They were coming off an 8-4 season and expected to be fine. Not amazing, but one of the better G5s. Maybe the 70th best team or so. Pretty close to BYU, which meant that preseason, a game with BYU traveling to Laramie would be 50/50 for the Cougars. Maybe worse.
And now, most metrics have Wyoming as one of the ten worst teams in FBS, closer to #120 overall.