Jack Dunkley is ‘Mentally Wired’ to Do Damage Off the Edge

LARAMIE -- How would Jay Sawvel describe newly acquired edge rusher Jack Dunkley?

"This is a guy who likes to tear s--- up," Wyoming's head coach said.

Sound good?

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While the numbers speak for themselves -- 14.5 sacks and 24 tackles for loss in 28 career games -- Sawvel openly wondered if the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Duquesne transfer was athletic enough to be a productive player at the FBS level.

That question, he said, was answered in the weight room this winter.

"He's mentally wired the way that you want," Sawvel added. "I'm really excited about Jack."

Wyoming's crop of defensive ends registered just 5.5 sacks last fall. Tyce Westland tallied two of those. So did Chisom Ifeanyi, who grew up just 2.1 miles down the road from Dunkley in the northeast suburbs of Philadelphia. Both attended Neshaminy High School.

Yes, Ifeanyi gave his stamp of approval, aiding Dunkley's decision to call Laramie home.

Westland an Ifeanyi exhausted their eligibility. So did Brayden "Larry" Wilson, the man responsible for the other 1.5 quarterback takedowns. Peter Eyabi is now at Indiana State.

Sawvel said last offseason the program was "playing with Monopoly money," referring to a limited NIL budget. This time around, he added, more funds were sunk into three position groups -- offensive line, safety and defensive end -- than the 27 new faces that joined the team last January.

This youthful unit, before the arrival of Donnie Wingate (Southern Illinois), Thaddeus Gianaris (Dartmouth) and Dunkley, consisted of Cade Brook, Kevin Sjogren, Esaia Bogar, Eltoum Mugus, Jason Handy and Jordan Turnbull.

Those names were responsible for just 19 tackles and a sack in 2025. Bogar tallied the latter, along with 13 of those stops.

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Dunkley's Dukes were blown out 61-9 at Pitt in late August. Still, he managed to rack up four tackles and the lone sack. That performance carries weight with Sawvel and the Cowboys' coaching staff. The year prior, in a pair of road meetings with FBS opponents Toledo and Boston College, he got to the quarterback again in both.

"The evaluation was, this was a really good football player," Sawvel said. "... Now that we've had him here, and you train him for a period of time, you realize he's a far better athlete than what we even thought, which bodes very well for what you think he'll become as a player, right?

"This guy is training like he's never trained before."

There's more good news.

Sawvel initially thought Dunkley could serve as a bridge player, allowing the underclassmen to get their collective feet wet for an additional year. Now, the senior could be a mainstay. He was recently informed he has an extra season of eligibility.

"That's a huge thing in and of itself," Sawvel added.

With a more consistent pass rush, the third-year head coach thinks this defense has the potential to be the best since he arrived on campus back in 2020 as the coordinator of that group.

That's saying something, considering the Cowboys featured the 45th-ranked defense in the nation in 2025, allowing just 344.2 yards an outing.

"I think it's attainable to be substantially better than what we were a year ago defensively," Sawvel added.

Wyoming will hit the practices fields Tuesday in Laramie for the first of 15 spring workouts, culminating April 25 in the annual Brown and Gold scrimmage inside War Memorial Stadium.

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