BOISE, Idaho - Boise was noisy.

And Bronco Stadium might not have been that way naturally.

Boise State turned the volume all the way up on Wyoming in Saturday night's 24-14 win over the Cowboys - and that was the problem.

UW coach Joe Glenn was less than thrilled with the performance-enhancing crowd noise piped in through the speakers in the first half, which at least played a part in some early struggles for the Cowboys' offense.

"I'm going to say something, and it didn't cost us the game, but they were pumping crowd noise into the speakers in the first half," Glenn said. "Our coaches could hear it, and they turned it off in the second half, but that's not right."

Glenn made it clear he wasn't assigning blame for the loss to the noise in what was a hostile environment even without any assistance.

He gave credit at every turn to Boise State, lauding its veteran offensive line, its Heisman Trophy candidate running back and offering his highest praise to the Broncos' dominant defense.

But while the Cowboys were struggling to figure out a way to move the ball on offense in the first half, they were having just as much trouble getting the plays called in from the sideline and communicating before the snap.

UW senior Wade Betschart was flagged for an illegal substitution.

There were two false starts that helped derail drives.

And the Cowboys miscommunicated regularly in the passing game. Several of Karsten Sween's incompletions during a 9-of-20 first half were thrown to empty areas where he expected routes to be run.

"It just took us a little while to get some of the plays," Sween said. "They were playing good, and obviously it was very loud so communicating the plays was kind of tough in the first half, so we had to get away from some of our stuff.

"I know I was struggling to get the plays off and trying to get the play called with all the noise. This was a very loud stadium. Louder than we thought it would be, but this was good practice for us."

The Cowboys had practiced for the vocal homecoming crowd this week by blowing out their home speakers with artificial crowd noise, though they surely thought it would be the last time they'd have to deal with it this week.

They got at least an extra half of it, and the extra noise could make for another interesting week at the Western Athletic Conference offices.

The WAC is already dealing with some perceived sportsmanship issues pertaining to Hawaii's pregame dance routine, though the emphasis for the Warriors should be on pregame.

Glenn never once said the outcome would've been different at a lower decibel-level, but he clearly wasn't pleased with the added degree of difficulty.

"You don't do that stuff," Glenn said. "It's against the law, against the rules, trying to gain an unfair advantage.

"But that didn't cost us the game. The real crowd was good enough they didn't need to add to it."

Boise is noisy enough without it.

Contact sports reporter Austin Ward at (307) 266-0634 or austin.ward@casperstartribune.net