By Jeff Bugher
jeff@pokesnews.com
A Day of Firsts...
Day one of fall camp was a day filled with firsts. One practice down, 19 more to go with only 30 short days left until Wyoming hosts Texas Tech on September 2nd at 5:30 PM. The clock is ticking down, but Head Coach Craig Bohl is very optimistic about what he saw at today’s first practice at War Memorial Stadium.
“It was a good first day,” said head coach Craig Bohl
Not only was it the first day of fall camp, but it was also the Cowboy’s first time ever practicing on their new beautiful FieldTurf Vertex CORE playing service that was installed on Jonah Field at War Memorial this summer. Today was also the first practice for several of Wyoming’s new incoming freshman and transfer student-athletes.
The team is easing into things during the NCAA acclimation period. Today they practiced in Spiders and will either practice in Spiders or ½ pads through next Monday. The first practice with full pads will be Tuesday, August 8th. Today’s practice also consisted of 24, five-minute periods including three periods of 7-on-7 passing competition and two separate five-period sections of 11-on-11 team drills.
“We certainly have more work to do, but our football team looks more mature, which they are. We’ve had a good summer, and many times I’ve felt like about half your games are decided by how your team has worked through the summer.” Remarked head coach Craig Bohl.
Bohl also made several comments to the media about his team.
Quarterbacks:
” …First of all at quarterback Andrew Peasley has put on some good weight and his arm strength has gotten a little bit better.” Said head coach Craig Bohl
Bohl was asked about two young players in true freshman Kaden Anderson and redshirt freshman Carson May. Anderson enrolled early at the University of Wyoming, joining the Cowboy Football program in January of 2023. Due to him recovering from surgery, he was unable to participate in 2023 spring practice but he was out on the practice field for Wednesday’s first fall practice. Anderson comes from one of the most successful high school football programs in the state of Texas -- Southlake Carroll. Several high level college quarterbacks came out of Southlake Carroll,including former Missouri QB Chase Daniel, former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy and current University of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers. May transferred to Wyoming in the summer of 2023 after redshirting the 2022 season at the University of Iowa of the Big Ten. May is originally from Jones, Okla., where he was a four-star rated quarterback by Rivals. Rivals also ranked May as the No. 13 pro-style high school quarterback recruit in the 2022 recruiting class.
“We’re really encouraged about Kaden Anderson,” said Bohl. “He is someone we’re going to be bringing along slowly, but the future looks extremely bright for him if you look at the (high school) program that he’s from and the trajectory that he was on. We made a predetermined decision for him to count this year, even though he’s not going to be cleared for contact. The quarterback position in our system is so complex. We did not know if he would be able to go out and participate some this year, but he was able to do that today. We didn’t have many team settings in today’s practice, but it was good to have him out there and it was good to have Carson (May) out there, as well.”
Running Backs:
It was great to see Dawaiian (McNeely, running back) out there. He’s moving well.
“Dawaiian (McNeely) is a talented football player,” said Bohl. “He’s always produced but he’s had a hard time being able to finish off a year because of injuries. He has made a pointed effort to put on some lean muscle mass and some bulk. He’s as heavy as he has ever been, which we believe is going to help him. His numbers have still been good and he was moving around really well today.”
James is returning from an injury that prevented him from playing the final three games of the 2022 season and all of spring practice in 2023. However, he made an impact in his redshirt freshman season in 2022, with two standout performances for the Cowboys. He rushed for 120 yards in a home game against Utah State and had a remarkable 179-yard game in a road victory over Hawai’i.
“D.Q. practiced today. He made a really nice cut on a play,” added Bohl. “He and Easton (Gibbs) were in a one-on-one situation -- I’m not going to say who won -- but it was good to see him out there. Initially, we didn’t know if he would be able to start practice on day one, but he was able to be out there. He’s not cleared for full contact, but it’s good to get him back on the practice field.”
Defense:
Coach Bohl said, "Over on the defense, even though we were not in pads today, I thought our defensive front was pretty impressive." Bohl added, "Cole Godbout is back. We’ve got Jordan Bertagnole and Gavin (Meyer) and we’re looking for a fourth inside guy. On the outside, it’s great to have several of our defensive ends back. Sabastian (Harsh) being back is certainly adding some great maturity. DeVonne (Harris) is on the other side and Braden Siders -- all those guys are good players and we’re looking for a fourth guy there."
Incoming Transfers:
“I was particularly pleased with our two transfer receivers (Ayir Asante and Devin Boddie Jr.)" said Bohl. "I think they’re going to add some value as we go through the season. They’ll certainly need to learn our system, but I’m pleased with that. I was also pleased with Jamari (Ferrell, running back), who we added as a junior-college guy from California this summer.”
Could the transfer WR’s contribute right away?
“I was cautiously optimistic about what they would add today,” said Bohl. “Both of them are intelligent. That is encouraging because they’ve been able to translate that intelligence to better execution of our playbook. Our playbook is pretty complex, and there is going to be more that we’ll add. But my initial assessment was that I was really encouraged. We’re going to take a hard look at them. Both of them needed to graduate from Holy Cross (Asante) and Vanderbilt (Boddie Jr.) -- two really impressive institutions. We’re glad they have their degrees and that was part of the agreement we made when we recruited them.”
How was the atmosphere today?
Bohl replied, “The first day, guys are always pretty amped up. It will be interesting to see where we’re at practice 14 and 15 when we’re in the midst of a grind. We did talk about that in our team meeting today, that it is important to be a good teammate and encouraging one another to be able to push through those difficult times. There was a lot of camaraderie today. Guys competed hard today but there weren’t a lot of individual acts -- they were playing as a team. It was a good first step today.”
Does your team have extra motivation for the 2023 season after losing some close games at the end of the 2022 season?
Bohl said, “Every year is a new year. Our players have a great deal of respect for Texas Tech and all our non-conference opponents on this year’s schedule. We do have a bad taste in our mouth -- we played some good teams at the end (of the ‘22 season) -- but we wanted to finish stronger.”
Will we see Freshman in the lineup?
“I’m going to be a little bit reserved on that, but here would be the pecking order. For a freshman to play, one we have to have a positional need, number two is they have to have athleticism and the third component is they have to have the a maturity to handle playing as a freshman. Occasionally, there is a guy who shows that. I think regarding that first criteria I mentioned -- we have more depth than we had last year and so we’re not as pressed to fill a need. But there are going to be a couple spots that I’ve talked about -- corner being one of them where a freshman may have an opportunity or as a receiver. The defensive tackle group in our freshman class is impressive, and so while that is a position where you’re down there in the middle of a street fight and sometimes as a freshman you might have a hard time handling that, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen from that group.”
Next Practice:
The Cowboys will practice again on Thursday in a morning practice at the North 40 practice fields.
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