Offensive Line and Defense

[WyoAlum1987]

Howdy
Its just my opinion, but I think these ol boys are gonna need a little help if we are gonna make some noise next year.
Can one of you fellers who are savvy provide a rundown on the changes in coaching and recruits in these areas?
Much obliged

[PotatoCreekPete]

Howdy
Its just my opinion, but I think these ol boys are gonna need a little help if we are gonna make some noise next year.
Can one of you fellers who are savvy provide a rundown on the changes in coaching and recruits in these areas?
Much obliged

First of all, let me say that if you are counting on incoming freshmen on the OL or the DL to make some noise it is most likely going to be a long season. It is much easier for HS players that are in the so-called "skilled" positions to make the transition from HS to college and be contributors earlier on. Typically, OL and DL need a season or two to physically mature to be truly competitive, it is the rare OL or DL that can come in and make an immediate impact. Luckily, I do not feel that we have to count on the incoming freshmen OL or DL to make some noise, at the most IMO we will be looking at some kids to provide depth in the DE position, but that is about the only position I see incoming freshmen having any impact.

With that said, I feel that we are lucky to have some talented young men already in the program that should and can be counted on to help make next season special.

Offensive Line:

OT: Both of the offensive tackles that started last season are coming back: Walker Madden (6-9, 297, Sr., OT) & Connor Rains (6-7, 318, Sr., OT) and I feel that these two guys just might be the best OT tandem in the MWC next season, and I think that one if not both have a good shot at playing Sundays in the future. Behind them we have a good one in Austin Traphagan (6-5, 308, Jr., OT) who will push for playing time. Also, another young man to watch out for because he is a really good one and that is: Connor Riese (6-7, 295, RFr., OT).

OG: We have one very good OG that started last season coming back, and that is: Jake Jones (6-3, 295, Jr., OG), he is a very solid player. At the other OG position, there will be some competition, but in the lead has to be: Jacob English (6-5, 292, So., OG), some young players will have something to say about that and will give a good battle here.

OC: Even with the departure of Albert Perez, I feel that the OC position is in good hands. There were two guys that played a lot at OC and one of them started, and he comes back and that is: Rafe Kiely (6-3, 299, Jr., OC). The other guy who played a lot and will battle for playing time is: Chase Roullier (6-4, 293, So., OC).

The young players that will be battling for playing time are: Charlie Renfree (6-3,268, RFr., OG), Sam Hardy (6-3, 299, So., OG), Kurtis Stirneman (6-5, 270, RFr., OT), Taylor Knestis (6-5, 278, RFr., OL) and Nathan Leddige (6-5, 289, So., OT).

The offensive line will benefit greatly from working with Duval in the off season training program, and it all depends upon who works the hardest and makes the most improvement that will see the field next season.

Defensive Line:

The defensive line is in much the same situation as the offensive line IMO. As you have some starters coming back that are very good, but at the same time we need to see some of the young men step up to provide depth.

DE: We have two VERY good DE's coming back IMO. First would have to be: Eddie Yarbrough (6-3, 257, Jr., DE), who is an All-MWC caliber player and will be playing on Sundays in acouple of seasons IMO, he is a GOOD one! On the other side is: Sonny Puletasi (6-3, 251, Sr., DE), who is also an excellent player and very experienced. Behind these two guys are a lot of question marks. We have a senior: Riley Lange (6-3, 250, Sr., DE) that is coming back but unfortunately he has been injured a lot so has not seen the field a whole lot, and beyond him we have a lot of questions. Maybe some of these can be answered by the incoming freshmen.

But there is another piece in this puzzle that is a BIG plus. Patrick Mertens (6-5, 295, Sr., DE/DT) received a 6th year due to an illness that he had acouple of seasons ago which meant he lost a whole season. Patrick came up as a DE, and is a very good one. Last season though, because the coaches didn't coach up or develop the DT position, he was moved to the DT position. Frankly I wouldn't mind seeing him move back to the DE position as I feel that is his natural position, but I am far from knowing what the coaches have in mind. Just the same it is really nice to have someone that started every game at DT come back next season.

DT: Besides, Mertens, we have have only one other player that saw much time at the DT that is coming back this season and that is: Uso Olive (6-1, 293, So., DT) saw a lot of double team last year and is the strongest player on the team. I feel that Uso will benefit greatly from another year of maturing and more pressure coming from the other DT position and a year with Duval. I look for big things from Uso this coming season. Besides Uso and Mertens, we have a bunch of guys that redshirted. There was a guy that was highly thought of that came in from JC last year (offer from Texas A&M) but never saw the field and was redshirted and it would be a big help if he were able to contribute this year, and that is: Troy Boyland (6-2, 302, RJr., DT). Behind these guys we have two young guys that have a lot of talent and I am hoping and expecting big things from: James Diamanti (6-4, 296, RFr., DT) and Dalton Fields (6-3, 265, RFr., DT). There is talent at the DT position, but it needs maturing and developing, and I think that Duval and Bohl are just the guys to get it out of them.

Of the incoming freshmen, it is hard to say what is going to happen with them, but Daniel Vega (6-4, 260, Fr., DE), Connor Cain (6-4, 250, Fr., DE), Sidney Malauulu (6-3, 285, Fr., DT) all appear to have great talent and upsides. One player that I haven't mentioned and that is Joshua Stanton (6-3, 240, Fr., DE) who is the younger brother of our really terrific MLB (Jordan Stanton) is coming in. I see him as being a bit light for the DE position, and wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to another position, whether it be a LB, or a FB.

Coaching:

Offensive Line: Scott Fuchs is the OL coach. Scott from his bio was a great college OL and has been coaching it for a very long time and was the OL coach at NDSU, so if anyone knows what he is doing here it is Scott. His offensive lines at NDSU were outstanding and I would expect the same things here.

Defensive Line: Pete Kaligis is the new DT coach and A.J. Cooper is the new DE coach. Pete of course is a hold over from the last staff and he is very well liked and highly thought of. He coached the DL some years ago, so he has some experience here and he is joined by A.J. Cooper who was doing the same thing up at NDSU. I expect big things from the DL next season under these two excellent coaches.

In conclusion:

I truly like the talent that is on the team right now in the OL and DL, but it was important to get some great young talent into the program for depth and future seasons and it appears that Bohl has done exactly that. Between now and Fall Camp, I see an incredible improvement in the OL and DL and the players that truly embrace the challenge and work at it will benefit the most and will see the field and be the biggest contributors next season and will "make some noise". I hope that this answers your question(s).

[PokeOLoco]

I also think John Jackson could see the field as a third down/situational edge rusher type.

[PotatoCreekPete]

I also think John Jackson could see the field as a third down/situational edge rusher type.

True, I omitted him by accident.

[WYO1016]

Great breakdown, Tater Creek!

[Cowboy Junky]

I think Chase Appleby has a chance to get into the two deep at defensive tackle.

[PotatoCreekPete]

I think Chase Appleby has a chance to get into the two deep at defensive tackle.

Chase is an interesting player, as he has been moved around on the DL and it is hard kind of figuring where he will end up. I wouldn't be surprised if he were moved to another position as strange as it sounds. Chase has got a heck of a motor and drive but from what I am understanding that 6-0 is generous.....call me crazy but if you were to slim him down some to say 260 or so, I would move him to FB, kind of like a goal line FB specialist. But I could be all wet and it would be best to keep him at DT.

[WyoAlum1987]

Thanks Tater, EXCELLENT rundown. With all that talent on the team last year, why didnt we get more done in yer opinion?
Glad Kaligis is stayin, hes the genuine issue. Cowboy through and through

[PotatoCreekPete]

Thanks Tater, EXCELLENT rundown. With all that talent on the team last year, why didnt we get more done in yer opinion?
Glad Kaligis is stayin, hes the genuine issue. Cowboy through and through

One Word....COACHING.

Christensen could and did recruit some talent, especially at the QB position. But for some reason we just didn't see the development in players that you would have expected. For example, Blair Burns came in and was like freshmen All-American and then had a decent sophomore season but kind of just leveled off. There were a number of players like Blair during Christensen's time at Wyoming. You know there are coaches that coach and there are coaches that teach. It appeared that Christensen and much of his staff were coaches and not real teachers that could take a player and really develop them. Coach Christensen was kind of infamous for saying that a good player got himself ready to play and that he didn't think that he (Christensen) needed to that or should do that to help get a player ready to play, they should just do that themselves! (Unbelievable!) A lot of kids come out of high school and really don't know how to get themselves ready on a collegiate level and this is where a teacher comes in. Besides telling the kid what to do on the field they teach them how to prepare and develop their talent off the field and to get ready for games. This is why I am so excited to see Coach Bohl and his staff come in because he HAD to be a teacher to be successful at NDSU. The most successful basketball coach at Wyoming was that type of coach, Jim Brandenburg. He could take raw talent and really develop it and by the time the kid left his program he would have learned something and really explored and learned what he had. Coach Bohl reminds me of a Jim Brandenburg, just in football instead of basketball.

P.S. - I am also very glad that Pete Kaligis stayed.

[mwc fan]

I think the reason Kaligas was retained is because he actually taught players and the players under him got better. His players respected him and in turn they produced. If that's the Bohl philosophy then Kaligas fits the mold. Which in my opinion is the reason he was moved to Coach the D line. We desperately needed our front line to produce.

[WYCowboy]

I think the reason Kaligas was retained is because he actually taught players and the players under him got better. His players respected him and in turn they produced. If that's the Bohl philosophy then Kaligas fits the mold. Which in my opinion is the reason he was moved to Coach the D line. We desperately needed our front line to produce.

Christensen couldn't see his hand in front of his face. What a waste of the players & fans time and our money.

[tweaked]

Excellent summary Potato Creek ... agree completely. I think our line positions (on both sides) are in better shape talent wise than many have suggested. Eddie Y. at defensive end is going to be special; he dominated at times last year as a sophomore. And he's a great kid too. And as you say, we have some talent on both the offensive and defensive line positions. I think though the other variable worth considering is that these kids have practiced against a spread offense day in and day out; now they will practice against a more smash-mouth version of offensive football day in and day out. I think this makes a difference. I saw some stats a while back showing that defenses of spread-oriented offenses don't defend the run very well. But I think we have the talent potential for Bohl and gang to coach these guys up for a more physical brand of football. I want to see more physicality though from our linebackers and dbs on d. This will be interesting to see how quickly Bohl can develop a second-line defense that is physical; actually this is where I see the greatest challenge for us next year.

[PotatoCreekPete]

Excellent summary Potato Creek ... agree completely. I think our line positions (on both sides) are in better shape talent wise than many have suggested. Eddie Y. at defensive end is going to be special; he dominated at times last year as a sophomore. And he's a great kid too. And as you say, we have some talent on both the offensive and defensive line positions. I think though the other variable worth considering is that these kids have practiced against a spread offense day in and day out; now they will practice against a more smash-mouth version of offensive football day in and day out. I think this makes a difference. I saw some stats a while back showing that defenses of spread-oriented offenses don't defend the run very well. But I think we have the talent potential for Bohl and gang to coach these guys up for a more physical brand of football. I want to see more physicality though from our linebackers and dbs on d. This will be interesting to see how quickly Bohl can develop a second-line defense that is physical; actually this is where I see the greatest challenge for us next year.

Thanks for the thoughts. It will be interesting to see how the whole team takes to a much more physical style of play. I remember reading something similar to what you are talking about, i.e. - teams that utilize the spread offense typically are not good at stopping the run with their defenses since they don't see that type of physical offense in practice. I think that another factor is that Christensen believed in a lighter, quicker offensive line and so his offensive line was not big by collegiate standards and they played with wide splits and many times Christensen had his offensive linemen losing weight. This appeared to carry over to the defensive line, because Wyoming's defensive line was ALWAYS undersized while Christensen was here. Maybe he wanted his defenses to be quicker and faster, but having such light defensive linemen meant that there was NO room for error with these guys, they had to play their assignments perfectly so they would have a chance and any mistakes that they made would be magnified and would make them easy targets to get blown off the ball. Rarely did we ever see Christensen's defensive lines stopping plays at the line, time after time we watched the other teams RB's explode into the secondary where the LB's and DB's were required to make the play. Anytime you have such an inability to have your defensive line be a play stopper (running, etc.) then you are destined to give up big yards with your defense. You are also putting pressure on other parts of your defense to step up and cover the weakness of the defensive line, so this just makes the LB's and DB's jobs quite a bit harder. This affected everything on the defensive side of the ball, DB's couldn't be aggressive against the wide outs from the other team because they always had to be involved in backing up a defensive line that was getting blown off the ball. Speaking of DB's. I noticed that many times Bohl's DB's at NDSU played on the line and gave very little or no cushion to the other teams wide outs. I am hoping to see the same type of DB play at Wyoming. When other teams had their DB's play on the line against our wide outs, we rarely got separation, I would love to see that type of shutdown defense FINALLY at Wyoming instead of this 10 to 20 yard cushion defense that was meant to bend but not break (and many times did break). With the bend but do not break defense you are just about guaranteed to give up huge amounts of yardage and be required to stop the other team in your red zone on a regular basis.....very dangerous defense to play....what I call the "Lucky Defense", because you are lucky if they don't score a TD against you and you are constantly praying for luck.

It sounds like Duval is already instituting a very intense type of program and the players are seeing something that they never did during Christensen's 5 years at UW. I really enjoyed the comment that Uso Olive made the other day, and I paraphrase, but it said something about how "intense" Duval was and that he was the "component that was missing in the program" to make it better all these years! Wow, what a powerful statement IMO.

[mwc fan]

Olive Uso was right on with comment abut our new strength coach. Duval's strength program must be putting serious muscle on our players. I saw a tweet on Mike Vorel's twitter that Wick is up to 216lbs.! If that's the case then our lines should be in great shape and much more physical this season and the years to come. I can see us controlling games and the time of possession. I remember that DC said time of possesion was the most over rated stat in football. How many of you think that's Bull poop?

[PotatoCreekPete]

Olive Uso was right on with comment abut our new strength coach. Duval's strength program must be putting serious muscle on our players. I saw a tweet on Mike Vorel's twitter that Wick is up to 216lbs.! If that's the case then our lines should be in great shape and much more physical this season and the years to come. I can see us controlling games and the time of possession. I remember that DC said time of possesion was the most over rated stat in football. How many of you think that's Bull poop?

Count me on the side that thinks DC was certainly spreading BS when it came time to talking down the importance of TOP. For someone that is considered such an offensive guru, it amazed me that he kept up the BS line about how unimportant TOP was even as he was watching his defense pay the price game after game for an offense that was on the field for such short periods of time!!!

It appeared that Christensen is the type that has a real difficulty realizing that maybe his game plans were not working and that doing the same thing, over and over again was just going to give him the same results! It is good to be confident and to stick to things, but when that philosophy keeps stinking up the place you have to be flexible to really make changes. Despite what Christensen said from time to time, his supreme confidence led him to the philosophy IMO that it was "his way, or the highway", and that this led him to being oblivious to unpleasant facts, and TOP was one of them. A REALLY good indicator, was how many times did we actually see halftime adjustments from Christensen and his staff? Halftime adjustments were virtually non-existent from Christensen and seeing how badly we were beat in the 2nd half of games should have sent a message to even the most pig-headed coach around....but not Christensen!

When the Wyoming defense had miniscule depth due to injuries (Tyran Finley) and coaching inadequacies and recruiting mistakes why continue to requiring your defense to be out on the field about 2/3 of a game? It is only a receipe for disaster IMO, and on top of this you keep arguing that TOP is unimportant! Who was Christensen trying to fool with that BS? Christensen needed to change his play calling IMO. I don't know about any of you, but I got the distinct impression from watching Brett Smith and his reactions and other things along the sidelines was really disgusted with the offense that Christensen was calling as last season went on. Knowing how competitive Brett was I am sure it was very hard on him, but he had to run what was being called whether he liked it or agreed with it. I know that this is taking this conversation pretty far afield, but I have no problem with Brett leaving and feel that he gave Wyoming everything that he had. In my heart and mind Brett will always be a Cowboy and my take is that his leaving had nothing to do with Bohl coming in, quite the contrary I feel that Brett would have left without any hesitation if Christensen had still been the coach, but Bohl probably gave him a little hesitation, but in the end he decided to follow his dream. Thompson on the other hand, was never really a Cowboy, and was only at UW for what he thought that he could get out of it, and helping the team was way down the list of things that were important to him. Thompson will never be a Cowboy, he didn't earn the right in my book.

But onwards and upwards with a coach that will return Wyoming to being Wyoming tough again. It may take a few seasons, but I feel so much better about this program than I have in years.

[tweaked]

Good points again Potato ... a couple thoughts. One: yes, I did see Brett in obvious frustration on the sideline when Christensen kept calling off tackle runs and the same predictable routes on 3rd down. At one point, Brett was clearly trying to tell DC something and one of his teammates was kind of standing in between DC and Brett and trying to pull Brett away.

On the reasons our dbs had to play soft coverage (10 yards off the line of scrimmage at times) due to weaknesses on the dline. Makes sense. And good analysis on your part. The only thought is some of our dline, at least to me when I watched them, played pretty physical up front, especially on our left side with Eddie. Was disappointed in our d tackles though. But I also saw our linebackers and dbs missing tackles and just not wrapping up. Injuries played into that as well. I think Wacha is a football player and he is someone who stands to benefit perhaps as much as anyone from off-season weight training.

[PotatoCreekPete]

Good points again Potato ... a couple thoughts. One: yes, I did see Brett in obvious frustration on the sideline when Christensen kept calling off tackle runs and the same predictable routes on 3rd down. At one point, Brett was clearly trying to tell DC something and one of his teammates was kind of standing in between DC and Brett and trying to pull Brett away.

On the reasons our dbs had to play soft coverage (10 yards off the line of scrimmage at times) due to weaknesses on the dline. Makes sense. And good analysis on your part. The only thought is some of our dline, at least to me when I watched them, played pretty physical up front, especially on our left side with Eddie. Was disappointed in our d tackles though. But I also saw our linebackers and dbs missing tackles and just not wrapping up. Injuries played into that as well. I think Wacha is a football player and he is someone who stands to benefit perhaps as much as anyone from off-season weight training.

I am chuckling a little from your comment....about the "predictable" routes on 3rd down.....this last seasons offense was one of the most predictable that I have ever seen, truer words have never been spoken!

Also, good observation yourself about the incident between Christensen and Brett. I remember many times during the season, sitting there and looking across the field to see what was happening on the Wyoming bench, how the players were reacting, what were the coaches doing, etc., etc.. I was struck time after time how Christensen seemed to have NO INTERACTION with anyone else on the sideline, he stood by himself, no coaches or players were immediately around him and that the only person that came up to him was the water girl! Christensen rarely spoke with Brett and it did not appear to be great interaction the few times I noticed it.

You are right about the difference between the interior defensive line and the defensive ends. The way that Wyoming played its defensive line I got the impression that the DE's were really big LB's, they were to rush the QB if possible and to keep the plays from getting to the edge. The DT's were the ones responsible for everything up the middle.....no wonder Jordan Stanton was one of the leading tacklers in the nation!!!!!!!!! He had to be with two converted DE's in front of him trying to plug the middle. Despite the fact that Patrick Merten's is 295 pounds, he was constantly double teamed because Bernthaler was a grossly undersized DT.....not questioning Bernthaler's effort for one second, but he was playing way out of position!

Lucas Wacha has a motor and heart that is hard to beat and will carry him a long way, if he is able to keep his speed and get really strong and bulk up some, he could easily become an ALL-MWC player. I agree with you, Lucas Wacha is a special player and is the perfect person to benefit from the offseason S&C program.

[tweaked]

Agreed all the way around. Love, love bball but must say am anxious to see what spring football looks like!

[lakesbison]

NDSU & Bohl 's bread & butter were the OL & DL that will be the least of your worries with this new staff. Scott Fuchs is a great ol coach

[fromolwyoming]

NDSU & Bohl 's bread & butter were the OL & DL that will be the least of your worries with this new staff. Scott Fuchs is a great ol coach

Our "new" d-line coach hasn't coached d-linemen in what, 10 years?