LARAMIE – The University of Wyoming football team wrapped up its spring season last Saturday with its annual Brown and Gold game at War Memorial Stadium.
It proved to be a successful day and spring season for a trio of athletes from Goshen County – Skyler Miller, Logan Harris and Jeff Burroughs.
All three suited up for the winning Gold team, featuring the first-string offense, as all three will be entering their junior seasons this fall when the Cowboys tee it up against the University of Missouri Tigers on Aug. 31, and all three went through major changes this spring.
“It was nice to finally win one,” Burroughs said. “I lost my first two spring games. It feels good to be on the winning side.”
And Burroughs had a lot to do with the White’s 14-9 victory.
Burroughs was the featured running back on Saturday, and it came as a bit of a surprise that he was moved to the running back position from fullback this spring.
“Playing running back wasn’t something I saw coming at the start of spring, but due to injuries and where we were at on the depth chart, there was a need and I did my best,” he said.
Burroughs rushed for 50 yards on 16 attempts and scored the game’s first points with a 3-yard run with 8:07 left in the second quarter to put the Gold team in front 7-0.
Meanwhile, Harris and Miller helped clear the way for Burroughs.
This spring, Miller made the switch to the offensive side of the ball after being a linebacker last fall.
“There has been a learning curve, but I think I’ve picked up fullback pretty quick,” Miller said. “It fits my body type better than linebacker did. It’s been a good fit so far.”
Miller didn’t get any touches Saturday, but he helped his team to 211 yards of total offense.
“I thought it was good offensively. I thought we did a lot of good things. We ran the ball decent and threw the ball well, as well,” Miller said. “There is always room for improvement. There is a lot of stuff we need to get better on until we get Missouri that first week.”
The switch to fullback also means he and Burroughs will be competing for playing time this fall, but it has helped the transition.
“Throughout spring ball, it’s been great,” Miller said. “It’s nice having a friendly face back there.”
Moving forward, he’s not sure what is in store, but he’s feeling good about the switch to fullback.
“It looks pretty positive at fullback right now, so we’ll see how that comes out. I’ll just keep grinding through the summer and get better and better every day,” Miller said. “We’ll finish up school and get about a week and a half off. Then we’ll be back here for pretty much the rest of the summer.”
Meanwhile, Harris has gone through an offensive line coaching change this spring.
“It started out pretty rocky, learning everything. It was like starting over from scratch. It was definitely new, but I feel like we are a different offensive line now,” Harris said. “He’s instilled something new that has brought us a spark. We are playing with more integrity and passion.”
He also has dealt with a couple injuries this spring.
Harris missed a day of practice earlier in April after hurting his back, but in the last week, Harris injured his wrist and played Saturday’s game in a cast.
“I hurt my back earlier on, but that is fine,” Harris said. “A couple practices ago, I messed up my wrist, so I played this last week of practice and the scrimmage with a cast on my hand.”
Despite that, Harris is confident he’ll be ready when fall practice rolls around as he hopes to get back into the starting lineup.
“It’ll be a really exciting fall,” Harris said.
Plus, all three are excited about being on the offensive side of the ball working together.
“Having that relationship with Skyler, going way back. Having him, myself and Logan on the same side of the ball has been fun,” Burroughs said.
Miller added, “It’s great seeing Wyoming kids come out and be successful.”
