Wyoming to get test from defending champs

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1999 | 10:10 a.m.

Dana Dimel's Wyoming Cowboys have won eight games each of his first two years in Laramie.

And Dimel, whose team came within a late fourth quarter touchdown at Air Force of winning the WAC's Mountain Division last year, believes the best is yet to come.

"This is my best team," he said. "It is as good as any we had at Kansas State."

But that doesn't figure to be nearly good enough for the Cowboys to win their season opener on Saturday night.

That's because Wyoming must travel to Knoxville to face Tee Martin and defending national champion Tennessee on ESPN.

"We have a good ballclub and I think we'll play well on Saturday," Dimel said Tuesday during the Mountain West Conference's weekly media call. "But what I can't control is a Tennessee team that is the defending national champion with its starting quarterback (Martin) back and a running back (Jamal Lewis) that I think is the best candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

"They're the best team in the country, the defending national champions. It's a formidable task."

Tennessee is a 24-point favorite. Although the Cowboys will be unveiling their highly touted Triple Shoot offense, the Vols figure to have too much manpower.

"To me stopping their run is our No. 1 concern," Dimel said. "Number two is protecting the quarterback."

The latter may be especially difficult because Wyoming will have two redshirt freshmen offensive linemen, center Mike Irvin and right guard Rob Kellerman, making their first college starts in one of college football's toughest environments.

* TV TIME: BYU's LaVell Edwards and Colorado State's Sonny Lubick weren't exactly overjoyed to learn that their teams' games at Wyoming could be moved to 7 p.m. starts instead of 1 p.m. as originally scheduled.

"I haven't heard that," Edwards said of his team's Nov. 13 contest, which figures to be played in very chilly conditions even if it is played in the sunshine. "I hope it is not at night. It'll be fun enough playing in the daylight."

Lubick's Rams go to Laramie on Oct. 23.

"I don't know why we're going to nights," he complained. "At 3 p.m. it's usually pretty nice. But at seven at night it can be tough."

Assistant Mountain West commissioner Amy Turner then informed Lubick that the reason for the possible kickoff move was so that the game could be nationally televised by ESPN2. That seemed to settle the CSU coach down a little.

"Everything is for television all right," Lubick joked. "I have no problem with that. I like to get on TV as much as I can. And it's a good rights' fee."

* RUSSELL'S THE MAN: Although many thought it was a foregone conclusion that highly-touted JC transfer Jack Hawley would win the starting quarterback job at San Diego State, Aztecs' coach Ted Tollner said that junior Brian Russell would start Saturday night's season opener against South Florida.

"He's a much better player than he was last year," Tollner said of Russell, whose lack of arm strength hurt San Diego State's deep passing game last season. "He's a much more capable passer than last year."

But Tollner said Hawley, who turned down a chance to attend UNLV to join the Aztecs, could also see action.

"We're preparing them both to play," Tollner said. "We feel we have the potential to be much better throwing the football than last season."