Wyoming’s Christensen gets first win

Associated Press

Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009 | 2:21 p.m.

The days leading up to Dave Christensen's first game as head coach were gut-wrenching.

"You never know how they're going to perform," Christensen said. "I was sick to my stomach here for about two days wondering what the heck's going to happen when get on that football field."

But he added, "I had a great deal of confidence in how we trained and what our kids have done. From January until now, they've worked extremely hard."

He was feeling better Saturday after the Cowboys beat Weber State 29-22 at War Memorial Stadium.

Running back Darius Terry rushed for 99 yards and two short touchdowns, and the Wyoming defense picked off five Weber State passes, including three by freshman safety Shamiel Gary.

Christensen was hired last winter to rejuvenate an anemic Cowboy offense that averaged just 12.7 points a game in 2008.

Christensen, who spent 24 years as an assistant coach, has installed a no-huddle, spread offense that proved successful at Missouri, where he was offensive coordinator.

Against Weber State, the Cowboys gained 434 yards of total offense. More importantly, Wyoming had only one turnover, a fumble, after ranking 117th out of 120 teams last year with 36 turnovers lost.

But Christensen said the entire team, including himself, still has much to improve on.

"I can do a lot better," he said. "I got a lot of things I can improve on as a football coach to get this team to play better, be more prepared, better prepared.

"But we will be better each and every day. ... Our goal is to be better today than we were yesterday, and we will be better next Saturday than we were this Saturday."

They'll have to get a lot better by next Saturday when Texas visits Laramie.

Christensen said Texas will be a challenge and will tell Wyoming where it stands compared with the elite college football teams.

"I know our kids will compete their tails off against them," he said.