LARAMIE — An obvious strength of Wyoming’s football team, Jay Sawvel would say in mid-April after an open practice inside War Memorial Stadium, is in the middle of the defensive front.

“There’s a case to be made, he might have been our best defensive tackle last year,” the rookie head coach said, referring to senior Gavin Meyer.

Now the 6-foot-4, 284-pound Wisconsin product is “expected to enter” the NCAA Transfer Portal with one season of eligibility remaining.

Meyer’s “NIL agent” Miles Jordan broke the news to On3sports.com Wednesday, just hours after college football’s free-agent frenzy officially came to a close at midnight Mountain Time.

Meyer himself liked the post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Jordan shared the announcement.

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* DJ Jones feeling right at home in Pokes’ loaded backfield

* PODCAST: Putting a bow on spring football in Laramie

* Four Cowboys earn NFL mini-camp invites

* Jay Sawvel in search of depth on the O-line, at corner

* Tuck’s Take: Chris Durr Jr. could become a Mountain West pest

* Wyoming’s DeVonne Harris is quirky, but far from complacent

* Boddie eager to make plays in Pokes’ new-look offense

* Jayden Williams is Bringing ‘Controlled Chaos’ to Pokes’ Front Four

Meyer becomes the 15th Cowboy to leave the program this offseason. While that number might look troublesome on the surface, the veteran nose guard is the only presumed starter to bolt since Sawvel took the reins in early January.

Jordan Bertagnole, who announced in the offseason he would return to Laramie for a sixth year, was slated to line up next to Meyer in the trenches, forming one of the top tackle tandems in the Mountain West if not the country. Caleb Robinson was also expected to enter the rotation this fall. He was lost for the season with an unspecified injury midway through spring camp.

Jayden Williams, Ben Florentine, Jaden Williams and Lucas Samsula will likely vault up the depth chart with Meyer’s departure.

Meyer tallied 26 tackles last season — 13 solo stops and the same number of assists — while helping lead the Cowboys’ defense to a Top-50 ranking. The year prior he finished with a career-best 39 tackles and tacked on 3.5 sacks. The former three-star recruit out of Franklin High School also forced a fumble.

His best outing came during a 27-14 road victory over New Mexico back in 2022. Earning the spot start after Cole Godbout was sidelined with an injury, Meyer capped his night with six tackles, including two quarterback sacks. He also partially blocked a 45-yard field-goal attempt as time expired in the first half.

“Well, having a head coach give me props about what I do is awesome,” Meyer said in mid-April in response to Sawvel’s comments about him arguably being the best player on the defensive front. “I think that’s really a testament to our D linemen, as a whole, and having the depth in the room where it’s point A to point B — doesn’t matter who’s in there, they do their job and they do it well and can make plays.

“You know, to be a leader in that room, I really appreciate (his words), but I think it’s the whole room. That’s a testament to how we work hard and the leaders of the defense.”

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* 5 Takeaways From Wyoming’s Open Spring Scrimmage

* Svoboda, Gyllenborg: ‘We’re blessed that they are here’

Here are the former Cowboys currently in the NCAA Transfer Portal:

^ DT – Gavin Meyer – Sr. – Franklin, Wisc.

# CB – Chauncey Carter – RFr. – Garland, Texas

^ RB – DQ James – Soph. – Lancaster, Texas

* WR – Chase Locke – Jr. – San Antonio, Texas

* S – Garrett McGriff – RFr. – Carmichael, Calif.

* OL – Forrest Scheel – Soph. – Cambridge, Minn.

* OL – Kuba Tyszka – RFr. – Norridge, Ill.

* DL – Jaxon Galica – RFr. – Oshkosh, Wisc.

# DE – Keelan Cox – Sr. – Missouri City, Texas

* RB – Tyler Jacklich – RFr. – Modesto, Calif.

* QB – Carson May – Soph. – Jones, Okla.

# LB – Cayden Hawkins – Soph. – Highlands Ranch, Colo.

* LB – Brady Hultman – RFr. – Saint Charles, Mo. (Currently at Missouri)

# CB – Josh Dixon – Soph. – McKinney, Texas

^ CB – Kolbey Taylor – Jr. – Houston, Texas (Currently at Vanderbilt)

* Never played a snap at UW

^ Was a starter at some point in UW career

# Appeared in three games or less at UW

LOOK: Pokes’ unis through the years

The MVP of Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers was Matt Hilton. But don’t bother looking for the 37-year-old right-hander on either team’s roster.

While the former Wyomingite did help his hometown Arizona D-backs to a 4-3 win, Hilton’s ESPN highlight reel was compiled before the first pitch was ever thrown. The pest control expert was called on to handle a colony of bees that held up the start of the game for almost two hours.

Media outlets across the country had fun with the puns — “Chase Field was buzzing last night” — but the truth of the matter is the situation could have turned serious in a heartbeat. Even before Hilton arrived he had a pretty good idea he would be dealing with a highly antagonistic crossbred species known colloquially as “killer bees.”

“We live in a state where Africanized honey bees are super common here,” Hilton told Cowboy State Daily. “Compared to a normal strain of honeybees, most people can’t tell the difference. Except these have a tendency to be extremely aggressive — 10-20 times more aggressive than the average honeybee.”

Red Carpet Treatment

Hilton informed stadium staff to move people in the closest box seats to at least 50 to 75 feet away. He was on his way.

“I explained these bees very much raised the risk level quite a bit. I kind of walked them through it, but it was not their first rodeo,” Hilton said.

In fact, stadium personnel rolled out the red carpet for Hilton and had everything waiting for the bee whisperer when he arrived.

“I was able to drive right up to the big bay doors and throw my gear on,” he said. “They had the scissor lift right there ready to go. It was in everyone’s interest to get this game underway as safely and quickly as possible.”

Bonnie Tyler’s “I Need a Hero” blared from loudspeakers as Hilton’s play-in song, just like he was the team’s closer coming in from the bullpen.

By the way, a shout out to another winning team — Blue Sky Pest Control of Phoenix. Chase Field actually contracts with the local company for regular service keeping the food concessionaire areas pest- and rodent-free.

Blue Sky Pest Control is also on-call 24/7 for just the type of crazy emergency that came up Tuesday.

“I was at my 6-year-old son’s T-ball game when the head guy at Chase called me and said he had a swarm of bees holding the game up,” Hilton said. “In my line of work, especially with a high-profile account like this, we have to drop everything and take care of the problem.”

10,000 To 20,000 Bees

When Hilton arrived to the field, he quickly anesthetized the popup colony with a non-pesticidal solution. That was done to lock the bees in place.

“They interlock their legs together when they are in a colony like this. The last thing you want to do is start poking at them and have them fly off individually looking for someone to be mad at,” Hilton said.

The pest control tech estimates between 10,000 and 20,000 bees made up this particular swarm. If agitated, D-backs fans could be in a lot more pain than anything the Dodgers could dish out.

“The risk comes in if that swarm gets disturbed. If they start stinging people, when they do it releases a pheromone in the stinger that signals: ‘Hey, get this guy,’” Hilton said.

Deaths have been reported in Arizona, Utah and Texas, where a victim was stung repeatedly by Africanized bees.

Donned in a beekeeper’s protective suit, Hilton was able to vacuum up all the bees as the crowd around him chanted, “You can do it!”

King For A Night

Once the job was done, Hilton gave the fans a fist pump and was immediately invited to toss out the ceremonial first pitch.

Just another day at the office, Hilton said. Except for the paid attendance.

“I’ve done hundreds of these types of calls. This was the first in front of 30,000 people,” Hilton said. “I’ll maybe be in a parking lot and a handful of people will be looking on from their office windows. This one was a little more high-pressure with a game hanging in the balance. It was pretty electric, pretty awesome.”

Blue Sky offers a relocation service for bee swarms it collects but the market for Africanized bees is slim.

“Beekeepers don’t want Africanized honey bees. You see pictures of video of beekeepers tending their hives without a suit on. That’s where it gets dicey. If they did that with these bees they would be in a world of hurt,” Hilton assured.

Wyoming To The Rescue

Topps, the baseball card manufacturer, is already working on a special one-off card for the bee specialist who saved the game. It will be a keepsake for the Arizona man with Wyoming roots.

Hilton lived in Buffalo, Wyoming, from ages 11 through 18 before he attended college Arizona State University. He met an Arizona girl, Morgan, and the two were married in 2010. They have four kids.

“I moved away from Buffalo because of the cold. I got married to the love of my life and found a career and a company that really suits me,” Hilton said. “Buffalo is a super cool little town and I take a lot of pride having grown up there. I miss hunting and fishing in the Big Horn Mountains.”

Contact Jake Nichols at jake@cowboystatedaily.com

Jake Nichols can be reached at jake@cowboystatedaily.com.