Pokes Position Breakdown: Linebackers
LARAMIE -- Wyoming football season is right around the corner.
Jay Sawvel and his team will hit the practice fields in Laramie July 28, kicking off training camp just 31 days ahead of the Cowboys Thursday night opener at Akron.
Nearly 50 new players -- both freshmen and portal signings -- litter this new-look roster as this program attempts to put a disappointing 3-9 season even further in the rear-view mirror. Hopefully you're learning about all the new faces in our summer series Welcome to Wyoming Football.
According to ESPN, UW returns 56% of its production (104 combined starts) from last season, including its leading rusher (Sam Scott), receiver (Jaylen Sargent) and tight end (John Michael Gyllenborg). Three offensive linemen -- Wes King, Jack Walsh and Caden Barnett -- are back in the fold, too. So is quarterback Kaden Anderson, who took the reins late in 2024.
Let's break it all down:
PLAYERS | *Gary Rutherford, *Ethan Stuhlsatz, Brayden Johnson, Dash Bauman, Evan Eller, Enoch Sibomana, Parker Moore, Steven Perez, Cooper Mailand (* - Presumed starter)
POSITION COACH | Aaron Bohl - 9th season
WHAT TO WATCH | Jay Sawvel and Co. say they have upgraded at the linebacker spot. The staff dipped into the portal to snag Ethan Stuhlsatz and Brayden Johnson, a pair of veterans with size and speed. But their biggest pickup might have come from within. Gary Rutherford, who was called a "Big Ten player" during the 2024 signing period, got his feet wet last fall, appearing in four games. Now, the second-year head coach can only sarcastically laugh when asked if he could be a starter at the weak side as a redshirt freshman. He could be the real deal and the next in line in what has been a great tradition at that position. Can Dash Bauman -- a player Sawvel has referred to as "Chad Muma 2.0" -- make a leap this season? Evan Eller was impressive during the spring. Can those ball-hawking skills carry over to the regular season? Enoch Siboman brings a couple of national title rings with him from his stint at North Dakota State. He is so versatile, though, he could even line up in the secondary, if needed. A pair of rookies, Parker Moore and Steven Perez, were tackling machines in high school. Will be interesting to see their progression in Year 1.
SUMMARY | On the surface, the numbers were impressive. Middle linebacker Shae Suiaunoa led the Cowboys with 87 tackles. His running mate, Connor Shay, came in second with 76. That duo was busy thanks to a mostly ineffective front four throughout periods of the season. Still, they deserve their share of the blame for allowing opponents to average nearly six yards per carry and 191.7 yards a game. They also didn't receive a lot of help, though, in the depth department. Even Eller, after appearing in four games, was redshirted. So was the up and coming Gary Rutherford. Cole DeMarzo shouldered some of the load, but managed just seven tackles. Read Sunn and Nic Talich added a combined nine stops. That damage mostly came on special teams. Sawvel's goal this offseason was to add experience. He said former head coach Craig Bohl brought in one linebacker per year in the recruiting cycle. He added, the "bill came due" at that position last fall. While we've grown used to watching players like Logan Wilson, Chad Muma and Easton Gibbs rack up triple-digit tackles, those guys were also able to stay fresh and relatively injury free. This staff is in hopes a true rotation is on the horizon with additions of Ethan Stuhlsatz, Brayden Johnson and Enoch Sibomana. Added weight and birthdays in the trenches should only help this unit.
QUOTABLE | "We need to create more competition, more depth. All of a sudden, when you had to take a linebacker off the field, the guy that you're putting in wasn't a Mountain West level player. So, we needed to kind of get that fixed and I feel confident with where we're at. Like, we're bigger, but we're also more athletic and we've had a year of development. We've got four defensive tackles that we'd be lining up for us early in the season that are over 295 (pounds). We've never had that since I've been at Wyoming," UW head coach Jay Sawvel said last week at the league's media days event in Las Vegas.
OTHER POSITION BREAKDOWNS:
University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
Gallery Credit: 7220Sports.com
- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
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