Wyoming plans to become more defensive

Defending division champ eyes next step

Here’s an anomaly for you. The Wyoming Cowboys, the team that represented the Mountain Division in the Mountain West Conference championship game last December, gave up more yards on defense in 2016 than they gained on offense.

In fact, it’s defense — Cowboys coach Craig Bohl’s calling card during his incredibly successful tenure at North Dakota State — that has lagged in Laramie.

During Bohl’s three years at Wyoming, the Cowboys have ranked 89th, 111th and 104th nationally in total defense.

Andrew Wingard is determined to help change that. And soon.

“It’s like coach Bohl says,” Wingard, the Mountain West’s preseason Defensive Player of the Year, said late last month at the league’s media gettogether in Las Vegas, Nev. “Once we start holding people to seven, 10, 14 points, that’s when he’ll know we’ve arrived. “Hopefully, this is the year.” At North Dakota State, Bohl’s defense was dominant. In his final two

seasons there, the Bison ranked first and third nationally in total yards allowed. They won NCAA Football Championship Subdivision titles each year.

In beating Sam Houston State 17-6 for the FCS title in 2011, the Bison held the Bearkats’ explosive, pistol-formation, tripleoption offense to 95 yards rushing and 210 yards total offense. Sam Houston State’s offensive coordinator was Bob DeBesse, who after the 2011 season was hired for the same position at New Mexico.

So, did Bohl simply have DeBesse’s number? Apparently not. The past three seasons, New Mexico has averaged 43 points, 370 yards rushing and 494 yards total offense against Wyoming. The Lobos won all three games.

Last fall in Albuquerque, in both teams’ regular-season finale, UNM faced a Wyoming team that already had clinched a berth in the MWC title game. The Lobos rushed for 568 yards and had 690 yards total offense in a 56-35 victory.

“Obviously, they took us to the woodshed last year,” Wingard said. “It’s not something I want to talk about, but they’re a really good team.”

Of course, such discussions begin and end with personnel. In year three, Bohl clearly didn’t have all the players he needed to field a championship-level defense.

He did have Wingard, who led the Mountain West and ranked fourth nationally with 131 tackles last fall, and will again this season.

The Cowboys also have a new defensive coordinator in Scottie Hazelton, who worked for Bohl at North Dakota State before spending the past three seasons with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.

If the Wyoming defense can take any pressure of an offense led by quarterback Josh Allen, touted as perhaps the first pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, and if key replacements are found at running back and wide receiver, the Cowboys could ride high this fall.

“I’m glad our defense gets to practice against (Allen),” Wingard said, “the way he’s able to throw to either side of the field, a frozen rope.

“You’re not gonna see (another) arm like that in this conference.”