LARAMIE – The loyal fan base that creates the best home atmosphere in the conference and packed War Memorial Stadium in late November to celebrate Josh Allen deserves to see the Cowboys win the Mountain West championship.

Nobody wanted the Hollywood ending more than Jay Sawvel.

Unfortunately, the reality of the 2025 season for UW was the offense struggled mightily and the special teams units were too inconsistent to help a championship-level defense achieve the program's goal of adding the MW trophy to the case inside the High Altitude Performance Center.

"I want to go into the league and set a tone that we play for championships," UW athletics director Tom Burman said of the new look MW coming in 2026 with the departure of five schools to the Pac-12 and the addition of two football-playing schools.  "We have to turn the corner."

Many of Burman's peers are out of patience in the era of the transfer portal and revenue sharing. By the end of the 2025 regular season, 15 FBS head coaches were fired and owed a combined $228 million in buyouts.

Burman is asking Brown & Gold supporters for a little more patience with Sawvel, who has a plan to fix the offense this offseason the way the defense was transformed a year ago.

The first step was the signing of a 20-man 2026 recruiting class on Wednesday. The incoming freshmen never wavered on verbal commitments to Sawvel and his staff despite the lack of on-field results.

"They're not looking at that. They're looking at the fact that if we just get some things done these are winnable games," Sawvel said of the talented prospects. "Where we are right now, they understand you can pull the cover back and see this (area) is where we're not as good as we need to be and this is what we've got to do to fix it. They all understand that all the way through. I appreciate that part of it."

Sawvel's next major item on the to-do list is hiring a new offensive coordinator. If the Cowboys, who were last in the MW in scoring offense (16.0 ppg), were in the middle of the pack like New Mexico (27.9 ppg), they would have likely been involved in the tiebreaker atop the standings.

"The reality of it is Jay and I have been talking since the middle of the season about these challenges and what's frustrating is had we been able to address them we'd have been in a much better situation," Burman said. "If we would have been the sixth-most efficient offense in the league scoring we would have won seven games this year and probably seven last year. We have to address that issue."

After hiring a new play-caller, Sawvel and the staff will be pursuing impact players from the portal, which opens Jan. 2. That will include an experienced quarterback to flip the script on offense next fall.

During his press conference with the media on Thursday, Burman noted that UW is in a better position to assist the football program with revenue sharing.

"I do believe Jay has a good plan and as I mentioned I think it will be up to him to execute, but we are here to help," Burman said. "There are things we can do from a support perspective, both financially and mentorship, to help Jay."

Burman credits Sawvel for developing an outstanding defense along with defensive coordinator Aaron Bohl and the defensive assistants. Many of the key players from the unit are expected to return and pick up where they left off when spring practice begins.

"I'm not going anywhere!" nickelback Desman Hearns posted on social media. "Excited to run it back with my guys. I believe in this team, our staff, and this University."

Jovon Bouknight, who took over the play-calling duties down the stretch, will remain on the staff as wide receivers coach. The 2024 UW Athletics Hall of Fame inductee is still a team player who wants to see the program thrive.

The process of replacing Jay Johnson with a new offensive coordinator has already begun. Sawvel does not expect to have any other staff changes to make entering his third season as head coach.

"I know where we're at within the team, and I know where we're at within the culture of the place, and I know where our appeal is to certain things," Sawvel said. "I also know what areas that we've got to get fixed."

Mason Drube, the promising freshman quarterback from Gillette, believes the return of a dominant defense will help the offense reach the necessary standard to compete for championships.

"Most of the reason I came here is because I've got a nasty defense that has my back," Drube said after playing significant snaps in the finale at Hawaii. "I think that's what we're going to get to. All we have to do as an offense is get guys to buy in this offseason and really work on the little details because right now as an offense it's the little details that are preventing big plays."

The landscape of college football has changed dramatically since the Allen-led 2016 Pokes hosted the MW championship.

The goal at UW remains the same.

"We have a chance to make a statement in a new conference," Burman said. "Football matters and football drives the bus and I take responsibility for where we are. We're going to get it fixed, and I believe Jay gives us the best chance of getting it fixed next year."

Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
 
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