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Wyoming looks to snap long road losing streaks Friday

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - The numbers 691 and 1,096 are not good ones for the Wyoming football team.

It has been 691 days since Wyoming won a road game. It beat Fresno State 45-17 on Nov. 1, 2014, in coach Craig Bohl's first season. The Cowboys have lost their last eight road games since then. The 1,096 marks the days since Wyoming won a nonconference road game. That happened three years ago to the day when it won 40-37 at Idaho on Sept. 22, 2013, in former coach Dave Christensen's last season.

Wyoming (2-1) tries to break both road losing streaks at Eastern Michigan (2-1) at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

"After last year, we're just excited about winning a game," Bohl said. "(Breaking the road losing streaks) is another step forward as far as maturing a program. Right now, all we're focused on is Eastern Michigan."

The only win Eastern Michigan had last season was a 48-29 win at Wyoming in the second week of the season. A win Friday will be the most in a season since the Eagles won six in 2011.

Both teams are in rebuilding mode and both have coaches in their third year, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported (http://bit.ly/2crlSTX).

"We're talking about two different teams from last year," Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton said. "It should be a very good football game with both teams playing at a higher level than last year."

Eastern Michigan won its season opener at home over Football Championship Subdivision foe Mississippi Valley State. It is looking to snap a nine-game home losing streak to Football Bowl Subdivision foes that goes back to Oct. 11, 2014 - or 712 days.

"We'd love to get to 3-1, and we're playing a team that is 2-1 and I'm sure has a lot of confidence," UW redshirt sophomore quarterback Josh Allen said. "They'll be prepared, and I have confidence our team will be, too."

Allen leads the Mountain West in points responsible for (16 points per game) and touchdown passes (six). He is second in yards per pass attempt (8.32), total offense (242.3 yards per game) and passing yards (210.7 ypg).

However, Bohl said one area Allen needs to improve upon is ball security. Through three games, Allen has fumbled four times and lost two. Allen's fumble early in the second quarter last week against UC Davis resulted in a 21-yard return for a touchdown that cut Wyoming's lead to 14-9.

"We got to work on Josh's ball security. That strip is something that can be prevented," Bohl said.

The Cowboys play their third Friday night game in as many seasons. However, the last time Wyoming played a nonconference game on a day other than Saturday was on Dec. 23, 2004, when it beat UCLA 24-21 in the Las Vegas Bowl.

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Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle, http://www.wyomingnews.com

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