LARAMIE — At this time last year, Shamiel Gary was putting the finishing touches on winning a starting job as Wyoming’s strong safety.
After the first week of the regular season as a true freshman, he had three interceptions.
Gary never picked off another pass but don’t believe for a minute that put a damper on his season.
“I was happy with the rest of the season,” Gary said after a recent practice. “I was coming up and making tackles. I didn’t get no interceptions, but that’s OK. Hopefully this year, I get a couple more.”
To be fair, intercepting passes isn’t particularly what the Cowboys had asked him to do.
The fact he picked off three against Weber State was a bonus, having exceeding the coaching staff’s expectations at just about every other level.
“The biggest thing for Shamiel, and we’ve talked about it, is the adjustment to the speed of the game,” defensive secondary coach Alex Grinch said. “What he had to do for us last year, in reality, probably isn’t real fair. When I sit back and look at it a year later, what he did for us was absolutely huge.”
Gary had five double-digit tackle performances in his first year at the college level.
The Tulsa native finished fifth on the team and 11th in the Mountain West Conference in tackles and also broke up six passes.
“We needed him in that role, he accepted that role and he adjusted on the fly,” Grinch said. “He ran around and played pretty good football for us.”
One year later, Gary is still the youngster of the secondary, but he’s no longer in a position battle.
He’s surrounded by three-year starters in cornerbacks Marcell and Tashaun Gipson and free safety Chris Prosinski. He’s set out to prove that last year was no fluke.
“I was pretty happy with myself, but I was disappointed in some of the mistakes I made,” Gary said. “I’m looking to improve on it this year.”
The fact that there is no depth chart battle hasn’t seemed to faze him.
The Cowboys are still looking for a clear-cut third safety and have viable options in Luke Ruff and Eric Mitchell in the two-deep, but it has remained clear — since he set foot on War Memorial Stadium for his first game — that Gary is the guy.
Footnote.
Sophomore wide receiver David Tooley was suspended for a violation of team rules. Coach Dave Christensen would make no comment regarding the suspension.
