LAS VEGAS – Jay Sawvel rode for the brand on the lead horse for the first time at Thursday's Mountain West football media day.
 
Wyoming's first-year head coach, whose team was picked to finish sixth in the preseason MW media poll, spent eight consecutive hours doing print, radio and television interviews about the program he inherited from Craig Bohl.
 
Sawvel isn't shy about going public with his plan to get the Cowboys to the top of the mountain.
 
"It's a responsibility to take over for Craig Bohl," Sawvel said at the podium at Circa Resort & Casino. "Partly because there's one thing that I have to do to finish what he started and that's to win a championship. He got the program up on its feet from where it was from facilities to fan base to national TV exposure … to the number of players that were drafted during Craig Bohl's time at Wyoming and everything that way.
 
"There's one thing missing and that one thing, we've got to figure out a way to achieve that. That's what we're trying to do."
 
During his first session of the day, a sit-with FOX, Sawvel was asked what has impressed him most about the 2024 Pokes.
 
"The hunger," Sawvel said. "Since we got back (in January), we have not wasted a day."
 
UW returns 16 starters, including all-MW defensive tackle Jordan Bertagnole and star running back Harrison Waylee, from last year's 9-4 team.
 
Sawvel believes the Cowboys will have one of the best defenses in the conference. He is also confident the combination of offensive coordinator Jay Johnson's scheme, quarterback Evan Svoboda's rare physical gifts and a talent upgrade at the skill positions will make UW dangerous on both sides of the ball.
 
But what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. That includes talking about winning the MW championship.
 
UW will continue to grind through summer workouts and during fall camp, which begins July 31, before opening the Sawvel era on Aug. 31 against Arizona State in Tempe.
 
"This isn't band camp," Sawvel said. "I think behind closed doors they know that we have an expectation here. Basically, I told them, guys we're going to expect you to do this, this and this. But this isn't like I've patented anything. They do this at Alabama, they do this at Georgia. This is what they do so this is what we're going to expect you to do."
 
Sawvel raved about the improvements the team has made in Eric Donoval's strength and conditioning program over the last six months.
 
Key players like defensive ends Sabastian Harsh and Braden Siders and Waylee are much bigger, healthier and more explosive than last season.
 
Svoboda, who is listed at 6-foot-5, 245 pounds, leads the way by working as hard as anyone on the roster.
 
"Evan Svoboda is a high achieving person," Sawvel said. "He's a person who works like a guy who has a distinct high-level goal. You're talking about someone who is immensely talented, immensely God gifted, who is bought in at a really high level and works his ass off. When you have all of that in combination you typically get a pretty good player out of that. That's why I'm really comfortable with him and we have a great relationship. He sets the bar."
 
During Thursday's workouts back in Laramie, six players were clocked at 22 mph on the GPS monitors. Veteran wide receivers Alex Brown and Will Pelissier were on the list, as was Texas Tech transfer Tyler King.
 
Tight end John Michael Gyllenborg is on the preseason all-MW team along with Bertagnole and offensive lineman Jack Walsh. There are a handful of other players the Pokes believe will be on the postseason all-conference team.
 
But all the media days talk is cheap. The preseason poll will be clipped to the bulletin board when Sawvel returns to the High Altitude Performance Center.
 
"It shows us that we've got mountains to climb," Sawvel said. "I think internally in our own building what they see when they go work out and do stuff every day is not a sixth-place team. That's all I really care about right now."
 
The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams this season, which includes automatic bids for the five highest ranked conference champions, allows Mountain West programs to dare to dream big.
 
Boise State, the preseason favorite, was one of the original "BCS busters" in the pre-playoff system. Fresno State has a history of upsetting power programs. UW's tradition includes appearances in the Sugar and Fiesta Bowls.
 
The Cowboys have a chance to get the selection committee's attention with non-conference games against two Big 12 opponents (ASU and BYU) and one of the two remaining Pac-12 teams (Washington State).
 
"Regardless of who it is in the Mountain West, whether it's Wyoming, whether it's Boise, whoever it is that then has an opportunity to win the Mountain West, the hope would be that we've built up enough strength of schedule through our non-conference wins and through our conference play that that team is one that's an automatic qualifier for the playoff," Sawvel said. "That's what the goal would be is to put ourselves in that position. We have to do that. Last year we were in position. Last year would have been a good show for us – beat Texas Tech at home, be 10-10 to start the fourth quarter at Texas, beat Appalachian State – those were the things we needed to do.
 
"We just didn't do a couple other things we needed to do to put ourselves in that spot."
 
The Cowboys went 7-0 at War Memorial Stadium to close out the Bohl era. The focus throughout the offseason has been on finding that level on the road after UW's championship run crumbled with losses at Air Force, Boise State and UNLV.
 
When asked what would make his first season as head coach a success, Sawvel said he wasn't going to put a ceiling on what this team can accomplish.
 
"I'm excited about the group," he said. "There's a confidence in it and we'll just leave it at that."

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