The MWC 2020 All-Recruit Teams

Now that all the signings are official and the classes are finalized, it’s time for a countless amount of hype and articles about your favorite team’s recruiting classes. It’s a fun time of year because teams have secured so much talent and coaches, players, and fans dream of each one of them reaching their potential.

It is our aim here at MWCConnection to discuss specifically how much talent and potential is entering the conference in this recruiting class. This will be done through a few different posts, some of which will be team specific, and others will be looking more from the standpoint as the conference as a whole. Today we release the MWCConnection MWC All-Recruit Teams

How did we come up with this list, you ask? Good question!

Jeremy, Zach, and myself (Mike) put our heads together and spent a few hours discussing to arrive at the three teams we listed below. It’s important to remember there is no perfect formula for recruiting, but we considered a few different things. Of course, we leaned on the major recruiting sites, 247 and Rivals, and the rankings they provided. This helped to narrow our focus substantially. Then, we considered offer lists, watched quite a bit of film, and stated our cases for players. Other factors, such as position or level of competition also used to an extent, mainly coming into play in “tie-breaker” scenarios. What you see below is the result of that process.

It is important to keep in mind this isn’t a prediction on who will make the most significant impact or be the best players in four years. Instead, it is a statement of who are the best recruits entering the Mountain West as freshmen. Recruiting rankings should never be mistaken as an exact science, as each year, some highly-rated players don’t live up to their rating, and players entirely off the radar end up making a bit impact. However, the rankings end up getting it right more often than not.

As mentioned above, we released three teams. A first team, second team, and JUCO/Grad Transfer team. The first two teams are high school players only, where the third one gives college players their time to shine. A few other quick notes: We went with two WRs and a FLEX spot on offense. On defense, we went with four defensive lineman, and four defensive backs rather than divide them into ends, tackles, corners and safeties. This was done to promote the four best players at each unit.

1st team

QB Doug Brumfield (UNLV)

RB John Gentry (Utah State)

WR LaTrell Caples (Boise State)

WR Quin Bright (Hawaii)

TE Austin Bolt (Boise State)

Flex Nathaniel Jones (New Mexico)

OL Brandon Hernandez (Boise State)

OL Joey Wright (San Diego State)

OL Grant Starck (Nevada)

OL Tai Marks (Colorado State)

OL Wesley Ndago (Air Force)

DL Herbert Gums (Boise State)

DL LeShaun Bell (UNLV)

DL Blake Burris (Air Force)

DL Alven Johnson (UNLV)

LB Brennon Scott (UNLV)

LB Kobah Fuamatu (San Diego State)

LB Vai Kaho (San Diego State)

DB Semaj Verner (Boise State)

DB Donovan Clark (Boise State)

DB Lincoln Tuioti-Mariner (Air Force)

DB Jalen Apalit-Williams (San Jose State)

K Fabrizio Pinton (Air Force)

P Stephen Kotsanlee (Utah State)

LS Nick Barcelos (Nevada)

2nd team

QB Logan Fife (Fresno State)

RB Eleyon Noa (Utah State)

WR Isaac Jernagin (Nevada)

WR Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala (Hawaii)

TE Alex Lines (UNLV)

Flex Jaylon Armstead (San Diego State)

OL Leke Asenuga (New Mexico)

OL Keydrell Lewis (San Jose State)

OL Joseph Church (Fresno State)

OL Aidan Finney (San Diego State)

OL Kyle Juergens (Boise State)

DL James Mitchell (Colorado State)

DL Jalen Dixon (UNLV)

DL Casey Irons (Colorado State)

DL Poukesi Vakauta (Utah State)

LB Darrell Masaniai (San Diego State)

LB Dahlin Mesake (Utah State)

LB Aaron Moore (Colorado State)

DB Mikale Greer (San Jose State)

DB Rodney Robinson (Boise State)

DB Luke Marion (Utah State)

DB Xavier Carter (Wyoming)

K Joey Rouly (Utah State)

P Matthew Shipley (Hawaii)

LS Jacob Garcia (Utah State)

JUCO/Transfer Team

QB Justin Rogers (UNLV)

RB N/A

WR Justin McGriff (Utah State)

WR John Humphrey (Nevada)

TE Collin O’Brien (Wyoming)

Flex Calvin Turner (Hawaii)

OL Riden Leong (Boise State)

OL Ben Davis (New Mexico)

OL Lamar Barrett (San Jose State)

OL Sebastian Hernandez (San Diego State)

OL Isaak Gutierrez (New Mexico)

DL Marcus Moore (Utah State)

DL Divine Obichere (Boise State)

DL Jay Kakiva (San Jose State)

DL Kemon Smith (Hawaii)

LB Brock Miller (Boise State)

LB Isaiah Tufaga (Hawaii)

LB Keegan Duncan (Utah State)

DB Kenyon Reed (San Jose State)

DB Logan Taylor (Hawaii)

DB Zeke Robbins (Nevada)

DB Jonathan Earl (Boise State)

K JUCO K Tanner Brown (UNLV) (walk-on)

P N/A

LS N/A

Team Totals: (HS players listed only, first team in parentheses)

Boise State 8 (6)

Utah State 8 (2)

UNLV 6 (4)

San Diego State 6 (3)

San Jose State 3 (1)

Colorado State 4 (1)

Air Force 4 (4)

Nevada 3 (2)

Hawaii 3 (1)

New Mexico 2 (1)

Fresno State 2 (0)

Wyoming 1 (0)

JC/GT Totals:

Boise State: 4

Hawaii: 4

Utah State: 3

San Jose State: 3

Nevada: 2

UNLV: 2

New Mexico: 2

Wyoming: 1

San Diego State: 1

Notes:

• The offensive line was by far the toughest position to narrow down. As many as sixteen players were considered for the ten high school spots.
• Defensive Line and Defensive back also had many deserving players, some of which were not able to make the cut.
• Interestingly enough, the three special team positions were less straight forward compared to previous years.
• On the flip side, quarterback, running back, and tight end were some of the easier decisions or had smaller pools of players to chose from.
• With the JUCO/transfer team, quarterback, wide receiver, defensive line, and linebacker were the most talented positions. Running back, the special teams spots, and the offensive line had the smallest pools of players in this recruiting cycle.

Yesterday: Our top 10 MWC Recruit List

Coming Monday: In the MWC Recruiting Roundup, we release our final class of 2019 Team Rankings.

Your turn: Who do you agree with? Who got snubbed? Talk about it in the comments section.

Follow @Mike_SBN for all MWC recruiting news and updates. Jeremy Rodrigues and Zach Ballard also contributed extensively to this article.