Derek Sage
	Position: Assistant Coach - Wide Receivers Experience: Fourth season at UW Alma Mater: Cal State Northridge `02

Email: dsage2@uwyo.edu

Derek Sage will be coaching the Wyoming receiving corps for his third season in 2012. He joined the Wyoming Football staff on Jan. 14, 2010. The 2011 season will mark Sage's 11th as a college coach.

Last season, Sage mentored junior wide receiver Chris McNeill to Second Team All-Mountain West Conference honors. McNeill led Wyoming with 504 receiving yards in 2011, despite missing the final four games of the season due to injury. McNeill's 42 receptions ranked third on the team, and he will team with sophomore Dominic Rufran and junior Robert Herron again in 2012. Rufran led UW in receptions as a true freshman last season, with 44, and Herron was second with 43 catches.

Wyoming's appearance in the 2011 Gildan New Mexico Bowl marked Sage's first time coaching in a bowl game and sixth time in 10 seasons as a college coach that he was part of a team that reached the postseason.

In 2010, Sage coached former Cowboy wide receiver David Leonard, who concluded his career ranked No. 8 in career receptions at UW with 153. Leonard ranked No. 4 in the Mountain West in receptions in 2010, averaging 3.9 catches per game.

The five seasons prior to coming to Wyoming, Sage helped coach an outstanding University of New Hampshire football program. The UNH Wildcats ended the 2009 season ranked No. 7 in all three Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national polls -- the Sports Network Poll, the FCS Coaches' Poll and "The Any Given Saturday Poll." UNH posted a 10-3 record in `09, and captured the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) North Division for the second consecutive year. The Wildcats advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2009 FCS Playoffs before losing to eventual National Champion Villanova, 46-7. Earlier in the season, New Hampshire had defeated Villanova, 28-24, handing the eventual national champion its only loss of the season. UNH earned bids to the FCS playoffs each of Sage's five seasons at the Durham, N.H., school, advancing to the quarterfinals in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009 and making it to the first round of the playoffs in 2007.

During his coaching career, Sage has worked with some outstanding coaches. From 2003-04, he coached under head coach Chris Ault at Nevada. Ault was inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame in 2002. From 2005-09, Sage served as an assistant under head coach Sean McDonnell at New Hampshire. During two of those seasons (2005-06), he worked with current Oregon head coach Chip Kelly, who was then the offensive coordinator at New Hampshire before becoming the offensive coordinator at Oregon and eventually taking over as head coach of the Ducks.

In 2009, Sage completed his fifth season as coach of the New Hampshire wide receivers. While at New Hampshire, Sage coached some of the great receivers in UNH history, including, All-America wide receiver David Ball. Ball set New Hampshire receiving records for career receptions (304) and career receiving yards (4,655). He also became the NCAA career leader in TD receptions, with 58 in his career, breaking Jerry Rice's previous record of 51 at Mississippi Valley State.

Sage coached 2007 First Team CAA selection Keith LeVan, who ranks second on UNH's career reception list, with 201, and led the CAA in touchdown receptions in `07. Sage also mentored 2008 First Team CAA selection Mike Boyle, who led the CAA in touchdown receptions in `08 and finished his career with a 16.0 yard-per-catch average.

Sage came to UNH from the University of Nevada, where he assisted coaching the defensive backfield as a graduate assistant in 2003 and helped coach the wide receivers as a graduate assistant in 2004. Former Nevada receiver Nicheron Flowers ranked sixth in the nation in receiving with 91 catches for 1,136 yards and six touchdowns in 2004.

A native of Nevada, himself, Sage played tight end for Sacramento City College for two years (1998-99), helping win conference and bowl championships at the junior college level. He completed his college career at Cal State Northridge, where he was a two-year letterman at tight end in 2000 and `01.

Sage earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Northridge in 2002. While completing his undergraduate degree, he also helped coach at Moorpark Community College (Calif.), working with the offensive line and tight ends. Moorpark won a conference title and a bowl championship that season.

He was married to the former Mandy Jeskey on July 17, 2010. Their first child, daughter Piper, was born March 30, 2011. Sage will recruit Southern California, Nevada, Central and West Texas for the Cowboys.