Is There Really an Open QB Competition in Laramie?

LARAMIE -- Who will get the nod?

Jay Sawvel said last week there's an open competition for the starting quarterback job in Laramie and it will be a three-horse race to the finish line.

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Will the third year head coach go with the experience of incoming transfer Tyler Hughes? Will local product and heavily recruited Mason Drube prove enough this offseason to snag the gig? That duo will have the first chance to impress as the Cowboys kick off the first of 15 spring practices Tuesday in Laramie.

Landon Sims won't be medically cleared until the summer, coming off a third season-ending knee injury.

Gage Brook, according to Sawvel, is moving to tight end but will still take some reps under center in case of emergency. Taylor Hasselbeck, the son of former NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, will arrive in the summer for his freshman campaign.

"I think everybody's excited to see this play out in the spring with where we're at," Sawvel added.

There's good reason for that.

Wyoming signal callers have put up historically bad numbers over the previous two seasons, helping leave the program near the bottom of the Mountain West standings.

Evan Svoboda was statistically the least-efficient passer in college football in 2024 and was eventually moved to the tight end spot. Kaden Anderson stepped in and followed that performance with 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last fall. He threw for 1,971 yards while completing 56.3% of his passes. The redshirt sophomore also lost three fumbles.

Wyoming finished 111th in the country out of 134 FBS programs, averaging only 183 passing yards per game.

Svoboda could escape pressure with his legs. He was also utilized heavily in the run game, rushing for 237 yards and five touchdowns. The Cowboy offense didn't have that luxury in 2025. Anderson, who has since transferred to Tarleton State, capped his tenure on the high plains with minus-39 yards on the ground and was sacked 14 times. His longest scamper of the year was nine yards. That came in the season opener at Akron.

"We know quarterback is the most important position on the field," Sawvel said. "Look, I think that we've got to go into games where you can look at it and say that the check mark at that position goes to us, right? If you look at it over the last couple years and you say, 'OK, how many times has the check mark went to us at that position when you're evaluating the game?'

"I'm not going to say how many, you can answer that question more than I can, but we're excited about where we're at."

If there's one stat that sticks in the craw of the boss it's this: 16.

That's the number of points his offense managed to average last fall, the 129th worst mark in the nation.

Sawvel is also quick to point out how even that number is skewed. Brayden Johnson and Deion DeBlanc both found the end zone in a 35-28 home win over San Jose State in October. The first came via a 65-yard pick-six by the senior linebacker. The latter returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown.

Who gives the Cowboys the best chance to find consistency -- and cross the goal line more -- in 2026?

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Hughes, a 6-foot, 200-pound graduate transfer, likely has the leg up. During his final season at William and Mary, the Georgia native threw for 2,330 yards and 20 touchdowns while connecting on better than 66% of his tosses. He was only picked off three times. He also rolled up 670 yards and 11 more scores on the ground.

The program made a substantial financial commitment to Hughes, plucking him from the NCAA Transfer Portal. He is also all-too familiar with the direction new offensive coordinator Christian Taylor wants to take this unit. He recruited him to Williamsburg back in 2022.

"Tyler is very mature. Tyler is very, very, very invested," Sawvel added. "I've said it before, it's like you have to run the guy out of the building. I left here a few weeks ago on a Friday night at 7 p.m. and the lights were on in the stadium. There's Tyler Hughes out there with people on the field. None of this is prompted, in that regard. So I think there's a leadership component that he's going to make everybody else step up to. There's obviously a talent component that he has that is different than anybody else that we've had. He's very fast and he completed 67% of his passes last year."

Though Anderson started all 12 games, Drube got the lion's share of the snaps in the season finale at Hawaii. The rookie from Gillette, who fielded offers from Michigan State, Boston College, Washington State and many others out of Campbell County High School, completed 17-of-32 attempts for 179 yards and an interception in that 27-7 setback.

Drube, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs in at 218, was sacked three times and managed just 15 yards on the ground.

"He extended plays, kept plays alive. He's a tough kid and a really good athlete," Sawvel said that night in Honolulu. "Best part of all this, you know, he got to play a little bit, but we still kept that year of eligibility on him. So, you know, when he starts off in the spring, he still has four years of eligibility. I expect there's a lot of growth. I mean, he's uber competitive."

Sims was set to become the Cowboys' new full-time starter when he replaced an ineffective Anderson late in the first half of an eventual 24-7 road loss at San Diego State in early November.

It was short-lived.

The East Central Community College (Miss.) transfer suffered the third ACL tear of his college career, all in his left knee. Sawvel said last Thursday the junior is ahead of schedule and will be involved in team activities in June or early July.

When Jovon Bouknight took over playcalling duties in October from former offensive coordinator Jay Johnson, he immediately inserted Sims into the lineup as a situational quarterback. He responded by rushing for 31 yards on five carries, including a 1-yard plunge into the end zone in a 28-0 blanking of Border War rival Colorado State.

In San Diego, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Alabama product opened the night with a 37-yard scamper that led to a 3-yard touchdown toss to running back Sam Scott.

"Him and Tyler do spend a lot of time around each other," Sawvel said of Sims. "They're in a little different space than Mason. Mason's younger and has a different academic responsibility than Tyler Hughes, who's a graduate, and Landon Sims, who's further along in his academic career. So, those guys get to spend a little bit more time on certain things. I mean, they're up here all the time.

"Landon is doing well and he's looking forward to competing, too."

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