Sawvel Optimistic About Wyoming's Trajectory, Says "A Lot of Growth" Remains
- Jeff Bugher
- Oct 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 3
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel met with reporters on Monday ahead of the Cowboys’ Mountain West conference opener with UNLV in Laramie this Saturday. Coming off a bye week, Sawvel said the timing was right for his team to regroup and prepare for one of the league’s top contenders.
“It’s good timing for us to have a bye. It was good timing for what we need to get done,” Sawvel said. “A big game this week against one of the two top teams that people have regarded in the Mountain West. They’re well coached. They’ve got good players. They’ve got a good football team.”
UNLV’s Colandrea is a Problem
UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea poses a significant dual-threat challenge. Sawvel didn’t mince words when describing his impact.
“He’s a true dual threat. He runs very well. He’s got 229 yards rushing, and he’s completing 72% of his passes,” Sawvel said. “You start there… They’ve got a very good running back. They’ve got three receivers that all combined, have 40 catches and 600 yards basically. But, Calandria is the key… possesses the dual threat capability that is something that everybody finds challenging defensively to play against.”
Injury Update
Sawvel informed the media that sophomore offensive lineman Nathan Geiger is out for the season and scheduled for surgery on October 6. Geiger also suffered a season-ending injury during the 2024 season opener against Arizona State University.
“Geiger will miss the rest of the season. He will have surgery on October 6th,” Sawvel said. “So he’ll be out the rest of the year… It’s unfortunate for Nate because he worked so hard to get back and was playing pretty well.”
Jake Davies is expected to take over Geiger’s spot moving forward, along with some other players rotating at times.
Defensive Adjustments
Wyoming gave up several explosive plays against Colorado, Sawvel said the defense has responded in practice.
“When you look at the Colorado game, the unfortunate part of that was you’re talking a couple breakdowns in a couple key situations or a couple people not playing the way that they needed to play,” Sawvel said. “We’ve addressed that, worked on that… We continue to keep pounding in the secondary with the group that we’ve got, because I think there is a good group there. But we’re giving Brooklyn Cheek more reps, kind of targeting Justin Taylor at one position instead of two. So there’s little tweaks and things.”
Rising Contributors
One player Sawvel singled out was defensive tackle Jayden Williams.“Jayden Williams has done some good things. We have a very high expectation level for Jayden Williams. So to say he’s met the expectation level that I have for him, he’s not met that,” Sawvel said. “But by the same token, that’s a very, very high level that I expect… He’s been a positive for us this year so far… The goal here now and going forward is to continue to bring that out of him.”
Sawvel also mentioned several offensive players he expects to emerge in the coming weeks, including wide receivers Jaylen Sargent and Jaylan Bean, tight end John Michael Gyllenborg, and wide receiver Eric Richardson.
“I think that when we look at where Jaylen Sargent is right now on productivity, you know, I would hope that when we go four more games from now, we’re going to see a substantial difference in productivity,” Sawvel said. “He did good things against Colorado. The ball never found him. There’s a couple of times on certain routes he did a really good job. It says we got to get him the ball.”
Playmakers Developing
Freshman running back Samuel “Tote” Harris has caught Sawvel’s eye early in his career.
“The first day we went live in fall camp, I saw a run… and he made a run that I have not seen anybody make here,” Sawvel said. “It was vision, cut, lower the pads and go. But there was also a speed to it. I kind of knew then I’m like, okay, this guy’s going to be pretty good.”
Sawvel added: “Love what he does every single day on and off the field. He’s special.”
Erik Sandvick Shaping Up
Kicker Erik Sandvick, who missed just one attempt this season, continues to earn Sawvel’s trust.
“I’ll tell you what, his improvement keeps coming,” Sawvel said. “Last week… we stretched him out to 55 [yards] because I want to say… can you hit this if we need to run you out there for a 50-plus one? And he did… I’ve got a confidence level with Erik right now. He’ll be pretty valuable for us going forward.”
Optimistic Outlook
Sawvel said he feels good about his team’s trajectory.
“I didn’t come out of the non-conference games feeling pessimistic about where we are at all,” Sawvel said. “I think that we’ve got a lot of growth [from] within this year, partly because we have some guys that still need to emerge that we know are capable of emerging. We’ve got some young guys playing that will continue to develop. And we’ve got some experienced guys that still can step forward.”
Kickoff between Wyoming and UNLV is slated for 5:00 PM on Saturday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium. The game will be televised on CBSSN.
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