LARAMIE — They say there’s no rest for the weary.

That is certainly the case in Laramie, where Jay Sawvel’s offseason focus has now shifted from addition to self-evaluation.

“I had somebody ask me not too long ago, ‘have you been busy?’ I said, ‘Well, we’re going to add 40 players, three coaches, three graduate assistants, a video person and a person in recruiting,'” Wyoming’s head coach said with a grin. “We’ve been busy.”

The first three goals were to keep the players they wanted to keep, recruit a strong high school class and, finally, infuse maturity, talent and competition into this lineup.

Check. Check. Check.

Sawvel and his staff are now pouring over film from a mostly forgettable 2024 campaign that included four one-possession losses to Idaho, San Diego State, Utah State and then-12th-ranked Boise State. To make matters even more maddening, all of those setbacks came inside War Memorial Stadium, a venue the Cowboys finished 7-0 a year prior.

Inconsistency at the quarterback spot led to plenty of misfortune. Evan Svoboda, who started under center through the first eight games, was statistically the least-efficient signal caller in the FBS.

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Losing starting left tackle Nate Geiger just 11 snaps into the season certainly didn’t help matters. Neither did opening the year without starting running back Harrison Waylee and tight end John Michael Gyllenborg.

Linemen like Wes King and Jack Walsh also spent plenty of time in the training room. Wyoming utilized eight different starters on the front throughout the season.

The defense wasn’t immune to the injury bug, either.

Both senior safeties, Wyett Ekeler and Isaac White, were on the shelf for an extended amount of time. The former suffered a pair of broken thumbs. The latter dealt with a nagging ankle injury.  Edge rushers DeVonne Harris and Sabastian Harsh also struggled with health. An elbow cost Harris a chunk of the season. A knee forced Harsh to the sideline over the final month. Fellow defensive end Braden Siders was also hampered by concussions.

Caleb Robinson and Lucas Samsula never played a snap at the tackle spot. The leader in that room, Jordan Bertagnole, capped his final season with a career-low 25 tackles, including just 10 solo stops. Gavin Meyer, a presumptive starter in the interior, also entered the NCAA Transfer Portal late in the spring.

There are a number of head scratchers this brain trust will spot on tape:

* The Cowboys converted just 66-of-181 (.365) opportunities on third down, landing them No. 104 out of 133 FBS teams.

* Oddly, on the defensive side, Wyoming ranked No. 1 in the country on third down, holding its opponents to just 37 conversions on 143 attempts. “That didn’t fully compute,” Sawvel said, basing that comment on a lack of pass rush and a true cover corner in the secondary. He credited disguises from veterans like Ekeler and White for those numbers.

* Fourth down was another story. Aaron Bohl’s defense batted .500 in that all-important category, allowing an 11-of-22 success rate. During an 0-4 non-conference slate, the Cowboys allowed 10 conversions on 12 attempts. The average distance to go was 3.4 yards.

* Wyoming tallied just 15 total sacks last fall, 10.5 of which came from the defensive ends. Injuries to the back end, along with limited blitzing, can be blamed for some of that. Only Nevada and New Mexico got to the quarterback less in the Mountain West Conference.

* Wyoming was the 37th-least penalized team in the nation in 2024. That’s an amazing stat, considering 16 yellow hankies flew in the first two weeks, accounting for 135 yards. One flag, a false start inside the 2-yard line, might have cost the Cowboys a win against Idaho. There was also a four-game stretch where Sawvel’s squad was hit with 27 calls.

* Kickoff coverage was not a strong suit of this team. Depth likely played a role in that, too. Wyoming ranked No. 113 in the nation in this category, allowing an average of nearly 24 yards per return. Trailing 17-7 at halftime against BYU, the Cowboys’ coverage team watched Keelan Marion blaze right down the field for a 100-yard kickoff return to start the third quarter. The game was all but over at that moment.

* No one in the Mountain West punted as many times as the Cowboys did. That number reached 66, six ahead of San Diego State. The net average, though, was near the bottom of the league. Jack Culbreath served as the punter last fall. Sawvel said next year’s punter isn’t even on campus yet. They will find that guy, he added, in the spring transfer portal. This time they will look for a punter with more than one year of eligibility remaining.

* The passing offense was once again nothing short of abysmal for this program. It’s been the same song, different verse, since Josh Allen left for the NFL. Wyoming averaged just 189.4 yards through the air per outing. Those numbers were inflated thanks to a 342-yard performance against New Mexico from newly implemented starter Kaden Anderson.

* When the opposition got inside the Pokes’ 20-yard line, they scored. Like, 44-of-45 times, including 22 touchdowns and 14 field goals. Wyoming ranked 130th in the country in red-zone defense.

* Offensively, the Cowboys did some damage inside the 20, too, capping the year at No. 16 in the FBS with 29 scores on 32 trips. Nineteen of those were touchdowns. John Hoyland added 10 field goals. Imagine if this team found the end zone just a few more times on those opportunities?

* It was a down year in the rushing department. Injuries to Waylee and Dawaiian McNeely, plus the mid-season departure of DJ Jones, didn’t help. Neither did the loss of Gieger, Walsh and King on the front five. The Cowboys averaged just 137.8 yards on the ground per game in 2024. That was only good enough for eighth in the conference.

* The rushing defense was even worse, allowing 191.7 yards per game. That included six 100-yard rushers. Who could forget the debacle in Albuquerque? New Mexico gashed the visitors for 412 yards on the ground. Both quarterback Devon Dampier and running back Eli Sanders eclipsed the 200-yard mark that day. The defensive tackles were blown up all afternoon. Maybe that’s part of the reason why there’s a new coach, Deonte Gibson, at that position.

*  Turnover margin wasn’t kind to this program last fall. The Cowboys finished with a minus-5 overall. Wyoming QB’s tossed 11 interceptions and the team lost five fumbles. Wrook Brown was a bright spot. The nickelback snagged a team-high three of the Pokes’ six interceptions, including a pick-six that helped lead to that improbable 49-45 victory over the Lobos. Wyoming also gobbled up five fumbles.

* Sawvel said he will also be taking a deep dive into game and clock management this February into March. He pointed to not calling a timeout on Utah State’s final game-winning drive that culminated in a 40-yard field goal off the right foot of Tanner Cragun. Should he have saved the time and given his offense 20-plus seconds in hopes of a miracle?

Spring practice is set to begin March 25 in Laramie. Sawvel said he will open all Saturday workouts to the public.

– University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players