Sally Ann Shurmur: University Of Wyoming's Football Season Is Half Over, Now What?

Remember in December when newly minted Wyoming head football coach Jay Sawvel said the one thing left for the Wyoming Cowboys to achieve was a conference championship?

With half the season completed, there is one win.

Remember in ancient times when keyboard warriors would take to their basements, bemoaning “yet another” bowl trip to places like Boise or Tucson?

A sniff at a bowl now would mean winning five of the last six, four of which are on the road.

Will the season be a success if we somehow keep the boot in Fort Collins on Nov. 15?

Colleagues all over spent the week grading at the halfway mark, so Owen and I did that at dinner too.

I try really hard to be cheerful in this space, but it’s tough to combine that with my trademark brutal honesty.

Let’s just say there would be no Hathaway Scholarships handed out to the offense or defense based on our grades.

But my harshest grades, alas, are for the coaching staff.

Something isn’t right, yet week after week we hear the very same things - saw some good things, need to cut down on catastrophic mistakes, injuries are really unfortunate.

If the guys not on the field are significantly poorer than those playing, tell us.

How are you fundamentally coaching against catastrophic mistakes?

How did recruiting not leave enough bulls in the pen?

Maybe the Wyoming Cowboys are the Hoosiers or The Replacements.

Maybe they’ll come out in San Jose on Saturday afternoon and stop the new Spartans offense and find some of their own.

Maybe.

It’s difficult to get too lathered up this week about the Pokes when every click on Facebook seemed to bring awful news.

Currently, we are praying hard for the new fiancé of a darling girl who works in ag and community consulting in much of southeast Wyoming.

He was in a horrific horse accident in Fort Worth on Monday morning and as this is written, clings to life. If you have space on your list, it would be awesome if you could add Braden and Hannah.

And one of Casper’s most beloved nurses got a terrible diagnosis this week as well, much different than she and her beloved husband were expecting. So we have added S&S to our very lengthy prayer list too.

In prayers of gratitude, I am thankful for the brief shift in weather and the snow it will lay on top of the raging fires.

How there has been no more property lost than there has been is a remarkable testament to the firefighters, both professionals and the hundreds of trained volunteers who left their day jobs to save their beloved mountains.

This weekend, my focus will be on 9-man football, where No. 1 Lingle hosts No. 2 Pine Bluffs Friday night.

The Pine Bluffs staff has a couple Glenrock dudes on it, so we’ll be pulling for the Hornets.

And Saturday night, it’s North Dakota State hosting South Dakota State for the Dakota Marker, literally a giant rock that used to be on the state border.

It’s on ESPN2, so although we can’t watch the Pokes in San Jose except on an app, we can root for those Bison, coached by Wyoming’s former offensive coordinator, Tim Polasek.

The sign in my kitchen says, “In this house, we bleed brown and gold and cheer for the Cowboys.”

Even when it’s hard.

Even when it’s really hard.

Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at: SallyAnnShurmur@gmail.com