Cowboys use bye week to reset, prepare to host Utah State for homecoming

Oct. 18—LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming football team is feeling a bit refreshed after its bye this weekend.

Craig Bohl, who's in his ninth season as UW's head coach, spent Saturday night catching up with the rest of the Mountain West. He watched Utah State beat Colorado State 17-13 before capping the night with Air Force's 42-7 win over UNLV.

"There's a lot of balance, and there's a lot of good players," Bohl said. "Anybody can beat anybody on Saturday. ... Everybody seems to have a Saturday where, if you're not playing your best, you're going to get beat. That's why we tell our players that the next game they play is the most important one."

The Cowboys are 4-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play going into this weekend's homecoming matchup with Utah State (3-4, 2-1). The two teams will play for the Bridger Rifle, a traveling trophy that has been in Laramie for the last 11 months after the Cowboys' 44-17 win last season in Logan.

"I know they enjoyed holding that rifle up last year, and I know I did, as well," Bohl said. "That's one of the neat things about college football is when you have these traveling trophies like this. We treasure that, and we're excited for it."

One of the biggest priorities for Bohl during the bye week was to strike a healthy balance between rest and routine.

"Football teams don't stay stagnant, they either get better or they get worse," Bohl said. "You can utilize a bye week, and it can be really helpful or you can take steps back. As a head coach, my responsibility is trying to strike the balance of how much contact and how much work to get a bounce in our step.

"It doesn't do you any good to be intense if you don't know what you're intense about."

Bohl doesn't know for sure who to expect under center for the Aggies this weekend. Utah State played three quarterbacks in last weekend's win against Colorado State in Fort Collins.

Third-string quarterback Bishop Davenport finished the game for the Aggies after Cooper Legas (concussion) and former Cowboy Levi Williams (heel) were injured in the first half. Logan Bonner opened the season as the starter, but suffered a season-ending foot injury against UNLV last month.

"We're going to play who's out there," Bohl said. "I think they are who they are. Certainly, they changed a little bit when Bonner went down, with more quarterback runs, so that's a challenge in itself. And there are other elements there, but I think between those three, we're going to have a pretty static game plan."

Quarterback Andrew Peasley used the bye week to get back to full strength from a hip injury earlier this season. Peasley transferred to UW from Utah State this season after three seasons in Logan and will face his former team for the first time.

"Obviously, I feel a lot better after taking some hits the past few games," Peasley said. "My body has recovered, and I'm feeling much better now. I feel like we had some good practices over the bye week, so we're all feeling good."

Peasley was on the other end of the Cowboys' 44-17 win last year in Logan. Going into this year's rivalry matchup, the junior quarterback wants nothing more than to keep the Bridger Rifle in its glass case on UW's campus.

"We just want to go 1-0," Peasley said. "I don't really care who the opponent is this weekend, honestly. We just need to focus on conference play and play one game at a time."

One thing the Cowboys will need to prioritize this weekend is coming out with high energy, despite not playing in 14 days. Peasley believes a large home crowd could also factor into how much energy the team plays with.

"Obviously, we're going to need to bring some juice," Peasley said. "We get to play at home, so that's definitely an advantage, especially for homecoming. I think the juice will be there, and it'll just come down to how we handle adversity with what goes down in the game, and if we can bounce back and keep going."

As for Peasley's matchup with his former team, Bohl believes those personal affections are best left off the field.

"This is about our program," Bohl said. "I'm sure he's going to do everything he can to put those individual feelings aside. I do know he has a lot of respect for a lot of the players there and coach (Blake) Anderson, so it's not like there's an ill feeling he has. I think he has great respect for them, and we anticipate that Andrew is going to play well."

Alex Taylor{span class="ContentPasted0"} covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at {a class="linkified" href="mailto:ataylor@wyosports.net"}ataylor@wyosports.net{/a} or 269-364-3560. Follow him on Twitter at @alex_m_taylor22{/span}