------------------------------------------------------------------------“I’ve said it all along. We’ve got a passionate fan base that is so committed. This place was rocking and it was a big-time atmosphere. I’m so pleased to have a great fan base and I appreciate all of the people coming out to support these guys. (I’ve said) Come out and support this team, come out and watch your team play, and they did."
-- UW head coach Dave Christensen.
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By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
For the past two days, Dave Christensen had a queasy feeling in his stomach. After 24 years as an assistant coach, he would run out to the field for the first time in his football life in charge.
He got that first one out of the way with a 29-22 win over Weber State Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.
His stomach felt a lot better after it was all said and done.
“You can’t get to 2-0 until you get to 1-0 ,” Christensen said. “It was obviously a monkey off of my back.”
Like most coaches, the goal is to some day become a head coach. That has certainly been the case for Christensen, who came to Wyoming last December after a very successful stint as Missouri offensive coordinator.
Christensen said he had a great deal of confidence with how he and his staff trained the Cowboys from January to Saturday. But, he admitted that you just don’t know how things will turn out until you get on the field for good.
While “just” a seven-point win over a good FCS program like Weber State, he will still have many Cowboy fans doubting the team’s improvement. Christensen said that although his team made a lot of mistakes and has a lot to work on, a win is a win. For a few hours on Saturday, that is all that mattered.
“I was pleased with how they went out and competed,” Christensen said. “I thought they competed hard from start to finish. We gave up that one late scoring drive, but you are not going to take any chances. I told Marty (English) to let them milk it down the field, we don’t care. We’re still in position and the bottom line is the W. No one will look back and say, ‘What was the score of every game?”
Christensen has been a part of big programs and played against the best when he was in the Big 12 Conference. He said that the atmosphere for his first game at Wyoming was “unbelievable and awesome.”
Wyoming’s crowd of a little over 18,000 might not pale in comparison to his days at Missouri, but he said he loved the enthusiasm that was in the stadium from the Wyoming fans.
“I’ve said it all along. We’ve got a passionate fan base that is so committed,” he said. “This place was rocking and it was a big-time atmosphere. I’m so pleased to have a great fan base and I appreciate all of the people coming out to support these guys. (I’ve said) Come out and support this team, come out and watch your team play, and they did. Obviously, the louder we can get, the more difficult it is for the opponent.”
Senior defensive tackle John Fletcher said he was also pleased, not only to get the win, but to do it for his new head coach.
“He’s worked just as hard as we have,” Fletcher said. “To get him a win the first go-around, it’s awesome. Congratulations to him.”
During his 10-minute postgame news conference, Christensen evaluated to some degree his team’s positives and his team’s negatives. When asked how he thought he did in his first game as a head coach, Christensen didn’t hesitate with an answer.
He said he can do a lot better.
“I have a lot of things that I can improve on as a football coach, to get this team to be more prepared,” Christensen said. “I’ve told you guys about this: Our goal is to be better today than we were yesterday. We will be better next Saturday than we were this Saturday.”
And his reward for picking up his first career victory as a head man: No. 2 Texas next Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.
“It is going to be a great challenge for our program,” Christensen said.
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