Wyoming comes home to Laramie for the first time in 2026 looking to shake off a rough opener at Colorado State, and Northern Colorado is exactly the kind of name a rebuilding team wants on the schedule right now.
+Deep portal overhaul on defensive line and secondary
+Home opener at War Memorial Stadium altitude
+Returning playmakers in Harris and Richardson on offense
−Went 4-8 last season, no bowl
−Unsettled QB battle with a brand-new offense
−Lost top three cornerbacks to the portal this offseason
This one's Wyoming's home opener, not its season opener, so there's already a data point on the board when the Bears roll into War Memorial Stadium. The Cowboys open 2026 on the road at Colorado State in the Border War, then bring it back to Laramie for Northern Colorado in a straightforward $400,000 guarantee game. New OC Christian Taylor is installing his offense around an honest-to-goodness open quarterback competition, with transfer Tyler Hughes, returners Mason Drube and Gage Brook, and true freshman Taylor Hasselbeck all in the mix as of spring ball. Nobody's been named the guy yet, and this is the kind of game a young or unproven quarterback is supposed to ease into.
The roster around whoever wins that job has been rebuilt heavily through the portal. Wyoming lost its top three cornerbacks this offseason and shipped out close to 20 players, but brought in roughly 21 newcomers, with the portal emphasis squarely on the defensive front and secondary — names like CB Logan Mackey and pass rushers Jack Dunkley and Donnie Wingate are supposed to plug holes fast. Running back Samuel 'Tote' Harris and receiver Eric Richardson give the offense a base to build from even while the quarterback room sorts itself out, and that matters against an FCS defense that isn't going to overwhelm anybody up front.
Northern Colorado isn't just a name on the schedule to ignore, either. Ed Lamb's Bears went 4-8 last season but that was their best overall mark since 2016, and they backed it up with a 49-33 road upset of a then-ranked Idaho team — the highest-ranked win in program history — plus a game Colorado State needed a late stop to escape. Five Bears made All-Big Sky. That's a program with real momentum for the FCS level, even if the gap in speed and depth against an FBS roster is still the biggest storyline of the day.
None of that changes the math. Wyoming is 4-8 coming off a down year and still finding its quarterback, but it's an FBS team hosting an FCS opponent it's paying to show up, and buy games like this rarely stay competitive into the fourth quarter. The more interesting number by kickoff won't be the score — it'll be whether Sawvel has settled on a starter, because that answer says a lot more about where this Wyoming team is headed than anything that happens against the Bears.
