WR Issue

[307bball]

Wanted to discuss the WR position.

I've seen versions of the following statements on this board:

"We have talent at WR"
"WR is held back because of the O-line"
"WR is held back becaus of the QB"

These statements don't feel right to me. When you watch college football, you see these individual stud WR's on plenty of poor teams that go up in crowds or run themselves open in ways that can be eye-popping. I've even seen it historically at UW....(Remember WR U?). I'm not saying we have bums at the position but they seem like journeyman, at best. Ask yourself, who was the best at the WR postion in the last 10 years? It's either Tanner Gentry or Isiah Neyor. Other than that, I don't see anybody that any other team would be excited to have at that position, even taking into account how uninspiring our QB or gameplan is.

Obviously, Craig Bohl offense and the now the Sawvell circus isn't taylor made to showcase recievers. Even given that, Wyoming hasn't had and continues to not have a player at that position that defenses need to worry about. I think this is not a quick fix either. In the current environment, the top three positions for earning NIL money is QB, WR, and Edge rusher in that order. There are recievers on other teams that don't really see the field that would be stand outs at schools like Wyoming because of this.

 

[Bryoming]

The WR room is terrible. Has been for years. What receiver would want to come to a school that forgot the forward pass existed a decade ago?

 

[307bball]

The WR room is terrible. Has been for years. What receiver would want to come to a school that forgot the forward pass existed a decade ago?

I think you are somewhat right....but I bet some $$ would change that.

 

[McPeachy]

Not sure Jovon Bouknight would agree that we don't have any serviceable or capable WR's. How many drops did you all see that I didn't on Saturday? Of course I turned it off at 28 - 13.

The real question in my mind is what happened to Sawful's "best defense since he has been here - 7 years"? They looked like hot runny shit.

 

[PorkerPoke]

The offense has been ignored as a useful weapon for years. The ball control ideology kept an otherwise good team competitive in the lower to middle level of the MWC under Bohl.

In fact, the only time the program has played offense designed to score points in the MWC was under Christensen. Unfortunately he played defense about as good as Sawful plays offense as in not very often if at all.

$$ will help recruiting but what is really needed is leadership capable of implementing the offense and finding those otherwise overlooked players that can make the plays. I absolutely do not trust Sawful to be able to adequately recruit even with a wad of cash.

It shouldn’t be that expensive to significantly improve the offense. Look at numerous players throughout FCS programs that would be nice additions to this roster.

It starts with the coaches choosing the roster and I don’t think there has been an intentional pursuit of the talent needed to play a more aggressive offense. The focus has been on blocking WR’s for the over tackle run play and the routes have been designed not for pass separation, but to draw defenders away from the run play. Opposing DC’s recognize the inability to run routes or even complete the pass and have game after game loaded the box and blitzed. Hughes will be pressured by every defense until Sawful and crew can figure out how to make the defense pay.

If this offense is going to become disciplined and demonstrate it can create coverage issues for the opposing defenders the next two games are the chance to become solid.

If the offense can’t get it going in the next 2 games it is likely to be an ugly 3-4 win season because there will only be 2 more future games against very weak teams.

It just seems like for all the rah rah about a new OC and QB, not much was done to make an obvious enhancement to the offense and the same old story appeared in the opening game - the inability to score points and gain downfield yardage consistently.

 

[BigO4WYO]

I didn’t say it was the O-line’s fault just that the pass protection was disappointing. The WR group, at least the guys that play, wouldn’t scare my local high school secondary but Hughes not having time to throw didn’t help.

 

[307bball]

Not sure Jovon Bouknight would agree that we don't have any serviceable or capable WR's. How many drops did you all see that I didn't on Saturday? Of course I turned it off at 28 - 13.

The real question in my mind is what happened to Sawful's "best defense since he has been here - 7 years"? They looked like hot runny shit.

I'll get on board with calling them "serviciable"... "capable"?...maybe at certain things. If I'm feeling generous we can use both of those terms. I'm talking about WR that are better than those descriptors. I want to see our WR room with the best guys being described as:

Game-changing
Stretch the Field
YAC monster
Burner
Always Open

...And I agree, the defensis is bad. Does anybody think differently? I'm specifically talking about the WR position because it has so many things attatched to it.

• You can notice the lack of focus on recruiting the position or that the coaches have prioritzed blocking skill over recieving skill
• You can notice that the scheme is doing no favors to any of them and even the ones who other programs see as valuble (Isiah Neyor), don't run roughshod over anybody.
• You can point out that, if you need a lot of $$ for a particular postion (WR in this case), it stands to reason that programs will struggle at that postion.

I think all of these are valid, defensible points to make...I just am not seeing any talent there and wondering about the few posts I've seen where folks felt like there actually was some latent talent there.

 

[PorkerPoke]

Hughes not having time to throw didn’t help.

This - will define every DC’s strategy until the defenders have to be kept honest.

 

[PorkerPoke]

I'll get on board with calling them "serviciable"... "capable"?...maybe at certain things. If I'm feeling generous we can use both of those terms. I'm talking about WR that are better than those descriptors. I want to see our WR room with the best guys being described as:

Game-changing
Stretch the Field
YAC monster
Burner
Always Open

...And I agree, the defensis is bad. Does anybody think differently? I'm specifically talking about the WR position because it has so many things attatched to it.

• You can notice the lack of focus on recruiting the position or that the coaches have prioritzed blocking skill over recieving skill
• You can notice that the scheme is doing no favors to any of them and even the ones who other programs see as valuble (Isiah Neyor), don't run roughshod over anybody.
• You can point out that, if you need a lot of $$ for a particular postion (WR in this case), it stands to reason that programs will struggle at that postion.

I think all of these are valid, defensible points to make...I just am not seeing any talent there and wondering about the few posts I've seen where folks felt like there actually was some latent talent there.

I have not really seen any talent we seriously need now in the WR group since 2016. Most potential WR’s in 2026 were playing flag football in 2016 or just becoming old enough to play midget tackle ball.

It’s sadly been a long time.

 

[307bball]

The offense has been ignored as a useful weapon for years. The ball control ideology kept an otherwise good team competitive in the lower to middle level of the MWC under Bohl.

In fact, the only time the program has played offense designed to score points in the MWC was under Christensen. Unfortunately he played defense about as good as Sawful plays offense as in not very often if at all.

$$ will help recruiting but what is really needed is leadership capable of implementing the offense and finding those otherwise overlooked players that can make the plays. I absolutely do not trust Sawful to be able to adequately recruit even with a wad of cash.

It shouldn’t be that expensive to significantly improve the offense. Look at numerous players throughout FCS programs that would be nice additions to this roster.

It starts with the coaches choosing the roster and I don’t think there has been an intentional pursuit of the talent needed to play a more aggressive offense. The focus has been on blocking WR’s for the over tackle run play and the routes have been designed not for pass separation, but to draw defenders away from the run play. Opposing DC’s recognize the inability to run routes or even complete the pass and have game after game loaded the box and blitzed. Hughes will be pressured by every defense until Sawful and crew can figure out how to make the defense pay.

If this offense is going to become disciplined and demonstrate it can create coverage issues for the opposing defenders the next two games are the chance to become solid.

If the offense can’t get it going in the next 2 games it is likely to be an ugly 3-4 win season because there will only be 2 more future games against very weak teams.

It just seems like for all the rah rah about a new OC and QB, not much was done to make an obvious enhancement to the offense and the same old story appeared in the opening game - the inability to score points and gain downfield yardage consistently.

You said a lot of things here that are probably true...want to put a few things together though.

All-conference level (1st or 2nd team) WR have been very good in the MWC. Having a guy like that on your team makes defenses very difficult even when, schematically, you may not have the best offense. This has been missing from UW for a very long time.

So what goes in to having that all-conference level guy? I think you are right that it starts with prioritizing the position. Even if you have everything else lined up, if you just are no good at identifying prospects or don't value the position, not much else matters. This is what I would call the AFA problem. AFA is obviously a competent program but they don't consistently get great talent at WR.

Has this problem crept in at UW?...seems like it has...although, even given that problem, we still had a guy that averaged 20yds per catch in an offense that was otherwise very pedestrian. And this is where I want to tie in to your observation that there are FCS programs with obvious talent at WR. How many of them are still at that FCS program the next year? Will we ever see a 20 yd/reception guy with elegibility left stay at UW? The focus on the WR position goes beyond just spending recruiting resources...it has become a financial one as well. If Wyoming is unable to pay the going rate for that level of production, I will continue to not be surprised when it never happens. This is a problem with multiple causes but I think we have identified two of them that will forever hamper Wyoming unless they change.

The best outcome I can imagine is some future where we have a whiz-bang OC or HC that is great at getting/defeloping great WR for one good season before they take a big check elsewhere. To be clear that would be better than where we are at.

 

[SDPokeFan]

This position has been the drizzling shits for a while now. They completely ignored it in the offseason. The brought in Popovich, some DII guy who had all of 600 yards last year. Now, while I'm aware that 600 receiving yards at Wyoming these days would get you a statue outside the stadium, it's nothing to write home about. It's hard to believe this is the same school that produced Ryan Yarborough, Marcus Harris, Jovon Bouknight, Malcolm Floyd, etc. Hell, Scottie Vines, Kofi Shuck or Ryan McGuffey would run circles around any of the receivers from the past few years. They can't get open. They had 31 receiving yards combined against CSU. That's criminal.

 

[LanderPoke]

This position has been the drizzling shits for a while now. They completely ignored it in the offseason. The brought in Popovich, some DII guy who had all of 600 yards last year. Now, while I'm aware that 600 receiving yards at Wyoming these days would get you a statue outside the stadium, it's nothing to write home about. It's hard to believe this is the same school that produced Ryan Yarborough, Marcus Harris, Jovon Bouknight, Malcolm Floyd, etc. Hell, Scottie Vines, Kofi Shuck or Ryan McGuffey would run circles around any of the receivers from the past few years. They can't get open. They had 31 receiving yards combined against CSU. That's criminal.

Jake mulhardt would be the best of the last 8 years

 

[PorkerPoke]

You said a lot of things here that are probably true...want to put a few things together though.

All-conference level (1st or 2nd team) WR have been very good in the MWC. Having a guy like that on your team makes defenses very difficult even when, schematically, you may not have the best offense. This has been missing from UW for a very long time.

So what goes in to having that all-conference level guy? I think you are right that it starts with prioritizing the position. Even if you have everything else lined up, if you just are no good at identifying prospects or don't value the position, not much else matters. This is what I would call the AFA problem. AFA is obviously a competent program but they don't consistently get great talent at WR.

Has this problem crept in at UW?...seems like it has...although, even given that problem, we still had a guy that averaged 20yds per catch in an offense that was otherwise very pedestrian. And this is where I want to tie in to your observation that there are FCS programs with obvious talent at WR. How many of them are still at that FCS program the next year? Will we ever see a 20 yd/reception guy with elegibility left stay at UW? The focus on the WR position goes beyond just spending recruiting resources...it has become a financial one as well. If Wyoming is unable to pay the going rate for that level of production, I will continue to not be surprised when it never happens. This is a problem with multiple causes but I think we have identified two of them that will forever hamper Wyoming unless they change.

The best outcome I can imagine is some future where we have a whiz-bang OC or HC that is great at getting/defeloping great WR for one good season before they take a big check elsewhere. To be clear that would be better than where we are at.

The one thing I would say about the AFA and passing is that they don’t pretend to be balanced with the offense. They are 100% unapologetic rush first in as dominant manner as possible. AFA rushing was usually almost 100 yards per game greater than the vaunted Bohl rushing attack. That difference meant AFA was able to get first downs on 3rd and 4 scoring points while Wyoming punted. Bohl versus Calhoun had AFA with a better record in all but 2017 and 2018. The last 2 years have been bad AFA years and Sawful has been worse. So in the last 12 years AFA has won more games than UW in 10 of 12 without a passing game.

As for saying there are FCS WR’s that would benefit Wyoming I think back to 2017 and Allen having no one to throw to and it pretty much has continued that way for the last 10 years with an occasional WR that looked promising but without a QB that could hit the open receiver consistently it resulted in a bottom of the conference passing attack.

For the most part a typical Wyoming WR was told to run to a spot, stop and turn to the QB where it was easy for the DB to stand next to him like guarding a tree. It was because the pass was not the objective - it was to clear the field for the rush if the RB got past the line.

Supposedly bringing in Taylor and the future QB commitments is gearing towards reintroducing the pass as part of the game at Wyoming. Wasn’t the last OC supposed to be doing something different? The only thing I saw was the weakening of an already weak offense.

I agree if Wyoming produces a standout player at any position it is doubtful that player returns. As for a whiz bang OC or HC I will point to UNM as the perfect example of a program Wyoming could be with the right leadership. So what if every 2-3 years we are replacing them because they got better offers elsewhere. When Akers left the program was better. When Dye left the program was better and when Erickson left the program was better. The difference now is the players can leave as fast, but they can come in just as fast. Get a reputation as being in pursuit of winning and that being noticed by others it becomes a magnet for players who are better but have to prove it to get the best offer. That describes the typical UNM player now and those players are producing. Many will move on, some will stay and the reload process continues whereas Wyoming is trying to weave its way through a pile of wet firecrackers trying to find the ones that aren’t duds with minimal success because the head guy has no idea how the process works.

The thinking that all Wyoming can do is try and develop players and keep them for most of their eligibility in hopes they will be significant contributors in year 3 is fine until the result is consistent 3-4 win seasons.