Wyoming Cowboys football wins 49-45 at New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In his first career start, Wyoming quarterback Kaden Anderson led Wyoming to a thrilling 49-45 victory over New Mexico on Saturday.

Redshirt freshman Anderson drove Wyoming down the field with 4:44 left in the game and ultimately scored the game-winning touchdown, connecting with Justin Stevenson on a 27-yard touchdown pass. Anderson completed 20 of 29 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns. He also scored an outstanding goal in the first half.

The fact that Anderson and Wyoming walked off the field victorious after giving the Lobos 576 yards of offense, including 413 rushing yards, was astounding.

It took a pick-six from Wrook Brown in the fourth quarter with the Cowboys trailing 45-35 at 12:55 to stem the rush. After John Hoyland stepped up and hit the extra point, Wyoming was relegated to a 45-42 game down the sideline.

“We weren't doing things right, but we didn't want to get it done. When (Wrook) did that, it lifted everyone up,” Sawvel said.

Wyoming forced a fourth punt after the interception by New Mexico player Aaron Rodriguez. At that point, Anderson led the Cowboys to a go-ahead rush of 88 yards on 11 plays. He found Stevenson on a second-and-goal from the Lobos' 27-yard line after Stevenson had immediately incurred a 15-yard pass interference penalty on the play.

“I literally told him, 'This is coming to you, stay calm, we need you here.' I knew I was going to him,” Anderson said.

Wyoming needed another big stop to secure the win, and Tyce Westland came through with the strip sack and fumble recovery on third-and-14 with less than three minutes to play. Wyoming recovered the ball at the Lobos' 49-yard line and ran as time expired.

The Cowboys (2-7, 2-3 Mountain West) finished the season with a season-high 604 yards of offense. In addition to Anderson filling in at quarterback, Harrison Waylee made his season debut and rushed for 172 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries. Fellow senior tailback Jamari Ferrell got the start for Wyoming and rushed for 89 yards on 20 carries.

Sawvel said Ferrell earned the start Saturday because of his work in practice over the past two weeks.

“He’s getting better in the latter part of his career. I think that says a lot about him as a person,” Sawvel said. “Just his demeanor towards everything, and that's why I brought him up in front of the team: 'This is a guy who hasn't done everything well over time, and he remains coachable and continues to develop.' He had a really good game today.”

Without the two game-changing offenses of Brown and Westland on defense, Wyoming might have finished with an offensive output of more than 550 yards and another one-point loss. That's how good New Mexico was on offense and how bad the Cowboys were on defense.

At New Mexico, quarterback Devon Dampier and leading tailback Eli Sanders both reached their first 200 yards. Dampier finished the game completing 16 of 31 passes for 164 yards and one touchdown to go, with 208 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Dampier scored on runs of 85 (a school record), 40 and 18. Sanders added 205 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns.

“They have a quarterback who is uniquely talented. Once you get it wrong with a guy like that, it's over. “You don’t have many options anymore,” said Sawvel.

It was a huge hole with no one left in the secondary who could catch Dampier or Sanders after the other. New Mexico scored on drives that lasted 15 seconds, 38 seconds, 1:09 and 2:27.

“We were just bad defensively, a step slow and didn't attack anything. Then the time came to attack one, (Brown) attacked one. It was a big play for us,” Sawvel said. “We did enough to get off the field when we needed to…Sometimes you can look at stats and this, that and the other, sometimes you just have to find a way.”

In the first half, which was reminiscent of a prize fight, the two teams had scoring opportunities. Anderson and Dampier went back and forth, trading right hands and uppercuts. Wyoming scored on its first four possessions to take a 28-21 lead at 9:54 of the second quarter. The contrast between UW's offensive performance in the first eight games and Saturday's performance was so stark it was jarring.

Wyoming entered the game ranked 123rd nationally in total offense with an average of 303.4 yards per game. The first half ended with 334 total yards. The Lobos defense was a deciding factor, but Anderson was trapped from the first pass. In the first half alone he delivered connections of 12, 47, 15, 68 and 25.

The two long passes of 47 and 68 went to junior wideout Jaylen Sargent, who had a career night with six receptions for 186 yards and a touchdown on the 68-yard pass down the sideline in the second quarter, giving UW a lead of 28 -21 provided.

Sawvel was effusive in his praise for his young quarterback after the game.

“Like Chris Durr, he was accurate in critical situations on some third-down balls. He controlled things really, really well,” he said. “There’s so much we can build on (Anderson). So we’re excited.”

“It was fun, man,” Anderson said. “I was just out there having fun and playing ball. I was a little nervous, but that's to be expected when starting out for the first time, but I've been here before. It’s nothing crazy.”

With the game tied 35-35 at halftime and the two teams combining for more than 700 yards of offense, New Mexico took a 45-35 lead with a dominant running game in the fourth quarter.

UW has a bye next week before its border clash against Colorado State on Nov. 15 in Fort Collins, Colo.

-Wyoming kicker John Hoyland became the all-time scoring leader with 346 points, surpassing Cooper Rothe's record of 342.

-Wyoming's 604 yards of offense were its most since 604 yards against Utah State on November 20, 2021.

– Waylee’s 100-yard rushing game was his fifth as a Cowboy.

-UW corner Keany Parks delivered a career-high 54-yard kickoff return in the first half.