Cowboys focused on "Four Rs" during bye week

Oct. 11—LARAMIE — University of Wyoming football coach Craig Bohl is focusing on the "Four Rs" during his team's bye week — refreshing, recalibrating, redefining and recruiting.

The Cowboys (4-3 overall, 2-1 Mountain West) are predictably banged up after playing seven consecutive games.

They were without defensive starters Cole Godbout and Keonte Glinton for Saturday's 27-14 victory at New Mexico due to undisclosed injuries. UW also lost strong safety Wyett Ekeler early against the Lobos.

Bohl said he isn't optimistic Godbout or Glinton will be available when UW tees it up at 7:45 p.m. Oct. 22 against Utah State.

Ekeler is in the concussion protocol, and his status for "The Battle for Bridger's Rifle" is also uncertain.

Redshirt freshman right guard Emmanuel Pregnon also didn't play at New Mexico, and Bohl is hopeful he'll be back in time to play Utah State.

Wide receiver Will Pellisier missed the Cowboys' past two games after suffering a left shoulder injury late in a loss at Brigham Young, but he also may return next week.

UW's injury issues are where Bohl's first R comes in.

"If you count up who we played, and I know there were lots of thoughts (on Illinois), but I told you they were a pretty good football team," Bohl said. "That was taxing on us. Tulsa is pretty good, even though they're going up and down.

"I'm not sure about Northern Colorado, but Air Force is pretty good, and then BYU and San Jose State."

UW did not practice Monday. The intent is to give players more time in the weight room and to get injuries treated. It will practice some this week, but it won't include as much hitting as normal.

The Cowboys fell behind New Mexico 14-0 after the first quarter.

They eventually found their stride on both sides of the ball and took their first lead with 6 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in the third quarter. They pulled away from there.

Success on pass rush and getting off the field on third down were points of emphasis heading into UW's trip to Albuquerque.

It did a better job of both, sacking New Mexico's quarterbacks for losses totaling 23 yards, and holding the Lobos to 2 of 13 on third down.

Continued recalibration — or fine tuning — of what the Cowboys do will continue this week. Redefining isn't a complete retooling. Instead, it could mean minor adjustments in technique, scheme or personnel, Bohl said.

"We don't want urban renewal," he said. "Those things are counterproductive. You get to a bye week, and all of a sudden you try to become creative and get too smart for your own britches.

"But we need to recalibrate and tweak. Where are we off a little bit, and how can we improve?"

Fresh blood?

The NCAA now allows players to play in up to four games without burning their redshirt season. Bohl hasn't ruled out getting young players on the field down the stretch if they can help UW.

"That's another thing we talked about in our meeting," he said. "'Where are some of these younger guys at, and who can we integrate?' Ideally, you'd like to get a couple blowout games so you can just throw a guy out there.

"That's not been where we're at."

Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.