Head Coach: Jay Sawvel is entering his 2nd season as the head coach of the Cowboys with a 3-9 record. His first year proved to be an unexpected bumpy ride with Wyoming, and he was even very critical of his own coaching. Now he will try to take the hard lessons learned and turn it back into winning.
Program Outlook: Wyoming is the only program in their state, this includes all divisions. There’s no other program in that country that has that unique distinction. There’s not a huge population in Wyoming, but the Cowboys program is a source of pride for those who are there. It’s a unique element that makes College Football so great, because no other sport offers anything like this where states like Wyoming are involved. Recruiting is never going to be easy, they have to work hard to find gems like Josh Allen and develop them, but it can be done! The rest can fall into place after that, Wyoming has the unique advantage of playing at the highest elevation of any FBS program.
How does the 2025 Roster look?: Wyoming ranks 80th in the country returning 51.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Key players starts with the QB, Kaden Anderson is expected to take the lead there. He played a couple game late before getting hurt but he showed flashes of really helping this offense work better, sure one of the games was against New Mexico but the operation looked much better. Last year’s starter Evan Svoboda is still here by the way, but he’s now at TE which segways into this teams star John Michael Gyllenborg, he is a mismatch weapon who may soon end up in the NFL. There’s some really good receivers on this team too, Chris Dorr Jr is a really good slot receiver who will only get better while Jaylen Sargent is their big playmaker on the outside, with steadier QB play all 3 of these targets are primed for big years. That being said, this is Wyoming they need backs and a strong run game. They hopefully will have Sam Scott back, he’s recovering from an injury, if he’s healthy he’s their star back and Terron Kellman (Charlotte) is a good insurance policy but depth behind those two is unknown. As always with a Wyoming Oline it has good size but they need the right combination to come together. On defense the defensive line will lead the way, Tyce Westland is a strong player on the edge but they need someone to emerge next to him. On the inside they look to improve against the run with Jayden Williams and Ben Florentine back. The LBs were remade by the portal with Ethan Stuhlsatz (Lindenwood) and Brayden Johnson (Oklahoma Baptist) who were both big time playmakers at lower levels. The secondary will be mostly new as well. Safeties Jones Thomas and Andrew Johnson both seem ready as the next men up and Southern Illinois transfer Desman Hearns was a great pickup as well. Ian Bell is the most experienced corner but it’s a question mark of how the rest of the group will come together.
Screenshot from FBSchedules.com
2025 Schedule Thoughts: Wyoming’s schedule is not bad, there’s a lot of opportunities on here. Their non-conference features a road game at Akron, which is a long trip but Akron is serving a bowl ban. Wyoming plays Northern Iowa who has a new head coach but is a program that can never be taken lightly from the FCS level. They get a home opportunity against Utah and a road game at Colorado, both very cool regional games. The Mountain West schedule isn’t bad it would have been nice to get New Mexico, Utah State or both but at least they avoid Boise State, and get both UNLV and San Jose State in Laramie. The path to a bowl game is here.
Final Thoughts: This transition didn’t go as smoothly as expected but there’s hope we can see more of the Wyoming team we are used to this year. There is the talent to make it happen and they just need a few parts to be immediately competitive again. I’m thinking they can reach a bowl at a minimum but there’s more out there, Wyoming will need to secure one score wins better after they let 3 games slip away last year.
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