Unfortunately for the Cowgirls, the Horned Frogs were too much to handle Wednesday night, giving Wyoming arguably their toughest loss of the season, going down 68-47 to an impressive TCU team.

Senior guard Aubrey Vandiver gave Wyoming their first lead at 7-6 with a fade away jumper on the baseline before TCU went on a 7-0 run to make the score 13-7. The Cowgirls would take the lead again at 18-17 after a crowd-rousing layup from senior forward Hillary Carlson.

TCU would eventually end the first half with a 27-24 lead after a last second lay-in by sophomore forward Starr Crawford.

Crawford led the way for the Horned Frogs in the first half with six points and seven rebounds in just 14 minutes of play.

Vandiver was the star of the first half for Wyoming going 5-8 for 11 points while Carlson added six points and four rebounds.

Wyoming got off to a sluggish start in the second half allowing TCU to expand their lead to 38-26 at the 15:54 mark. TCU’s largest lead of the game was 22 points at the 1:18 mark.

The Cowgirls shot a meager 36.5% from the field and senior forward Hillary Carlson had one of her worst outings of the season, going scoreless in the first half.

Sophomore forward Chaundra Sewell was tops for the Cowgirls in points and rebounds with 18 and 9. Vandiver added 16 points for the Cowgirls.

Head coach Joe Legerski said in his postgame conference that TCU was the best team they’ve played all season and there’s a reason why they won the conference last season. He emphasized the fact that TCU has a very balanced team, seven players had between 6 and 11 points, and is hard to guard collectively.

“You don’t come into this place and think you are going to have a game like this. They have an excellent team and we were fortunate to play really well,” TCU coach Jeff Mittie said after the game. “You know how tough it is to come up here and leave with a win because [Wyoming] has such a quality team… it feels good.”

The Cowgirls head to Salt Lake City to take on Utah squad on Wednesday, January 19th at 3 p.m.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Their other five victories were against Westminster (Utah), Washington State, Montana, Utah State, and New Mexico. They also beat Montana-Western in an exhibition matchup. The Cowgirls’ record currently stands at 11-3 overall and 2-0 in the Mountain West conference.

With momentum on their side, the Cowgirls continue conference play tonight against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs (10-6, 2-0) in the Arena-Auditorium at 7 p.m.

The Cowgirls and Horned Frogs are two of the best teams in the Mountain West Conference so far this season. TCU currently sits at third in MWC standings while Wyoming boasts the top spot. So far TCU has the highest scoring offense in the MWC with 71.1 points per game while Wyoming possesses the best scoring defense allowing only 54.7 points per game. Additionally, both teams rank in the top five in the MWC in most major statistical categories.

Wyoming is led by senior forward Hillary Carlson, who was recently named the MWC Co-Player of the Week and averages 18.5 points per game. Senior guard Aubrey Vandiver leads the team with 9.9 rebounds a game and is second on the team with 17.7 points a game, according to Wyoming Athletics.

Senior guard Emily Carter leads TCU with 19.7 points per game and senior guard Helena Sverrisdottir is tops on the team with 4.3 assists per game while adding 17.3 points per game, according to TCU Athletics.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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The office is seeking applicants for ASUW directors of policy planning, marketing and public relations and diversity and student outreach.

Last semester ended with the resignations of CJ Young, director of policy planning, Tyler Neasloney, director of marketing and public relations, and Liz Radar, chief of staff.

Dan Adams, former director of diversity and student outreach, immediately filled the chief of staff position.

Applications are also open for new senators from the Colleges of Health Sciences, Arts and Sciences and Law, according to the ASUW website. These resignations are just three more in a line of resignations that began the first week of last semester.

Applications for executive positions are due at noon Friday, and applications for senators are due at noon Jan. 19.

ASUW is also working to plan the ASUW Capitol Spring Break trip.

The trip is designed to give students a unique opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and see some of the activities behind federal governance.

ASUW recently passed a resolution dedicating funding to the project to subsidize the cost of the trip for the students; however, students may need to pay up to $500 for the experience.

Applications and participation agreements are due by Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.

Later in the semester, ASUW will sponsor Student Fee Day and Elect Her on Feb. 10.

Elect Her is a one-day conference that encourages women to run for student government leadership positions on their campuses.

The conference will help women with campaign strategies, developing a constituency and public speaking.

The event is free and open to students.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Mike Morris:

The Cowboys picked up their most significant win of the season – and perhaps in recent program history – on Saturday when junior guard Paco Cruz hit a desperation shot at the buzzer to give Wyoming a 67-66 win over a good New Mexico team.

Wyoming had been shakier than a first-time snowboarder on a double black diamond in its first 15 contests, but against New Mexico, the Cowboys finally, finally played to their potential and put together a complete 40 minutes. It was the type of performance which – if the Cowboys can find a way to replicate it – gives reason to believe Wyoming can truly be competitive throughout the remainder of the MWC conference schedule. The intensity and toughness of a returning Adam Waddell was especially reassuring, as Waddell put up 16 and 8 against the Lobos in just 23 minutes, and New Mexico simply had no one who could match up with the 6’10 big man on Saturday.

If Waddell’s health continues to improve and the Cowboys continue to develop chemistry and depth – Daylen Harrison had 17 points off the bench against the Lobos – Wyoming men’s basketball will experience a truly exciting spring for the first time in years.

The status of Afam Muojeke’s injured knee still presides over the team’s post-season aspirations, and Muojeke is still nowhere near being able to channel his capability to be one of the most dominant scorers in the entire conference.

The Cowboys will need to continue to improve and develop over the remainder of the conference schedule and try to lock up a five or a six seed for the conference tournament in March.

If by then Muojeke’s knee has healed enough for him to be an effective scorer, Wyoming will be very much capable of putting together a magical 3-game run in the MWC tourney and, yes, dancing with a little March Madness.

As for the Cowgirls, a stellar 11-3 start – by an experienced squad which seems to improve with each game – has expectations soaring in Laramie.

A conference title, 22 or more wins, and an appearance in the NCAA tournament all seem more and more possible with each passing victory by the Cowgirls.

Zach Greubel:

After the men’s basketball team’s embarrassing loss to Colorado State and before their thrilling victory over New Mexico I thought conference play might be the same as it was last season- atrocious. However, the win against the Lobos may spark new life. Granted, they beat San Diego State at this point last season and still had a miserable season in conference play. On the bright side, junior center Adam Waddell is back from injury, hopefully for good, and gives the Cowboys some leadership on the court. Plus, they did just beat one of the best teams in the conference. We’ll see if the win against New Mexico maintains momentum through their conference season.

The Cowgirl basketball team looks primed for another promising season in conference play.  They’ve already beat Colorado State, by 40 points, and New Mexico but have their first big conference test against Texas Christian on Wednesday night. They’re the best team in the conference right now and shouldn’t stray too far from the top of the conference standings throughout the season.

Brad Estes:

The men’s loss to CSU was not encouraging. It reminds me of a team that came up short and couldn’t finish games so many times last year. The buzzer beater New Mexico win is a good win, any win is a good win for the Cowboys. After a non-conference schedule that wouldn’t have scared a high school team, its hard to make predictions for the rest of the year. Losses to teams like South Dakota, North Florida and Green Bay make it difficult to believe that the team can win consistently.

San Diego State and BYU are both impressive teams and ranked in the top 10, and those games might be worth going to see just for that fact. It all depends on how many times the Cowboys decide to show up and play like they did against New Mexico. The losses are more telling than the wins so far, and until the wins start to add up a little more, I will wait to call them even a fifth place finish in the conference.

The Cowgirls are playing well and are coached well, so they will be at the top of the conference all year. Forty point victories over conference opponents are always encouraging. A win against TCU at home tomorrow night would also be big. As a young team, the only thing to be worried about would be consistency late in the year, but so far the Cowgirls have been just that.

Tom Hesse:

I usually peg the Cowgirls for a team that comes on late in the season but they’ve looked like world beaters in their first two conference games. They should have beaten CSU without question but I didn’t see an 83-43 dismantling in them and their ten-point win in Albuquerque showed a convincing road win that I wouldn’t have looked for in a team that is a little on the young side. The Cowgirls haven’t lost in nearly a month and if they take care of the home court this Wednesday, I think they have a real shot at one of those top three spots in the conference.

I was critical of the Cowboys early in the season and I’m still not sure to make of them. All I know is that Francisco Cruz’s intangibles made him a favorite of mine early in the season and his shot to bury the Lobos has made Cruz my favorite player to watch. If the Cowboys can play half as scrappy as they did against New Mexico for the rest of the season then They have a legitimate claim to the upper half of this conference.  That CSU loss still hurts and the MWC is incredibly tough this year but I’m very excited to see this team against UNLV, BYU and SDSU. There are a lot of things to like about this team and they’re still evolving. I’ll optimistically stick them at fifth in the conference with a shot at fourth.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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As the ball careened off the rim once, and then again, hope faded to an imperceptible glimmer for Wyoming, and it appeared all but certain that the Cowboys and fourth-year head coach Heath Schroyer would once again come up heartbreakingly short in a crucial conference game against a top opponent.  

Sophomore wing Daylen Harrison grabbed a rebound and fired a desperation heave from the corner in the game’s dwindling moments, but Harrison’s shot clanged off the side of the rim and – for the briefest of moments – the ball hovered over the court like an errant balloon.

A forest of arms rose up under the hoop, and the Arena-Auditorium trembled under the tension of the baited breaths of 4,404 people as the clock ticked down to :01.   

With a sea of tumult thrashing about around him, Francisco Cruz grabbed the loose ball and – falling backwards – threw up one final prayer.

The buzzer sounded. The net rippled. A celebration of brown and gold erupted.

And a team’s entire season – and identity – may have undergone a complete transformation in the blink of an eye.

Cruz’s floater over the outstretched arm of New Mexico forward Alex Kirk proved to be the clincher in Wyoming’s 67-66 win over the Lobos on Saturday—ending a thriller of white-knuckle proportions which was anything but just another conference game for the Cowboys.

“It was a big win for our program and our team, and it was great for our kids,” Schroyer said in his press conference following the game.

Photo: DJ Bowman

“New Mexico is an unbelievable program with outstanding players and coaches. For us to get a win over a quality program like this is a big step in the right direction for our team.”

In a season which has been – in its young lifespan – tumultuous at best, and often thoroughly disappointing, Wyoming (8-8, 1-1 MWC) finally played to its potential and put together the signature win it has been searching for – and perhaps the very win Schroyer has been searching for throughout the past four seasons.

Hampered by nagging injuries to two of its top contributors – juniors Afam Muojeke and Adam Waddell – Wyoming had looked shaky in its first 15 contests of its 2010-11 campaign, as inconsistency and youth plagued the team in disappointing non-conference setbacks to Northern Colorado, North Florida, South Dakota, UC Irvine, and Wisconsin-Green Bay. 

The memories of a dismal 2009-10 season began to resurface after Wyoming blew a 13-point first half lead in its conference opener at rival Colorado State, as the Rams outscored the Cowboys 36-21 in the second half and ultimately put Wyoming away by a 73-60 margin.

Against New Mexico on Saturday, however, the Cowboys stood toe-to-toe with a formidable, 12 win team, conceding nothing to the defending conference champions.

Wyoming shot the ball well, hitting on 52.4 percent of its shots, and the Cowboys kept pace with the heavily favored Lobos thanks largely to two gutsy bench performances.

Harrison – who had struggled noticeably from the field in recent performances and did not see action against CSU – had a career afternoon, scoring 17 points on 6-7 shooting and pulling down four crucial rebounds.

“I thought Daylen was spectacular,” Schroyer said. “This was the Daylen we thought he could be. He was aggressive, and made the most of his opportunities today.”

Perhaps even more critical – and encouraging for the rest of the season – was the stellar performance from Waddell.

The 6’10 big man has been hobbled by an Achilles injury dating back to last season – missing a good portion of the nonconference season – but on Saturday he showed up in dominant fashion, even if his health still is not at 100 percent.

Waddell came through with 16 points, eight rebounds, and a pair of blocks in just 23 minutes of action – an impressive performance, which gives renewed optimism to Wyoming’s inside game if Waddell’s health continues to improve over the course of the season.

“We had no post that could guard Waddell,” New Mexico head coach Steve Alford said.

“Waddell did a heck of a job.”

“To have a healthy Adam Waddell, it really makes a difference,” Schroyer added.

Still, despite the efforts of Harrison, Waddell, and Desmar Jackson, who added 15 points of his own, it appeared as though it would be all for naught for the Cowboys when senior Lobo guard Dairese Gary, who led New Mexico with 24 points, sank two free throws to give the Lobos a 66-65 lead in the game’s waning moments.

A year ago in Laramie, UW went the distance with a leviathan New Mexico squad which finished the season 30-5, only to falter in the game’s closing moments and lose a 70-68 heartbreaker.

The Cowboys never recovered from the loss, struggling throughout the rest of the season and finishing with a 3-13 conference mark.

This year was different though, and only time will tell just how significant of a win it was.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Their home slate begins Saturday, when they will host the University of Idaho Vandals at 12 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium. They host three more games, Westminster (Utah) on Dec. 11, Wisconsin on Dec. 15 and Washington State on Dec. 18 before taking a two-game road trip.  The Dec. 15 tilt between the Badgers and Cowgirls will be a televised on the The Mtn. Sports Network—a rematch of the 2007 WNIT championship game played at the Arena-Auditorium in front of a sold-out crowd, which the Cowgirls won convincingly, 72-56.

The Cowgirls will then head to Missoula, Montana on Dec. 21, to face off against the Montana Grizzlies and will continue on to Logan, Utah to play the Utah State Aggies Dec. 23 before taking a week off, when players will head home for the holiday.

An exhibition in Rock Springs, head coach Joe Legerski’s hometown, against Montana-Western will mark the post-Christmas return of the Cowgirls Dec. 30.

The New Year brings the beginning of conference play for the Cowgirls, as they will host CSU on Jan. 5 and travel to New Mexico on Jan. 8.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Their home slate begins Saturday, when they will host the University of Idaho Vandals at 12 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium. They host three more games, Westminster (Utah) on Dec. 11, Wisconsin on Dec. 15 and Washington State on Dec. 18 before taking a two-game road trip.  The Dec. 15 tilt between the Badgers and Cowgirls will be a televised on the The Mtn. Sports Network—a rematch of the 2007 WNIT championship game played at the Arena-Auditorium in front of a sold-out crowd, which the Cowgirls won convincingly, 72-56.

The Cowgirls will then head to Missoula, Montana on Dec. 21, to face off against the Montana Grizzlies and will continue on to Logan, Utah to play the Utah State Aggies Dec. 23 before taking a week off, when players will head home for the holiday.  

An exhibition in Rock Springs, head coach Joe Legerski’s hometown, against Montana-Western will mark the post-Christmas return of the Cowgirls Dec. 30.

The New Year brings the beginning of conference play for the Cowgirls, as they will host CSU on Jan. 5 and travel to New Mexico on Jan. 8. 

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Now the Mountain West is hemorrhaging talent and making the Big 12’s debacle from this summer look like a misunderstanding. Unlike the Big 12, the Mountain West has no way of holding onto their teams. The tradition in the Mountain West was not as strong as that in the Big 12. Furthermore, the geography of the Mountain West did not lend itself to a logical conference as the Big 12’s did.  

The Mountain West Conference is now headlined by Boise State, Nevada, SDSU and Air Force. That’s the optimistic view. 

The pessimistic view is that Boise State will find a way into the Big 12 or the Pac 10 and Nevada and Fresno State will abandon their plans to leave the Western Athletic Conference, which could mean the death of the Mountain West Conference. 

Somewhere in the middle lies a conference that won’t compete nationally but will be very competitive within itself.  

What has happened to the Mountain West is not a good thing…unless you play sports at UNLV, New Mexico, CSU or Wyoming. 

What has killed our conference, just might save our program. If you thought Wyoming was in trouble this season, imagine if they played in a conference that could conceivably contain seven nationally-ranked teams—eight if Fresno State was on an upswing. 

If Wyoming is lucky enough to be in a conference in three years, then they might be lucky enough to be in a conference that they can actually win in. Addition by subtraction you might say. 

For the Mountain West in general though, it is the greatest “what if” in the history of the conference. The memory of Utah beating Alabama is a memory of a team that couldn’t leave fast enough.  

The “mid-major” teams, for lack of a better term, had a chance to build a conference that could compete with the Southeastern Conference. Instead they opted to join those conferences. It is the most frustrating example of “if you can’t beat them, join them”. 

The success of building a Mountain West super conference was entirely dependent on cooperation. Cooperation is something college football, the NCAA and the human race in general is uncomfortable with. Building a super conference is not as safe as joining one.  

It’s hard to blame those teams. It would be hard to blame Boise State if they decided to back out of joining the Mountain West. 

College football is perhaps the most corrupt sport in America and you can’t blame the teams for chasing the money any more than you can blame politicians for mud-slinging. Everyone does it and to not do so is to be left behind. Schools need money and the BCS has it. You can’t blame the teams for chasing it. As Omar from “The Wire” would remind us, “It’s all in the game, baby, it’s all in the game”. 

Email: Tom Hesse 

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Rivalry.

The venerated tradition of college football; a game between two celebrated foes, where emotions run high as the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, and where the significance of the matchup is transcended only by each team’s inexorable will to win.

All of the antecedent circumstances surrounding Saturday’s Border War matchup between Wyoming and Colorado State would seem to indicate a game of relative inconsequence.

The bowl aspirations of both teams fell along with the leaves weeks ago and have since been swept off in the November wind, leaving both teams with the barren realities of enormously disappointing seasons.

Wyoming (2-9, 0-7) is still winless in conference play this season, and the Cowboys were beaten handily by UNLV last Saturday–one week after falling 34-31 on the road to a previously winless New Mexico team.

The Rams (3-8, 2-5) were crushed 49-10 by BYU in their home finale last Saturday, and a once-proud Colorado State program, which appeared to be on the rise two years ago—after CSU won the 2008 New Mexico Bowl—now stares directly at the prospect of a second consecutive three-win season.

And yet, united by the frustrations of fruitless seasons and by the history and tradition of a rivalry more than one century deep, Wyoming and Colorado State will indubitably step onto the field of War Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon and play as intensely and as passionately as they have all season.

“It’s important because it’s our rivalry game and that makes it the most important game on our schedule,” Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen said in his Monday press conference. “It’ll always be the most important game on our schedule. It’s big to the people of the state of Wyoming, it’s big to everyone in our fanbase, our alumni and the kids in our program.”   

It’s perhaps of escalated importance to Colorado State, as the Rams still feel the sting of last season’s 17-16 defeat to Wyoming – a contest in which then-true freshman quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels guided the Cowboys on a thrilling game-winning drive which culminated in a 33 yard Ian Watts field goal with 1:27 remaining.

Colorado State players, on the other hand, sat at home watching on television as Wyoming celebrated in jubilation, and the Rams could only have been thinking about what could have been if they would have stopped Carta-Samuels and spoiled the Cowboys’ bowl hopes. The Rams, doubtlessly, were thinking ahead to November for another shot at Wyoming.

Pete Thomas has turned some heads in the conference in his first season at the helm for the Rams, passing for 2,565 yards and 11 touchdowns, and although Thomas has been inconsistent at times—also throwing 12 interceptions—he is a formidable challenge for a Cowboy defense, which has been torched each of the previous three weeks.

On the other sideline, Carta-Samuels is still looking for a definitive performance in 2010, a season after winning MWC Freshman of the Year honors.

It isn’t that Carta-Samuels has struggled—he’s completed 59.1% of his passes—but the Cowboy offense has been stagnant for most of the season, and while Carta-Samuels hasn’t surpassed the 200 yard passing mark since week one, it’s in rivalry games where great players often rise to the occasion and etch their legacies definitively into the histories of a program. 

There’s no shortage of reasons to believe that players all over the field – wearing brown and gold and green and gold – will be up to the occasion on Saturday. 

It’s the final time outstanding senior contributors Chris Prosinski (366 career tackles, fourth all-time in Cowboy history), David Leonard (147), and Marcell Gipson will take the field as Cowboys.

It’s the opportunity to hoist the Bronze Boot in triumph and hold bragging rights over a fierce rival. 

It’s the Border War, and it’s still about as good as it gets for college football in November. 

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The parallels between the Rebels and Cowboys are many, but perhaps the most pronounced similarity between the two slumping teams is their shared conviction to avoid a last-place finish in the Mountain West Conference.

That is precisely what is on the line for the Cowboys and Rebels, with the game’s loser crowned conference bottom-dweller.

Although Wyoming was saddled with one of the toughest schedules in all of college football, the Cowboys were unable to stay competitive in its four games against ranked opponents, faltering to a 2-6 start.

The Cowboys hit rock bottom in Albuquerque last Saturday night, falling on a field goal as time expired to a New Mexico team, which had lost 19 of its previous 20 games.

“That was the absolute most difficult loss of my career,” Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen said on Monday during his weekly press conference. “I thought we played well in a number of different areas and didn’t come away with the victory in a game I thought we should’ve won.”

Things of late have hardly been better for the Rebel camp. 

UNLV was embarrassed last Saturday in Provo in a 55-7 shellacking at the hands of BYU, in a game where the Rebels were outgained by nearly 400 total yards.

It was the culmination of a five-game losing streak during which the Rebels have been outscored by the opposition 239-59.

The Rebels rank 115th nationally in both scoring offense and defense, while the Cowboys find themselves ranked 113th and 97th respectively – forcasting an evenly-bad match up for Saturday.

Optimism on Offense: Dormant for most of the season, the Cowboy offense has finally kindled under a few “PROVERBIAL” sparks over the past two weeks. Wyoming racked up 536 yards against New Mexico.

The Cowboys had three 100-yard rushers against the Lobos, as running backs Alvester Alexander and Robert Herron, and quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels eclipsed that number, marking the first time since 1995 that Wyoming had accomplished that in a game. Alexander’s 94 yard touchdown run was the second longest in program history. 

Wyoming turned the ball over four times against the Lobos, however, a deciding factor in the Cowboys’ ultimate loss and something Christensen stressed must change if Wyoming wants to win another game this season.

Senior receiver David Leonard had one reception against New Mexico, keeping his streak of consecutive games with a reception alive at 24.

Runnin’ Rebels without a Cause: One of the largest impediments to UNLV’s success this season has been its incapacity to establish anything on the ground. The Rebels have cracked the 100-yard barrier just four times this season, and UNLV has only 874 total rushing yards to its credit.

Quarterback Omar Clayton is an established and capable playmaker, but Clayton’s inconsistency has been evident throughout the season. The senior has completed 100 of 182 passes for 1,082 yards and 6 touchdowns – including a stellar 194 yard, three touchdown effort in the Rebels’ sole win of the season over New Mexico – but Clayton struggled last week against BYU, completing just three of eight passes for 13 yards and an interception before being relieved.

Hitting the History Books: The Cowboys have had more success against UNLV than against any other conference opponent in recent years. 

Wyoming holds a 5-1 record against the Rebels dating back to the 2004 season, and the Cowboys are 3-1 in their previous four games at Sam Boyd Stadium (including a 24-21 triumph over UCLA in the 2004 Las Vegas Bowl).  

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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