In the world of high school to D1 recruiting, us college football junkies just can’t get enough of rankings, ratings and bloviated assessments. These metrics and systems were designed to put order and value in our minuscule lives. And well, where would we be without them?
But if there’s one thing we at sonsofmontezuma.com selfishly enjoy, it’s finding a way to highlight our SDSU Aztecs when they measure well in these rankings among our peers. After all, Aztecs football is on an unprecedented run of success at the D1 level.
This 2022 recruiting class totaled 17 student athletes. When it comes to composite rankings in recruiting, our source is 247.com. So let’s look at the final numbers of this year’s Mountain West football recruiting class.
2022 Recruit M-West Football Team Rankings
| Rank | Team | Total | 4-Star | 3-Star | Avg | Points |
| 1 | Boise State | 20 | 1 | 19 | 84.16 | 170.81 |
| 2 | San Diego State | 17 | 0 | 16 | 84.40 | 161.66 |
| 3 | Fresno State | 19 | 0 | 16 | 83.64 | 154.04 |
| 4 | Utah State | 22 | 0 | 19 | 82.25 | 149.11 |
| 5 | San Jose State | 17 | 0 | 14 | 82.71 | 140.17 |
| 6 | Colorado State | 14 | 0 | 12 | 84.00 | 136.73 |
| 7 | New Mexico | 24 | 0 | 10 | 80.15 | 121.82 |
| 8 | Wyoming | 17 | 1 | 8 | 81.92 | 119.01 |
| 9 | UNLV | 10 | 0 | 9 | 83.58 | 118.39 |
| 10 | Air Force | 44 | 0 | 8 | 81.67 | 109.18 |
| 11 | Nevada | 13 | 0 | 7 | 82.02 | 97.32 |
| 12 | Hawai’i | 12 | 0 | 5 | 81.24 | 64.34 |
For the 2nd straight season SDSU football can boast the claim for having the #1 Recruiting class in the Mountain West Conference. This is a statement that can be debated, but ultimately not refuted.
But you may ask, how Sons of Monty? While someone can easily look over the Mountain West 2022 recruiting rankings and see SDSU at the #2 spot, this final listing as depicted is not entirely accurate.
For each team every recruiting class is different, regardless of Conference affiliation. Graduation was the usual cause of players moving on from a team, dictating the amount of recruits needed for a football program the following year. These days the new transfer portal allows players immediate eligibility one time in their college career (before playing as a graduate student) and has begun to change the way recruiting classes look and feel.
Roster needs in a recruiting class vary for a list of reasons—whether by graduation, transfer portal, or coaching changes. Players come & go and each team has a different total amount of scholarships available each year. However, there are always teams that sit at the top despite large or small classes.
The point is, when the rankings are finalized, we see composite scores that take into account more scholarships available as favorable to that score. What we at Sons of Montezuma focus on instead, tells more of the story. The team with the highest average of their class only—despite amount of players. In other words, quality not quantity.
Ranking the team with the highest average only, sets the Aztecs up top at #1 and does so for the first time.
No doubt the additions at the official signing day of Hassan Mahasin and Josh Hunter helped to maintain and even boost the Aztecs quality. Unfortunately, the 247 rankings don’t reflect it, but perhaps SDSU’s score would be an outright #1 in all categories if phenom RB Lucky Sutton was rewarded accurately with his amazing senior season boosting him to a 4 star rating that some experts agree on.
Now this simple viewpoint of an article is not to diminish the work of other opponents in the league. It is no secret that the perception of that school in Idaho still sways minds of young recruits and that they have ranked at the top of the Mountain West consistently since joining the league. But as we look towards the future, SDSU has now earned such consistency that they now too are claiming the top spots that once were not the case.
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According to the overall composite Mountain West rankings that 247.com provides, since 2011 San Diego State has ranked in the Top-3 four times—Top-2 five times—and last year for the first time #1.
According to the highest average player rankings, since 2011 San Diego State has finished in the Top-3 two times—Top-2 five times and this year for the first time #1.
When looking at this history in both categories, San Diego State has just begun to turn a corner in their quest for Mountain West domination. With all of this improvement achieved, it’s key to remember that not one game in the new Snapdragon Stadium has been played yet.
In fact, quite the opposite. Not having an SDSU game played in San Diego County for two seasons and still being able to rank at the top of the conference is just the beginning. The forecast looks bright with what coach Brady Hoke and his coaching staff, along with director of player personnel Matt Razzano can do with the addition of a new state of the art stadium at their disposal.
“I haven’t been back to the stadium in a couple months. I really want to take the team back out there, … maybe in position groups” said coach Hoke when asked last week about how the stadium has and will impact recruiting. “I do want to see the locker room. I’m excited about two scoreboards diagonally. There’s no doubt you’re gonna use that as a tool.”
