With Mountain West Conference play now upon us, the time for Q&A’s has come and gone. You all know about the programs that the Pokes will play in the conference season and I know for the most part you could care less about them. Therefore I am introducing a new series for the rest of the football season, the Wyoming flashback. I will present to you a note worthy game from the past against the coming weekend’s opponent. We hope you will enjoy this trip down memory lane in a game that Wyoming actually won (hooray!).

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November 20, 1999

Box Score

Under head coach Dana Dimel, Wyoming ran their record to 7-3 (4-2) with a 42-28 win against the New Mexico Lobos. The key player for the Lobos that season was future NFL star Brian Urlacher who lined up at linebacker, tight end and also returned kicks against the Cowboys. The Pokes were paced offensively by quarterback Jay Stoner (Colorado Springs, Colorado) who threw for 249 yards along with two touchdowns and running back Cliff Brye (Lincoln, Nebraska) who rushed for 166 yards on just six carries two of which went for touchdowns.

The Wyoming defense was led that day by safety Al Rich (Colorado Springs, Colorado)  who intercepted the first pass New Mexico threw in the second half and his fellow defensive back Trent Gamble (Parker, Colorado) who late in the game knocked down a potentially game tying pass on fourth-down in the end zone. Gamble would go on to the NFL after his Wyoming career playing four seasons with the Miami Dolphins.

The victory over the Lobos kept Wyoming in contention to win a share of the Mountain West title that season but the next week the Cowboys were heavily defeated by San Diego State 39-7 ending those hopes. Soon after that loss head coach Dana Dimel took the job at Houston and Wyoming hired Dimel’s defensive coordinator Vic Koenning to be the new head coach. Ushering in (unfortunately) the modern era of subpar Wyoming football that we are still trying to get out of.

Saturday’s meeting between Wyoming and New Mexico will be the 68th in a series that started back in 1930. Wyoming leads the overall series 36-31 and has won three out of the last five games against the long time rivals.