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’re going to have to play really good Saturday night.
It’s not going to be a secret. This isn’t going to be something like, ‘Well, if we show up and play a C game, we’re going to be successful.’ That’s not going to be the case.
We better play really well, and our guys know that. We have a big challenge to get that done.” One of Sawvel's main goals is to find an early rhythm on both sides of the ball against the Sun Devils.
During the Cowboys' season-opener last fall, UW fell behind 17-0 to Texas Tech midway through the first quarter before crawling back and winning 35-33 in double overtime. This year, the Cowboys won't have the luxury of playing their season-opener in front of the home fans at War Memorial Stadium. “That was a terrible start last year,” Sawvel said with a laugh.
“...
It’s critical to not dig yourself that type of hole. ..
. That’s not the plan. We need to do a lot better than that.
...
We’ve talked extensively with the team about starting practice fast. "We want to be a better starting team coming out of the gates all year. That’s something that I want to make sure that we do a better job of.
So, hopefully we can obviously do a better job of that Saturday night.” While players like cornerback Keany Parks and left tackle Nathan Geiger will make their first career starts against the Sun Devils, Sawvel will also be making his head coaching debut on the national stage. The Cowboys' clash with Arizona State will be broadcasted in the prime-time slot at 8:30 p.
m. on FS1. “(The nerves) fluctuate,” Sawvel said.
“...
Last week was really difficult to get a lot of sleep in the fact that there was just a lot of things going through my mind like, ‘OK, there’s three minutes to go in the game and it’s this and this scenario,' or, ‘There’s a minute left in the game and it’s this and this scenario, how are we going to do this, or how do I want to handle this?’” "You start just replaying game scenarios in your mind, and you’re doing that just in preparation for it. I’m sure that that’ll be a big part of this week. I’m looking forward to it.
" Part of Sawvel's plan going into his first game leading UW's program will be trusting the preparation his players made during the offseason. "It’s the players’ game," Sawvel said. "Our job as coaches is to give them the best opportunity to be able to perform to their best.
At that point of it, that’s what we can do. If we don’t succeed, it’s going to be because I didn’t do a good enough job with that. "The bottom line is, if we do succeed, it’s going to be because of the players, because I’m not going to make any plays.
My job is just to try not to screw it up, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.” Sawvel also announced the team's captains for the season, a list including quarterback Evan Svoboda, center Nofoafia Tulafono, defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole and linebacker Shae Suiaunoa. While he praised each captains' leadership traits, Bertagnole's roots as a Casper native is something he's seen benefit the rest of the roster firsthand.
"The more that we have really impactful players from the state of Wyoming, it rubs off on everybody else," Sawvel said. "Especially in a leadership role like Jordan has, he has the ability then to affect a lot of other people. "I think that's the biggest impact with him.
" The Cowboys have 17 returning starters going into the season-opener. With such an experienced group, Sawvel feels the pieces are in place to start his head coaching tenure with a win over Arizona State on Saturday night. “When you boil it all down, you just have to go play,” Sawvel said.
“You just have to go do the things that you’re supposed to do and just concentrate. It’s one play at a time. Just do your best on that one play, and when that one play is over, we go to the next one.
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