season this year.
P.S.
I know it won't be a popular comment with Jay's record, but I do like Jay Sawvel and watch out for the Cowboy offense, this is the year they're going to score points on everyone.
Every year that Jay has said he is going to fix something he has followed through. After year 1 it was the Defense, and they improved with an influx of talent, plus he recruited RBs very well to also improve that position.Hello Everyone,
I'm new to your site...a Lobo Fan here (don't hold that against me). I follow college football and college wrestling extensively when I get the chance... I'm partial to the Big 10 and Big 12 wrestling...not really a Penn State fan, but that's life.
I agree with OrediggerPoke, Wyoming wrestling is going to be much improved this year espcially in tournaments, along with UNI, AFA, and Northern Colorado. Watch out for UNI, I think they're going to surprise some people and knock off a couple of the Rich Kids this year.
Also, Best of Luck to the Cowboys...I predict Wyoming will have a 6 and 6 football season this year.
P.S.
I know it won't be a popular comment with Jay's record, but I do like Jay Sawvel and watch out for the Cowboy offense, this is the year they're going to score points on everyone.
Outside of Carter Nogle I am not sure how much AFA improves and I see Northern Colorado on a decline. With members leaving I hope Laramie see's the bigger schools for home duals. Funny how they almost kicked out OU wrestling when their football team left for the SEC. One team to look out for is UVU
I've talked to relatives who farm not far from Greeley and follow Northern Colorado wrestling...they like Coach Ware (previously coached at Oklahoma and Wyoming) and think the Bears will be competitive...there budget is what kills them.
I agree UVU will be tough, good coaches, solid program.
I agree UVU will be tough, good coaches, solid program.
The new conference affiliation for them may help. Not sure Ware is willing to take on personal question marks like Nickerson was so he will have to build differently. They will still be behind SDSU and OSU but trying to compete but their budget is not far off from Wyoming. Wyoming has facilities that can draw wrestlers plus Ford is a hell of a recruiter. Ware needs to find himself a Ford to help the programI've talked to relatives who farm not far from Greeley and follow Northern Colorado wrestling...they like Coach Ware (previously coached at Oklahoma and Wyoming) and think the Bears will be competitive...there budget is what kills them.
I agree UVU will be tough, good coaches, solid program.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
Huh? Sawvel has stated repeatedly he was going to improve the offense every year. It has gotten progressively worse. Now, not only can they not move the ball and put up points, the offense turned into a turnover machine (the antithesis of Bohl ball).Every year that Jay has said he is going to fix something he has followed through. After year 1 it was the Defense, and they improved with an influx of talent, plus he recruited RBs very well to also improve that position.
The football program is in a bad spot. The only thing that is it has going for it is that the schedule is so bad that some of these deficiencies will be masked.
Devil's Advocate. I think all of us assumed Kaden would have been a good QB after his UNM game AND the start of Boise (before the concussion). I have no clue how Kaden simply disappeared last year unless he got his own head so big he forgot to just play ball.Huh? Sawvel has stated repeatedly he was going to improve the offense every year. It has gotten progressively worse. Now, not only can they not move the ball and put up points, the offense turned into a turnover machine (the antithesis of Bohl ball).
The football program is in a bad spot. The only thing that is it has going for it is that the schedule is so bad that some of these deficiencies will be masked
Jay improved the D position, RB, and WR and really left out QB (way too much trust) and OL. I am still baffled why Tripodi has a job.
You are right the schedule may mask somethings but having watched Taylor as OC and Hughes play I think the O would be fine in the old MW as well. Now I am making an assumption the OL magically starts playing better and not laying o the turf after every play
Sawvel was on staff already and new exactly what he was taking over. It wasn't like he was coming in blindly and solely trusting the word of Bohl on the talent level he was inheriting.I think Bohl pulled a Dimel when he retired. Didn't recruit like he did when he was first hired and left the cupboards empty at some positions. Namely Safety, LB, WR Coach, and QB
I also don't think Bohl would have let his son take his first DC position at an impending dumpster fire. I think he expected Sawvel to at least maintain what he had built...he failed spectacularly at that.
I am genuinely surprised we actually have some fans that like Sawvel as our head coach. He has been absolutely abysmal in his first two season's here, and this was not supposed to be a rebuild.
I mean I was not a Bohl fan late in his tenure at Wyoming. He was stuck in 1980s recruiting and he thinking was only recruit one LB every year. That was evident Sawvel first year when the LB Corps was god awful not to mention the S position. Last year I said I would have never believed you if Johnson and Thomas were starting safeties and we would be successful but I they did great.Sawvel was on staff already and new exactly what he was taking over. It wasn't like he was coming in blindly and solely trusting the word of Bohl on the talent level he was inheriting.
I also don't think Bohl would have let his son take his first DC position at an impending dumpster fire. I think he expected Sawvel to at least maintain what he had built...he failed spectacularly at that.
I am genuinely surprised we actually have some fans that like Sawvel as our head coach. He has been absolutely abysmal in his first two season's here, and this was not supposed to be a rebuild.
Any coach would be at fault for blindly following guidance form a coach who had a terrible O in 2017 with a Top-10 draft pick at QB. I don't think Sawvel was ready to be HC and that is/was clearly evident.
No matter who became coach, if internal hire, was going to have to rebuild because the recruiting had been awful. Bohl never recruited a QB from HS that was a great QB; all of them came from JUCO or were a transfer. The lack of QB development should have been the biggest red flag to Sawvel and the immediate need to fix that before Evan even suited up at QB.
This is the make or break year. The OC and QB will be major upgrades. But I have a huge concern with Tripodi at OL Coach and whatever god awful Special Teams coaches they have on staff from the last two years
Bohl was definitely not perfect, but his system at least allowed for sustained moderate success at Wyoming. That is something the program had not had for quite a while. It was a good first step for the program, at least in my opinion. What held Bohl back from further success was his inability to attract talent on the offensive side of the ball, especially at QB. He had probably hit his ceiling at Wyoming at the time he retired, but I very much appreciate what he was able to accomplish given the recent history of the Wyoming football program up until his arrival.I mean I was not a Bohl fan late in his tenure at Wyoming. He was stuck in 1980s recruiting and he thinking was only recruit one LB every year. That was evident Sawvel first year when the LB Corps was god awful not to mention the S position. Last year I said I would have never believed you if Johnson and Thomas were starting safeties and we would be successful but I they did great.
Any coach would be at fault for blindly following guidance form a coach who had a terrible O in 2017 with a Top-10 draft pick at QB. I don't think Sawvel was ready to be HC and that is/was clearly evident.
No matter who became coach, if internal hire, was going to have to rebuild because the recruiting had been awful. Bohl never recruited a QB from HS that was a great QB; all of them came from JUCO or were a transfer. The lack of QB development should have been the biggest red flag to Sawvel and the immediate need to fix that before Evan even suited up at QB.
This is the make or break year. The OC and QB will be major upgrades. But I have a huge concern with Tripodi at OL Coach and whatever god awful Special Teams coaches they have on staff from the last two years
The really brutal part was the hiring of Sawvel and the massive step backwards we took at a time when a step forward was more important than ever. The professionalization of college football and the chronic conference realignment always spelled problems for Wyoming, but we did ourselves no favors by having terrible football and men's basketball teams at the exact time shit was hitting the fan.
Now we are in such a crap conference that even 6 wins barely seems anything to be proud of. A decent coach with an even slightly above average team wins at least 8 games with this totally crap schedule we are facing this year.
rocket city poke
Well-known member
Every year the fanbase thinks is a make a break year. They aren't because Burman doesn't want to fire Sawvel because it makes him look like he doesn't know what he (Burman) is doing.I mean I was not a Bohl fan late in his tenure at Wyoming. He was stuck in 1980s recruiting and he thinking was only recruit one LB every year. That was evident Sawvel first year when the LB Corps was god awful not to mention the S position. Last year I said I would have never believed you if Johnson and Thomas were starting safeties and we would be successful but I they did great.
Any coach would be at fault for blindly following guidance form a coach who had a terrible O in 2017 with a Top-10 draft pick at QB. I don't think Sawvel was ready to be HC and that is/was clearly evident.
No matter who became coach, if internal hire, was going to have to rebuild because the recruiting had been awful. Bohl never recruited a QB from HS that was a great QB; all of them came from JUCO or were a transfer. The lack of QB development should have been the biggest red flag to Sawvel and the immediate need to fix that before Evan even suited up at QB.
This is the make or break year. The OC and QB will be major upgrades. But I have a huge concern with Tripodi at OL Coach and whatever god awful Special Teams coaches they have on staff from the last two years
I am more anxious / excited to see the dynamic between Reeves and the athletic department. Reeves is going to get an earful from people across the state as to the anemic performance of these programs. Will he do anything ? Or just act like Siedel? From what i have seen Reeves seems like he really cares about athletics and has a good idea as to what is going on.
Last edited:
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
No he didn’t. He left Sawvel one of the deepest teams with the most returning starters this program has seen in quite some time. All from a 9 win team. Sawvel took the same roster and turned it into a 3 win team the next year. In fact -Burman stated Sawvel was the guy in order to maintain roster consistency.I think Bohl pulled a Dimel when he retired. Didn't recruit like he did when he was first hired and left the cupboards empty at some positions. Namely Safety, LB, WR Coach, and QB
Let’s not revise history to fit a narrative that doesn’t exist.
PorkerPoke
Well-known member
What Bohl left was an anemic offense (122nd total offense for a 9 win team) and a twice blown knee QB along with a the first recruit he signed after his national search tweet who could only manage to play the scout team at a minor JC football team in Utah.No he didn’t. He left Sawvel one of the deepest teams with the most returning starters this program has seen in quite some time. All from a 9 win team. Sawvel took the same roster and turned it into a 3 win team the next year. In fact -Burman stated Sawvel was the guy in order to maintain roster consistency.
Let’s not revise history to fit a narrative that doesn’t exist.
I was one of those who thought Anderson was the next decent QB up, but it was obvious after watching him he had to play so careful to survive he never looked like he did at South Lake Carroll before his knee was decimated.
Svoboda couldn’t have been the next up and coming #17 in practice despite the Texas game and 60% completions in mop up duty if the Bohl and Sawful staff weren’t stuck in the 3 yards and a cloud of dust mentality. Bohl had mostly mediocre offenses from 2017 until retirement costing championship caliber teams winnable games (the 6 win losers in conference seasons) and it took Sawful 2 years and tremendous pressure to admit he saw the obvious - the offense totally sucked and was easily defended.
It’s what cost the program my brown and gold vision and a waning interest. Now it’s prove a commitment to scoring points to win my Wyoming heart back.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
Excuses are a dime a dozen. Sawvel was on staff and faced Svoboda every day with his defensive unit. He had every opportunity to go out and recruit a QB from the portal (just like Bohl did with Peasley) but named Svoboda unquestioned starter on the very day he became head coach instead.What Bohl left was an anemic offense (122nd total offense for a 9 win team) and a twice blown knee QB along with a the first recruit he signed after his national search tweet who could only manage to play the scout team at a minor JC football team in Utah.
I was one of those who thought Anderson was the next decent QB up, but it was obvious after watching him he had to play so careful to survive he never looked like he did at South Lake Carroll before his knee was decimated.
Svoboda couldn’t have been the next up and coming #17 in practice despite the Texas game and 60% completions in mop up duty if the Bohl and Sawful staff weren’t stuck in the 3 yards and a cloud of dust mentality. Bohl had mostly mediocre offenses from 2017 until retirement costing championship caliber teams winnable games (the 6 win losers in conference seasons) and it took Sawful 2 years and tremendous pressure to admit he saw the obvious - the offense totally sucked and was easily defended.
It’s what cost the program my brown and gold vision and a waning interest. Now it’s prove a commitment to scoring points to win my Wyoming heart back.
Sawvel took a 9-4 team and turned it into a 3-9 team period. Frankly who gives a f*** what offense we run if the team is winning. Sawvel came in and ‘fixed’ the offense by getting rid of everything Bohl did well (line up under center to avoid negative plays, ground and pound and avoid turnovers).
Last edited:
Not sure where you are getting those offensive rankings from.What Bohl left was an anemic offense (122nd total offense for a 9 win team) and a twice blown knee QB along with a the first recruit he signed after his national search tweet who could only manage to play the scout team at a minor JC football team in Utah.
I was one of those who thought Anderson was the next decent QB up, but it was obvious after watching him he had to play so careful to survive he never looked like he did at South Lake Carroll before his knee was decimated.
Svoboda couldn’t have been the next up and coming #17 in practice despite the Texas game and 60% completions in mop up duty if the Bohl and Sawful staff weren’t stuck in the 3 yards and a cloud of dust mentality. Bohl had mostly mediocre offenses from 2017 until retirement costing championship caliber teams winnable games (the 6 win losers in conference seasons) and it took Sawful 2 years and tremendous pressure to admit he saw the obvious - the offense totally sucked and was easily defended.
It’s what cost the program my brown and gold vision and a waning interest. Now it’s prove a commitment to scoring points to win my Wyoming heart back.
In 2023, the last year Bohl was head coach, we ranked 80th in scoring and 105th in total offense. Obviously, that is a below average offense and not ideal. I suspect Bohl knew the offense wasn't very good and he devised a game plan to at least give the team a chance at winning...limit turnovers, avoid sacks, and play the field position game. Were we somewhat lucky to win 9 games that year? Sure, but his game plan at least allowed us to have a chance.
Then Sawvel takes over in 2024 and offensive rankings decline even further. We drop to 124th in scoring and 119th in total offense. Why? Because we are trying to run a "normal" college offense with mostly bad offensive players. We start turning the ball over at a much higher rate, our penalty rate goes way up, and our special teams decline significantly resulting in consistently poor field position. All of this directly results in our total team defense dropping from 37th in 2023 to 90th in 2024 in Sawvel's first year.
We managed to drop even further in offensive rankings in 2025 to 131st in scoring and 122nd in total offense. Fortunately, we had one of the best defenses we have had at Wyoming in probably the last three decades which got us to 4 wins. I can't even imagine how good that defense would have been if we had even an average offense to go with it.
PorkerPoke
Well-known member
Got the last year of Bohl mixed up trying to post it quickly at the airport. Here are the last 5 years of Total Offense / Scoring Offense:
2025 - 122 / 131
2024 - 119 / 123
2023 - 105 / 80
2022 - 120 / 110
2021 - 85 / 84
The point I was trying to make was that as much as I enjoyed the seven of ten 6+ win seasons under Bohl is the fact that Bohl was sub .500 in MWC play and a lot of that had to do with his refusal to incorporate the passing game into his offense.
The passing offense in MWC was:
2025 - 9th
2024 - 10th
2023 - 11th (118th nationally)
2022 - 10th
2021 - 10th
Sawful not only continued the anemic passing game but let the rushing game collapse.
Bohl had 4 winning seasons in MWC games, 4 losing seasons and 2 at .500. He was 24-19 in OOC and 37-41 in MWC.
Bohl ball for me was a love/hate type relationship and this is why:
Games under 300 yards total offense:
2014 - 0-3
2015 - 0-3
2016 - 0-0 Josh Allen
2017 - 5-3 Josh Allen
2018 - 0-5
2019 - 2-3
2020 - 0-1
2021 - 0-4
2022 - 2-5
2023 - 1-3
10-30 under 300 yds 6-21 mwc 4-9 OOC
(5-27 under 300 excluding Josh Allen)
51-30 over 300 yds 31-20 mwc 19-10 OOC (35-19 over 300 excluding Josh Allen)
61-60 all games 37-41 MWC
45-49 all games 26-36 MWC excluding Josh Allen
33% of all games were under 300 yards of offense
25% win rate (22.2% mwc) under 300 yards of offense
67.5% of under 300 yards of offense are conference games
Bohl struggled with teams that finished the season with winning records and mainly feasted on sub .500 teams. The #1 reason IMO why Wyoming didn’t compete for a MWC title was that the line up under center to avoid negative plays, ground and pound and avoid turnovers method lost a helluva lot more MWC games than the program should have with many of those games winnable simply because we struggled to get that needed 1st down to avoid the punt. Bohl asked a lot of his defense and had some good ones but I have to wonder if he complimented them with a more prolific offense what could have been.
His 9-4 final team in 2023:
2023 4-4 vs .500+
2023 5-0 vs sub .500
And now we are in 2026 (rejected by the traitors and left accepting the MWC standard pay with the remaining also rans) because we have not been a big MWC winner EVER. We are saying stuff like we might get to 6-6 with this schedule. In fairness to Bohl he was the best at winning MWC games and I am very grateful to have enjoyed the run. I am simply tired of being a MWC patsy that could never win the big conference games.
2025 - 122 / 131
2024 - 119 / 123
2023 - 105 / 80
2022 - 120 / 110
2021 - 85 / 84
The point I was trying to make was that as much as I enjoyed the seven of ten 6+ win seasons under Bohl is the fact that Bohl was sub .500 in MWC play and a lot of that had to do with his refusal to incorporate the passing game into his offense.
The passing offense in MWC was:
2025 - 9th
2024 - 10th
2023 - 11th (118th nationally)
2022 - 10th
2021 - 10th
Sawful not only continued the anemic passing game but let the rushing game collapse.
Bohl had 4 winning seasons in MWC games, 4 losing seasons and 2 at .500. He was 24-19 in OOC and 37-41 in MWC.
Bohl ball for me was a love/hate type relationship and this is why:
Games under 300 yards total offense:
2014 - 0-3
2015 - 0-3
2016 - 0-0 Josh Allen
2017 - 5-3 Josh Allen
2018 - 0-5
2019 - 2-3
2020 - 0-1
2021 - 0-4
2022 - 2-5
2023 - 1-3
10-30 under 300 yds 6-21 mwc 4-9 OOC
(5-27 under 300 excluding Josh Allen)
51-30 over 300 yds 31-20 mwc 19-10 OOC (35-19 over 300 excluding Josh Allen)
61-60 all games 37-41 MWC
45-49 all games 26-36 MWC excluding Josh Allen
33% of all games were under 300 yards of offense
25% win rate (22.2% mwc) under 300 yards of offense
67.5% of under 300 yards of offense are conference games
Bohl struggled with teams that finished the season with winning records and mainly feasted on sub .500 teams. The #1 reason IMO why Wyoming didn’t compete for a MWC title was that the line up under center to avoid negative plays, ground and pound and avoid turnovers method lost a helluva lot more MWC games than the program should have with many of those games winnable simply because we struggled to get that needed 1st down to avoid the punt. Bohl asked a lot of his defense and had some good ones but I have to wonder if he complimented them with a more prolific offense what could have been.
His 9-4 final team in 2023:
2023 4-4 vs .500+
2023 5-0 vs sub .500
And now we are in 2026 (rejected by the traitors and left accepting the MWC standard pay with the remaining also rans) because we have not been a big MWC winner EVER. We are saying stuff like we might get to 6-6 with this schedule. In fairness to Bohl he was the best at winning MWC games and I am very grateful to have enjoyed the run. I am simply tired of being a MWC patsy that could never win the big conference games.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
I am simply tired of being a MWC patsy that could never win the big conference games.
Burman’s plan - make Wyoming part of such a bad MWC, that even a mediocre Wyoming team should be able to compete for a conference championship.
But we aren’t anywhere close to mediocre at this point with Sawvel at the helm.