MWC Recruiting Roundup 9-14-20

Another week, another recruiting roundup.

One thing you may have noticed on Twitter this weekend was recruits tweeting about official offers. August 1st is the first day schools can give written or official offers. If you follow the recruiting of your favorite team closely, you may notice some verbal offers from the spring aren’t always backed up by official written offers. It’s a good time of year to see who are the high school athletes a team is actually recruiting strongly.

Another thing you may notice is a clear emphasis on the class of 2022 or beyond. In fact, only one offer this week was handed out to a recruit in the 2021 class. One of the reasons for this is that quite a few teams have secured most of their spots in their 2021 classes, so they can focus more attention on future classes. Another potential reason is with seniors being allowed to return for an extra year of eligibility, some teams may be taking smaller recruiting classes to balance their roster out. It is something to look for when following this recruiting cycle.

This past week saw two new verbals in to the Mountain West. Boise State had both of them (although one has yet to reveal himself publicly), and thus they stay on the photo for the third week in a row.

Class of 2021 Cover Photo Total:

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

September 1st marked the day that coaches can have direct contact with high school juniors, or the recruiting class of 2022. If you were on twitter at all, you saw the graphics and tweets and buzz going around about that.

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: 35

A Glance At Air Force Recruiting:

Throughout the fall, we will be looking at each team’s current landscape of their recruiting class. The idea is to provide a quick snap shot of where each team is at in that moment in time. Team’s will be looked at in alphabetical order. First up is Air Force.

Believe it or not, at 35 verbal commitments, the Falcons are actually behind last year’s pace. They are currently 8th in the 247 composite rankings, but have the lowest average star rankings. This isn’t a surprise as the AFA puts a priority on recruits that fit their system rather than star rankings. A few Air Force fans and our own writer NittanyFalcon have stated they rarely even pay attention to Falcon recruiting due to academic standards and many members of each class going to the prep school initially.

That’s not to say the current batch of verbal pledges are not without talent. They have four three-star commits. One of them, Dru Polidore is a DB, and the best Air Force teams are ones with strong secondaries. Plus, he has a slew of Ivy League offers, so he should be on the fast track to the field. Another is a solid OL recruit, Dillon Gilbert. He possesses good size and Air Force has a great track record with developing offensive linemen.

The other important areas to look at when it comes to Air Force are quarterback and running back, the positions that make their offense go. TJ Urban looks like a dual-threat quarterback with a fair amount of potential who should fit right into their system. Likewise, tailbacks JJ Jelsing and Joseph Stellmach are flying under the radar in the recruiting rankings but don’t count out hearing their names in a few years down the road.

On the side of improvement, the Falcons could stand to use a few more higher rated recruits at offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, and defensive back to solidify some key positions in this class. Air Force recruiting classes are the most difficult to evaluate every year, but that is what sticks out as current strengths and weaknesses.

Recruiting Updates:

Offers

• 2022 TE Colston Loveland was offered by Boise State
• OL Travis Gray was offered by Colorado State
• ATH Aedan Tupu Siuli was offered by Nevada
• 2022 OL/DL Curtis Hill was offered by Nevada
• 2022 OL/DL Hunter Hill was offered by Nevada
• 2022 OL/DL Judah Jackson was offered by Nevada
• 2022 SE Takari Hickle was offered by Nevada
• 2022 DE Kyler Jordan was offered by Nevada
• 2022 WR/DB Lebron Jackson offered by Nevada
• 2023 QB McCae Hillstead was offered by Nevada
• 2022 WR/DB Hassan Mahasin was offered by New Mexico
• 2022 WR/RB Tristan White was offered by New Mexico
• 2022 WR De’Andra Coleman was offered by New Mexico
• 2022 QB Noah Fifita was offered by New Mexico
• 2022 WR Stephon Johnson was offered by New Mexico
• 2022 WR Arlis Boardingham was offered by New Mexico
• 2022 OL Maika Matelau was offered by New Mexico
• 2024 DB Kennedy Urlacher was offered by New Mexico
• 2023 RB/LB Tre Edwards was offered by SDSU
• 2022 RB/DB Sheldon Canley Jr. was offered by SJSU
• 2022 DL Segree Graham was offered by UNLV
• 2022 OL/DL Sir Mells was offered by UNLV
• 2022 OL/DL Damonic Williams was offered by UNLV
• 2022 DB Sione Hala was offered by UNLV
• 2022 LB Marshon Oxley was offered by UNLV

Commits

• An unknown player committed to Boise State
• OL Joseph Amos committed to Boise State
• WR Eric McAlister committed to Boise State

Decommits

• DL Roderick Brown decommitted from Air Force

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