Wyoming @ Texas preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 12, 2009 ) Texas 41, Wyoming 10

As if facing the fourth-ranked Texas Longhorns in Austin wasn’t tough enough, second-year Wyoming coach Dave Christensen has to deal with the type of situation that no coach would ever want.

Two days after beating Southern Utah 28-20 in their season opener, the Cowboys were rocked by the news that freshman linebacker Ruben Narcisse, 19, was killed in a traffic accident early Monday on a Colorado highway. In addition, three teammates - Trey Fox, Christian Morgan and J.J. Quinlan - were injured in the crash. Investigators say Fox, a 19-year-old freshman cornerback, was driving the vehicle when he apparently fell asleep.

As a result of the horrific incident, Christensen, who guided the Cowboys to a win over Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl last season in his first year on the job, has the unenviable task of trying to focus his shaken squad to face a Texas team that looked less than formidable in beating Rice 34-17 on Saturday.

The Longhorns, three-touchdown favorites on Saturday, struggled to subdue Rice, but witnessed a virtually mistake free performance by quarterback Garrett Gilbert, who completed 14-of-23 passes for 172 yards in his first college start.

UT, working to emphasize the running game this season, racked up 197 total rushing yards, exceeding the team’s anemic 147-yard per game average in 2009. Junior Cody Johnson entered the game as the starting running back, but after suffering an ankle injury against Rice, sophomore Tre’ Newton, who scored three touchdowns against the Owls, has been pegged as the starter against Wyoming.

Wyoming sophomore quarterback Austyn Carta-Samuels, the 2009 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, had a strong performance in Wyoming’s opening win, completing 26-of-32 passes with three touchdowns and one interception for 319 yards. Senior receiver Zach Bolger caught two touchdowns and had 134 total receiving yards against Southern Utah.

Wyoming returns seven starters on both offense and defense from last year’s 7-6 team. Christensen says he plans to open up the playbook a bit in Carta-Samuels' second season. Wyoming’s offense was fairly balanced last year, with 496 rushing attempts and 410 passing attempts as the team averaged 18 points per game. Look for Carta-Samuels to rely on Bolger and senior receiver David Leonard, who led the team with 77 receptions last year, and sophomore running back Alvester Alexander.

Defensively, the Cowboys count heavily on senior free safety Chris Prosinski and junior middle linebacker Brian Hendricks. Both were All-Mountain West Conference second-team picks in 2009.

While the victory over Rice was the Longhorns’ 11th straight in season openers, they left Houston in a foul mood and realize they are still a work in progress. But the Longhorns figure to build on their 31-3 record in August and September games during Mack Brown’s 13 years in Austin.