CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wyoming has rolled out a defensive
juggernaut this season. Neither of the Cowboys opponents have found
the end zone on offense during regulation, and Wyoming is ranked
fourth nationally in yards allowed.
Boise State, which stood at the doorstep of this week's
Associated Press Top 25, has the nation's eighth-ranked scoring
offense after a 45-0 win over Sacramento State and a 42-14 victory
over Oregon State.
The teams meet in Laramie on Saturday.
"This will be our biggest challenge, for sure, so far this
year. I've been thinking about this game for a long time,"
first-year Broncos coach Chris Petersen said.
The Cowboys, who beat Utah State 38-7 before losing at Virginia
13-12 in overtime last weekend, are looking to tarnish Boise
State's 8-0 record against Mountain West Conference teams.
"We have a lot of reason to be up for this game -- one of the
top scoring teams in the United States, they're undefeated, they're
a veteran team. They've got a running back who rushed for 240 yards
and five touchdowns against Oregon State," coach Joe Glenn said.
"One hopes we're up for the challenge."
Key to Boise State's high-scoring offense is running back Ian
Johnson, who has scored seven touchdowns this season and is tied
for No. 1 in the nation in scoring.
"Somehow we've got to get the guy stopped," Glenn said. At the
same time, Glenn didn't want to go too far in trying to contain
him: "We put 11 guys in the box, I'm pretty sure (Jared) Zabransky
will throw it over our head."
The Broncos' defense hasn't been too shabby, either, holding its
opponents scoreless seven of eight quarters. Glenn was taking a
wait-and-see approach on how to handle that.
"You've kind of got to see how it shakes out. Are they going to
blitz us, are they going to play us a lot of zone?" he said. "It
just becomes a little bit of a chess match once the game starts and
both coordinators, all four coordinators, are trying to read each
other."
Petersen said that while the Broncos' offense has gotten the
headlines, his defenders deserve part of that credit by frequently
setting up good field position. "They have sparked our offense
numerous times," he said.
His defense overall: "Very, very underrated and
underestimated," he said.
This is the second time Glenn's Cowboys will play the Broncos.
Wyoming lost at Boise State 33-17 in 2003, Glenn's first season as
Wyoming coach. The year before that, the Cowboys lost to the
Broncos at home, 35-13.
Back for Wyoming against Boise State is senior running back Ivan
Harrison, who led Wyoming with 587 rushing yards in 2004 but has
been out since then due to nagging knee problems. Glenn said
Harrison would be fit in alongside others who have filled in at
that position.
Glenn was meanwhile looking for ways to get more out of Hoost
Marsh, a punt returner who, doubling as a receiver, scored two
touchdowns against Utah State.
Marsh ranks third in the Mountain West Conference in punt
returns and Glenn was looking to match him against Kyle Stringer,
who's averaging 48 yards on punts and 61 yards on kickoffs.
"He can cover some ground in a hurry," Glenn said of Marsh.
"So we've worked pretty hard this week to try to figure out ways
to free up hoost marsh a little bit more."