Wyoming plays well in all three phases during 31-7 win over Northern Iowa
Ryan Thorburn
Football
9/6/2025 7:22:00 PM
Wyoming, determined to reestablish its home-field advantage in the refurbished friendly confines, smothered Northern Iowa 31-7 on a perfect chamber of commerce Saturday afternoon in front of a gold-clad crowd of 25,009.
The Cowboys have started Jay Sawvel‘s second season 2-0, but the head coach is more excited about what is to come than UW outscoring the opposition 41-7 so far this season.
“The biggest thing I feel good about is we have a long way to go. We’re not a finished product; we have a lot of improving we can do and will do,” Sawvel said. “Winning is hard. We slugged through today and it wasn’t always pretty, but we did what we needed to do.”
UW has struggled to dominate FCS opponents over the years. The 1993 WAC championship squad needed late heroics from Ryan Yarborough and a missed field goal by the Panthers in the final seconds to escape with a 45-42 win in the first meeting between the programs.
The Pokes took care of business this time by imposing their will on UNI in all three phases.
Kaden Anderson finished 17-for-23 passing for 167 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions before getting knocked out of the game with 1:12 remaining in the third quarter following a vicious hit from a blitzer he didn’t see coming.
Sawvel said initial medical tests on the starting quarterback “came back good,” but the extent of Anderson’s upper body injury was still unknown.
Landon Sims came off the bench with the Pokes leading 24-7 and helped slam the door on UNI in the fourth quarter. The junior college transfer showed off his athleticism with a 13-yard run to convert a third-and-12 and was 3-for-3 passing for 23 yards.
“Landon is a great guy, and we have full faith in him and everything he’s going to be asked to do moving forward,” said tight end John Michael Gyllenborg, who is one of Sims’ roommates.
UW’s offense continued to be well balanced, but this time Sam Scott didn’t have to do all of the heavy lifting by himself.
Terron Kellman led the team with 87 yards on seven carries (12.4 yards per attempt). Samuel “Tote” Harris, a dynamic true freshman, had 61 yards on eight carries (7.6 ypa) with one touchdown and Scott added 58 yards and a touchdown on eight carries (7.3 ypa).
On the final play of the third quarter back up at its own 2-yard line with a backup quarterback in, Kellman broke through the line of scrimmage and rumbled for 33 yards. Kellman started UW’s next drive with a 21-yard run and Harris ended it with an 18-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 24 points with 7:12 remaining.
Scott had an 18-yard scoring scamper with 3:26 remaining in the first quarter to start the scoring.
“I thought Terron Kellman, the big run coming off the goal line after the interception kind of got everybody on a good pace there. Sam Harris showed the flashes of what he can become. Sam Scott had some good plays in there,” Sawvel said. “We’re deep at the position, we’re deep at several positions. I think it shows in a game like today.”
The Pokes are certainly deep at tight end and wide receiver. Gyllenborg and Chris Durr Jr. led those position groups, respectively, combing for nine catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns.
Gyllenborg’s 6-yard touchdown grab gave UW a 14-7 lead in the second quarter and Durr’s 21-yard touchdown on a beautiful throw by Anderson extended the lead to 24-7.
“There’s still a lot to work on and get better at,” Gyllenborg. “But it’s nice to finish some of those drives.”
UW leaned on its defense during the 10-0 victory at Akron to open the season. Aaron Bohl‘s unit was even more impressive in Week 2.
The Panthers (1-1) finished with 169 total yards, including only 66 in the second half, averaging 2.9 yards per play.
Anderson lost a fumble on the sack that forced him to the sideline, but linebacker Evan Eller came up with an interception moments later. Nickel back Desmon Hearns also had an interception for the Pokes.
UW’s defense extended its shutout streak to seven consecutive quarters dating back to the second half of the 2024 finale at Washington State by keeping the Panthers off the scoreboard in the first quarter.
But three costly penalties helped UNI on an 11-play, 90-yard drive capped with a 2-yard touchdown run by Harrison Bey-Buie with 6:34 remaining in the second quarter.
“It feels good for sure,” Eller said. “We’ve put a lot of time in together as far as talking about communication, whether that’s in the locker room, up at the training table eating meals together or it’s a walkthrough that goes to 9 p.m. during fall camp.
“We’re all on the same page and we’re confident together. We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to have good eyes, good leverage, good physicality and we should play well.”
The special teams also showed up big in this one.
After a blocked punt by Jaden DaCosta, which was recovered by Bricen Brantley at the UNI 34-yard line, Erik Sandvik drilled a 40-yard field goal as time expired to increase the halftime cushion to 10 points.
True freshman Deion DeBlanc had a 33-yard punt return. Bart Edmiston averaged 48.6 yards per punt with a long of 62 yards.
“I thought it was a good team win,” Sawvel said. “Special teams contributed, offense did their part in what we needed to do, defense played really, really well. It was a well-rounded win.”
The Cowboys will have to play even better next week when No. 25 Utah returns to the War for the first time since 2010.
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
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