Cowboys Scrimmage Evaluates Youth

University of Wyoming head football coach Craig Bohl and his staff put the Cowboys through a small scrimmage Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.

It was evident that Wyoming’s two quarterbacks have developed to a point where they’ve earned the confidence of coach Bohl.

In a 41-play scrimmage on Saturday morning, redshirt senior quarterback Cam Coffman and sophomore QB Josh Allen both looked sharp. While complete stats weren’t kept on the closed scrimmage, Coffman did complete 6 of 9 passes (.667) for 76 yards, and Allen was 5 of 6 (.833) for 52 yards and two touchdowns. They were the only two quarterbacks to play.

The two QBs were the first subject that Bohl mentioned in his post-practice comments to the media.

“I thought the quarterback play, by my observation, was pretty good. There were some good throws, particularly by Cam (Coffman), and Josh (Allen) did some good things.”

“I was really pleased with Cam. Cam threw the ball well!  Probably of all the things I walked out of today’s scrimmage with is I think we’ve got a good quarterback.”

Coffman and Allen were the only two quarterbacks to appear in the scrimmage.  Coffman quarterbacked four series during the 50-minute scrimmage, and Allen led the offense on the other five series.

UW’s second-year head coach also mentioned the play of some of the young players in Saturday’s scrimmage, including true freshman wide receiver Dameko Doddles, true freshman running back Kellen Overstreet and true freshman cornerback Antonio Hull.

“For a freshman player, Dameko Doddles did a nice job of bringing some balls down. He showed that he has some good presence. And I thought Kellen Overstreet ran well for a freshman. There were a couple times when there wasn’t much there and he made some good things happen, so we’re pleased with that.”

Overstreet was the leading rusher on the day with 49 yards on 11 carries, including a three-yard touchdown run.

Bohl was asked about whether he might play as a true freshman was running back Overstreet.

“We’re looking for a number three guy. In our system, we’re going to feed the ball to those guys. Today, I thought he (Kellen Overstreet) did some good things. Before we make that final determination, we’ll look at the tape, but off the naked eye he showed that he can go out there and make some plays.”

Allen’s two touchdown throws came on a 20-yard pass to redshirt freshman tight end Tyree Mayfield and a six-yard TD pass to true freshman tight end Josh Harshman.

“Defensively, I thought we had pretty good push up front. Along with that, Antonio Hull came up and made a big, big stick and showed that he has the ability to tackle well in the open field.”

Bohl acknowledged that there is still work that needs to be done in special teams before the Sept. 5 season opener versus North Dakota.

“We had a little bit of a mixed bag in the kicking game. We had some miscues there which we are disappointed in because that is really going to come to light in the next two weeks. We’re going to have to work on that hard.”

There were also too many penalties in Saturday’s scrimmage for the head coach, and he voiced his frustration with that in his post-scrimmage press conference.

Many veterans were held out of the scrimmage by the Cowboy coaching staff.

Asked what the focus of practices would be this coming week, Bohl said, “As we get closer to the first game, we begin to integrate more of our game plan. We’re certainly going to do work against one another, but most guys by now they’ve gotten their work in and the coaches have made their evaluations. Now you start getting ready for your first game.”

The Pokes practiced once on Sunday and then twice on Monday before practicing once each on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to wrap up fall camp.

Bohl said he and his staff planned to put together a depth chart to release to media early this week.

Information courtesy of University of Wyoming Athletics Media Relations