Wyoming | The Reboot (NCAA 14)

[Bigsheen]

Super tough way to end the season. Seems like the boys were happy with the win over the always tough Boise State.

Tough losing the one stud you had one defense but next man up. Love your end of the year graphics.

[WaitTilNextYear]

We'll do this end of season stuff in 3 parts--the first part, a post mortem on the Wyoming season, has already posted. This is part 2. How did everything else work out? Who won it all? Which teams are conspicuously absent from the Top 25 and what the hell is FIU eating for breakfast? Got to be Wheaties.

Next up will be offseason part 3 of 3--an awards and stats gala!

[WaitTilNextYear]

And with this we come to the end of the 2017 offseason. Part 3 of 3 awaits.

SUMMARY

• UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen wins all the major awards that a QB can win, declares he will return for senior season.
• Notre Dame is the only team with offensive and defensive units both in the Top 5. That and DeShone Kizer coming back for his rSR season have the Irish giddy.
• Wyoming linebacker Logan Wilson wins the Bednarik Award after a season of cleaning up messes.
• Wyoming MLB Logan Wilson (rSO), FS Andrew Wingard (JR), and WR/ret. Austin Conway (rSO) earn 1st Team All-NCAA honors. Wingard will return for his senior year.
• Wyoming CB Robert Priester (graduating rSR) earns 1st Team All-MWC honors.
• Wyoming DT Sidney Malauulu (rJR) earns 2nd Team All-MWC honors.

[CBoller1331]

Proud to say I once tackled the NCAA leading rusher, James Butler.

Can't wait to see what's in store for next season!!

[Knickerbocker91]

I have to ask only because seeing the team stats table made me unreasonably giddy: did you just take the numbers the game gives you and average them out yourself? Or just take the top 5 schools according to the total stats the game shows and average those? It annoys me to no end that the game puts the total yards in the stat rankings as opposed to the per game numbers, simply because different teams play maybe one or two more games than others so the numbers aren't totally in order.

Got a lot of work cut out for next season, especially with a defense giving up nearly 450 yards per game. Not to mention that's a wide turnover differential.

Moment of silence for my sanity as Artavis Scott wins the Biletnikoff but Martin Jr. has better numbers. Hell, so did James Washington.

Looking forward to the offseason and Season 2!

[WaitTilNextYear]

Quote: Originally Posted by CBoller1331

Proud to say I once tackled the NCAA leading rusher, James Butler. Can't wait to see what's in store for next season!!

Oh there's things in store! A capture card comes to mind. Should be here this weekend. I'm looking forward to sprucing up my recaps with game photography. Season 1 was sort of a trial run.

You tackled James Butler in real life?

Quote: Originally Posted by Knickerbocker91

I have to ask only because seeing the team stats table made me unreasonably giddy: did you just take the numbers the game gives you and average them out yourself? Or just take the top 5 schools according to the total stats the game shows and average those? It annoys me to no end that the game puts the total yards in the stat rankings as opposed to the per game numbers, simply because different teams play maybe one or two more games than others so the numbers aren't totally in order. Got a lot of work cut out for next season, especially with a defense giving up nearly 450 yards per game. Not to mention that's a wide turnover differential. Moment of silence for my sanity as Artavis Scott wins the Biletnikoff but Martin Jr. has better numbers. Hell, so did James Washington. Looking forward to the offseason and Season 2!

I had to do a little math to get accurate per game numbers, but it's easy math and it was worth it to have a definitive Top 5 list. Only had to do calculations for a dozen or so teams to find the right 5. Most teams aren't close.

I also remember that Artavis Scott had 17 TD catches and Tavares Martin Jr. only had 16 at the time of the award, so he must've padded his stats in the bowl game. I was also thinking that maybe the game weights the numbers by team run/pass ratios to determine the awards? With the passing output that Luke Falk was putting up for Wazzu, Martin Jr's numbers don't seem quite as impressive.

I'd be more worried about the turnover margin if I hadn't committed 10 in the final 2 games. Without those oddballs, I'd be near even. The defense is a bigger concern but I do have 2 All-Americans returning there.

[CBoller1331]

My high school team played against James Butler's team my Junior (his senior year). We stuffed him three straight times the first drive (i was in on one of the gain tackles), then he proceded to run for like 90 yards and two touchdowns in the rest of the first quarter before they took him out thanks to a lopsided score.

Anyways, still pumped for the upcoming season!

[WaitTilNextYear]

It's back-to-back small and lightly-ranked recruiting classes for the Wyoming Cowboys. The 2017 class contained 12 players (seven 3*, three 2*, and two 1*) although 3* linebacker Aaron Humphrey has already left campus due to homesickness. Humphrey will enroll with enemy program BYU after sitting out a year so he can live at home.

The current recruiting class, c/o 2018, is similar to its predecessor. Once again a haul of eleven recruits (no attrition...yet). Once again dominated by 3* and 2* talents (six 3*, four 2*, and one 1*). Factoring in all the 1* stiffs the cpu added to the class, it was a 119th ranked class. These stiffs that wandered onto campus, were never offered a scholarship, and were not recruited at all have been cut. Still, even without the stiffs, it was a fairly unimpressive class and the Pokes lost out on their two most prized targets when in-state 5* DT Eric Newsome chose Ohio State and 3* CB Shaun Hawk chose Washington. Newsome was one of three 5* DT's pulled in by the Buckeyes this cycle.

The recruits also underwent a thorough brainwashing and renaming per WYO Football statutes (h/t to Bigsheen for suggesting some good websites). For each recruit, the website http://random-name-generator.info was used to generate 10 names to choose from and the name style was toggled between common, average, and rare. Branden Tarver also became LaBranden Tarver according to a small tweak by this author.

Charles Jackson (SO) (born Fabian Williams) was the punter last season. He's the only starter out of either recruiting class so far although a handful have made the 2-deep.

Coach Bohl maintains a strict redshirt policy--all true freshman must don the redshirt. Unless they are 5* talents, or their position group's depth is non-existent, or if they are 42 OVR fullbacks. Because who wants a 42 OVR fullback taking up a roster spot for 5 years?

To add a little bit of randomness to the development of players, a random progression system was put in place (h/t to Hellisan for the concept).

Each offseason, starting with this one, 10 random numbers from 1-99 are generated using https://random.org and the numbers are matched to the jersey numbers of Wyoming players. The first 8 players chosen in this way undergo a regression between 2 and 12 points of OVR. The final 2 chosen undergo additional progression between 1 and 6 points of OVR. The first random number indicates the direction of change and a subsequent random number generation gives the magnitude of the OVR change. The individual attributes chosen to effect each change are at the discretion of this author--often there are several attributes impacted.

Looking at this crop of randomness, half of the 10 players chosen are members of either the 2017 or 2018 recruiting classes. The only Poke of this cohort to progress is Cedric Farmer (rFR) (born as Chris Prater) who backs up All-NCAA Logan Wilson (rJR) at middle linebacker.

It's interesting to see what randomness did to the running back depth. Last season's starter Milo Hall (rJR) was hit with a -4 and Mike Green II (rSO) was boosted by a +2. This likely means last year's backup Nico Evans (rSR) will win the position battle to become the starting tailback.

The passing game took a bit of a hit as well as both backup TE Tyree Mayfield (rSR) and RB-turned-WR Kellen Overstreet (SR) took double digit hits to their ratings.

Ohio State once again leads the pack with 5* recruits. They have added nine 5* recruits in the past 2 classes. There are no huge surprises here, but Wisconsin continues to recruit a bit above their heads.

Last year, it was Purdue pulling in the top overall recruit. This time it makes a bit more sense. Will Nate Ware finally bring decent QB play to the LSU Tigers?

The back half of the Top 10 is, shall we say, interesting. Virginia, Western Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas Tech is just how you draw it up.