Sawvel Wants a ‘Big Leap’ After Wyoming’s 110-Play Fall Scrimmage
- Jeff Bugher
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Wyoming football put roughly 110 plays on the field Saturday during its first major scrimmage of fall camp, giving head coach Jay Sawvel and his staff their most extensive look yet at the Cowboys in game-like situations.
There were positives on both sides of the ball, including three red-zone touchdowns by the offense and an aggressive defensive front, but Sawvel left the scrimmage focused on how much progress Wyoming still needs to make before its next scrimmage a week from today.
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“We got a lot of work done. I think we're right around 110 plays, pretty close to it. That's not including all the special teams plays that we got, which there's quite a few of them,” Sawvel said. “We’ve got a lot of improving to do this next week. We've got to take a big leap from now till next Saturday when we scrimmage again and do that.”
Wyoming's next scrimmage will provide another step toward preparing for the season opener against Colorado State on September 5th…21 days from today. But who’s counting? Sawvel said the Cowboys will scrimmage at 4 p.m. next Saturday, the same time as their season opener against the Rams, and will pump music throughout practice to put additional pressure on communication.
“We'll crank music the whole time, [to] make an emphasis on communication,” Sawvel said.
One area Sawvel wants cleaned up before then is penalties.
The Cowboys committed five false starts during the approximately 110 plays. Two came during a backed-up situation with the first-team offense beginning at its own 2-yard line. The penalties moved the ball first to the 1-yard line, then to the half-yard line, before the defense recorded a safety on a running play.
Sawvel saw the sequence as to how quickly mistakes can become costly when an offense is backed up against its own goal line.
“That's also a great lesson as to why you have to use cadence to your advantage, snap count to your advantage when you're coming out, because if you can get a defense jump offsides, you get a cheap 5 yards,” Sawvel said. “It's not that big of a penalty to the offense, but still, when you've only got 2 yards from you to the goal line moving you back, a yard and a half after two false starts, now you got a problem, right?”
The defense took advantage of the situation.
Sophomore safety Brooklyn Cheek said the unit's communication has become one of its strengths, with defenders constantly reminding one another of assignments and responsibilities before the snap.
“Before every play we're yelling at each other. Like don't jump, eyes, eyes, eyes, everything,” Cheek said. “If we're in man, we're like, point out your man. I don't even care if they know we're in man. We're just very good [at] communicating defense. If one person doesn't know it, the next person can tell them.”
Cheek also came away impressed with Wyoming's defensive front.
Sawvel has repeatedly praised the size and athleticism of Wyoming's defensive front throughout spring and fall camp, and Saturday did little to change his opinion.
“From a size, speed, movement standpoint, our front is the best that it's been since I've been here,” Sawvel said. “Now, we've got to play that, and we've got to do that, but we've not had multiple 290-plus-pound defensive tackles that can run like this. We've not had multiple 250-plus-pound defensive ends that can run like this.”
That front is also providing daily work for an offensive line that continues to develop.
“I'm happy with the O-line right now because they battle every day,” Sawvel said. “I think that's always a big thing.”
The offense had its moments Saturday, particularly in the red zone.
Sawvel said the first group scored touchdowns on two possessions that began in the red zone and finished the scrimmage with three red-zone touchdowns overall. Red zone offense has been a big point of emphasis throughout camp after a lack of it last year.
“Red zone offense, we did a pretty good job down there today,” Sawvel said. “They had three touchdowns in the red zone today, which is a good thing.”
Senior wide receiver Charlie Coenen was responsible for one of them, getting open during a rollout and giving quarterback Tyler Hughes a target in the end zone. Coenen had some shining moments last season, and it looks like he’s continued the momentum into fall camp.
“[I was] trying to get over to Tyler's vision,” Coenen said. “He ended up seeing me, threw a good ball and I'm going to play. So good execution by the offense. The O-line held up. So it was good.”
The touchdown carried additional significance for Coenen after shoulder surgery in January kept him out throughout spring football.
“It was definitely big because, you know, I missed all spring with shoulder surgery in January,” Coenen said. “So I wasn't out there for the spring practices or anything. This was my real taste of live [football] since last season. So obviously big going forward, feeling the contact and all that stuff. So definitely big.”
Coenen said his body responded well to the live work.
“This was practice 9 of fall camp. So this is probably the best I've felt body-wise throughout my fall camps here,” Coenen said.
Wyoming also didn't unveil everything in Christian Taylor's offense during the scrimmage; they really kept the cards close to their chest because the media was in attendance.
“You don't want to show too much,” Coenen said. “We've got a lot of the install in. Scrimmage times call for different plays at certain moments.”
Cheek described Wyoming's defense as a unit eager to hit and play fast. The bond is close.
“It's a fun defense. It's a really fun defense,” Cheek repeated. “I mean, everybody's out there that wants to run through you. They just want to hit you.”
With the first major scrimmage now complete, Wyoming enters a very important stretch of fall camp.
Sawvel wants the Cowboys to make significant progress over the coming week, with noise becoming a regular feature during team periods to force better communication and concentration before next Saturday's second scrimmage. Sawvel told the media earlier this week that next week will have a “game week” feel to it.
“But again, it's 9 practices,” Sawvel said. “This next set of practices is a huge deal for us to make a big leap.”
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