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Wyoming's demise takes physical, professional toll on coach Glenn

By Austin Ward, Special to the Rocky

Published October 21, 2008 at 8:19 p.m.

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Wyoming coach Joe Glenn has had an increasingly tougher time watching his team week after week this season. The Cowboys (2-5) have lost four games in a row and 11 of their past 14. "We need to make our team better now. Quite honestly, if we don't do something down the stretch, there might not be another year for us," Glenn said.

Photo by David Zalubowski / Associated Press

Wyoming coach Joe Glenn has had an increasingly tougher time watching his team week after week this season. The Cowboys (2-5) have lost four games in a row and 11 of their past 14. "We need to make our team better now. Quite honestly, if we don't do something down the stretch, there might not be another year for us," Glenn said.

Speak Volumes

Wyoming coach Joe Glenn knew the stakes. The expectation to win was well known coming into Year 6 with the Cowboys, though Glenn has gone from ignoring the pressure to publicly acknowledging the effect it's having on him physically. Follow the evolution.

July 21, at MWC media days: "I always feel pressure, but it's more what we put on ourselves than what the media or anyone else puts on you. . . . If I didn't want a high-pressure deal, I'd do something else. This is fun."

Sept. 27, after a home loss to Bowling Green: "Come on, you know, it's my living. It's my kids, my coaches, it's killing me. Sore in the neck, across my shoulders all week long. Yeah, sure it makes me worry. Of course it does, I'm human, but I'm also the coach of this football team."

Oct. 14 during MWC teleconference: "I don't sleep at night. And it's not funny. I go for an hour, then I wake up. I dream about it. It's killing me, it's killing our program and it's killing our fans. It makes me sick."

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Start with the turnovers.

Lots of turnovers.

Add untimely penalties and uncertainty at quarterback.

And special teams problems.

Even now some defensive breakdowns and blown coverages.

Wyoming always works off that same script, a recurring nightmare that's driving coach Joe Glenn crazy and keeping him up at night.

And then he has to watch it live on game day.

"I don't sleep at night," Glenn said. "And it's not funny.

"I go for an hour, then I wake up. I dream about it. It's killing me, it's killing our program and it's killing our fans. It makes me sick."

The demise of the Cowboys has been no laughing matter, and no matter how late Glenn has been staying up, he hasn't been able to come up with any answers for a program that's slipping out of his grasp.

Wyoming (2-5) has lost its past four games, all in blowout fashion - which sometimes doesn't take much because the Cowboys are the lowest-scoring team in Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A).

They've dropped 11 of the past 14 games dating to last season's dreadful second-half swoon, a 1-6 slide to close what could be the first chapter in the end of Glenn's six-year career in Laramie.

"The future is now," Glenn said. "We need to make our team better now. Quite honestly, if we don't do something down the stretch, there might not be another year for us."

Wyoming Ambassador

As bad as this season has been, though, there's not exactly a mob forming to get rid of Glenn.

He's almost universally loved as an ambassador for the university and is among the nicest men in the coaching profession.

Glenn can shake hands and kiss babies with any politician, and he has been a fundraising dynamo for an athletic department that needed a smile and somebody to remember names to help improve its facilities.

And even when the Cowboys struggled down the stretch last season, his teams still were markedly better than the ones that led to Glenn's hiring in the first place.

But the goodwill he has built up with the positives eventually will be overshadowed by an inability to get the program over the hump, back into conference title contention and the postseason.

Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman repeatedly has stressed that day won't come during the season, but if significant progress isn't made starting Saturday at No. 15 Texas Christian, it still could be on this year's calendar.

"Our program, obviously, we're not in a position we want to be," Burman said. "But the job as head coach, the way coach Glenn is treating the kids, the way the program is moving forward, in that respect, is not in shambles. We're just not getting the production on the field the way we'd like it to be done.

"There's really no benefit that I can see in making a change midyear. If it happens (at the end of the year), it would be very difficult. Joe has done a lot of very good things for the university, but we understand this is a production business, and if the time comes, we will make those decisions and move forward."

Back to basics

Glenn tried to generate some positive progress last week by going back to basics, holding a two-day minicamp for fundamentals during the bye week to clean up a turnover problem that's close to a plague.

Wyoming's 27 giveaways are easily the most in FBS, but ever the optimist, Glenn raved about how well the Cowboys practiced before he gave them two days off to get away from football.

But even that move brought more heat for his seat after Glenn elected to keep his coaching staff in town and off the recruiting trail in the fallout of Wyoming's latest loss, a 40-7 debacle against Utah that never was close.

"(The media) have talked about this so I'll share this with you," Glenn said. "No. 1, this is my call as far as keeping my guys here. We're wounded, we've lost four games in a row.

"This is our time right now, and if you haven't noticed, we're in a funk."

Clearly, Glenn is burning some midnight oil to snap out of it, and he has tried just about everything.

The Cowboys have played four quarterbacks this season - and in one game they all played in a single half.

Glenn fired offensive coordinator Bill Cockhill in the offseason to shake up the attack, and after an impressive debut in a win against Ohio, Bob Cole hasn't fared any better as the play caller.

Wyoming's stout defense also has been gashed occasionally, though the offense and the special teams have given up multiple touchdowns and made the scoreboard a little misleading.

Pressure mounts

Even Glenn has gone through a sort of personal evolution since camp opened in August.

Before the season, he ignored the pressure from the outside to win, instead deflecting questions and focusing on his internal drive.

Then, he admitted to feeling the effects and publicly described the losing as physically painful after just four games.

Now, he apparently needs some help getting to sleep, but Glenn doesn't seem to have lost the respect of his team.

"I think he's changed some," safety Chris Prosinski said. "But I think he's had this intensity all year. As far as that goes, there hasn't really been a change.

"We're all just ready to go; we've got five games left. I know everybody's still working here. We'll see what happens."

There hasn't been much worth watching lately, and it's felt eerily similar from week to week.

Maybe if the Cowboys can wake up on Saturdays, their coach can get some sleep during the week.

Comments

  • October 22, 2008

    4:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    sargejd writes:

    Why fire him????? Look what he has done for the University of Wyoming let alone the State of Wyoming. Pretty impressive and I believe they will turn things around, they just need time. When getting a new coach every 4 - 6 years it doesn't give the program a chance to develop. Laramie isn't the easiest place to recruit players to.

    Things Joe Glenn has done for the University of Wyoming-
    • Added the 11th bowl game to the list of bowl games the University of Wyoming football team has participated it.
    • Brought Wyoming back to a bowl game in 2004, they hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1993.
    • In 2004, ended a 38-year bowl game victory drought by defeating the UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 23, 2004.
    • Helped fundraise for the new sprint turf on Jonah Field, Indoor Practice facility and the upcoming project of the suites and club seating in the stadium.
    • Donated $25,000 to the football program.
    • Recruits quality young men to come to Wyoming to play football. Won the Saddle Cup award in 2007-08 with the average GPA of the team being 2.75.
    • Took over the program as head coach in 2003, when the record was 2-10 in 2002, Coach Glenn has never had less than a 4 game win season.
    • Attendance to games has increased. The average was 13,687 in 2002 and it has increased to 22,190 in 2007.
    • Has beat out CSU, UNM, UNLV and SDSU in the MWC among many other non- MWC schools on recruits.
    • After the 2004 bowl game win, appearance on the cover of the Sporting News in 2004 as one of the next best coaches, he turned down offers from other college football programs because he was dedicated to Wyoming football

  • October 22, 2008

    6:19 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    nightfly writes:

    They better keep this guy. This isn't about coaching ability (proven) or character (impeccable) or enthusiasm (huge) or attitude (loves the job, loves the state)--it's about the worst bad luck a team could have. I feel for the AD---not because he may be pressured to fire Joe Glenn, but because then he'll have to try to REPLACE him. Good luck, buddy.
    Is this the toughest D-1 job in the nation? Probably.
    I wish the Cowboys some luck.