Wyoming Finds Its Spark Just in Time Against Northern Colorado
Lightning delay sparks Wyoming rally in 21-13 win over Northern Colorado
LARAMIE, Wyo. - For nearly three quarters Saturday afternoon, Wyoming looked like a team searching for both an identity and a spark. To make matters worse, it was against a FCS team.
A lightning delay interrupted Wyoming’s home opener with the Cowboys trailing Northern Colorado 13-7 in the fourth quarter. When Wyoming returned to Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium, it looked like a different football team.
The Cowboys scored two touchdowns after the delay, including a touchdown with 1:44 remaining that sealed the deal to escape with a 21-13 victory over the Bears and improve to 1-1 on the season. Wyoming scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter after trailing 13-7 at the end of the third quarter.
Head coach Jay Sawvel didn’t try to make the first three quarters sound better than they were.
“It was a weird game. I thought that there were some phases to it that we started off really slow offensively, shot ourselves in the foot multiple times offensively. [We] go in for this lightning delay and came back out an entirely different football team,” Sawvel said. “I think we learn a lot through that scenario about the urgency that we have to play with all the time.”
For most of the afternoon, Wyoming’s offense struggled to put drives together. UNC put up a strong fight.
The Cowboys were scoreless in the first quarter before Samuel “Tote” Harris scored on a 4-yard touchdown run with 7:19 remaining in the second quarter. Northern Colorado answered with a field goal and then took a 10-7 halftime lead on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Kenny Lueth to Mason Mozer with 25 seconds remaining in the half.
Northern Colorado stretched its lead to 13-7 on a 44-yard field goal with 7:59 left in the third quarter.
Then lightning arrived.
The delay gave Sawvel and his staff an opportunity to address the team, and the message wasn’t complicated. Wyoming needed urgency, and it needed it immediately.
“What was said at the time was like, ‘hey, we’re going to have to go out and battle defensively. Try to hold them to a field goal,’” Sawvel said. “Regardless of whatever happened on that series defensively, we were still going to need to come back and get stops. I said offensively, ‘we’re going to score twice in these 12 minutes and we need to get that done.’ Our players came out with a different level of urgency and it was good to see.”
Quarterback Tyler Hughes remembered the message the same way.
“Just keep believing. Coach Savell came in the locker room and told us exactly what we were going to do and we did it,” Hughes said. “He came in there, said we’re going to get a stop. They’re going to get the ball back to the defense and we’re going to score two times before the game is ended. We did exactly what we set out to do.”
What followed was the best stretch of football Wyoming played all afternoon.
Hughes led the Cowboys on a 14-play, 82-yard drive that ended when he found Charlie Coenen for a 15-yard touchdown with 3:44 remaining. Erik Sandvik’s extra point put Wyoming ahead 14-13.
“Tyler made a good read, threw me a good ball, and we made a play, so it was good,” Coenen said.
Wyoming’s defense then did its part, giving the offense another opportunity to finish the game.
Hughes connected with tight end Kyle Frendt for an 18-yard diving touchdown with 1:44 remaining, and Sandvik’s extra point extended Wyoming’s lead to 21-13.
Hughes finished 18-of-26 passing for 149 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed seven times for 35 yards. Coenen caught three passes for 34 yards, while Frendt had two catches for seven yards, including the late touchdown.
Hughes credited both receivers with delivering when Wyoming needed them most.
“I thought Charlie ran a tremendous route coming out the backfield and made a great catch over the shoulder. That’s not a routine catch,” Hughes said. “That was very good by him. The same thing with Kyle too, diving out and catching that ball. Those are not routine catches. So Those guys stepped up too and they made plays when we needed to have it and I’m proud of those guys and we’ll keep building off of that,” Tyler said.
The finish couldn’t completely erase the problems that put Wyoming in position to need a fourth-quarter comeback.
Coenen said the Cowboys weren’t consistently playing as a complete offensive unit, essentially calling out some lackluster playing.
“A lot of it comes down to all 11 guys on the field have to do their job,” Coenen said. “When 10, [or] 9 are only executing, that creates an issue. So we didn’t play 11-man football throughout the first three quarters. So I’d just say that’s the biggest thing, all 11 doing their job.”
Hughes echoed the level of disappointment.
“That’s just not the brand of football that we want to identify ourselves with and we will be better,” Hughes said. “It’s because we’ve seen better. We know that we’re capable of doing certain things and we’ve just got to go out there and, show you guys, show, the war, and show the state of Wyoming that we are a good football team and that we can score points… and that we can come together and win some football games.”
The defense had its own issues.
Safety Jones Thomas said Wyoming allowed too many explosive plays and committed mistakes that helped Northern Colorado sustain drives.
“We can’t have the explosive plays that we had,” Thomas said. “Like catches, catches are fine, but explosive plays will get us beat. So we’ve just got to eliminate those, eliminate the pass interference calls as well.”
But when Wyoming needed the defense most following the delay, Thomas said the objective from the coaching staff was very clear.
“Win the game, go out there, get a three and out, get a stop, and do what we had to do to swing the energy back to our side,” Thomas said.
That energy was noticeably different from what Thomas saw earlier.
“It was a low energy start from us and we can’t have that,” Jones said.
Wyoming nevertheless walked off its home field with a victory rather than an explanation for a loss.
For Coenen, the way the Cowboys responded in the fourth may prove important as the season progresses.
“It definitely means a lot, especially early on, we battled through stuff like it wasn’t a perfect game, obviously,” Coenen said. “We didn’t let that affect us going into after the weather delay. So proving that we can bounce back and be resilient is definitely huge going further into the season.”
Wyoming finished with 304 yards of total offense, including 155 rushing and 149 passing. Northern Colorado produced 346 yards, with 206 coming through the air. The Cowboys also lost two fumbles but intercepted two passes.
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