RECRUITING: Weber State Football 2021 Recruiting Roundup

Recruits in the class of 2021 have, for the most part, decided where they’ll be attending school. With the dust of National Signing Day settled, and Weber State having landed 16 new scholarship players and a few top-notch walk-on players, we decided to take a deeper dive into this year’s crop of recruits.

Overall Impression

Weber State’s recruiting classes are usually a bit difficult to judge. The reasons for that are that the websites that most people visit to get their recruiting information simply don’t update Weber State’s class. As of the day that this was written, nearly two weeks after the last national signing day, the single most popular and accurate recruiting site is missing more than half of the Wildcats’ scholarship players for the ’21 class. These websites have good information on individuals, but for many FCS schools, they just don’t care enough to update it.

You also have to factor in that many top players are going to and coming home from missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

With that said, this year’s class is tremendous.

The Wildcats landed players with FBS and some Power Five conference offers, they built a lot of depth in preparation for deep playoff runs in the near future, signed the national leader in receiving yards and landed a few blue-chip transfers. The entire Weber State Weekly crew agrees that on paper, this year’s class looks to be the best in the university’s history.

Best Group

This was a tough choice because there are three position groups that could make the claim to this, but we’re going with linebacker. The ‘Cats landed a pair of three-star kids in Jack Kelly and Jayden Ah You, both of whom had big-time offers to go to FBS and even Power Five teams but decided to come to Weber State and make a run at the national championship. In addition to those two, Weber State landed Brayden Perry, who is one of the hardest-hitting linebackers in this class and is a true defensive playmaker.

Weber State is reloading at linebacker.

Undervalued Group

A position group that Weber State fans are going to want to keep their eyes on is the offensive line. The Wildcats loaded up on All-State/MVP linemen in the Beehive State and got five new commitments. Some might look at this class and only see two scholarship players (Jake Eichorn and Lavaka Taukeiaho) and sleep on these linemen a bit, but don’t be fooled. Guys like Brennon Mangum and Luke Sampson were all-state performers on a top-ten ranked team and a record-setting offense. Cole Casto out of Brighton High School was another all-state performer. Knowing that they’ll be under the tutelage of the best offensive line coach in FCS in Brent Meyers, it’s nearly impossible to ignore these guys.

Immediate Impact

Of the young men who signed with Weber State, the one who might make the biggest impact – and will do it the soonest – is wide receiver Randal Grimes. Grimes is the highest-rated player to ever suit up for the Wildcats, according to 247 Sports. Coming out of high school, he was a four-star recruit and had offers to play at pretty much any school in the entire nation and ended up committing to USC. He wanted to transfer closer to his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, and transferred to UNLV where he won the 2019 Mountain West Conference Newcomer of the Year, but never quite felt settled.

Now, he’s come to Weber State with two years of eligibility, and the school is feeling good about him being granted a waiver which would allow Grimes to play in the 2021 spring season. Looking at the stacked receiving corps depth, defenses won’t be able to afford to double team any one player, and we expect Grimes, Devon Cooley, Rashid Shaheed and company to take full advantage of that.

Highest Potential

So many different guys to choose from, especially considering that Weber State is known for developing players and turning them into high-caliber guys, but Jordan Allen is a dude.

Allen, a four-star recruit coming out of JUCO in San Francisco, could have played defensive end for pretty much any team in the nation. He’s made the switch to the other side of the ball, however, and will be playing tight end for the Wildcats. He’s got a big frame for a tight end at 6’4”/240. From some of the film that we’ve seen, we noted that he has the ability to shake defenders and get open, then he’s got the hands to make the catch. He's a freak athlete and by getting more reps and practice at tight end, this guy is going to be an absolute beast. We fully expect Allen to be a massive part of this offense in the fall of 2021.

Most Versatile

This is another situation where you could pick a few guys and feel comfortable with your choice. The Wildcats signed a few young men who can play multiple positions, but we’re going to choose Trevian Tribble. He runs a 4.4 40-yard dash and he played all over the field in football and baseball.

At Kaiser High School in Fontana, California, he led his team to an 11-1 record as a quarterback and was one of the most impressive athletes on the field in all of southern California. He also played some defensive back, and that’s likely where Weber State will line him up, but Tribble can do it all and isn’t afraid of taking on a new challenge.

Most Underrated

Weber State has a long history of signing young men who are underrated. Guys like Shaheed and Josh Davis weren’t big names at the time they signed but were All-American performers from the moment they stepped foot in Ogden.

Noah Kjar might fit that mold.

Kjar, the high school national leader in receiving yards, for whatever reason, was not a highly recruited player and signed with the Wildcats in the early signing period. If you throw anything near him, he catches it. If you let him run in the seam, might as well put six points up on the board. In addition to being a phenomenal player (Utah 6A MVP and MaxPreps first team All-American), he’s got great character and has a high football IQ. We’re lucky to have him in Ogden and can’t wait to see what he does when he comes back from his church mission in a couple of years.

Biggest Surprise

Weber State was the first school to offer Creyton Cooper a scholarship over a year ago. He then started gaining interest and offers from places like Eastern Washington, Northern Iowa, UNLV and Utah State, and things seemingly went quiet on the Cooper-to-Weber-State front. The early signing period came and went as quickly as Cooper can escape pressure in the pocket.

Not a word from the young quarterback.

Then, a few days prior to signing day in February, BOOM. He committed to Weber State.

Cooper, the highest-rated high school quarterback recruit in Weber State’s history, according to 247 Sports, has some serious big play ability that even FBS schools were catching on to, but he decided to make his way north to Ogden, and we can’t wait to see him suit up at Stewart Stadium.

Biggest Recruiting Battle Won

There was a lot of friendly chatter among Big Sky fan bases as to who would sign Ammon Munyer, the 6’5”, 230-pound, three-star tight end out of Idaho. The two-way player had offers from virtually every Big Sky school, and even had a few FBS offers, but decided to sign on the dotted line with Weber State.

Munyer, the second-best player in the state of Idaho, per 247 Sports, has the versatility and size to play tight end or defensive end for Weber State, but the ‘Cats recruited him to play on the offensive side of things. His talent is enough to make us excited, but knowing that Weber State was able to beat out the likes of Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Montana State and Northern Arizona makes his signing with the Wildcats that much sweeter.

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The fact that we haven’t even brought up LJ Anderson, Josh Olave, Jalon Rock or Damon Bankston, all of whom are extremely talented and very well could be playing major roles on this team in the near future, speaks levels about where this squad is at and how well they recruited. Weber State’s program has the structure and core in place to be a national contender for years to come.