Wyoming head football coach Dave Christensen and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo were featured speakers at the 2009 1st Bank Cowboy Joe Club Golf Weekend dinner Friday, June 19, at Depot Square in downtown Evanston. HERALD PHOTOS/Steve Kodad

No-nonsense might be an appropriate description of new Wyoming football head coach Dave Christensen.

The former offensive coordinator at Missouri was hired to take over the Cowboys’ program last December, after Joe Glenn was fired.

Christensen and five members of his coaching staff were in Evanston Friday and Saturday, June 19-20, as part of the annual Cowboy Joe Club Golf Weekend. Christensen was the featured speaker at the June 19 festivities at Depot Square.

The new Cowboy head coach told the crowd of nearly 200 Wyoming supporters that he expects his Pokes to become a more physical team, with a traditional “Cowboy Tough” attitude. He also expects to win now, but he asked the Wyoming faithful to be patient as he works to rebuild the Cowboy program.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Christensen said. “But I promise you it won’t take me 200 years like the Romans did.”



Strong first recruiting class at UW

Christensen and his new coaching staff put together a great recruiting class in a short time period last winter. This class may rank as perhaps the best in Cowboy football history. Christensen said his staff took advantage of some pre-existing connections with those players to help persuade them to come to Laramie.

“These kids were all getting interest from other places,” he said. “Our staff did just an incredible job in a four-week period of time. They were developing relationships, gaining trust of these players and showing them the vision that we have at the University of Wyoming, and getting them to believe in what we’ve got going there. Getting them excited about being part of something new.”

Christensen said the incoming recruits are in Laramie working. After some physical testing, the numbers are great.

“We’re pretty pleased with the type of athletes we got,” Christensen said of his first UW recruiting class. “There’s no question we’ve improved ourselves athletically and speed-wise. That’s what we need to continue to do. We will always place a huge emphasis on recruiting speed and athleticism.”

Christensen kept just one member of Glenn’s previous staff, Marty English. The new Cowboy head coach promoted English to defensive coordinator. Christensen snatched offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo away from San Jose State.



Hands-on head coach

Christensen said he will be a hands-on head coach.

“Marcus will call all the plays. But everything will go through my headset the entire game,” he said. “I’ll manage the game, and I’ll have input obviously. I came here to run this offense.”

“We’re going to run the offense I had at Missouri. Obviously, personnel dictates some of the things that we can do. We’ll put more and more of it in as we are able to recruit the type of personnel to run the things that we did at Missouri.

“I’ve tinkered with (the offense) a little bit this year. We’ll do things that lean more on the strengths that we have personnel-wise. Marcus will call the offense, Marty (English) will call the defense, and I’ll manage everything for the entire game – offense, defense and special teams.”

The Cowboys struggled offensively in recent years. Wyoming won four games and lost eight last fall, helping spell Glenn’s doom as the Pokes’ head coach.



Cut down on turnovers

Christensen said his Cowboys must do a better job taking care of the football in order to be successful.

“First, it starts with turnovers,” he said. “We’ve got to do a good job of protecting the football and make good decisions when we’re throwing the football. We’ve got to eliminate turnovers. If we can eliminate turnovers, and we can create more takeaways from a defensive standpoint – which was an area that we weren’t strong at a year ago – if we can get those two things turned around, we’ve got a chance to have a pretty good football team.”

Arroyo also spoke at last Friday’s dinner. Marcus said he is excited to be on the UW staff, and he echoed his head coach’s sentiments.

“The first thing is, you have to take care of the ball,” Arroyo said. “The keys to victory in college football don’t ever change. You’ve got to take care of the ball, you’ve got to win the critical situations, you’ve got to win the fourth quarter, you have to win the mental game. A lot of those things have nothing to do with X’s and O’s, but they have to do with coaching, details and discipline.”

Arroyo and the offensive coaches have stressed details to the Cowboys, and he said they responded very well during spring drills.



Win now

Christensen thinks the Cowboys can be successful in his first season as head coach.

“I think we can. We’re going to work with what we have. This is the team we have,” he said. “Our goal is to make every single player in this program the absolute best football player they can possibly be before we kick off on Sept. 5.

“We’re not looking for two, three years down the road. My expectation is to turn this thing around and win now. I’m not making any predictions. I just know that we’re going to come out and play hard every single week. We’ll give it our best effort and we’ll be an improved football team.”

After the season opener against Weber State in Laramie Sept. 5, the Pokes will host national power Texas the following Saturday. Wyoming will also host Nebraska in 2011, with Missouri and Oregon on the home schedule in future years.

“That’s huge for the type of program that we have, to be able to get them here,” Christensen said. “The important thing is that we also do a good job in our smart scheduling. We’re going to play a BCS team every year. We’re not afraid to do that. But we’re going to play a lot of ranked teams in our league. So we don’t certainly need to overload our non-conference schedule when we’re trying to build this program and turn things around.

“I think Tom (Burman) has worked well with me, and we’ve done a pretty good job of balancing the schedule. I think by doing that, we’ll be able to provide a pretty exciting brand of football.”

Christensen said he has a great deal of input with Burman, Wyoming’s athletic director, on the Cowboys’ scheduling.



Impressive Wyoming fans statewide

Christensen said he is impressed with the Wyoming fans he has met in his travels around the Cowboy State.

“We have a very, very passionate fan base in the state of Wyoming,” he said. “It’s pretty incredible. Everywhere I’ve gone, we’ve had great turnouts. People are excited. The one thing we want to do, we want them to come to each and every game. We don’t care who we’re playing, we just hope that everybody is excited about Wyoming football and has an opportunity to come watch their team.

“What we want to do is fill that stadium for the first game. Weber State is the most important game on our schedule. As hard as these kids have worked, and what they’ve put into it, they deserve to come out there Sept. 5 to a full stadium.”

The new Cowboy head coach was asked what he would say to any fans who are negative about the UW football program.

“I can’t worry about what other people think, say or do,” he said. “We’re working extremely hard and we have one goal, and that’s to become a better football team each and every day. I know our players are working extremely hard to get that done, as well as our coaching staff.”



Arroyo knows wintry weather

Arroyo said Cowboy fans have been razzing him a bit about coming from the beaches in sunny, warm California.

“They have to do their research, they have to read the fine print,” he said. “I’m from a town of 1,000 people. This place is a metropolis – Laramie has 20,000 people.”

Arroyo said he is from Colfax, Calif., about 45 miles from Reno and Lake Tahoe.

“Colfax, that’s where they put chains on I-80,” he said.



Excited to be in Laramie

Arroyo said he is excited to be in Wyoming, and excited for the upcoming season.

“I’ve love it. It’s been absolutely amazing,” he said. “The people have been amazing. I’ve never been more excited. I think the biggest testament to my excitement is the kids here that we inherited, because they have been awesome, they have been absolutely awesome. My hat’s off to them. I hope they go to battle ready to go.

“I know we’re all ready to roll and I know you guys are ready to roll. I’m excited. It should be good.”





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