Turning point, unsung hero and what’s next for UW football

LARAMIE -- "There's a lot of things that I'll second guess."

Jay Sawvel mentioned attempting a two-point conversion after a 54-yard sprint to the end zone from speedy wideout TK King early in the fourth quarter. The call: a designed quarterback run.

That didn't work.

Get our free mobile app

Wyoming led by just five with 13:45 to go.

Wyoming's rookie head coach also pointed to Utah State's final offensive snap of the night. That was a modest 4-yard gain by running back Rahsul Faison. With nearly 30 seconds remaining in regulation, instead of using his final timeout, Sawvel instead decided he wanted to "ice" the visitor's redshirt freshman kicker and make him think about it.

That didn't work.

Tanner Cragun stroked a 40-yard game-winner right through the yellow pipes as time expired.

There was yet another brutal mishap in a forgettable fourth.

Spencer Petras, facing a 3rd-and-2 from his own 33-yard line, stepped up in the pocket and uncorked a throw down the sideline intended for Kyrese White. It didn't make it that far. Instead, that underthrown toss actually hit Wyoming safety Wyett Ekeler in the back.

Still the yellow hanky flew. In fact, three of them.

There would be a fourth, too.

That one was reserved for Sawvel, who was tagged with an unsportsmanlike penalty, giving the visitors the ball at the Cowboys' 37-yard line. Three snaps later, Petras would connect with Josh Sterzer from 10 yards out to give Utah State a 24-22 lead.

"I've seen that call not be made multiple times, because he didn't impede the receiver coming back to the ball," Sawvel said postgame. "So, you know, to be in that type of situation, yeah, I regret that. You know, I thought it was pretty quick hair trigger, too.

"...  I'd say I'm a horse s---head coach. And I've said I think we've had some horse s--- officiating. So, there you go."

All of the above aided in the Cowboys' seventh loss of the season. The list, though, doesn't end there. It doesn't even scratch the surface.

Though there are plenty of options to choose from, the game changer in this one came during the final 1:13 of the first half.

After Cragun split the uprights from 30 yards out to tie this one at 10-10, Sawvel and Co. reinserted Evan Svoboda into the lineup with the ball on the 21-yard line and all three timeouts at their disposal.

The Aggies had all of theirs, too.

That's why, Sawvel said, he wanted to be aggressive, especially after an 11-yard run on first down courtesy of his 6-foot-5, 245-pound signal caller. The goal was to get the ball into field-goal range for John Hoyland.

That didn't work.

Svoboda, who was splitting time under center Saturday night with Anderson because of inconsistent play, fired a third-down pass down pass right into the awaiting arms of Jordan Vincent.

He plays for the other team.

"It wasn't a great route," Sawvel said, referring to the intended target, wide receiver Justin Stevenson. "It obviously wasn't a great throw. Next thing you know, they get an interception that gets some run back and you're now in our territory."

It took just two plays for the Aggies to capitalize.

Wide receiver Grant Page hit Faison in stride on a trick play for a 36-yard hookup down to the 8-yard line. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound running back finished what he started, shucking would-be tacklers and bulldozing his way up the middle for six.

"I mean, look, if I knew that that was going to happen, we would've run a zone play and punted the ball, you know? You're in a situation where you felt like you could maybe get a couple first downs, you still had timeouts, and you could kick a field goal before the half," Sawvel said. "Next thing you know, we're down seven."

Why was Svoboda even put in this position?

Statistically, the junior is the least-efficient passer in the nation, completing just under 46% of his passes. That line also now includes seven interceptions.

There's a reason he no longer has a stranglehold on the starting job.

"If I went to Evan in that situation, and we happened to have three plays like we executed last week and go down the field and score, it's a good idea," Sawvel said. "We threw an interception and then they scored a touchdown on it. It's a bad idea. So, that's what it is. I have to own that, because that was obviously a bad decision at that point. It was a bad decision to go for two, it was a bad decision to not call a timeout with 25 seconds left.

"When you lose by two, they're all bad decisions."

Utah State 27, Wyoming 25

UNSUNG HERO

Keany Parks ran step for step with 6-foot-4, 220-pound Otto Tia.

Wyoming's sophomore cornerback not only stayed with the big man, he turned his head at precisely the right moment, looking back for the ball, before eventually batting it away at the 5-yard line.

He looked like a seasoned vet.

In reality, Parks, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound Kenosha, Wisc., product, didn't even really play the cornerback position until last fall. Even then, he only had a handful of snaps on defense. The rest came on special teams.

Parks came to Wyoming as a running back. In fact, he was the No. 2 overall recruit in his home state, according to 247sports.com.

Without hesitation, he made the move to defense. It hasn't always been smooth, either. That was proven against Air Force when he was replaced by Ian Bell in the starting lineup.

One of the most-athletic players on the team, per his teammates and coaches, Parks showed off some of what he has learned again, breaking up another second-quarter pass. This one was intended for Page in the back of the end zone.

Parks, who finished the night with just two tackles, undercut Faison for just a 5-yard gain on the Aggies last drive of the night. That came on a 3rd-and-8. Petras would pick up the first down one play later to extend the game-winning drive.

This was easily Parks' most-consistent performance of the 2024 campaign.

QUOTABLE

"We've preached last year that we were 5-1 in one-score games. That contributed a lot to our success last year. Losing like that, on a game-winning field goal as time expired, I think that's the first time I've experienced something like that. It's pretty heartbreaking, but it's really tough when you know you and all of your teammates work your butt off to win a ball game and it just doesn't go your way."

-- Wyoming guard Jack Walsh on losing yet another close game this season

"Me and Evan were planning on rotating in. Coach said, you know, in short situations he's a bigger body, which I totally understand. You know, running that power with that big body, I completely understood. So, yeah, you know, I was all right with it. But, you know, at the end of the day, we gotta get in the end zone. We left some out there, for sure."

-- Wyoming QB Kaden Anderson on being replaced at the 3-yard line in the third quarter. The offense lost three yards on the two snaps Svoboda took. Anderson re-entered on third-and-goal and threw an incomplete pass. The Cowboys settled for a 23-yard field goal

"It's definitely frustrating because he is such a good dude ... He's a great leader. It does suck for sure."

-- Anderson on Svoboda getting booed by the 17,000-plus in attendance after failing to get the offense in the end zone during the scenario above

"You play for the state. You play for your teammates. You play for your family. You play for God. That doesn't change. There's so many things to play for all the time. You can make up something in your head and it just be your motivational factor. I think that's something that a lot of us are going to be doing. That's something that I do daily. Every single day."

-- Wyoming running back Sam Scott on what is left to play for now that bowl eligibility is out of the question with this 1-7 overall record

"I mean, it's really frustrating not to turn that into points. And the fact that, like, we won the third quarter, 6-0. OK, with the way that we played the third quarter, defensively and offensively, that should have been 10 -- It should have been 14. There could have been some separation in the game. And I think the fact that we didn't win that quarter by a margin bigger than 6-0 with the way that the quarter went, I mean, there's a big chunk of your reason why we lost. It's the fact that you can't have a quarter where you hold a team to basically less than 10 yards, no first downs, and really only six plays. You have the ball the whole quarter and go up and down the field and you come away with two field goals, you know? We needed to finish things off better."

-- Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel on failing to score touchdowns in the red zone and allowing just nine total yards of offense in the third quarter

"Hats off to these kids. They've been through probably more adversity than any team in the country ... They have a new coach after the Fourth of July, they had a player pass away and they had a 1-6 start. We talk about it all week, you watch the tape and they play hard, they play hard, they play hard and come up short. Finally, they are getting what they deserve. They outwork people. They show up every day with a smile on their face and that's not easy with a 1-6 record and an interim head coach. They truly love each other. They had their backs up against the wall and they came out swinging and finally got it done tonight."

-- Utah State's interim head coach Nate Dreiling on the Aggies snapping a six-game losing skid

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Cowboys will head down Interstate-25 to Albuquerque in search of win No. 2 on the season against the much-improved New Mexico Lobos. In his first season on the sidelines in the Land of Enchantment, Bronco Mendenhall has his team playing inspired football -- and scoring a lot of points. The Lobos averaged 51 an outing during a three-game win streak against New Mexico State, Air Force and Utah State. That came to a crashing halt, though, Saturday in Fort Collins. New Mexico managed just two field goals in a 17-6 loss to Colorado State. The Cowboys and Lobos have met 76 times on the gridiron. Wyoming has a 40-36 advantage in the series and has won the previous two meetings. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. Mountain Time and the game will be televised on TruTV.

- Just The Facts: Size Doesn't Matter For Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium