September 20, 2023 |
Photo – Player using helmet as a prop – Courtesy gowyo.com
Saturday night’s matchup between Wyoming and Appalachian State promises to be a dogfight between two teams that are coming into the matchup battle hardened.
The Cowboys and the Mountaineers are led by head coaches with old-school mentalities. There’s no “Coach Prime” on the sideline.
Wyoming skipper Craig Bohl promised a classic game under the lights at the War on Saturday night.
The Cowboys and the Mountaineers are both 2-and-1 on the season and looking for win #3 before starting their respective conference schedules. The Apps put up 20 points in the third quarter Saturday against cross state rival East Carolina to come away with a 43-28 win in front of packed crowd at home last Saturday inside Kid Brewer Stadium .
Head coach Shawn Clark said, “What you see with Wyoming is what you get.”
The Mountaineers make their opponents earn it, too. App State is averaging over 450 yards per game in an explosive high tempo offense. They even have the nation’s top rusher in Nate Noel. The Cowboy defense will be put to the test again this week.
Coach Bohl clicked through the list of challenges his Cowboy offense and defense will face this week, starting with App State’s quarterback, 6′-3″, junior quarterback, Joey Aguilar, who completed 64 percent of his passes last season for over 14-hundred yards and eight touchdowns in six games.
Mack Brown is in his second stint as head coach at North Carolina. He was head coach at Texas from 1998 to 2013. Brown was head coach at App State for one year, in 1983, when the Mountaineers finished the season 6-5.
The big question hanging over Wyoming this week is; who will be playing at quarterback? — Andrew Peasley or Evan Svoboda.
Coach Bohl said the decision will come later this week, maybe on Saturday. Bohl indicated Peasley is still the #1 Wyoming QB and would see practice on Monday and Tuesday.
Running back, Harrison Waylee, nailed down the #1 running back position with his electrifying debut on Saturday night in Austin against Texas. Waylee ran for 110-yards, including a 62-yard breakaway touchdown.
The Cowboys could use some of that on Saturday night in front of a home crowd inside the War for the final non-conference home game of the season.
Saturday night’s feature is only the time Wyoming and Appalachian State have played each other. The home team won each of the first two games. Wyoming won in Laramie in 2004 and App State won at Boone in 2015.
Get ready for a good one, App State’s explosive offense against Wyoming’s battled-tested defense.
Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. in a game that will finish under the lights inside the War. Bigfoot 99 will be on air at 3:30 Saturday afternoon with all the coverage.
