(OCTOBER 21, 2015) — Coming off a home victory over Nevada last week, the Wyoming Cowboys will travel to Boise, Idaho, this Saturday to face the Boise State Broncos on a nationally televised game on ESPN2. The game is scheduled for an 8:15 p.m, M.T. kickoff. Saturday’s game may also be heard over the 26 affiliate radio stations of the Cowboys Sports Network. The CSN pregame show will air one hour prior to kick off.
Wyoming will be looking to build on its 28-21 win over Nevada last Saturday. The Cowboys are led on offense by quarterback Cameron Coffman, who earned MW Offensive Player of the Week honors last week, and sophomore running back Brian Hill. Hill enters this week with 985 rushing yards through the first seven games of the season. That ranks him No. 4 in the nation in rushing yards, and leaves him only 15 yards shy of the first 1,000-yard season of his young career. Hill ran for 188 yards last week versus the Wolf Pack, and has rushed for 100 or more yards in nine of his last 12 games, including three 200-yard games during that span of games. He is averaging 140.7 yards per game.
Coffman is ranked No. 1 in the conference in virtually every passing category, including passing yards (250.7 per game), passing efficiency (153.8 rating), completion percentage (66.1 percent), passing TDs (14), total offense (237.2 yards per game) and points responsible for (14.0 points per game).
Coffman is also ranked among the nation’s top quarterbacks, ranking No. 18 in passing TDs, No. 21 in completion percentage, No. 21 in passing efficiency, No. 29 in points responsible for and No. 33 in passing yards per game.
The Cowboys will be looking to continue the offensive balance they established against Nevada. Wyoming’s offensive attack generated 272 rushing yards to go with 213 passing yards versus the Wolf Pack. UW’s 485 yards of total offense was its most in a single game this season. Wyoming ran 51 rushing plays averaging 5.3 yards per play and threw 20 passes, averaging 10.7 yards per play.
A big part of that offensive performance was due to the outstanding play of the offensive line. The O-Line helped Hill rush for 188 yards, and also enjoyed its best performance in protecting UW quarterback Coffman not giving up a single sack in a game for the first time this season. Leading the way was junior left guard Chase Roullier. Roullier, who is UW’s most experienced offensive lineman, started his 23rd career game last Saturday. He played all 71 plays against Nevada and registered a team high 12 knock down blocks, had one big cut block, allowed no quarterback hurries, no sacks and no hits on Coffman.
Wyoming’s defense played one of its best games of the season to help secure the first win of the year. UW held Nevada to 21 points — the lowest point total by a Cowboy opponent this season. The UW defense limited the Nevada rushing attack to only 118 rushing yards, which was over 100 yards under the Wolf Pack’s rushing average of 222.3 yards per game, and the Pokes did not allow a play over 30 yards for the first time in a game this season.
On Nevada’s final drive of the game and facing a fourth and five from the Wyoming 36, the Cowboy defense came up with perhaps the play of the game. Junior D.J. May forced Nevada quarterback Tyler Stewart out of the pocket on a blitz. May was joined by fellow linebacker Eric Nzeocha. May tripped up Stewart for a sack of 18 yards as Nzeocha hit Stewart forcing a fumble, ending the Wolf Pack drive back at the Nevada 46-yard line and sealing the win for the Cowboys.
May has made a strong transition from playing running back his first two seasons as a Cowboy to linebacker this season. He led Wyoming in tackles with nine versus Nevada, including six solo tackles. He helped seal the victory for the Cowboys on Nevada’s final play of the game. May also broke up two passes — one on a 3rd and 10 play in the second quarter that forced a Nevada punt and a second breakup on the Wolf Pack’s final drive of the game. His nine tackles were a single-game high for May. His two pass breakups were also a single-game high for him.
This week’s meeting will be the 10th between Wyoming and Boise State and the fifth since the Broncos joined the Mountain West. The first game between the two schools was played in 2002. Boise State has won the nine previous meetings.
Wyoming will be in search of its first road win of the 2015 season when it makes the trip to Boise this Saturday. The most recent road win for the Cowboys was on Nov. 1, 2014, when they traveled to Fresno State and captured a 45-17 victory over the Bulldogs.