Another new coach must rebuild Wyoming, again

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

Facts and figures on the Wyoming Cowboys:

Head coach: Vic Koenning (0-1, 1st season)

1999 record: 7-4 ( 4-3, tie for 4th, Mountain West)

Returning starters: 11

Player to watch: QB Jay Stoner

Guy they'll miss: WR Wendell Montgomery

Key game: Nov. 16 at Colorado State

Sun projection: 7th place

The Wyoming Cowboys have their third head coach in five years in 2000.

Vic Koenning, a defensive coordinator under Dana Dimel, who left to become the head coach at the University of Houston, takes over for Dimel. And other than senior quarterback Jay Stoner, he has a pretty big rebuilding job.

Just four starters on offense and five starters on defense return to Laramie. Luckily, one of them is the talented Stoner, who originally was recruited to Wyoming by Joe Tiller, now the head man at Purdue.

"When a team has a guy like Jay Stoner at quarterback, it gives you a great jump on a successful season," said Koenning, who lost his Wyoming debut, 35-21, at Auburn last week. "He is an outstanding leader, an outstanding player, and he has done a great job of bringing along our offense. I think he should be the odds-on favorite for league player of the year honors."

For that to happen, Koenning will need a young offensive line to mature quickly.

Cowboy quarterbacks were sacked an eye-popping 47 times in 1999 and Stoner went to the sidelines twice with injuries. Part of the problem was the mistake-prone triple shoot offense that Dimel switched to, which usually left Stoner without a back in the backfield to pick up blitzers.

Koenning brought in Rusty Burns from Memphis to put in a more standard offense.

"You'll see some of the stuff that Colorado State does," Koenning said. "I think that's a tremendously effective offense. That's about as close to 50-50 run-pass as you can get. And that should help our defense, too. Last year the defense was on the field 80 to 90 plays the first couple of games. It was like playing four or five games."

The one problem Koenning has in implementing a more run-oriented offense is that he really doesn't have any big-time running backs.

In fact, Koenning was so desperate this fall that he moved two-time all-conference safety Al Rich to tailback, where he became an almost instant starter. However, Rich has been bothered by a wrist injury which required surgery last spring and, according to Koenning, hasn't healed properly.

"He did not get it surgically done right in the off-season," Koenning said. "He'll probably have to play in pain all year. He's going to be day-to-day for us most of the season."

The lack of a good run game was painfully apparent in Wyoming's loss at Auburn. The Cowboys gained just 67 yards on 21 attempts on the ground.

Defensively, Wyoming should be solid with senior nose guard Jeff Boyle and linebacker Patrick Chukwurah leading the way. However, the secondary is brand new and comprised entirely of junior college transfers.

"We have an opportunity to be a better team this year," Koenning says. "We just need to take a couple of steps forward each day."