Once Ignored by CSU, Jones Thomas is Now a Key to Wyoming’s Defense

Jeff Bugher
Oct 23
3 min read

Jones Thomas. Photo Courtesy of UW Athletics

Wyoming safety Jones Thomas has quietly become a productive Cowboys defender this year. After barely seeing the field a year ago, Jones has already climbed into the program’s top five in tackles.

“Last year I didn’t really play at all,” Jones said, noting he logged only a handful of snaps in 2024. “I got like seven plays in one game at safety at least. And so just being in the action… yeah, it’s just exciting. It’s just an exciting year.”

CS EWE? Jones comes from 65 miles south of War Memorial Stadium. A Fort Collins native and product of Poudre High School, he grew up in the same town as Wyoming’s fiercest rival. He laughed when admitting his childhood allegiance.

“It was CSU. Yeah… I hate to say it, but it was,” he said. But that has changed… “Not anymore though.”

Despite playing in CSU’s backyard and at a position they needed, the Rams never gave Jones the time of day.

“They did not,” Jones said of CSU’s recruiting interest.

Wyoming, however, did. Once the Cowboys offered, his decision quickly clarified.

“Air Force reached out to me after Wyoming had offered me, and that was pretty much the only other Division One school… Wyoming was the perfect fit for me,” Thomas said. “It was.”

Like many players who come to Laramie to be developed, Jones arrived as a developmental player who needed time, and he knew it. Yet now, that time has paid off.

“It’s all been good. It’s really all just been leading to the goals that I have for myself. And it’s been a process. I knew it was going to be a process when I came here and I’m finally getting to where I want to be. So like I said, it’s exciting.”

Motivation, Mentors, and the Mountain West Chase

With Wyoming now in the heart of conference play, Jones says his goals are about the team.

The Cowboys are in a critical stretch of Mountain West Conference games, including the Border War on Saturday, and Jones says the group is in a good place physically and mentally.

Jones also credits one voice more than any other for shaping him: head coach Jay Sawvel.

“I would say probably Coach Sawvel because he… he recruited me to come here and then he was my coach freshman year. He was the safeties coach… I always learn a lot when he’s talking to me or coaching me up.”

Even now, when Sawvel occasionally jumps back into the safeties room, Jones says it feels like old times. Jones told us about a time in September when Sawvel coached the safeties during the bye week.

“It’s fun. It’s like a little flashback to freshman year… you can tell he enjoys it too. He definitely misses coaching up the safeties and even chewing us out a little bit. I think that’s the part he misses the most.”

A Rivalry With Layers

Now the Fort Collins kid who once wore green and gold prepares to line up against the program he grew up watching, and fight to bring the Bronze Boot back to Laramie.

Jones doesn’t need to say much about what that means. Overlooked by CSU, recruited by Wyoming, developed, and now emerging as a defensive playmaker in one of the nation’s rowdiest rivalry environments.

He just wants one thing:

The Bronze Boot.