Former Wyoming Cowboy Marcus Epps
Will Achieve Another Amazing Accomplishment on Sunday
From Walk-on, to Wyoming Team Captain, to Playing in the Super Bowl
By Tim Harkins, Associate Athletics Director
Will Achieve Another Amazing Accomplishment on Sunday
From Walk-on, to Wyoming Team Captain, to Playing in the Super Bowl
By Tim Harkins, Associate Athletics Director
Laramie, Wyo. (Feb. 10, 2023) -- Playing in a Super Bowl is something that every football player dreams of but very few get the opportunity to live out that dream. This Sunday, former Wyoming Cowboy captain Marcus Epps will get that opportunity as the starting free safety for the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.
For Epps, it is the latest accomplishment in a string of career football accomplishments that can be traced back to when he joined the University of Wyoming Football program in the summer of 2014. Epps came to Wyoming from Edison High School in Los Angeles, Calif., as a walk-on. He was one of the first walk-ons in the first season of the Craig Bohl era at Wyoming. Epps would prove the value of developing walk-ons into scholarship players, and that outstanding Wyoming walk-on program continues today.
Over his college career at Wyoming, Epps would become one of the all-time great Cowboys. His road to being where he is today -- preparing to play in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz. -- is an amazing story of hard work, perseverance and believing in himself. Throughout his time as a Cowboy, his teammates and coaches would often talk about how much he was respected by everyone on the team for his work ethic and how he handled himself on and off the field. That respect led to him becoming the first Cowboy in the modern era of Wyoming Football to be voted a team captain by his teammates three consecutive years.
While Epps always believed in himself and his abilities, not even he foresaw the respect he would earn during his time at UW and that was reflected in a comment by Epps during his senior season of 2018.
“To have my teammates see and appreciate all the work I put in for this program and this team, it’s awesome to be able to lead such a great group of people,” said Epps. “I didn’t envision myself as a three-time captain when I came here, but I definitely had the mindset coming in as a walk-on that I just needed an opportunity. Coach Bohl and his staff gave me that opportunity and I made the most of it.”
As Sunday’s big game approaches, two of the Cowboy coaches most responsible for bringing Epps to the University of Wyoming reflected on their former player. The first is head coach Craig Bohl.
“Marcus is an individual who is marked by determination, resolve and ability,” said Bohl. “It’s exciting to see him playing on the biggest stage in football at the Super Bowl. We’ll all be anxious to watch him and wish him all the best.”
Another member of the Wyoming coaching staff who was directly involved in connecting with Epps out of high school and encouraging him to come to the University of Wyoming as a walk-on was current Executive Director of Football Recruiting and Running Backs Coach Gordie Haug. Haug was Wyoming’s Director of Recruiting in 2014 when Epps joined the program in the first season of the Bohl era.
“Marcus is probably the hardest working player we’ve had here,” said Haug. “He really bought into our program and understood what it would take to get us to the top of the Mountain West. He added a lot to the culture within our team and probably helped start the culture change with his work ethic. Everybody else on the team respected him and looked to him as a leader.”
Epps redshirted his freshman season of 2014, but in 2015 he recorded the first of many football accomplishments as a Cowboy. He started his very first college game as a redshirt freshman in the season opener against the University of North Dakota. Epps missed the second game of the ‘15 season against Eastern Michigan due to an injury. That would be the only game in his four-year college career that he would miss. He returned to the starting lineup in Week 3 at Washington State and would go on to start every game he played in during his college career at Wyoming -- 50 career starts from 2015-18.
Epps not only started the 11 games he played in as a redshirt freshman, but he ranked third on the team in total tackles, with 83, and also led the Pokes in interceptions with two as he earned a scholarship. Of his 83 tackles, 59 were solo stops and 24 were assisted tackles. He ranked fifth in the Mountain West and No. 39 in the nation in solo tackles per game at 5.4 and ranked 12th in the MW in total tackles (7.5 tackles per game).
As his sophomore season of 2016 began, it became apparent that Epps not only was a talented athlete but he also possessed special leadership skills as his teammates elected him a team captain as a sophomore. The 2016 season was of course one of the most successful in Cowboy Football history. Wyoming posted an 8-6 record, won the Mountain Division of the Mountain West Conference, hosted the MW Championship Game as the highest ranked team in the conference and earned a bid to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.
Epps finished the 2016 season with 111 tackles, which ranked him second on the ‘16 team and ranked as the 25th best single-season total in school history at the time. He also tied for the team lead in interceptions with three and led the Cowboys with six pass breakups. Epps recorded 13 tackles in the Mountain West Championship game and added 12 tackles in the regular-season meeting vs. San Diego State that sent the Pokes to the championship game.
The 2017 season saw Epps once again be voted a team captain by his teammates. He was a leader of a Cowboy defense that ranked No. 9 in the nation in scoring defense, No. 13 in pass defense and No. 23 in total defense. He recorded a personal single-season best of four interceptions in 2017. Epps and his Cowboy teammates posted their second consecutive eight-win season, going 8-5, and won the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
As his senior season of 2018 approached, he was voted team captain for an amazing third time. The Cowboys earned bowl eligibility again in 2018, posting a 6-6 record. In fact, under his leadership, Wyoming was bowl eligible all three years he was a voted a team captain and made consecutive bowl appearances in the 2016 Poinsettia Bowl and the 2017 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, as well as hosting the Mountain West Championship Game in 2016. Epps was voted one of three national finalists for the 2018 Burlsworth Trophy that is presented each year to the nation’s most outstanding player who began his career as a walk-on.
