Wyoming has revenge on its mind against Air Force

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 10:03 a.m.

This is the week the Wyoming Cowboys have been waiting for.

"Ever since November 14 we've been thinking about this ballgame coming up," Cowboys head coach Dana Dimel said of Saturday afternoon's Mountain West Conference game at Air Force.

Wyoming lost to the Falcons, 10-3, last Nov. 14 in Laramie, a defeat that cost the Cowboys a berth in the WAC title game in Las Vegas and also a bowl game berth. It was the second straight year a close loss to Fisher DeBerry's Falcons denied Wyoming a shot at a WAC title.

So the Cowboys have circled this game on their calendars. And because Air Force has held them to just a field goal in both showdowns, Dimel went out and hired old Kansas State coaching buddy Manny Matsakis away from Emporia (Kan.) State to run his high-scoring Triple Shoot offense.

Add to that the fact that Wyoming had a bye last week to prepare for Air Force's vaunted triple-option offense while the Falcons were busy whipping Washington, 31-21 in Seattle, and it would seem that Wyoming has Air Force right where it wants it this week.

"(The bye) is great timing for us," Dimel admits. "It gives our defense two weeks to prepare for Air Force's option, and it gives our young offensive linemen more time to work on their zone blitzes."

Dimel said the Cowboys, who lost at defending national champion Tennessee, 42-17, and then bounced back to defeat Weber State, have shown only about "20 percent" of their offense.

It's an offense that won't be easy to prepare for. The Cowboys run everything from the old swinging gate to various three and four wide receiver alignments.

"Obviously in our next game we're going to have a full expansion of our package," Dimel said. "I believe (Air Force) is the team to beat in our conference. We're going to let it all loose."

"I tell you, with their new (offensive) concept, they're about to drive us crazy getting ready for them," DeBerry said. "I don't know what you call it ... the run and shoot offense I guess ... but they have such fine skill players to do what they're doing. And they're doing it very, very well."

With so much attention focused on Air Force, which will bring the nation's longest Division I winning streak (11 games) into the contest, Dimel was asked if there might be a downside to emphasizing one game so strongly.

"There's a huge (downside)," he said. "But one of the things we're going to do is that we aren't going to be foaming at the mouth for this game emotionally. I think that's where you make mistakes and have to be careful as a coach.

"Our football team is by no means putting all our eggs into one basket. Any time I've ever been around a team that stands up on Friday night and says how much the game means to them and all that, they go out and lose the ballgame. All those things we've tried to temper."

* MILESTONE FOR DeBERRY: Last Saturday's win by Air Force at Washington, which improved the Mountain West Conference's record against the Pathetic-10 Conference to 3-1, was the 122nd in Fisher DeBerry's head coaching career in Colorado Springs.

That gives DeBerry one more than Army's Red Blaik, who set the record at service academies from 1941 to 1958.

"To have my name even mentioned with a legend like that is very humbling," DeBerry said.