Pokes Football: Best of Colorado – No. 2
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. 2 - Jovon Bouknight
Wide receiver, 2002-05, Denver, Colorado
Résumé in Laramie
Ryan Yarborough and Marcus Harris may have capped their Wyoming careers with more receiving yards, but no one in school history finished with more all-purpose yards than Jovon Bouknight. The Denver product racked up 3,626 of his 5,921 yards via the passing game, but the rest came as a returner. Bouknight earned six All-Mountain West honors as both a receiver and a specialist. He is responsible for 2,016 yards as a kick returner and averaged 126 yards per game in that category. In a game against Utah State in 2005, Bouknight shattered the school record with 219 return yards. He was also a Biletnikoff Trophy finalist that season, hauling in 77 balls for 1,116 yards and 12 touchdowns. For his career, Bouknight finished with 250 receptions (2nd all-time) and 30 touchdowns (3rd all-time). One of those scores came on the ground. Of all the memorable moments in Bouknight's UW career, arguably his best was saved for the biggest stage. Not only did he finish with 107 receiving yards in a 24-21 victory over UCLA in the 2004 Las Vegas Bowl, he also tossed a 22-yard touchdown to quarterback JJ Raterink on a trick play early in the fourth quarter. That was the Cowboys first postseason win in 38 years. You might have heard, Bouknight is set to become an offensive analyst and assist with receivers at Wyoming under Jay Sawvel this fall. That comes after coaching stops at Utah State, Texas Tech, Oregon, Kentucky and, most recently, Marshall.
About Denver
The state capital and most-populous city in Colorado, the Denver Metro Area is home to nearly 3 million residents. The city itself is estimated at around 715,000. Sitting in the shadows of the nearby Rocky Mountains, the Mile High City is the 17th most-populous area in the United States and the fifth largest capital city.
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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