Cain the epitome of Cowboys tough
LARAMIE» Conner Cain’s career for Wyoming football team won’t be defined by statistics.
The senior interior defensive lineman enters Saturday’s Mountain West opener against Boise State with 35 tackles over 36 games. But don’t mistake the lack of numbers for what the 6foot4, 270pounder from Heritage High School in Littleton has meant to the program.
“Conner is the definition of Cowboy football,” senior nose tackle Sidney Malauulu said. “He comes in, doesn’t say much and goes to work. If he sees someone slacking, he lets them know how it is supposed to be done. Even though me and Conner are the same age, I really look up to him.
“We wouldn’t be Wyoming football without Conner. He is the spitting image of everything we preach. He’s a great leader.”
Cain was voted a team captain by his teammates this season, which, Malauulu said, “caught him a little off guard.” But the fact Cain is even playing this season shows his toughness and determination.
Early in the fourth quarter of UW’s game at Boise State last season, Cain got caught in a pile of humanity running a stunt as the Broncos ran a quarterback sneak up the middle.
“I stepped to my right. I got hit high, my foot never really got off the ground, and I fell backward,” Cain said. “When I landed on the ground, I knew something was wrong. When I swung my leg around, I was like, ‘Oh, boy.’ ”
Something was wrong, all right. Cain broke his right fibula, and dislocated and tore all the ligaments in his ankle. His right foot was at an angle it shouldn’t have been as he laid there on the turf.
Cain’s injury was the same suffered by Boston Celtics guard Gordon Hayward during the opening game of the 201718 NBA season.
Before the trainers could attend to him, Cain did something about it.
“I popped the ankle back in myself,” he said. “I didn’t want the trainers to do the 123 and pop it back in. I’ve seen that happen with shoulders and stuff, and it didn’t look pretty.”
Cain was taken off the field on a cart. He could move his toes, so he asked if he could come back into the game.
The answer was no. Shortly after that, Xrays revealed the severity of the injury. Cain was done for the season, the first serious injury of his career.
UW was running out of interior defensive linemen. Malauulu was back in Laramie with a knee injury. Defensive tackle Youhanna Ghaifan, a sophomore in 2017, was in uniform, but couldn’t play because of turf toe.
UW finished the game with two true freshmen, Ravontae Holt and Javaree Jackson. Boise State scored two fourthquarter touchdowns to win 2414.
“He was one of our leaders in the middle of a really intense game,” coach Craig Bohl said.
Cain underwent two surgeries, the first about two weeks after the injury and the second in early January. He had 13 screws and a metal plate inserted into his ankle and leg. He now has 11 screws and the metal plate for the rest of his life.
But there was no time to feel sorry for himself. Cain had work to do.
“Personally, I never had any doubt I would be back,” he said. “I was told by a few people that this is a really hard injury to come back from. I was told several times that my ankle wouldn’t look the same again, and I will have this pain the rest of my life.
“That’s all pretty hard to hear, but I still never had any doubt. I knew it would take a lot of time and effort, and that’s what I did.”
Cain was cleared for all football activities in late July, and played in UW’s seasonopener at New Mexico State on Aug. 25 – nearly 10 months to the day of his injury.