MWC Recruiting Roundup 12-7-20

Another week, another recruiting roundup.

Recruiting has been picking up steam the past two weeks and figures to only heat up between now and December 16th (the first signing day).

You may have noticed, like I did, a number of recruits tweeting out preferred walk-on (PWO) offers from Mountain West schools. This stuck out to me, as most PWO offers are handed out around the February signing day. Although not confirmed, one possible theory is teams are having recruits start at walk-ons for the next season or two in order to be under the scholarship limit with players returning. Especially for players who need their early years to develop and add weight before getting on the field. This may be one creative way to still recruit players in the 2021 class and retain members of the team who would normally be moving on. Could be completely wrong, but interesting nonetheless.

This past week saw nine new verbals in to the Mountain West, with Air Force, San Diego State, and Wyoming getting two each. The Aztec commits are both highly rated and that helps them take the cover photo this week.

Class of 2021 Cover Photo Total:

• Air Force: 8
• New Mexico: 5
• Boise State: 4
• Colorado State: 4
• San Diego State: 4
• Nevada: 3
• UNLV: 3
• Wyoming: 3
• Fresno State: 2
• SJSU: 2
• Hawaii: 1

Recruiting Calendar:

The dead period is still alive. But based on what the NCAA is allowing, it seems more like a contact period to some degree, as coaches can have unlimited calls and video meetings during this time.

Update: The Dead Period has been extended through March 2021.

Air Force Commitment Tracker:

Looks like it’s time to bring this back. Since the Air Force Academy regularly has around 100 commits in each class, it’s kind of fun to track them over the course of the year.

Number of Falcon verbal commits: 54

December Team Recruiting Rankings:

Here are the previous rankings for the sake of comparison.

1) Boise State

2) San Diego State

3) UNLV

4) Fresno State

5) New Mexico

6) Colorado State

7) Nevada

8) Air Force

9) Hawaii

10) San Jose State

11) Wyoming

12) Utah State

As many know, tiers can sometimes tell more of the story than straight rankings. If someone ranked teams in a different order but within the same tier, they would have a fair argument. Here are the current tiers:

Tier 1: Boise State

Tier 2: San Diego State, UNLV

Tier 3: Fresno State, New Mexico, Colorado State

Tier 4: Nevada

Tier 5: Air Force, Hawaii, SJSU

Tier 6: Wyoming, Utah State

Recruiting Updates:

Offers

• LS Ryan Wintermeyer was offered by Air Force
• DL Ahmed Hassanein was offered by Boise State
• DB Jalen Williams was offered by Boise State
• WR Deamikkio Nathan was offered by UNLV
• 2022 OL Vega Ioane was offered by UNLV
• 2023 Teitum Tuioti was offered by Utah State

Commits

• DL Gio Albanese committed to Air Force
• DB Aidan Plate committed to Air Force
• DB Jalen Williams committed to Fresno State
• OL Zavier Leonard committed to New Mexico
• OL Ross Masseuli committed to SDSU
• TE Gus McGee committed to SDSU
• LB Kylan Wilborn committed to UNLV
• WR Deamikkio Nathan committed to UNLV
• DB Wrook Brown committed to Wyoming
• TE John Michael Gyllenborg committed to Wyoming

Follow @Mike_SBN on Twitter for all the latest recruiting news and updates.