Recruiting Roundup: 8-7

August 1st was a major day for many reasons. Three reasons to be exact.

First is the entire month of August is considered a dead period in recruiting. The dead period basically means coaches are not allowed to have any face-to-face contact with recruits, nor can they watch games or practices of a recruit in person. Throughout June and July, players could attend a school’s camps or be on a school’s campus for an unofficial visit. None of those things are permissible during August. However, coaches can still contact a recruit via a phone call, text message, or DMs on Twitter, as well as send letters. This information was provided from the NCAA website. Our mother page also has a breakdown of the recruiting calendar here.

During these dead periods, recruiting news tends to slow down a bit. Players can still be offered and can still choose to commit to a school, but it doesn’t happen as frequently. For one, the limited communication doesn’t really lead to commitments taking place. More practically, college coaches are turning much of their attention to their own program to prepare for the season. On the other hand however, some players do prefer to commit before their senior seasons start, so a few may pop up over the next few weeks.

Second, August 1st is the first day official offers can be extended to players about to enter their senior year of high school. Before that, all offers are merely by word of mouth. It is important to keep in mind that even official offers can be non-binding in a few ways. As an example, take a look at Boise State commit Brandon Hawkins’ tweet of his official offer below and you will see a list of expectations for the offer such as: the offer is valid until the position is filled, the recruit must remain in good academic standing, or the recruit must remain in good standing with the community. The official offers from other schools usually contain similar language or points.

(Note: Brandon’s offer is merely being used as an example and Mountain West Connection is not making a statement about Brandon as a player or the status of his offer or commitment).

All of that aside, the point is official offers are a clue as to which recruits a school is focusing heavily on, at least as of August. If a player announced an offer from a school in March but didn’t announce an official offer came in the mail in August, that either means 1) The player isn’t interested in the school or 2) the school is no longer interested in the player.

On a positive note, the third thing the first week of August means is fall camps are underway in the Mountain West, bringing fresh news and coverage for your team of choice on a daily basis on social media. If you haven’t already, make sure you check out the Hawaii preview written by Jeremy here. Also, be on the lookout for some other team previews popping up over the rest of August.

Recruiting Tidbits:

Offers:

• DE Tava Finau was offered by Utah State
• RB Jermar Jefferson was offered by Utah State
• QB Jalen Chatman was offered by Utah State
• OL Ralph Frias was offered by San Diego State
• OL Jason Bamfrod was offered by San Diego State
• OL/DL Justin Segura was offered by New Mexico
• OL Noel Ofori-Nyadu was offered by New Mexico
• RB Zidane Thomas was offered by New Mexico
• OL Cade Beresford was offered by Fresno State
• DB Tyric LeBeauf was offered by Wyoming
• WR Tre Adams was offered by Boise State
• Side note: New Mexico seemed to hand out many offers this week, but it was hard to distinguish which were first time offers and which were official offers already given verbally.

Commits:

• OL Tyler Ostrom committed to San Jose State
• RB Zidane Thomas announced his commitment to Boise State
• RB Andrew Van Buren committed to Boise State
• WR Bryce Parker committed to Fresno State
• QB Jeremy Moussa committed to Hawaii
• OL Bryan Catchings committed to UNLV
• DB/WR Michael Washington lists a top 5 of Boise State, BYU, Hawaii, Tulane, and UNLV

Did we miss any offers or commitments? Anything else you want to see from our coverage in the future? Please let us know by leaving a comment below.