Senior WR Sargent Takes Ownership, Uses Early Adversity as Motivation
- Jeff Bugher
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Senior wide receiver Jaylen Sargent said he’s focused on making the most of every opportunity, especially since he is in his final season.
Sargent didn’t catch a ball in the Cowboys’ season opener against Akron, something he puts the blame on himself, and said it was a wake-up call.
“My position coach, Jovon Bouknight, demands a very high level of play, and if you don’t meet those standards, you’re not going to play as much,” Sargent said. “That first game, I had a couple of things, a couple of plays where I could have given better effort. He just thought that I wasn’t playing up to par and at the standard of Wyoming football. So, that’s the reason why. For the next game, I had to pick it up and do my job to a better level.”
That experience motivated him to lock in for the rest of his senior season.
“That really opened my eyes to be like, I got to step up my game,” Sargent said. “Being a senior, I only have a limited number of games left. I really told myself that the following week I had to pick it up and do everything in my power to get on the field to help out this team.”
So far this year, Sargent has recorded just three catches for 33 yards, something that he and the coaching staff want to see change.
“I mean, yeah, it can be at times. Every receiver wants to have great stats after a game,” Sargent said. “But I think the offense is still trying to unlock its potential. What we’ve been putting out on film isn’t anywhere close to what we can be. I think the team is still improving. I think the receivers could have a bigger role within these games.”
Head coach Jay Sawvel believes Sargent’s time is coming.
“I think we’re going to start seeing that,” Sawvel said. “That’s why I think when we look at where Jaylen Sargent is right now on productivity, I would hope that when we go four more games from now, we’re going to see a substantial difference in productivity. That’s an expectation I think is reasonable to have. He did good things against Colorado. The ball never found him, but there’s a couple of times on certain routes he did a really good job. We’ve got to get him the ball.”
Wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight echoed that sentiment.
“We’re going to try to be a little bit more creative as far as finding ways to get him the ball,” Bouknight said. “But from just dotting I’s and crossing the T’s and doing what he needs to be doing in my room, he’s been pretty good in the last couple of weeks.”
Sargent said the team used the bye week to regroup and recover before opening Mountain West play with UNLV this Saturday on Homecoming.
“I think the whole team saw it as a very important weekend off,” Sargent said. “It was a weekend that we had to take serious and use it for rest and recovery. I think a lot of guys on the team did that and we’re headed into this week feeling really good.”
UNLV hasn’t won in Laramie since 2003, and Sargent wants to make sure it stays that way.
“I think we've got to keep it that way,” he said. “We played two very high-caliber defenses in the past two weeks, Colorado and Utah, and I really do feel like our team is ready to play in the conference and show people what we can do. Because I feel like we’ve yet to put up a game where we’ve had a lot of explosive plays.”
For Sargent, the final stretch of his career comes with added responsibility as a leader.
“I think it comes with a lot more responsibility,” Sargent said. “This year, I’ve been put in a lot of opportunities to make plays and I need to go out there and continue to make those plays and get on the younger guys to get on my same level, treating every game like it’s going to be their last. My perspective of the game has changed, going into my last year thinking every play counts.”
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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