Cowboy Spring Game Set for Saturday

The Wyoming Cowboy Football team will wrap up 2013 spring football drills on Saturday in the Annual Spring Game.  The game will kick off at 2:00 p.m. on Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium.  Admission to the game is free of charge.

        The format for Saturday’s Spring Game will feature the Cowboy Offense vs. the Cowboy Defense.  The No. 1 offense will face off against the No. 2 defense, and the No. 2 offense will face the No. 1 defense during Saturday’s game. 

        In between quarters, there will be special contests between football team members and coaches.  The first contest will take place prior to the start of the spring game when a 3-on-3 Competition will feature three offensive and three defensive players pitted against one another.  The offense will be trying to gain 10 yards rushing in three plays while the defense will try to stop the offense from gaining a first down.                                 

        Between the first and second quarters, a punt catching contest will include some unlikely punt returners, with a mixture of offensive and defensive linemen and coaches attempting to catch punts to earn points for their teams. 

        At halftime, the winners of the team’s Spring Most Improved Awards will be announced, and between the third and fourth quarters there will be a Dance Off between selected players and coaches from the offense and defense.

        As the Cowboys prepare for Saturday’s Spring Game, head coach Dave Christensen talked about the plan for the Spring Game on Saturday and how he feels spring practices have gone overall.

        “We won’t run a set number of plays Saturday, but we’ll have 15-minute running quarters in the first half and 10-minute running quarters in the second half,” said Christensen.  “We will have the ones go against the twos.  This will give us one final evaluation in the spring of the twos going up against the ones to see how close some of those backups are to being able to help us.

        “Overall, I am happy with what we’ve been able to accomplish this spring.  We weren’t able to get outside as much as I would have liked, but we were able to get outside this week and work in the elements a little bit, which was good.

        “From the standpoint of getting everything installed (on offense, defense and special teams), I feel good about where we’re at,  and in terms of getting a chance to look at guys at different positions.  I believe it’s been a productive spring and a competitive spring.  We have a number of guys who were out this spring who will be playing for us next year, but that’s given a number of other individual players opportunities to show us what they can do.

        “The big thing now is we want to get through the Spring Game healthy.  We’re still evaluating guys, and they still have opportunities to make plays and show where they’re at, but the big thing is to get through Saturday and be ready to go into summer conditioning with everyone healthy.”

        The game itself will utilize the same scoring system the team has used all spring to score scrimmages.  The scoring system will award the offense and defense points based on certain plays.

        The offense will earn a normal six points for a touchdown, one point for a point-after-touchdown, two points for a two-point PAT and three points for a field goal.  In addition, the offense may earn one point for each play of 20+ yards and one point for each first down.

        The defense will earn five points each for an interception or a recovered fumble.  If they return an interception or fumble recovery for a TD, the defense will receive 12 points.  The defense will earn three points for forcing a punt, blocking a field goal or by stopping the offense on a fourth-down play on the offense’s side of the 50.  Two points will be awarded to the defense for a safety, a quarterback sack, stopping the offense on a fourth-down play on the defense’s side of the 50 or stopping a two-point conversion attempt.  Finally one point may be earned by the defense for forcing a missed field goal, tackling a ball carrier for a loss of yardage, blocking a point-after-touchdown attempt or when holding the offense to a field goal after the offense began its series in the red-zone (inside the defense’s 25-yard line).

        It was also announced that Cowboy senior defensive end Jeff Roueche has decided to leave the team.  Roueche played primarily on special teams during his Wyoming career.  He was credited with 11 total tackles in 12 games last season, including a half tackle for a loss.

        The Cowboys will have one practice prior to Saturday’s Spring Game.  That practice will be Friday morning at 8 a.m., and will be a lighter, non-contact practice leading up to the Spring Game on Saturday.