Tuck’s Take: Hallelujah, Wyoming is Finally Returning Punts

LARAMIE -- Benny Boyd's words are telling.

In fact, some might go as far to call them mind-boggling.

"It was a program philosophy with coach (Craig) Bohl: just catch it and get it back to the offense," he said. "Don't screw it up."

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He's referring to returning punts, a facet of the game the Cowboys have floundered at -- to put it mildly -- since 2020, the year Boyd, the co-special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach, arrived in Laramie.

The stats certainly backup his claim. It's also clear that ideology leaked over to year one of the Jay Sawvel era.

No one in the Mountain West was more inept -- call it cautious -- in the return game than Wyoming. Only six other programs, including Week-1 opponent Akron, were worse in this category across the FBS landscape.

Nine attempts. Just 29 yards. That's an average of 3.2 yards per.

Brutal.

"Look, we will actually try to return punts at the University of Wyoming this year," Sawvel said from behind the podium, drawing a sarcastic chuckle from the media in attendance. "We will actually try to do that. We've not done that in the five years I've been here."

Sawvel, who was hired as the team's new defensive coordinator on Feb. 6, 2020, the same day Boyd also signed his contract, named rookie wideout Deion DeBlanc the new returner just two weeks into fall camp.

While you'd think that designation brings a certain amount of pressure one might not want to hand a true freshman, that's not the case here. Basically, it's time to take risks, in more ways than one.

Calculated ones, of course.

"I'm good with it," Sawvel added. "He's fast, he's strong and he catches it really well. He's got very good make-a-guy-miss ability."

Boyd agrees.

"He hasn't played a football game here, but he's been here for some time and he's established himself," he added, citing DeBlanc's early arrival in the spring. "He doesn't handle himself like a rookie in terms of his maturity off the field and how he handles his details.

"... He's mature beyond his years. He's very sturdy. When you hit him, he doesn't go down easily, you know?"

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DeBlanc joked that he heard about his promotion from his mom, who read about it in an article.

"I didn't even know about it until she called me," he said with a smile and a slight head shake. "I'm grateful for the opportunity, but I just try not to let it get to my head because, at the end of the day, it's just a game I've been playing since I was 5 years old."

It's not like there are any outlandish expectations for the brace-faced kid from Houston.

How bad has it been since Sawvel and Boyd received their respective key cards?

2023: 9 returns, 33 yards, 3.3 per

2022: 6 returns, 29 yards, 3.3 per

2021: 12 returns, 46 yards, 4.8 per

2020: 12 returns, 66 yards, 5.5 per

"We're the only team in the Mountain West not to have a return over 20 yards," Boyd said, referring to a season-best 15-yard burst from Caleb Cooley in a road loss at San Jose State. "Yeah, that includes the people down there in Colorado Springs who barely return it."

Wyoming and Air Force, turns out, aren't just often neck-and-neck in the passing offense department, another aspect of this program that needs to see marked improvement this fall.

Bohl was conservative in many ways during his decade-long tenure on the high plains, whether that was fourth-down attempts -- just 16 of those during his final two seasons -- or calling nearly 1,900 more running plays than passes, for example.

Personnel and circumstance -- "time, scoring, situation," as Boyd calls it -- dictates plenty of those decisions, but we all know that style of play was already in Bohl's DNA. When it comes to returning punts, though, it wasn't always such an old-fashioned approach:

2019: 34 returns, 366 yards, 10.8 per

2018: 27 returns, 156 yards, 5.8 per

2017: 23 returns, 236 yards, 10.3 per

2016: 31 returns, 203 yards, 6.5 per

2015: 14 returns, 105 yards, 7.5 per

2014: 16 returns, 163 yards, 10.2 per

The spurt between 2016-19 can probably be summed up with one name: Austin Conway. The Aurora, Colo., product accounted for all but eight of those return yards during that span. He also scored the last touchdown, a 60-yard jaunt against UNLV during his freshman campaign. It was the program's first punt return for a score since 2011.

Why was 2020 the turning point?

Aside from the graduation of Conway, speculation immediately shifts to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which, as was all know, turned everything upside down, including the hours necessary to work out the fine details. Players were also often contact-traced, meaning last-minute roster fluctuation.

That season? Understandable.

The following four? Not so much.

Boyd, a no-nonsense coach who prides himself on consistency and truth-telling, explained the team's mindset in 2024.

"Last year, we just really didn't have the guys," he said, referring to a lack of depth throughout the program, which filters down to special teams. "We had a very, very competent guy back there in Caleb Cooley, but we didn't do a very good job of protecting him to give him a chance to get on track when he caught the ball."

That should be a problem of the past.

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Wyoming brought in nearly 50 new players this offseason, including 23 via the NCAA Transfer Portal. That has created competition at all the levels, including on special teams.

DeBlanc is an electric athlete, rolling up 714 receiving yards on just 51 catches on a loaded Northshore High School squad that is one of the best in Texas. Oregon, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Louisville and Arkansas didn't offer the 5-foot-10, 185-pound speedster on accident.

Though he wasn't back on return often during his prep days -- he was the second option behind four-star prospect Quanell Farrakhan Jr., who is now at Colorado -- DeBlanc is confident the transition will be a smooth one.

"I had some big runs," he said. "They could've been touchdowns."

Blocking, or lack thereof, he joked, thwarted that.

What is the message to the rookie with the season opener just seven days away? Be aggressive? Take chances? Be smart?

"They just let me be me, and that's what I like," he said. "I feel like, once you are in my ear too much and just telling me what to do and not letting me play my game, that's where mistakes come in and you start thinking too much."

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players