LARAMIE – Craig Bohl had one goal for the spring game during his decade-long run as Wyoming's head coach: Make it look like football.
 
Jay Sawvel's Cowboys produced a quality simulation during the Brown team's competitive 17-10 victory over the Gold on Thursday at War Memorial Stadium.
 
"Really, by in large, I thought it looked like football," a satisfied Sawvel said.
 
Here are five takeaways from the 2024 spring game:
 
Hat tip to the D
 
The defense, which Sawvel coordinated for four seasons before replacing Bohl, has not skipped a beat with Aaron Bohl in charge of the unit.
 
The defenses combined for seven sacks and four turnovers (three recovered fumbles and an interception). The first-team defense (Gold) forced the first-team offense (Brown) to punt four consecutive times to open the game.
 
"Having the best defense in the Mountain West, it's going to make us the best offense in the Mountain West," quarterback Evan Svoboda said. "It's always fun to go up against those guys and compete."
 
The depth at defensive end – where the Pokes return DeVonne Harris, Sabastian Harsh and Braden Siders – was on display. Ethan Day led the Brown with 2.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks and Jordan Turnbull finished with five tackles and a sack for the Gold.
 
Linebacker Micah Young led the Gold with eight tackles and a sack, and safety Lafai Purcell had five tackles and an interception for the Brown.
 
UW returns eight starters and six of the top seven tacklers from 2023.
 
"The defense kind of has a big tool belt that they can run because they've run all this stuff for a while," Sawvel noted.
 
How's your oxygen?
 
New offensive coordinator Jay Johnson installed a scheme this spring that featured more spread formations and tempo concepts.
 
There were 130 total offensive plays during the spring game with 46 runs and 84 pass attempts. The Cowboys also double-repped throughout most of the spring, a practice structure establish by Craig Bohl.
 
"We grinded now," Sawvel said. "We're rolling most days 26 periods. If you look at the play count, there's 130 plays in that. We've never done that. We really hit the play count at halftime that I was really looking for. That's why we ran the clock the way we did in the second half as much as we did.
 
"The pace that we're able to play at right now, the pace that everybody is working at, I'm really pleased. Now we flip that chapter and go onto the next one. We've got to have a great summer and lead into the fall."
 
Andrew Peasley and the Pokes took Texas Tech "to the deep end of the pool" to set the tone for a 7-0 finish at home last fall. Svoboda believes the offense's ability to speed things up will make life even harder for visitors to 7,220 feet.
 
"I love it," Svoboda said. "I think that's going to give us such an edge on other teams, especially at this elevation. Not only do guys have to come up here and struggle to breathe sometimes but imagine us pushing the tempo and they have to keep up with us. I think that's a super big competitive edge we might have on a lot of teams."
 
Work to do at key spots
 
There are two positions of concern for Sawvel entering the summer – offensive tackle and cornerback.
 
Redshirt freshmen Jake Davies (left tackle) and Nathan Geiger (right tackle) were swimming upstream trying to block Harris, Harsh, Siders and blitzers this spring.
 
If Svoboda and the other quarterbacks weren't wearing blue non-contact jerseys Thursday, they would be wearing black and blue bruises this weekend.
 
"I'm optimistic in a lot of areas on the football team but we still have a couple areas that we've got to get better at before I can sit there and have real confidence in everything. And that's one area," Sawvel said. "Those guys must turn around and have a really good offseason and a really good fall camp and continue to develop and improve. The thing is their improvement level is going to have to go faster."
 
The good news is Caden Barnett, who sat out this spring to recover from surgery, is expected to be healthy for fall camp. The 6-foot-5, 310-pound junior will likely replace NFL-bound Frank Crum at left tackle.
 
The Pokes also have a clear No. 1 cornerback in Tyrecus Davis, one of the best players at any position this spring. Due to injuries, wide receiver Caleb Merritt played cornerback in the spring game.
 
"Caleb has a great attitude toward it. I thought even Tuesday (at practice) he showed the capability to do it," Sawvel said. "What we've got to really do is look at how that fits within the program. He's mature. I know what I'm getting out of Caleb Merritt, I know what type of mentality he's going to have. And he really does have a defensive mentality. He loves to be physical; he loves to challenge people and things like that."
 
Like the offensive tackle position, help is on the way. Sophomore cornerbacks Keany Parks and Ian Bell will compete for the other starting cornerback spot when they're completely healthy in fall camp.
 
Pokes have more play-makers
 
Svoboda will have some proven security blankets to comfort him this season in tight end John Michael Gyllenborg, running backs Harrison Waylee and wide receiver Will Pelissier.
 
The upgraded depth and talent pool at the skill positions was on display.
 
True freshman Chris Durr Jr. (12 receptions, 121 yards) and redshirt freshman Justin Stevenson (five receptions, 56 yards) leading the Gold and Brown teams in receiving, respectively.
 
North Carolina transfer DJ Jones finishing with 12 carries for 77 yards and a touchdown to lead the Brown ground game.
 
Sam Scott had an 8-yard touchdown run and tight end Isaac Schoenfeld added five catches for 45 yards for the Gold. Gyllenborg had three catches for 40 yards and Kayden LaFramboise added two catches for 37 yards for the Brown.
 
"Having these young guys being ready in the momentum and actually being able to catch the ball is great," Jayden Clemons said of the enhanced weaponry. "They're doing their jobs, filling their roles on the team, giving us confidence as quarterbacks to throw the ball and giving the team confidence that they're going to go out and make a play. That's always going to help our offense."
 
QB1's strong closing argument
 
Even though the defense won the day, Svoboda made sure his team won the game.
 
The 6-foot-5, 245-pound junior threw a Josh Allen-like 37-yard touchdown pass to LaFramboise with 2:17 remaining in the fourth quarter to deliver the victory for the Brown.
 
"That was a ball right there. I thought he played pretty well," Sawvel said. "He had some really good field throws. That's one of those things as a defensive coach, if you can kind of pack it in the paint, using a basketball term, because a quarterback can't get it all over the field, it really helps you defensively.
 
"But when a quarterback can throw an out cut at the depths that he can and a quarterback can laser a ball in a seam the way he did right there, there's some good things that can happen there."
 
Svoboda finished 17-for-27 passing for 204 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Clemons, who put himself in position to be the backup with a strong spring, was 18-for-27 passing for 174 yards.
 
Redshirt freshman Kaden Anderson was 14-for-22 for 116 yards with an interception. Gage Brooks was 3-for-8 for 19 yards.
 
"This work that we're putting in now goes a long way, carries over towards summer and fall camp and obviously into the season," Svoboda said. "Everything we're doing as a group, all the work that we're putting in now, it's imperative and it's going to benefit us in the long run."
 
UW will conduct its 15^th and final spring practice on Friday.
 
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