UT visit was eye-opener for Wyoming in 1999

LARAMIE, Wyo. - For this group of Wyoming football players, what they will experience Saturday at Tennessee will be like no other in their careers.

It was similar for two former Wyoming players who got their first taste of big-time college football against the Vols.

In 1999, the Cowboys started three redshirt freshmen along the offensive line: Rob Kellerman, Adam Goldberg and Mike Irvin. Their first college game was at Tennessee in the season-opener. The Vols were the defending national champions, ranked in the top 10, and more than 102,000 fans packed Neyland Stadium - including around 5,000 Wyoming fans.

"The biggest thing I remember was I wasn't nervous," said Kellerman, a four-year letterman from 1999-2002 and now an assistant equipment manger in the athletics department.

"I didn't get nervous that year until we played Colorado State at home. We were ready. We knew what we had to do against Tennessee. They were just better than us."

Better to the tune of 13 quarterback sacks, which is still a Tennessee record. Wyoming lost 42-17.

"The biggest thing was that place was so loud, since it was their first game after their national championship," Kellerman said. "We had to go on silent counts, and they pinned us deep a couple of times. Our tackles weren't getting the cue to get out. They made us look slow, and they were fast."

While that first game was definitely a baptism by fire, all three went on to long and productive careers with the Cowboys, and that 1999 squad finished 7-4.

Goldberg has played in the NFL since 2003 and is with the St. Louis Rams. Kellerman and Irvin both started in 30-plus games in their Wyoming careers.

Three years later, Wyoming and Tennessee played their second of a three-game series in Nashville. The game was originally scheduled for Laramie, but then Wyoming athletic director Lee Moon opted to move the game to Nashville to the stadium of the NFL's Tennessee Titans for a school-record payday of $2.35 million.

It was the first game of coach Vic Koenning's third and final season. Wyoming received the opening kickoff, and one of the two players back to receive the kick was redshirt freshman receiver Jovon Bouknight, a former high-school quarterback out of the Denver area.

"It was nerve-wracking," Bouknight said. "I had never played in that type of environment, and me and Leonard Jones were back there for the kick. I was like, 'Please don't kick it to me.'

"I didn't get the ball, but I still paid for it. I tried to pick up a block and paid for it. It woke me up and woke me up to football."

Wyoming lost 47-7, but it was the start of a spectacular career for Bouknight. He scored the team's lone touchdown in that game on a 35-yard pass in the fourth quarter, and led the team that season with 63 catches and was second with 689 receiving yards.

Bouknight, who is in his first year as a graduate assistant, finished as Wyoming's career leader in all-purpose yards (5,921), kickoff return yards (2,016) and kickoff returns (87). He also is second in career receptions (250), third in receiving yards (3,626) and third in receiving touchdowns (29).

Bouknight and Kellerman both said their first game ranks among the best memories they had over their careers. They've also shared their experiences against Tennessee with current members of the team.

Bouknight arguably had the best advice.

"I told them those guys are just like you, and they put their pads on the same way," he said. "Instead of being nervous, embrace the experience and make some good memories out of it."

That advice seems to be rubbing off.

"I'm real excited and the guys are excited," said redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Stutzriem, who will make his second-career start. "It will be a lot of fun."