BYU’s Trip To Wyoming Brings Back Rivalry Memories
Sep 13, 2024, 12:40 AM | Updated: 12:45 am
LARAMIE, Wyo. – After BYU football concluded practice on Wednesday, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick spoke to his players on offense about playing at Wyoming.
The former BYU receiver, now in his seventh season on the staff of his alma mater, made clear to his players that despite the Cowboys’ 0-2 record, they are going to bring their best against BYU (Saturday, 7 p.m.).
“We’ve got to be ready for that,” said BYU QB Jake Retzlaff to KSL Sports on facing Wyoming in Laramie. “We have to be the more physical, tougher team on the field on Saturday. That’s not going to be easy. Not showing up is not going to do that.”
Being tough is a requirement against Wyoming. BYU knows that better than most.
Saturday night will usher the 80th and likely final chapter of the BYU/Wyoming series.
In the heyday of the WAC and Mountain West eras, BYU/Wyoming was a heated rivalry.
BYU would often get sent to Laramie in late November for conference showdowns. The weather was always dicey. The Wyoming faithful were probably dicey, too, with what they would say to BYU players or even throw from the stands inside the War Memorial.
BYU at Wyoming
📅: September 14, 2024
⏰: 7 p.m.
📺: CBS Sports Network
📻: @kslnewsradio #BYUFootball pic.twitter.com/EdUzckOLAV— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) May 30, 2024
Stories from those road trips to Laramie in the WAC era even led LaVell Edwards to once famously say after his team lost in a snow bowl in 1981, “I would rather lose and live in Provo than win and live in Laramie.”
BYU/Wyoming had juice back in the day.
It’s a different era now, as we’ve seen with BYU now in the Big 12 and a quartet of Wyoming’s Mountain West peers bolting for the Pac-12 this week.
BYU AD Tom Holmoe experienced the intensity of the series both as a player and an administrator.
Holmoe angered many Wyoming faithful, including Pokes AD Tom Burman, for spearheading BYU’s path of Independence in 2010. But his respect for the series’ history was one of the reasons BYU and Wyoming are meeting on Saturday evening.
“Yes, we are. It’s a good game,” Holmoe said in 2022 on the night BYU hosted Wyoming in Provo. “I like the interregional rivalry, old conference foes, and it’s just a game that I think we should be playing.”
He was thaaaaaaaat close! #BYU freshman RB Miles Davis went off vs Wyoming. 13 carries for 131 yards. This 70 yarder gives BYU multiple players with 70+ yard runs in a season for the first time in school history. (Nacua 75 yards vs USF)#BYUFootball l @KSLSports pic.twitter.com/5DaUcFhOac
— Sam Farnsworth (@Samsworth_TV) September 26, 2022
BYU is already putting together nonconference schedules together up to the 2035 season. It’s hard to picture another series between these two schools taking place, especially when the day comes that BYU has an athletic director without the connections to the series.
First-year Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel understands this might be the last time the Cougs roll into Laramie.
Sawvel was unfamiliar with BYU-Wyoming’s history when he arrived in Laramie to be Craig Bohl’s defensive coordinator. But he understands it now.
“There are probably books that could be written about that. It’s a big deal,” Sawvel said on BYU-Wyoming. “It’s not lost on me as the head coach and going through all the different parts of the state, how big of a game that is for the Wyoming fan base. Maybe in part because [BYU] is not on any future schedule either. There’s a generation of Wyoming fans that this would be the last time they’ll ever see BYU in our stadium.”
The 2024 campaign marks the 100th season of BYU football. Throughout the season, we will review BYU’s history against its 2024 opponents weekly.
RELATED: “A Century of Cougar Football:” Looking at the history of BYU Football
Memories from the BYU/Wyoming rivalry
My first memories of BYU vs. Wyoming when I was a kid in Salt Lake County were the old Friday Night Fandemonium broadcasts on KBYU.
A frequent classic that was replayed on “Fandemonium” was the 1984 BYU/Wyoming game.
1984: BYU stays perfect
No. 5 BYU maintained its undefeated record with a comeback victory in the fourth quarter as Robbie Bosco connected with David Mills for a 14-yard touchdown pass.
Of course, BYU finished that season undefeated and was a unanimous National Champion pick by the AP and UPI Top 25 voters.
Paul Roach and the Cowboys were a thorn in BYU’s side two games in the late 80s. The 1987 meeting was Wyoming’s last victory in Provo.
Then, a year later, in 1988, Wyoming hosted BYU in the first-ever night game at War Memorial Stadium. Despite the loss, it was a game where you were seeing signs that redshirt freshman Ty Detmer was the quarterback of the future for BYU.
Then there was the 1996 WAC Championship Game at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
1996 WAC Championship Game in Las Vegas
No. 6 BYU versus No. 20 Wyoming in the WAC’s first-ever conference championship game.
It might be hard to fathom today, but the WAC title game had a higher television rating than the Big 12 and SEC titles played that same day.
.@BYUfootball trailed Wyoming 25-22 in the 1996 WAC Championship Game. Steve Sarkisian led a drive in the final minute that forced overtime after an Ethan Pochman FG. Pochman kicked another FG in OT to win and clinch a spot in the Cotton Bowl. #BYU https://t.co/0xjHZukz2L pic.twitter.com/E0g4yl85bz
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JeremiahJensen) March 17, 2020
The game was an epic finish as senior Ethan Pochman booted two clutch field goals, one at the end of regulation and another in overtime, to give BYU the 28-25 win and punch their ticket to what many thought was an Alliance Bowl bid.
It was a shame that 10-2 Wyoming, with Biletnikoff Award Winner Marcus Harris, didn’t receive a bowl bid. Instead, Utah took a bid to the Copper Bowl and was trucked by Ron Dayne and the Wisconsin Badgers.
Again, it was a different era when these two were going at each other.
Even the basketball games were a lot of fun between these two. I always enjoyed the battles with Marcus Bailey, Josh Davis, and Uche Nsonwu-Amadi. What made it better was when it would take on an ESPN Big Monday stage with Bob Carpenter and Jimmy Dykes on the call.
1999: Wyoming brings in a gimmick offense against BYU
Wyoming head coach Dana Dimel coached from the press box and incorporated a gimmick spread offense that 8-1 and nationally ranked BYU couldn’t stop. After that setback, BYU closed out that season on a three-game losing streak, and many wondered if LaVell Edwards would hang it up after that. He ended up coaching one more year.
2005: BYU football returns to the postseason
From 2002 to 2004, BYU endured three consecutive losing seasons. That was new territory for BYU football, as they had not experienced a losing season before that 2002 campaign in 29 years (1973).
During those three years of losing seasons, BYU suffered its last loss in the series to Wyoming in 2003.
The losing seasons led to BYU forcing Gary Crowton to resign. They hired Bronco Mendenhall as the head coach in 2005. However, his tenure started slow.
BYU began the 2005 season 1-3, and after a blowout loss to Notre Dame, the Cougars were 3-4. They needed three more wins in their final four games to qualify for a bowl.
They reeled off three straight wins, the third and final one being a 35-21 victory over Wyoming in Laramie. BYU’s Curtis Brown had a big game on the ground and the postgame celebration in the locker room was a joyous moment for a program that had turned the corner.
2008: The nation couldn’t get enough of BYU football
BYU crushed Wyoming 44-0 in Provo, one week after shutting out UCLA 59-0.
After BYU rolled through the Pokes, it was the talk of the country—despite no one seeing the games on The Mtn.– as the team that would waltz its way to a BCS game.
That didn’t happen as BYU’s 2008 squad struggled the rest of the way, finishing with a 10-3 record that included many close calls and no Mountain West title. But after that win over Wyoming, BYU football was riding high.
2010: Final MWC game, KVN and Ziggy
The final Mountain West chapter of BYU-Wyoming was nothing to write home about. Both teams entered the game with 2-5 records.
What was memorable about this game was the emergence of freshman linebacker Kyle Van Noy. It was a breakout performance for him as he racked up four tackles, one TFL, and three pass breakups.
Van Noy later became one of the greatest defensive players in BYU history.
The game also served as an opportunity for Ziggy Ansah to play. This was the version of Ziggy, who struggled to put on his shoulder pads, not the elite edge rusher that became a Top-5 pick in the NFL draft.
Ansah played on BYU’s kick team, wearing uniform number 74. In the game, he recorded a tackle.
2016: Jamaal Williams runs wild at the rainy Poinsettia Bowl
In Kalani Sitake’s first season as head coach, BYU faced Wyoming in the 2016 Poinsettia Bowl that featured Josh Allen as the Pokes starting QB.
#BYU seniors celebrate the win over Wyoming with some Dr. Pepper. #BYUvsWyo #BYUFootball #PoinsettiaBowl pic.twitter.com/UxsGsaVpZV
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JeremiahJensen) December 22, 2016
Despite having a future NFL star at QB, Wyoming couldn’t take down BYU. The Cougars, behind a 210-yard rushing yard performance from Jamaal Williams, rolled to a 24-21 win on a rainy night in San Diego.
After the game, Williams and safety Kai Nacua cracked open Dr. Peppers to savor the victory.
2022: Black 14 honored at BYU-Wyoming game
Before the first regular season matchup between BYU and Wyoming in 12 years, BYU honored Wyoming’s “Black 14” as “Y Lighters.”
In 1969, BYU and Wyoming played a football game in Laramie. Wyoming was undefeated and among the best squads in the country. Students at Wyoming used the game as an opportunity to protest a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints policy that didn’t allow Black men to hold the priesthood.
Fourteen Black Wyoming football players wanted to show their support to fellow students by wearing black armbands on their uniforms. But instead of allowing them to do so, Wyoming coach Lloyd Eaton kicked all 14 players off the team.
The “Black 14” members made their first appearance in Provo in 50 years that night.
BYU went on to win the football game 38-24 behind a 131-yard rushing performance from Miles Davis.
Wyoming’s Black 14 and Elder Gifford Nielsen of the @Ch_JesusChrist (former #BYU QB) were honored in the pregame. 🖤 💙 #GoCougs #BYUFootball pic.twitter.com/eaYlTMY3gl
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) September 25, 2022
BYU at Wyoming
Date: Saturday, September 14, 2024
Kickoff: 7 p.m. (MDT)
TV: CBS Sports Network
Radio: KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM, 1160 AM)
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
