Pokes news and notes

LARAMIE -- If you were hoping to hear who will be under center this Saturday in San Jose, you'll unfortunately have to wait.

Craig Bohl said he will make the announcement of who his starting quarterback will be sometime during the week.

Sean Chambers has started the Cowboys first seven games. Levi Williams played in the second and third quarters of the 14-3 loss to New Mexico last Saturday in Laramie.

"I don't think it's going to be a deal where I'll have a game-time announcement, but there will be an announcement on the quarterback," Wyoming's eighth-year head coach said Monday during his weekly press conference. "I understand that's a point of emphasis."

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Bohl did announce that defensive tackle Ravontae Holt will miss the remainder of the season with an undisclosed injury. Arguably no one has has worse luck in that category than the junior from Sacramento.

Here are some other tidbits from Bohl's Zoom call:

* Maybe you looked at the 14-3 setback last Saturday against New Mexico as one of the worst losses in recent memory. You're not alone. "I can say it was a really disappointing loss -- maybe one of the most disappointing losses that we've had at home since I've been our head coach -- but it's one game," Bohl said. "We have to learn from that. But it was not a good performance on our part."

* Turnovers, Bohl said, have been a major factor in the Cowboys' three-game losing streak. After four weeks, Wyoming was a plus-5 in turnover margin. Now, the team sits at a minus-2 after giving the ball away seven times over the past two weeks. "Without question -- I think it can't be overstated enough -- we've got to do a better job taking the ball away and we've got to do a much better job with ball security," he said. "You get in conference play, you know, this is going to have a profound impact."

* Bohl said holding New Mexico to just 14 points was a solid effort from his defense. However, UW's head coach said he thought his team would need to hold the Lobos to just a single touchdown. Huh? "Typically, that's going to be good enough to win," Bohl said. "I can tell you that I know that New Mexico is in the process of revamping their offense, there were some things that we were going to need to I thought, like hold them to seven points. And certainly, I think the touchdown right before the half -- those things are going to happen -- but that that had an impact. And obviously, scoring three points." New Mexico entered the contest with the 130th-ranked offense out of 130 FBS programs in the nation.

MORE UW FOOTBALL NEWS:
* Rants & Raves: New Mexico Edition
* Wyoming's losing streak reaches three
* Behind the numbers: UW vs. New Mexico
* Quick takes: The broken record keeps on spinning

* I asked Bohl after the loss to New Mexico what the identity of his offense is. He was in no mood to answer at the time, but he did Monday. "Obviously, when you score three points it's hard to have an identity," he said. "But, you know, our clear vision, I think we need to be much more efficient in the running game. We did a better job knocking people off the ball and sustaining blocks, but that needs to be better this week. You know, the number of times that we're putting the ball in the air is probably more than my liking, but nonetheless, we need to throw the ball effectively, which we're not doing."

* In layman's terms, Bohl wants to feature a power running game, control the line of scrimmage and play solid defense. Sound familiar?

* Explosive plays, Bohl said, is another element that has eluded this offense over the past three weeks. "We had the one pass play to Isaiah (Neyor) that he came down with, but he wasn't able to continue running," he said, alluding to a 38-yard completion in the second quarter from QB Levi Williams. "We need to hit a couple of the other ones because he was open two or three other times and we've failed to convert all those big plays. If you look back on some of our better performances, offensively, that's been the case, we've had some explosive plays."

* Bohl said he is unsure which quarterback will play for San Jose State this Saturday, but, as of now, his team is prepping for Nick Nash, who Wyoming's coach calls a "prolific runner."

* Nash isn't too shabby through the air, either. The redshirt freshman is completing better than 57 percent of his passes. As Bohl pointed out, Nash has thrown the ball 103 times this season. Just two of those have been picked off. "The guy they got playing now is, I think, truly a dynamic player," he said of Nash, who also has five touchdown passes and another rushing in six games this fall. "... You're looking at a guy that I think has got a really live arm. I know they they played him in the past, he'd come in and be a dual-threat guy."

* How involved does Bohl get in offensive play calling? He doesn't. He said occasionally he will make a suggestion -- during a break in the action -- but he added he isn't going to micromanage his coordinators. "I would say this, if if I'm going to start to micromanage the offensive coordinator than I need to be the offensive coordinator and I don't think that's how I'm best suited. I don't think that's best for our program. I'm confident that we're gonna make some progress this week."

* Adversity can come in waves throughout a college football season. In his 18 years as a head coach, Bohl has seen it all. "I take responsibility and, going in today and making sure we have a clear vision on with what we're going to correct and how we're going to correct it," he said. "There's no question that, you know, sometimes in the darkest times, when you're able to come through those things, those give you a baseline of foundation point that you can springboard off of it. That's happened in my coaching career. So that's our plan."

* Has Bohl thought about implementing a two-minute offensive attack? Elements of that will come into play, as we've seen throughout the Cowboys' first seven games. But he said there are drawbacks, too, like winding a defense if things aren't clicking. "There's benefits of the two-minute or a hurry-up offense, certainly," he said. "You can catch the defense on their heels. I think sometimes you can fatigue a defense."

* Unity. That's the message Bohl said he has been receiving from his team captains throughout this three-game skid. "I can tell you the response that I've gotten from the captains and the other guys is we have a unified football team," he said. "They are pulling for one another and that's really important."

* UW tight end Treyton Welch was injured late in the fourth quarter against New Mexico. Bohl said it was just a bruise and he expects Welch to play in San Jose.

* Make sure to join us for Happy Hour on Facebook Live tonight at 6 p.m. MST. Bring your questions and opinions and Ryan Clement and I will attempt to field them all.

* Stay tuned to 7220sports.com for all your Pokes coverage throughout the season