The Mid-Season Report Cards are a subjective look using objective numbers with a look toward the remainder of the season as well. Teams are being reviewed in random order once they reach 6 games. Here’s the Wyoming post that I referenced before but didn’t actually post when I thought I did.
Somehow, I have inadvertently wound up with four Mountain West teams to review today. Completely unintentional, seeing as I just randomized the list and started writing back on Monday morning. Anyway, we now take a look at the Wyoming Cowboys. Wyoming is in the early stages of a breakthrough year, sitting at 4-2, with 3 wins over mid-major teams, and a 3 game win streak to boot.
- Wins: B. Four wins is a solid start to the season, especially when a 24-0 loss to struggling Colorado made things look bad for the Cowboys.
- Offense: C. Wyoming’s total offense is a decent 354 per game, but the scoring average is down at 92nd in the country with only 22.67. They’re going to need to put more points up to keep this momentum going.
- Defense: C-. Total defense is at 390 ypg, down at 86th overall, but they’re keeping the scoring down to 25.8, 74th overall.
- Special Teams: B. 27th in punting at 38 yards, 37th in punt returns, and down at 67th in kickoff returns. Overall solid numbers which help bridge the gap between offense and defensive production.
- Turnovers: A. Wyoming is 5th in America in turnover margin, at +9. They’ve only given the ball away 5 times so far, while retrieving 14 turnovers of their own.
- Grading Curve: No change. Sagarin gives them the 115th most difficult schedule, but Wyoming has made the most of it and won games against decent non-BCS competition.
- Final Grade: B. Other than perhaps a missed opportunity to pile on Colorado, Wyoming has had a great start. If they can ramp the offensive production up a little more, they’ll fight for those top positions in the league.
Remaining Games:
- at Air Force
- at Utah
- BYU
- at San Diego State
- TCU
- at Colorado State
Best Case Scenario: 3-3. For all the things that have gone well, there’s a tough road ahead with all 3 of the MWC’s power teams still to come. But if they can beat the other three squads, they’ll lock up their place in a bowl game.
Worst Case Scenario: 1-5. The schedule isn’t easy, and while I don’t think it’ll be this bad, Air Force and Colorado State are both really tough teams to beat. In fact, anything better than 1-5 means the Cowboys have made improvements this year.
Prediction:2-4. It sounds like a terrible prediction to make for a team I just gave a B, but the fact is there’s just too many good schools coming up to say that Wyoming can beat enough of them to make it to 7-5. That said, a bowl could still be in the works at 6-6.