Mountain West Recruiting Roundup 12-22-25. What happens when a new coach comes in?

It’s another week of the Mountain West Recruiting Roundup.

Recruiting is pretty quiet, with the holidays upon us. There were a handful of offers and two new commits, so the week wasn’t barren for the Mountain West.

One specific note about the offers that stood out was that Air Force handed out an offer to a junior college player. It is hard to recall a time that has happened before. It may have happened, but it is certainly not a common occurrence.

However, the bigger news going on was the flurry of players announcing they are entering the portal out of Colorado State. Now, some players are transferring because they want to, either because they are getting some chatter that they can make good money from another school. Other players might decide they don’t want ot play for a new coach or don’t think they will fit in with the new system.

But the majority of players transferring are likely because they are encouraged to by the new staff following the staff’s evaluation of the player. To learn more about what this process looks like, we spoke to a former Mountain West recruiting staff.

“Within an insanely short time, you have to decide who you’re keeping and which you’re dropping, as well as continuously watch new recruits that the new staff is considering offering… It’s obviously an opportunity for the new head coach and staff to brand their vision and culture for the program.”

This statement makes it clear that it’s a wild time for staff and players with roster decisions changing by the minute. Everyone is trying to do what they think is best, but it gets messy in a hurry.

“When [our new coach] was hired, we sat down and evaluated each player and decided as a staff who we kept and who dropped, so I’d expect that to be the same with Colorado State.”

Looking at the commits this week, Fresno State and Wyoming each added a player. The Cowboys actually got a 2027 commit, so they get the nod on the cover photo for doing some early work in the next class.

Class of 2026 Cover Photo Total:

• Boise State: 5
• Hawaii: 5
• Colorado State: 4
• New Mexico: 4
• UNLV: 4
• Wyoming: 4
• Air Force: 3
• Fresno State: 3
• San Diego State: 3
• San Jose State: 3
• Nevada: 2

Recruiting Calendar:

Starting today and extending through January 5th, we are in a dead period. This is the most restrictive recruiting period, as no face-t0-face contact of any kind is allowed. As always, coaches can still talk to recruits via phone, text, email, or DM.

Next College Student Athlete says:

The most restrictive of all the recruiting periods is the NCAA Dead Period. During the dead period, coaches may not have any in-person contact with recruits and/or their parents. In other words, coaches are not allowed to talk to recruits at their college campus, the athlete’s school, an athletic camp or even the grocery store.

While the term “dead period” makes it seem like all recruiting stops during this time, that’s actually not the case. Athletes and coaches are still allowed to communicate via phone, email, social media and other digital communication channels. While NCAA Division 1 programs are prohibited from conducting any in-person recruiting, D1 college coaches can still contact student-athletes via digital forms of communication during the dead period.

Air Force Commitment Tracker:

Since the Air Force Academy regularly has by far the most commits among Mountain West recruiting classes, it’s fun to track them over the course of the year.

Number of Falcon verbal commits: 39 signees

Commitment Spotlight:

Visit Recap:

Recruiting Updates:

Offers:

• JUCO DT Gavin Blum: Air Force
• 2027 QB Mason McKenzie: Colorado State
• Transfer DL Ozzy Pollard: Hawaii
• JUCO DB Zyhaire Lewis: Nevada
• WR Kaina Watson: Utah State

Visits

Commits:

• LB Bo Ausmus: Fresno State
• 2027 WR Alijah Landrum-Hamilton: Wyoming

Decommits

Follow @Mike_SBN on Twitter for all the latest recruiting news and updates.