Casper, Wyo. — The Cowboys deserved better than the media vote predicting they would finish fifth of the nine teams in the Mountain West Conference this fall, coach Joe Glenn says.
His reason for saying that: sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween.
Sween has been starting since the fifth game of last season, a 40-34 loss in double overtime at Syracuse that gave Wyoming a 1-4 record.
Glenn said the loss was the worst he’s ever felt for his players and coaches.
Even so, Sween had come off the bench to complete 19 of 27 passes for 201 yards. That included an 88-yard drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass with 5 seconds left in regulation, sending the game into the first overtime.
Sween gave Glenn hope.
“Deep down, I was thinking, ‘Yes, we’ve got a good one,”‘ Glenn recalled Tuesday at Mountain West Conference media days in Las Vegas.
His optimism proved well-grounded. With Sween starting, the Cowboys finished the season 5-2 for an even 6-6 record overall.
Glenn’s confidence in Sween may be the biggest reason he believes Wyoming should have been picked higher in the preseason conference poll.
“The switch at quarterback was the spark that we needed,” Glenn said. “We didn’t have the guy in there at quarterback that could get us over the hump.
“You just never know what you’ve got, especially with the first-teamers getting the lion’s share of the reps in practice.”
Tight end Wade Betschart said Sween seemed a little surprised his first time in the huddle.
“He looked like a deer in headlights,” Betschart said. “But after or two or three plays it was like he’d been starting for three years.
“He called all the plays, hustled up to the line, made all the throws, things you wouldn’t expect from a freshman quarterback.”
Glenn wasn’t the only confident Wyoming representative in Las Vegas this week. Cornerback Michael Medina said the Pokes can beat every team on their schedule.
