A few weeks ago, I wrote a column for this publication titled “The Father of Wyoming Football,” in which Red Jacoby, UW athletic director from 1946 until his death in 1973, was named as the obvious choice.
In researching Jacoby and the coaches he hired over the 27 years he guided the athletic program at Wyoming’s only university, a name kept surfacing that only vaguely rang a bell.
It was not a name associated with Wyoming.
And yet it became clear that this man and his football philosophy had a lasting impact on Wyoming football.
Though indirectly, he founded the tradition and inspired the play that made the Wyoming Cowboys first a regional, then a nationally recognized football power.
Through his acolytes, Bowden Wyatt and Phil Dickens, he laid the foundation for hard play and toughness, with an emphasis on — and pride in — defense.
In that sense, he is the “godfather” of Wyoming football’s golden era.
The impact and tradition associated with his philosophy are observable even today as UW’s newly installed president, Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves, Athletic Director Tom Burman, coach Jay Sawvel, defensive coordinator Aaron Bohl and the rest of the coaching staff and players ready themselves for the 2026 football season.
The godfather of Wyoming football is Brig. Gen. Robert Neyland, a West Point graduate who coached the University of Tennessee Volunteers from 1926 to 1934, again from 1936 to 1940, and finally from 1945 to 1952.
Neyland’s coaching career at Tennessee was interrupted twice by calls to active duty in the Army.
After retiring from coaching in 1952, he served as Tennessee’s athletic director until his death in 1962.
Like Jacoby at Wyoming, he died in office.
Neyland coached and mentored two young men, both All-Americans, who would become the first and second coaches of the football renaissance engineered by Jacoby and President George Duke Humphrey.
Nationwide searches were unheard of when Jacoby and Humphrey went looking for a coach to radically alter Wyoming’s football fortunes.
It was essentially a “good old boy” network controlled by head coaches at a few elite football programs.
When you contacted a head coach for a recommendation, you were buying into that coach’s network and philosophy, almost like buying a franchise.
When Wyoming hired Wyatt, and later Dickens, it was buying into Neyland’s franchise.“The General,” as Neyland was known, enjoyed an outstanding reputation and record as a football coach.
He was widely known as a defensive genius, and his record supported that praise.
Neyland had a 173-31-12 record at Tennessee. The record included nine undefeated regular seasons, seven conference championships and four national titles.
In 112 of his victories, the opposing team failed to score a point. His 1939 team is the last football team in NCAA history to shut out every regular-season opponent.
Knute Rockne once called Neyland “football’s greatest coach.”
What exactly did Wyoming buy when it hired the Neyland-endorsed coaches, disciples of his football philosophy and techniques? What was the general’s “secret sauce”?
Neyland’s success was built around a meticulous combination of military discipline, including physical and psychological conditioning, statistical analysis ahead of its time, and an emphasis on defense and field position.
On offense, he ran the single-wing and believed in execution, not innovation.
On defense, he believed that if the opponent couldn’t score, his team couldn’t lose. In his mind, defense was preeminent.
He codified his philosophy into seven rules that he required his players to memorize.
To this day, Tennessee players recite them from memory before every game.
The rules emphasized mental toughness, avoidance of error and taking advantage of opportunities when opponents made mistakes.
In Neyland’s coaching days, and even until 1965, NCAA rules required one-platoon football, which meant two-way players.
The rule was relaxed during World War II and then reinstated in 1953.
Neyland was glad to be rid of what he called “chickenshit football.” He preferred “iron man” football.
Wyatt, an All-American end at Tennessee and an assistant coach at Mississippi State, was hired in 1947.
He turned the program around in short order.
After 60 years of mediocrity, Wyoming was propelled into national prominence.
By 1949, Wyoming had won the Skyline Conference championship and repeated that in 1950.
Wyatt took the Pokes to the 1951 Gator Bowl, where they defeated a ranked Washington and Lee team and finished the season undefeated.
The Cowboys were 12th in the final AP poll.
Wyatt accomplished his turnaround following the tenets of Neyland: a crushing defense that held opponents to single-digit scores in three of his six seasons in Laramie.
In 1949, his team led the nation in scoring defense at 6.5 points per game.
When Wyatt left Wyoming for Arkansas in 1952, Jacoby and Humphrey wanted to replace him with another of Neyland’s disciples.
The university and its fans wanted to keep the same hard-nosed program intact.
They hired another of Neyland’s protégés, Dickens.
When Dickens was hired, Neyland had retired from coaching and was athletic director at Tennessee.
While he didn’t actively mentor Dickens as he had Wyatt, Dickens used the same “secret sauce” he learned from Neyland as a player and early in his coaching career.
Again, it produced results. Dickens compiled a 29-11-1 record and led Wyoming to an undefeated 10-0 season in 1956.
During his four years at Wyoming, Dickens’ teams allowed an average of 12.9 points per game and were especially dominant in his first and last seasons, ranking among the nation’s best in scoring defense.
When Dickens left Laramie for Indiana, Jacoby and Humphrey had a dilemma.
On the one hand, Neyland’s franchise was no longer available.
On the other, they wanted to keep his recipe.
They turned to Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State, who recommended one of his assistants, Bob Devaney.
Devaney inherited the successful roster left by Dickens.
That roster had been trained and toughened under Neyland’s system.
Devaney’s job was to take the physical toughness and defensive identity left by Neyland’s disciples and modernize the offense.
He kept the secret sauce associated with Neyland’s system: a suffocating, physical defense; military-style physical conditioning and discipline; and a low-mistake, clock-eating offense.
In his five seasons at UW, Devaney posted a 35-10-5 record, four conference championships, one bowl win and three years of being ranked in the AP’s final poll.
In three of those seasons, under defensive coordinator Lloyd Eaton, his teams finished among the top 10 defenses in the nation, culminating in 1960 as the No. 1 defensive team.
Eaton succeeded Devaney when Devaney was hired by Nebraska.
Eaton, as might be expected, provided more of the same: military-style discipline, a stifling defense and success.
During his tenure before the Black 14 episode demolished UW’s football program, Wyoming enjoyed a 50-21-2 record, three consecutive WAC championships and two bowl appearances.
Under the tutelage of another defensive genius, defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, Wyoming enjoyed one of the most dominant defenses in college football.
From 1962 through 1968, the Pokes allowed opposing teams an average of 12.9 points per game.
In two of those years, the Cowboys finished first in the nation in rushing defense.
In 1966, in a game against Wichita State on the Shockers’ field, the Pokes allowed only 0.4 yards per play, holding Wichita State to 25 yards of total offense.
Both were school records.
The golden era of Wyoming football ended in October 1969 with the Black 14 episode.
That episode also ended Neyland’s influence and the culture it built and sustained.
Wyoming has had several offensive-minded coaches who enjoyed success.
Joe Tiller and Paul Roach come to mind. To a lesser extent, so does Joe Glenn.
But Neyland’s influence and philosophy were pretty well dormant until 2013, when Burman hired Wyoming’s first defensive-minded coach since Shurmur in the aftermath of the Black 14.
Craig Bohl played defense at Nebraska and was a defensive assistant under Nebraska coach Tom Osborne.
Although there is no evidence to suggest Bohl knew of Neyland’s coaching philosophy or of the influence Neyland had at Wyoming during its golden era, Bohl’s “old-school” coaching style and philosophy had many similarities to Neyland’s.
Both believed in developmental programs, strict discipline on and off the field, run-first, clock-eating offenses, field position and — the signature for both — punishing defenses.
Bohl’s overall record at Wyoming was 61-60, which included the transition and COVID-shortened seasons.
He led the Cowboys to six bowl games in his 10-year span as head coach.Bohl’s program, like the programs of the legendary coaches of Wyoming’s golden era, established a distinct identity built around physical, top-tier defense.
After Bohl’s rebuilding years, his defensive units ranked among the best defenses in the Mountain West Conference and the nation.
Under linebacker coach Aaron Bohl, the coach’s son, Wyoming earned the moniker “Linebacker U” and sent many defensive players to the NFL.
Today, in his second year, Bohl’s former defensive coordinator, Sawvel, is the Pokes’ head coach.
Aaron Bohl is the defensive coordinator.
Sawvel says the 2026 Cowboys have a chance to be the “best defensive unit” since he has been at Wyoming.
Wyoming fans hope that chance is realized.Wyoming fans also hope their new UW president, Reeves, has more in common with Neyland than just military rank.
It’s time for Wyoming to start a new golden era.
Ray Hunkins can be reached at: Ray.Hunkins@RayHunkins.com
