BYU will play Wyoming in 2016 Poinsettia Bowl

BYU is bowl bound for the 12th straight season. After officially knowing its bowl destination for weeks, the Poinsettia Bowl made the announcement that the Cougars will be matched up with old Mountain West Conference foe Wyoming Cowboys. The game, which will be televised by ESPN, will be played on Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 9 p.m. EST from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

Wyoming (8-5) has had one of the best turnarounds in college football. After going 6-18 in its last two season, the Pokes are in a bowl game for the first time since 2011.

What can BYU expect from Wyoming? Lots of offense, and not much defense. The Cowboys rank 24th in the nation in scoring, averaging 37.1 points per game. Conversely, they rank 105th in the nation in scoring defense, giving up nearly 35 points a game. On the surface, this has the potential to turn into a BYU-Toledo type matchup.

Particularly of interest for BYU is Tanner Mangum making his first start of the season. Wyoming will be the second worst pass defense BYU will play all year (Mississippi State was the worst). With 2.5 weeks to prepare and Jamaal Williams to hand off to, Mangum is in good position to have a good outing in San Diego.

BYU starts next season with LSU, Utah, and Wisconsin, so this presents an opportunity for Mangum to get live game reps in the offense, and potentially garner some off-season hype going into the 2017 season.