LARAMIE, Wyo. (Sept. 23, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowboys return to War Memorial Stadium this Saturday hosting Air Force at 6 p.m. on Homecoming in Laramie. It is the Mountain West opener for the Brown and Gold as Wyoming is 13-12 in MW openers,

The contest will be televised on CBS Sports Network with Rich Waltz on the call along with Robert Turbin analyzing the action and Amanda Guerra on the sidelines.

Ticket Information

Fans may order tickets online, via email or by phone at:

•Go to GoWyo.com/tickets

•Email tickets@uwyo.edu

•Call (307) 766-7220

•Stop by the UW Athletics Ticket Office on the West Side of the Arena-Auditorium on the corner of Willett Drive and 19th Street.

Mountain West Openers: The 2024 season marks the 26th season of the Mountain West Conference, and this year’s Wyoming-Air Force contest is the conference opener for the Cowboys. Wyoming is 13-12 (.500) in Mountain West openers. UW is 9-6 (.600) when opening MW play at home and is 4-6 (.400) when opening on the road. The Cowboys have won 7 of their last 11 MW openers. The Cowboys and Falcons opened the 2022 conference season in Laramie with the Cowboys earning a 17-14 victory.



Wyoming Hosts 99th Homecoming Game This Week: This week’s game versus Air Force will mark the 99th Homecoming game in University of Wyoming history, and the 74th Homecoming game to be played in War Memorial Stadium. Last season, Wyoming defeated New Mexico on Homecoming by a score of 35-26.



UW’s Overall Record in Homecoming Games: 49-46-3

UW’s Homecoming Record in War Memorial: 44-27-2



Cowboys Missing with Injuries: The Cowboys have had numerous injuries to open the season on both sides of the ball. Wyoming has 12 players on the roster that have had injuries this season that have started a game in their career. Those 12 players have combined for 26 missed games this season. That includes a pair of running backs in Daiwaiian McNeely and Harrison Waylee along with safeties Wyett Ekeler and Isaac White among other players.



King to the House: Wide receiver Tyler King has been excellent this season returning kicks. In fact, King ranks third in the nation and first in the Mountain West averaging 36.7 yards per kick return. He recorded a 100-yard return for the Brown and Gold at North Texas tying the school record held by Sonny Jones, as he recorded a 100-yard return against Colorado State College in 1948.



Scott Does It All: Running back Sam Scott paced the Cowboy offense against North Texas. He rushed for 39 yards to lead the team and also added three catches tying a career-high and recorded a career-high 52 yards receiving. He hauled in a 41-yard reception for a score in the second quarter for the first of his career. He leads the team with six receptions on the season averaging 12.5 yards per catch.



Gyllenborg Back in Form: Tight end John Michael Gyllenborg is working his way back into the offense after an injury. He grabbed five catches for a team-high 56 yards against North Texas. The five catches tied a career-high for the tight end, as he had five last season against Texas Tech in the season opener.



Suiaunoa Passes 200 Tackles: Linebacker Shae Suiaunoa recorded nine tackles to lead the Cowboys at North Texas. He has now recorded 206 tackles in his career in 51 games for the Brown and Gold. He also has 12 tackles for loss in his career and has recorded 119 solo stops for UW.



Shay Settles in as Starter: Linebacker Connor Shay has settled into his role at linebacker for the Pokes. He recorded eight tackles for a career-high against North Texas. This season, Shay has recorded 25 tackles to rank third on the Cowboys. Him and Suiaunoa have combined for 52 stops this season.



Singleton Makes First Start: Nickelback Malique Singleton made his first

career start at North Texas for Wrook Brown, as he was suspended for targeting in the first half of the game against the Mean Green. Singleton, a native of Alaska alongside Read Sunn, a linebacker recorded a career-high four tackles in the contest.



Running Backs in Passing Game: The Cowboy running back duo of Sam Scott and DJ Jones combined for five catches for 72 yards against the Mean Green. Both had career-highs in the game with Scott recording 52 yards receiving and Jones adding 20 yards on a pair of catches including one for 11 yards on a third-down conversion.



Hoyland Adds to School Record: Kicker John Hoyland knocked in a 30-yard kick in the first quarter for the 61st of his career as he continues to build on his school record. He also added a pair of extra points. For his career, Hoyland has scored 311 points and is currently third at UW in career scoring.



Rk. Player, Position Years TDs Points Goals Points

1. Cooper Rothe, pk 2016-19 0 165 59 342

2. Sean Fleming, pk 1988-91 0 153 57 324

3. John Hoyland, pk 2020-Pres. 0 128 61 311



Home Stretch: The Cowboys return home for homecoming on Saturday against Air Force. The Pokes will remain in Laramie for a while now with the next road action at San Jose State on Oct. 19. UW will enjoy a bye week after the Falcons before returning to action against San Diego State in Laramie on Oct. 12.



Bertagnole and Tackles for Loss: Defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole is moving up the tackles for loss list at UW. He has 24 in his career with the Brown and Gold.



1. 39.0 Eddie Yarbrough 2012-15

2. 36.0 John Fletcher 2005-09

3. 35.5 Carl Granderson, 2015-2018

4. 35.0 Logan Wilson, 2016-19

5. 31.0 Josh Biezuns 2008-11

6. 26.5 Zach Morris 2001-04

7. 25.5 Cole Godbout 2019-23

8. 25.0 Andrew Wingard, 2015-2018

9. 24.0 Ward Dobbs 2005-08

24.0 Jordan Bertagnole, 2020-Pres.



About Air Force: The Falcons (1-2 overall, 0-1 Mountain West) are coming off an open date after losing back-to-back games to San Jose State (17-7) and Baylor (31-3). Air Force opened the season with a 17-7 victory over FCS Merrimack.



Defensively, the Falcons rank 40th in the FBS in points allowed (18.0 ppg) and 61st in yards allowed (335.7 ypg). Air Force is averaging 167.3 yards rushing (64th), 50 yards passing (134th) and 10.3 points (132nd) through three games.



Cade Harris, a senior wide receiver, leads the team in rushing with 132 yards and three touchdowns. Junior quarterback John Busha, a 6-2 junior, is 13-for-39 (33.3%) passing for 125 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions.



Air Force leads the all-time series with Wyoming 31-27-3, including a 34-27 victory in last year’s MW opener at the Academy. The Falcons have lost their last four games at War Memorial Stadium and are seeking their first victory in Laramie since a 28-27 win in 2012.

Has he graduated from law school and if so where is he practicing?

dang it!

That's why it is so difficult to predict. Everyone is acting in their own self-interest, which is expected, but behaving in ways that can only be described as retarded.

It is very clear that what the PAC2 really wanted was a reverse merger without Wyoming and Hawaii for sure, and probably without Nevada and New Mexico if they could get away with it. But they screwed it all up by making their first move with the Traitor 4. They must have never read the MW bylaws, because as soon as they executed it, those 4 schools lost their voting power to dissolve the league. They went with the original Traitor 4 because they were easy, and then thought they could grab AFA and UNLV in the next wave. The problem was that grabbing UNLV without NEV would have brought public scrutiny they didn't want. Once they went, it would have been a race between USU and SJSU to vote to dissolve and get an invite. That would have given them the votes to dissolve the MW and avoid any exit fees, with a 9 team league that would have made football scheduling easy.

What drove all this was simple greed. The PAC2's media consultant said they could expect something in the neighborhood of $11 million/year per school in a new media deal. That was based on an 8-team league. Adding schools like Utah State or Nevada doesn't materially impact media rights. Adding a school like Utah State doesn't push the full value of the deal much, it just creates another mouth to feed. In an 8-team PAC, schools get about $11 million/year, but in a 12-team PAC each school gets MAYBE $7 million to $8 million. Long story short, in the interest of chasing another $3 million or so in media rights fees, the PAC2 ****ed up their whole merger. The PAC2 should have done a full reverse merger, even if it meant a lighter media rights deal. This would have allowed OSU and WSU to keep much of that $255 million war chest for themselves, and given themselves a competitive advantage in reaching the CFP. Now they're chasing schools like Sacramento State to make their deal work. As such, they are RETARDED.

The MW office has not covered itself in glory, either. Gloria has certainly done better than Thompson would have, but goddamn did they overplay their hand in trying to renew the scheduling agreement. It's now obvious that what should have been pursued is a soft merger over time. The PAC2 wanted to wait and see if the ACC would dissolve through litigation brought by FSU and Clemson. For the life of me, I don't understand why we decided to push the PAC2's backs against the wall by demanding an increase in fees for a renewed scheduling agreement. The Grant of Rights in the ACC is well-known as iron clad. It's studied in law schools! The ACC process was always very likely going to end in a settlement that got FSU and Clemson some weighted tv dollars. How do I know this? Because complicated litigation like that almost never goes all the way to trial, and that likelihood goes down even more when public institutions are involved. The ACC mess was headed for a settlement from Day 1. Gloria and the MW should have been the PAC2's best friend and positioned ourselves as their next best option - or even executed a provisional merger set for 2026 contingent on certain conditions like Stanford and Cal not becoming available again. Instead, we tried to jam the PAC2 into a merger on our timeline instead of theirs with a hardball scheduling agreement. As such, the MW office is (as usual) RETARDED.

The bozos in Old Main, the AD and the Trustees are not immune. Reportedly, a key driver for the PAC2 to extend an invite is a commitment from the incoming school to spend at least $60 million annually on athletics. There is a 2-year grace period for schools to get their budgets to that level. The elephant driving all of this is the new College Football Playoff because an invite to that brings in, at minimum, about $7 million for the conference. After all this merging and covering some portion of exit fees, the PAC absolutely MUST be in the driver's seat to get that fifth CFP invite every year to make their numbers work. And for that to be the case, they need to be playing with schools who play big boy sports (i.e. Gonzaga in basketball, who can be reasonably assured of securing significant NCAA units each year). The Traitor 4 are all willing to make the jump to get to $60 million per year. Some of them are already there. Wyoming has had multiple opportunities to increase its overall athletics spend to a competitive level. Our annual spend is already at about $48 million! Significant investment in athletics beginning back in about 2005 or 2010 would have radically changed our fortunes. Instead, as has been discussed ad nauseum, the powers that be (Old Main, AD, Trustees, Legislature, Governors) decided to invest in one-time things like facilities. Now we see the consequences of investing in bricks instead of people. We are about to have the nicest facilities that schools like South Alabama and New Mexico State play in every year. As such, Wyoming has been and remains RETARDED.

How does this all shake out? Who knows. When greed and fear are driving decision making things tend to go sideways. No bolt of lightning is coming that will save Wyoming, I know that much.

We had our chances and didn't take them. It's a goddamn shame.