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The All-Star college football season is here and it is a time for non-superstar prospects to improve their draft stock. The games themselves are not the biggest indicator, but it is the practices leading up to the game which are coached by NFL personnel that have the biggest impact.
The first game up is the East-West Shrine game which features eight Mountain West prospects:
Anthony LaCoste, RB, Air Force
Chandler Jones, WR, San Jose State
Charles Leno, OT, Boise State
Austin Wentworth, G, Fresno State
Dillon Farrell, C, New Mexico
Shaquil Barrett, LB, Colorado State
Bene Benwikere, CB, San Jose State
Crockett Gilmore, TE, Colorado State
The biggest name with buzz is Colorado State's Barrett, and is getting buzz as one of the key players to watch:
The Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year finished his senior season with 20.5 tackles for loss and 12 sacks. Colorado State lined him up as an end and split him off as a linebacker. At 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, teams will be monitoring his athleticism and movement to see if he's truly a linebacker going forward. If Barrett can show good movement skills, he can be a big riser this week.
The other players representing the Mountain West all had good seasons and have a chance to make a name for themselves since they all had good seasons.
It is nice to see LaCoste out of Air Force is participating since he does have to fulfill his Air Force fulfillment after graduating before he can pursue a NFL career. That is unless he can get a waiver and do other Air Force related work in the off-season.
The first day of practice is in the books and the only Mountain West player to get some attention is San Jose State's Jones.
CBSSports.com's Dane Brugler feels that he could become the top wide receiver since Notre Dame's T.J. Jones is out with an injury; "Jones has explosive feet to run crisp routes and caught everything with his hands on Monday."
