Pokes Football: Best of Colorado – No. 5
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. 5 - Steve Scifres
Offensive tackle, 1993-96, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Résumé in Laramie
Considered one of the best offensive linemen in Wyoming football history, Steve Scifres was named the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year in 1993 and was named to the league's first team during his junior and senior seasons. During his first two years on the campus the Colorado Springs product allowed just three sacks on 894 quarterback drop backs. He got even better over the last two seasons. Scifres gave up just one sack on 915 pass attempts. He was a perfect fit in Joe Tiller's "basketball on grass" spread attack, giving signal callers like Joe Hughes and Josh Wallwork plenty of time to operate. That protection also led to Ryan Yarborough and Marcus Harris becoming two of the best wide receivers in NCAA history. Scifres and the 1996 team finished the year 10-2 overall and earned a berth in the inaugural WAC Championship game. That offense averaged nearly 500 yards per game in the process. While Wallwork was busy throwing for 4,090 yards and leading the nation in passing yards with 359.2 per game, Scifres was taking care of his blindside. That led to him becoming one of 13 semi-finalists for the Outland Trophy and eventually being selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the third round of the 1997 NFL Draft.
About Colorado Springs
Nestled in the shadows of Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs is a military town, home of the U.S. Space Command, NORAD headquarters, the Air Force Academy and much more. Colorado's second-most populated city is believed to be the home of 45,000-plus active-duty troops and more than 100,000 veterans. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Center is also in Colorado Springs.
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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