MWC Recruiting Roundup 2-27-23. The 2023 Sleeper Recruit Team.

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 week will look at this year’s sleeper team. The sleeper team is made up of recruits who are rated lower (or not at all) on recruiting ranking sites but are either personal favorites or good bets to exceed their recruiting ratings coming out of high school.

The Falcons and Spartans tied for the most players on the sleeper team, so they share the cover photo this week. Check it out below.

Class of 2023 Cover Photo Total:

• Air Force: 8
• Boise State: 7
• Colorado State: 6
• Nevada: 6
• San Diego State: 5
• UNLV: 5
• Hawaii: 4
• San Jose State: 4
• 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

All-MWC Sleeper Team in the 2023 Class.

This team is easily the most subjective of all the teams we do here. This team was compiled of high school players with lower ratings on 247 who may not have been seen as the headliners in this class, but they showed up on their highlight film while we were analyzing them. It goes without saying that there are many other “sleepers” across the conference, but these are the ones we are keeping an eye on anyway.

Quarterbacks

Devon Dampier (New Mexico)

Running Backs

Luke Gall (Air Force)

Kenny Parks (Wyoming)

Wide Receivers

Evan Wysong (New Mexico)

Keynan Higgins (San Jose State)

FLEX

Marshaun Brown (Nevada)

Tight Ends

Kamaehu Kaawalauole (San Jose State)

Offensive Line

Josiah Timoteo (Nevada)

Skye Richardson (Air Force)

Austin Boyd (UNLV)

Evan Keefe (Air Force)

Brandt Rice (Wyoming)

Defensive Line

Max Stege (Boise State)

Brady Phillips (Air Force)

EDGE

Whitefield Powell (Colorado State)

Alexander Cobbs (San Jose State)

Linebackers

Blake Fletcher (Air Force)

Junior Fiaui (Hawaii)

Dylan Lee (San Jose State)

FLEX

Skylar Cook (New Mexico)

Defensive Backs

Hunter Nowell (San Jose State)

Nas Hill (Wyoming)

Elijah Palmer (Hawaii)

Kadiyon Sweat (Utah State)

Kicker

N/A

Punter

N/A

Long Snapper

N/A

Team Totals:

Air Force: 5

San Jose State: 5

New Mexico: 3

Wyoming: 3

Hawaii: 2

Nevada: 2

Boise State: 1

Colorado State: 1

UNLV: 1

Utah State: 1

Fresno State: 0

San Diego State: 0

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:

• RB Markhi Mckinnon was offered by Air Force
• LB Jonathan Kamara was offered by Air Force
• LB Charles Correa was offered by Air Force
• LB Luke Ferrelli was offered by Air Force and SJSU
• ATH Anthony Hymes was offered by Colorado State
• DB Kenny Worthy III was offered by Colorado State
• WR/DB Charlie Eckhardt was offered by Colorado State
• WR/DB Mahki Gray was offered by Colorado State
• OL Braden Hales was offered by Colorado State
• WR/DB Marquawn McCraney was offered by Colorado State
• WR/DB Jackson Daniels was offered by Colorado State
• WR/DB Chance Harrison was offered by Colorado State and SJSU
• WR/DB Mason Dossett was offered by Colorado State, Nevada, and Utah State
• WR Logan Saldate was offered by Fresno State and Nevada
• WR/DB Jordan Malau’ulu was offered by Fresno State
• OL Xander Ruggeroli was offered by Hawaii
• 2025 OL/DL Stewart Taufa was offered by Hawaii
• 2025 OL Alai Kalaniuvalu was offered by Hawaii
• 2026 RB/LB Ta’ulelei Mareko was offered by Hawaii
• QB Phoenix Rose was offered by Nevada
• WR/RB Anthony Hymes was offered by Nevada
• LB Jaylon Edmond was offered by Nevada
• Edge LeVar Talley was offered by Nevada
• 2025 TE Luka Gilbert was offered by Nevada
• WR/DB Landon Wright was offered by San Diego State
• OL Wade Helton was offered by SJSU
• OL Brent Helton was offered by SJSU
• DB Amaurey Brooks was offered by SJSU
• QB/DB Rahim Wright was offered by SJSU
• WR/DB Courtney Crutchfield 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.