Dave Christensen was fired up after his first win in his first conference game as UW’s coach as the Cowboys beat UNLV 30-27 Saturday at Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium
But not just about that, but about what Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney wrote about Laramie and UW in the days prior to the game.
He whipped out a printed copy of the column out of his pocket prior to talking to the media after the game and he read excerpts from the column on how Graney didn’t speak highly of Laramie itself.
Graney also stated that Wyoming’s football team “stinks.”
“We take that stuff personally. … He said Wyoming stings, well, he stinks,” Christensen said.
To see the column, go to http://www.lvrj.com/sports/unlv-road-win-must-come-this-week-60602222.html
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How about the first start for true freshman quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels.
24 of 37 for 234 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He orchestrated the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter that resulted in a field goal.
Carta-Samuels reminds you of the kid in the sandlot who draws up plays in the dirt and makes them work. In fact, that’s the kind of game he is used to playing.
“I’ve been doing that for a while,” he said. “Unfortunately, I had to do that a lot in high school so that’s normal to me.”
Carta-Samuels played the entire game and completed passes to eight different receivers.
This kid shows a lot of poise for an 18-year-old. I will be curious to see how he follows this up next week and in coming weeks. He faces a winless Florida Atlantic team next week as the Owls lost their home and Sun Belt Conference opener 27-25 Saturday to Louisiana-Monroe.
For more on Carta-Samuels, see my column in Sunday’s paper.
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An underrated part of the game for UW was the punting of sophomore Austin McCoy. Four of his five punts were 50 yards or more, including a long of 60.
His 39-yarder late in the game was his shortest, but it put UNLV back on its own 20 with just eight seconds to play.
Perhaps just concentrating on punting will be good for McCoy. He gave way to true freshman walk-on Ian Watts in terms of place-kicking. Watts made all three of his field goals.
McCoy made his first four field goals before two straight misses last week at Colorado. Hopefully Watts won’t follow suit.
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Word from the UNLV locker room was that a few players thought they might have come into this game not taking UW as seriously as they should.
Near the end of the game UNLV lined up for a game-tying 45-yard field goal, but was called for delay of game. Coach Mike Sanford said that was his fault.
The Rebels tried a 50-yarder, but the older couldn’t handle the snap.
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See Sunday’s paper for more UW-UNLV coverage, and thanks for all the participation on the live blog. Not sure why the scoreboard part kept screwing up in the second half, but will look in on it this coming week.
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