Wyoming's Craig Bohl, Texas State's GJ Kinne are On3 national Group of Five co-head coaches of the week

Each week during the season, On3 selects national head coaches of the week from both the Power Five and Group of Five levels.

Colorado’s Deion Sanders was our pick for national Power Five head coach of the week. As for the Group of Five, our co-head coaches of the week are Wyoming’s Craig Bohl and Texas State’s GJ Kinne.

Under Bohl, Wyoming pulled off one of the top upsets of Week 1 with a 35-33 double overtime victory over Texas Tech, which entered the season ranked No. 24 in the coaches poll. It was the Cowboys’ first win over a top-25 opponent since 2016. During the win, Wyoming overcame an early 17-0 deficit.

Bohl, who has been the Cowboys’ head coach since 2014, has led the team to seven wins or more in five of the last six non-COVID shortened seasons.

“That’s a cowboy-tough win,” Bohl said during his post-game press conference. “… I think our maturity showed because we did not start fast. Every checkpoint I talked about in the pregame meal about what we needed to do, it’s 17-0 and I thought, ‘Did these guys even listen to that?’ There was certainly an amount of frustration, but the players worked through those mistakes and good things started to happen. Texas Tech is ranked and they deserved to be ranked. We beat a good football team.”

As for Kinne, his first game as Texas State’s head coach featured him leading the Bobcats to their first-ever win over a Power Five opponent. Just a year after Texas State lost by 35 to Baylor under the previous Bobcats coaching staff, Kinne guided Texas State to a 42-31 victory over Dave Aranda and the Bears. The Bobcats led 28-13 at halftime and by as much as 18 during the fourth quarter.

“I thought the energy they played with and the penetration they got and the excitement they played with was really strong,” Aranda said. “And they’ve got really great playmakers and I thought they dialed stuff up as (as a coaching staff) and were able to hit things when they wanted them and got matchups and all of that.”

It’s the latest accomplishment for Kinne, a former Tulsa and NFL quarterback. In his first-ever season as a head coach last year, Kinne led Incarnate Word to the semifinal round of the FCS playoffs and to a No. 1 ranking in Division I in scoring offense.

Honorable mentions

Fresno State’s Jeff Tedford: Tedford led Fresno to a 39-35 road win over Purdue, the Bulldogs’ first victory over a Big Ten opponent since 2009.

Northern Illinois’ Thomas Hammock: For the second time in the last three years, Hammock opened the season for NIU with a win over an ACC opponent. After beating Georgia Tech in their 2021 season opener, the Huskies pulled out a 27-24 overtime victory over Boston College on Saturday. It was a nice way to start the year for Northern Illinois as it looks to bounce back from a 3-9 finish in 2022.