Bob Hammond has covered Wyoming athletics longer than any living person and he claims BYU's butt-kicking last week of the Cowboys in War Memorial Stadium was an all-time eye opener.

Writing in the Daily Boomrang in Laramie, sports editor Bob Hammond said BYU's 52-0 shellacking of Wyoming could have been worse if BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall hadn't taken star players out in the third quarter.

Hammond said Wyoming football had made progress under new coach Dave Christensen and even looked competitive in a 41-10 loss to Texas. But the BYU affair last Saturday was a setback.

"Then, to see the Cowboys revert to their old ways, and especially against BYU, was disconcerting to say the least.

"Those were my thoughts initially. That is, until I had time to sit back, review my notes and reflect on just exactly what happened on Saturday.

"Admittedly, the Cowboys weren't up to snuff — but I hadn't given BYU due credit for what was happening," wrote Hammond.

"The more I thought about it, the Cougars played as well as any team I've seen in my 42 years of covering college football through the first 2 quarters before taking their foot off the accelerator. And that was on both sides of the ball.

"The execution was flawless.

"In those first 37 minutes, the BYU offense ran 47 plays from the line of scrimmage for 461 yards. That figures out to an average of 9.8 yards per play. Of the 47 plays, only four did not produce positive results. The success rate was 91.5 percent.

"There were only two runs that went for 0 yards and two passes that fell incomplete."

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com