I expected Hall and Halliburton to shine this season before spring ball. They didn't disappoint.
I'm most excited to see the defense and the new d.c: Scottie Hazleton. He's got a lot of pieces to work with. We've got good depth on the d line, although we can't afford to lose any d tackles or we have a depth crisis again. Our secondary is loaded. The linebackers are still a little light on depth and experience, but Hazleton just came from an NFL linebackers gig, so hopefully he'll be able to get them ready. I'm expecting our complete incompetence at defending the veer is about to be a part of our history.
Youhanna Ghaifan has a chance to be a dominant MWC player. He has the opportunity to make our defense more than just "improved". As a defensive tackle that can generate pass rush, he'll allow us to get pressure rushing 4, which makes any defense shine: especially the Tampa 2 package. The amount of pass rushers and the depth of our secondary should improve our ability to turn people over and score points on defense. I predicted points from our defense early last season and we didn't disappoint. This year should be even better at generating turnovers and scoring points. Ghaifan is a huge part of that.
I'm excited to see the progress of of Austin Conway at wide receiver. If he learned to run routes: look out MWC. If he gets the ball in the secondary, he's only got to make one or two guys miss to see the end zone. He makes one or two guys miss consistently when he has the ball. If he can get open this year, he's going to give MWC defenses nightmares.
How could you not be excited about Josh Allen? I told the MWCboard about him last year after seeing him play a couple of games. He's like Welniak with 3 more inches, better wheels, and a bigger arm. He's like Walwork with better mobility and more arm strength. You can look back on all the Wyoming qb's of the last 30 years and possibly all the MWC qb's of the last 30 years, and none of them had more tools in the box than Josh Allen does. If he can handle the spot light, the sky is the limit for Josh.
Our offensive line is becoming a dominant force. We'll see if Logan can make up for the loss of a possible rookie starter in the NFL. With Cummings, Jackson, Wallace, Rush, Webb, Harris, Cole, Valasquez.....We're starting to develop an offensive line that consistently dominates people. Smash mouth football starts at the offensive line, and we've got some big strong dudes up front to make that happen.
Drew Van Manann is a throwback to old school football. I love guys that do the dirty work and actually enjoy it. Drew does just that. Regardless of who carries the ball, you can guarantee that if Drew is in front of them, there will one less tackler to worry about. Drew eats linebackers for breakfast. He makes the fullback position sexy.
Another frequently over looked and exciting part of the whole football program is our emphasis on Wyoming prep players. Harris, Harshman, Wilson, Austin Fort, Paul Schwabb, Ben Wisdorf.....they're all going to be key for us this year. Bohl is taking Wyoming recruiting to a whole new level.
Season ticket sales over 10,000(without 5000 Nebraska fans) is pretty damn cool as well. The MWC championship game last year, although cold as hell and a heartbreaking loss, was a blast. The atmosphere is back in Laramie and this years attendance should be incredible. Hopefully we'll continue to build on our regular season undefeated streak.
New facilities are exciting.
There's too much exciting to mention it all.
Let the damn season begin.