I don't see it as a big moment for WYO football at all. I see it as a bridge hire so that we can field a team next year.
There just aren't a lot of examples of head coaches being internally promoted, keeping the roster intact from the prior successful season, turning that same 9 win team into garbage over the next 2 years...and then miraculously coming back to be a great head coach and winning program. In fact, I can't think of a single example.
Sawvel is set for life with the money he was able to convince Burman to give him at Wyoming's expense. Like Koenning, I am sure he can resurrect his career as a defensive position coach (probably in the secondary) somewhere else in FBS or a defensive coordinator position in FCS. Worst case for him, he gets paid to go coach a semi-professional team in Poland but then gets fired at the job for poor performance during the middle of the season ala Dave Christensen.