Prospect’s Carlson puts it on the line for Wyoming

There was a lot of gray area to Nick Carlson’s college football career when he started at the University of Wyoming.

Carlson was not inundated with scholarship offers after his senior season at Prospect High School in 2007. So, he signed a letter of intent with Wyoming and coach Joe Glenn as a grayshirt.

That meant Carlson wouldn’t be immediately on scholarship and he couldn’t enroll as a full-time student in school as a freshman in 2008. That same fall, Wyoming went 4-8 and Glenn was fired after six years.

Carlson’s future suddenly was clouded since a new coaching staff would have no commitment to him.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Carlson said. “I came out in the midst of a coaching change, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out.”

Despite all of the uncertainty, it’s worked out better than Carlson could have envisioned. The 6-foot-4, 290-pound junior is in his third year as a starting offensive lineman for the Cowboys and was recently named a second-team all-Mountain West Conference selection.

And at 1 p.m. Saturday, Carlson will be at right guard in his first bowl game when the 8-4 Cowboys face 8-4 Temple in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.

“I’m just excited to get down there with this team and see what we can do against a good Temple team,” said Carlson, who didn’t play in the New Mexico Bowl two years ago after starting the first eight games of the season. “Through fall camp people started to realize we could have a really special team on our hands, and I think we do.

“To be on a team that only gets 3 wins (last year) was not a fun season to go through. We’ve used it as motivation.”

Carlson had plenty of motivation for football after starting as a junior on Prospect’s 2006 Class 7A state semifinalist. But at 6-3, 240 pounds as a senior, he received only a couple of scholarship offers, with some schools wanting to see if he would walk on to their programs.

Then Wyoming came along with a grayshirt offer and Carlson took it once he understood what it entailed. He only took 11 credit hours his first semester as a part-time student, did a lot of weightlifting to get stronger, and watched practices to get a better handle on the offensive system.

And then he wondered if he would ever be a part of new head coach Dave Christensen’s system.

“I was a little concerned,” Carlson said. “Part of it was the fear of the unknown. But once I was able to meet with the coaches my anxiety sort of went away.”

Carlson started a rapid ascent into the Wyoming lineup and ultimately becoming a fixture on its front line.

“He has improved every year,” Christensen said in a preseason report.

So much so he made the watch list for the Rimington Trophy, awarded to college football’s best center. The Cowboys’ line has allowed just 11 sacks this season, which is 12th best in Division I.

On Saturday he’ll start his fourth consecutive game at right guard, a switch made after he had some trouble securing the snaps at center.

“I was a little surprised, but I was able to go to right guard and concentrate on getting my blocks down,” Carlson said of the position he played as a freshman. “It’s nice to get back to guard. I think it’s a fun position.”

Carlson is hopeful he could be in position to be drafted by an NFL team after next season. But his main concern is helping the school, where so many things have already gone better than he imagined.

“I remember the second game of my freshman year, Texas came up to Laramie,” Carlson said with a laugh. “My offensive line coach came up and asked me if I thought when I was playing high school ball if I thought I’d be playing Texas. I remember shaking my head.”

It was all part of a much clearer picture of success for Carlson at Wyoming.