Was Jay Sawvel Blindsided by the Departure of Waylee, Harsh?

LARAMIE -- Was Jay Sawvel caught off guard last week when Harrison Waylee and Sabastian Harsh decided to leave the program and enter the NCAA Transfer Portal?

Not necessarily.

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While it's not ideal to lose a pair of potential starters, especially with 15 spring practices on the horizon, Wyoming's head coach added, but this day in age, you have to be prepared for almost anything.

"That's not the end of the world," Sawvel said during his Thursday press conference. "It's part of 2025, I'm not going to complain about it, either."

Waylee, a senior running back, said numerous times last fall he would be returning to Laramie for his final collegiate season. The first mention came just moments after Sawvel announced he would be redshirting the team's leading rusher after he underwent knee surgery in the fall.

The plan was to play in the Cowboys' final four games. That's exactly what happened.

Now, he's on the open market, despite his public commitment.

"At the start of the (winter workouts) it wasn't something that was on my radar, but became on my radar," Sawvel admitted. "Through the course of the winter, you start to get different things, different directions, you know, so it is what it is on that. There's been an all-conference running back in each of the last two years that people have found in the spring portal. We already had a goal of obtaining another running back in the spring portal. That doesn't change our path.

"We were going to do that whether he was here or wasn't."

That window is open from April 16-25.

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Waylee capped his two-year stint on the high plains, appearing in just 14 of a possible 25 games. He rushed for a career-high 947 yards during the '23 campaign and added 323 in a limited role last fall, including a 170-yard outing in his debut against New Mexico.

Sawvel said he started to get "smoke signals" back in January when it came to Harsh.

That's just part of the reason he added six new defensive ends -- three via the portal and a trio of rookies -- this offseason.

The senior edge rusher, who also suffered a number of knee injuries during his four seasons at Wyoming, is coming off a 40-tackle performance in just eight outings a year ago. He also tallied 1.5 sacks.

"Because I had a concern there, we went ahead and just went full throttle with the position and added another when we had already had two," Sawvel said, referring to Jason Handy, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound freshman from Cedar Park, Texas. "So, you know, I don't feel like, wow, I was unprepared for that."

Sawvel warned Thursday that another player could be on his way out. If so, he said, that decision would have to do with a "family illness" type of situation.

With spring practice scheduled to begin Tuesday, and sweating through the constant tampering Sawvel said happens on a daily basis within his roster, the goal is to keep this group intact.

"There's a list of major guys that we needed to keep, and so far, we've kept those," he continued. "... The problem in today's world, one of the players that we need heavily in this program, I mean, just every day he checks his "X" inbox and it's flooded with just third-party crap about, 'We can get you this, and we can get you that. We can get you whatever.'

"... What we've done to college football, by allowing all the third-party access, is awful."

New edge rushers Esaia Boger (Riverside City College), Dawan Martin (Youngstown State) and Brayden Wilson (Weber State) are already on campus and will take part in spring ball. Axel Ramazani, who ironically is Waylee's cousin, is in Laramie, too, though hampered by a hip injury. Freshmen Cade Brook (Aurora, Colo.) and Handy will arrive in the summer.

The running back situation is a little more murky.

Sawvel said Thursday Sam Scott will see limited action in April after still having some residual effects from a bone bruise he suffered late in the regular season. The decision is also more precautionary than anything, the head coach added.

That means Nico Hamilton, Dontae Burch and Charlotte transfer, Terron Kellman, will shoulder most of the load during the spring as this roster awaits the arrival of freshmen Patrick Broadway II (Houston), Samuel "Tote" Harris (Cibolo, Texas) and Jaden Lawrence (Parker, Colo.).

"There was a reason that we're going to add another back," Sawvel said. "And there's a reason we signed three freshmen. We've been riding around here with six scholarship running backs since I've been here. We're going to keep that at eight now going forward. A reason is, I don't want to ever get short at that position. Running the football needs to be foundational to what we do."

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