Pokes Football: Best of Colorado – No. 17
LARAMIE -- No other state has been more of a recruiting hotbed for the University of Wyoming than Colorado.
This list will prove that.
Numerous UW Hall of Famers, NFL stars and program record holders began their football journey in that square to the south. The Cowboys' top rival, Colorado State, overlooked plenty of these guys. So did CU. Air Force even whiffed a time or two.
Some just flat out picked Laramie over Fort Collins, Boulder and Colorado Springs.
This summer, with the help of some longtime Wyoming football followers, we will count down the Top 25 Colorado products in program history. As always, what these guys did in professional football doesn't matter. This is all about production in Laramie.
No. 17 - John Fletcher
Defensive end, 2006-09, Erie, Colorado
Résumé in Laramie
Only Mitch Donahue (49), Pat Rabold (30), Jeff Knapton (30) and Patrick Chukwurah (27) have more career sacks than John Fletcher. The overpowering edge rusher capped his run on the high plains with 24 quarterback takedowns, 10.5 of which came during the 2007 season. That still ranks the Erie, Colo., product ninth all-time in that category. Fletcher sacked UNLV's Omar Clayton 3.5 times in a 29-24 victory over the Rebels that year. That's still the third-best single-game performance in team history. He added 3.5 tackles for loss that afternoon. Speaking of wrapping up the ball carrier in the backfield, Fletcher did that 36 times in his career. Only Eddie Yarbrough has more with 39. During that '07 campaign, Fletcher tallied 14 of those. That is still the second-best single-season mark. Those gaudy statistics earned him Second Team All-Mountain West honors. He did that again as a junior before vaulting to the First Team as a senior. Fletcher finished with 175 total tackles and batted down nine passes at the line of scrimmage. He also forced four fumbles.
About Erie
This rural Front Range town leaks into both Weld and Boulder Counties. Erie is home to more than 30,000 residents and growing. Just 25 miles north of Denver, this community was once a coal mining hotbed. It was also one of the only "wet" towns in the area in the late 1800's and was home to 11 saloons on Briggs Street. The local jail was next on the agenda.
Pokes Football: Best of Colorado series:
Pokes Football: Best of Wyoming series
(Cody Tucker and Jared Newland both work for Townsquare Media, which owns 7220sports.com. Kevin McKinney has been a color commentator of Cowboy football for five decades. Ryan Thorburn now works for the University of Wyoming in a sports information role after spending decades in the newspaper industry, most recently at the Casper Star-Tribune. Sally Ann Shurmur, the daughter of former UW football coach Fritz Shurmur, is also a veteran of the newspaper industry, working as a journalist, columnist at the CST for 43 years. She currently writes for Cowboy State Daily.)
University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
Gallery Credit: 7220Sports.com
- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players
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