That's not the case for the Wyoming Cowboys and head coach Dave Christensen. The Cowboys do have some injuries -- senior H-back Bryson Studnicka, senior linebacker Oliver Schober and sophomore running back Nehemie Kankolongo are all lost for the season due to injury and sophomore tight end Spencer Bruce will be out for at least two months. But that's football.
No, Christensen called off Saturday's fourth and final scheduled scrimmage because things are going well.
Are the Cowboys practicing too well?
Are they saying, "We don't need no stinking scrimmage."
No, I just wanted to write something that was similar to, "We don't need no stinking badges."
Back to the Cowboys. Christensen just feels that he has been able to accomplish some good things this preseason and now it's just a matter of fine tuning.
Besides, although he hasn't officially named freshman Brett Smith the starting quarterback, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know that barring injury between now and the season opener on Sept. 3, he'll take the opening snap against Weber State.
What Christensen actually said in a release was that he is pleased with where the team is at and where they’re at from a health standpoint.
"We put a lot of physical work into our early practices. That physical work included more live tackling than we had incorporated into either fall camp our first two years," he said. "Our kids have given great effort every practice, and because of that we’ve been able to accomplish a lot in each of our first 17 practices.
With players getting 125-150 live snaps each to this point, Christensen said they feel that they have a good handle on which players are going to be able to help them this year.
Basically, what it amounts to is the Cowboys are not too banged up and Christensen wants to keep it that way and avoiding one last scrimmage should help. What they will focus on, rather than scrimmaging, is to fine tune their gameday procedures.
"We want to rehearse what happens in an actual game -- substituting, signaling in plays -- we will try to simulate a gameday setting," he said. “I feel like we are where we need to be as we enter next week when we will start to focus on preparation for our first game versus Weber State.”
Ok, so instead of calling it a scrimmage, let's just call it is a rehearsal.
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In other UW football notes, the Cowboys will name game captains each week this season rather than naming season-long captains. The first game’s captains will be released the week leading up to the Weber State game.
Christensen will also announce an updated depth chart on Aug. 29 at his first weekly press conference of the season.
In that press conference, Christensen will also announce the opening-day uniforms the Cowboys will wear versus Weber State. The opening-day uniforms will be determined by the vote of Wyoming fans, who have been voting throughout the month of August at http://www.wyomingathletics.com/. Voting for the opening-day uniforms will close on Aug. 25.
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Because Saturday's scrimmage will just be a practice, this practice, which begins at 10 a.m., will be open to the public and the media. But don't get used to it. UW also released its media practice and interview polices for the season. It's the same as it has been ... media can watch the first 30 minutes and then go take a siesta until practice is over.
Hopefully, I remember to go.
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I'll be interested in seeing how the Laramie High School football team looks tonight during its tune up for next week's season opener at home against Rock Springs. The Plainsmen will scrimmage at 7 p.m. Friday at Deti Stadium.
Unfortunately, I won't get to see as I have to work in Cheyenne. But if I could, I would. The Plainsmen are looking to battle back from last season's 1-8 record under head coach Bob Knapton. Starting quarterback Billy Hysong and starting running back Tanner Ibarra return for LHS.
Last fall was the first time in over 30 years that I didn't cover high school football, whether it was in Belle Fource, S.D., while in college, in Hot Springs, S.D., just after college or as a full time sportswriter at newspapers in Worland, Mount Vernon, Wash., or Laramie (followed by my website Wyomingsports.org in 2008-2009).
To put it bluntly, not covering high school football last year sucked. It still does.
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