Wyoming’s Fast Start Leads to a 42-6 Road Win at Nevada to Finish Regular Season With an 8-4 Record
Pokes Will be Making Their Third Consecutive Bowl Appearance for the First Time in School History
Pokes Will be Making Their Third Consecutive Bowl Appearance for the First Time in School History
WYOMING at NEVADA GAME STATS: https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/wyoming-cowboys-nevada-wolf-pack-202311250039/
Reno, Nev. (Nov. 25, 2023) -- For the second straight week, the Wyoming Cowboys enjoyed a fast start that led to their eighth overall win of the season and their fifth Mountain West Conference victory of the year as the Cowboys secured a 42-6 road win over the Nevada Wolf Pack. Wyoming finished the regular season 8-4 overall and 5-3 in the Mountain West. The Cowboys will now await a bowl invitation for the sixth time in the past eight seasons and the third consecutive season. Wyoming has never gone bowling in three successive seasons.
Nevada finished its 2023 season 2-10 overall and 2-6 in the Mountain West.
It was Wyoming’s fourth eight-win season during the Craig Bohl era and the first eight-win regular season since 2016. The Pokes’ other two eight-win seasons under Bohl in 2017 and ‘19 included bowl victories. Wyoming will have an opportunity to win nine games this season when they go bowling later this year. The last time a Wyoming team won at least nine games was in 1996 when the Cowboys went 10-2 under then head coach Joe Tiller.
Wyoming enjoyed a balanced an attack in Saturday night’s win at Nevada, generating 409 yards of total offense on 244 rushing yards and 165 passing yards. UW scored three touchdowns rushing, two passing and the defense scored a TD. Special teams forced a fumble on the Nevada’s opening kickoff return of the second half that led to one of those touchdowns.
Cowboy quarterback Andrew Peasley entered Saturday’s game ranked No. 1 in the Mountain West and No. 32 in the nation in Points Responsible For, averaging 14.0 points per game. He threw two more TD passes vs. Nevada and rushed for two TDs to improve his season totals to 22 passing touchdowns and 9 rushing TDs. His 31 total touchdowns responsible for plus a two-point conversion earlier this season improved his season average to 17.1 points per game in the 11 games he has played in 2023.
Wyoming free safety Wyett Ekeler returned a 38-yard interception for a Pick Six in the second quarter. It was Ekeler’s second interception of the season.
The UW defense also recorded a season high 6.0 sacks, led by defensive end Sabastian Harsh, who had 2.0 sacks and led Wyoming in tackles with six total tackles.
Cowboy Notes From Saturday
∙Wyoming finished off the season with two consecutive wins.
∙The Cowboys scored 42 points in each of its final two games, while holding its final two opponents to under 10 points each in a 42-6 win over Nevada and a 42-9 win over Hawai’i a week ago in Laramie.
∙The road win at Nevada was the Cowboys first road win of the 2023 season to go with a perfect 7-0 home record.
∙The 42 points scored by Wyoming in its final two games of the 2023 season were the most this season and the most that UW has scored since the 2021 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl when the Cowboys scored 52 points in a 52-38 win over Kent State. The Pokes previous high this season was 35 in a 35-33 double overtime win over then #24 Texas Tech and a 35-26 home win over New Mexico.
∙The Cowboy defense held Nevada to a mere 18 total rushing yards and 201 yards of total offense, which were both season lows by a Wyoming opponent. The previous lows were 38 rushing yards by Fresno State and 274 yards of total offense by Colorado State.
∙The 36-point margin of victory (42-6) for Wyoming was its largest since last week’s 33-point win over Hawai’i and prior to that a Sept. 18, 2021, win over Ball State by 33 points (45-12) in War Memorial Stadium.
∙The Pokes 244 rushing yards against the Wolf Pack was a season high. UW’s previous season best was 239 rushing yards vs. New Mexico.
∙Wyoming’s 409 yards of total offense vs. Nevada was its third 400-yard game of the season. UW had a season high 472 yards of total offense vs. Hawai’i and 433 total yards vs. New Mexico.
∙Linebacker Easton Gibbs recorded five tackles vs. Nevada. He has 106 tackles for the 2023 season. Gibbs now has 359 career tackles as a Cowboy to rank eighth on the Wyoming career tackle list. The two players directly ahead of Gibbs are former Cowboy linebacker/defensive end Gabe Knapton in seventh with 368 tackles and former Wyoming safety Chris Prosinski, who is in sixth with 373 career tackles.
Quotes From Head Coach Craig Bohl
Head coach Craig Bohl was very pleased with his team’s overall performance after the game. One area of the Cowboy team that played particularly well was the defensive line and he was asked what he thought of the D-Line’s dominant performance.
“There was no doubt that they played extremely well. We felt like we had an advantage there but we needed to come in and play on point and that’s something at times we’ve not done on the road,” said Bohl. “Nevada’s players played hard and they were well coached. I thought it was one of our better performances.”
The Cowboy offense and special teams both played just as well on Saturday as did the Poke defense.
“Our team certainly was ready to play tonight,” said Bohl. “We’ve kind of had a bugaboo on the road and all of a sudden we’re Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (between home and away games), and we wanted to set the record straight with an opportunity to close out our regular season with a road win.
“It’s special for me to see these seniors and the effort they’re giving and some of the performances by the young players, as well.”
Wyoming’s offense ended the night with 409 yards of total offense, including 244 rushing yards and 165 passing. Bohl was proud of the way the offense controlled the game throughout.
“Andrew (Peasley) made some really nice runs, and we did some good things up front. Anytime you can rush the ball like that, that’s a good sign.”
Bohl was also asked to comment on his team getting eight wins against a very challenging schedule that included preseason Top 25 team Texas Tech and a road game at then No. 4 ranked Texas.
“You expend so much energy on every game but those non-conference games -- there was no breather there,” said Bohl. “Then we went into conference play, and we play a real rugged conference, so coming up with eight wins is I think the most we’ve had in the regular season since 2016. It’s a great way to end our regular season and we’re looking forward to be playing in a bowl game.”
