Wyoming
Tuck's Take: Wyoming Won Today's Brown and Gold Spring Game
LARAMIE — Who won today’s annual Brown and Gold Spring Game inside War Memorial Stadium?
Wyoming did.
That’s not some cheeky dad joke, either.
This coaching staff just sweated out a grueling 10-day spring transfer portal window, mainly unscathed, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Agents, boosters and other shady characters have filled the inbox of some of the program’s most-recognizable names this offseason, attempting to lure them away in the name of the almighty dollar.
Let’s face it, this was a 3-9 squad with talent to burn. Admittedly, some of the offers were tempting, too.
It all seemed ripe for the picking, right?
Wrong.
“I know everybody sometimes goes into doom and gloom about, how can we keep people? We kept them, all right? That’s the biggest thing,” an impassioned Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel said postgame. “… There’s guys on this team that, all the way up till Friday, are getting dinged on by all these third-party people.”
The 54-year-old wasn’t ready to get off the soapbox quite yet.
Who could blame him?
“This is a really good day for University of Wyoming football, because you have a couple of high-line players that could have went to (teams) that were in the playoff, you know? I mean, you look at it and go, ‘How do you know all this stuff?’ It’s a bunch of b—— when people can reach out to people and go, ‘Hey, you can go here for this much money and this stuff’ — and they stayed.
“Look, we lost one guy during spring practice, and he wasn’t in my Top 25. So we’re good.”
That guy was Keany Parks, a starting cornerback who yesterday inked with the University of Houston.
There have been others, too. Twenty-one of them this offseason, to be exact.
Sawvel said after the season finale at Washington State, he made a list of 10 players this program couldn’t afford to lose.
Tampering and back-channeling be damned, nine of those remain, he added, including arguably the most important piece being quarterback Kaden Anderson.
Make no mistake, that’s the most important position in all of sports. Around these parts, we know all too well what inconsistency at that position can cause.
Anderson, a 6-foot-4, 221-pound sophomore from Southlake, Texas, will likely be handed the keys to Jay Johnson’s offense in 2025. In just three starts last season, he threw for 578 yards and four touchdowns.
More importantly, he connected on nearly 60% of his throws.
“It’s out there. People DM you and stuff and say all this stuff,” the laidback signal caller said with a grin. “You don’t really pay too much attention to it. You know, put trust in God’s plan. You know, He’s got a plan for you. Like I said in a couple interviews during the season, at the end of the day, it’s you and the guys in locker room. Don’t listen to outside noise.”
MORE UW FOOTBALL NEWS VIA 7220SPORTS:
* Behind the numbers: Wyoming spring football game
* Gold Team prevails 21-7 in Wyoming spring game
* Pokes host annual Brown and Gold Spring game Saturday
* Wyoming loses starting cornerback to transfer portal
* Wyoming’s Dante Drake has been a menace in the trenches
* Cowboys plan to add another QB after Batiste departure
* Wyoming’s rookie corner is turning heads this spring
* Double or nothing: Pokes’ makeshift front five falters late
* Wyoming looking to add to roster with spring portal looming
* Can Wyoming’s Gary Rutherford snag a starting gig?: ‘No doubt’
* Wyoming cornerback to enter NCAA Transfer Portal
* Caleb Robinson: ‘He was missed last year, for sure’
* Sawvel: It’s a ‘wide open’ battle for back-up QB spot
* Cowboy football enters third week of spring camp
* Hendricks on edge rushers: ‘Production pays the bills’
* Gary Harrell named running backs coach at Wyoming
John Michael Gyllenborg could’ve played anywhere in the country, according to his head coach. Shannon Moore, his position coach, called him the best tight end in the nation.
Plenty of others obviously believe that to be true.
The 6-foot-5 senior hauled in 30 balls for 425 yards and three scores in 2024. Injuries hampered him throughout, but we’ve all seen the flashes.
It’s not a stretch to think he will hear his name called by an NFL team around this time next season.
How did he handle that outside noise?
“Well, leaving was never really an option for me,” Gyllenborg said, adding it wasn’t a tough decision to cap his college career in Laramie. “I think for most guys, including myself, the real temptations were after the season. I mean, there are just no regulations, so everything was being thrown at a lot of us, including me. That was a time to really reflect and think about what each of us wanted.”
What does he want?
“We’ve got a good core group of guys here that it just wasn’t a hard decision for us,” he continued. “We knew we were going to stay. We want to stay, turn this program around from what it was last year and win. That’s really what it was — win.”
Running back Sam Scott is back in the mix, too. He led the Cowboys with 435 rushing yards and three touchdowns last fall. He will be joined in the backfield by a whole host of youth, including Charlotte transfer Terron Kellman, who proved to be a load this spring.
Jaylen Sargent and Chris Durr Jr., the Cowboys’ Top-2 outside targets last fall will again be relied upon to take the next step. The latter amassed 348 yards through the air. He made the circus catches. He was deadly on the third down.
Sargent, a 6-foot-2 senior, stayed patient throughout his first three years in the program. That ultimately paid off in October when he ran under a 70-yard touchdown pass against San Diego State. Two weeks later, he caught a career-high six balls for 186 yards and a score in a road victory at New Mexico.
It’s not just the skill guys who will suit up for the Cowpokes this fall, either.
Three of the most important pieces to the process, Sawvel said, are back in the saddle: Jack Walsh, Caden Barnett and Wes King. This trio will be lining up at center, right and left guard, respectively.
Rex Johnsen should man the right tackle spot. Nate Geiger, who suffered a torn ACL 11 plays into the 2024 season, could again find himself on the right edge.
Sawvel joked that he told Walsh Friday, “Welp, 12 more hours of this portal stuff.”
His response: “F— it!”
“I always say, you can’t put a price on loyalty,” Walsh added. “I’m very happy and proud of all the guys that decide to stay here, guys going into their fifth year at one place. You know, it’s special here.
“I couldn’t see myself anywhere else.”
We all knew this defense was going to receive a major overhaul this winter.
It has.
Starters Sabastian Harsh, Wrook Brown, Jaden Williams, Tyrecus Davis and Parks all left in free agency. Both safeties — Isaac White and Wyett Ekeler — exhausted their eligibility. So did linebackers Shae Suiaunoa and Connor Shay. Jordan Bertagnole graduated. So did DeVonne Harris.
You might recall, last year’s defense ranked 103rd overall out of 133 FBS teams, allowing nearly 411 yards an outing.
Remember the debacle in Albuquerque?
There are plenty of unknowns on that side of the ball, but there has been a serious upgrade, across the board, if you ask Sawvel.
That portal you loathe so much, believe it or not, works both ways.
Justin Taylor picked off a pass in Saturday’s spring game. So did Brooklyn Cheek. Those are transfer safeties, the first from Wisconsin. The second played at Cal. Gary Rutherford, a redshirt freshman linebacker from Peoria, Ill., also hauled in an interception in this one.
Don’t be surprised if he’s in the starting lineup Aug. 28 at Akron.
Edge rusher Tyce Westland deserves his flowers for loyalty, too. So does tackle Ben Florentine. Both have a number of starts under their collective belt and would be attractive to other programs. You can throw Dante Drake and Jayden Williams’ names in that conversation, too.
This is the squad that will look to bring this state, university and fanbase its first outright conference championship since 1988.
It’s finally official.
“We have the makings of a good football team,” Sawvel said. “… I think we’re a better football team than what we were a year ago at this time, but I think we have a lot of work to do.”
University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
The rules are simple: What was the player’s impact while in Laramie? That means NFL stats, draft status or any other accolade earned outside of UW is irrelevant when it comes to this list.
This isn’t a one-man job. This task called for a panel of experts. Joining 7220’s Cody Tucker are Robert Gagliardi, Jared Newland, Ryan Thorburn, and Kevin McKinney.
We all compiled our own list of 50 and let computer averages do the work. Think BCS — only we hope this catalog is fairer.
Gallery Credit: 7220Sports.com
– University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
Four-time NFR heeler Trey Yates has been at the top of his game, placing at every rodeo he entered between July 9 and July 12. With consistency leading the way, Yates has established a comfortable lead in the Mountain States Circuit Standings.
NFR Open at the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo
Yates punched his ticket to Colorado Springs after winning the average at the 2025 Mountain States Circuit Finals with Garrett Tonozzi. The Pueblo native also claimed the year-end circuit title.
During Pool A of the NFR Open, Tonozzi and Yates secured their spot in the finals after clocking a 16.3 on two head. In Round 1, the team stopped the clock in 10.6 seconds to win fourth. They followed up their fourth place with a second-place finish in round 2 with a run of 5.7 seconds.
The Mountain States Average Champs will compete again on July 18, looking to secure that huge NFR Open win.
Circuit Rodeo Success
After changing roping partners in June, Yates has found success with header Riley Kittle at several rodeos, including many in his circuit.
For the first time in his career, Yates took home first place at the Cattlemen’s Days Inc. Rodeo. He heeled his steer in 4.4 seconds to win $3,384. Yates also entered the calf roping, where he placed sixth and clinched the all-around title.
In Monte Vista, Kittle and Yates placed third with a time of 5.3 seconds, winning $1,757 at the San Luis Valley Ski-Hi Stampede.
The Laramie Jubilee Days wrapped up July 12, and after the dust settled, Yates had added another $2,202 to his busy weekend wins. He and Kittle placed fourth in Laramie with a 5.4-second run.
Despite some tough luck in the first round of the Sheridan WYO Rodeo, Kittle and Yates roped their steer in 5.5 seconds to place second in Round 2, adding $2,832 to the team’s earnings.
World Standings
Yates has consistently been within the Top 15 for most of the year and is pursuing his fifth trip to Las Vegas. The 2018 NFR Average Champ currently sits at number ten in the PRCA World Standings with $73,598.33.
He also leads the Mountain States Circuit in both the heeling ($29,352.04) and the all-around ($30,654.88) after his success in Gunnison.
After solidifying his spot for his fourth NFR at the 2025 Governor’s Cup, Yates is looking to head back to Sioux Falls for that season-defining rodeo. He sits in the sixteenth spot for the Cinch Playoff Series with a total of 463.04 points.
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Douglas photographer Mark Panasuk enjoys transforming a dark scene into something beautiful.
He’s always on the lookout for another interesting setting, and when he found an abandoned stone ranch house north of Lost Springs, Wyoming, he knew he had something special.
Unlike the famous line from poet Dylan Thomas, he portrayed the property as going “gentle into that good night.”
Digging into its history, Panasuk became even more enamored with capturing the stone walls and grounds with the Milky Way above it because it once was home to one of the most successful Back ranchers in the West — Jim Edwards.
“It was kind of a unique house in that it was big house, two story, out in the prairie here in eastern Wyoming,” Panasuk said. “It had several buildings … and he was really inventive because he put in that water tower.”
The tower was built with an opening that appeared to allow a space for a fire that would keep the water from freezing in the winter.
The house had a bathroom with toilet, shower, and the property also featured a stone garage.
There is evidence of several other outbuildings that once were around it. Several accounts of the property state that Edwards was the first in the area to have indoor bathroom facilities.
Panasuk got permission from the current landowner to photograph the house and grounds, and the result shows the Milky Way like an arch above it framing the property.
He said he put a light inside the house, which has lost its windows, because he thought it made a better piece of art.
Creating the final image required a combination of 35 photos and three-minute exposures to fully reveal the Milky Way.
He used a computer program to stitch the digital images together to make it one.
Panasuk said he spoke with some of the ranchers around the property and learned that a father or grandfather knew Edwards, who made a name for himself well beyond Wyoming.
Turns out that Edwards is a featured name at the Homestead National Historic Park in Beatrice, Nebraska, and Ebony Magazine once profiled him in its March 1949 issue that had Billy Eckstein on the cover.
Magazine Profile
The profile was titled “The Last Days of Jim Edwards” and characterized him as a “legend” in Wyoming and a name that would remembered well beyond his death.
A history of Edwards written for the Black Past website says he was “one of the most successful African American homesteaders in the state of Wyoming.”
And “Pages From Converse County’s Past” compiled in the 1980s revealed that he was commonly known as “(N-word) Jim.”
But that word did not stop Edwards from becoming a successful rancher and business man. His coming and goings had fairly frequent mentions in the social columns of the local rural newspapers.
The Black Past account of Edwards’ life says that he was born on Feb. 14, 1874, and arrived in Wyoming in 1900 with his father and a group of Italian miners responding to newspaper ads about work in a Lusk coal mine.
The miners drove Edwards out, and he walked to Lusk and found work on the Wilson Brother’s Running Water Ranch.
Over the next 14 years, he rose to the rank of foreman and was a good sheepman, cowboy and horse trainer.
In his final years at the ranch, a dispute with the Wilson brothers led to a lawsuit that Edwards won in 1923, giving him $3,000 in back wages plus interest. The Wyoming Supreme Court increased it to $4,000.
The Lusk Free Lance on Nov. 1, 1923, reported that the dispute had been over an accounting of his share of sheep as well as his wages.
1913 Homestead
Meanwhile in 1913, the Wilsons helped him homestead acreage on Harney Creek.
Edwards recruited other blacks to homestead on land around him, and he eventually bought their properties.
“Converse County’s Past” states that Edwards married Lethel Dawson in 1914 in Denver, and that her parents cooked on a river boat on the Mississippi River
When her father contracted tuberculosis, they moved to Denver for his health.
A story looking back on Lost Springs in the Casper Star-Tribune on April 6, 1974, reports that Lethel’s father was a full-blooded Indian and her mother black.
After her marriage to Edwards, she traveled to Denver from time to time to sing on radio stations.
The Lusk Standard newspaper on Sept. 12, 1919, reported that “Mrs. Jim Edwards” had just become the “happy” owner of a new piano.
“Now, we’ll have some jazz,” the editor wrote.
In the Ebony Magazine story a few years after his wife’s death, Edwards was still in charge of his 14,000-acre Sixteen-Bar-One Ranch.
He had named it the Sixteen-Bar-One because it represented the ratio of white ranchers to black ones.
Edwards told the reporter that when he first arrived in Wyoming and then later set up his homestead, gunplay with neighboring ranchers and would-be outlaws was not uncommon. He was tested.
“No man will ever run Jim Edwards off of his land,” Edwards told the magazine. “Let ’em know right away that you’re going to fight for what you own. Just because a man’s colored is no reason for people to think he’s a coward.”
That philosophy likely was part of the reason for a story in the Niobrara County News on Dec. 3, 1914, when Edwards still served as herder for the Wilson Brothers and had a “mix-up” with a herder from another ranch over their bands of sheep.
Edwards had the man arrested, but later “dismissed the case and paid all the costs.”
Sheep ‘Straying’
Another mention of Edwards in the Lusk Herald a year earlier had him complaining that he had a lot of trouble with sheep “straying away.”
The Ebony account said that at one time, Edwards had 20,000 acres of land with oil rights, and during his normal operations had more than 1,000 head of cattle, 9,000 sheep, 200 horses, 5,000 chickens and 500 hogs.
He told the reporter that what he considered most important in his success was a “clean mind and a few years ago a pistol.”
“I didn’t have to use my pistol much, but then you don’t have to when you make your decision to stand at the outset,” he added.
Edwards built the stone house himself, helped pay for the construction of the Congregational Church in Lusk — where his wife sang in the choir — and told the reporter that Lethel had been “the guiding influence in my life.”
And it turned out that ranching was not his only interest and business success.
A feature story in the Casper Tribune-Herald on July 16, 1945, profiled a restaurant co-owned by Mary Simms, a black woman, and Edwards that specialized in Southern fried chicken.
“In spite of rationing which has made it difficult to obtain the steaks to fill demand, the restaurant has kept abreast of the demands for the excellent fried chicken which has been its specialty,” the newspaper reported. “With the generous helping of chicken, French fries, a vegetable, dessert and the special golden brown succulent biscuits are served.”
Edwards’ love Lethel died of leukemia in 1945, according to the Converse County history, and he sold his ranch that contained 18 sections to four buyers in 1950.
The Scottsbluff Star-Herald on Jan. 7, 1951, recounted Edwards’ death at age 76.
“A Scottsbluff man died from suffocation Saturday night after water boiled away in a pot in which chicken was being cooked filling a basement room with smoke,” the newspaper reported. “The dead man was James E. Edwards, age unknown, who rented a room at 801 East Eighth Street.”
He is buried in Scottsbluff.
Panasuk said he was happy to get a photo of the once prosperous ranch while it still stands.
“The sad part about it is that probably about in 10 years it’s all going to be gone,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
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