Reviewing the 2016 Boise State football recruiting class

[Bronco754]

If the 2017 Boise State football recruiting class was disappointing the 2016 Boise State football recruiting might have been even worse. Here's a review of that 2016 Boise State football team recruiting class as far as the 14 players in that recruiting class who are no longer with the Boise State football team. These 14 former Boise State football players who were a part of the BSU 2016 recruiting class will be listed here in the order of how high they were rated by the 247 Sports.com website:

1. Alexander Mattison - RS - 0.8583 rating by 247 Sports - Mattison played at Boise State for 3 seasons and left after his Junior year to enter the NFL draft in the spring of 2019. He was selected by the Minnesota Vikings at the end of the 3rd round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Mattison played in all 40 games in the three years he was at Boise State including 22 starts at running back for the Broncos. He was named to the 2018 All Mountain West First team after the 2018 season. He rushed for 2,829 yards and had 33 rushing TD's in his three years at BSU.

2. Julian Carter - WR - 0.8496 rating by 247 Sports. Carter was redshirted in 2016 and played in zero games in 2017. He chose to leave Boise State on October 10, 2017. What became of him after he left Boise State is unknown as I could find no record of him after he left.

3. TIE - Desmond Williams - SLB/NB - 0.8366 rating by 247 Sports - He was redshirted in 2016. He played in all 14 games in 2017 including one start - and he made 30 tackles including 2 sacks and 3 TFL. In 2018 He played in all 13 games and made 4 starts. He finished 28 tackles including 5 TFL and he returned a fumble for a TD in the New Mexico game. He announced on December 4, 2018, that he would be transferring out of the Boise State football program. On December 21, 2016, Williams signed to play for Weber State in Utah.
3. TIE - Ali'i Niumatalolo - LB/FB/TE - 0.8366 rating by 247 Sports - Son of NAVY's head coach. He committed to Boise State on 10/20/2015 with the understanding - at that time - that he would be going on his LDS mission first and wouldn't sign on L.O.I. day in February 2016. He then ended up not going on his LDS mission and instead signed to play for Utah and did just that in 2017. He is still on the Ute's roster for 2019. He's played as a Linebacker and a Fullback for them and is now listed as a Tight End.

5. Tyson Maeva - LB - 0.8309 rating by 247 Sports. He played in 12 games in 2016 and all 14 games in 2017 - including 13 starts in his first two years at Boise State. Named to the 2017 All Mountain West Honorable Mention list. In 2018 he started all 12 of the 13 games he played in that season. He was caught in his hotel room prior to the 2018 bowl game with marijuana and was subsequently dismissed from the football team. He later transferred to Florida International University where he will have to redshirt this fall.

6. Derriyon Shaw - LB/STUD DE - 0.8280 rating by 247 Sports. He was redshirted in 2016 and did not play in a single game in both 2017 and 2018. He transferred to Western Illinois after the 2019 Spring Semester at Boise State. My GUESS would be the coaches at Boise State told him he would not be on scholarship next season. But that is a GUESS on my part.

7. Kayode Rufai - DE - He was redshirted in 2016. He played in 9 games in 2017 (6 total tackles). He played in 10 games in 2018 (12 tackles). He left Boise State after the 2018 season and, along with his younger brother Mujeeb Rufai (who was a Freshman at BSU in 2018) transferred to the University of Idaho.

8. Cedrick Wilson - WR - 0.8238 rating by 247 Sports. 2016 J.C. transfer. He had 2 outstanding seasons at Boise State in 2016 and 2017. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys with the 208th overall pick (6th round) in 2018.

9. Reid Harrison-Ducros - CB - 0.8225 rating by 247 Sports. He played in 10 games as a True Freshman in 2016 (9 total tackles). He started the first 4 games in 2017 but lost the starting job after that. He announced he would be leaving Boise State on November 2017 (before the season was over). He transferred to Duquesne University. He played in 12 games there last fall and was 10th on that team in total tackles last season.

10. Jake Constantine - QB - 0.8200 rating by 247 Sports. He redshirted at BSU in 2016. Just days before the start of the 2017 football season he transferred to Ventura Junior College in CA. Where he ended up being their starting QB in 2017 and he earned 1st Team All-California Junior College honors. He then transferred to Weber State for the 2018 season - in which he started 11 games and he led Weber State to their 2nd straight Big Sky Championship. He will be a Senior for Weber State next fall.

11. Robert Lewis - CB - 0.8121 rating by 247 Sports. He was redshirted in 2016 and played in zero games in 2017. In 2018 he played in 10 games but made only 2 total tackles. In the spring of 2019 he was arrested on a D.U.I. charge and was subsequently dismissed from the team.

12. Daniel Auelua - DT - 0.8093 rating by 247 Sports. He was a 2016 Junior College transfer from Mesa Community College in Arizona. He played in 13 games for Boise State in 2016 as a reserve DT and made 9 total tackles that season. He played in 12 games in 2017, again as a reserve DT at BSU, and he recorded 11 total tackles that season.

13. Austin Dixon - OT - Redshirted in 2016. He played in zero games in 2017 and only 4 games in 2018. It was announced in April 2019 that he would not be returning for the 2019 season (as a RS JR) as he was graduating (after only 3 years). Bottom line is he played in only 4 games in three years.

14. Christian Blaser - WR - Not rated by 247 Sports. Blaser, a local area player, walked-on at Boise State in 2016. He played in zero games in 2017 but despite that he was listed as a 2nd string WR on the Boise State fall 2018 depth chart. Shortly thereafter however his name was unceremoniously removed from the Boise State team roster for reasons unknown to me (no stories at all in the media here about it). Turns out he transferred to Eastern Oregon and was mentioned in their press release regarding Eastern Oregon's 2019 recruiting class.

 

[Boise4Life]

The Desmond Williams thing pisses me off. I was a huge fan. That kid of was SOLID and came up big in crucial situations. With how light we are at LB if he wouldn’t have started he would have played extensively this season. Would also like to thank Maeva for blowing his opportunity and further thinning out the LB corps. He had been in trouble prior to the weed smoking at the bowl game, so that was obviously the last straw. Lastly thank you RHD for bailing. Again dude would have played extensively last season and started this one at our second thinnest position, DB. But Avery ultimately took his starting job so rather than staying in it and competing he took his ball and went home with it.

 

[Bronco754]

The Desmond Williams thing pisses me off. I was a huge fan. That kid of was SOLID and came up big in crucial situations. With how light we are at LB if he wouldn’t have started he would have played extensively this season. Would also like to thank Maeva for blowing his opportunity and further thinning out the LB corps. He had been in trouble prior to the weed smoking at the bowl game, so that was obviously the last straw. Lastly thank you RHD for bailing. Again dude would have played extensively last season and started this one at our second thinnest position, DB. But Avery ultimately took his starting job so rather than staying in it and competing he took his ball and went home with it.

I think it's important to remember that these are YOUNG people. And young people often make rash or foolish decisions. More so today, it seems, than as little as ten or twenty years ago. Also our society has evolved (or DE-evolved) into a ME FIRST society it seems, i.e., Facebook (narcisism central), Twitter, etc., all contribute to that IMO. But I digress.

That having been said the one that irritated me the most would have been Jake Constantine as he left Boise State literally DAYS before the season began in the fall of 2017. He was in the 2017 Boise State fall camp and roughly one week before the season began he simply left for Ventura Junior College for gawd's sake. And he's done well at both Ventura J.C. and at Weber State so he clearly could have done well here at Boise State IF he had stuck with it. He WOULD be the starter at Boise State this season IF he had stayed.