Walk-ons no more

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- By definition, the walk-on's life is an anonymous one.

Whereas each college football team needs its stars, it also requires the silent, hard-working, invisible masses. The walk-ons do much, and ask little. They are the voluntary foot soldiers, willing to sacrifice time and health to wear a jersey and represent a school -- if only in grueling early morning practices.

The walk-on expects no reward, and usually, he isn't granted one.

But every once in a while, the tireless work pays off.

Tanner Simpson is an example.

The Lander native walked on at Wyoming two years ago, after completing a decorated three-sport prep career in 2011. Though basketball was his passion, a knee injury late in his senior season led him to look for something else.

That something turned out to be football, and the University of Wyoming.

"I didn't have the idea that I was going to play football in college," Simpson said. "But once I got here, I never looked back. I knew this was the place for me and that I wanted to be here."

During two seasons, the 6-foot-2, 188-pound wide receiver with the flowing mane of brown hair has devoted himself to the team he grew up watching. His contributions were private, as Simpson redshirted in 2012 and failed to receive any game action last season.

Still, he kept showing up. And he continued to believe that if he outworked his competition, a scholarship would inevitably follow.

"I always thought it was realistic," he said. "Through the last couple years, there's been ups and downs. But I always thought it was going to happen at some point."

"Some point" was last Wednesday, just before the start of Wyoming's second practice. As Simpson walked out to the field, new head coach Craig Bohl pulled him into the weight room.

Bohl told Simpson something he had personally never heard when he was a walk-on defensive back at Nebraska decades earlier.

The walk-on, after more than two years of sweat and perseverance, was not a walk-on anymore.

"First of all, any time there's a Wyoming athlete out there that has come in and joined our squad, we want to send a message out to the rest of the guys in the state that there's opportunities here," Bohl said.

"As coaches, we're going to value all of our players. I was a walk-on player at the University of Nebraska. And I think in college football, it's important to reward guys that come out and do a good job. He's [Simpson] a solid guy. He's not one of our top receivers, but he has certainly come in to play."

And for Simpson, the gesture shows that a kid from Lander who didn't always consider himself a football player can come in, work hard and accomplish something on the FBS level.

"It's a huge deal for me, just to show kids from around the state that if you want something, you can go and get it," Simpson said. "Put in the work and the opportunities are going to come.

"Even though I did get put on scholarship, the work doesn't end here. I've still got three more years and a lot to prove."

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Drew Van Maanen didn't understand why everyone was staring at him.

Walking into the Indoor Practice Facility last week, the redshirt freshman fullback was greeted by the focused, unwavering stares of the team's assistant coaches.

To borrow a term from the 1983 film "A Christmas Story," they looked at him as if he had lobsters crawling out of his ears.