Wyoming: 2023 Arizona Bowl Champions

 

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — John Hoyland kicked a 24-yard field goal as time expired and Wyoming sent coach Craig Bohl into retirement a winner with a 16-15 win over Toledo in the Arizona Bowl on Saturday.

Bohl is retiring after 42 years of coaching — the last 10 in Laramie — and defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel will take over next season.

Toledo (11-3) shut down Wyoming's offense most of the afternoon before the Cowboys started to find an offensive rhythm in the fourth quarter.

Playing in a third straight bowl game for the first time, the Cowboys (9-4) trailed 15-6 after giving up a safety and a field goal in the third quarter.

Evan Svoboda scored on a 1-yard touchdown sneak after Andrew Peasley was injured in the fourth quarter to pull Wyoming within two.

Peasley returned to throw a 26-yard pass after the Cowboys forced a punt, but went down again without being hit. Svoboda then moved the Cowboys quickly down the field — with the help of an unnecessary roughness penalty on Ronald Delancy III — and Hoyland split the uprights to finish off Wyoming's best season since going 10-2 in 1996.

Both teams were able to move the ball in the first half. Neither was able to reach the end zone until Jacquez Stuart raced through a big hole and dodged a tackle along the sideline for an 80-yard touchdown that put the Rockets up 10-6.

Before that, Hoyland kicked two field goals, including a 52-yarder that hit the crossbar and trundled over. Toledo's Luke Pawlak also hit one from 33 yards out.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Toledo: The Rockets appeared to be in control before unraveling in the fourth quarter to lose for the second time during a three-year bowl streak.

Wyoming: The Cowboys nearly fell flat in their return trip to Tucson after losing 30-27 in overtime to Ohio last year. Wyoming pulled it out by using three quarterbacks in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT

Toledo: The Rockets lost two of their best players when RB Peny Boone and QB Dequan Finn opted to transfer. QB Tucker Gleason is a sophomore and most of his receivers still have eligibility left.

Wyoming: RB Harrison Waylee is a junior, so he could return, but Peasley is out of eligibility. Most of the Cowboys' defense should be back.

Wyoming: 2021 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Champions

BOISE, Idaho – Craig Bohl couldn’t have scripted a better super senior sendoff.

Trey Smith, a seventh-year senior who had nine carries for 14 yards during the regular season, put the exclamation point on Wyoming’s 52-38 victory over Kent State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Tuesday at Albertsons Stadium.

Smith finished with five carries for 73 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, as part of UW’s Potato Bowl-record 337 yards rushing.

Defensive end Garrett Crall had 1.5 sacks as the Pokes defensive front, which was without longtime assistant Pete Kaligis who left for Washington State, finished with a season-high 4.0 sacks of Kent State quarterback Dustin Crum.

And Chad Muma, who is headed for the NFL draft, capped off his brilliant collegiate career with a team-high 13 tackles and a half sack.

“Chad and Garrett are fulltime players. To see Trey go in and score and then the team just celebrate … he’s been one of the ultimate team players as well,” UW head coach Craig Bohl said. “That’s one of the reasons why I think this football team persevered through some ups and downs. They believed in one another.”

UW’s offensive line, which is led by some key seniors that Bohl expects to ride off into the sunset, dominated the second half.

That allowed quarterback Levi Williams to set Potato Bowl records with 200 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns, and Xazavian Valladay to get over 1,000 yards for the second time in his career.

“We knew we had to face adversity and we did,” Williams said. “Kudos to the seniors and all the guys who responded.”

Valladay, the 2019 Arizona Bowl most valuable player, is second on UW’s all-time rushing list (3,274 yards) behind Brian Hill (4,287 yards, 2014-16) after rushing for 79 yards and a touchdown in the Potato Bowl.

Hill, Ryan Christopherson and Dabby Dawson are the only other Cowboys to post two 1,000-yard seasons during their careers.

“We have shown times where we’re really explosive on offense,” Bohl said. “To be able to compose a game plan, the players buy in, then to get the yards that we did, generated a lot by the offensive line, is really heartwarming.

“A lot of those guys will be gone, but I think there’s going to be a good heart and soul to return to give us a great foundation.”

The Cowboys played seven bowl teams during the regular season, going 3-4 with wins over Northern Illinois, Ball State and Utah State, and losses to Air Force, Fresno State, Boise State and Hawaii.

UW also opened the season with a 19-16 win over Montana State, which will play North Dakota State in the FCS national championship game on Jan. 8. …

Offensive lineman Eric Abojei, defensive end Solomon Byrd and defensive tackle Ravontae Holt made the trip but did not suit up due to injuries.

Quotable

“I don’t think the emotions have really hit yet,” Muma said of playing his final game for the Cowboys. “It feels like we have film on Monday and we’re still rolling. I’ve still kind of got that feeling, but I’m just happy to come out of here with such a great team win.”

Wyoming: 2019 Arizona Bowl Champions

Levi Williams has strong audition for next season

If the Arizona Bowl was any indication, Wyoming could have itself another quarterback competition looming.

This spring, it was Sean Chambers solidifying the job over Tyler Vander Waal. Vander Waal is almost certainly on his way out of the program after entering the NCAA’s transfer portal a few weeks back, but true freshman Levi Williams could enter the equation at the position given how he looked Tuesday.

Making his first career start, Williams shined against Georgia State. The 6-foot-5, 208-pounder wasn’t terribly efficient — he completed just 42 percent of his passes — but, as Wyoming coach Craig Bohl noted afterward, he looked composed. There was an interception he threw off his back foot late in the first half that you could chalk up to a freshman moment for a guy playing in his third career game, but he delivered big plays in the clutch more often than not.

He had touchdown passes of 18 and 51 yards and also delivered a 62-yard strike to Xazavian Valladay — the Cowboys’ longest pass of the season — to set up another touchdown. All three of his touchdown passes came on third down, helping Wyoming start 9 of 12 on third down and finish 11 of 17 on the money down. His 234 yards passing marked the most for Wyoming all season, and he added 53 more yards and a score on the ground.

Bohl has said in the past he’s never had a player lose his spot atop the depth chart because of an injury, and given how dynamic Chambers is in the running game, it’s hard to see Chambers not back as QB1 whenever his surgically repaired knee returns to full strength.

But should there be a competition heading into next season? Or at least a platoon? You have to think Williams, who accounted for 524 total yards in the three games he played this season, has at least made Bohl and offensive coordinator Brent Vigen start pondering those questions with the way he performed down the stretch.

Xazavian Valladay is an emerging star

Wyoming’s sophomore running back doesn’t like the limelight. Given the chance to talk about himself, he usually opts to thank his offensive line or a Wyoming defense that was really good about getting the ball back to the offense this season to give him more opportunities.

But Valladay better start getting used to all the attention.

Valladay put together another lunch-pail type of performance against GSU that doubled as his best of the season. The first-team all-Mountain West selection was bottled up for much of the first half but exploded as part of the Cowboys’ 218 second-half rushing yards. He finished with 204 yards on the ground and 91 receiving, surpassing the 280 all-purpose yards he had against Nevada earlier this season.

Valladay finished with six 100-yard games in the last seven games of the season. He ran for 1,385 yards on the season. And it’s not just the running game where Valladay can hurt you (211 receiving yards).

He’s quickly emerging as one of more well-rounded backs in the MW and could become a household name next season.

Wyoming takes momentum into the offseason

The excitement of a 6-2 start for Wyoming was dampened some after the Cowboys lost three of four games to end the regular season. Bohl and his players talked at length about wanting to get that bad taste out of their collective mouth in the bowl game, and Wyoming did that Tuesday.

It gives the Cowboys a wave of momentum heading into one of the more promising offseasons of Bohl’s tenure.

Losing Logan Wilson, Cassh Maluia, Alijah Halliburton and Tyler Hall from one of the MW’s top defenses will hurt, but the Cowboys were still a relatively young team this season. Wyoming is losing fewer than 20 seniors in all.

What’s coming back is significant. That includes the Cowboys’ leading rusher (Valladay), leading passer (Chambers), at least two quarterbacks with starting experience, five of their top 8 tacklers and all but two offensive and defensive linemen off their two-deep.

And Wyoming was in every game despite some of that youth. Their five losses came by a combined 28 points.

Wyoming has never won more than eight games in a season in Bohl’s six years at the helm, but there’s enough talent and experience returning that the Cowboys could make a serious run at changing that in 2020.

Wyoming: 2017 College Basketball Invitational Champions

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- Hayden Dalton scored 19 points with 11 rebounds and Justin James added 17 points to carry Wyoming to an 83-59 win over Coastal Carolina to claim the CBI championship on Friday.

Dalton sank 5 of 9 from long range in notching his 12th double-double of the season. Wyoming (23-15) won the last two games -- at home -- by 24 points each in the best-of-three College Basketball Invitational finals series after dropping the opener by 10 on the road.

It was Wyoming's first major postseason title since winning the 1943 NCAA championship.

Coastal Carolina (20-19) was led by Demario Beck with 17 points, while Jaylen Shaw had 10.

Dalton, who was scoring 12.1 per game, had only 27 combined in the previous four games in the CBI but tallied his highest total since garnering 21 against Fresno State on Feb. 8.

"I took the same shots last game and they were falling this game," he said. "My teammates had confidence in me. They just said, `Keep shooting."

Wyoming was outshot and outrebounded in the first game, a 91-81 loss, but turned the tables in both categories at home and also reduced its turnovers to seven after 15 giveaways in each of the first two contests.

"Taking care of the ball, rebounding and guarding. That's what we did for these last two games," James said.

Bringing a national championship to Laramie for the first time in 74 years is special, he said.

"Feels amazing," James said. "Not a lot of people get to end their season off with a win. For us to do that is amazing." And with all but two seniors returning next year? "We'll be ready to play, just know that."

One senior, Jason McManamen, finished with two more 3s to put his school record at 210. His 1,034 career points is fourth-most for a Wyoming product.

Wyoming coach Allen Edwards said the difference in elevation was a factor: Laramie is 7,220 feet above sea level. Coastal Carolina's home in Conway, S.C. is 33 feet. With that in mind, he pushed the tempo.

"We wanted to fatigue them a little bit," he said. "And throughout the game you saw Coach (Cliff) Ellis take a few timeouts just to give his guys some rest."

Ellis was without injured starter Colton Ray-St Cyr for the second straight game. Shivaughn Wiggins, the point guard all season, played for the first time in three weeks but was ineffective. Beck and Shaw had nagging injuries as well.

"We didn't shoot the ball well. We weren't patient enough," Ellis said. "(Wyoming) played extremely well. This is a tough out, here. We had some injuries. We're not going to use that as an excuse. Their 3-point shooting is just immaculate. "

Wyoming shot 35 percent from the arc (13 of 37) while Coastal Carolina sank only 19 percent (4 of 21).


The Chanticleers, who never led, closed within 44-34 after a 3-pointer by Joseph Williams-Powell from the top of the key with 15:37 to play. But James' layup and a trey by Dalton ignited an 18-7 roll that left the Cowboys ahead 62-41.

The Chanticleers never got closer than 18 after that, and the lead eventually reached 81-51 late.

Wyoming closed the first half on a 22-4 surge as Dalton hit a trio of 3s, snared five rebounds and dished out an assist during the run, which left the Cowboys up 42-23.

A flagrant 1 foul by Williams-Powell on Wyoming's Louis Adams seemed to spark the Cowboys. It came moments after Williams-Powell's jumper drew the Chanticleers within 20-19.

Coastal Carolina will lose four seniors.

Wyoming: 2014-15 Mountain West Men's Basketball Champions

LAS VEGAS -- Josh Adams hit a big 3-pointer with a minute left and Wyoming earned its first trip to the NCAA tournament in 13 years with a 45-43 victory over San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference championship Saturday.

Wyoming (25-9) labored through a physical, defensive-dominated second half, keeping the Aztecs within reach despite going 8:31 without a field goal. The Cowboys made 5 of 22 in the half, but Adams had the biggest one with 1:02 left, a 3-pointer that put Wyoming up 43-41.

San Diego State (26-8) missed two shots and Derek Cooke Jr. hit two free throws to put the Cowboys up four with 7 seconds left.

The Aztecs' Malik Pope scored on a putback with less than a second left, but Wyoming was able to get the ball in cleanly to earn its first conference tournament championship since 1988, as a member of the WAC.

Larry Nance Jr. had 14 points and Adams had 10.

Pope had 13 points and JJ O'Brien added 12 for the Aztecs, who must wait until Selection Sunday to see if they're in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cowboys rode into the Mountain West tournament likely needing to earn the automatic bid after limping to the finish of the regular season.

Wyoming was in decent shape until Nance missed four games due to mononucleosis and lost five of its final eight games as he tried regain his strength.

The Cowboys had won three games since 2006 in the MWC tournament, but edged Utah State in their tournament opener, then upset top-seeded Boise State in overtime in the semifinals.

San Diego State won the two meetings during the regular season, though one of those was when Nance was out.

The Aztecs came out flat in the rematch, missing nine of their first 10 shots as the Cowboys opened the game with a 14-2 run.

Wyoming made 8 of 10 to open, building a 22-13 behind Nance, who had 12 points by halftime.

But for all that went wrong early for the Aztecs, they managed to claw their way back, pulling within 28-25 by halftime.

San Diego State had a repeat start in the second half, missing eight of its first nine shots.

The Aztecs made up for it on defense, forcing the Cowboys to miss their first eight shots before Adams hit a 3-pointer at 11:29. They also did a much better job of keeping Nance in check; Wyoming's leading scorer didn't take his first shot of the second half until the 9-minute mark.

Wyoming's defense was solid, though, allowing the Cowboys to keep San Diego State within reach in the back-and-forth game.

TIP INS

Wyoming: The tournament title was the first in any sport by Wyoming in the Mountain West Conference. ... The Cowboys shot 35 percent.

San Diego State: The Aztecs were in the title game for the sixth time in seven years. ... SDSU went 6 for 24 in the second half and shot 32 percent overall.

UP NEXT

Wyoming plays in the NCAA tournament.

San Diego State has to wait for Selection Sunday to see if it gets a spot in the NCAA tournament.