LARAMIE – Great coaches live by the ABCs of college football – always be crootin'.
 
Jay Sawvel felt good about the 2025 Cowboys after the transfer portal door was shut on the eve of the Brown & Gold Game.
 
"We have great leadership in this program right now," Sawvel said after praising players like John Michael Gyllenborg, Jack Walsh and Caden Barnett for their loyalty to Wyoming. "We've got things we need to improve at, but we've retained a lot of the key pieces we need."
 
In the weeks that followed the conclusion of spring practice, UW's second-year head coach would announce the signings of eight new players to the roster recruited out of the transfer portal.
 
Many of those additions have flashed during the first three practices of fall camp.
 
Two running backs, Max White (previously at Iowa) and Damashja Harris (previously at North Texas), have added experience and physicality to a room led by motivated senior Sam Scott.
 
"We didn't have a practice that sounded like that last year," Sawvel noted of Wednesday's bruising session. "When we did that inside run period that sounded different."
 
The sight of the 207-pound White, 224-pound Harris and 230-pound Scott bursting through the line of scrimmage has been a welcoming one for Sawvel after running backs struggled to break tackles last season.
 
"We are a much bigger football team at numerous positions," Sawvel said. "But by all the metrics we are a substantially faster football team than what we were a year ago. I think you see some of the impact of that."
 
Michael Fitzgerald, a 6-6 graduate transfer from Central Missouri, was another late signee who stood out early this week. His length and ball skills are a problem for defensive backs.
 
"Mike Fitzgerald the last two days has made plays that you look at and he's got very good hands. This is a 6-foot-5-plus guy, so he's a huge target," Sawvel said. "It has been good to see. Let's talk about him a month from now and see where he's at."
 
The Pokes also improved the post-spring competition on defense by landing defensive end Chisom Ifeanyi (Florida Atlantic), linebacker Enock Sibomana (North Dakota State) and cornerback Dainsus Miller (Mercer).
 
Ifeanyi made the mistake of sitting in the hot tub before Monday's practice, which quickly led to dehydration. After sitting out Tuesday the talented pass rusher was back on the field Wednesday.
 
Miller has helped upgrade the competition at cornerback. Ian Bell, Tyrese Boss, Markie Grant and Tyson Deen have also performed well early in camp.
 
Sibomana played in all 16 games during NDSU's FCS national title run last season, finishing with 56 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks.
 
"He's a good linebacker; he's a good player. I mean, he's going to play a lot of stuff – defensively he will, special teams he will," Sawvel said. "Enoch comes from a national champion and understands how to play and how to win and how that looks. Max White comes from Iowa, so he knows what that grind is like and brings that into it.
 
"We have a number of players here who are really good leaders, but these guys fit right into that because they're grinders and players see that."
 
Bart Edmiston Jr., an NJCAA All-America punter last season at Jones College, is another player added in May expected to have a major impact when the season kicks off in late August.
 
Sawvel credited his position coaches and recruiting staff for identifying the transfer targets in the portal and helping to get them in the program.
 
"They did a tremendous job of constantly sorting through people who had a certain physical skillset that we were still able in the market to recruit," Sawvel said. "It's good to see some of that pay off, but bigger than that is the personalities of the people. There's no entitlement, there's no complaining, there's no, this is how I do it. That's been a blessing."
 
If you are interested in learning more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) or would like to support our student-athletes, please visit 1wyo.org. 1WYO was created out of Wyoming's culture of neighbor helping neighbor. The mission is to promote and strengthen local charitable organizations and develop Wyoming student athletes. 
 
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