By DAVID MORTIMER

Two long weeks after being soundly beaten by TCU at home, BYU is anxious to get back on the football field, even if it means going on the road.

The No. 25 Cougars (6-2, 3-1 MWC) will travel to the high plains of Laramie, Wyo., to face the Wyoming Cowboys (4-4, 2-2 MWC) on Saturday. The game starts at noon and can be seen on The Mtn.

BYU hopes to continue its recent success after bye weeks. Since 2002, the Cougars are 5-2 in games following a bye week, and have won their last three by an average of 25 points. The last time BYU lost on the road after a bye was 2003, when Notre Dame beat the Cougars, 33-14.

Even though the bye week helped players like defensive back Scott Johnson rest and recover from injury, Johnson said he’s waited long enough to return to action.

“It was kind of annoying, because we all want to go out there and play,” Johnson said. “We didn’t want to just sit around on Saturday; we wanted to go play a game.”

Johnson scored BYU’s first points in last year’s matchup against Wyoming in Provo. He snatched a failed Cowboy lateral off the ground and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown. The Cougars went on to win, 44-0, the first BYU shutout of the Cowboys since 1985.

On the other side of the ball, BYU welcomes back wide receiver McKay Jacobson, who missed the last four games with a hamstring injury. Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen acknowledged that the return of a deep threat like Jacobson makes BYU’s offense stronger.

“Any time they get a player back that has the type of speed and big play ability he has … it’s a concern,” Christensen said in a Tuesday teleconference. “It just adds to their firepower of what they can do offensively.”

Jacobson, who has averaged 25.5 yards per catch this season, said he’s excited to contribute on the field once again, and hopes he can help the Cougars rebound after the loss against TCU.

“I think how we play shows a lot about our team character,” Jacobson said. “I think this week in practice we’ve practiced pretty well. We’re still going out there to win, and we’re not going to settle for anything less.”

The return of Jacobson should provide a boost for a BYU offense that TCU held to just seven points and 298 total yards, both season lows. Even so, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said he’s still satisfied with the plays being called on offense.

“I listen to every call and I have the choice to override it or not,” he said. “I like what we’re doing; I like what we’re calling. Our focus now is just to continue to execute at a higher level.

So really, how we practice, making sure that we’re precise enough for it to translate on game day, especially in the critical moments, is what our focus is on.”