Cowboys prepare for football season

As head football Craig Bohl and his coaching staff enter their fourth year at Wyoming, the 2017 season will mark the first time that the Cowboys return their starting quarterback from the previous year.

That returning quarterback is junior Josh Allen, who was recently named the 2017 Preseason Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year in voting by conference media members.

Allen has also been named to three national preseason watch lists for the Maxwell Award, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award.

In Tuesday’s second practice of fall camp, the Cowboy passing game generated some big plays. Wyoming’s defensive secondary also showed its ability to make big plays, coming up with three interceptions on the day.

Perhaps the most impressive performance in Tuesday morning’s practice was by several members of the Wyoming Cowboy defensive line.

Before we breakdown the Cowboy quarterbacks, here are some notes from Tuesday’s practice, along with quotes from Bohl on Day Two of Fall Camp.

Tuesday’s Practice Notes

•Quarterback Josh Allen continued to impress with big throws to junior wide receiver James Price and sophomore wide receiver Austin Conway on sideline patterns. Price made a spectacular catch on his ball with a defender hanging on him. Allen also fired a pass through an extremely tight window to hit Conway on a slant pattern. The junior QB connected with redshirt freshman wide receiver Dontae Crow on a deep corner route for a touchdown, and found sophomore wide receiver John Okwoli on a sideline pass between the cornerback and safety for a big gainer.

•The defensive line was impressive in Tuesday’s practice led by junior defensive end Carl Granderson, who put on display some of the moves that made him one of the premier young defensive ends in the Mountain West Conference a year ago before suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 6 against Air Force.

•Junior defensive end Kevin Prosser and sophomore defensive tackle Youhanna Ghaifan were also very active in Tuesday’s morning practice.

•The Cowboy secondary balanced out the big pass plays by the offense with interceptions by senior cornerback Rico Gafford, junior cornerback Antonio Hull and redshirt freshman cornerback Braden Smith.

•True freshman punter Tim Zaleski showed off his leg, booming a couple of punts over 60 yards.

•Tuesday’s practice was conducted in helmets only, no pads. That is part of the NCAA-required acclimatization period for college football teams. The Cowboys will add half pads on Wednesday, and will don full pads the fifth practice on Friday.

Quoting the Coach (Quotes from Head Coach Craig Bohl)

“Today was our last day of helmets only. It will be good to be in half pads tomorrow,” said Bohl.

“I thought we made some significant strides today, particularly our movement in our defensive line. I think they are really showing some explosiveness.

“Also, I think we’re seeing some younger players show what they are capable of. Avante’Cox (freshman wide receiver from Rochester, Ill.) showed some really athletic plays today.

“On the defensive side, beyond the defensive front I think we’re getting some good play out of our corners. Another young guy, cornerback C.J. Coldon (freshman cornerback from Belleville, Ill., has some pretty good ability.”

Comments regarding running back

Milo Hall

“Milo (Hall) has faced a lot of adversity in his life, and we applaud where he’s at,” said Bohl. “I know he’s got a lot of teammates that are supportive of him. Josh (Allen) is one of his roommates. A lot of people here in Laramie and back home in Denver really helped him through some tough times. He is doing pretty well in school, and certainly has improved as a football player. We are looking forward to having him be a significant contributor this fall, however the most important thing for us is to see these guys grow as young men.”

Allen’s return to the field

This is the first season that Wyoming will return its starting quarterback from the previous season -- and oh what a quarterback he is in junior Josh Allen. The dynamic Allen possesses a great arm and exceptional mobility, evidenced by his 3,203 passing yards, 523 rushing yards and 3,726 yards of total offense. He threw 28 TD passes, rushed for seven more and caught one TD pass.

As a sophomore in 2016, Allen ranked No. 1 in the Mountain West and No. 6 nationally in passing yards per completion (15.33 yards). He also led the MW and was No. 16 in the country in points responsible for (218). Allen threw 28 touchdown passes in 2016, placing him No. 1 in the conference and No. 20 in the NCAA. He was second in the MW and 32nd in the nation in passing yards (3,203). Allen was also No. 2 in conference and No. 40 in the nation in total offense (266.1 yards per game).

Also returning is junior Nick Smith, who served as the backup last season after playing in five games and starting two as a redshirt freshman in 2015. Sophomore Nick Szpor returns as a member of the quarterback group and as Wyoming’s returning holder on field goals and PATs. The newest addition to the Cowboy quarterback group is freshman Tyler Vander Waal from Elk Grove, Calif.

Asked what were some of the areas of his team that he was particularly pleased with during 2017 spring drills, Bohl said, “I saw some great progress with Josh (Allen). I thought he took steps forward as a quarterback. There are certainly some things that he needs to improve upon, but I did see continued improvement. There is no doubt having a returning quarterback with Josh’s ability is always a great building block.

He has received an awful lot of national attention -- certainly a lot of it is well deserved. Josh did some really exceptional things last year. But his completion percentage is not where it needs to be, and his touchdown to interception ratio has got to improve.”

“We have to recognize that going into last year he hadn’t played a lot of football at the college level. He got 14 games under his belt last year and played a few plays for us the year before until he got injured, so he’s still relative young. We’re excited about Josh, and I thought he did some great things during the course of spring.”

“Nick Smith gives us another mature player at the quarterback position. Nick didn’t play in any games last year, but he played a lot the year before. His intelligence and maturity combined with the improvements he’s made in his game gives us another quarterback who we have confidence can provide leadership to our offense. Nick is really coming along.

“He is throwing the ball a lot better. We track completion percentages, accuracy, decision making in practice, and he has really improved each year. The other thing that I have really appreciated is while Nick’s number of live snaps last year were small, what I saw was somebody who has really been engaged and encouraging to his teammates. He learns from what he sees Josh doing, and when Nick has his opportunities in practice he takes advantage of those opportunities. I think he is faster. He’s certainly a very smart player, and while he has not had a lot of game reps I think he has really improved.”

Kickoff times announced

The University of Wyoming will have four additional afternoon football games in 2017, including three home games and one on the road at Utah State. The game times were released Tuesday in cooperation with the Mountain West Conference.

Wyoming’s home games versus Gardner-Webb Sept. 9 and versus Texas State Sept. 30 will both kick at 2 p.m. The Pokes’ home game against Fresno State Nov. 18 will kick at either Noon or 12:30 p.m. The final game time for the Fresno State game will be announced when the television network carrying that game is finalized.

The Cowboys’ road game at Utah State on Saturday, Oct. 14 will kick at 2:30 p.m.

Additional television network coverage of those games will be released at a later date.

 

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