by staff–3 May ’16
University of Wyoming head football coach Craig Bohl and head basketball coach Allen Edwards officially announced on Tuesday that Austin Conway, who was a member of the Cowboy basketball team this past year as a freshman, will join the Wyoming football team full-time beginning this summer. He will play wide receiver and will be utilized as a kick returner for the Cowboys. With this move, Conway will no longer play basketball for Wyoming.
Conway expressed a desire to work out with the football team during 2016 spring practice, and Coach Bohl and Coach Edwards agreed to allow him to participate in spring football with the Cowboys. Conway redshirted his freshman season as a member of the UW men’s basketball team in the 2015-16 season. He will have four years of eligibility remaining to play. His scholarship will be shifted from the basketball team to the football team beginning in the summer of 2016. The football team had a scholarship available from its 2016 recruiting period. This shift will free up an additional scholarship for the Cowboy basketball team.
“I had nice long talks with Coach Bohl and Coach Edwards at the end of spring football,” said Conway. “Both coaches were very supportive. The biggest thing was I just had to follow my heart. I felt really comfortable being back out on the football field this spring. It felt like I was at home back on the field.”
“Austin (Conway) showed us during spring football that he has a passion for the game of football and that he had the skills to benefit our team moving forward,” said Bohl. “We were aware of Austin’s football accomplishments in high school. The fact that he has only been away from the game for a year we believe will make his transition a smooth one. He certainly benefitted from going through spring practice with us and will benefit from having a full summer to work with our strength and conditioning staff. We are excited to have Austin as a part of our team.
”Coach Edwards and I have been working together through this process to try and help Austin decide what is best for him. I want to thank Allen (Edwards) for his willingness to help Austin find the path that he feels is best for his future.”
“We want to wish Austin all the best as he pursues his college football career,” said Edwards. “He had expressed to me this spring that he missed the game of football and wanted to give football a try here at Wyoming. Coach Bohl and I sat down and agreed to accommodate Austin’s desire to see if football was the sport he truly wanted to pursue in college.
“After spring football concluded, Craig (Bohl), Austin and I all spoke again, and we all agreed that playing football was what Austin wanted and what was in his best interest. We are glad that we were all able to work out a situation where Austin remains a Cowboy.”
Conway was an outstanding football and basketball player at Overland High School in Aurora, Colo. He was named to The Denver Post’s All-Colorado team for all classifications as a dual-threat quarterback his senior season of 2014. During his senior season, he passed for 1,341 yards and 13 touchdowns and added 509 rushing yards and five rushing TDs. His junior season, Conway accumulated 1,847 passing yards and 1,130 rushing yards for 2,977 yards of total offense. He had a combined 31 touchdowns, 19 through the air and 12 on the ground. In basketball, Conway led Overland High to the Colorado Class 5A Final Four as a junior and guided the Trailblazers to their first basketball state championship as a senior.
