Momentum is vital for Cougs this week

LARAMIE, Wyo. — BYU is favored to defeat Wyoming today in a showdown at noon at War Memorial Stadium. It should be a two-TD victory.

The Cougars have more talent, more weapons, more experience and a better record. But the Cowboys have shown a penchant for standing in the ring and punching it out with everybody they've played, including powerful Texas.

"They are the same dudes, but they're better," is how BYU quarterback Max Hall puts it.

Is this the setting BYU needs to regain a little pride after being humiliated by TCU the last time they took to a field with the lights on and scoreboard plugged in? It's absolutely the right setting.

If the Cougars are left questioning themselves, second-guessing coaching schemes (and each other), and are dragging after their hopes for a MWC title took a hit two weeks ago with the Frogs, it will surface quickly here today. If it does, the Cowboys will rub their faces in it. If this was BYU versus winless New Mexico today, it wouldn't provide the same screen test.

If BYU is OK, as everyone from Bronco Mendenhall to team captains said was the case during the bye week leading up to this game, then it, too, will show, as the Cougars should ride a very efficient offense and hammer out an expected victory in a workmanlike manner with little drama.

This is what makes this matchup so intriguing. Which one will it be, a routine job or drama? It is exactly what BYU football needs.

In 2006-07, when the Cougars went undefeated in winning two league championships, and stretching over the 2008 and '09 seasons since, they have never lost to any league team other than Utah or TCU.

Today should be no different.

But if Wyoming eagerly skips through warmups and confidently steps up and punches the Cougars in the mouth, and BYU doesn't respond in kind? It will mark a shift in the status quo in this league and BYU's role in it.

The last time the Cougars visited Laramie, Hall took a huge hit on a sack by Cowboy defensive end John Fletcher and suffered a shoulder separation. It was a brutal, hard-hit takedown similar to what Coleby Clawson delivered on Oklahoma's Heisman Trophy-winning QB Sam Bradford.

That physical play is what Wyoming will bring to the Cougars today. It will either be met and superseded or it will be absorbed. If it is absorbed, the Cougars could be caught sulking and Bronco Mendenhall's squad will be in trouble heading into season-ending games with Air Force and Utah.

Cornerback Brian Logan claims that won't be the case today. "We're getting our swagger back," he said.

A big part of that is grasping momentum. Last week, Wyoming went into Rice-Eccles Stadium and had the momentum for a big part of that game. Fortunately for Kyle Whittingham, his squad made big plays in the fourth quarter to get it back and win.