When University of Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl called Logan Wilson into his office in the summer of 2015, Wilson weighed 185 pounds and had more experience as a punter than as a linebacker.
Wilson was preparing for his freshman season, and he was expecting to be a safety for the Cowboys. When Bohl had watched Wilson in high school, he noticed him making a few hits on the sideline and a few plays where Wilson ran 20 yards up the field to sack the quarterback.
Bohl told Wilson, an unrated and undersized football player who was a receiver, a safety and a punter in high school, that he wanted to see what Wilson could do at linebacker.
“Many times with guys who are playing in the state of Wyoming,” Bohl said, “You have to think outside the box of who they’re going to be.”
In 2021, Wilson has made three of the Cincinnati Bengals most important defensive plays of the year. He was at the middle of the Bengals goal line stop against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He ranks second in the NFL with three interceptions. Wilson has been playing like the Bengals best linebacker since the mid 2010s, and he has his own highway billboard for Bengals ticket sales.
But Wilson almost didn’t play Division I college football.
Wilson’s road to the Bengals started in the third grade when he transferred to Casper Elementary School in Natrona County, Wyoming. At the time, Wilson was a soccer player, and his family was a wrestling family.
Then Wilson met Josh, Isaac, Lance, Brian, Austin and Pete. They were the kids who played football during lunch and after school. They were teammates for most of their athletic careers.
“He was always one of the kids that got picked first,” said Josh Harshman, who played high school and college football with Wilson. “We were both always there together, and we pushed each other to get as good as we could.”
At a young age, that group of friends got a taste of high school football. Josh’s father, Steve, was the varsity football coach at Natrona County High School. Steve let them be the ball boys for games. In fifth grade, he invited that group of guys to the varsity football team’s summer weight training program every morning.
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While Wilson and his friends mostly did pushups and agility drills, the varsity starters also showed them how to lift weights.
“They were football crazy,” coach Steve Harshman said. “That’s all they did every day. It was a special group from a young age. I’ve coached high school football for 36 years, and these guys were just really committed.”
The group was so close that they all slept over at someone’s house every Friday night. Their parents saw it as a way for the kids to stay out of trouble, but for Wilson it meant biscuits and gravy in the morning when they slept over at Austin Luers’ house or eggs and pancakes when they stayed at the Harshman house.
They kept that tradition throughout high school. After playing in a football game for Natrona County, they’d roll up their cars and scatter flashlights around the backyard so they could play night basketball games (Wilson’s Toyota Tacoma was always the cleanest car). If there wasn’t ice on the ground, they played despite the cold winters in Wyoming.
Among that friend group, there were four players who became captains on their college football teams.
“It was pretty unique to have such a big group of guys locked in on one goal,” Austin Luers said. “We just stuck together.”
Wilson became a varsity starter as a sophomore at Natrona County while playing slot receiver. As an upperclassman, he played on one of the best teams in the state. Before there was a coaching change at Wyoming, Wilson’s state university had no interest in him.
“Without Craig Bohl, Logan and I are at Weber State,” Josh Harshman said.
When Bohl took the job at Wyoming, he learned that former Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen didn’t put much emphasis on recruiting in-state. When Bohl became the head coach in 2014, he immediately called local high school coaches and told them he wanted to form a relationship with them.
“If I had a nickel for every time someone said we couldn’t win with Wyoming players, I’d be a rich guy,” Bohl said. “We learned quickly that you can’t win without them.”
Wilson grew up going to Wyoming games, and then Bohl showed up to see him play in a game against Cheyenne. Bohl watched an undersized but explosive defensive back who he thought could move inside to linebacker later in his career.
Wilson was one of the first local players to commit to play for Bohl. And Bohl’s scholarship offer meant everything to him.
“We grew up with Wyoming, that’s our professional team,” Wilson said. “Wyoming kids truthfully dream of being able to rep the brown and gold. For him to come in and give kids an opportunity meant everything.”
After a redshirt season, Wilson became a starting linebacker during his redshirt freshman year. He had 94 tackles and was named the Mountain West Conference freshman of the year.
“He was obviously gifted,” Bohl said. “But I don’t think he knew what he could become.”
Another one of Bohl’s biggest priorities in his early years at Wyoming was improving the football program’s strength and conditioning and nutrition programs. Josh Harshman and Wilson both went from 185 pounds to 245 pounds. They ate five meals per day plus protein shakes and yogurt.
In Wilson’s senior year, he had 105 tackles and four interceptions to establish himself as one of the most versatile linebackers in the 2020 NFL Draft class.
“If you watch any of his film from Wyoming, the same thing is happening (now),” Bengals defensive tackle D.J. Reader said. “He makes tackles, he picks the ball off. He’s a really disciplined player. I’m really happy a lot of people can see that.”
This season, Wilson’s athleticism has made him a three-down linebacker for the Bengals. His football IQ has made him the player on the defense who has the headset to communicate with the coaching staff while he’s on the field.
Six years ago, when Bohl called Wilson into his office and told him he was going to be a linebacker, Bohl remembers that Wilson had a puzzled look on his face. Wilson told him he’d be willing to do it, but he hardly knew anything about playing the position.
And by 2021, he became a player the Bengals can’t afford to take off the field.
“Coming out of college he had 10 interceptions,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said. “If you can find a corner these days in the draft who has 10 interceptions, that’s off the charts. To get a linebacker with that many, and oh by the way, he’s tough, can run and is physical. We think the world of him.”
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