Las Vegas Bowl

[Durango53]

Tonight!!!!!! Wyoming first bowl game in 11 years takes on UCLA!!!!!!Maurice Drew and UCLA are heading in the right direction.

It's been awhile since there was optimism at UCLA, but the Bruins feel they finally turned the corner. Story

• Glenn takes Wyoming from Bottom 10 to bowl
• UCLA more talented, but victory not guaranteed
• Vote: Who wins? | Sonic Bowl Mania | You vs. Trev

Las Vegas Bowl Breakdown by Pat Forde
Who to watch

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Bruins throw-and-catch combination of Drew Olson and Craig Bragg. Cowboys linebacker Randy Tscharner and quarterback Corey Bramlett, who inherited the starting job this year from graduated older brother Casey.

What to watch

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Let's find out how good these teams are. Wyoming overachieved, but its six wins came against five teams that finished the year with losing records and a I-AA opponent. All six of UCLA's wins were against teams that finished with losing records. Subplot: How many Wyoming fans are playing the nickel slots on the Strip in celebration of their first bowl game in 11 years?

Why to watch

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It's not often you get to see a matchup of one of the best uniforms in America (UCLA) against one of the worst (Wyoming).



TEAM STATISTICAL LEADERS
Wyoming UCLA
PAS Corey Bramlet-2102 yds Drew Olson-2469 yds
RSH Ivan Harrison-571 yds Maurice Drew-881 yds
REC Jovon Bouknight-968 yds Junior Taylor-434 yds

[Durango53]

Both UCLA and Wyoming bring suspect defenses into this game, and with both offenses having plenty of weapons we could be in for a wild game. The Bruins present problems with RB Maurice Drew, WR Craig Bragg and TE Mercedes Lewis to make the offense go, while Wyoming improved steadily all year and will have to outscore UCLA with help from WR Jovon Bouknight.

[Durango53]

Two years ago at this time, Wyoming linebacker Guy Tuell and defensive tackle Zach Morris had thoughts of leaving a losing program behind and transferring to another college.



In their first two years at Wyoming, Tuell and Morris were part of Cowboy teams that had gone 2-9 and 2-10, respectfully, under former coach Vic Koenning.



Now, two years later, Tuell and Morris are part of a Wyoming team that will be playing against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 23. The game, at Las Vegas Sam Boyd Stadium, will be televised nationally by ESPN, at 9:45 p.m. ET.



"Right now, this whole thing is overwhelming to be going to a bowl game," Tuell said. "When I got here things weren't looking good at the time. After those first two years I never thought I would have the opportunity to go to a bowl game. That's one of the reasons I thought about transferring. Only my parents knew how close I came to leaving.



"But Coach (Joe) Glenn and his staff came in here and changed everything. I knew that was going to happen, and that's when I made the decision to stick around and see it through."



Morris wasn't quite as far along as Tuell in breaking his ties with Wyoming, but he was headed in that direction.



"I can't say that I didn't think about leaving," Morris said. "The losses were piling up and it was getting old."



In Glenn's first season, the Cowboys showed marked improvement and put together a 4-8 overall record. It wasn't a winning record, but the Cowboys did record home victories over archrivals BYU and Colorado State.



This year, in Tuell's and Morris' senior season, Wyoming was picked by the media and coaches in the preseason to once again finish last in the Mountain West Conference. The Cowboys came on to be the league's surprise team, putting together an overall record of 6-5 and a 3-4 mark in the MWC for a fourth-place tie.



"Honestly, I didn't think we would ever get to a bowl game with everything we went through," Morris said. "When you go 2-9 and 2-10, there isn't really a whole lot of hope. To turn it around this quickly is really something. You couldn't write it any better, though. We were picked to finish dead last again. No one expected us to be where we are today. We got an invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl, and it's real exciting."



Just the fact that Wyoming was able to get to a bowl game is quite an accomplishment, but the Cowboys want to win the bowl game.



"This is a culmination of all of our efforts over the last five years," said senior center Trenton Franz. "It has funneled into this bowl game and we are all looking forward to going down there and putting out a great effort. We're satisfied right now with what the season has brought us, but we'll move past that. We'll be fired up.



"This program has not won a bowl game in 38 years, and if we can provide that, our legacy will live on. I would like to see 8,000 to 10,000 Cowboy fans go down and share this with us."



All of Glenn's assistant coaches have experienced some postseason play in one form or another when the staff was together at Northern Colorado and Montana. But going to a Division I-A bowl is something different all together.



"This ranks right up there with anything that has come before," said Wyoming defensive coordinator Mike Breske, who has spent 18 seasons with Glenn. "This is my first experience to go to a bowl game, and I'm excited."



Breske said there are other benefits coming out of a bowl game as the staff continues to build the Cowboy football program.



"This is a big plus for us," he said. "Here we get all these extra practices. That will help our young kids, which we saw when we were in the playoffs at Montana and UNC. It just makes your football team better. Not everybody gets to practice right now, only the teams going to the bowl games."

[Yellow Dog]

Good luck tonight, Durango! I'll be pulling for your 'Boys.

[Durango53]

Thanks YD!!!!

I was thinking this was going to be a cake walk for UCLA but they aint shutting up and talking past the Cowboys. They are ticked because they got to play a bad team they think and they keep belittling the Cowboys. And there are some sports experts saying not to over look this Cowboys team and picking them!!!!

So I hope this Cowboys team really sticks it to them and makes a stament and lets the country know that Wyoming is ready to play some football again under Joe Glenn!!!

[Durango53]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[BPBlueSox]

check this out: http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=00a61f05-0abe-421a-01d4-d3c973dca97b&TEMPLATEID=5991da4c-ac1f-02d8-0055-99a54930515e

[Durango53]

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH WE WON!!!!!!!!!! WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!!!!!!

[Durango53]

THANKS YD!!!!! WYOMING WINS!!!!


Sorry all I am so very excited about this!!! After winning one game 2 years ago and this team looking like it was dead and ranked last in the nation and div 2 teams beating us to this is so very exciting!!!

FIRST BOWL WIN IN OVER 30 YEARS!!!!!!! THANK YOU JOE GLENN!!!!!