Two stars next to anything can be a turn-off; restaurants, hotels and, yes, even football players.
Sometimes, if teams are lucky, those two-star prospects can blossom from a hidden gem into playmaking leaders. That’s the case for Wyoming linebacker Easton Gibbs and Ohio linebacker Keye Thompson, two of the best players in Friday’s Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl.
Gibbs was rated by the 247Sports.com recruiting service as the 336th-best prospect from California in 2019. Then, Gibbs was a standout safety at Temecula Valley High School in Southern California. More than three years later, Gibbs leads Wyoming with 111 tackles. He was recently recently named a first-team All-Mountain West Conference selection.
Wyoming coach Craig Bohl’s keen ability to evaluate players has paid off, especially at linebacker. The last time the Cowboys were in Tucson, their defense was led by linebacker Logan Wilson, who currently starts for the Cincinnati Bengals. Former Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma starts for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Wilson, Muma and Gibbs were all recruited as safeties, then converted to linebacker upon arriving in Laramie, Wyoming. It’s been, as Bohl puts it, “a migration of guys we’ve taken at other positions.”
“What we look for is athleticism, instincts,” Bohl said. “A linebacker in our system has to have a lot of the same attributes (quarterback Andrew Peasley) has. He has to be able to process and see things, use his athleticism to be able to make plays in space. … We look for those attributes. As the years go by, they become more instinctive linebackers.”
After understudying Wilson and Muma for the last three years, Gibbs took the reins as Wyoming’s defensive leader.
“It’s definitely been interesting. I learned a lot from those guys and I tried to take in as much as I could, follow their footsteps as much as I could,” Gibbs said. “This year, I learned how to be a better leader.”
Gibss watched as Wilson “handled his business, whether it was in the hotels or watching film, prep before the game on the sideline.”
“I really just tried to take it all in and see what he did and put it to my game and things like that,” he said.
Gibbs said he jumped at the chance to attend Wyoming.
“They were the first ones to give me an opportunity to play college football, so there was a big trust there,” Gibbs said.
In order to make the transition to linebacker, Gibbs relentlessly worked in the weight room to add muscle. He also altered his diet, incorporating breakfast and consuming protein shakes, almond bars and fruits in the morning.
“I was never really a big breakfast guy until I got to college. I had to learn how to eat breakfast,” he said.
The 6-foot-2-inch Gills is now 230 pounds — a whopping 37 pounds heavier than when he signed with the Cowboys nearly four years ago.
Ohio linebacker Keye Thompson, right, overcame a leg injury suffered in 2021 to become one of the Bobcats’ top defenders.
Ohio’s Thompson, a redshirt senior, has been playing the position for years.
Thompson was a standout linebacker while growing up in Barberton, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Although Thompson was an All-Ohio selection at Barberton High School, 247Sports.com and Rivals.com both rated him as a two-star prospect. Ohio was the only school to offer him a scholarship.
“We don’t look too far into the stars and things of that nature, but it does play a part in some games,” Thompson said. “It helps you carry a chip on your shoulder when you’re playing in the game. … We just keep our head down and do what we need to do to make this program successful.”
Thompson had a productive 2019 campaign, starting seven games at weak-side linebacker. He received Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors during the pandemic-influenced season in 2020, then was forced to miss the ‘21 season after suffering a season-ending leg injury.
“It made me a lot stronger mentally, going through that process of rehab, but you just kind of keep your head up and it does make you stronger,” Thompson said.
The 6-foot, 230-pound Thompson now leads the Bobcats with 96 tackles and two fumble recoveries. He and the rest of Ohio’s defense, which ranks fourth in the MAC in stopping the run, will be tasked with stopping the third-best rushing attack in the Mountain West.
Gibbs and the Cowboys, meanwhile, will hope to slow down an Ohio offense that averaged 424.3 yards per game this season. The Bobcats will be limited Friday; All-MAC quarterback Kurtis Rourke is out with a leg injury.
Extra points
- The nationwide holiday travel debacle — headlined by Southwest Airlines, which canceled more than 60% of its flights over a two-day period after Christmas Day — is affecting some travelers for the Arizona Bowl. A winter storm prevented family members of Ohio coach Tim Albin from flying out of Oklahoma for Friday’s game. Several Wyoming players arrived in Tucson later than the majority of the team; some arrived during one of the Cowboys’ practices at Sunnyside High School. Said Bohl: “We had some guys miss a couple days, some guys missed one day, but the majority of the guys haven’t missed anything. It has certainly been a challenge. Across America, people have been challenged with that.”
- For the first time in Arizona Bowl history, the game’s logo will appear at midfield. Athletic Application, a turf-painting company based in Phoenix, also painted Barstool’s logo on each 25-yard line of Arizona Stadium’s turf.
- Wyoming will don gold uniforms on Friday, while Ohio will wear its green jerseys. Bohl said he suggested to Wyoming’s equipment managers that the Cowboys should open the season — and end it — by wearing gold uniforms. Wyoming wore its gold uniforms Week 1 against Illinois. Said Bohl: “They like it and I think there’s some meaning to it.”
