Boise State Roster Countdown 2021: Day 2, Khalil Shakir

This would be the penultimate countdown had they not added a zero to the roster. AS SUCH: you get two more after this one but two days is two days and #2 on the Bronco roster is a good one—Khalil Shakir

#2, Khalil Shakir, Senior, WR

Stats

Height: 6’

Weight: 190 lbs

High School: Vista Murrieta HS, Murrieta, CA

How’d he get to The Blue^TM?

Shakir isn’t that big, but he was a BIG get for the Broncos when he committed. Rated a 4-star recruit by 247sports and one of their top 300 players, Shakir was heavily recruited for his gridiron skills. All told, he had at least 13 offers, but rewarded the Broncos for their perseverance by deciding to join the BEST team. As a senior at Vista Murrieta, the talented athlete did more rushing than catching...with 102 carries for 906 yards (a healthy 8.9 ypc average) and 7 TDs. Of course, he did a little receiving as well, with 243 yards and 2 TDs on just 17 receptions. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a trip to Hawaii for January’s Polynesian Bowl. As a junior, Shakir was named to the All-CIF Southern Section Division 1 Offensive Team as a “utility” player. He chose the Broncos over offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Boston College, Brigham Young, Colorado, Colorado State, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, San José State, UCLA, and Washington State.

Nickname

”Shak”

Pretty sure this is what teammates/coaches call him. We’re still gonna use this celebration gif though...

Look-alike

Still looks like this totally random Portland State DB Tyreese Shakir to me.

Career highlights

Named team captain before 2021 season. PFF Preseason Third Team All-American in 2021. Named to 2021 Biletnikoff Award Watch List. Named to 2021 Maxwell Award Watch List. Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Finalist in 2020. All-Mountain West First Team 2020. CoSIDA Academic All District 7 in 2020. All-Mountain West Honorable Mention in 2019. Appeared in all 14 games for the Broncos in 2019 and made five starts. 14 rushes for 81 yards and a touchdown, 2-2 passing for ten yards, 16 pass for 170 yards and one more touchdown as a freshman in 2018.

2021 Prospectus

Shakir was responsible for 37% of the receptions on the entire team last season and 42% of the receiving yardage. That’s...incredible and also kind of bad? Hear me out. Shakir is an incredible football player and the fact that he carved out such a huge role on the offense is awesome. He helped the Broncos win without a doubt. One player getting the lion’s share of the touches out the backfield is fairly commonplace because only one will lineup in the backfield at any given time (usually the best one)...but the offense has 3 to 4 WRs on the field at any given time, and if one of them is getting the ball waaaaay more than the others (CT Thomas had 20 receptions to Shakir’s 52...that’s less than half), it can create a different problem—double teams. Now, Shakir still went OFF even when opposing defenses knew he’d probably be getting the ball (the Megatron effect), but the Broncos should be better at taking advantage of the times when Shakir draws multiple defenders...that’s time to hit CT on a seam, or sneak a TE out...or (gasp) remember that Stefan Cobbs is on the team. Shakir is going to get his yards—likely over 1k this year, but Tim Plough’s offense also needs to spread that ball around more, even out of the backfield, for the Broncos to really take off. I hope they will, and I’m glad we get another year of watching Khalil do his thing.

Is he on Twitter?

Yes, and he’s for the kids.

Completely made up fact

After seeing last year’s OBNUG generated nickname “Shake n Bake”, Shakir decided to give the food product a try. He now has Shake n Bake porkchops five times a week.