Boise State Bowls Over Wyoming Cowboys

Kari Eakins, Townsquare Media

The Wyoming Cowboys remain winless on their home field after losing to #21 Boise State 45-14 on Saturday under Interim Head Coach Pete Kaligis. After the game was tied at 7-7 early in the second quarter, the Broncos took control and scored 31 straight points for their seventh straight victory.

Boise State pulled away from the Cowboys in the third quarter. First the Broncos scored easily on their opening possession of the second half, then forced Brett Smith to fumble and ran it back for a touchdown to go up 31-7 with 10:12 left in the third quarter.

Wyoming started off the game by driving 76 yards to come up empty handed after Boise state blocked a field goal attempt. The Broncos then proceeded to march 78 yards to score their first touchdown of the day on an 8-yd run by D.J. Harper. The Cowboys responded with their lone touchdown of the day, ran in from 4 yards out by Brett Smith, to tie the game at 7-7 just over two minutes into the second quarter.

“We have seen what Wyoming does,” said BSU head coach Chris Peterson after the game. “They spread you out. They make plays. That quarterback is hard to tackle.”

Unfortunately the Wyoming offense lost its potency from that moment on. BSU took the lead back on a 29-yd field goal six minutes later and the Cowboys would go 3-and-out the rest of the half, even after Chad Reese intercepted Bronco quarterback Joe Southwick and returned it to the 50-yd line. The interception did keep Wyoming in the game at halftime though, down 17-7.

Interim Head Coach Pete Kaligis said the first two possessions, “We weren’t throwing and catching it. When you go two 3-and-outs, then a third 3-and-out, you can’t put the defense back out there that quick.”

Brett Smith completed 24-of-35 passes for 216 yards while rushing for both of Wyoming’s touchdowns. Smith gained 68 yards on the ground, but was sacked 4 times for a loss of 58 yards. Wyoming finished with 270 yards of total offense. Korey Jones and Ghaali Muhammad each tallied 11 total tackles on defense.

Boise State (7-1, 4-0) had a balanced attack with 223 passing yards and 214 rushing yards for 437 yards of total offense. D.J. Harper ran for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns. Southwick completed 20-of-28 passes for 198 yards and threw 1 interception.

The Broncos improved to 7-0 all-time against the Cowboys.

Wyoming (1-7, 0-4) will welcome front range rival Colorado State to War Memorial Stadium on Saturday, November 3rd for the 2012 Border War. Kick off is set for 2:30 p.m. The Pokes Pre-Game show will start on KOWB at 11:30 a.m.

Kaligis was acting as Interim Head Coach after Dave Christensen was suspended for a week and fined $50,000 for his actions after the Air Force game on Oct. 13th. Kaligis said, “To be able to be in this experience for one week was amazing. To have the opportunity  to lead the University of Wyoming and go out there and represent this state today was unreal. What an honor it was to go out with them and fight, and it still is an honor.”

Christensen will be fully reinstated as head coach on Sunday morning.