Is There Really A QB Battle in Laramie or Just Lip Service?

LARAMIE -- Tyler Hughes reeled in the shotgun snap and briefly stuck the ball in the belly of running back Samuel Harris before ripping it away and darting to his right.

The read option appeared to have done the trick with many defensive eyes zeroing in on the speedster they call "Tote"

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Jack Dunkley, though, wasn't fooled.

The senior edge rusher stayed home, failing to bite on the fake. He had his sights set on Hughes and the potential for a big loss on the play.

That didn't happen.

The Williams and Mary transfer cruised right past Dunkley and sped down the west sideline inside War Memorial Stadium for a big gainer. It was one of the few explosive plays the offense managed on a sun-splashed Thursday afternoon in the Cowboys' second official practice of fall camp.

"He's making me look slower than I think I am," Dunkley said with a grin. "I told him, 'You got to slow down and make me look a little better.'"

Hughes, who is coming off his first season as a fulltime starter, threw for 2,330 yards and 20 touchdowns last fall while completing better than 66% of his passes. He added 670 more yards on the ground and found the end zone 11 times with those dynamic legs.

He arrived on campus in January as a graduate transfer, reuniting with Wyoming's new offensive coordinator Christian Taylor, who recruited Hughes to Williamsburg, Va., back in 2022.

Last month, Hughes, surrounded by cameras and microphones, represented his new program at Mountain West Media Days in Las Vegas. The previous two days he ran the No. 1 unit in practice, too.

He also came to Laramie with an undisclosed price tag on the open market.

So, that begs the question: is there really a QB competition like Jay Sawvel claimed there would be in the spring?

"There's going to be a battle for everything right now, whether that's running back, quarterback, you know, yeah," Wyoming's third-year head coach said on Thursday. "I mean, does Tyler Hughes have a great skill set, had a really good spring and put himself in a very good position to be the starting quarterback? Yes, he did. But he better play well in fall camp because there are other guys that are going to try to take that spot."

One of those hopefuls is Mason Drube.

The Gillette native, who is now in his second full season in the program, was thrown into the fire last November with the Cowboys' postseason hopes circling the drain. The offense is the main culprit, responsible for that mostly forgettable 4-8 campaign, averaging just 16 points per game, which ranked 129th in the nation out of 134 FBS teams.

Drube stepped in for an ineffective Kaden Anderson, completing 20-of-38 passing attempts for 187 yards and an interception. He was under center for all but one possession in the season finale, connecting on 53.1% of his throws in a lopsided 27-7 loss on the islands, one in which the visiting offense didn't put a single point on the board.

The former three-star recruit fielded nine college offers after a standout career at Campbell County High School. Michigan State wanted the 6-foot-3, 220-pound signal caller. So did Boston College, Washington State, Oregon State and others.

"When I got in there it was just like high school and just another game, obviously to a different extent," Drube said last November after seeing his first action in a road loss at Fresno State. "I wasn't nervous to get in there at all. I was confident, ready to go."

Self-assurance isn't a problem for Landon Sims, either. Staying healthy, on the other hand, is.

The junior from Alabama suffered a season-ending knee injury in an early November meeting with San Diego State, the third torn left ACL of his playing career. Just before he was crunched to the turf inside SnapDragon Stadium, Sawvel confirmed Sims was destined to be the team's starter for the remainder of the 2025 season.

Sims, an East Central Community College (Miss.) transfer, saw limited action early in the year. He did fill in for an injured Anderson late in a Week-2 victory over visiting Northern Iowa, completing all three of his passing attempts for 23 yards.

His next significant action came in the annual Border War. He made the most of it, too. Sims opened the scoring, following lead blocker Sam Scott through the hole from a yard out in the first quarter of a 28-0 blanking of Colorado State. He carried the ball five times for 31 yards.

A 37-yard run on the opening drive against the Aztecs put the Cowboys deep inside the red zone. Sims found Scott in the flat three snaps later for a 3-yard touchdown toss.

Sims, to the surprise of everyone, took part in spring practice in April on a limited basis. Now, he's got the green light, Sawvel said.

"Landon hit a better top speed this summer than he ever did last summer. It's substantially better," he added. "So, when you look, you go, 'OK, that's pretty impressive that he was able to do that and come back.' As far as what it does for people, everybody loves Landon Sims in this program. They love him because of how hard he works and how much he cares and how much he's invested in it.

"He's going to push everybody in that quarterback room."

The Wyoming staff made a late addition to the QB room on July 27, inking dual-threat Tyler Franklin. The three-star prospect from Fresno, Calif., also threw 18 touchdowns last season to go along with 2,224 yards through the air. He added 239 more on the ground and found the end zone with his legs seven times.

He is expected to take over scout team duties, a responsibility that would've likely landed on the right shoulder of Taylor Hasselbeck, who suffered a torn ACL in summer workouts.

Sawvel said he is not ready to name a starting quarterback anytime soon with 23 practices to go ahead of a much-anticipated opening day against CSU in Fort Collins. Offensive install is ongoing and full pads don't come on until next week, he added.

"We'll talk about that when the time comes, but there's nothing preordained to it," he said.

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