Archive for August, 2009

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Post depth chart thoughts

August 31st, 2009

Not trying to brag, but of the 24 positions (11 offense, 11 defense , punter and kicker) I predicted in a blog post last weekend I got 23 correct. If only I could have scored that well on some of my tests in school. I may go buy a lottery ticket with that kind of luck going.

Only sophomore Josh Biezuns beating out senior Matt Barella at the Buck position (a combination outside linebacker and defensive end) cost me a perfect prediction. Both, however, will see a lot of playing time.

But it is interesting that a former fullback in Biezuns is now starting on defense, and a former defensive back — senior T.J. Atwater — is now in in the main rotation at receiver.

Coach Dave Christenen said Atwater was one of the biggest surprises of fall camp.

“For a guy who moved to receiver two weeks ago he’s done a tremendous job,” he said. “He’s going to be able to contribute and be in the rotation. he can catch the ball and make a guy miss. We’re certainly pleased we were able to find that out.”

UW’s offensive line will be new on the right side with true freshman guard Nick Carlson, who was listed at 235 pounds in the spring but is now listed at 290, and sophomore tackle John Hutchins, who has played in just two games in his career — all as a reserve.

Of the 10 offensive linemen listed on the depth chart, there are three seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen.

Even though sophomore Austin McCoy will handle both the punting and kicking duties, Christensen said he is still “iffy” about McCoy’s field-goal kicking. However, Christensen added McCoy will keep the job as long as he makes kicks.

UW has only four running backs on scholarship, and all four were listed on the depth chart in the following order: junior Darius Terry, true freshman Alvester Alexander, redshirt freshman James Caraway and sophomore James Davis.

Christensen doesn’t expect to play all four in a game. Ideally, only the top two would see significant playing time.

And finally, you can’t help but feel for Karsten Sween.

The senior quarterback lost out on being the starter for the second straight fall camp. The No. 1 guy entering fall camp, Sween fell to No. 3 when camp ended.

“It’s real hard,” Sween said.

But Sween continues to smile and say the right things. What’s even more impressive is the more people I talk to the more genuine Sween appears to be. See my column in Thursday’s paper about that.

See Tuesday’s paper about more on the depth chart and how newly named starting quarterback Robert Benjamin is about to be part of UW football history.

As stated in my previous post, there will be live blogging during Saturday’s Weber State game, and throughout the other 11 games. It was fun doing it for a scrimmage so I can only imagine what a game will be like. Comments and questions are always welcome.

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Posted in General, Offense, Quarterbacks

Benjamin the starter

August 31st, 2009

Minutes before coach Dave Christensen’s weekly news conference , UW relaesed a depth chart for Saturday’s Weber State game and junior-college transfer Robert Benjamin is the starting quarterback.

The backup is true freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels, followed by senior Karsten Sween at No. 3.

Not a ton of big surprises on the depth chart, but some notable ones include:

–Former fullback Josh Biezuns won the starting job at the buck (combination outside linebacker/defensive end) over senior Matt Barella.

–Sophomore Austin McCoy will handle both the punting and place-kicking duties. Senior Jake Scott, who did most of the place-kicking last season, will handle kickoffs.

–True freshman Alvester Alexander is listed as the No. 2 runnnig back behind junior Darius Terry.

–True freshman Ghaali Muhammad is listed as the backup at the SAM linebacker behind senior Weston Johnson.

Look for live blogging from the Weber State game, and also an update later today after interviews with Christensen and some of the players.

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Posted in Offense, Quarterbacks, UW-Weber St. Game

Around the MWC

August 29th, 2009

As most fans wait to see who first-year UW coach Dave Christensen names as his starting quarterback, which should come Monday or Tuesday (if he doesn’t already know it), Colorado State named its starter for its Sept. 6 opener at Colorado.

Senior Grant Stucker, who has played in five games in the last three years, got the nod Friday from coach Steve Fairchild. Stucker beat out junior-college transfer Jon Eastman and sophomore Klay Kubiak.

UW’s first road game is at Colorado on Sept. 19 and the Buffs haven’t settled on a starting quarterback yet, either.

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TCU and Florida International are the only Football Bowl Subdivision teams that won’t open the season next week. TCU begins its season Sept. 12 at Virginia.

Coach Gary Patterson has mixed feelings about that. He doesn’t like the fact Virginia will have a game under its belt by the time his squad gets up there. But he likes the extra practice time, especially some of the younger players to get ready for the season.

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Utah still hasn’t named a starting quarterback between true freshman Jordan Wynn and junior-college transfer Terrance Cain.

Coach Kyle Whittingham showed last season he isn’t afraid to play two quarterbacks. He doesn’t necessarily want to platoon guys, but he isn’t opposed to putting in special packages for a different quarterback depending on the situation in the game.

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When UW opens the season Saturday against Weber State, there will be 1,800 temporary bleachers in the south end zone that fans can purchase tickets for. However, the real reason for those bleachers is for the Sept. 12 game with No. 2 Texas.

Also, there will be around 840 temporary bleachers in the north end zone for the Texas game.

Check out Sunday’s Wyoming Tribune Eagle for a complete team preview of the Cowboys and a prediction of how many games they will win.

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Posted in Moutain West Conference

Depth chart prediction

August 28th, 2009

University of Wyoming football coach Dave Christensen will release an updated depth chart early next week.

By now Christensen and his staff know who is starting and who are the backups. But since he is keeping it quiet for the time being I thought I would take a stab at who the starters will be for the Sept. 5 opener against Weber State.

Offense

QB: Junior-college transfer Robert Benjamin. No. 2 is true freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels and No. 3 is senior Karsten Sween

RB: Junior Darius Terry. No. 2 is either true freshman Alvester Alexander or redshirt freshman James Caraway.

WR: The starting three will be redshirt junior Zach Bolger and juniors David Leonard and Travis Burkhalter. Sophomore Brandon Stewart, true freshman Chris McNeill ajnd senior T.J. Atwater, who was a cornerback last week, also play a lot.

TE: Senior Orlando Arnold. True freshman David Tooley and senior Jesson Salyards also will rotate in there.

C: Senior Russ Arnold

RG: True freshman Nick Carlson. Junior Jack Tennant is the backup.

RT: John Hutchins. Sophomore Clayton Kirven is the backup.

LG: Sam Sterner

LT: Ryan Otterson

Defense

DT: John Fletcher (Mike Neuhaus will play a lot, too)

NG: Alex Stover. Senior Fred Givens and sophomore Marcus Felker will rotate in and see time as well.

DE: Mitch Unrein

ILB: Gabe Knapton and Brian Hendricks

OLB: Matt Barella, Weston Johnson

CB: Marcel and Tashaun Gipson. The backups will be true freshman Kenny Browder and redshirt freshman David James

SS: Shamiel Gary. Redshirt junior Jamichael Hall and junior Keith Lewis are backups and will play in nickel and dime packages.

FS: Chris Prosinski

P: Austin McCoy

K: Austin McCoy or Jake Scott. Whoever is hot will kick. Anything past 45 yards and UW will probably go for it on fourth down.

With some positions I didn’t list backups because they are either unknown and/or unproven.

In Sunday’s WTE for a position-by-position break down of the 2009 Cowboys, and I also will predict how many wins the team will have. I thought they would get seven wins in each of the last two seasons. I wasn’t that optimistic this season.

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Posted in Depth chart prediction

Scrimmage No. 4 recap

August 26th, 2009

Of the four scrimmages of fall camp for the University of Wyoming football team, Wednesday’s final one felt most like a fall camp scrimmage.

The first units on offense and defense were very good against the back-ups.

The offense was efficient and productive. There were three touchdowns, including two via the pass by junior-college quarterback Robert Benjamin. More importantly, Benjamin didn’t turn the ball over. He threw for 139 yards and two touchdowns, including a 75-yarder to junior receiver Travis Burkhalter on the scrimmage’s first play.

“We came out firing today,” Benjamin said.

Coach Dave Christensen didn’t name a starting quarterback, and he said an updated depth chart will early next week. Benjamin would seem to be the front-runner based on the number of snaps he’s taken with the No. 1 offense during camp, along with his overall production and abilities to both run and pass.

“I come out here and try to give my best every day in practice and in every scrimmage,” he said. “Now I just got to wait and see. I’m pretty comfortable (with the offense) now and I’m ready to go forward.”

So is true freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels.

He took equal snaps with Benjamin with the No. 1 offense, and had the best numbers in terms of efficiency among the quarterbacks. Carta-Samuels was 10 of 12 for 125 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had 16 yards rushing on three carries.

It’s difficult to think Carta-Samuels will be the starter, but he may have moved past senior Karsten Sween as the No. 2 quarterback. Sween was 5 of 11 for 37 yards and an interception in the scrimmage.

“All I know is I’ve done what I needed to do,” Carta-Samuels said. “I had a rough week to start, but I bounced back and put myself in the best opportunity to play. If that’s going to be on the field, then it’s going to be on the field. If it’s going to be redshirting, it’s going to be redshirting. All I know is that I’m happy with my performance.”

There were only a few dropped passes by the receivers, and the offensive line  across the board didn’t allow a sack and only one tackle for loss.

Injury-wise, senior defensive tackle John Fletcher (knee) and junior running back Darius Terry (ankle) were held out of the scrimamge, but Christensen said both could have played it were a real game. True freshman receiver Chris McNeill (concussion) is expected to be back at full strength early next week.

Sophomore Austin McCoy had the better day among the place-kickers. he was 5 of 6 in field goals and made all four of his extra points. Senior Jake Scott, who was perfect in both field goals and extra points last Saturday, was 3 of 4 in field goals and 4 of 5 in extra points.

Two walk-ons joined the kicking fray, including Cheyenne Central graduate Kraig Tafoya. But both aren’t even allowed to be in should pads just yet because they just joined the team Monday. Tafoya got off to a good start but faltered near the end. The other guy, who even the UW sports information staff didn’t know his name, showed good leg strength.

Christensen said evaluation of this scrimmage and all of fall camp will end at noon Thursday. After that, it is all about preparing for next Saturday’s season-opener against Weber State.

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Posted in Scrimmage

Live blog from Scrimmage No. 4

August 26th, 2009

That’s going to be it for now. About 200 showed up for the scrimmage. Carta-Samuels is driving the No. 1 offense down the field against the No. 2 defense.

Will check in later for a recap.

Thanks for everyone who responded to today’s live blog. It was fun.

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Doing some kicking work now, and walk-on Kraig Tafoya from Cheyenne made a 35-yard field goal. Tafoya isn’t in full pads yet. He joined the team Monday when school started.

A guy just asked about the dropped passes today. There were 12 in last Saturday’s scrimmage. I’ve seen a couple today but it hasn’t been nearly as bad so far today.

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Sophomore punter Austin McCoy has worked a lot during camp on a rugby-style punt where he rolls out before he kicks it.

It has had mixed results, but the ball definitely gets a good bounce once it hits the ground.

Despite the inconsistency of the kickers, UW’s special teams has shown decent improvment from last season.

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Sween led a decent drive with the No. 3 offense against the No. 3 defense, but was intercepted by redshirt freshman linebacker Adam Barry — a former quarterback. It was Sween’s first turnover in the four scrimmages during camp.

Burns graduate and true freshman walk-on Duell Petch was the running back in that series.

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Mark, who has been watching the blog today, asked if I could get the names of the new walk-ons who joined the team when school started on Monday.

Mark, I will work on that but even the sports information staff here don’t have the names yet.

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The No. 1 defense stopped the offensive back-ups on fourth-and-1 from the offense’s 34-yard line. Sophomore linebacker Gabe Knapton tackled sophomore running back James Davis for a 1-yard loss.

The No. 1 defense is looking really good so far.

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Carta-Samuels back with the No. 1 offense and led a 71-yard drive in under four minutes for a touchdown. Bolger ran a reverse in from fivewyards out.

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Carta-Samuels threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to junior Zach Bolger, but it was called back because of a penalty. Benjamin came back in and the drive stalled, but both Austin McCoy and Jake Scott kicked 34-yard field goals.

Like last Saturday’s scrimmage, there is no score being kept.

The No. 1 defense is out there against the a mix of second and third stringers on offense. Senior Karsten Sween is running the offense. Has he slipped from one to three on the depth chart?

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Had to head inside for a better Internet signal.

On the first play of the scrimmage, Benjamin hit junior receiver Travis Burkhalter for a 75-yard touchdown.

Junior running back — and starter — Darius Terry is out with an ankle injury. True freshman Alvester Alexander got the start with the No. 1 offense.

Right now, true freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels is working with the No. 1 offense and is driving the team.

The offensive and defensive starters are all on the east sideline, the the two quarterbacks on that side are Benjamin and Carta-Samuels.

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Sitting 27 rows up on the 50-yard line at Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium getting ready for the final scrimmage for the University of Wyoming football team.

The players are out doing their warm-ups now.

Will try and keep you updated on any big happenings throughout the scrimmage, as long as I can keep an Internet signal and I don’t hit the wrong button. The most updated stuff will be at the top of the blog. I will separate them with lines to avoid confusion.

A couple of early observations:

–Quarterbacks Robert Benjamin and Austyn Carta-Samuels are both wearing braces on their left knees. However, both look ready to go.

–Senior defensive tackle John Fletcher is wearing a red jersey, meaning he probably won’t play today. I think the coaches are making sure he doesn’t tweek that knee he hurt early in fall camp before the season starts.

–A few more walk-ons joined the team Monday when school started. Cheyenne Central graduate Kraig Tafoya was one of them. He’s a kicker and may get some action today. He did some kicking in warm-ups.

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Posted in Live Blog, Scrimmage

Five things to watch for in scrimmage No. 4

August 25th, 2009

This is it, so to speak.

Wednesday is the final scrimmage for the University of Wyoming football team before its season-opener Sept. 5 against Weber State.

I’m sure the team will have periods of scrimmage-like action in the practices leading up to the game, but this is the final chance for coach Dave Christensen and his staff to get a look at his guys in a game-like situation before the games count for real.

Here are the top five things to look for Wednesday:

1. Catch the ball!

Will the UW receivers continue to have a case of the dropsies? Ten different guys dropped 12 passes in last Saturday’s scrimamge. It’s hard to evaluate anything with that many drops. That area has to improve. It will be intresting to see just how much progress has been made — in this scrimmage and beyond.

2. Quarterback progress.

Christensen said at the start of camp he won’t name a starting quarterback until Sept. 3. He may hold true to that, but if junior-college transfer Robert Benjamin takes all the snaps with the No. 1 offense for the third straight scrimmage one’s got to believe he will be the starter against Weber State.

But if senior Karsten Sween gets snaps with the starters, this battle looks to continue all the way to Christensen’s Sept. 3 deadline.

In three scrimmages, Benjamin is 27 of 48 for 384 yards with four touchdowns, three interceptions and three fumbles. Sween is 29 of 41 for 283 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions or fumbles.

3. Straight ahead

UW running back continue to struggle with running side-to-side instead of up field. This has driven Christensen crazy . Redshirt freshman James Caraway made some strides here in last Saturday’s scrimamge.

4. Mike Neuhaus

The senior defensive tackle plays behind senior starter and preseason all-conference pick John Fletcher. But it’s hard to argue that there has been a more productive defensive lineman for the Pokes during fall camp.

Neuhaus has picked off two passes from Benjamin. He also recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown on the first day of camp.

In three scrimmages Neuhaus has recorded five total tackles, including two sacks and two interceptions.

5. Great Scott

Inconsistent may be the best way to describe senior kicker Jake Scott, but he was perfect in last Saturday’s scrimmage as he made all six field goals and all four of his extra points.

Scott can go a long way to winning the starting place-kicking duties with another perfect day Wednesday.

Check out this blog Wednesday for live updates during the scrimmage, and for a recap afterwards.

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Posted in General

TV trouble for Texas game?

August 25th, 2009

If you don’t plan on being at the Wyoming-Texas game in Laramie on Sept. 12 and hoped to watch it on television, you could be out of luck.

The game will be televised by Versus, which is on cable and satellite platforms in Cheyenne and throughout the state. But if you have DIRECTV, you may not get the game. Both sides are in negotiations about renewing their contract, and reportedly those talks are not going well. The current contract expires next Tuesday.

The UW-Texas game is the only time the Cowboys are on Versus this season.

In other news among teams in the Mountain West Conference:

–TCU coach Gary Patterson wasn’t happy with the way his defense played in the Horned Frogs’ scrimmage last Saturday.

“That’s the worst defensive group we’ve had since 2004,” Patterson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “That’s the worst scrimmage (defensively) we’ve ever had. It was bad.”

TCU led the nation last season in total defense (217.8 yards per game) and was second in scoring defense (11.3 points per game). It returns four starters on defense this season, including All-American candidate Jerry Hughes at defensive end and a pair of senior cornerbacks in Nick Sanders and Rafael Priest.

–Injuries are mounting at Brigham Young. The latest boo-boos were suffered by junior running back Harvey Unga (hamstring) and senior safety Scott Johnson (concussion).  Johnson was hurt trying to make a tackle on senior fullback Manase Tonga. Their status for the Cougars’ season-opener Sept. 5 against No. 3 Oklahoma is uncertain.

More than 30 BYU players have suffered injuries during fall camp.

–Colorado State boasts the most experienced offensive line in the country as its five projected starters have a combined 129 starts.

–There have been reports former Utah coach and current Florida coach Urban Meyer would have liked to start the season with a game with the Utes. Nothing transpired.

The Utes still haven’t named a starting quarterback. The battle is down to true freshman Jordan Wynn and junior-college transfer Terrance Cain. Also, junior defensive end Koa Misi hurt his back last week and is listed as questionable for the Utes’ season-opener Sept. 3 against Utah State.

–The MWC agreed to renew its contract with the Las Vegas Bowl through 2013. The bowl will get the first pick from the league (as long as there is no MWC team in a Bowl Championship Series Bowl) and it will play against the No. 5 selection from the Pac-10.

So in most years that pits the MWC champion against a middle-of-the-road Pac-10 team. To me that puts the MWC in a no-win situation. If the MWC champion is worth its salt it should beat the fifth-place Pac-10 team. If it doesn’t, then what does that say about the MWC champion and the repuation of the league that its champion can’t beat — in most years — an average squad from a BCS conference?

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Posted in UW-Texas Game

Coach follow-up

August 23rd, 2009

It was cool to talk with former Wyoming football coaches Paul Roach and Joe Tiller about their thoughts of new Cowboys coach Dave Christensen, and also learn that former Colorado State coach Sonny Lubick had spent some time with Christensen and his staff this summer. For more on that, see Sunday’s WTE or view the story online at www.wyomingnews.com.

In talking with Tiller I asked him what he thought it took to be a successful coach at Wyoming. He should know since he was 39-30-1 in his six seasons in Laramie, and also was part of Roach’s staff that was 35-15 from 1987-90.

Here were his keys to success:

–Patience. It wasn’t until Tiller’s third season when the Cowboys posted a winning record.

–Recruiting the players who were the right fit for the school and community.

–Keeping players in the program for four or five years.

–Staff continuity. Tiller said his final years at Purdue, where he coached from 1997-2008, suffered some because many of his assistant coaches left for other jobs.

Classes start at UW Monday and the team returns to practice Tuesday. The final scrimmage of fall camp is 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and I will try and do some live blogging to keep you up to date on what’s going on.

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Posted in Coaches, General

Offensive offense

August 22nd, 2009

For the second straight scrimmage the University of Wyoming’s offense struggled.

And for most of Saturday’s scrimmage in Laramie the defense didn’t do a lot to contribute to those struggles.

There were 12 dropped passes and six offensive penalties. The run game averaged 2.7 yards per carry and the passing game completed just 50 percent of its passes with no touchdowns and two interceptions.

Needless to say, first-year coach Dave Christensen wasn’t happy afterwards, and for the second straight scrimmage he wasn’t shy about expressing his frustrations.

See Sunday’s story in the WTE about what he said about his receivers, but one thing he did say was that the defense had nothing to do with those drops. Christensen also thinks his offensive line isn’t physical enough, and he still doesn’t like the fact his running backs have a hard time running north and south.

But after this scrimmage Christensen had more of a broad-based criticism of his team.

“I’m disappointed in the mental toughness of our team,” he said. … “We’ve got to get tougher.”

Interestingly enough, I heard one player after the scrimmage say it was pretty hot on the field which could have led to the offensive woes. Do you think it’s been hot in Texas  or Utah or any where else in the country this summer? That’s not a sign of a tough football team, is it?

But how do you instill that? That’s not something you can just give players, or expect them to pick up overnight.

“Toughness is a  mental thing,” junior quarterback Robert Benjamin said. “Once you’re mentally tough, you’re physically tough.”

The physical part doesn’t seem to be the problem right now. Heck, the offensive line and receivers put in nearly 30 minutes of extra conditioning for their struggles after the scrimmage. And, the number of serious injuries are significantly down in fall camp compared to spring drills.

Seems like the Cowboys have a long way to go on the mental side of things. Just like the consistency issue Christensen harped on earlier in the week, toughness is another one that must be addressed and improved upon.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom from the scrimmage. Here are some highlights:

–Senior defensive tackle Mike Neuhaus had his second interception of camp when he picked off Benjamin. Both of his interceptions in camp have come against Benjamin. Maybe Neuhaus should get some work at receiver, a position he played in high school.

–Redshirt freshman defensive end Cory Orth blocked a 31-yard field goal, and senior defensive tackle John Fletcher played well on field goal and extra-point block teams. In fact, Christensen has been pleased with the progress of all his kickoff and punt units in fall camp.

–Senior kicker Jake Scott had his best scrimmage as he was a perfect 6-for-6 in field goals, with a long of 42. He also made all four of his extra points.

–Redshirt freshman running back James Caraway had a 65-yard touchdown run.

–Junior free safety Chris Prosinski had an interception to end the scrimamge, and he also had the hit of the day with a hard shot on senior receiver Greg Bolling. However, Bolling held on to the ball.

For an intersting read, see Sunday’s WTE and how three former college coaches who reside in the area have been impressed with what they’ve seen from Christensen and his staff thus far.

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Posted in Offense