Jake Davies in Heated Battle For Starting Left Tackle Spot

LARAMIE -- Jake Davies' slight head shakes confirms the moment is still fresh in his memory.

Lining up on the edge of the Cowboys offensive line last fall, the inexperienced -- and vastly undersized -- freshman tackle felt the wrath of an oncoming bull rush. The Yorkville, Ill., product ended up on his wallet -- a few times.

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Who was responsible for the damage?

"I remember (Sabastian) Harsh, for sure," Davies said. "Probably (DeVonne) Harris and (Braden) Siders, too."

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Wyoming's defensive ends had their fun at the rookie's expense last season, but flip the calendar one full year and Davies is now tipping the scales at 295 pounds. That's a far cry from the 250-plus he used to carry around. In fact, this offseason alone, he added 30 additional pounds to his frame.

Does he punish those edge rushers now?

"I probably haven't gotten a good lick on them, but I definitely feel a lot better holding my own against those guys with the new weight," Davies said.

That's to be expected. Until the final three high school games, Davies had never played on the offensive line. He was forced to make the move out of necessity. Wyoming's staff didn't want him to play his familiar positions -- defensive end and tight end -- they saw him as a project in the trenches.

Though he is still very much in the learning phase of the operation, he is admittedly being fed information with a firehose.

Why the urgency?

He very well could be the Cowboys starting left tackle in Tempe in just 24 short days.

"Arizona State is not tomorrow," Joe Tripodi said with a grin when asked if the opener was in 24 hours would he feel comfortable with the 6-foot-7 redshirt freshman protecting Evan Svoboda's blindside. "We have a lot of work to do. Both him and Nate Geiger are doing a hell of a job right now and they are in a battle right now."

Wyoming's offensive line coach added the athleticism is there. Now it's time to mold and refine.

"He's very willing," Tripodi continued. "He wants to be good, so you want to coach guys like that. He's very coachable and has good toughness. I just think that his attention to detail in the meeting room, for a young guy, stands out."

Jay Sawvel agreed, adding Davies' progression is on track.

"I think he's doing a good job," Wyoming's rookie head coach said. "His day-to-day mentality is good, he competes well, everything that way. What he's got to do, he's got to be fundamentally better when he gets tired, you know? I mean, that's one thing that this time of year shows people a little bit. It's like, hey, we have to be even better fundamentally when we're less than 100%."

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Davies knows he's the newbie on the offensive front. When he slips up, he's sure to hear it from a number of veterans like Nofoafia Tulafono, Jack Walsh, Caden Barnett and others. Sawvel loves the self-policing within this unit. So does Tripodi.

Davies does, too.

"They just want the best for the line," he said. "They're trying to get the best guys out there. So, yeah, they hold everybody accountable."

Davies is soft-spoken. He's also a man of few words. At first glance, he even resembles the guy he's attempting to replace, Frank Crum, minus the curly locks. Davies said he studied the Laramie product, who is currently a member of the Denver Broncos. He sat in the background and simply watched, he added.

Now, it's his task to duplicate that success on Saturday's.

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players