Injuries at Defensive Tackle Beginning to Mount For Cowboys
LARAMIE -- Bueller? Bueller?
Wyoming's defensive tackles room is razor-thin this spring and got even smaller Tuesday due to problematic back spasms for one of the Cowboys' two returning starters, Jayden Williams, and a "head ding" for rookie Tanielu Maafala-Barbasa.
"We're taking it in the teeth," Jay Sawvel said post-practice. "It's just like one bomb after another goes off at that position ... We got all these bombs happening at one time."
Wyoming's head coach also announced Tuesday, following the team's 10th practice, that Cody Crawford will be sidelined in 2026 with a torn ACL. The Casper product was carted out of War Memorial Stadium two weeks ago. Fellow local product Alex Haswell (Sheridan) is also out for a "couple of weeks" with a knee sprain.
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Murray State transfer Ja'Quan Redfern made his return to the field Tuesday in a limited capacity. The 285-pound junior has been dealing with tendinitis. Henry Rehberg is still not cleared for contact after suffering a season-ending knee injury in '25.
Dante Drake and Caleb Robinson, who were both lost for the season in last year's fall camp with ruptured Achilles' tendons, are being handled with caution this April for obvious reasons.
"We're keeping them out of team sets," Sawvel said. "They could play right now. If we played a game this week against Colorado State, they would play, but we don't, so we're not going to play them."
Help could soon be on the way.
An unsigned nose tackle will pay a visit to campus this weekend, according to a source familiar with the situation, and the Cowboys will welcome true freshmen MacGregor Byers (Houston, Texas) and Xavier Jackson (O'Fallon, Mo.) in June. Haswell, Redfern and Rehberg should be fully cleared ahead of summer conditioning, Sawvel added.
"We will be well-stocked, but right now we're thin," he said.
As of now, sophomore Tegen Seeds is carrying a majority of the load in the trenches. The 303-pound Douglas native even drew a round of applause Tuesday from the south sideline for his efforts. He appeared in seven games last fall, tallying one tackle and picking off a pass.
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