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Where are they now?: The Boise State recruits that could have been

At a time when 4-star players were not all that interested in Boise State, Jermaine Kelly’s interest was piqued, along with a host of other recruits in the 2013 recruiting class. Let’s revisit Kelly and think on what could have been.

By Casey Joplin
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Jermaine Kelly was listed by all major recruiting sites as a 4-star CB out of Bishop Mora Salesian in Los Angeles, California. At 6’2 and 185 lbs, he was a big CB by Boise State standards. Most of our CBs are 6’ or under, but generally between 5’9 and 5’11. Rivals had him ranked as the #20 CB in the nation, the #27 player in the state, and the #225 player in the nation. Scout has since removed his specific recruiting information, or at least made it invisible to amateur blog writers. And 247Sports has very similar rankings to Rivals: #20 CB in the nation, #28 player in the state and #240 player in the nation. While he played both offense and defense at Salesian, as most hs players do, we aren’t really concerned with his offensive stats since he was recruited as a CB.

Through his recruitment, Kelly garnered a lot of interest, to the tune of 15 offers from the likes of Oregon, USC, Arizona State, Boise State, and UCLA just to name a few. After narrowing his list to UCLA and Washington, Kelly committed to UCLA in July of 2012. While remaining "solid" to UCLA through multiple months and unofficial visits, he took an official to Boise State in December of 2012. Just 3 days later, he decommitted from UCLA. Extremely odd for a player so solidly committed for so long, then to decommit just says after visiting the Broncos just once. A new hope rose for the Bronco faithful, especially those who had followed Kelly and knew of his interest in Boise State early on. Unfortunately for the Broncos (at the time), Kelly committed to the Huskies a month before NLI Day in 2013.

Though he was rated a 4-star, Kelly sat out his true freshman year, using his red shirt. He did, however, start his redshirt freshman year. Unfortunately during a practice prior to the third game, he sustained a broken ankle and missed the rest of the season.

Along with the injury to John Ross this May, it was announced that Jermaine Kelly would be transferring out of the Washington program. No clue as to where he might land. Could the Broncos be an option? Possibly, though I personally have not heard anything. I’m not sure I could venture a guess as to where he might land. I have a hard time seeing him going JC. He could very well land on a MWC team, but whether that is the Broncos or not, remains to be seen.