LARAMIE, Wyo. — In what will likely be the University of Wyoming football team’s toughest game of the year, and certainly its toughest conference meeting, the Cowboys are prepping to face the Boise State Broncos and Heisman Trophy contender Ashton Jeanty on Saturday.
Jeanty, a running back, is currently favored second in the entire nation for the Heisman, according to BetMGM. The junior has rushed for 1,843 yards this season and has scored 26 TDs.
For comparison, when Harrison Waylee, Wyoming’s star running back, was in his junior year — he is a senior now but has missed most of the season due to injury — he rushed for 947 yards.
Now, with Waylee field-ready, Saturday’s game between the Cowboys and the nationally ranked Broncos should be a battle of running back touches.
Wyoming Head Coach Jay Sawvel said in his Monday press conference Nov. 18 that a contributing factor to Wyoming’s loss against rival Colorado State was the fact that Waylee only got eight touches the entire game, which was the result of Wyoming’s defense being so poor that the team didn’t feel confident letting Waylee chip away yards.
“He’s a home run hitter, too, though,” Sawvel said. “That’s why you gotta get him the ball. The eight carries weren’t enough and we’ll get that addressed.”
Waylee also reportedly received less field time last week because minor injury meant he missed practices and was not prepped for certain plays. Injuries have been a consistent issue for Waylee this year, as he missed most of the season from a knee injury sustained during preseason training camp. This most recent injury, however, was non-knee-related and Waylee is, according to Sawvel, mentally and physically prepped for this matchup.
“Any time there are good players on the field, they want to play good when there are other good players on the field. Let’s start with that. Harrison should want to show up and play well this week; we all need to,” Sawvel said.
Regardless of how active Wyoming’s offense is this weekend, the Cowboys’ defense is going to have to step up in a major way to keep up with Jeanty, who has already rushed for over a thousand yards this season after contact alone. He doesn’t go down easily, and Sawvel said it will be a big challenge for the defense to match Jeanty, Boise State QB Maddux Madsen and the rest of the team’s offensive intensity.
“We’re obviously going to have to play our best game that we’ve played all year defensively to hang in with it and that’s something that we’ve got to do a lot better job with than what we did this past week,” Sawvel said.
The CBS Sports Network will be broadcasting the game and will have its announcers and sideline reporters on site. This will be Wyoming’s last home game of the season and the only time the Cowboys will play a team receiving Associated Press votes at home. For more information on this matchup, visit the UW Athletics website.
