by Stone Harper

Nevada continues to build on a strong class during the period before national signing day. For thousands of high school seniors, Feb. 4 is one of the most important days of their lives. National signing day is the first day that high school athletes can sign letters of intent. National signing day looks to be a huge day for Nevada football but whatever happens on that important day should not take away from what the Wolf Pack have already done during the season in terms of recruiting.

Nevada.247sports.com ranks Nevada’s recruiting class as the 109th best class in the country. Currently Nevada holds commitments from 16 players: one quarterback, two wide receivers, one tight end, two offensive lineman, two defensive lineman, one middle linebacker, two outside linebackers, two safeties, a long snapper and one athlete.

Some of the highest ranking athletes include three-star outside linebacker Kori Collons out of Carmichael, California. Collons attended high school at Jesuit High School and is ranked as the 89th player in the state of California and the 159th best outside linebacker and is rated the 94th best defensive end. The hybrid defender had scholarship offers from San Jose State, Washington State, San Diego State and Oregon, California and Georgia Tech was showing interest in him.

Collons will provide depth to the linebacker position. Both starters Brian Lane Jr. and Matthew Lyons are entering their senior years and will also be able to play defensive end.

Nevada was also able to shore up football’s most important position, the quarterback. This season, the Wolf Pack will have to replace four-year starter and record setting quarterback Cody Fajardo and Nevada may have picked up its quarterback in dual threat Baylor Romney. Romney hails from El Paso, Texas and at 6-foot-2” has the ideal size to play quarterback at the college level. Last season for Franklin High School Romney threw for 2,525 yards and 28 touchdowns while only throwing three interceptions, the dual threat quarterback also shows flash on the ground rushing for 884 yards and 10 touchdowns. Romney will compete with red shirt sophomore Tyler Stewart, sophomore Dante Mayes and Spanish Springs alum Hunter Fralick.

Another developing story from recruiting is the fact that Nevada has been able to keep the top local talent. Last season the Wolf Pack were able to keep the state’s top quarterback in Fralich and this season it is continuing this trend. Nevada scored a commitment from outside linebacker Ricky Thomas who played at McQueen High School; Thomas is the 96th best outside linebacker according to espn.com and is the best player from Reno. The Wolf Pack was also able to land the second best prospect in Reno when Bishop Manogue long snapper Wes Farnsworth committed to the Wolf Pack last June.

While Nevada’s recruiting class has been talented so far the Wolf Pack are still looking to sign a few more prospects. The main prospect still on Nevada’s radar include California athlete Cameron Haney. Haney, who is a consensus three star recruit, still has Nevada high on his list. Haney also has offers from New Mexico, Arizona State and Boise State.

As the race for the top recruits continues, Nevada will be on in attack mode during these last two weeks before signing day. Head coach Brian Polian is known as a recruiting ace. Nevada has already hauled in a very impressive class and hopefully by the end of Wednesday the Wolf Packs haul will become even richer.

Stone Harper can be reached at sharper@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @StoneHarperNVSB.