2016 Opponent Previews: Wyoming

Saunders · March 15, 2016

SBNation: Wyoming football has improved only once in 10 years, but Craig Bohl's taking no shortcuts

When Bohl left Fargo, he was 43-2 in his previous three years. Since he left, he's won six games. NDSU has won two more titles. Bohl doesn't mind taking a while to lay a foundation. With the FCS transition complete, his Bison took a brief step backward. They went 9-13 in 2008-09 and finished seventh in the Missouri Valley in 2009.

Their leap forward was sudden, but little was certain heading into 2010.

In other words, he's probably not panicking. That's good, because it would be easy to do so. Bohl inherited a team that had gone 5-7 with an S&P+ ranking of 108th in 2013; in two years, he's gone 4-8 (107th) and 2-10 (114th). The offense has regressed each year, and after building one of the nation's best defenses at any level, Bohl has no momentum on that side of the ball. Last year's depth chart was littered with freshmen and sophomores. The result wasn't pretty. But freshmen and sophomores become sophomores and juniors, and if Bohl is going to succeed in Laramie, we'll probably start seeing how in 2016.

2016 projected wins: 4.2

Projected S&P+ ranking: 110 (10 in Mountain West)

5-year recruiting ranking: 117 (11 in Mountain West)

Biggest strength: In RB Brian Hill and WR Tanner Gentry, UW has two true stars in the skill positions.

Biggest question mark: Can the front seven make a few plays to help out a secondary that is still really young?

Biggest 2016 game: At Eastern Michigan (Sept. 24). A revenge win would make UW either 2-2 or 3-1 heading into October. That gets you some happy headlines.

Summary: Bohl is taking no shortcuts in his rebuild, but he enters his third season with a 6-18 record in Laramie, and the wins probably won't start to truly show until 2017 at the earliest.

Read the rest of the awesome, in-depth preview here: http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/3/15/11206532/wyoming-football-2016-preview-schedule-roster