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October 8, 2005 (10 years ago today)

B

BringBackStutzriem

Well-known member
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October 8, 2005: TCU 28, Wyoming 14

"Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders."

The radiant sunlight splashed Jonah Field with a little extra shimmer on this particular Saturday. Fans clamored into upper corner regions of War Memorial Stadium that had sat vacant for nearly an entire decade, and a distinct buzz circulated between people who had traveled from all over the state for this particular game. This wasn't a novelty aura - as Wyoming fans would experience when the Cowboys would host Texas and Nebraska years later - it was the aura of a college football Saturday with genuine, real significance. A game - in Laramie, Wyoming - that truly mattered. Cowboy fans had craved the sensation since 1998, and it was evident by an early-arriving crowd that dwarfed any that had attended a Wyoming home game in the 21st century.

But as the pomp and circumstance of authentic college football pulsated at 7,200 feet, an unfamiliar newcomer began to take the field. No, this was not a complete stranger - the Cowboys and Horned Frogs had tangled before in the 1990's - but this incarnation of Fort Worth football was something much different. Something ominous. The purple and white uniforms seemed innocuous enough - and the small, but boisterous cheering section in the southwest corner of the end zone seemed like mere bystanders - but something was clearly altered about these Horned Frogs. And, as the crowd of 28,000 stood and roared out its kickoff cadence, it was almost instantly evident that this would be no ordinary day - or football game - for either program.

The Build-Up: A Mountain West Newcomer

To truly frame the story of the 2005 Wyoming/TCU game, it's important - interestingly enough - to first tell the Horned Frogs' side. TCU played Wyoming in 1998 and fell, 34-27, to a Cowboys team that started the season 8-1 before losing its final two games of the year. While TCU touted a long, storied football history - with Sammy Baugh as its crowning jewel - the Horned Frogs were largely reduced to college football irrelevance by the time the teams met in 1998. On the heels of a disastrous 1-10 campaign in 1997, TCU hired Dennis Franchione as its head coach...and by the 1998 meeting, the Horned Frogs were on the rise again.

Despite losing to Wyoming and finishing the season with a 6-5 record (compared to Wyoming's 8-3 mark), the Horned Frogs were given a bowl bid (and Wyoming was, for the second time in three seasons, criminally left out in the cold)...and TCU cashed in by defeating USC in the Sun Bowl. The following season, led by a running back named LaDanian Tomlinson, TCU jumped to an 8-4 mark and, once again, won a bowl game - this time over East Carolina. Finally, in 2000, Franchione and Tomlinson guided the Horned Frogs to one of their best seasons, at the time, in program history - a 10-2 campaign that saw TCU rise as high as #9 in the national rankings.

Franchione left at the conclusion of that season, however, and TCU quickly plummeted back to earth the following season. Under new head coach Gary Patterson, TCU mustered a respectable, albeit depreciated 6-6 record. In 2002, the Horned Frogs were back, earning a 10-2 mark in the Conference USA and pummeling MWC representative CSU in the Liberty Bowl. 2003 saw more of the same, as the Horned Frogs jumped to an 11-2 mark in a magical season that ended in disappointment with a 34-31 loss to another upstart, Boise State, in the Fort Worth Bowl. At this juncture, TCU had earned three 10+ win seasons in the first four years of the decade, and was very much established as a "mid-major" power.

2004, however, saw the Frogs take another step backwards. TCU recorded its first losing campaign since 1997, a 5-6 mark, and bolted for the Mountain West Conference at the conclusion of the season. While the Horned Frogs were leaving a Conference USA that boasted 11-1 Louisville, the MWC was even better: Utah concluded 2004 unbeaten and, by some accounts, an under-respected contender that should have received national title votes.

In any case, TCU entered the Mountain West Conference in 2005 with an aura of uncertainty surrounding just where the Horned Frogs would stand in the hierarchy of arguably the strongest "little" conference in America. Those questions were immediately answered in week one, as TCU stunned #7 Oklahoma - and silenced its running back, Adrian Peterson - with a 17-10 win in the season opener. The following week, however, was even more shocking...as TCU stumbled against lowly SMU in its home opener, crashing back to earth immediately after recording its biggest win in recent program history.

From there, the Horned Frogs eked out a pair of overtime thrillers over Utah and BYU - then pasted New Mexico - and entered Laramie not only with a 4-1 mark, but as the new prohibitive favorites to win the conference. That is, of course, if they could slow down the most confident Cowboy team in nearly a decade.

TCU record entering Wyoming game:
at Oklahoma: W 17-10
at SMU: L 10-21
vs. Utah: W 23-20 (OT)
at BYU: W 51-50 (OT)
vs. New Mexico: W 49-28

The Build-Up: Bo and the 'Boys

That Wyoming team rolled into the October 8 showdown on a wave of momentum that reached Snowy Range heights, and only appeared to be growing. Not only were the Cowboys - under third-year head coach Joe Glenn - entering the game on the heels of their first bowl victory since the 1960's...they were riding a 4-1 record during which they had played like the Top 25 team they had been billed as in the preseason. While Wyoming fell at the Swamp in its opener against #10 Florida, the Cowboys kept the game respectable and walked away confidently. That confidence was reflected in a blowout victory over Louisiana Monroe in Wyoming's home opener, followed by a clutch, last-second win at Air Force - a venue where Wyoming had historically struggled.

Most impressive, however, was the pair of drubbings the Cowboys put on Ole Miss and UNLV in the successive weeks. The Cowboys buried Ole Miss on the Rebels' home turf, earning a series sweep over their SEC foes, and then pummeled the Rebels unlike Wyoming had ever done to a MWC foe (a 42-3 fourth quarter lead).

Entering the TCU game, senior quarterback Corey Bramlet had thrown for 7 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in 2005. However, it was the command he showed in his most recent performances, particularly a 21-27 effort for 315 yards and 3 touchdowns against UNLV, that had Cowboy fans riding high on #14. Glenn was garnering a reputation as something of a coaching virtuoso, adding the sweep of Ole Miss to his resume that also included wins over BYU and CSU in his first season and, of course, the bowl win over UCLA. Wyoming's defense earned national respect after swallowing up Ole Miss's entire offensive attack.

And then there was Bo. Unlike anyone who has donned the brown and gold in the 2000's, Jovon Bouknight was a special kind of playmaker for Wyoming. No one who preceded him, or succeeded him, quite captured lightning in a bottle at the collegiate level quite like Bo - not Ryan McGuffey, not John Wendling, not Devin Moore, not Brett Smith. Bo was something else. While Malcom Floyd and Tashaun Gipson obviously possessed much greater talents at the next level, Bouknight still holds the title as the most dynamic Cowboy of the 21st century. He carried himself with a different level of swagger - and he roused a sense of belief in his teammates because, quite simply, when a situation called for a playmaker, Bo somehow found a way.

Entering the TCU game, Bouknight had posted 24 catches for 393 yards and 6 touchdowns. He had caught at least one touchdown in every single game of the season. And his latest performance, a 7 catch, 116-yard, 2 touchdown masterpiece against UNLV, was one of his best to date. Bougknight entered the TCU game on the doorstep of passing the legendary Marcus Harris for Wyoming's all-time all-purpose yardage mark.

Wyoming's record entering the TCU game:
at Florida: L 14-32
vs. Louisiana Monroe: W 38-0
at Air Force: W 29-28
at Ole Miss: W 24-14
vs. UNLV: W 42-17
 
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The Game: 257 Yards

What is most agonizing - and most forgotten - about the game is the performance of Wyoming's defense on that fateful October afternoon. The Cowboys limited TCU to just 257 yards of total offense - including just 142 passing yards - and turned the Horned Frogs over twice. With their backs against the wall for much of the day, the Cowboy defense held surprisingly tough and, time and time again, kept Wyoming in the game...

...only for the Cowboys to repeatedly find ways to take themselves out of it. And Wyoming found plenty of those, from the game's catastrophic start. On the opening play from scrimmage, Bramlet was sacked for a 8-yard loss. Two plays later, Bramlet threw his first interception of the day, which was returned all the way to the Cowboy 19. With a short field on its opening possession, TCU pounded the ball into the end zone and took a 6-0 lead (the extra point was missed).

Things got worse. The Cowboys, pinned deep in their field, mustered punts on their next two possessions. Though the defense rose to the occasion and held tough twice - the second time, keeping TCU to just a field goal, the Horned Frogs extended their lead. On Wyoming's fourth possession of the game, Bramlet threw another ill-timed pass - and this one ended up at the Wyoming 32. Once again, the Cowboys stiffened and held to a field goal.

Trailing 12-0 in the second, Bramlet threw his third interception of the first half. With the fate of the game very obviously hanging in the balance, Wyoming's defense again rose up and stopped TCU on four downs. The Pokes got the ball back and - once again - mustered just four plays on offense before punting. On TCU's ensuring possession, however, Derrick Martin picked off Jeff Ballard, setting Wyoming up with a golden opportunity at the TCU 31. The situation called for a big play - and Bouknight, of course, delivered a 31-yard touchdown on the next play. 12-7 TCU.

The teams traded punts again, back-and-forth, but Wyoming's kick back to TCU was returned for 33 yards deep into Cowboy territory. While the defense, again, held sure, a critical pass interference call on 3rd-and-15 gave TCU the ball in the red zone. On the next play, Aaron Brown rushed into the end zone to give TCU a 19-7 lead in the waning moments of the first half.

Fate turns on a dime. Football turns on a dime. And just as the pass interference call changed the game's complexion, one more play shifted the direction of Wyoming's program entirely. Trapped deep in his own territory and scrambling for his life, Bramlet was sacked and fumbled the football, which was scooped up and returned for a touchdown by Robert Henson. Just like that, a 12-7 game became 25-7. One three-and-out later, and TCU took a 28-7 lead into the half.

The Game: The Rally

And, somehow, it wasn't over. Not even in the slightest. Not after four first-half Cowboy turnovers.

The Wyoming defense tightened. Stonewalled TCU over and over. And, even though its offense had sputtered and misfired into a calamity of errors in the first half, the momentum somehow seemed to be shifting back towards the Cowboys. Somehow, some way - under Joe Glenn's never-say-die Cowboys - a 21-point deficit seemed manageable. Somehow, every single person in the stadium felt confident that Wyoming would rally back and win the game. Somehow, it seemed inevitable that Wyoming would usher in a new golden era with a come-from-behind win that would be talked about for years to come.

It all began in the third quarter. An 80-yard drive where Bramlet scrambled 17 yards to keep the Cowboys alive on 3rd-and-8. A big run from future star Devin Moore. And, once again, a dramatic touchdown by Superman in brown-and-gold; Bouknight's second touchdown of the day - and 8th of the season - cut the Horned Frog's lead to 28-14.

Suddenly, the War was immersed in a fever pitch. Suddenly, the stadium grew more raucous than it had in years - and more raucous than it would be again for years to come. Suddenly, Cowboy football was teetering on the cusp of history - and only one quarter separated Wyoming from its crowning comeback to college football relevance.

The Game: Things Fall Apart

A Cowboy punt pinned TCU deep in its own territory early in the fourth quarter. On 3rd and 7, Ballard was pressured and threw a pass that was intercepted by Cowboy Darcy Golston, who returned the ball to the TCU 27. Bedlam in Laramie. The rally was on.

But wait. Wyoming stalled on its first three plays of the ensuing series, setting up a 4th-and-7 (and, truly, 4th-and-game) situation from the TCU 24. Once again, it was the incomparable Bouknight playing the hero role he had grown so accustomed to. #9 came through with a 18-yard reception and gave UW first-and-goal at the TCU 8. Two plays later, and the Cowboys were at the TCU goal line with two more downs remaining.

A touchdown was inevitable. It had to happen. It would happen. Wyoming would score. The stadium would erupt. TCU would stall again. Wyoming would tie the game. Wyoming would find a way to win the game. The goalposts would come down. Laramie would be in ecstasy.

Bramlet ran to his left. He found a crease into the end zone and - as he was about to score - inexplicably lost control of the football. TCU recovered in the end zone. The Cowboys' hopes were, for all intents and purposes, utterly crushed. War Memorial Stadium deflated like the Hindenburg. The stunned looks were shared by Wyomingites everywhere.

And yet, the Cowboys still had two more chances. Wyoming stuffed TCU on its next possession and moved the ball all the way down to the TCU 17. Once again, Bramlet lost a fumble - Wyoming's fourth lost fumble of the afternoon.

The Cowboys' final possession ended with a Bramlet interception. It was the eighth Wyoming turnover of the game. The small Horned Frogs contingent erupted in celebration, while Wyoming fans turned for the exits in stunned dismay.

Bouknight's effort was nothing short of Herculean - 11 catches, 157 yards, 2 touchdowns. The defense's unrelenting resolve was unmistakable. But on this fateful afternoon, quite simply, Wyoming fumbled away what would amount to its best chance at college football relevancy in the 2000's.
 
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The Aftermath: 66-and-10

TCU would not lose another game in the 2005 season. Not only did the Horned Frogs not lose again - they were rarely in jeopardy in the same fashion they were in the fourth quarter in Laramie. An 11-1 record and MWC title in their first season in the conference announced TCU's arrival. TCU's 2006 recruiting class included, among others, Andy Dalton, Jerry Hughes, and Wayne Daniels.

Between 2005 and 2010, TCU would go on to compile an astonishing 66-10 mark - with 5 of those losses coming in the 2007 season. Everything culminated in 2010 with a magical 13-0 campaign that concluded with a stunning 21-19 win over Wisconsin in college football's most storied cathedral: the Rose Bowl. It was the kind of dramatic, postseason victory that defines a program - one that TCU fans will always be able to point to and say, "Remember when?" TCU ascended to a #2 final ranking - almost unimaginable when they joined the MWC just five years prior - and completed one of the greatest campaigns ever for an alleged "mid-tier conference" program.

TCU soon left the "mid-major" ranks for good when the Horned Frogs joined the Big 12 in 2012. And while TCU struggled in its first two seasons of Big-5 conference, the Horned Frogs proved in 2014 that all of their success under Patterson was no fluke, taking the Big 12 by storm and finishing the season with a 12-1 mark. Today, they're the #2 ranked team in the nation and a bonafide national title contender.

Did the Horned Frog's win over Wyoming really influence anything? Would a loss have changed the narrative? It's probably unlikely. However, in a game that many Wyoming fans (rightly) feel the Cowboys gave away rather than lost, the difference between a 11-1 season and a ? and ? season certainly - at the very least - raises the "what if" question. Fortunately for TCU fans, that question will never have to be raised - and sadly, for Wyoming fans, it will always linger.

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The Aftermath: The End Times of Piano Playing in Laramie

It's both unfair and inaccurate to proclaim that the TCU contest, alone, marked the downfall of Wyoming football. If anything, Wyoming's heartbreaking loss the following weekend - a 27-24 nail biter on a missed field goal in the game's closing moments - was just as damaging to the Cowboys' 2005 hopes and psyche. Wyoming may have lost its grasp on first in the Mountain West Conference on October 8, 2005, but it hadn't lost much more than that at the time.

What is undeniable, however, is that the fortunes of Cowboy football shifted dramatically on that one afternoon. The remainder of Glenn's coaching tenure at Wyoming still contained of a variety of marquee wins...but it was mostly defined by agonizing and inexplicable collapses. Bramlet's end zone fumble was symbolic of the entirety of Glenn's dismal luck that lingered for the remainder of the coach's time in Laramie.

The New Mexico game (two more inopportune Bramlet turnovers sealed Wyoming's fate) was a sign of things to come. Wyoming continued to make inexplicable mistakes, losing a tough 39-31 game to CSU (with two more Bramlet INTs) - and the Cowboys lost out from there. A 4-1 season that appeared to be certainly bound for a bowl game ended in a 4-7 catastrophe.

Bouknight's storied career ended unceremoniously, but the receiver maintained brilliance as the season wore on. He added a 106-yard performance against New Mexico, then totaled a remarkable 12-catch, 187 yard, 3 touchdown performance in a losing effort against Colorado State. From there, he led the Cowboys in receiving yardage in his final three games (including a 14-catch, 143-yard performance in his finale against San Diego State). His final numbers were 77 receptions, 1,116 yards, and 12 touchdowns. However, one of the greatest individual seasons in Wyoming history was ultimately all-for-naught.

As for Glenn, his time, too, ran out - but not without some fanfare. One of the most likable personalities in Wyoming sports history, Cowboy Joe did earn a 6-6 mark in 2006 with a team that surely would have had 7 wins if he had played an FCS opponent like his successor, Dave Christensen, did in every season of his coaching tenure. Glenn's 2006 team plastered Utah and Colorado State in back-to-back games. In 2007, he earned Wyoming's single best win of the 21st century: a 23-3 drubbing of a Virginia team that finished the season 9-4. Later that season, he earned a small measure of revenge by beating TCU in Laramie, 24-21, in a game that coincidentally bumped Wyoming back to the same 4-1 start the Cowboys enjoyed in 2005. In 2008, Glenn pulled perhaps the program's most iconic victory in decades: a stunning upset of Tennessee in Neyland Stadium.

Sadly, however, his tenure will be remembered as "what could have been." The bizarre luck of 2005 spilled into 2006, as the Cowboys lost four games by a touchdown-or-less. A missed extra point cost Wyoming a win at Virginia. A series of inexplicable refereeing errors cost the Cowboys a game at Syracuse. And Wyoming fought tooth-and-nail to a 17-10 defeat vs. a Boise State team that finished the season 13-0 and won the Fiesta Bowl.

It got worse in 2007. A bizarre thunderstorm delayed 4-1 Wyoming's homecoming battle with New Mexico just before halftime, and the Cowboys went to the locker room deadlocked at 3-3. When the teams returned, Wyoming was completely flat and lost the game 20-3. The Pokes never recovered, losing 6 of their final 7 in a nearly mirror image of their 2005 campaign. One year later, Glenn's tenure at coach ended.

Today, Wyoming is ranked as the nation's worst FBS team by several metrics. The Cowboys are 0-5 and have lost by double digits to all five opponents - none of whom would be perceived as a team remotely of the caliber of the TCU team the Cowboys lost to in 2005. Since Glenn's departure, Wyoming's signature win came over Fresno State. The Cowboys parted ways with Christensen, who left the program in turmoil. The overall descent has continued.

So, what if? What if Wyoming wins its game over TCU in 2005? What if the Cowboys start the season 5-1 and crack the rankings? Does Bramlet never lose his confidence? Do the Cowboys defeat New Mexico and CSU in back-to-back weeks, entering their showdown with Utah holding a 7-1 record and first place in the MWC? Does Wyoming win its first-ever MWC title? Do the fortunes of Wyoming's entire program change?

It's all irrelevant at this point, because history simply cannot be changed. But, like fate, history does turn on a dime. And for the Wyoming Cowboys football program, that dime was dubiously flipped on October 8, 2005.
 
BringBackStutzriem said:
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October 8, 2005: TCU 28, Wyoming 14

"Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders."

The radiant sunlight splashed Jonah Field with a little extra shimmer on this particular Saturday. Fans clamored into upper corner regions of War Memorial Stadium that had sat vacant for nearly an entire decade, and a distinct buzz circulated between people who had traveled from all over the state for this particular game. This wasn't a novelty aura - as Wyoming fans would experience when the Cowboys would host Texas and Nebraska years later - it was the aura of a college football Saturday with genuine, real significance. A game - in Laramie, Wyoming - that truly mattered. Cowboy fans had craved the sensation since 1998, and it was evident by an early-arriving crowd that dwarfed any that had attended a Wyoming home game in the 21st century.

But as the pomp and circumstance of authentic college football pulsated at 7,200 feet, an unfamiliar newcomer began to take the field. No, this was not a complete stranger - the Cowboys and Horned Frogs had tangled before in the 1990's - but this incarnation of Fort Worth football was something much different. Something ominous. The purple and white uniforms seemed innocuous enough - and the small, but boisterous cheering section in the southwest corner of the end zone seemed like mere bystanders - but something was clearly altered about these Horned Frogs. And, as the crowd of 28,000 stood and roared out its kickoff cadence, it was almost instantly evident that this would be no ordinary day - or football game - for either program.

The Build-Up: A Mountain West Newcomer

To truly frame the story of the 2005 Wyoming/TCU game, it's important - interestingly enough - to first tell the Horned Frogs' side. TCU played Wyoming in 1998 and fell, 34-27, to a Cowboys team that started the season 8-1 before losing its final two games of the year. While TCU touted a long, storied football history - with Sammy Baugh as its crowning jewel - the Horned Frogs were largely reduced to college football irrelevance by the time the teams met in 1998. On the heels of a disastrous 1-10 campaign in 1997, TCU hired Dennis Franchione as its head coach...and by the 1998 meeting, the Horned Frogs were on the rise again.

Despite losing to Wyoming and finishing the season with a 6-5 record (compared to Wyoming's 8-3 mark), the Horned Frogs were given a bowl bid (and Wyoming was, for the second time in three seasons, criminally left out in the cold)...and TCU cashed in by defeating USC in the Sun Bowl. The following season, led by a running back named LaDanian Tomlinson, TCU jumped to an 8-4 mark and, once again, won a bowl game - this time over East Carolina. Finally, in 2000, Franchione and Tomlinson guided the Horned Frogs to one of their best seasons, at the time, in program history - a 10-2 campaign that saw TCU rise as high as #9 in the national rankings.

Franchione left at the conclusion of that season, however, and TCU quickly plummeted back to earth the following season. Under new head coach Gary Patterson, TCU mustered a respectable, albeit depreciated 6-6 record. In 2002, the Horned Frogs were back, earning a 10-2 mark in the Conference USA and pummeling MWC representative CSU in the Liberty Bowl. 2003 saw more of the same, as the Horned Frogs jumped to an 11-2 mark in a magical season that ended in disappointment with a 34-31 loss to another upstart, Boise State, in the Fort Worth Bowl. At this juncture, TCU had earned three 10+ win seasons in the first four years of the decade, and was very much established as a "mid-major" power.

2004, however, saw the Frogs take another step backwards. TCU recorded its first losing campaign since 1997, a 5-6 mark, and bolted for the Mountain West Conference at the conclusion of the season. While the Horned Frogs were leaving a Conference USA that boasted 11-1 Louisville, the MWC was even better: Utah concluded 2004 unbeaten and, by some accounts, an under-respected contender that should have received national title votes.

In any case, TCU entered the Mountain West Conference in 2005 with an aura of uncertainty surrounding just where the Horned Frogs would stand in the hierarchy of arguably the strongest "little" conference in America. Those questions were immediately answered in week one, as TCU stunned #7 Oklahoma - and silenced its running back, Adrian Peterson - with a 17-10 win in the season opener. The following week, however, was even more shocking...as TCU stumbled against lowly SMU in its home opener, crashing back to earth immediately after recording its biggest win in recent program history.

From there, the Horned Frogs eked out a pair of overtime thrillers over Utah and BYU - then pasted New Mexico - and entered Laramie not only with a 4-1 mark, but as the new prohibitive favorites to win the conference. That is, of course, if they could slow down the most confident Cowboy team in nearly a decade.

TCU record entering Wyoming game:
at Oklahoma: W 17-10
at SMU: L 10-21
vs. Utah: W 23-20 (OT)
at BYU: W 51-50 (OT)
vs. New Mexico: W 49-28

The Build-Up: Bo and the 'Boys

That Wyoming team rolled into the October 8 showdown on a wave of momentum that reached Snowy Range heights, and only appeared to be growing. Not only were the Cowboys - under third-year head coach Joe Glenn - entering the game on the heels of their first bowl victory since the 1960's...they were riding a 4-1 record during which they had played like the Top 25 team they had been billed as in the preseason. While Wyoming fell at the Swamp in its opener against #10 Florida, the Cowboys kept the game respectable and walked away confidently. That confidence was reflected in a blowout victory over Louisiana Monroe in Wyoming's home opener, followed by a clutch, last-second win at Air Force - a venue where Wyoming had historically struggled.

Most impressive, however, was the pair of drubbings the Cowboys put on Ole Miss and UNLV in the successive weeks. The Cowboys buried Ole Miss on the Rebels' home turf, earning a series sweep over their SEC foes, and then pummeled the Rebels unlike Wyoming had ever done to a MWC foe (a 42-3 fourth quarter lead).

Entering the TCU game, senior quarterback Corey Bramlet had thrown for 7 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in 2005. However, it was the command he showed in his most recent performances, particularly a 21-27 effort for 315 yards and 3 touchdowns against UNLV, that had Cowboy fans riding high on #14. Glenn was garnering a reputation as something of a coaching virtuoso, adding the sweep of Ole Miss to his resume that also included wins over BYU and CSU in his first season and, of course, the bowl win over UCLA. Wyoming's defense earned national respect after swallowing up Ole Miss's entire offensive attack.

And then there was Bo. Unlike anyone who has donned the brown and gold in the 2000's, Jovon Bouknight was a special kind of playmaker for Wyoming. No one who preceded him, or succeeded him, quite captured lightning in a bottle at the collegiate level quite like Bo - not Ryan McGuffey, not John Wendling, not Devin Moore, not Brett Smith. Bo was something else. While Malcom Floyd and Tashaun Gipson obviously possessed much greater talents at the next level, Bouknight still holds the title as the most dynamic Cowboy of the 21st century. He carried himself with a different level of swagger - and he roused a sense of belief in his teammates because, quite simply, when a situation called for a playmaker, Bo somehow found a way.

Entering the TCU game, Bouknight had posted 24 catches for 393 yards and 6 touchdowns. He had caught at least one touchdown in every single game of the season. And his latest performance, a 7 catch, 116-yard, 2 touchdown masterpiece against UNLV, was one of his best to date. Bougknight entered the TCU game on the doorstep of passing the legendary Marcus Harris for Wyoming's all-time all-purpose yardage mark.

Wyoming's record entering the TCU game:
at Florida: L 14-32
vs. Louisiana Monroe: W 38-0
at Air Force: W 29-28
at Ole Miss: W 24-14
vs. UNLV: W 42-17
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Where does this story appear -- or did you yourself write this? If you did my hat is off to you - really excellent work.
 
Ah yes, I remember that game well...

Nearly got in to a brawl with the TCU sideline.
I was working on the TCU side wearing my UW polo. During the second half there was a late hit by one of Wyo's lineman that the TCU bench took particular exception to. At which point one of the defensive players turned to me and started getting aggressive as if I had been the offender; a few of his teammates decided to join in. I stood my ground and glared him down; I may not have walked away from the ordeal intact, but I was prepared to take a few of them down with me. Nothing happened, but my co-worker about crapped their pants when things almost went down.

After that game, there was a definite shift in the attitude of the team. There were some things said after the game by Glenn and staff that caused a decent number of the players to "shut down" and not care anymore. I knew a number of players that would get drunk 2 nights or even the night before games the rest of that season. For the rest of that season, the general team attitude went from bridled optimism to "who gives a f$%#".

Obviously since that game and season, Wyoming has been on a downward spiral with only a few glimmers of hope. Oh what could have been if Bramlet had protected the ball better...
 
What made the turnovers even more frustrating was how well the defense was stopping them. I had forgotten about how well the defense played in that game.
 
Yabadabadoo said:
Where does this story appear -- or did you yourself write this? If you did my hat is off to you - really excellent work.
Click to expand...

Hey, thank you! This is a write-up I did for fun last night while watching the Cubs/Pirates game; there's a ton of this style of long form sportswriting in this day and age (like Grantland), but obviously, Wyoming receives very little attention. The TCU game always stuck with me because it was a game I genuinely believe the Cowboys could have - and should have - won. And, of course, it's been a huge fulcrum for everything that has happened since.

Anyway, many thanks for the kind words. I'll do a couple more of these (top-10 Wyoming games of the 21st century, Mount Rushmore of Wyoming players in the 21st century, 1996 WAC Championship) if you all enjoyed this one and would like to read more. Cheers! :thumb:
 
Just how big a role does plain old luck and momentum play? Probably more than us message board experts realize or care to admit to. Sweet write up.
 
Phenomenal post. Man I remember this like yesterday.. What a weird fluky game with all those turnovers, and we were never the same. Ahh what could have been
 
Awesome write-up, Stutzreim. You are a fantastic writer. Wouldn't you like to see Wyoming football back in a similar situation? Or we could wuss out and Go FCS...not.
 
How about a Chris Stutzriem write up? The legend that led the Cowboys to victory over the Arian Foster led Vols in Knoxville.
 
I was there, that loss was huge to the Wyoming mindset. I believe there was a phantom holding call on a punt return for a TD for Wyo as well. That was a HUGE play, as well as the TO's we suffered during that game. Frustrating to know how close we were to putting together one heck of a year.
 
I remember that game well. I also remember a poster on the message board saying this after it. "2005 the year we pissed it all away."
 
Man o man. Prior to this game, and even for a little while after, Joe Glenn could have been Governor, University President, Athletic Director, and Head Coach all at the same time.

Anyone remember attendance for that game?
 
ragtimejoe1 said:
Anyone remember attendance for that game?
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It was just under 28,000, which made it the biggest crowd for a Wyoming game since 1998. You've got to remember, though, this was in the era of Project 20k, where it was a goal to even average 20,000 fans per game. In fact, it was rare to even exceed that attendance mark for a while there. Garnering 28k for this one (especially against a team that didn't travel particularly well to Laramie) was a HUGE deal for Wyoming.

johnywyo said:
I believe there was a phantom holding call on a punt return for a TD for Wyo as well. That was a HUGE play, as well as the TO's we suffered during that game. Frustrating to know how close we were to putting together one heck of a year.
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YES, you are completely right. I omitted it from the story because I couldn't quite remember how it fit into the game's narrative, but it was in the first half. Hoost Marsh took a punt 90 yards for a touchdown (it's the image that shows up at the top of "Part 2" of this writeup). I remember the stadium being furious, although I recall the PI call at the end of the first half was even more dubious and people were truly up in arms.

That's one unpleasant memory I have about this game: I've never seen a more intense Wyoming fan base, but also never seen a more angry one. This was an even louder game than Texas in 2009 because, quite simply, Wyoming expected to win this game. There was no novelty surrounding this: it was the real deal. And when the Cowboys lost, the hate that was levied at players (especially Bramlet) was pretty appalling. I've never seen a player singled out by our fans quite like that. It was pretty nasty stuff.

LanderPoke said:
Awesome write-up, Stutzreim. You are a fantastic writer. Wouldn't you like to see Wyoming football back in a similar situation? Or we could wuss out and Go FCS...not.
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Seriously appreciate the kind words, man. I know some of my views aren't popular around here, but I figured they're interesting conversation starters at the very least. I want Wyoming to get back to exactly where they were on October 7, 2005 in the worst of ways. However, I'm not certain it's entirely possible anymore for a couple of reasons:

1.) The Mountain West Conference will never carry the level of national relevance or recognition it had from 2005-2011, especially in the likelihood that Boise State, Colorado State, and possibly Air Force all leave in the next few seasons. Boise State would be most persuaded if CSU jumps ship, and CSU's magnum opus stadium investment (and the general economics of the booming Front Range population swing) make them a pretty viable candidate to go Big 12. Regardless, it's impossible to recreate a playing field with TCU, Utah, and BYU - and, at the time, Wyoming was a realistic competitor to all three. As the ensuing blowouts later in the decade began to indicate, the gap between those programs and UW grew more and more massive - and now it's simply insurmountable. We can't ever hope to catch up to where TCU or Utah are - it's just an unfortunate reality.

2.) Consequentially, it will be more and more difficult for Wyoming to attract the caliber of recruits needed to compete in the upper-echelon of "mid-major" programs. Let's clarify: TCU, Utah, and BYU are no longer "mid-majors" - they're the real deal. We're more of a "mid-major" than we've ever been. But the depreciation of prestige in the MWC will make it more difficult to convince recruits to play in Laramie simply because the conference and its teams are largely irrelevant. Certainly, Wyoming needs to make Tashaun Gipson a poster child of "Look, it can happen here!" In the year 2015, however, it's a pretty tough sell to your type of kid who is really good at football. Again, we love Wyoming because we see the virtues of it - but there's a reason there are only 550,000 people here, and it's because it takes a really special type of person to live out here. I'm not convinced that Laramie is a lucrative place for upper-tier football players in a generation that is founded on instant gratification and flashiness ("the Instagram generation").

3.) Above all, the inherent disadvantages of trying to run a FBS program out of Laramie, Wyoming have widened exponentially in the 10 years since this game. At the time, Wyoming was on a relatively similar plane as the rest of the MWC. Within five years, it had shifted dramatically. Today, it's tectonic plates moving. It's like the separation of Pangea. That's what makes this such a fascinating and depressing game to analyze - it's the "what if's" that needed to fall in place to provide a program like Wyoming with the types of sparks it needed to compete. Unfortunately, the catalysts for those sparks are becoming more and more sparse as time goes on. That's the tough reality we're trying to come to grips with as Wyoming fans.

Now, let's hope Wyoming's program goes out and makes me eat my words. Because, trust me, I'll be the happiest person in the world to be completely wrong if it happens.
 
Stutz,

My man; you have levied the most synthesized post on the relevance of Wyoming Cowboy football, past and present in the history of this forum. Amazing job. I have pointed out that this loss as being the nexus of our downward trend for years. We have not been legit since.

I hope Bohl materializes a good product on the field as some of my in the know colleagues suggest will occur. We all desire this, that has never been in question. The path to the top of the Mountain for this program is precipitous & perilous.
 
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