Mountain West Football: 13 Sophomores Who Could Be Super In 2019
Who could be among the next class of stars in the Mountain West? We pick sophomores from each team of whom you should take notice.
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New household names might have already arrived.
There’s little doubt that the Mountain West will have to replace a great deal of star power on the gridiron in 2019. For instance, if you take a look back at our list of the conference’s top 50 players from last summer, only 16 return back this fall.
Never fear, though, since the conference has recruited quite well over the past couple seasons, meaning the next wave of breakout candidates is probably here now. Just who are those athletes, though? We pick players from each Mountain West team and explain why.
Air Force
It’s still fairly rare for a sophomore to make a significant impact at the Academy, but Jordan Jackson and Kadin Remsberg are proof that cream rises to the top no matter where an athlete competes. Wide receiver Brandon Lewis seems like a strong candidate, then, to follow in their footsteps.
At 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, he’s definitely not the Jalen Robinette type, but he did average 20 yards on his five catches last fall and reportedly ran a mid-4.3 40-yard dash earlier this month. Wide receivers coach Ari Confessor referred to Lewis as a “very quick guy” back in March, but that might be an understatement. With vacancies to fill in the passing game, his potential to stretch the field could make him a touchdown waiting to happen.
Boise State
As the one team in the conference that’s recruited better than everyone else, take your pick. Chase Cord, Andrew Van Buren and Ezekiel Noa are all viable choices here, but ours is offensive tackle John Ojukwu.
Ojukwu may not be the best lineman on this unit, not as long as Ezra Cleveland is around, though that didn’t stop him from becoming an enviable complement. He started the last seven games of 2018 and, according to Pro Football Focus, he ranked among the top linemen in the Mountain West, including Cleveland, in QB pressures allowed, meaning that whoever ends up under center for the Broncos is likely to keep his jersey blue.
Colorado State
Nikko Hall arrived in Fort Collins as one of the best recruits in program history, but he ended up having a fairly quiet 2018 as Preston Williams and Olabisi Johnson chewed up the lion’s share of work in the passing game. With 245 targets to replace between the two, however, and Hall’s ascension to the top of the post-spring two-deep, he could be primed for a huge jump in production opposite Warren Jackson.
Fresno State
With plenty of positions to fill on both sides of the ball, the Bulldogs provide a number of choices here, but safety Wylan Free might be the most important new piece. He made two starts for the Bulldogs last year, one as a cornerback and one as a nickelback, but saw time all season long as a reserve. Last year’s defense, which ranked 11th by Passing Defense S&P+, may have set a very high bar to match, but don’t be shocked if Free steps in to form and creates the conference’s best safety tandem with Juju Hughes.
Hawaii
The skill positions might get most of the spotlight in a run-and-shoot offense, but it never would have worked as it did in 2018 without the tandem of offensive tackle Ilm Manning and guard Solo Vaipulu. Not only were Manning and Vaipulu among just four true freshmen to start every game for an FBS team last year, they also anchored a unit that, according to Pro Football Focus, graded out as one of the best in the Mountain West.
And if that wasn’t enough, Stephen Tsai of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser noted back in March that despite running 963 plays on offense, neither of them had a holding penalty all season long. They should be entrenched in this offense for years to come.
Nevada
One of the Wolf Pack’s biggest questions is how to replace the experience they lost in the defensive backfield, and while they have lots of promising options to choose from, safety Tyson Williams seems likely to lock down one of the open spots. He made just one start but appeared in ten games last fall, racking up 16 solo tackles, so if he can flash the playmaking ability that fans grew accustomed to from Asauni Rufus and Dameon Baber, he could grow into a defensive anchor for the foreseeable future.
New Mexico
In a conference suddenly filled with very good specialists, it might have been very easy to overlook Andrew Shelley last year. He connected on 7-of-8 field goal tries and was 3-of-3 on attempts of 40-plus yards, but missed five extra points. Freshman struggles among kickers are typical, but the step forward he can make could be critical for an offense that may scuffle often.
San Diego State
Though many expect the running game to improve upon last year’s inconsistency, the Aztecs will still have to take to the air sometime. With Tim Wilson Jr.’s medical retirement, the mantle of “leading returning receiver” now falls to Ethan Dedeaux, but that may not be a bad thing.
Among SDSU receivers to have at least 20 targets in a season across the last four years, Dedeaux’s 62.9% catch rate is the third-best overall. He also had a Success Rate of over 50%, so there’s a decent chance he can develop into exactly the kind of possession receiver the Aztecs will need to complement a revamped ground attack.
San Jose State
It’s been a few years since the Spartans had an impact pass rusher, but defensive end Cade Hall might be the team’s best such prospect since Travis Johnson. He played the entire season while starting the last seven games, finishing 2018 with three sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss, so a full year on the edge could bring with it plenty of excitement for the SJSU faithful.
UNLV
The Rebels project to have one of the most potent offenses in the conference thanks to their explosive runners, but Justice Oluwaseun might be the kind of player who pushed the production to a new level. The 6-foot-3, 325-pound offensive tackle has already been hailed by head coach Tony Sanchez as “the most talented” lineman of his entire tenure.
Utah State
A huge chunk of the 2018 Aggies’ offensive line has moved on, but the one player who returns, offensive tackle Alfred Edwards, could stand to get a little more attention. After all, he started eleven games and protected Jordan Love’s blind side last season, playing 662 total snaps.
Wyoming
It seems likely that no one player could fully replace Andrew Wingard or Marcus Epps, but Keyon Blankenbaker looks like the kind of versatile defender that will keep the Cowboys defense a dangerous one. He was listed atop the post-spring two-deep as a nickelback/strong-side linebacker after making four starts for Wyoming in 2018, earning a 62.5% Defensive Success Rate in the process, which is probably a level of production of which Craig Bohl approves.
