FACTS & STATS: Site: War Memorial Stadium (30,514) -- Laramie, Wyoming. Television: The Mtn. Home Record: Ohio 0-0, Wyoming 0-0. Away Record: Ohio 0-0, Wyoming 0-0. Neutral Record: Ohio 0-0, Wyoming 0-0. Conference Record: Ohio 0-0, Wyoming 0-0. Series Record: Wyoming leads, 1-0.

GAME NOTES: Settling in for the 999th game in the history of Wyoming football, the Cowboys open the 2008 campaign with a home bout against the Ohio University Bobcats in a non-conference tilt at War Memorial Stadium. This outing is number 467 all-time at home for the Pokes as they begin their sixth season under head coach Joe Glenn. Last year Glenn, who has rings from national championships with both Northern Colorado (twice) and Montana, took a step back from 2006 when the squad finished an even 6-6 but was left uninvited when it came to the postseason, as the squad posted a 5-7 record overall and was just 2-6 against the rest of the Mountain West Conference where they placed in a tie for seventh place. The Cowboys began 2007 well enough with wins over Virginia and Utah State and had four wins in the first five games, but down the stretch the bottom fell out during a four-game slide. As for the Bobcats, their two wins over Gardner-Webb and UL-Lafayette in the first two games of the campaign perhaps gave the group some false hope. In the end, OU turned out an even 6-6, but at just 4-4 against the rest of the Mid-American Conference, there were just not enough quality wins to earn the team a postseason berth. Now in his fourth season with the squad, head coach Frank Solich has set some high expectations, having led the Bobcats to their first MAC title of any kind since 1968 two seasons ago. The only previous meeting between these two programs fell in favor of the Cowboys last season, a narrow 34-33 triumph as the team bounced back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter in Athens.

Coach Solich has a major issue on his hands as he sets out on another season of Ohio football. Solich had the luxury of handing the ball off to running back Kalvin McRae who ended up with just under 4,400 yards for his career, but without his standout ball carrier Solich needs to find a suitable replacement. As recently as last week the coaches were still undecided on who would be the featured back in the offense, suffering through some injuries and lackluster play. Chris Garrett played well in the most recent scrimmage for the squad, generating significant yardage running the ball, receiving and on kickoffs, so he is certainly going to get his share of opportunities. Having played in 10 games in 2007, junior signal-caller Theo Scott will assume the position for the team. Scott has already shown that he can put the ball in the air (743 yards, five TDs) as well as cover up and gain yards on his own so the Wyoming defense will have to be on its toes.

The offense for the Bobcats was rather mediocre last year, yet it still performed almost well enough to make up for the deficiencies on defense. The run defense for Ohio in 2007 was not only eight in the MAC with 186.4 ypg allowed, it ranked 91st in the nation. The pass defense was a bit more tolerable with 221.1 ypg permitted, but all of that together was still too much to survive on a weekly basis. Having to deal with the loss of Todd Koenig, the team's top tackler with 96 stops last year, will be tough to overcome, but senior linebacker Michael Brown should step up his play to fill the gap. Brown, who had six tackles for loss last season, placed second on the unit with his 85 overall stops. Senior safety Michael Mitchell was and is another critical piece to the puzzle for the Bobcats after he came up with 74 tackles to place third. More than just taking down opponents, both Brown and Mitchell have shown that they can drop into coverage, tying for the team lead with a pair of picks in 2007.

Two years ago when Wyoming was bowl eligible it appeared as though Glenn had found his future quarterback in Karsten Sween. However, the signal-caller took more than a few steps in the wrong direction last year with 17 picks, against a mere 12 TDs. Coach Glenn opened the door for any number of players to be starting at the quarterback position and it turns out that junior college transfer Dax Crum is the top gun. Crum is just a sophomore, but having been named an honorable mention All-American and one of the top offensive players in the NJCAA is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Glenn loves to throw big bodies out on the edge and watch them plow over opponents both blocking and out in receiving lanes which leaves Jesson Salyards and Chris Sundberg as critical performers. While the aerial attack is filled with question marks, it is the running game that should be fairly solid with running backs Devin Moore (965 yards, five TDs) and Wynel Seldon (554 yards, eight scores) providing one of the most punishing one-two punches in the league.

Junior John Fletcher (6-6) is garnering more than his share of attention and has followed up a sophomore campaign as a Second Team All-MWC selection by being picked preseason first team. Fletcher was a huge part of a run defense that ranked 27th in the nation last year with a mere 122.8 ypg allowed as he ranked among the league's top linemen in terms of tackles with 60. Mitch Unrein, who had one of the team's four blocked kicks in 2007, ranked second only to Fletcher in tackles for loss with 11. Inside linebacker Ward Dobbs, already a three-year letter winner, was Wyoming's leading tackler last season with his 98 stops, 12 more than his closest teammate. However, as much as Dobbs is touted as an all-conference performer, the fact that he had just one interception and a single forced fumble means he needs to hit just a little bit harder when he has the opportunity. The unit as a whole recorded a fair share of forced turnovers, but still the Pokes ended up last in the Mountain West and 112th in the country in turnover margin with minus-1.0 per contest. Senior safeties Michael Ray and Quincy Rogers have experience, but that won't stop coach Glenn from inserting youngsters for a spark.

Even though the Bobcats have revenge as motivation, traveling such a long distance will certainly drain some of that energy. Expect the Cowboys to start at strong as they did last year and show Ohio why it can be tough to play in Laramie.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Wyoming 23, Ohio University 13