Durbin to play senior season at Iowa State

10 Comments
Posted on May 16, 2012 by rgagliardi

Wyoming’s defensive got thinner, at least figuratively, as defensive end Ben Durbin will play his senior season at Iowa State.

Durbin graduated from UW with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and NCAA rules allow student-athletes to transfer to other schools and play right away if they’ve received their bachelor’s and choose to pursue a higher degree elsewhere.

A story on Cyclones.com was published Wednesday, and UW media relations director Tim Harkins confirmed that Durbin wouldn’t return to the Cowboys. Durbin is from Gilbert, Iowa.

“I wanted to play for Cyclone Nation,” Durbin told Cyclones.com. “I can play in front of my family. This is God’s Country to me and I have always been an Iowa State fan. … Laramie is a great place. This is not about Wyoming. … Coming home is a dream.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Football Tagged , , , , , , ,

MW athletics budgets

5 Comments
Posted on May 11, 2012 by rgagliardi

Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune wrote a good and interesting article today about the athletics budgets for Mountain West schools, including San Jose State and Utah State that join in 2013-14.

Here’s the link: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/54089679-77/state-budget-conference-million.html.csp

As you can see, Wyoming isn’t at the bottom anymore like it was in the past. Still, UW must find ways to increase that budget in the coming years. This isn’t something AD Tom Burman and his staff don’t already know.

Any thoughts or opinions on this? I found it interesting the two top schools — UNLV and New Mexico — are horrible in football at this point and time. Wonder what that all means down the road. You know a lot of those schools’ resources are going to basketball. … among other things. Will this change?

Let me know what you think.

Posted in Football Tagged , , , , ,

More college football coach rankings

Leave a comment
Posted on May 10, 2012 by rgagliardi

Yesterday I posted how The Sporting News ranked the Mountain West’s football coaches.

Here’s the link to how it ranked all 124 FBS coaches entering this season.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-05-09/college-football-coach-rankings-nick-saban-chris-petersen-urban-meyer-les-miles

Wyoming’s Dave Christensen was about in the middle at No. 58.

Let me know what you think about this or any of the rankings. Pretty high praise for Boise State’s Chris Petersen.

Posted in Football Tagged , , , ,

Ranking the MW football coaches

2 Comments
Posted on May 9, 2012 by rgagliardi

The Sporting News recently ranked the 10 Mountain West football coaches. Here’s the link to the rankings:

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2012-05-03/college-football-coach-rankings-mountain-west-chris-petersen-chris-ault-troy-cal

What do you think?

If it were me I would have the same top four, although I would have swapped Air Force’s Troy Calhoun and Nevada’s Chris Ault at 2 and 3. But I see why Ault was second. He’s been there a long time and won a lot of games. But Calhoun has done nothing but win

I think Wyoming’s Dave Christensen is on the rise, and will continue to be if he consistently produces winning seasons and bowl games.

No. 5 is a little high for Colorado State’s Jim McElwain simply because he’s not been a head coach before. Not saying he’s a bad coach, but it’s different being the head man and CSU in not Alabama. I would have bumped San Diego State’s Rocky Long to No. 5 and put McElwain at No. 6, or even put New Mexico’s Bob Davie at No. 6 or No. 7.

Hawaii’s Norm Chow has been around for a long time, but like McElwain, has never been a head coach. No. 7 may be a bit high for him right now.

I also think Fresno State’s Tim DeRuyter could move up the list fast. Another guy who is a head coach for the first time, but he knows his stuff and has been in the MW before with Air Force. If Frenso State stays healthy and adapts to his staff’s new systems, watch out for the Bulldogs.

Fun topic to talk about. Would love to hear what you think.

Posted in Football Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

College Football News ranks UW No. 93

8 Comments
Posted on May 8, 2012 by rgagliardi

CollegeFootballNews.com came out with its rankings of the nation’s 124 Football Bowl Subdivsion teams in 2012.

Surprisingly, it had Wyoming No. 93. Here’s what it said about the Cowboys:

93. Wyoming  (2011 Record: 8-5, 2012 Roughly Projected Record: 5-7) 

Wyoming always seems to regress to the mean following a stunning, out-of-the-blue season. Quarterback Brett Smith is coming off a breakout season, but he can’t play defense. The Cowboy line couldn’t stop anyone’s running game, and it’s not going to be any closer to becoming a rock this year. That’ll be a big, big problem with Texas, Nevada, Air Force, Fresno State, and Boise State all on the schedule before November. Things ease up a bit late, but the midsection could be just rough enough to keep the program from getting back to a bowl game.

Thoughts, opinions on this? I thought the ranking was low, but I see the point it makes with the defense. I thought the unit made improvements in the spring, but it has to show it on the field.

For rankings of all 124 teams, go to

Posted in Football Tagged ,

MW adds San Jose State, Utah State

17 Comments
Posted on May 4, 2012 by rgagliardi

Just got off a conference call where the Mountain West announced the additions of San Jose State and Utah State to the Mountain West.

Speculation of this has gone on for months so it was no surprise. But other than two more teams in the MW, there really were not a whole lot of answers to the future of the league or its merger with Conference USA, which announced the addition of five new teams Friday.

Some thoughts on what MW commissioner Craig Thompson said today:

–He said the MW/CUSA merger is still on, but no further details have been hammered out. When the two announced its merger a few months ago there is an end-of-June deadline to either cancel it, extend the talks or re-write what it originally wanted to do. One of those things is to have a championship football game. But you need at least 12 teams to do that. The MW has 10. Will it bring over some CUSA teams to its side? Will it add more teams (Thompson didn’t seem too high on that idea). Or, will it join forces under one name and one league? Stay tuned.

Continue reading →

Posted in Football, Moutain West Conference Tagged , , , , , , ,

UW post-spring depth chart

2 Comments
Posted on April 30, 2012 by rgagliardi

Here is the post-spring depth chart Wyoming released Monday morning heading into fall camp:

Defense

Cornerbacks

20            Blair Burns (5-10, 180, So., Plano, Texas)

4            DeAndre Jones (6-0, 180, So., Killeen, Texas)

 Free Safeties

29            Luke Ruff (5-11, 200, Sr., Castle Rock, Colo.)

24            Kenny Browder (5-11, 180, Sr., Round Rock, Texas)

Strong Safeties

21            Mark Nzeocha (6-3, 220, So., Neusitz, Germany)

7            Chad Reese (5-11, 180, So., Tyler, Texas)

Cornerbacks

2            Marqueston Huff (6-0, 195, Jr., Texarkana, Texas)

13            Darrenn White (6-0, 184, So., Kansas City, Mo.)

Nickel Backs

41            Andrew Meredith (6-0, 200, Jr., Green River, Wyo.)

3            Luke Anderson (5-10, 195, Sr., Southlake, Texas)

SAM Linebackers (Outside Linebackers)

8            Zack Berg (6-2, 226, RFr., Edmonds, Wash.)

23            Ghaali Muhammad (6-0, 221, Sr., St. Joseph, Mo.)

27            Todd Knight (6-2, 210, Jr., Aurora, Colo.)

9            Patrick Hartford (6-0, 222, Sr., Rock Springs, Wyo.)

MIKE Linebackers (Middle Linebackers)

35            Oliver Schober (6-0, 235, RSr., Munich, Germany)

43            Devyn Harris (6-3, 225, Jr., Fountain, Colo.)

44            J.J. Quinlan (6-1, 238, Jr., Everett, Wash.)

WILL Linebackers (Outside Linebackers)

5            Korey Jones (6-2, 233, Sr., Fort Collins, Colo.)

53            Alex Borgs (6-2, 231, So., Raesfeld, Germany)

Left Defensive Ends

15            Ben Durbin (6-3, 272, Sr., Gilbert, Iowa)

54            Miraldo Michel (6-3, 265, Sr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

31            Jeff Roueche (6-3, 234, Jr., Niwot, Colo.)

Left Defensive Tackles

50            Mike Purcell (6-3, 303, Sr., Highlands Ranch, Colo.)

58            B.J. Sumter (6-1, 305, Sr., Columbia, S.C.)

94            Max Gustafson (6-4, 226, Jr., Casper, Wyo.)

Right Defensive Tackles

98            Kurt Taufa’asau (6-2, 284, Sr., Pago Pago, American Samoa)

95            Patrick Mertens (6-5, 287, Jr., Sterling, Colo.)

Right Defensive Ends

12            Sonny Puletasi (6-3, 241, So., Lawton, Okla.)

55            Eddie Yarbrough (6-3, 253, RFr., Aurora, Colo.)

Continue reading →

Posted in Football Tagged , ,

MW football news and notes

Comments Off
Posted on April 24, 2012 by rgagliardi

The Mountain West held a teleconference with its 10 football coaches Tuesday to talk about spring football and the upcoming season. For my story on that, see Wednesday’s Wyoming Tribune Eagle and Laramie Boomerang.

Here are a few things that didn’t make my story:

–Air Force returned this week from a trip to the White House to receive the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. It’s the second straight year and trip for the Falcons.

–Nevada coach Chris Ault enters his 27th year at the school, and has always called the plays and coached the quarterbacks. But this year he brought in former Nick Rolovich to coach the quarterbacks an impliment more of a run-and-shoot aspect to the Wolf Pack’s Pistol offense. Ault said one Rolovich, who was a quarterback at Hawaii, gets comfortable calling plays, he will hand that duty off to him.

Continue reading →

Posted in Football Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Christensen concerned, confident in QB

Comments Off
Posted on April 24, 2012 by rgagliardi

Wyoming football coach Dave Christensen is concerned.

He’s concerned that his quarterback — sophomore Brett Smith — has a lot of expectations on him coming off a true freshman season where he was the Mountain West Freshman of the Year as he guided the Cowboys to an 8-5 record, a third-place finish in the conference and their second bowl game in three years. On top of that, Smith was voted by the coaches as one of four team captains.

Continue reading →

Posted in Football Tagged , , , , ,

UW men’s hoops adds Alabama transfer

1 Comment
Posted on April 23, 2012 by rgagliardi

The Wyoming men’s basketball program added Alabama transfer Charles Hankerson Jr. Monday. Here is the official release from UW. For more on the story, see Tuesday’s Wyoming Tribune Eagle and Laramie Boomerang.

LARAMIE – University of Wyoming head basketball coach Larry Shyatt announced Monday that Charles Hankerson Jr. has signed a scholarship offer and will transfer to UW from the University of Alabama. He will sit out the 2012-13 season to fulfill NCAA transfer rules, and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

“[Hankerson] Junior is as mature a young man as we’ll have at Wyoming,” Shyatt said. “Most importantly, he embodies everything we are about on and off the court. Our coaching staff is excited that we’ve got a young leader that is going to have 15-16 months to get acclimated to our program and give us a huge boost when Luke [Martinez] graduates.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Basketball Tagged , , , , , ,