The depth chart shrank, and Xazavian Valladay’s role grew. Suddenly he’d have to carry the ball more times per game than there were letters in his noteworthy name (16 if you’re scoring at home).
The Wyoming redshirt sophomore had at least 25 rushes in five consecutive games, topping 100 yards each time. His 37 carries against Boise State on Nov. 9 tied for the third most by any FBS player this season.
All the while, Valladay wasn’t fully healthy. But he understood that by suiting up and finding a way, he gave his team the best chance to win.
“That was the real neat thing about him over the last six-game stretch,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Brent Vigen said. “He was by no means even close to 100%, especially at the tail end.
“While he maybe didn’t feel his best, he knew for our team that he needed to be out there.”
When Wyoming faces Georgia State in the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Tuesday, the Cowboys will have had a month off. No one will have benefited more from the break than Valladay.
Wyoming’s tailback depth remains shallow. But its starting tailback is feeling fresh.
Asked if it was nice to get some time to recuperate after a grueling season, Valladay said: “Most definitely, man. I’m enjoying this. … This break has been something that I really needed. I’m starting to feel like myself again.”
If that’s the case, the Panthers should be worried. At less than full capacity, Valladay rushed for 1,061 yards in 11 games. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry and earned first-team All-Mountain West Conference honors.
Valladay’s breakout season began with what Vigen dubbed a “great” offseason. Valladay added about 11 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot frame. At 196 pounds, he became stronger and more durable. He prepared himself for a worst-case scenario that became reality when two of his fellow tailbacks suffered season-ending injuries.
“There was a maturity, a mentality that was different about him through the winter months and in the summer,” Vigen said. “You knew this was going to be a different form of him.”
Valladay looked like a different, better back. He fit perfectly into an offense that looked familiar to anyone who has watched Wyoming play.
‘Cowboy-tough football’
The Cowboys play a brand of football that’s truly old school in certain respects. Wyoming’s quarterback sometimes lines up under center. Its scheme features – gasp! – a fullback.
The player currently atop the depth chart at that position – which is on the endangered-species list in modern football – is converted linebacker Skyler Miller. The 5-11, 226-pound redshirt junior is a walk-on from Torrington, Wyoming, a farm community of less than 7,000 located near the eastern border of the state.
“When I took the job, I envisioned us having some youngster that’s from the state that wears a belt buckle that wants to knock the snot out of you,” Cowboys coach Craig Bohl said. “So we’re excited about Skyler Miller being our fullback.”
Asked how often he encounters an opponent that regularly deploys a fullback, Georgia State coach Shawn Elliott paused and smiled. It’s rare. He noted that the dearth of fullbacks is, to a degree, a matter of semantics; the Panthers sometimes use an H-back, who has similar blocking responsibilities.
But Wyoming’s utilization of a true fullback symbolizes its commitment to the running game. The Cowboys are the only team that doesn’t run the option to rank in the top seven nationally in rushing-play percentage in each of the past two seasons. Wyoming enters the Arizona Bowl with a rushing-play rate of 66.85%, per TeamRankings.com.
“It’s by choice,” Bohl said, “but it marries up to where we’re at.”
Wyoming has had more injuries and uncertainty than usual at quarterback this season. The program always faces harsh winter weather late in the year.
“Our climate in Laramie, it’s not always going to be sunny and 60 degrees,” Bohl said. “We’ve got several games where you’ve got to play Cowboy-tough football, and that’s been our brand.”
The right fit
Wyoming wasn’t initially on Valladay’s recruiting radar. He grew in Matteson, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago.
“I didn’t even know Wyoming was a state,” Valladay joked.
But at a camp in the Chicago area before his junior year at Brother Rice High School, Valladay caught the attention of then-Wyoming assistant Curt Mallory, who’s now the head coach at Indiana State. The Cowboys staff saw promise in Valladay, who was a part-time player at that point in his career.
“We felt like he was explosive and smooth enough to be a big-time guy,” said Gordie Haug, Wyoming’s running backs coach and director of player personnel. “It felt like he had the potential to do something great.”
Brother Rice coach Brian Badke felt the same way about Valladay. The eldest of five siblings – and the only boy – Valladay had the same work ethic and determination in high school that he has displayed in college.
“He needed to find the right system, the right program,” Badke said. “He’s a downhill runner. He goes north and south. That’s what you love in that kind of system. That’s why he’s excelling.”
Valladay found a home 1,000 miles west of his hometown. The pace of life was slower in Laramie. The people were nicer. The fans were fanatical. Valladay felt the love.
“It was just different,” he said. “Of course it was a long way from home. But they really sold the program.
“This was a running school. That was something that really caught my eye. The upperclassmen, they really stayed in contact with me, making sure I’m OK. That’s something other schools didn’t. That’s why I came here.”
Valladay redshirted as a freshman in 2017. He served as a backup in ’18, rushing for 396 yards. Nearly half – 192 – came in the season finale at New Mexico. That game would serve as a springboard for this year.
But Bohl didn’t plan for Valladay to carry the ball as much as he has — 221 times and counting entering the Arizona Bowl. Valladay was supposed to share the load with graduate transfer Trey Smith and freshman Titus Swen, and that’s how it played out early in the season.
Smith, however, was lost for the year to an ankle injury in September. Swen hurt his knee in October. He will dress against Georgia State but isn’t expected to play.
Wyoming has other viable tailbacks, but Valladay is the last man standing from the original trio. The back who goes by “X” is on the spot again, and he’s ready.
“It was something that he was prepped for,” Haug said. “Every one of those guys want every carry in a game. When that opportunity came, he rose to it.
“Being nicked up pretty much the entire season, he lived in the training room. That was the thing: If you want to be the guy, you have to live in the training room.
“He understands that everything is earned, nothing’s given. As long as you do everything off the field correct, the right way, things on the field will work out.”
