Wyoming
Five Things We Learned From Sitake's BYU/Wyoming Presser
PROVO, Utah – BYU football kicked off week three of the 2024 season with a virtual press conference from head coach Kalani Sitake.
The ninth-year head coach spoke for 18 minutes with the media as his team gets set for another non-conference road trip. This weekend, it’s an old WAC and Mountain West rival, the Wyoming Cowboys.
Here are five key things we learned from Sitake’s press conference.
LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati are “doubtful” against Wyoming
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati, BYU’s top running backs, are “doubtful” for Saturday against the Pokes.
“That’s the way it’s looking. The good news is that no one is out for the year. But it might take some time to get some of those guys back,” Sitake said. “Hopefully, we can see what happens in the next 24 hours. If they are going to be available this week or not.”
Pokaiaua Haunga is in the mix at running back
KSL Sports asked Kalani Sitake if freshman Pokaiaua Haunga would factor into the conversation at running back with Martin and Ropati as both “doubtful.”
Haunga is a true freshman returned missionary and was a high school standout at Timpview High.
Despite not being listed on the depth chart, Haunga is going to be an option in the backfield for BYU’s running back unit this week.
“With Pokai, the question is whether or not to redshirt people. I think right now, I’m not worried about that,” Sitake said. “He’s going to be full-go and he’s going to play. And we’ll just move on with that.”
“Hopeful” to get BYU CB Mory Bamba back this week against Wyoming
On a positive injury note, optimism is growing that BYU will have Mory Bamba back this week from an injury. Bamba has been out with a boot on his foot.
#BYU said he’s “hopeful” that CB Mory Bamba will return this week. Bamba has missed the first two games due to injury.#BYUFootball
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) September 9, 2024
During fall camp, Bamba took first-team reps while Marque Collins worked his way back from an ACL injury he suffered last season.
BYU football gearing up for a hostile environment at Wyoming
This Saturday will be BYU’s first visit to War Memorial Stadium since 2009. It’s a place that does not love the Cougars.
Despite starting the season 0-2, Wyoming is expecting a sell-out this weekend against BYU. After Utah and Utah State, Wyoming is the most-played opponent in BYU’s history. Sitake isn’t worried about the history but is looking forward to the opportunity.
“These kids don’t know anything about the rivalry. I guess some of these guys have played in this game against Wyoming [two years ago], but they don’t understand the old conference and all of that stuff. A majority of these guys came here because they wanted to play in the Big 12 and this is another to play this game.
“We know that it’s going to be a hostile environment. It wasn’t a kind one last week either, but that’s college football.”
Plans for Ryner Swanson
Sitake was asked if he’s planning to redshirt Ryner Swanson this season. After this season, the former four-star prospect plans to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
#BYU freshman TE Ryner Swanson (@ryner_swanson) announced that he received his mission call.
He will leave next year to serve a mission in Kenya Nairobi Africa for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.#BYUFootball pic.twitter.com/EduLj03MpW
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) September 4, 2024
During the win over SMU, Swanson had one catch for 10 yards.
“He’s a major weapon,” Sitake said.
The ninth-year head coach added that he’s not thinking about a redshirt for Swanson early in the season.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
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Wyoming
Wyoming authorities call on Rocky Mountain Power to explain role in massive November power outage
by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile
The massive, multiple-utility power outage last fall that left some 250,000 customers across parts of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana without electricity was the result of miscommunication and inadequate procedures during planned maintenance that required de-energizing a power line in southcentral Wyoming, according to a report.
The Nov. 13 incident left thousands of homes and businesses without power for 9.5 hours — longer, in some cases — and knocked out a coal-powered generator outside Glenrock. The unit at the Dave Johnston Power Plant remains offline, leaving Rocky Mountain Power to backfill some 300 megawatts of electricity — enough to power about 225,000 homes.
Without expressly assigning blame to any one party, the report — conducted by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation — indicates a series of communication breakdowns between PacifiCorp (parent company of Rocky Mountain Power), the Western Area Power Administration and, to some degree, electrical grid coordinating teams.
While it’s unclear whether authorities such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation might pinpoint fault and assess penalties, the Wyoming Public Service Commission has called on Rocky Mountain Power to appear at a hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. The commission wants to hear from the utility about “the specifics and details of the event and report,” a public notice announced, and it “may consider and take any action that is in the public interest.”
The hearing at the Public Service Commission’s office located at 2515 Warren Avenue, Suite 300, in Cheyenne, will also be livestreamed at this link.
What happened
According to the 49-page report published in June, PacifiCorp and the Western Area Power Administration were coordinating maintenance on their respective systems that, together, required temporarily de-energizing PacifiCorp’s Aeolus–Clover 500 kilovolt line, which runs east-west and is anchored, in part, by a substation near Medicine Bow.
The effort also required curtailing some local wind energy from feeding the grid, according to the report. But on the day of the planned maintenance, Nov. 13, there was confusion about whether the Western Area Power Administration would scrap its work, so wind energy wasn’t curtailed as originally planned.
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Wind turbines near Cheyenne poke into a colorful sunrise in January 2025. (Tennessee Watson/WyoFile)
The report indicates that modeling tools might have failed to accurately measure local grid conditions, so when the power line was de-energized, “power flow rapidly redistributed throughout the northeast portion” of the local grid. “Within six seconds,” according to the report, “an electrical island formed and collapsed, causing widespread effects across that portion of the interconnection.
“The disturbance,” the report continues, “culminated in the loss of more than 4,800 [megawatts] of generation from coal, natural gas, photovoltaic and wind resources.”
The cascading power failure began at about 12:45 p.m. on a Thursday, dragging down portions of service territories operated by Rocky Mountain Power, Black Hills Energy, Montana-Dakota Utilities and some rural electric co-ops.
The report points to failures in communication, process deficiencies and inadequate modeling tools. Wind energy was not “identified as a contributing factor,” according to the report. It credits both battery storage and wind energy throughout the impacted area for supporting “a faster frequency recovery across the interconnection” and for providing “readily available capacity during system restoration.”
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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