Pokes Football: Best of Colorado – No. 3
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. 3 - Andrew Wingard
Safety, 2015-18, Arvada, Colorado
Résumé in Laramie
Andrew Wingard capped his four-year career at Wyoming with an eye-popping 454 tackles. That's tied for the most ever in Mountain West history with former New Mexico linebacker Carmen Messina. The Arvada, Colo., product is also ranked second in stops in Cowboy history behind only Galand Thaxton, who finished his UW career with 467. Wingard, who went by the nickname "Dewey," wasn't just a run stopper, he also snagged 10 interceptions, which is tied for third all time with Logan Wilson and Mark Thomas. Three times Wingard was named a First Team All-Mountain West selection. Twice he was named the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. He even earned All-American status before his senior season, becoming just one of three non Power-5 players in the country to land that distinction. In both 2017 and '18 he was named to the Jim Thorpe Award Preseason Watch List, the Bronko Nagurski Award Watch List and the Chuck Bednarik Award Watch List. Wingard forced five fumbles and recovered another. He also broke up eight passes, tallied four sacks and finished with 25 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Wingard didn't hear his name called in the 2019 NFL Draft but eventually signed with Jacksonville. This fall, he will enter his sixth season with the Jaguars.
About Arvada
A suburb of Denver and the seventh-most populated city in Colorado, Arvada bleeds into two counties and is home to more than 124,000 residents. Hall of Fame pitcher Roy Halladay is from Arvada.
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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