LARAMIE — Rico Gafford's Division I career was on a tight schedule from the start. As a transfer from Iowa Western Community College, the cornerback had just two years to prove himself at Wyoming. As a senior, he hears that clock ticking, and he's making the most of that motivation.

"It's just that, 'All right, this is my last opportunity to go out there and play with the guys and be able to show the world what I have in me and what I'm made of,'" Gafford said. "I just try to take every week and try to make as much of it as I can and get the interceptions that I can and make the plays that I can. Hopefully that helps during the process and helps me get to the NFL."

Gafford entered the week with four interceptions, most on the team. His average of 0.67 interceptions per game ranks second in the Mountain West and is tied for fifth nationally.

"If you ask him, he knows exactly how many interceptions he has," head coach Craig Bohl said.

That's true, but only because of Gafford's fans.

"I don't really pay much attention to it," he said. "I've got people that want to do that and my mom, she'll do it, and she'll take care of it for me, but I just focus on trying to get better and trying to help my team get wins and help the offense get the ball back."

Gafford's interception against Utah State was his second of the year that came off a deflection and in notably acrobatic fashion.

"I mean, those are hard catches to make," Bohl said.

Gafford said the catch against Utah State was tougher.

"To start off with, it was a tipped ball, obviously, and I had to juggle it a lot in order to secure it," he said. "There were concerns that if I caught it or if I didn't catch it."

Said cornerbacks coach John Richardson: "Rico is a phenomenal athlete. To be honest with you, I tell him all the time I'm unimpressed with what they do. They're good players and good athletes, far better than I ever was, so when they go out there and make plays like that, I get excited for them to make the play, but I see that stuff pretty often. So it's kind of like when you're watching a great athlete perform day in and day out and he does some stuff. You go, 'Ooh, that's nice.' They're trying to compete and things like that. Of course, the more acrobatic the catches, I guess he'll keep trying to up the ante a little bit."

Gafford had two interceptions all of last year. This season, he has had more opportunities to haul in interceptions under first-year defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton, whose scheme puts cornerbacks in less press coverage.

"Coming in, I was a guy that liked to run a lot of zone and be able to see the ball coming so I could go make the play on it," Gafford said. "So last year to this year, I think the biggest difference was being able to just get back into that groove and be able to actually be able to see the ball again instead of just being in press man all the time and guarding, because I'd say that if we weren't in the zones that we were in, half those interceptions I got probably wouldn't have happened."

Added Richardson: "This year, it was more of a growth mentally. Talent-wise, he's always been there, you know what I mean? So now it's just growing mentally, teaching him the ins and outs of different man coverages and zone coverages, things like that. So he's taken a grasp of that, and of course he was hungry.

"Of course, when you're a senior and you start taking (notches) off of how many more games you have in college, they tend to recognize that, and it's phenomenal for him. He's having a good senior year so far."

Gafford hopes that will lead to more football after college.

"That's the main reason I do this," he said. "I've given my whole life to this, so it'll hurt me not to get there, and I just work every day and I pray and do everything I can to have to get there."