Didn’t have a lot of time to talk to players and coaches after Wyoming’s 30-27 come-from-behind win at San Diego State. Print deadlines get in the way of that.
To sum this one up in just a few words is hard. But UW rallied from a 27-6 deficit in the fourth quarter for the win.
But as I sit in the San Diego Airport waiting to head back to winter-like Wyoming, I emptied the notebook and recorder:
“The dominance of the fourth quarter – 24-0 – I don’t know if I’ve been in game where you’re behind and you have to get it done. I’ve never been involved in anything like that. It’s pretty special.” — first-year UW coach Dave Christensen, who has been a college coach for 25 years.
“Thank God. I was tired. I didn’t know how much I had left in the tank if we had to go into overtime.” — senior defensive tackle John Fletcher on what went through his mind when true freshman kicker Ian Watts made a 43-yard field goal with 23 seconds left in the game for the go-ahead points.
“This is the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of, obviously. It was a lot of fun and I’m just happy I performed.” — Watts, who made all three of his field-goal attempts. Watts has made 8 of 9 this season, and the 43-yarder was a career-long.
“Coming back from BYU. This is how you bounce back. You bounce back with a big win like this.” — true freshman cornerback Kenny Browder on the Cowboys bouncing back after a 52-0 home loss to No. 22 Brigham Young the week before.
“The blocked field goal was the most pivotal play in the game.” — Christensen on Fletcher’s blocked field goal with about five minutes left in the game. That block kept SDSU’slead at seven and set up the game-tying touchdown drive.
“I knew John wsa going to block that field goal. I saw a few earlier and his hand was about two feet above the ball but it would go to the side of his arm. I knew he was due for one.” — senior linebacker Weston Johnson.
“A lot of it was the altitude thing. Coming down here at sea level they can’t run with us for four quarters because we’re eat 7,000 feet and we re still going. They started to get tired, holes started to open up and they stared missing tackles.” — true freshman quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels on the big difference in the fourth quarter for the Cowboys.
“You can woulda, shoulda, coulda all you want, but it comes down to making it happen when it goes down. They did and we didn’t.” — San Diego State sophomore quarterback Ryan Lindley.
“They outworked us at the end of the day. They made plays when they needed to make plays. They beat us.” — San Diego State senior offensive lineman Peter Nelson.
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Now it’s Wyoming’s turn to see what it can do against the juggernaut known as TCU.
The fourth-ranked Horned Frogs allowed a season-high 28 points against No. 16 Utah. But for the second straight game TCU scored 55 in yet another blow out win.
TCU is 10-0 overall and 6-0 in the Mountain West. Games at UW Saturday and at home against winless New Mexico are all that stand in the way of an undefeated season, a BCS bowl appearance and possibly a BCS championship game appearance.
The Horned Frogs have won their last five MWC games by a combined score of 233-53. Only Air Force has given them a game. TCU won 20-17 in a cold-weather game at Air Force on Oct. 10.
UW will be a huge underdog, probably in the neighborhood of 30 points. Utah was as much as a 20-point underdog this past week.
A win in the last two games and UW is bowl eligible. Most think the best chance for that win is the regular-season finale Nov. 27 at Colorado State (3-7, 0-6).
Maybe it was the emotion of a big win over San Diego State, but one UW player who hails from Texas is anxious to see what the Cowboys can do this coming week.
“We’re not scared of the No. 4 team in the country. I’m from Texas and have always watched TCU. I’m ready to play those guys,” said Browder,who is from Round Rock.
Be careful what you ask for Kenny.
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See Monday’s paper for more follow-up from the San Diego State game. Also, see if the Wyoming women’s basketball team improves to 2-0 after a home game Sunday with Montana.
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the freshman contribution was unbelievable. were these kids recruted by coach dave and his staff or were already committed to wyo because of coach joe? if these are coach daves kids i see a pretty bright future. i heard that carta-samuels is tight with the offensive coordinator. a good thing.
Other than a freshman offensive lineman that has started and a freshman who plays on special teams, all the true freshman that have played this season are Christensen’s recruits.
The staff already has 15 known verbal commitments to this point, and I think there are a couple of more close to be had. Hitting the JC ranks for receiver and looks to be sticking with high school kids every where else.
Carta-Samuels is from San Jose and originally committed to San Jose State where the current UW offensive coordinator was as. When Arroyo got the job at Wyoming he persuaded CS to come to Wyoming. The two do have a solid relationship, and the path Arroyo took as a player also has been similar to CS so far.
As always, thanks for the comment. Just saw the first line on the TCU-UW game. Horned Frogs by 30 1/2.
RG