MWC Recruiting Roundup 2-13-23. The Mountain West Transfer/JUCO Recruiting Team and Rankings

It’s another week of the MWC Recruiting Roundup.

The class of 2023 is signed, sealed, and delivered, but our coverage on the class is just getting started. New offers for the class of 2024 and beyond will trickle in this month, and Hawaii even picked up the first Mountain West commit of the new cycle, but February will mostly focus on breaking down the 2023 class.

This will look at the Transfer Rankings along with our Transfer and JUCO Team. Next week, we will discuss which teams recruited the best position units, and the following week will unveil our sleeper recruit team. However, today’s edition features the 2023 Transfer Team Recruiting Rankings, as well as the Transfer/JUCO team. Check it out below.

The Aztecs topped the list for our transfer rankings, so they earn the cover photo this week.

Class of 2023 Cover Photo Total:

• Air Force: 7
• Boise State: 6
• Colorado State: 6
• Nevada: 6
• San Diego State: 5
• UNLV: 5
• Hawaii: 4
• San Jose State: 3
• Fresno State: 2
• New Mexico: 2
• Wyoming: 2
• Utah State: 1

Recruiting Calendar:

For the month of February, we are in a dead period. This signifies the transition from one recruiting cycle to the next.

Next College Student Athlete says:

The most restrictive of all the recruiting periods is the NCAA Dead Period. During the dead period, coaches may not have any in-person contact with recruits and/or their parents. In other words, coaches are not allowed to talk to recruits at their college campus, the athlete’s school, an athletic camp or even the grocery store.

While the term “dead period” makes it seem like all recruiting stops during this time, that’s actually not the case. Athletes and coaches are still allowed to communicate via phone, email, social media and other digital communication channels. While NCAA Division 1 programs are prohibited from conducting any in-person recruiting, D1 college coaches can still contact student-athletes via digital forms of communication during the dead period.

Air Force Commitment Tracker:

Since the Air Force Academy regularly has by far the most commits among Mountain West recruiting classes, it’s kind of fun to track them over the course of the year.

Number of Falcon verbal commits: 71

JUCO/Transfer Team

The Junior College/Transfer team has developed over the years from where it first began. When this was started, it was basically full of junior college players, and many years we couldn’t even fill out a full team. Now, with the transfer portal, it is difficult to choose between many deserving players.

There is some debate over how transfer players should be chosen; high school rankings vs. college production. At one point, two different teams were considered, one based on production and one based on ratings. In the end, I prioritized players with on-the-field production (theoretically, the experienced talent entering the conference), whether that was at the D1 or JUCO level. If any position lacked experience, then highly rated transfers (theoretically, the pure talent entering the conference) were used to fill the gaps, using 247 transfer rankings. So if you’re team had a Power 5 transfer who didn’t make the list, it’s probably because they didn’t play much.

QB Dylan Hopkins (New Mexico)

RB Harrison Waylee (Wyoming)

RB Damien Moore (Fresno State)

WR Tim Grear (Fresno State)

WR Densa Washington (New Mexico)

TE Keleki Latu (Nevada)

FLEX Micah Davis (Utah State)

OL Jake Hellmann (Utah State)

OL Jack Hasz (UNLV)

OL Devon Smith (New Mexico)

OL John Bolles (Nevada)

OL Drew Moss (Colorado State)

DL Samuela Tuihalamaka (San Diego State)

DL Matt Thomas (Colorado State)

EDGE Ezra Christensen (Fresno State)

EDGE Talib Salahuddin (San Diego State)

LB Cody Moon (San Diego State)

LB Mihalis Santorineos (New Mexico)

LB Tuasivi Nomura (Fresno State)

FLEX Milo Lopez (Boise State)

DB DJ Harvey (San Jose State)

DB Cam Stone (Hawaii)

DB Jaxen Turner (UNLV)

DB Tre Weed (Nevada)

K Kyler Halvorsen (San Jose State)

P Gabriel Plascencia (San Diego State)

LS Brandan Durkin (New Mexico)

Team Totals:

New Mexico: 5

Fresno State: 4

San Diego State: 4

Nevada: 3

Colorado State: 2

San Jose State: 2

UNLV: 2

Utah State: 2

Boise State: 1

Hawaii: 1

Wyoming: 1

Transfer Rankings

This is still a bit of a new exercise. Basically, I looked at 247 transfer rankings to look at the level of pure talent and then looked at previous college production on the field and then blended the two into the rankings below. It’s fair to say this is still a work in progress.

Transfer Rankings

(number of total transfers in parentheses)

1) San Diego State (4)

2) Fresno State (4)

3) Nevada (10)

4) New Mexico (11)

5) UNLV (7)

6) San Jose State (6)

7) Colorado State (10)

8) Hawaii (7)

9) Utah State (3)

10) Boise State (5)

11) Wyoming (3)

12) Air Force (0, but really N/A since they don’t get transfers)

Notes:

• With the JUCO/transfer team, quarterback, linebacker, and defensive back were the most talented positions leading to the most difficult decisions.
• On the other side of things, running back, tight end, offensive line, edge and defensive line were the thinnest spots.
• The Rams and Bulldogs topped our list, mainly due to landing more players with game experience. However, a number of teams (Utah State for example), have former top recruits who have yet to see the field but have the potential to make a big impact going forward.

Recruiting Updates:

Note: The updates only reflect recruits in the 2024 class and beyond. Any player without a year in front of them will be a 2024 recruit.

Offers:

• WR/DB Landon Wright was offered by Colorado State
• OL Ikinasio Tupou was offered by Colorado State
• TE/DE Keegan Shank was offered by Nevada
• ATH Jaylen’Dai Sumlin was offered by Nevada
• Edge Tristan Waiamau-Galindo was offered by Nevada
• Edge Kekai Burnett was offered by Nevada and SDSU
• WR/DB Dillon Gresham was offered by Nevada and SJSU
• RB/LB James Tivao was offered by SDSU
• Edge Eduwa Okundaye was offered by SDSU
• DL Jesus Venegas was offered by SDSU
• RB Stacy Bey was offered by SDSU
• Edge Mardale Rowe was offered by SDSU
• WR/DB Dayton Aupiu was offered by SDSU
• RB/DB Charles Williams Jr was offered by SDSU
• DB Joshua Lair was offered by SDSU
• WR Terrell Cooks Jr. was offered by SDSU
• ATH Danny Niu was offered by SDSU
• 2026 DB Tay Lockett was offered by SDSU
• RB/DB Sire Gaines was offered by SJSU
• WR Anthony Hymes was offered by SJSU
• OL Jake Cook was offered by UNLV
• OL Mitch Hodnett was offered by UNLV
• OL Hank Purvis was offered by UNLV
• WR Jacob Emmers was offered by UNLV
• 2025 ATH Jakob Coleman was offered by UNLV
• 2025 RB/DB Devaughn Eka was offered by UNLV

Visits:

Commits:

Decommits

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

For recruits and coaches who want to connect and find a good match in the recruitment process, consider downloading the Athletes In Recruitment app.