2005 Wyoming Cowboys Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

The Wyoming Cowboys have been a team that in many ways has been a prime sports handicapping example of being either feast or famine over the past few seasons on their road back to respectability. Wyoming used to be a consistent winner, conference title contender, and regular bowl team but had fallen on hard times in recent years. Their sports handicapping pattern since 2000 was quite stark and bizarre.

In 2000 Wyoming covered just one of their first seven games against the odds before covering three of their final four games. In 2001 they beat the sports betting odds in four of their first five lined games before failing to get the cash in four of their final five games. Their woes continued at the start of 2002 as they dropped their first four lined games against the odds to extend their streak of futility to one of their last nine against the line. They then finished 2002 with just one pointspread failure in their final seven games. In 2003 Wyoming provided a sports handicapping sandwich in which they lost their first two games against the odds and then got the cash in five of their next six only to drop their last two games against the odds. With that record of ups and downs and streaks few sports betting bloggers knew what to make of the 2004 Cowboys and Wyoming was not a high profile or popular team on many lists of football picks.

Wyoming began 2004 with an unlined 53-7 home win over 1-AA Appalachian State and then was clobbered at Texas A&M as 11-point dogs 0-31, which hardly inspired confidence amongst the sports handicapping community. Their next game, however, would end up serving as a springboard for the rest of the season. At home as 3.5-point dogs to Ole Miss, Wyoming prevailed 37-32. While Ole Miss was a depleted team, they were still from the Southeastern Conference and the result shocked many sports handicapping observers.

Wyoming’s win over Ole Miss began a three game winning streak both straight up and against the odds. They appeared to lose momentum with back to back road losses both straight up and against the sports betting line to BYU and Colorado State, but those losses helped make Wyoming a bargain and value play the rest of the way as the Cowboys beat the sports betting odds in their final five games, including a 24-21 Las Vegas Bowl win over UCLA as 12-point dogs.