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Boise State Recruiting: The road to Signing Day

This week, we'll depart a bit from the standard recruiting roundup and pay a little closer attention to 2/3.

By Casey Joplin
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

So. Yeah. It's been a week, right guys? LOTS of chatter on Twitter tonight regarding a certain coach and some various things regarding him. We'll leave that until the dust has settled. We also lost another coach to NC State. We wish Coach Drink the best in the ACC. BUT, we DID have some good news! We hired a new DBs coach to replace the departed Julius Brown. Welcome Coach Ambrose to the glorious Blue and beautiful city of Boise! We look forward to seeing your DBs destroy MW receivers. Many much of them.

Let's move on to the recruits. We'll quickly recap who is currently committed for the 2016 class:

Cedrick Wilson, WR, 6'3 190lbs

Joel Velaquez, K, 6'0 220lbs

Derriyon Shaw, DE, 6'3 220lbs

Ali'i Niumatalolo (2017 class), ILB, 6'1.5 230lbs

Nick Crabtree, TE, 6'6 247lbs

Damarea Crockett, RB, 5'11.5 211lbs

Tyson Maeva, ILB, 6'0 230lbs

Desmond Williams, S, 6'0 190lbs

Reid Harrison-Ducros, CB, 5'10 165lbs

Ezra Cleveland, OT, 6'6 270lbs

Julian Carter, WR, 6'2 175lbs

Robert Mahone, RB, 5'11 190lbs

Kole Bailey, OT, 6'4.5 285lbs

Robert Lewis, CB, 5'10 170lbs

Chase Hatada, DT, 6'2.5 255lbs

Micah Wilson, QB, 6'3 200lbs

Daniel Auelua, DT, 6'2 285lbs

Deandre Pierce, DB, 5'10 170lbs

That's a pretty solid class right there. For the time being, we'll assume that nothing happened this weekend, aside from the visitors, and everyone is staying put. As far as numbers go, this is what we are looking at:

1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 K, 2CB, 2 S/N, 2 DT, 1 DE, 2 OT, 2 LB, and 1 TE

That brings our current total to 18. I have read we can take as many as 25 players. (Most of my info is coming from Mike Wittman @RivalsMikeW. Give him a follow if you aren't already.) That leaves 7 spots left. I believe the coaches will take one more WR, 2 more DL, 1 DB, and one more OL. Keep in mind that we technically still have 2 silent commits. One of them could potentially be Emmanuel Fesili, but who the other is, we don't know.

We had a few visitors this weekend. Some of them were current commits, some were not. Of particular note, John Tate was in attendance.

He confirmed that the jersey, was in fact, a small. Regardless, he is a massive kid and would be a tremendous get. He could easily play right away. Also in attendance were Bubba Ogbebor and Terrell Burgess. Damarea Crockett and Micah Wilson were also on campus to check out their future digs. Lets jump into the potential players till on the list according to Mike.

QB

There are no other QBs on the list, which makes sense since we have our guy and the relationship seems solid despite the loss of Drink.

RB

At RB, we don't have any spots to fill, but if something happens, we have one other offer out there.

Alexander Mattison, 5'10.5 200lbs, San Bernadino, CA

He has great offer list, including the likes of Washington, Arizona State and Washington State. We are not likely to take him, unless of course something terrible happens and one of the two current commits decides to leave. Mattison is definitely high on us, but if we don't have the room, we don't have the room.

WR

Bubba Ogbebor, 6'1 194lbs, Frisco, TX

John Okwoli, 6'2 190lbs, Phoenix, AZ

Steffon McKnight, 6'.5 157lbs, San Diego, CA

Khris Vaughn, 6'1 190lbs, Redlands, CA

As I understand it, Ogbebor is the guy the coaches are after the hardest. It'll be an uphill battle, especially with the likes of Texas Tech, Kansas, and Oklahoma, who is having an in-home visit this week. A lot of recruiting analysts feel confident we can land Ogbebor, but Okwoli would be a great get as well. Since we really only have room for one more, they just have to hope they can get the guy they want. If not, hopefully get the second man up if they haven't already committed. McKnight is a 4* that has a TON of offers and is not high on BSU. Vaughn was not a name I had heard of, but had solid measurables. He also had offers from Washington, WSU and EWU.

OL

Joe Kupcikevicius, 6'5 300lbs, Mt. San Antonio C.C.

Lawrence Edwards, 6'6 250lbs, Port Orange, FL

Donte Harrington, 6'1.5 275lbs, San Clemente, CA

Austin Dixon, 6'6 265bs, Tempe, AZ

Harrington has a visit scheduled for this upcoming weekend, but looking at his offer list, Boise State seems to be his best offer. Austin Dixon got an offer on January 7th. Dixon seemed pretty high on the Broncos. I have no clue where the rest of them stand. Kupcikevicius would certainly help fill the void quickly and could play immediately. All very large gentleman.

TE

We have our kid for this class in Nick Crabtree. We have a glut of talent at TE, so I have to think Nick red shirts this year with Roh, Dhaenens, Blakley, Knight, Lucero (presumably), and Pistone returning.

DT

John Tate, 6'5 275lbs, Pine Bluff, AR

Jarrod Hewitt, 6'2 290lbs, Venice, FL

Emmanuel Fesili, 6'2 280lbs, Long Beach, CA

Both of these guys are large kids. Broncos are on a full-court press for Tate, but it won't be easy. Fortunately for us, Crockett is good buddies with him and has been in his ear for some time now. Tate's list is daunting harboring the likes of Cal, Ole Miss, Houston and Arizona State, to name a few. Hewitt, like Tate, has a TON of offers, ranging from Western Kentucky and Florida International to Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech. While Fesili has more or less been tabbed as one of the silent commits, he took a visit to UNLV this weekend, which brought up the question of whether he was or not, and if he is, if he was looking. He has a robust list consisting of mostly MW schools.

DE

Jabari Watson, 6'3 255lbs, Fontana, CA

Fua Pututau, 6'3 231lbs, Salt Lake City, UT

Josh Allen, 6'2 255lbs, Long Beach CC, CA

Keith Sullivan, 6'7 245lbs, Houston TX

Curtis Weaver, 6'4 245lbs, Long Beach, CA

Kayode Rufai, 6'3 227lbs, Portland, OR

Josh Fatu, 6'3 285lbs, Long Beach CC, CA

Keanu Saleapaga, 6'6 265lbs, La Mirada, CA

Holy smokes there are some HUGE individuals on this list. Jabari Watson is our top gear here. A former Arizona commit, from everything I've head, he is ours to lose at this point. Honestly all of these guys have formidable lists. It's pretty cool the see that we are right up there with some pretty big name schools. And Keith Sullivan at 6'7? Are you kidding me? In high school, I would have been considered a snack to him. F'reals.

LB

Tommy Jacobsson, 6'2 220lbs, Palm Desert, CA

Kevin Meitzenheimer, 6'1 220lbs, Moreno Valley, CA

Dontavius Jackson, 6'2 238lbs, Houston, TX

Troy Cassidy, 6'3 215lbs, Carlsbad, CA

Kaelin Himphill, 6'2, 220lbs, Hillsboro, OR

We already have Tyson Maeva on campus, but the interesting thing here is Ali'i Niumatalolo will be going on a church mission, effectively making him a part of a different recruiting class. His spot, as I recall, would be taken up by returning missionary Kekoa Nawahine at S, but I could be a year ahead on that one. Regardless, we could potentially take one more LB to cover our standard of one outside and one interior or middle LB in each class. The guys on this list are all pretty much the same size with Jackson on the larger end and Cassidy on the smaller end. Himphill has offers from pretty much all MW programs and Oregon State to go along with a few other schools. Cassidy is in a similar situation, but with a few more P12 offers, including Washington, Washington State and Colorado. Jackson is a 4* with some SEC offers, so needless to say he won't be a Broncos lol. Meitzenheimer has a lot of MW offers as well as a Washington offer. And finally, Jacobsson has a lone offer from the Broncos. I'm not entirely sure we take another LB, but since Niumatalolo won't be joining us, we might.

S/N

Brandon Jones, 5'10 185lbs, Nacogdoches, TX

Lamar Jackson, 6'2 206lbs, Elk Grove, CA

Williams seems to be slated to play behind James at N. I imagine they have Pierce tabbed for S, but he seems to have more of a CB build. BUT, Ioane was around 5'10 if I recall correctly. Jackson seems to fit the safety bill here. Jones would most likely be N. Unfortunately, Jackson is a 4* with no real interest in attending Boise State. Jones is also a 4* in the same position. Fortunately, we probably won't be taking any more S/N players anyway, so problem solved!

CB

Terrell Burgess, 6' 178lbs, San Marcos, CA

Jack Jones, 5'10 163lbs, Long Beach, CA

Eric Cuffee, 5'11 190lbs, Waco, TX

Reid Harrison-Ducros and Robert Lewis are solid gets for this class. If we can hang on to them, Coach Ambrose will have some great young talent to work with. First off, Jack Jones can go anywhere he wants, and it won't be Boise. Cuffee is a 3* prospect with some major offers, including Auburn, Ole Miss, TCU, Texas and TAMU. So Burgess would be the guy if we take another DB. He has a big list himself, including offers from Wisconsin, Utah, Arizona and Cal to name a few. He visited this weekend and seemed to have a pretty good time. Hopefully, if Yates is indeed gone, that the allure of playing for a former All-Pro can bring him to the Blue.

K

We got our player in Joel Velazquez. No other players on the list in this respect, but I would anticipate a walk-on or two as generally kickers or long snappers are not offered scholarships, at least not out of high school.

I think that covers the majority of the names still floating around there. I'd like to, again, thank Mike for setting up the list here so that I could glean from it. Hopefully you found this helpful for the remaining few weeks of the 2016 recruiting season before LOI day. And quickly after that, Spring camp will take place, then summer training and fall camp. Before you know it, we'll be watching the Broncos on the Blue again. Go Broncos!