Wyoming Players Share Blame After Their Lopsided Loss

In the mortuary that passed for the Wyoming locker room Friday night at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, defensive tackle Pat Rabold did his best to put the 62-14 disaster in perspective. Was Oklahoma State as powerful as suggested by the most lopsided score in Holiday Bowl history, or did an outclassed Wyoming team make a significant contribution to the outcome?

“They have an outstanding football team,” Rabold said. “I wouldn’t begin to deny that. But we couldn’t make any tackles, they ran by us, they ran over us. They did nothing wrong, and we did nothing right.

“We were embarrassed out there. It’s a shame we couldn’t have shown more pride and at least stopped them toward the end. Their backup people even killed us.”

Wyoming’s defense held Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders in check for one half, but was reduced to ruins after the intermission. Not only did Sanders finish with 222 yards and 5 touchdowns; quarterback Mike Gundy and wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes were equally outstanding, and Oklahoma State’s blockers easily handled Wyoming’s defenders.

“Maybe the defense was out there too long,” Rabold said. “After halftime, they did anything they wanted to do.”

Quarterback Randy Welniak said that Wyoming’s offense had to shoulder much of the blame for the breakdown on defense.

“Going in, we knew we had to control the ball and run time off the clock,” Welniak said. “We didn’t do that, and as the game wore on, they wore us down.”

Wyoming entered the game with a marquee runner of its own in Dabby Dawson, but lost him with a sprained ankle in the first quarter. Welniak was asked how much this had hurt the offense of the Western Athletic Conference champions.

“Quite a bit,” Welniak said. “Dabby is an excellent runner, the key to our offense. Their defense would have had to key on him.

“But let’s face it. We didn’t play well. We just weren’t the football team that we had been in the beginning and middle of the season. It’s really frustrating to go out like this.”

Cornerback Eric Coleman noted that the long-ball threat of Dykes, an All-American in his own right and a certain first-round choice in the next NFL draft, had helped spread opponents’ defenses for Sanders.

“A player like Dykes stretches out the field a tremendous amount for them,” Coleman said. “It’s a lot easier to control 2 good backs or 2 good receivers than 1 of each.

“Dykes has great tools, and he’s a great athlete. He made one catch one-handed while diving full length. That was just incredible.”

Like his teammates, Coleman felt that Wyoming’s Cowboys had helped Oklahoma State’s Cowboys look like world-beaters.

“I don’t don’t know why, but we got away from our game,” Coleman said. “We didn’t play like the team that won our conference and earned this bowl bid.

“As for me, I was terrible. This was the worst game I ever played.”

Coach Paul Roach made no excuses about losing Dawson. On the contrary, he ventured the opinion that even with Dawson, his team would have had little chance.

“We were totally dominated,” Roach said. “Dawson might have helped a little bit, but from the middle of the third quarter on, it wouldn’t have made much difference who we had out there.”

Asked if he thought Coach Pat Jones of Oklahoma State had run up the score toward the finish, Roach answered:

“I don’t worry about that sort of thing. We just played too much baseball--1, 2, 3 and out.