Best of the best

One of the better man-to-man match-ups in Saturday’s Wyoming-Utah football game should be UW senior defensive tackle John Fletcher going up against Utah senior offensive tackle Zane Beadles.

Both are all-conference candidates. Beadles was a First Team All-Mountain West pick last season and Fletcher was a Second Team choice. Beadles is getting some All-American consideration this season.

Beadles told me  this summer during MWC Media Day that he thought Fletcher was one of the toughest guys to block in the conference because of his strength and size at 6-foot-6.

Fletcher had equal praise for Beadles when asked about him earlier this week.

“He’s got the size and strength and he’s pretty quick for how big he is (6-4, 305),” he said. “He’s probably one of the top guys I’ve gone against since I’ve been here. It’s going to be a big task for me to try and beat him on each play.

“That’s part of the game and that’s what you live for to see where you stack up. It should be fun.”

Beadles has won 374 of 432 plays this season. That’s an 87 percent clip, which is tops among all of the Utes’ offensive linemen.

Fletcher’s seven sacks are second-best in the MWC and his 10 tackles for loss is third.

Interestingly, Beadles and Fletcher almost were college teammates.

Beadles was offered a scholarship at UW by former coach Joe Glenn and made a recruiting trip to Laramie. He is the step-son of UW women’s basketball coach Joe Legerski. His mom and dad both attended UW and his mom, Jamie, played basketball for the Cowgirls.

But Beadles grew up in Salt Lake City wanting to play for the Utes. When the scholarship offer came, he signed.

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Normally I try and give you an update after UW’s Wednesday practice, but the winter storm in the area shut down the roads so I didn’t make it to Laramie. However, I will talk to coach Dave Christensen after practice and if anything newsworthy comes from it I will post something later tonight.

I just hope I can get to Salt Lake City in time for Saturday’s game.

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See Thursday’s paper for an interesting look at the Cowboys’ ability to force fumbles, but not so much in terms of recovering them.

Also, my column hits on the fact Christensen has been a man of his word when it comes to playing the best players no matter their age. There was yet another example of that this week.