Mountain West Recruiting Roundup 8-28-23. Recruiting observations for every team.

It’s another week of the Mountain West Recruiting Roundup.

Now that the season is here, expect recruiting to heat up each week. However, this week is likely the low point of the recruiting season, at both coaches and recruits are focused on the start of the season. This was clear from the updates in the Mountain West this week. There were just three known offers, two from Boise State and one 2025 player from Wyoming. There was only one known commitment, which likely won’t happen again. It’s hard to say any team really had a good recruiting week, mainly because it is clear coaches are not focused on recruiting. But looking at numbers, one is bigger than none last I checked, so Air Force captures the cover photo this week.

Class of 2024 Cover Photo Total:

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

Recruiting Calendar:

From now until September (with a brief reprieve this week where we go back into a quiet period), we are in a dead period. During July, coaches often go on a vacation or do other things to get ready for the season. Then of course, August brings fall camp.

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: 94

Visit Recap:

Commitment Spotlight:

Recruiting Impressions:

We are over the halfway point in the recruiting cycle, but as we start the season, this is as good of a time as any to share some snapshot impressions of each class so far. Obviously, there are more details about each class than what I will provide below and it’s important to remember each class is incomplete and will likely change before the two signing days.

Air Force: The Falcons routinely get tons of players in each signing class. However, at 93 players already, they are well ahead of their pace from the previous few years. Is this a concentrated effort by the coaching staff to bring in more players and secure their commitment early or are players just announcing it more on social media?

Boise State: On paper, their class looks a little bit all or nothing. Coach Avalos and his staff have often secured under-the-radar types of players and it will be interesting to see how it works out. They also seem to be expanding their recruiting footprint in some new states, and are taking advantage of a strong local cycle with getting two of the top recruits in Idaho.

Colorado State: Once again, Coach Norvell has secured the bulk of his recruiting class (the high school side of it anyway) before the start of the season. He did this at Nevada and has continued it with the Rams and no one in the conference is as good at it as CSU. The coaching staff is great at getting highly-rated skill players from California and that is showing up in this class.

Fresno State: It was worth watching how Jeff Tedford would recruit in his second go-around in the program. Thus far, the results are promising. It’s all in-state players as usual, but there are quite a few players who have some serious talent. It will be interesting to see how this class progresses during their senior seasons.

Hawaii: One thing that is more noticeable in this cycle for Hawaii is their ability to recruit locally, which is essential for the program. They are landing more quality players too so far, so their efforts are paying off in the early going.

Nevada: Coach Wilson is doing what he can to recruit locally and it seems to be working in the early going for them in the 2024 class. Even though Coach Norvell isn’t with them anymore, they are also still concentrating on hosting official visitors in June and trying to land players early on in the year. It’s worth keeping an eye on how many high school players they take and how many in this class ending up coming from the transfer portal.

New Mexico: The only Mountain West team without a verbal commit at this point. Coach Gonzales mentioned he wanted to give more time off for his staff rather than utilize summer visit weekends. Props to him for recognizing coaches need time off, but the lack of commits is glaring. It also points to the Lobos getting the bulk of their recruiting class from the transfer portal and junior college level again.

San Diego State: The Aztecs started the cycle on a great pace and in the spring they were definitely getting a boost from the PAC rumors. However, since that has fallen apart, the recruiting has slowed down. Maybe it’s a coincidence or maybe it’s just normal for this time of year. They still remain around the top of the conference in recruiting at this point in the year.

San Jose State: They continue to recruit very well in the Bay area. As usual, expect a few players who are P5 level talents that will form the core of their class. The Spartan’s staff is really focusing on the OL over the summer and were able to get in on players prior to their senior season, which is always important in the life of a mid-major school.

UNLV: They are doing a tremendous job early in the Odom era (although so did Arroyo), recruiting highly touted players and putting a lot of time and energy into recruiting locally. It is clear they have a plan and are executing it as well as possible.

Utah State: Coach Anderson and the Aggies have a small class so far, but it seems like he is very skilled at recruiting quarterbacks. He has relied heavily on transfers during his tenure at Utah State and it would make sense a good chunk of this class comes from the portal as well. It will be interesting to see how many players they are able to add during the season.

Wyoming: Coach Bohl and has staff continue to recruit the midwest and plains states, allowing them to avoid going up against their conference mates in head-to-head recruiting battles. Thus far, it looks like they are accumulating the typical Wyoming recruits and so far, their class is full of players who play at or near the line of scrimmage.

Recruiting Updates:

Offers:

• RB Taji Atkins was offered by Boise State
• RB Bryson Donelson was offered by Boise State
• 2025 TE/DE Paxton Naegle was offered by UNLV

Visits:

Commits:

• DB Malachi James committed to Air Force

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.