Despite injuries and transfer news, Cowboys focused on a bowl win in Arizona

Dec. 6—LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming's mantra of "next man up" will be on full display for its Arizona Bowl matchup with Ohio on Dec. 30 in Tucson.

The Cowboys, who finished the regular season 7-5, have a long list of players they will be without during bowl season because of either injuries or the transfer portal. Four players hit the portal when it officially opened Monday morning.

Running back Titus Swen entered the portal after being dismissed from the program last week for violating team rules. He was joined by three other starters, including wide receiver Joshua Cobbs, cornerback Cameron Stone and defensive end Oluwaseyi Omotosho.

"If you look at the majority of young men who have left us since the transfer portal became a reality, most of them are out of the region kids. Not all of them, but most of them," UW athletics director Tom Burman said. "We just have to take a deep dive into, are the kids we recruit likely to stay? If they're not likely, are they going to be ready to play immediately so they can help us quickly, because, at the end of the day, we want kids to be able to play and be able to move through it to be successful here and get a degree. But that doesn't always happen.

"We're just adjusting and trying to figure out how to improve our retention, but understanding that it'll never stop. The transfer portal is a part of our life for eternity."

On top of all the transfer portal news, Burman announced backup running backs D.Q. James and Dawaiian McNeely will both be unavailable for the Arizona Bowl because of injuries.

"Joey (Braasch) will step into the (starting) role right away," Burman said. "There will be a couple other kids that get reps in practice. We'll find two or three running backs to play, and they'll be good. Unfortunately, we had two backups who were very good in D.Q. James and Dawaiian, and they're out and they're injured and they're not going to play. So that's a challenge, but we have plenty of running backs.

"We have a history here of being successful at that position. We'll miss Titus, but that's the nature of college football. You have to adjust."

Braasch, a redshirt freshman out of Columbus, Nebraska, has just 29 carries in his career for 91 yards. He'll take the starting job from Swen, who rushed for a team-high 1,039 yards and eight touchdowns on 207 carries. James and McNeely combined for 702 yards and one touchdown on 103 attempts.

"I think (Braasch) has a lot of talent," quarterback and team captain Andrew Peasley said. "Obviously, he hasn't played a lot, but I know he's excited, and he's excited for his opportunity to get out on the field and show what he can do. He's a big back, and he's actually really fast and runs the ball really well. It'll be fun to see him go into a bowl game and show people what he can do."

Peasley expects Jordon Vaughn, L.J. Richardson and fullback Dalton Strouss to see practice reps at running back behind Braasch over the next three weeks leading up to the Arizona Bowl.

"I'm just excited to have them right next to me," Peasley said. "I always talk to the backs during the games, but you probably can't see that. It'll be fun to compete with them and go get a W."

On top of losing four starters to the transfer portal, the Cowboys' starting lineup is still unclear, with several key injuries to players down the stretch in the regular season. During the season-finale against Fresno State, UW was without wide receivers Alex Brown and Will Pelissier, tight ends Treyton Welch and Parker Christensen, defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole and running backs James and McNeely.

While the depth chart is far from concrete for the Arizona Bowl, Burman expects to see plenty of young talent on the field against the Bobcats. Earning a trip to a bowl game is a reward Burman wants to share with everyone still left on the team.

Craig Bohl, who's in his ninth season as the head coach at UW, was unavailable to the media during Monday's news conference. Bohl was on a recruiting trip and had a flight delayed, according to associate AD Tim Harkins.

This year's Arizona Bowl appearance will be the Cowboys' second in school history. UW beat Georgia State 38-16 in 2019 to finish the season 8-5.

"We knew this was a possibility, so we've been having dialogue for a while," Harkins said. "It's going to make it so much smoother because we've already done it. We're going to change a few things from our last experience, but not much. It was a great bowl experience, one of the best we've had. We're excited to come back."

Barstool Sports, which sponsors the event, will stream the game on its platform and social media pages. The Arizona Bowl will not be broadcast on television, but Barstool Sports' platform is free to download.

"Streaming is not new to the sports landscape," said Eric Rhodes, vice president of communications for the Arizona Bowl. "... We will have the game widely, widely available to everyone. We'll have more on that later."

As for the Cowboys' opponent in the Arizona Bowl, Ohio is coming off a 17-7 loss to Toledo in the MAC championship game last weekend. The Bobcats (9-4) started the season 2-3 before ripping off a seven-game winning streak to qualify for the MAC title game.

This year will be Ohio's first appearance in the Arizona Bowl and its first bowl game since a 30-21 loss to Nevada in the 2019 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.

The Bobcats will be without starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last month. Rourke led the MAC with 3,256 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in 11 games.

The Cowboys will go into the bowl game on a two-game losing streak, the last being a 30-0 road loss to Fresno State.

"We are excited and thrilled to be able to continue our season and get one more chance to compete," Burman said. "... The exciting thing for this team is, we have a bad taste in our mouth, and we're looking forward to finishing this season on a high note by playing significantly better than we did at the end of the year."

The Arizona Bowl will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 30 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.

Alex Taylor covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at ataylor@wyosports.net or 269-364-3560. Follow him on Twitter at @alex_m_taylor22