MWC Recruiting Roundup 9-21-20

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 two offers 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 three new verbals in to the Mountain West. Boise State had one of them (plus one of their silent commitments went public), and Wyoming and New Mexico had the other. However, the Bronco commit was more highly ranked and thus they stay on the photo for now the fourth 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.

Update: The Dead Period has been extending through the end of the 2020.

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 Boise State Recruiting:

If this had been written a few weeks ago, it basically would have said Boise State has a lot of work in this class if they want catch up to some of their conference peers. A lot has changed during that time.

Boise State is the hottest team in the conference in regards to recruiting this month. They have 14 verbal commits, but only 12 are known at the time of this writing. 247 ranks the known verbal pledges 5th in the conference, with the highest average star rating. The smaller quantity is reflected in the rankings and the high quality is reflected in the star rating.

The Broncos boost some of the best recruits in the conference so far. They are particularly strong at linebacker, offensive line, and wide receiver. Jai Jones, Rejhan Tatum and Marco Notarainni are easily the best LB unit in the class, full of talent. Joseph Amos and Mason Rudolph project to be plus players at LT and LG respectively. Eric McAlister and Kaden Dudley will bring size and speed to the receive room. James Wilborn has a ton of upside as a pass-rusher. Per usual, the majority of players in this class have offers from Power 5 schools to their name.

Most of the work left to be done for Boise State will be on the defensive side of the ball. They invested a lot in the secondary in the previous class, but could use a few this year nonetheless. Expect a focus on each position of the defensive line going forward, with no known commits at this point and more JUCO players at those positions last year. Overall, expect the Broncos to finish as as the first or second team in the conference recruiting rankings, as they are accustomed to doing.

Recruiting Updates:

Offers

• 2022 OL Peter Falaniko was offered by Fresno State
• 2022 ATH Christopher Smalley was offered by Fresno State
• 2022 QB Noah Fifta was offered by Fresno State
• 2022 QB Travis Throckmorton was offered by Nevada
• 2022 DE/TE Nunie Tuitele was offered by Nevada
• 2022 OL Laakea Kapoi was offered by Nevada
• 2022 TE Kyirin Heath was offered by New Mexico
• DE/TE Nowlin Kamai Ewaliko was offered by SDSU
• 2022 WR/RB Jadyn Marshall was offered by UNLV
• 2022 LB Benjamin Hudson was offered by UNLV
• 2023 DB Justyn Rhett was offered by UNLV
• 2023 Kodi De Cambra was offered by UNLV
• 2023 Tausili Akana was offered by Utah State
• ATH Chase Mason was offered by Wyoming

Commits

• OL Mason Randolph committed to Boise State
• DE James Wilborn announced his commitment to Boise State
• QB CJ Montes committed to New Mexico
• LB Tommy McEvoy committed to Wyoming

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