Rule of Thumb: Throw on a Cast and Get to Work

LARAMIE -- Scooping up a fork full of food has been a challenge.

So has writing and typing school papers. Driving a car has even become an issue.

Caleb Driskill and Andrew Johnson, admittedly, took those daily tasks for granted. A broken right thumb has a way of humbling you.

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For Wyett Ekeler, Wyoming's senior free safety, those chores above are child's play. When BYU paid a visit back in September, he suffered two broken thumbs. The latter happened two plays after the first.

Wyoming head coach Jay Sawvel quipped that those types of freak injuries only happen when you get "crossways with the mafia."

Ekeler is simply a victim of bad luck.

"Oh, may gosh," he said, shaking his head. "The showering part. I had to put two bags over my hands. That was terrible. I had to relearn how to pick stuff up because I can't use my thumbs. Eating food was terrible. Honestly, just everything you can think about that you use your hands for is terrible."

He literally means everything.

"Thank God I figured out how to wipe my a--," Ekeler said with a grin.

Good thing, too. His roommates aren't doing it. Fellow safety Isaac White said though he loves his friend, that's not happening.

"We're not that close," he joked.

Facing a 3rd-and-15 at Wyoming's 41-yard line, San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget took the shotgun snap and looked downfield in the direction of his favorite target. Nick Nash, the Mountain West's top receiver, was cruising down the seam, but he was covered.

The throw wasn't exactly on target, either.

That heave sailed five yards over his receiver's head and into the awaiting casts of Ekeler, who was playing in his first game since Sept. 14.

"Thank you," the Windsor, Colo., product said of seeing that ball heading his way. "Hey, easiest pick of my life. He put it right to me."

Driskill, who actually broke his thumb in training camp but didn't know the extent of the damage until after the season opener at Arizona State, said he watched that ball sail and openly wondered if Ekeler could even grab it.

"Watching him run was the best part," the Gillette native joked. "All I could think of is, with me, when I try and tuck the ball, you can't do it. It doesn't fit right with the cast. I'm like, well, he's got two of them. I can at least use my left arm.

"It was pretty cool. I don't think you'll see that very often."

Johnson, a junior from Cheyenne, lined up in the secondary with Ekeler inside CEFCU Stadium last Saturday with White still on the shelf with an ankle injury. His thumb was turned into a "horseshoe" in the second quarter against North Texas. He knew something wasn't right, but the X-ray machine in the stadium was broken.

Turns out, it was snapped in half.

Nothing a little tape can't fix, Johnson joked. He stayed in the game. He played the next week against Air Force, too, before having pins inserted during the Cowboys' bye week.

He said his handwriting hasn't been very pretty of late. Putting his Jeep in gear hasn't been routine, either.

Johnson was also impressed with Ekeler's pick.

"I watched it from about five yards away," he said. "It was kind of all in slow motion and dropped right into the bread basket. The funniest part was, I went to turn around and block and he's running like he has a loaf of bread."

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Ekeler admitted he hasn't even been practicing catching balls. It wasn't until warmups in San Jose that he even attempted to snag a pass. He had a plan, though, if he was able to pick one off.

"I was talking to Andrew  and said, 'Yo, if there's a sideline I can get to and get a few yards, I'm going to do that,'" he said. "'But, if there's people around me, I'm taking a knee.'"

Ekeler tried to get to the white paint. Eleven yards downfield, though, he was rudely dumped by an oncoming receiver, Justin Lockhart.

"I gained a first down, baby," he said with a smile.

Though Driskill has missed four-plus games, the senior said he never seriously considered taking a medical redshirt and coming back for another year. Ekeler's raised eyebrows and perplexed look answered the question for him. In fact, it's offensive to ask. It never crossed his mind to sit out this season, despite the Cowboys' 1-6 record.

No one is waiving a white flag in this locker room.

"We're all competitors and we want to win," Driskill said. "We're all showing up every week and every day. How can we get better so we can win? It's not a thing we're all just giving up. It's not what we thought it was going to be, but now let's try and win as many games as we can."

Jay Sawvel couldn't agree more.

"I think you can sum up the locker room a little bit with Wyett Ekeler, right? You know, he goes out and plays with two broken thumbs," Wyoming's rookie head coach said. "Look, there's a lot of guys at a lot of places and at this point in the year, with the record that we have, would have just said, No, I'm good. I'll start training for whatever's next. That's not the case here."

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players