Wyoming Cowboys
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."
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Comments » 24
thurs2000#245193 writes:
Welcome to Tennessee Cowboys. Enjoy your visit.
WeLoveTennesseeVols writes:
And make some good memories with it. Like what would the world be like if all of the games we lose under Fulmer , the hate Fulmer crowd would have just been content to have tried to make a few good memories out of it. With fans like these, no wonder we are cursed sometimes. And I believe that that is the half of the situation. Poor fans, always fussing and wanting more and appreciating less. I know this is true. Look at the officiating. Look at the Bush administration, the negative advertising and negative news coverage, and now all the people think that his eight years were bad ones. Gosh if the people and the media had half way backed this man, what a celebration we would have had , and guess what we wouldn't have needed Obama. And could have had C. Rice, or other American Negro as a president. Actually he wasn't even born here, and has no slave blood in him. I am a student of these things and their are forces at work in the world which affect the outcome of things. Our thoughts and feelings matter . That's why we should forgive and reconciliate. Football is a game. And I am glad we have won 75 percent under Fulmer. Everyone was ready to play Tennessee for years. We got their best shot. The next five years we'll be lucky to go 50 50. Winning is not a given. Hamilton had better be lucky, to have fired Fulmer with no game plan???? Really!!
newtonrail writes:
Have you taken your meds today?
Feared_Mustang_Package writes:
Study? I thought you had to have your head fully out of your asse to study anything?
Again, I ask for the progessive nature that Tennessee football has shown this week. Please follow this trend, deactivate your account and let the big boys discuss things in big boy manner.
You, if serious in your post, are a microcosim of what is wrong with people who fail at business. Can't accept change. Can't go with the times. You can't adapt. College Football is a business now, all your backwoods hoping/ rambling isn't changing anything.
I'm reminded of what a teacher (in college, so this might be over your head) told me. "Organize or Perrish" either you get it straight or you go to waste, which is a direct phrase meaning that sometimes change is needed to attain a goal and stay pointed in the right direction.
Read a book, build a tree-house, go look at an educational website because you really need to think forward, Bubba.
MidTennVol writes:
Leach, Kelly, Kiffin, Brewster all on Vols' list, according to ESPN's Chris Low...
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sec
HighlanderVol writes:
I will drive guys gas is to high .We can take the bus .I would say we will pick up more guys on the way to his house !!!!!!
HonoluluVol writes:
Instead of fueling his stupidity and obvious abnormalities, let's all ignore the comments and concentrate on our common bond UT FOOTBALL and it's current state which concerns us all. GO VOLS!!!
nicksjuzunk#646117 writes:
Strange game. Vols will be looking to prove something for the Fulmer. Wyoming has nothing to lose and may be loose. Should be good.
blitzshoot writes:
go away.
blitzshoot writes:
Looks like won group is happy to be playing a game. Refreshing. Enjoy the visit Cowboys.
CoverOrange writes:
Well, hiresanders, if you would brush your tooth your upper lip wouldn't offend your nose so much.
volnbig11land writes:
hahahahaha,
been 30 minutes and I'm still laughing. Happy Friday!
dvol writes:
People like you haven't a clue. If you think the last 8 years haven't been bad both for the nation and the Vols you have been drinking something. Try getting a job right now, Or try watching your 401k disappear to a tune of 150,000 in the last month alone. Tennessee had to do something people aren't going to pay good money to watch the other team run up and down the field. 50,000 fans or less will not pay the bills. So, cry about Bush and Fulmer all you want. Maybe the next guy won't make it but at least the nation and Vols tried to do something about the future.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Yes, we will win. Can we score? Not much. Is it about over? Yes, thank the Lord.
Bus from Swayback just passed Cookeville on I-40 heading East. 312 empty Bud cans on board.
blitzshoot writes:
Let's keep talk about football and not our personal households.
Volunatic writes:
I don't care if you're pro-Fulmer or anti-Fulmer-- shut up about it already. We've all heard the "entire career" stats and the "last 6 years" stats again and again. That's all irrelevant now. What's done is done.
If you're a Vol fan, you're rooting for the Vols to win every game from here on. Focus on that.
GO VOLS!!! Beat the Cowboys!
spvol writes:
Well said!
givehim6 writes:
Would be nice if we could match that score, but with our offence. 16 to 3.
MrBamSeydu writes:
No reason to be afraid of UT this year.
tnvolfan30 writes:
You sound like you are part of the 30% of morons who think Bush is doing a good job!! I understand there's a bunch of "negative" things in this world, but there's always a POSITIVE too. We can reflect on the good wins Fulmer had at UT, but when there is a downward trend, it is time to move FORWARD. CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!!!!!! GO VOLS!!!
Colliervol writes:
That was far too complicated for WLTV. He hasn't made it past Curious George yet.
Colliervol writes:
Is that the type of punctuation and sentence structure that they teach in Alabama?
The only thing polluted is your trailer.
Colliervol writes:
"Im from tennessee but do go to bama."
"national forrest"
Oh man, this is just too easy. You'd better be glad it's not a term paper. You're in college and writing like this? $15,000 a year doesn't buy much education these days in Alabama, does it? (Doesn't say much for whatever TN school district you came from either.)
Hey bama: Kin u reed dis?
GoPokes writes:
We had a GREAT time! Thanks for the hospitality! We sure hope to come back again soon.
Wyoming football team
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