Peak Perspective: 2024 Mountain West Recruiting Comparisons

It’s time for the annual look at each Mountain West team’s recruiting level compared to the rest of the college football landscape. Here is last year’s post if you want a bit of a refresher. These posts aim to identify how each team recruits by looking at the teams in the same range as each of the twelve Mountain West members. That helps us determine which MWC teams are recruiting above, at, or below their conference affiliation.

Keep in mind this isn’t necessarily describing the quality of play each team has with the quality of players they recruit, as many teams in the Mountain West play above or below their level of recruiting. Instead, this attempts to give a range of comparisons for how each team recruited this past year. Each range is determined by looking at teams within two composite points above or below their own.

Note: All rankings are taken from 247 sports composite recruiting rankings (meaning transfers do not factor in) and are accurate as of 2/12/24.

Air Force

2024 Ranking: 172nd

Closest Comparisons: Wofford

Bottom Line: As has been discussed many times, the Falcons’ recruiting is much different from the rest of the conference being an academy school. They are looking for specific types of players to fit their scheme, and the number of their commits can skew their rankings a bit. This cycle will really be put to the test as it has been one of their lowest-rated classes for quite some time. That being said, they deserve the benefit of the doubt due to their track record.

Boise State

2024 Ranking: 66th

Closest Comparisons: Toledo, Washington State, Tulane

Bottom Line: The Broncos again find themselves ranked among Power teams when it comes to recruiting. They compare to one above and actually outrank quite a few others by a wide margin. Like with most mid-major teams, the ceiling of the class is high and measures up well compared to anyone but the floor resembles more of a G5 class. That isn’t a negative, but instead a way to distinguish what their next step looks like if they were ever able to take it. The Broncos are still the standard of recruiting in the Mountain West, although other conference mates are rising to that standard as well, narrowing the gap.

Colorado State

2024 Ranking: 72nd

Closest Comparisons: Charlotte, East Carolina, Western Michigan, North Texas, San Diego State

Bottom Line: The Ram's comparisons may not look all that impressive, but it is when you consider they are well ahead of some Power 5 teams in the rankings, so they don’t even register as comparisons. Colorado State continues to do impressive work on the recruiting trail, making them one of the top mid-major recruiting programs in the country. The coaching staff’s ability to recruit talented high school players, especially in southern California, is a huge strength and one that will pay dividends the program in the near future.

Fresno State

2024 Ranking: 85th

Closest Comparisons: Arizona, Virginia, Troy

Bottom Line: The Bulldogs put together a nice class, measuring up against two Power teams, albeit not noteworthy ones. Still, it’s an accomplishment. They have settled into the bottom of the top half of the Mountain West when it comes to recruiting, which keep them at the bottom of the “high Group of 5 level” tier in these comparisons. All in all, that means they are in good company, recruiting well, especially in their own state.

Hawaii

2024 Ranking: 114th

Closest Comparisons: Louisiana Tech, Temple, Louisiana

Bottom Line: It’s odd to be grouped with two Louisiana schools (and Louisiana-Monroe was actually just outside the comparison line), but it’s more of a funny footnote than anything. It isn’t easy to recruit to the Islands, as can be seen in the rankings and corresponding comparisons. But that isn’t to say the Rainbow Warriors didn’t do positive things. They invested more heavily in local recruits and Las Vegas and both of those moves paid off for them. Although they are grouped in the bottom of the FBS for this cycle, but it’s a tier up from last year and it will be interesting to see where they end up next year.

Nevada

2024 Ranking: 125th

Closest Comparisons: Sam Houston State, Georgia State

Bottom Line: The Wolf Pack were one of the schools most impacted by their coaching change when it came to recruiting. That is illustrated in their ranking and comparisons. The new coaching did what they could and still attempted to bring in as many high school recruits as they could, but understandably, had to prioritize transfers to balance out the players they lost. Nevada comes in at the Bottom of the FBS level ( 125 out of 134 FBS teams) and in the context of this year, that seems about right. However, in order to be relevant in the MW, they will have to find a way to be around the top 100.

New Mexico

2024 Ranking: 201st

Closest Comparisons: Grand Valley State, West Texas A&M, Northern Colorado

Bottom Line: Looking at 247 composite recruiting rankings, it appears that the Lobos were actually the worst team out of every team they track that signed a recruit this year. That is as bad as it gets. Grand Valley State is a D2 school (although a great one) and the other comparisons aren’t any better. Granted, this all comes after another coaching change and the new staff decided to only sign 4 high school players, so the class wasn’t expected to rank highly. However, there is a difference between not being ranked highly (see Nevada above) and coming in at 201st when there are 134 FBS schools. I nearly considered breaking ground into a new, lower-tier category, but hopefully, it won’t be needed this year, and the Lobos can at least surface back to normal bad or better in the 2025 cycle.

San Diego State

2024 Ranking: 74th

Closest Comparisons: Charlotte, East Carolina, Western Michigan, Colorado State, North Texas, Florida Atlantic

Bottom Line: The Aztecs put together a great recruiting class, although their comparisons don’t tell the full story. Coach Lewis kept in step with the talent Coach Hoke was acquiring in his classes, bringing in some of the best talent in SoCal, and doing so in a short amount of time. San Diego State’s ranking means that they come in at the top of the Group of 5, putting them in a great place. They have assembled talent which will hopefully allow them to return to competing at the top of the conference in the next season or two.

San Jose State

2024 Ranking: 95th

Closest Comparisons: Oregon State, Boston College, Texas State, Kent State, Northern Illinois

Bottom Line: San Jose State has made a habit of recruiting better at least half of the conference and has accomplished that once again this time around. The top two or three players in the class can measure up with pretty much any other team in the Mountain West, but the bottom of the class is lagging a bit and so they grade out in the middle of the road. Looking at their comparisons and they are in good company with a few Power teams and some notable Group of 5 schools.

UNLV

2024 Ranking: 77th

Closest Comparisons: Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State, Southern Miss, Coastal Carolina

Bottom Line: Coach Odom and company did a fantastic job on the recruiting trail this year. The comparisons are nothing to write home about, but they measure up firmly within the top of the Group of 5. Diving more into their class and the Rebels assembled some of the top talent in the Mountain West and all of the mid-majors when considering individual players. This cycle showed that UNLV is not to be taken lightly when recruiting and it would not be a surprise to see them higher in the rankings next season.

Utah State

2024 Ranking: 120th

Closest Comparisons: Massachusetts

Bottom Line: Utah State is a team that probably recruits better than what their rankings would indicate, but they end up in the lower of the conference rankings and the lower end of Group of 5 teams. This is due to their growing reliance on junior college players and transfers, opting for players who can take the field right away next season. This comparisons exercise doesn’t tell the full story for the Aggie’s class, but even so, they probably want to keep better company with their high school recruiting than Massachusetts.

Wyoming

2024 Ranking: 106th

Closest Comparisons: Liberty, Central Michigan, SMU, James Madison, FIU, Buffalo, Western Kentucky, Ball State

Bottom Line: Like some other teams on this list, the Cowboy’s coaching staff are superb at player developing and thus they tend to do more with less when it comes to their recruiting classes. That being said, they are consistently on the wrong side of the top 100 and thus find themselves with some of the usual suspects in the lower-level of the FBS ranks. This year, there was some talent at the top of the class, and it is filled with more three-stars than usual, but it still falls a bit short of being a good G5 class.

Summary:

Let’s summarize and reorder a bit by putting the 12 teams into some groupings. These are groupings that are fairly arbitrary, but they serve the purpose of providing context to each team’s recruiting efforts. Keep in mind there are 134 FBS teams.

Recruits at a lower Power 5 level (in the top 69): Boise State

Recruits at a high Group of 5 level (70-85): Colorado State, San Diego State, UNLV, Fresno State

Recruits at a middle Group of 5 level (86-100): San Jose State

Recruits at a lower Group of 5 level (101-120): Wyoming, Hawaii, Utah State

Recruits near the bottom of the FBS (121-135): Nevada

Recruits at an FCS level (136 or below): Air Force, New Mexico

In the 2024 cycle, the 12 Mountain West teams ranged all over the place. Unlike last year, they had one team recruiting at a Power 45 level. And there was a noticeable increase in teams recruiting at a high Group of 5 level, meaning almost half the conference had an above average or better venture in the context of all of college football. San Jose State did perfectly find too, coming in at average and just inside the top 100. On the other side of things, there were three teams that were all below average. If that was the conference’s floor, it would be an overall success, but it doesn’t end there. One team was recruiting at the bottom of the FBS and two teams were actually recruiting at an FCS level, which problematic no matter the reason.

With all of that being said, every year, there are lots of players who outperform their recruiting rankings. And there are highly rated prospects who don’t pan out. There is no denying that. Some teams outperform their rankings annually, achieving winning records despite not landing high on the rankings lists.

On the other hand, players play to their rankings more often than not. And it is certainly better to get better players (by whatever metric coaches use to recruit. It is understood that they don’t just look at recruiting lists). We will likely never know, but the important question to consider is where on the recruiting board are the players they are landing? Are teams getting players from their top few tiers or landing commits at lower points on the board?

For fans of teams who recruit to a specialized scheme or standard (Air Force) or the teams mentioned above who excel in player development, or who just don’t care about recruiting, this post may not carry much weight. At the end of the day, it is still interesting to know how teams measure up both in the conference and across the board. Recruiting is the lifeblood of a college program, and it bodes well for teams to recruit well. Then, of course, they have to develop the skills and the culture to produce winning. Consider this post an emphasis on step one of the process.