Cowboys Roll Idaho In Home Opener

Junior quarterback Brett Smith notched a record-breaking day while leading the University of Wyoming football team to a 42-10 rout of Idaho on Saturday afternoon in front of 22,030 fans at War Memorial Stadium. Smith guided the Cowboys (1-1) to 42 unanswered points in the second and third quarters, while the UW defense held the Vandals (0-2) off the scoreboard until midway through the fourth quarter.

Smith passed for 295 yards and four touchdowns in a 22-for-38 performance, while also adding 64 rushing yards. He is now responsible for 72 touchdowns in his 25 career games, moving ahead of Casey Bramlet, who had 70 from 2000-03. He also moved into second on UW’s career touchdown passes list and fifth on the career passing yards chart.

Smith wasn’t Wyoming’s only star for the day, as the offense and defense clicked on all cylinders to give the Cowboys their 10^th win in the last 11 home openers. Junior wide receiver Dominic Rufran had five catches for 61 yards, but three of those went for touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Robert Herron posted 123 yards on five catches and freshman wide receiver Tanner Gentry had a game-high six catches for 76 yards. Sophomore running back Shaun Wick racked up 110 rushing yards on 15 carries, becoming the first Cowboy with back-to-back 100-yard games since Devin Moore in 2008.

Defensively, redshirt freshman linebacker Lucas Wacha earned 11 tackles, including half a sack. Sophomore defensive end Eddie Yarbrough tied a career high with three sacks and added nine tackles. The UW defense forced two turnovers for the second time this season and made the Vandals to punt nine times, including seven three-and-outs. The Cowboy defense posted seven total sacks.

Wyoming tallied 564 total yards, including 302 through the air, while allowing 344 total yards to Idaho. The Cowboys earned a 25-16 advantage in first downs and converted on 11-of-18 third-down attempts.