Conner Cain is a good football player.

I have a feeling he's going to be an even better teacher.

In this his fifth and final year in Laramie, Cain will graduate in May with a degree in history, focusing on American history. He wants to be a high school history teacher.

And, as much as he loves the game of football, he loves history more.

I wanted to sit down and visit with him because I share his love of American history.

He credits a former Cowboy for that passion.

"I love history because of the stories," says the senior from Littleton, Colorado, "and the guy who really got me on the path was Justin Byleveld who played here back in the day. He was my 10^thgrade history teacher."

Not only was Byleveld a receiver for the Pokes from 1987 through 1990, but he also was a graduate assistant and assistant coach in the early 1990's.

"As a kid I was always interested in history, but it was Justin who really got me hooked. He was one of my high school teachers (at Heritage High School), and he fascinated me with the little stories he would tell within the story of historical events. He was a great story teller.

"Most of my friends couldn't understand my passion for history, and thought it was pretty boring stuff. I didn't see it that way at all. History is great stories about great people, and some not so great people. How could you not like that?"

It probably helps that both of Cain's parents, Kelly and Steve, are educators. The teaching gene came natural to him.

Cain arrived at Wyoming in 2014 following a stellar career at Heritage. He was an all-state offensive and defensive lineman, but caught Wyoming's eye with his work at defensive end.

He redshirted his freshman season, but became a staple in the interior of the Cowboy defensive line immediately during his redshirt freshman season of 2015. He quickly became an effective and versatile player in the rotation. He's alternated between the three technique (defensive tackle) and nose tackle. The fact of the matter is, he has stepped in and played whatever position needed him most at the time.

"I really love playing the three technique," he says, "but I'm happy to play at nose. I just love playing and I love the feeling of helping the team."

The coaching staff loves his versatility, especially his position coach Pete Kaligis.

"Here is a young man who knows who he is and understands what he must do every day," says Kaligis. "He is consistent in the classroom and on the field. When he reports to the facility you know that he is always focused on the task at hand for that day. He holds himself to a very high standard and is a leader through his work ethic. He is a man that I trust, I always know he will give everything he has every day. His leadership will be greatly missed."

Cain was born in June of 1995, so from my perspective he has hardly experienced any history. But he's getting caught up quickly. He wants to learn and understand it all.

"I can't wait to see as much of this country's historical places as I can," he says, "places like Lexington, Concord, and Gettysburg."

His areas of expertise are the Civil War and the Vietnam War. "I'm most interested in those two historical times. The Civil War has always fascinated historians, the brother-killing-brother aspect. The Kansas-Missouri Border War in particular, people living a few miles apart, killing each other.

"I'm especially passionate about the Vietnam conflict. To being with, it was the first war that we were not successful. We didn't win it. We threw just about everything we had at those people, and we really couldn't beat them. When you throw in how it divided this country, the unrest, the rioting, and the protesting that surrounded the war, you have a tremendous story.

"Soldiers came home from World War II as heroes. Their sons came back from Vietnam and people spat on them, treated them horribly, just one generation removed from war heroes. I was really drawn to the change in thinking. U.S. soldiers had always been heroes through our history. In that war they weren't. It affected our entire culture. . . music, art and news."

Listening to Conner talk about the Vietnam era was especially interesting to me since I was around during that time. It was the first war that we were able to watch on the news every evening.

"That alone made it fascinating," says Conner. "I've watched video of those news casts with Walter Cronkite. At the time he was the most trusted man in America. It was an amazing time. He kept America abreast every night of not only how the war was going, but how many were being killed. Can you imagine what this country would have been like if the Civil War was televised?"

Cain is all in when it comes to setting the historical record straight. In his mind, there has been too much misinformation and embellishment when recounting history, and how it portrays events.

"These days, historians are much more serious about digging into things and finding out what really happened," he says. "Christopher Columbus is a good example. We have a day for him and have praised him through time. We find more recently that he basically performed genocide. I want to tell young people how it really was to the very best of what we know. I think we owe it to them not to sugar coat it.

"One of the best quotes about history that I've ever heard came from one of my professors here. He said, 'history never repeats itself, but it certainly does rhyme.'"
 
 The fact that he is a senior and Saturday's Air Force game will be his last in War Memorial Stadium is "scary" to him.

"When I got here five years ago, I really asked myself am I going to be able to stay," he admits. "Now, five years later, it's my home. I love this place."

And he loves his teammates.

"We got here as Coach Bohl's first recruiting class. We wanted to be the guys who turned the program around. We have had our ups and downs, especially when we started, but I'm very proud of what we have accomplished, and I'm proud that I'm still standing after five years. 

"We came from different states, different backgrounds with different stories. Yet we will be life-long friends. That's the beauty of teammates, and with all the things we've been through, we're still together. I think that's so cool. Believe me, I'm going to miss the hell out of these guys.

"I just can't put it into words what those guys mean to me."

For the record, I'd love to have him for a history teacher.