Wyoming’s Frank Crum — and His Lettuce — Impress at NFL Combine

LARAMIE -- The man, the myth, the mullet.

While social media was abuzz over Frank Crum’s flowing, curly blonde locks — also referred to as lettuce, I guess? — NFL personnel were likely more impressed with the Wyoming product’s overall showing last weekend at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.

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The stopwatch clicked at 4.94 after Crum’s 40-yard dash, tying him for second place amongst 70 offensive linemen inside Lucas Oil Stadium.

According to profootballnetwork.com, the 6-foot-8, 313-pound tackle also scored an unofficial 9.82 RAS out of a possible 10.00.

What's that? Great question.

Apparently it's a metric that determines overall athleticism in a number of categories, including speed, shuttle (4.73 sec), 3-cone drills (7.39 sec) along with vertical (31.5") and broad jump (9'6". Who can forget those hand measurements? Crum sits at 10.5" in that all-important category. He also apparently benched 225 pounds 22 times.

Crum, per his final RAS, ranked 25th out of 1,314 offensive tackle prospects from 1984 to now.

That website above is questioning if this is the deepest offensive line draft class in NFL history. If so, the Laramie product has "great" size and "elite" speed and explosion as well as "good" change of direction.

Not bad considering he couldn't bench press 135 pounds 10 times when he arrived on Wyoming's campus back in 2018.

Crum started 48 games, playing both right and left tackle, during his time in Laramie. He paved the way for 1,000-yard running backs like Xazavian Valladay and Titus Swen and kept signal callers Sean Chambers, Levi Williams and Andrew Peasley upright. For his efforts, Crum was named First Team All-Mountain West this fall.

He was also invited to the Hula Bowl this offseason, a showcase of some of college football's top talent.

Always good for a postgame quote, Crum wore his full uniform -- and a mile-wide grin -- into his final press conference in Laramie after the Cowboys dismantled Hawaii, 42-9. Why? He just wasn't ready to take that brown jersey off quite yet.

"To carry on a three-generation legacy means the world to me," Crum told NFL Network's Stacey Dales, referring to his father Gary and grandpa Earl. "It was a no-brainer going to Wyoming out of high school, to play for my hometown, my home state. To hopefully continue playing football past college and still represent the state of Wyoming, that means the world to me."

Crum spent the offseason in the Phoenix area, working out at EXOS Training. Whatever he was doing in the desert, it worked.

While Crum's not divulging the secret behind that now famous hairstyle — his fiancé Caitlin Brown creates the magic, he says — one cat that is now officially out of the bag is the legend of Frank Crum.

The NFL Draft will take place April 25-27 in Detroit.

EASTON GIBBS

Wyoming linebacker Easton Gibbs got the party started in Indy last week, running a 4.72 40-yard dash.

The Temecula, Calif., product, who stayed in Laramie to train this offseason, entered the combine standing 6-foot and weighing in at 232 pounds.

Here's what NFL.com had to say about the Cowboys' leading tackler.

"Linebacker with average size and good production that doesn't always reflect his consistency of play. Gibbs falls below the cutoff line as an NFL athlete, lacking explosiveness and suddenness in his play. The instincts and paths to the action often create inefficiencies as a run defender, and he doesn't have the athleticism to handle man coverage tasks in the passing game. The college production is a nice starting point, but he might not have the athleticism or skill level needed to make a roster."

That website says Gibbs' strengths are: impressive tackler, fills gaps, sudden change of pace in tracking running backs and closes in on the ball carrier.

Sounds like a linebacker, huh?

Weaknesses: Erratic tracking and diagnosis to the ball, gets walled out by blocks, tight-legged, trouble shedding blocks and Lacks athletic, fluid movements in coverage.

While that overview certainly isn't glowing, Gibbs has always worn the underdog label with pride. Wyoming was loyal to him in the recruiting process out of high school. That courtship paid off in a big way after the senior tallied 358 total tackles and seven sacks in essentially three-and-a-half seasons in Laramie.

He also followed up a pair of third-round NFL Draft picks in Logan Wilson and Chad Muma.

It wouldn't be wise to count him out just yet.

You saw what he did at the collegiate level when he was simply given a chance.

Wyoming's annual Pro Day will take place Tuesday, March 19 inside the High Altitude Performance Center and indoor practice facility. This event is free and open to the public. Check back for start times.

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players