Mountain West Football: How Did The Class of 2018’s Top Recruits Actually Fare?
Inspired by The Athletic’s Recruited Revisited project, we look back at how Mountain West football’s top 2018 prospects turned out.
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Recruiting is an inexact science.
The college football writers at The Athletic recently unveiled Recruiting Revisited for the class of 2018, a series of articles which have historically re-examined how top recruiting classes actually turned out for the programs who brought in football’s most sought-after prospects. Max Olson, in particular, looked back at how each of that national class’s top 100 blue-chippers fared in the college game, from current Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback and 2021 number-one draft pick Trevor Lawrence to former UNLV quarterback Justin Rogers, who spent two years in Las Vegas after transferring in from TCU and recently jumped back into the portal once again.
If nothing else, that dichotomy of outcomes should tell you that recruiting and development successes don’t always go hand-in-hand.
Because those blue-chippers rarely, if ever, find their way to the Mountain West, however, we took it upon ourselves to look back at the conference’s top recruits from 2018, according to the individual ratings assigned by 247Sports, to see what the range of results looked like.
Boise State
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the team which routinely paces the Mountain West in recruiting had far and away the biggest success from 2018 in wide receiver Khalil Shakir. Though he only played sparingly as a freshman later that fall, it didn’t take Shakir much longer to establish himself as the next in a long line of quality Broncos pass catchers by earning an all-conference honorable mention in 2019 and then landing on the first team in both 2020 and 2021.
In all, Shakir finished his Boise State career with 208 receptions for 2,878 yards and 20 touchdowns. He also averaged 5.8 yards per carry as a rusher, as well, chipping in four more scores on the ground.
.@king_khalil2 is no stranger to diving catches
…..which gives us the perfect excuse to repost this video as a refresher https://t.co/IT7WvtHCbY pic.twitter.com/AoEY2a7Jq5
— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) February 3, 2022
San Diego State
J.R. Justice, a San Diego native who played at the same high school from which Tariq Thompson had come, stayed home with a fair bit of buzz behind him (and not just because he’s former MLB player David Justice’s son). He chose the Aztecs over USC but never panned out after redshirting during the 2018 season. By October 2019, he’d left the program without ever seeing the field and ended up transferring to TCU and, in two years with the Horned Frogs, has yet to see the field in Fort Worth, as well.
Given that the Aztecs’ 2018 class also included Cameron Thomas, William Dunkle and Daniel Bellinger among others, however, it’s fair to say the sting from missing on Justice is probably a small one.
Nevada
Linebacker Josiah Bradley edged out running back Toa Taua as Jay Norvell’s top recruiting prize in 2018. After excelling on both sides of the ball out of Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, Bradley’s contributions to the Wolf Pack to date have been much more modest. Though Bradley has appeared in 21 games over the last four seasons, he only has 20 career tackles.
Given that all of Nevada’s major contributors at linebacker from 2021 — Lawson Hall, Lamin Touray, and Daiyan Henley — have moved on, though, Bradley may finally get a chance to stick in the starting lineup under new head coach Ken Wilson.
Colorado State
The Rams’ 2018 class wasn’t without prospects who’d end up becoming key contributors, like Dequan Jackson, Devin Phillips, and Trey McBride, but Nikko Hall came in as the program’s second-best rated prospect ever according to 247Sports. He saw a fair bit of action in 2018 with eight receptions and a touchdown in nine total games, but 2019 was a much different story, marred by a suspension for violating team rules and an arrest. By 2020, he was no longer on the roster.
Fresno State
The Bulldogs’ 2018 recruiting class was renowned for its re-establishment of an emphasis on local recruiting, but it was four-star prospect Tyrone Sampson, an offensive lineman from Detroit, that ended up as a surprising big deal. He redshirted during the 2018 season and battled through injuries to make appearances in ten games the following year, making three starts. He played in four games during the abbreviated 2020 campaign, as well, but didn’t play at all in 2021 after coming into the fall as one of eight letterwinners.
The good news? Sampson is back for 2022 and, if healthy, figures to be a key depth piece for an experienced Fresno State offensive line.
San Jose State
The Spartans’ 2018 class ended up being integral to its run to the football title two years later, featuring the likes of Cade Hall, Viliami Fehoko and Nehemiah Shelton, but the top recruit, defensive lineman EJ Ane, was… mostly fine.
Interestingly, Ane’s first extended action with San Jose State came on both sides of the ball in 2018, appearing as both a short-yardage bulldozer on offense in addition to battling in the trenches on defense. After that, he settled in as part of an improving unit, appearing in 40 games over four seasons despite making just one start. In all, he racked up 67 tackles, ten tackles for loss, and 5.5 sacks before transferring to Portland State for the 2022 season.
There are 9⃣1⃣ days to San Jose State football kickoff.
In the comeback win vs. Nevada, #91 EJ Ane teamed up with Cade Hall for a HUGE third down stop! pic.twitter.com/NjTjLInd1c
— Inside The Spartans (@InsideSpartans) May 29, 2021
Hawaii
Perhaps no top 2018 recruit remains more of a mystery than Warriors cornerback Michael Washington. The Monrovia High product headlined a class which also included Blessman Ta’ala, Khoury Bethley and Justus Tavai and, interestingly enough, flashed a lot of promise when given a chance to see the field, kicking off his collegiate career in earnest with extended playing time in the 2019 Hawaii Bowl win over BYU and starting the team’s last six games in 2020.
However, despite starting 2021 on the two-deep, Washington didn’t play at all for Hawaii last season. Still just a junior, there’s a good chance he figures heavily in the mix to replace Cortez Davis and re-establish himself as an up-and-coming defender in the Mountain West.
UNLV
The Rebels’s 2018 class didn’t really work out as intended, as evidenced by top recruit Kenyon Oblad. The Henderson native stayed home with eyes on becoming UNLV’s quarterback of the future and it looked for a time like things might turn out favorably, when Oblad started the final eight games of the 2019 season as a redshirt freshman and led the way to an upset over rival Nevada. After Marcus Arroyo replaced Tony Sanchez as head coach, though, he got buried on the depth chart and threw just four passes in the 2020 campaign. In 13 career games with the Rebels, Oblad would complete 53.6% of his throws for 2,090 yards and 18 touchdowns against nine interceptions.
Eventually, Oblad transferred to FCS Dixie State in February 2021 and saw action in seven games last fall, completing 50.6% of his 162 attempts for 878 yards and five touchdowns with ten interceptions.
Kenyon Oblad to Steve Jenkins for a 75 yard TD. pic.twitter.com/SJh9xPgOT2
— Tyler Bischoff (@Bischoff_Tyler) November 30, 2019
Utah State
Sometimes, a top recruit’s promising career can get derailed by old fashioned hard luck. Such is the case for Andy Koch, who redshirted after appearing in three games back in 2018 but stepped in as a starter at the beginning of 2019 at right tackle. Unfortunately, a knee injury knocked him out for the rest of the season after three games and, though he returned in 2020 to make four more starts, he was medically disqualified and did not play in 2021.
Air Force
Cadets often take a long time to find their way into Troy Calhoun’s starting lineup, but sometimes top recruits like defensive back David Eure can break the mold and at least earn a little run in the attempt. He saw playing time in ten games during the 2019 season, but never quite broke through after that, seeing time in five of six games back in 2020 and seven more in 2021. In all, Eure appeared in 22 games for the Falcons and made 20 tackles.
New Mexico
The Lobos rolled the dice on a litany of junior college products in their 2018 class, which explains why Sheriron Jones is the lone juco athlete among the twelve top prospects discussed here. He arrived in Albuquerque after first spending two years at Tennessee, a four-star recruit in Butch Jones’s 2015 class, though he never quite seized the New Mexico starting job as hoped. He started seven games and appeared in 11 back in 2018, completing 54.5% of his throws for 1,417 yards, 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
The following year, Jones saw action in six games but was part of a four-quarterback shuffle that ultimately cost Bob Davie his job as head coach and, to make matters worse, was suspended after being charged with indecent exposure (though he was eventually acquitted).
That's one way to score a TD 👀@UNMLoboFB's Sheriron Jones leaps into the end zone! pic.twitter.com/0vkDWbh01O
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) October 5, 2019
Wyoming
Chad Muma is probably going to make an impact on Sundays in the near future, but the one 2018 recruit who rated higher, quarterback Sean Chambers, didn’t really pan out. He shined in his first extended as a true freshman starter, winning his first three starts despite throwing just 25 passes, though the ultimate story of his career with the Cowboys is one of severe injuries and a failure to develop as a passer.
Season-ending injuries curtailed him in both 2019 and 2020 and though he opened 2021 as the starter, Chambers eventually gave way to Levi Williams before transferring to Montana State shortly after the end of the season. In 22 career games with Wyoming, he completed 48.8% of 324 pass attempts for 2,312 yards, 16 touchdowns and ten interceptions while adding 1,103 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground.
Sean Chambers hit the meanest stiff-arm of the day 😷
(via @CBSSports)pic.twitter.com/xmk036Iyf4
— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) September 1, 2019
