‘We Wanted to Be Wyoming Cowboys Forever’

LARAMIE -- One can be described as obnoxiously boisterous, raw emotion dripping from his sleeves. The other, reserved, oftentimes the more gentler voice of reason.

Opposites attract, right?

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A confident Caden Barnett strolled onto campus in the fall of 2021 and had an announcement to make to his fellow offensive linemen.

"My nickname is the 'Vanilla Gorilla' and I'm going to start here," the senior from Texas recalled, flashing a grin and a slight head shake. "So, I understand why I was the butt of the jokes a lot of the time, which I still am."

Laramie wasn't a foreign place for Jack Walsh.

His father John Walsh was a Cowboy in the glory days, manning the trenches in the late 80's when Wyoming was hanging championship banners with regularity. Somewhere there is even a photo floating around of a then 9-month old Jack having his diaper changed when his father was in town for a team reunion.

The platform was former head coach Joe Glenn's desk.

Walsh didn't waltz onto the high plains that same offseason with a moniker of his own, but that soon changed.

"Logan Harris nicknamed me 'Portabella Mushroom," the Chicagoland product laughed. "My entire freshman year, they all called me that."

Why?

That's still a mystery, Walsh said with a shoulder shrug. He didn't take it as a slight, though.

"As a freshman, getting a nickname, I honestly took it as a one-up on someone," he added.

This duo has lined up next to one another for a combined 90 games during their college career. They will both be in the starting lineup once again this Saturday when the Cowboys host Nevada in the home finale.

It's the last time these two will slap the Steamboat statue as they trot onto the playing surface inside War Memorial Stadium.

That's just the part the public sees.

Both said the locker room trash talk, back-and-forth banter in the cafeteria and ribbing in position meetings will be missed the most.

The gravity of the moment is admittedly starting to creep into the forefront of Barnett's mind. The 6-foot-5, 320-pound guard, known for unfiltered rage between the white lines and smeared eye-black running down his face, became vulnerable when discussing the finality of it all.

"After elementary school, I bawled my eyes out when I was done with school. After middle school, I bawled my eyes out when I was done with school. After high school, I sat in my car and I bawled my eyes out for about an hour," he admitted, voice starting to crack. "Change is hard for me, because I learned to love the environment I am in, and I love it here.

"It's going to be very emotional for me. I'm a very emotional guy. I think that it's probably all going to hit it once."

Walsh is attempting to take the gratitude approach when he runs out to the 50-yard line to greet his loved ones.

"It's going to be a really happy time," he said. "It's been so amazing for my family and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's been the greatest time of our lives. We love Wyoming and it's going to be really special that day."

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Though the ultimate focus is on beating the visiting Wolf Pack and moving one step closer to a potential postseason berth, Walsh also knows it's a time for reflection. When it comes to the relationship he's built with Barnett, he called it a "Bad Cop, Good Cop" ordeal.

Walsh, a first-year center, likes to keep it even-keeled when describing his leadership style. Barnett, on the other hand, chooses the vocal route, he said with a grin.

This journey began, though, with both having one foot in the dog house.

In their first-ever meeting with former position coach Derek Frazier, the lesson centered around pass protection. The rookies barely brought their brains to that session, admittedly, let alone a notepad.

"He teaches it and we forget it right away," Walsh said, again flashing that smile. "We walk out and coach (Tim) Polasek sees us and says, 'What are you doing?' We told him we had a meeting with Frazier to learn 50's and 60's protections. He says, 'Well, where's your notebooks?' I say, 'I don't have mine.' Caden says, 'Uhh, I left it in the car.'"

A 10-minute rant followed about one of Polasek's former players at the University of Iowa who later spent a decade in the NFL. Walsh, not surprisingly, can't recall the name of that lineman.

"We learned that day, very quickly, to take notes all the time," he continued.

They've passed the tests, too.

Joe Tripodi took over the offensive line room in 2022, the same year Walsh and Barnett began to solidify themselves as starters on the front five. We're there growing pains? Plenty. It comes with the territory.

Tripodi said it's never easy to say goodbye, so he won't. He joked that those guys aren't getting rid of him that easy. This bond is for life.

"It's been really cool to see them both grow and mature," he said. "Then there's the times we have the O-line over for dinner and stuff, and just how they treat my kids and things like that. That's the stuff that's, I guess, more sentimental. There's certainly a lot of emotions with those two guys. I just really appreciate them."

Walking off the rain-soaked field after a lopsided loss to Fresno State last Saturday night inside Valley Children's Stadium, Barnett approached his head coach with a message.

"He told me probably the best thing that I'd heard in a long period of time," Jay Sawvel said on Monday during his weekly press conference. "It was one of those things that, when you know that players in the program have leadership skills and have your back in the program when things don't always go well, right?"

Sawvel didn't elaborate. Barnett did, bluntly.

"I just told him I love him," he said. "Nobody can take all the blame. I don't blame him, I think it's a whole-team thing."

For all their differences, Walsh and Barnett do share one trait that isn't exactly a priority in the game these days -- loyalty.

Both were flirted with this offseason, offered the opportunity -- and money -- to leave Wyoming and cap their careers elsewhere. On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer, seeing that this team won just three games a season ago and would need to dive head first into the NCAA Transfer Portal itself.

None of that mattered.

"I couldn't see myself anywhere else but Wyoming," the 6-foot-3, 314-pound Walsh said. "And, you know, Wyoming has been so good to me: the people here, all that stuff. We wanted to leave that legacy. We wanted to be Wyoming Cowboys forever."

Barnett echoed those same sentiments, tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

"It just sucks because there's so much I want to give to Wyoming," he said, referring to bringing home a Mountain West title before taking a deep breath and stopping briefly to compose himself. "That's why I think this season has been so hard is because, not only have I put in the work for this, but our fans deserve it and I want to give it to them. So, as much as it hurts them when we lose, it hurts me, also.

"I wanted to give it to y'all and I just can't. This is such a special place where, no matter what, they're still sending love. The pride here, you just can't beat it."

Sawvel said he is also wearing the weight of this drought on his shoulders. Not for him, but his guys, especially these two.

"You have a great deal of respect for them," he said. "The hard part as a head coach is, you take that responsibility full-on serious, and the fact that, you know, it hurts when we don't have success, offensively, and these two guys are fighting their butt off.

"... That hurts."

If the Cowboys can win their last two remaining games, they will enter the bowl conversation. For Walsh, that means extended time with his teammates and coaches before hopefully hearing his name in the upcoming NFL Draft.

Barnett has that same dream.

With no guarantees ahead, these two, who are lovingly referred to as an "old married couple," are simply savoring every moment together.

"It's been a long ride, and, you know, I'm blessed to have Caden in my life," Walsh said. "It's been a unique relationship. It's also been an amazing ride with him."

Barnett said plans have already tentatively been made, with a date to be determined, that he and Walsh will one day be in these stands inside this venue watching their alma mater from a different point of view.

They want to feel the passion and environment from the other side.

One thing is for sure, that pilgrimage will be together.

"Jack is the most loyal guy you'll ever meet in life," he said. "That is what he's about. He's through and through loyal, and he's got a great heart. There have been so many times that me and him have bickered -- and I'm stubborn and I struggle to apologize to somebody -- and he'll come up and be like, 'Dude, can we just drop this? I love you.'

"You realize, OK, this dude is super loyal, and he's got a heart of gold."