LARAMIE — When the University of Wyoming football team takes the field for this first time this season, it will have been 269 days since Jay Sawvel was announced as the team's new head coach. The Cowboys' former defensive coordinator is anxious to get his tenure started. His first challenge is an Arizona State team coming off back-to-back three-win seasons in the desert.
“Probably like every coach would say right now, it’s time to play a game,” Sawvel said Monday. “You get a feel for where you’re at as a program, and especially going on the road and playing a quality opponent that I think will be very much upgraded from where they were a year ago. “.
.. This is a big challenge for us week one to go on the road and to go play, but we’re looking forward to it, too.
We need to go play a game and get this 2024 season started up.” The Sun Devils have 30 new players on their roster this season, which is the seventh-highest mark of any program at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. While the Cowboys started preparing for Arizona State last week in practice, it's a unique challenge to scout a team with that level of roster turnover, Sawvel said.
“In this particular situation, there’s a little bit more of a challenge with the number of new players (they have),” the coach said. “Even though you might have an idea of what they want to do, you don’t fully know how they’re going to do it with the people that they’re doing it with. ".
.. Our players know we�.