Dehydrated Defensive End Settling into New Home in Wyoming

LARAMIE -- On one knee, a cold cloth and a bag of ice resting on the back of his neck, a visibly exhausted Chisom Ifeanyi was struggling -- mightily.

Temperatures had just climbed into the 80's during that first practice of fall camp, but the blazing sun overhead was at full throat.

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Though the graduate transfer had been on campus for the better part of two months, those summer workouts didn't include helmets, half-pads and physicality. They also took place at the waking hours of the day, not noon.

Laramie's trademark elevation was also getting its licks in.

Victor Evans II clearly wasn't impressed.

After all, Wyoming's new associate sports performance coach is the main reason Ifeanyi is here after spending the 2024 season with him at Florida Atlantic.

"No one feels sorry for you," Evans emphatically yelled, the chiseled 6-foot-4, 250-pound edge rusher directly in his crosshairs. "Get going."

He just couldn't.

Ifeanyi would muster up the strength for one more snap, before tapping his helmet and heading to the sideline on the Cowboys' North 40 practice fields. The shouting only intensified. Defensive ends coach Brian Hendricks joined in. So did Jay Sawvel.

"They're out there at 12:30 and it's a different kind of heat a little bit," Wyoming's second-year head coach said with a grin. "That sun gets rolling up here, you know, at this altitude. He'll be alright."

There was another reason for the misery, turns out.

"Chisom made a major, major mistake," Sawvel said with a laugh during his press conference less than 48 hours later. "Those hot tubs in the recovery area are really hot. Chisom sat in it for like 20 minutes before practice on the first day. That's going to dehydrate you and suck everything out of you. So, his gas tank went quick.

"Look, when I sit in that damn thing for 20 minutes, I go to bed right after it."

Ifeanyi could only smile and shake his head when the subject came up.

"Probably, I think that did it, yeah," he said, adding the infamous 7,220 also played a role. "I just have to get adjusted to it."

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Ifeanyi spent the first five years of his college career at Shippensburg University, a Division-II institution just 160 miles west of his hometown, Langhorne, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.

He redshirted his first season, only tipping the scales at just 200 pounds. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the next. When Ifeanyi finally did see the field in 2021, he appeared in all 11 games, tallying 16 tackles, including 4.5 for loss and 2.5 sacks. He also forced and recovered a fumble. He batted down a pass, too.

Things were finally starting to click, momentum beginning to build.

It wouldn't last.

"I was going for a sack, and a lineman -- the guard -- stepped back and my ankle was dragging. It snapped my ankle in two," he said, referring to the second game of his sophomore season. "Thankfully the bone didn't come out. It almost did. If it would've come out, that would've been bad stuff."

Still, Ifeanyi said he was unable to walk for four months. Post-surgery infections also served as setbacks.

When he did finally return to the field, Ifeanyi again was a frequent guest in opposing backfields, dragging down ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage 6.5 times. He also upped his sack total to 5.5.

With his stock high, he entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, suiting up at FAU last fall. He registered a career-high 22 tackles in seven starts for the Owls. He capped his first season at the FBS level with 3.5 sacks and a dozen tackles for loss.

Evans, along with fellow sports performance coach Robert Marco, helped facilitate Ifeanyi's move from Boca Raton to Laramie.

"I probably couldn't have picked it off a map before I came over here," Ifeanyi joked. "It's a slow life. It's probably the slowest life I've ever seen."

His coaches, though, are keeping him plenty busy. That disastrous first impression is now a distant memory.

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Hendricks vindicated his newest pupil even further, saying he didn't go through spring practice at FAU, instead sat at home awaiting his next opportunity. "That showed," he added.

The game plan is simple with big No. 52: Hand in the dirt, go get 'em.

"We've got to leverage his strengths," Hendricks continued. "When he uses good hands and when he has pad level, he looks like Tarzan and he plays like Tarzan. So, we've just got to be consistent with that. He's very coachable. He's a 'yes sir, no-sir guy,' so that really makes it easy and fun to coach him. He's a pretty looking dude."

Esaia Bogar, 6-foot-2, 251-pound defensive end, played two seasons at Riverside City College (Calif.) before transferring to Wyoming last February. Though he was one of the top players in the state, tallying 23 sacks and 40 tackles for loss en route to a three-star rating, even he was in awe when he first laid eyes on his new teammate.

"Yeah, he's a super-big dude," the soft-spoken junior said with a smile. "He's fast and athletic. So, it was, 'Oh, crap, I'm about to up my game right now.'"

Ifeanyi said at this time last year he was working out in 110-degree heat and the stifling humidity of south Florida. FAU doesn't have an indoor facility, he added. Sweat poured in those days. Now, not so much.

He's still getting used to his new home, one dehydrated day at a time.

"I just feel like my mouth is always dry," he said. "I just don't sweat at all out here with how dry it is. It's crazy.

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players