1

Hello again, old friend

After spending the past seven seasons in Laramie as Wyoming’s offensive coordinator, Brent Vigen will make his debut as Montana State’s head coach at War Memorial Stadium. Vigen also worked for his UW counterpart, Craig Bohl, for 11 seasons at North Dakota State. The two friends won three FCS national championships together and guided Josh Allen and the Cowboys to the 2017 Mountain West Championship Game. Both coaches admit their on-field reunion will be emotional, but insist the focus will be on the players and getting off to a good start in 2021. Bohl said he will be a Bobcats fan after Saturday’s postgame hug with Vigen is over.

2

Can Chambers stay healthy?

UW quarterback Sean Chambers reclaimed his starting spot after suffering a season-ending leg injury on the third play of the 2020 opener at Nevada. The Cowboys are excited to have their team captain back and want desperately to win big this season with Chambers behind center. UW is 13-4 in games Chambers has started during his star-crossed career, but the dual-threat quarterback has been unable to finish his three previous seasons in the program due to injuries. If Chambers can stay healthy, that .765 winning percentage should improve in 2021.

3

Air Vigen

The Cowboys and Bobcats are both expected to lean on the running game with experienced offensive lines and star running backs returning in Xazavian Valladay (UW) and Isaiah Ifanse (Montana State). The team with the more balanced offense will likely leave the field victorious. UW ranked 113th in passing last season with Chambers out and Levi Williams playing hurt. It will be interesting to see if Vigen allows his starting quarterback, North Carolina transfer Matthew McKay, to air it out in front of many of his critics watching from the stands at War Memorial Stadium. The Bobcats have rushed on 61% of their offensive plays over the previous 17 games.

4

Deep in the trenches

Bohl has said the strength of his team is the offensive line. UW’s defensive line is also deep with talented 2020 opt-outs returning to play with the young players who accrued experience last season. The Cowboys should win the line of scrimmage and wear down the smaller Bobcats. If not, that’s a bad sign for a UW team that plans to contend for the program’s first conference championship in 28 years.

5

Return to normalcy (kind of)

The COVID-19 health crisis is not over as the contagious Delta variant continues to spread. But a large crowd is expected to arrive in Laramie to witness these fresh starts for UW and Montana State at War Memorial Stadium. The Cowboys only played two home games in front of limited-capacity crowds during a miserable 2-4 finish in 2020. The Bobcats didn’t play at all last year due to the pandemic after making the FCS semifinals in 2019. Despite the state’s low vaccination rate, UW’s team is at least 96% vaccinated. Per the Mountain West's policy for the 2021 season, teams that can’t play due to coronavirus issues will forfeit those games. The Cowboys, who had two games canceled in 2020 due to coronavirus issues at Utah State and Air Force, plan to make it through a full 2021 campaign.