What Are the Odds on The Wyoming Cowboys This Fall?

Craig Bohl isnt close to being fired as the Wyoming head coach. He has created a solid foundation for long-term development. But sometimes even the best of plans get sidetracked.

TR
Tracy Ringolsby

July 07, 20212 min read

Craig bohl photo scaled

After taking the Kansas City Royals to division titles in his first three seasons as the team’s manager, the Royals slipped to second place in 1979, which led to Whitey Herzog’s firing,

“I must have taken a lot of dumb pills in the off-season,” Herzog quipped.

Such is the world of professional sports for head coaches/manager.

Now, Craig Bohl isn’t close to being fired as the Wyoming head coach. He has created a solid foundation for long-term development. But sometimes even the best of plans get sidetracked.

After the Cowboys were bowl eligible for four seasons from 2016-2019, Wyoming got caught up in a season that was thrown out of sorts by the outbreak of COVID-19. 

After the delayed start to a season, in which the schedule was eventually reduced from 12 games to eight, starting quarterback Sean Chambers was lost for the season with a broken ankle suffered on the third play of the season opener at Nevada, and then, in the middle of a belated season, the Cowboys wound up with three consecutive weeks without a game to play, and only two out of the six games they did play were at home.

How bad was it? 

Well, after having  Air Force back out of a Nov. 14 visit to Laramie because of COVID issues, the Cowboys got blindsided by Utah State, which less than 24 hours before a scheduled Nov. 19 game in Laramie, claimed it had covid issues and backed out of the game — even though Utah State was back on the field and playing just a week later, far from the normal isolation period.

And so, in the fickled world of national media Bohl has gone from being the highest ranked Mountain West football coach (and rated No. 74 overall, including the Power 5 schools). In The Sporting News’ annual rating of Division 1 coaches poll last summer, Bohl ranked No. 1 in the Mountain West Conference, 74th overall.

This year, he has slipped to 93rd overall, and fifth best among the 12 Mountain West coaches in 2021.

Obviously, the folks in Vegas see things differently. In he  Betoline@ag early line, Boise State is projected for 9 wins, and Wyoming is next in line with an over/under win total of 8 1/2.

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TR

Tracy Ringolsby

Sports Columnist