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Wyoming Joins the WAC In Men's Swimming

2013-05-20T06:56:10Z

The Wyoming Cowboys will be making their return to their former longtime home of the WAC. In Men's swimming and diving that is. While the WAC has seen it's football days end this year it is growing as home for western based schools that need a spot for a team or two.

The Mountain West only sponsors women's swimming and diving and so that left a number of schools looking for other options. Similar to the wrestling program which is a member of the Western Wrestling Conference. For the last two years Wyoming men's swimmers has been a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

"We are excited to have the men back in the WAC in swimming and diving," Wyoming head coach Tom Johnson said. "We are very grateful that the WAC is sponsoring men's swimming and diving again and we are happy they reached out to us."

The WAC was able to bring back men's swimming this year thanks to the addition of Wyoming, UNLV and Air Force. The conference had to stop sponsoring it when eight schools left to form the Mountain West back in 1999.. The seven member conference will include: CSU Bakersfield, Grand Canyon, Seattle, Air Force, UNLV, North Dakota and Wyoming.

I'm not certain on the difference in competition but head coach Tom Johnson is certainly pleased with the move.

"One major decision behind us making this move is the conference championship facility," Johnson said. "For the two years we were in the MPSF we thought we were going to be in Belmont Plaza (competition pool) in Los Angeles, Calif., but both years we ended up swimming at East Los Angeles Community College. I do need to thank them for providing us a place to be, but I just didn't feel like it was a facility that was conducive for the best situation for our athletes. The WAC hosts its championship at the same place as the Mountain West and on different weekends, which makes it possible for all of our coaches to go to both the men's and women's meets."

Johnson has dedicated himself to the Wyoming swimming program and hopefully this will be a help to him. I'm sure a bigger boost to the program would be renovations to the Corbett building or a whole new natatorium. With just a 25 meter pool it makes it harder to practice and bring in top recruits.

Wyoming Signs JC CB Tyran Finley - New Depth Chart Released

2013-05-17T07:10:53Z

First off I would like to apologize if you've had any problems visiting Cowboy Altitude over the last couple days. SB Nation has been plagued by a large number of network errors that has made it incredibly hard to visit this site or other SB Nation sites. There has been a fine group that has been working nonstop to fix the issues and ensure they don't repeat.

We were planning on covering more recruiting news and now we have a signing. This isn't for 2014.... this is actually a member of the 2013 class who will be eligible to play this fall. Cornerback Tyran Finley from Contra Costa College in California signed with the Pokes earlier this week.

Despite being just 5'9 170lbs it certainly looks like Finley is a playmaker. He was named First Team Defense for his school's region in CA. He also held offers from Troy, UTEP and Middle Tennessee. Scout gave him a two star rating while he was unrated by Rivals.

Check out the video footage:

Interesting timing for this signing. Perhaps a scholarship opened up. The post Spring depth chart was released today and we may have our answer. Safety Jesse Sampson played well this spring till he was injured midway through. Perhaps the injury was serious enough to now allow him to play again. Sampson is not found anywhere on the latest depth.

Hopefully that is not the case but it is certainly a concern. Would hate for his playing career to come to an end this way.

A majority of the depth chart is expected but there are a few surprises. Let's breakdown some of the changes that occurred.

RB - Brandon Miller maintains his starting spot despite missing all of spring practice. Omar Stover was able to leap past Shaun Wick and D.J. May on the depth chart. There is no "OR" listed between their names like there was previously.

CENTER - Despite not enrolling till the fall JC transfer Albert Perez was named the starter at center. Not really surprising as Coach Christensen commented several times that he was not happy with the job done by the centers this spring. Hope Perez is ready to grab that spot.

CB - The two starters are Blair Burns and DeAndre Jones. No surprise there. The depth behind them is questionable as everyone is either a freshmen or walkon with no experience. The addition of Finley will certainly help here.

SAFETY - Darrenn White and Marqueston Huff are the starters. Cortland Fort and Chad Reese are the backups. I really like the depth at this position. Reese made lots of big plays last year and Fort has performed well in scrimmages the last two years.

LB - Lucas Wacha, Devyn Harris and Mark Nzeocha are the starters. JC transfer Jeff Lark is listed as fourth on the depth chart at WILL. At this point it looks like he is headed for a redshirt.

This biggest changes are really with the defensive line. Eddie Yarbrough was moved to defensive tackle and is the starter there. Justin Bernthaler is the backup and is followed by Troy Boyland. Patrick Merterns is the starter at nose tackle and Uso Olive is his backup.

At defensive end we have Sonny Puletasi as the starter and is followed by Sam Awrabi.

At the BUCK spot Siaosi Hala'api'api is the starter and J.J. Quinlan (who moved back to defense) is #2. With this restructure are we witnessing the defense make the transition back to a 3-4 scheme? The 4-3 has not really produced stellar results the last few years.

School's Out For Summer

2013-05-14T06:53:33Z

Last week finals wrapped up and over the weekend graduation took place as seniors completed their career at Wyoming. Students packed up their belongings and headed home for the summer. A majority will be staying home for the next three plus months. For most athletes they will spend a few weeks at home and then be back at Laramie to take summer classes and get in some more training.

News may slow down but there is still plenty happening around campus. The turf at War Memorial will begin to be replaced.

Th AA will also start renovations next March. The University just hired a contractor who will handle Phase 1 of the project. Pretty exciting project.

The initial renovations will include:

The first phase of the A-A project will involve expansion and replacement of the basketball court floor to provide two practice courts and reorientation of the competition court; reconfiguration and replacement of the seating in the lower bowl to include up to 500 club seats, as well as dedicated media, band and student sections; renovation of most of the current locker room level; installation of upgraded lights and new video boards, LED ribbon boards and sound system; and life-safety and Americans with Disabilities Act improvements.

Those improvements will help the athletes as well as the fans. It will allow better practices to take place and really enhance the game day environment.

Coaches have been hitting the recruiting trail hard. The Cowboys are still looking for their first commit for the 2014 class. We'll be stepping up our recruiting coverage over the summer months.

ESPN Picks Up A Couple Wyoming Football Games

2013-05-10T06:05:44Z

The last several weeks have featured numerous releases by TV networks and the Mountain West as they announced broadcast schedules. Each time Wyoming had struck out. That has finally changed as some good news was finally given to Wyoming fans.

On Thursday, the Mountain West Conference announced 15 additional games that have been selected by ESPN to be televised during the 2013 college football season. Two of the selected games will feature the Wyoming Cowboys. The Cowboys' road games at Air Force on Sept. 21 and at Boise State on Nov. 16 were both selected for television coverage on ESPN Networks.

We won't know the exact channel the broadcast will appear on until much closer to kickoff. They are usually determined within 12 days of the game. The options would be: ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPN3. I would imagine they will likely be one of the latter networks. ESPN3 is only available online and through streaming on phones and other devices.

Surprised the Boise State game wasn't announced earlier as ESPN has an agreement to show all the Broncos home games.

There was another bit of good news that came out earlier in the week as Nebraska announced more details about their game with the Pokes. Kickoff will be at 6pm MT and will be televised on the Big Ten Network. Not a gigantic network but the Big Ten Network is easy enough for most fans to be able to find.

Now we are just waiting on news on what will happen with the nine remaining games. I think the least likely to be broadcast are the home games with Idaho and Northern Colorado. Not sure what type of arrangement Texas State will be able to work out for 9/28. The Bobcats are switching to the Sun Belt after being a member of the WAC in it's final year.

New FieldTurf Planned For War Memorial In 2013

2013-05-08T07:01:04Z

It will be a busy summer at War Memorial Stadium. While the football team gets some time at home crews will be preparing to install the new FieldTurf. The project is expected to be completed by mid July. The old turf was well past it's prime and was incredibly faded and did not look good at all on TV.

We've posted the new design up above and I'm certainly happy with the way it turned out. Here is the full breakdown of what is included:

The new elements of the design will include a depiction of Wyoming's iconic Teton Mountains in both end zones along with the traditional words "WYOMING" and "COWBOYS" in brown on a gameday gold background in opposite end zones. Those words will appear in a new western-style font for the coming season. Also new will be the lettering "7220 Feet" on both sidelines, indicating the elevation of War Memorial Stadium as the highest NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision field in the nation.

Jonah Field will continue as the name of Wyoming Football's playing surface to commemorate the generous donations to UW Athletics by Mick and Susie McMurry and John and Mary Ann Martin and their families.

Wyoming's traditional "Steamboat" symbol of a bucking horse and rider will remain at midfield in brown, outlined in white and gameday gold.

The new field will be much more identifiable and having the Mountain West logo in team colors is long overdue. I love that Wyoming is embracing it's western heritage with the font in the end zones and mountains as well. The alternating dark/light green every five yards is a nice touch as well. Nice job by the UW Athletic Department here.

YOUR TURN

What do you think of the new turf? Love it? Hate it? Marry It?

Post your thoughts in the comments.

Video Highlights Of The Spring Game

2013-05-08T05:22:02Z

Checkout some fan footage of the Wyoming Spring Game.

New Promotional Football Video

2013-05-04T18:39:40Z

Some nice work by the video department at UW.

Wyoming Concludes Spring Practice After 92-60 Victory By The Offense

2013-04-30T07:08:12Z

The Spring game featured two sides of the coin as we've witnessed earlier this year. The defense dominated for a majority of the first half. Eventually the offense was able to get on track and narrow the deficit to 47-46 at halftime. After that the offense was able to put the pedal to the metal and ease to a 92-60 victory.

This result was enough to give hope for the future and show that improvement has been made. Still there are still concerns as not every problem has been magically cured over the past month. And that is what you want to have from a Spring football season. Some optimism to help keep you looking forward to August when Fall camp begins. Certainly you need to the keep the expectations reasonable as there is plenty of room for improvement in several areas. After coming off a 4-8 season you certainly can't expect a 12-0 season to magically appear.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty of some of the best performances.

Brett Smith - 9/13 for 168 yards and three touchdowns

Jason Thompson - 13/17 for 155 yards and two touchdowns

Tedder Easton ran for 20 yards and scored the only rushing touchdown. Jason Thompson led the team with 64 rushing yards.

The top three running backs combine for 14 carries and 26 yards. Not a stellar showing for the ground game.

Jalen Claiborne had five catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Robert Herron caught four passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

Justin Berger caught one 41 yard pass for a touchdown.

Eric Nzeocha had two catches for 26 yards and a score.

DEFENSE

The defense was led by two players who have stepped up in every scrimmage: Marqueston Huff and Lucas Wacha. Huff moved back to cornerback with Blair Burns sitting out due to injury. He certainly responded with six tackles and a 54 yard pick six. Lucas Wacha reinforced his strong showing this year has not been a fluke. The tackling machine once again led the team with eight tackles and even added an interception.

J.J. Quinlan made a nice return to defense with four tackles and two sacks. Sonny Puletasi had a sack while Siaosi Hala'api'api and Eddie Yarbrough each recorded half a sack.

Here are all the stats for the Spring game.

There is also some video that will be posting up later this week courtesy of reader George Roberts. He took some nice footage of the scrimmage and was able to share it with me.