Week 13: Wyoming at Colorado State

A pair of disappointing seasons will end in the Border War, along with the possible end of an outstanding coaching career.

Wyoming can become bowl-eligible with a victory, but for the second year in a row, a 6-6 record would not be good enough to give the Cowboys one of the Mountain West's four bowl slots. So they are playing mostly to avoid taking a losing streak into the offseason, while CSU is trying to salvage something and give longtime coach Sonny Lubick a reason to stay — or a proper sendoff, as he considers retirement.

The Rams did regroup with last weekend's 42-34 win over Georgia Southern, but they still have won only two of their last 18 games. Wyoming is reeling, having lost to Utah and BYU by a combined 85-10 the last two weeks.

Amid all the discouragement, this could be a decent game. CSU's offense is capable of scoring a lot of points against Wyoming, and CSU's defense is likely to give up some points to Wyoming's struggling offense.

The Rams rushed for 263 yards and passed for 244 yards against Georgia Southern, with Gartrell Johnson running for 136 yards and Caleb Hanie completing 13 of 16 passes. CSU's defense was blistered by the Eagles, who posted 349 rushing yards (195 by the quarterback) and 160 passing yards.

Wyoming will not be able to exploit the Rams' defense quite the same way, because the Cowboys lack a QB-run game. They did show signs of life against BYU, with 268 passing yards, but were unable to do anything at all on the ground.

Meanwhile, a defense that once ranked high in the country statistically gave up 497 yards to BYU. Looking back, Wyoming's season-opening 23-3 win over Virginia might be as stunning as any result in college football this season.

If the Cowboys had anything left this year, they spent it in last week's game with BYU, which is a rivalry to them. CSU has saved its best effort for last.

Colorado State by 7