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Wyoming Finding Its Confidence After Back-to-Back Wins
LARAMIE, Wyo. (Oct. 18, 2026) – Just two weeks ago, Wyoming came off a shutout loss at North Dakota State and searched for answers on offense. Now, the Cowboys have won two straight games, including an elusive road win… and confidence in the locker room appears to be growing.
Many expected Wyoming to have a “field day game” against FCS opponent Northern Colorado earlier this season, but that wasn’t the case as the team struggled early in the season.
Despite early-season struggles, Wyoming followed up its overtime win over San Jose State with a 41-23 win over a winless Northern Illinois on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium. The Cowboys improved to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in Mountain West play, putting together their most productive offensive performance of the season.
How big was the overtime win at SJSU? The victory broke an eight-game consecutive road-game losing streak that dated back well over a year.
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On Saturday, quarterback Tyler Hughes led the way with 183 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries. He also completed 16 of 19 passes for 196 yards and threw no interceptions.
Wyoming finished with 510 yards of total offense, including 314 rushing yards on 41 attempts, averaging 7.7 yards per carry. The Cowboys also played turnover-free football.
The difference between the shutout at NDSU and now has built confidence for the team. The monkey is off their back on the road, and they got a home win.
"It's super great. When you win, it changes a lot of things and like that locker room, like everybody's super excited and fired up and just ready for the next opportunity," Hughes said when asked by Pokes News about the team's growing confidence.
"It's great; we’ve just got to keep on doing it. This week we’ve got to put together a good week of practice, and then we go and do it again."
Wyoming's offensive line created significant running lanes for Hughes and the Cowboys' running backs.
Markell Holman added 80 rushing yards on 14 carries, while the Cowboys finished with five rushing touchdowns.
It’s no secret that Wyoming has struggled to establish consistent offensive production earlier in the season, yet they found success on the ground and through the air against Northern Illinois, building on their ground success in San Jose. Hughes’ running ability is now a bigger part of the offensive game plan than ever.
Hughes quickly credited the offensive line in front of him for the ground success.
"All the credit. All the credit. Those guys did a really good job. They moved, they reset the line of scrimmage the entire day," Hughes said.
"I thought receivers, tight ends, they made some pretty good plays on the ball today too. We were just clicking. It was a good thing to see and just got to keep continuing to build on it."
Senior offensive lineman Rex Johnsen said the group entered the week determined to improve following its performance against San Jose State.
"The offensive [line], we were rocking and rolling this week. We came in this week, kind of had a salty taste in our mouth last week. We felt like we didn't have the greatest performance as an offensive line," Johnsen said.
"So we worked our ***** off all week, and we just knew what we could do. We just showcased it in today's game."
Wyoming's offensive line also kept Hughes from being sacked.
Senior wide receiver Eric Richardson also helped, finishing with five receptions for 77 yards.
Richardson's performance included an explosive 40-yard third-quarter reception. Explosive plays is something we’ve heard a lot about in recent years, and some of that is showing.
"It felt good. It felt good for sure, especially that's a play we've been hitting at practice all week, so kind of was waiting for that play to be caught, but definitely felt good. Definitely felt good for the guys," Richardson said.
Tight end Kyle Frendt also had three receptions for 61 yards helping spread the ball around when the team wasn’t running.
Kicker Erik Sandvik continued his impressive season.
The junior from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, connected on 37 and 24-yard field goals against Northern Illinois and converted all five extra-point attempts. Sandvik is still perfect on the season for field goals and extra points.
Sandvik also delivered touchbacks on all his kickoffs, preventing NIU from sneaking any gains.
Head coach Jay Sawvel praised his kicker's performance when asked by Pokes News.
"Eric…first of all, that's the best kickoffs that we've had in this program for a long time. He hit the ribbon board back there on one. The field goal kicking is very good; he's just in a really confident space," Sawvel said.
Sawvel also credited long snapper Nathan Curry and adjustments made to the special teams practice routine during the offseason.
"We've really kind of modified our kicking and punting workouts; those guys have fresh legs right now, and it's been really good," Sawvel said.
Wyoming remained disciplined throughout the game.
The Cowboys committed just three penalties for 23 yards, including only one penalty in the second half.
"This team, the players, they pride themselves on playing disciplined football, and that's good to see," Sawvel said.
"We are not self-inflicting some stupid penalty. We've got some technique penalties that we've got to clean up," Sawvel said.
After Tyler Hughes took a big hit in the fourth quarter, backup quarterback Landon Sims entered the game and added an 11-yard touchdown run.
The touchdown was the icing on the cake, topping off a 12-play, 76-yard drive that took 6:38 off the clock and extended Wyoming's lead to 41-17 with 6:48 remaining.
Johnsen said Sims has his teammates' confidence.
"Yeah, Sims is a great quarterback. Him coming into the game, I have all the belief in Landon," Johnsen said.
"He prepares really hard every week, comes to practice…he's practicing like he's the starter. So I have all the respect for all three of our quarterbacks. They come in every day and work their tails off."
Wyoming has little time to celebrate.
The Cowboys return to War Memorial Stadium on Friday, October 23, to face Air Force at 7 p.m. in another Mountain West matchup before heading into their open week.
Air Force is on a four-game winning streak and just beat UNLV on Saturday in Colorado Springs.
Sawvel knows Saturday’s win is important, but he also knows facing Air Force on a short week matters.
"We’re going to enjoy this until about midnight tonight, right? And I hope most of our people are in bed by midnight tonight. Then once it hits 12:01 AM, flip the page."
Wyoming needs to turn two consecutive victories into sustained success.
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