A lot of history has been made with UW quarterbacks this season.
When Robert Benjamin was named the starter prior to the start of the season, he became only the second African-American player to start at quarterback for the Cowboys.
Monday, true freshman Austyn-Carta Samuels was named the starter for Saturday’s conference opener against UNLV. He will be the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the Pokes since Rick Costello in 1974.
That’s 35 years!
Let’s hope Carta-Samuels’ debut and career goes better than Costello’s.
Costello played just that 1974 season and set a school single-season record with 21 interceptions. He also is tied for the single-game record for most interceptions with six, along with Casey Bramlet (2001).
The Cowboys finished 2-9 in 1974.
You could see this change coming as you watched Benjamin be ineffective in back-to-back games against Texas and Colorado, and based on the way Carta-Samuels played in UW’s 24-0 loss at Colorado last week.
Granted, when you don’t score nothing is good, but Carta-Samuels showed good poise and presence out there and seems to have a better grasp on the offense right now.
I wouldn’t give up on Benjamin just yet, and to blame him for all of UW’s offensive woes wouldn’t be fair. This has been a collective struggle, and perhaps this change will spark improvement. I still think Benjamin has a chance to do a lot of good things.
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Snow in September isn’t anything new in Wyoming, but it was for some UW players as they woke up Monday morning to it snowing in Laramie and with snow on the ground in some areas of town.
“I didn’t think ‘what am I doing here’ because I was only two hours away from snow where I lived in California,” said Carta-Samuels, who is from San Jose. “But snow in September is a different deal. That’s a little weird.”
Added sophomore cornerback Tashaun Gipson, who is from Dallas and came to Monday’s news conference with about four different layers of clothing: ”It was a big surprise. I’m not used to this. This is totally different than what I’m used to. It didn’t do this last year.”
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Talked to a few UW officials and they said they pretty much met their financial goals of netting around $600,000 from the Texas game.
To put it some perspective, UW normally grosses a little over $1 million for an entire season of home football games. They came close to grossing $1 million from the Texas game alone.
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See Tuesday’s paper for more on Carta-Samuels, along with a new kicker for the Cowboys this week. There is also a story about UNLV and how quarterback Omar Clayton became the Offensive Player of the Week in the Mountain West.
Tuesday is the weekly MWC coaches teleconference. Should be interesting to see how the BYU and Utah coaches plan to get their teams to bounce back after tough losses last Saturday.
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