Cowboys First Scrimmage Produces Mixed Results

The Wyoming Cowboys went through a 90-play scrimmage at War Memorial Stadium last Saturday. The end results were a combination of good and bad.

The defense produced four quarterback sacks, two interceptions and a fumble recovery. The offense countered with its strong rushing attack. They compiled 226 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns.

Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl said,

"I thought our effort was really good out there. A couple of things that were noticeable. Really good pressure came from our defensive line... we had a couple of picks, so that was encouraging... I thought Brian Hill ran the ball well today (Saturday)... and Tanner Gentry continues to come along, with Jake Maulhardt. That's a position, wide receiver, where we need to have some guys develop."

The Cowboys offense was led by sophomore Josh Tapscott in the run game. He finished with 65 yards on 13 carries. Red-shirt senior Cameron Coffman went 7-of-16 for 66 yards passing. He threw the Pokes only touchdown to tight end Jacob Hollister. Maulhardt led the receivers with six catches for 83 yards.

Bohl was asked about the quarterback competition. He said, "A little bit of a mixed bag. I thought Cam (Coffman) did some good things, but there are a couple of things he can improve on. I thought he operated the offense fairly well."

Bohl also mentioned that with the other four it's different everyday.

"We're going to need to sort out that quarterback position... I need to take a hard look at the tape."

Coffman thought his performance was okay.

"There was some good, some bad. That's the exciting part about it, is we get to go back to practice, get to work on those things and hopefully have a better scrimmage next Saturday."

Defensively, Wyoming was led by junior Lucas Wacha, who had nine total tackles. Six of those were solo stops. Red-shirt freshman safety Chavez Pownell Jr. added six tackles, while sophomore Ryon'e Winters had three tackles and three pass break-ups. The two picks were by red-shirt freshman corner C.J. Jennings. He returned his 30 yards. The second interception was by freshman walk-on Fred Jones, who returned his 27 yards.

Winters said,

"They told us to treat it like a game. I felt pretty good about it... DB's as a group had a good day."

A positive was no major injuries for the Cowboys during this first big scrimmage.

Bohl added, "We were able to go through 90 plays without any significant injuries, and as a head football coach, that's something you always hold your breath on, so we're pleased with that."

The Cowboys will practice three times during the week before their second major scrimmage of spring drills on Saturday, April 18.