Weber State University football coach Jay Hill and the rest of the program spent National Signing Day hosting an event at Stewart Stadium to announce the new additions to the Big Sky Champs.

WSU is bringing in 20 new players, all of whom hail from the west coast. The class was highlighted by several highly-sought-after wide receivers and players with illustrious high school careers in Utah.

Hill said, “Give me a couple years and I’ll tell you exactly how good the class was. I know one thing, we are super excited about the guys we got signed.”

Going into recruiting, the coaching staff saw points of emphasis, but the two main ones were getting deeper and bigger at the wide receiver position and enhancing the offensive line.

The class included three offensive lineman in George Barrera from Boise, Idaho, Chris Faaumu, who is coming to WSU after attending Cerritos Community College and Trevor Szilagyi, courtesy of Monument, Colorado.

Hill said, “We had a hole at offensive line and we needed to get three really good players in here and I think we’ve done that. We had a hole at WR and we needed to get a couple guys in here.”

The biggest name in the class for the Wildcats is wide receiver Devon Cooley, who attended the high school football powerhouse St. John Bosco. After Cooley left St. John Bosco, he attended Buena Park High School in California. Cooley was once committed to UCLA and held offers from Oregon, Boise State and Arizona, among others, before choosing to come to Ogden.

“Cooley obviously having been committed to UCLA has the ability to be something really special. If he comes in and he’s focused and in shape then he is probably a guy that can help us right away,” Hill said.

WSU also got a commitment from WR A.J. Allen, who had an offer from the University of Colorado. Both Allen and Cooley are at least 6’1″ and can make an impact on the offensive side on the ball.

Allen and Cooley both played together at Buena Park high school, signing their letters of intent at the same time.

Hill said, “A.J was committed to Colorado and he’s the same thing. When the coach left their high school they ended up parting ways and coming back together after the football season.”

American Fork quarterback Bronson Barron, now of the Wildcats, is one of the two quarterbacks coming to Ogden. Barron was consistently ranked as one of the best quarterbacks in the state of Utah while in high school.

The other quarterback in the class is Kylan Weisser, out of Notre Dame Prep in Glendale, Arizona. He was one of the highest-rated passers in Arizona while also showing his value as a punter.

Barron is not the only contested Utah player to choose the Wildcats. Weber State is the school of choice of defensive lineman Easton Payne, who was also highly recruited by Southern Utah University.

Hill considers this one of his best classes, and he credits it as a result of high level recruiting and the improvements the football team has made in recent years.

Hill added, “You never quite know exactly how they pan out and what they end up becoming but, on paper this looks like a really strong class.”

When the early signing period hit, there was not very much news on recruiting coming out of Ogden. Really, the only news was the lack of commitments the Wildcats had secured.

Hill said, “We didn’t sign very many players on purpose, I could of pushed a lot of the guys to sign early, but a lot of the other players that we were recruiting at the time had a lot of other FBS type schools recruiting them so they wouldn’t have committed then anyway.”