MW Preview: Can Wyoming bounce back? A Q&A with WyoSports' Alex Taylor

Journal staff writer Sean Reider was joined by WyoSports reporter Alex Taylor last week to preview Wyoming’s upcoming season on an episode of Reider’s Block, a New Mexico football podcast.

The second in a 12-episode weekly series previewing each team in the Mountain West, the full conversation is available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Episodes can also be found at abqjournalcast.com.

Questions and responses have been edited for clarity.

Q: After Craig Bohl — the all-time winningest head coach in program history — retired, Wyoming went 3-9 last year in head coach Jay Sawvel’s first season. What’s the vibe around the program entering his second?

A: There’s been a lot of turnover … just in terms of leadership. There were a couple changes that stuck out: longtime wide receivers coach Mike Grant was not retained, which, if you kinda put two and two together on how that came out with some of the things Sawvel said … he said last year, wide receiver was a leaderless room for Wyoming.

… (Sawvel) didn’t retain Jeff Phelps, the defensive tackles coach … Sawvel kinda learned so many lessons so quickly, you don’t have a ton of time to process them during the season. This was his first year as a head coach, he was a defensive coordinator forever — a lot of the time I don’t think he was used to having to make these decisions of coaching hires and stuff like that.

I think the expectation level is a lot higher in terms of what they expect out of seniors and key players and coaches. And you kinda see that — obviously any team that’s 3-9, they’re not gonna be happy going into spring ball, especially at a place like Wyoming.

Q: If you had to pick a transfer — either side of the ball — who will have the biggest impact this season, who would you pick?

A: Brayden Wilson, Weber State defensive end (transfer). He’s a funny guy, man. He’s one of those guys you interview and you’re like, ‘wow, that was awesome.’ He’s two-time All-Big Sky, he has all the (statistics), he has all the intangibles to be successful in the Mountain West.

… When he was deciding to go to Weber State, he was deciding between professional rugby, college rugby or college football … You can tell that he’s a rugby guy. Because he’s like, ‘I don’t care if we’re wearing helmets or not, I just wanna hurt somebody. I just like hitting people.’ When you really dumb it down, that’s the nuts and bolts of (playing) defensive end.

Q: Is there a returner — either side of the ball — you think will have a big impact?

A: I’m gonna say (wide receiver) Chris Durr Jr. … (He’s) not a big sleeper, but in terms of usage, I think he was way underutilized early on in the year. Sawvel obviously knew that, and there were some adjustments made midway through the year to get him targets and get him in open space.

… That’s another guy that’s probably gonna get 8-10 targets a game if they had to map it out.

Q: Do you have a record prediction?

A: I’m just gonna play it safe and say (6-6). I think they make a bowl game with this schedule — I wanna say seven (wins) but … They dodged Boise State, they get UNLV at home, Air Force … I think (a bowl) is doable.

Utah and Colorado (in the non-conference) kinda look intimidating on the surface. But last year, (Wyoming) had a gauntlet – and it didn’t look like it at the time. BYU and Arizona were both picked probably, what, bottom four of the Big 12? And BYU was a game away from the (College Football Playoff) and Arizona State made the playoff.

I think they’ll take their chances.