Pokes Position Breakdown: Offensive Line

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.

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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.

Now, let's break down this team, position by position, ahead of Mountain West Media Days July 16-17 in Las Vegas:

PLAYERS | *Jack Walsh (Center), *Caden Barnett (Right guard), *Wes King (Left Guard), *Nate Geiger (Left tackle), *Rex Johnsen (Right tackle), Jake Davies (Left tackle), Quinn Grovesteen-Matchey (Tackle), Caleb Hall (Tackle/ guard), Alex Conn (Tackle/ guard), Luke Sandy (Guard/ center), Josiah Petaia (Tackle/ guard), Giovanni Panozzo (Tackle/ guard), Wyatt Walters (Tackle/ guard), Spencer Rathbun (Tackle/ guard), Braylon Jenkins (Tackle/ guard), Brandt Rice (Tackle/ guard), Cooper Lawson (Tackle/ guard), Tariq Miller (Tackle/ guard), Johnathan Bush (Tackle/ guard), Kalvin Janssen (Tackle/ guard)  (* - Presumed starter)

POSITION COACH | Joe Tripodi - 4th season

WHAT TO WATCH | Who will protect Kaden Anderson's blindside? Nate Geiger, a redshirt freshman last fall, won the position battle in training camp before suffering a season-ending knee injury just 11 snaps into the opener. Jake Davies was forced into action at Arizona State. Results were mixed for the first-year player. The Cowboys line, as a whole, allowed 27 sacks. Anderson, who also saw the first action of his college career in 2024, also took plenty of hits, including one against Boise State that thwarted that upset attempt and sidelined the redshirt freshman quarterback for the season finale at Washington State. Jack Walsh is moving from the guard spot to center, replacing longtime starter Nofoafia Tulafono. Will it be a smooth transition? Caden Barnett is also sliding to the inside, vacating the right tackle spot. Can Rex Johnsen take advantage of the opportunity? He made two spot starts against Air Force and Wazzu, both Wyoming wins.

SUMMARY | Wyoming returns at least three starters to a front five that struggled -- sometimes mightily -- during last season's 3-9 campaign. While that trio -- Walsh, Barnett and King -- is seasoned, few others are. The staff brought in just one transfer in Josiah Petaia, who has only been playing football for two years. Four freshmen were inked this offseason. Finding depth across the board, like always, will be the key. After a decade of dominance in the run game, the Cowboys averaged just 137.8 yards an outing on the ground. That equated to only 3.6 yards per carry, which ranked eighth out of 12 Mountain West programs. More stability in the backfield -- and under center -- should be beneficial in that category.

QUOTABLE | "Obviously, we've got a lot of levels that we've got to improve at, and then the two biggest things for me to start the spring is we have to increase the number of winnable offensive linemen. That's a development thing through the course of the spring. We've got a couple guys that were injured last year and all that, but then there's also, you know, some talented young players: (Braylon) Jenkins, Giovanni Panozzo, guys like that. OK, we've got to increase that pool of offensive linemen that can win for us," Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel said last March ahead of spring practices.

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players