Northern Colorado’s Ed Lamb looks at 22-player signing day class for 2024
The eight football players who signed letters last Wednesday to play at the University of Northern Colorado are part of a class dominated by Colorado athletes, and they are a group second-year Bears coach Ed Lamb said can play at the highest level of Division I.
The eight who signed on National Signing Day are among 22 joining the program with 18 from Colorado as part of a promise and priority laid out by Lamb when he was hired in December 2022. Two other players in the class are from Arizona, and there is one each from Utah and California.
UNC signed 13 players in late December on the first day of the three-day early signing period.
National Signing Day for college football is historically the first Wednesday in February. Prospective athletes have through April 1 to sign for Division I football and through Aug. 1 for Division II, according to the recruiting platform and nonprofit Next College Student Athlete.
The Bears’ top-ranked recruit is 6-foot-6, 323-pound offensive lineman Lincoln Fa’apouli Jr. from Fountain and Fountain-fort Carson High School, according to online recruiting websites. Fa’apouli Jr. signed in December.
One of four Fountainfort Carson High players to sign with UNC for 2024, Fa’apouli is listed as the 22nd-ranked recruit in Colorado and 219th nationally at his position by the website 247Sports. The website reported Fa’apouli had offers from Central Michigan and Kansas, which are
Football Bowl Subdivision programs.
UNC plays in the Football Championship Subdivision level of Division I, which has traditionally been considered a lower level in Division I. An FCS school beating an FBS program is definitely noteworthy, depending on the schools involved, but not as much of a surprise today as in the past.
Appalachian State was the top-ranked team in FCS when it defeated FBS No. 5 Michigan at Michigan Stadium in 2007.
FBS schools are typically larger universities and offer up to 85 scholarships compared with 63 for FCS schools. Until 2014, FBS programs didn’t participate in a playoff to determine a national champion and instead relied on a bowl system and voting of coaches and media.
When asked if Fa’apouli could play for an FBS program, Lamb said he believes all 22 signees can play at that level.
“We are not going to win the Big Sky (Conference) without getting Fbscaliber players all over the field,” Lamb said Wednesday during a news conference. “This league is too difficult. Big Sky champion every year can slide right in the Mountain West Conference and compete with Fbs-caliber players, and that’s absolutely our goal.”
Lamb added there is no shortage of FBS players in Colorado or the U.S.
“It’s just finding the guys who are still left for us,” he said. “There’s a lot of work involved in that. But I absolutely believe in all of these players’ ability to do that (play at FBS level).”
One of the 22 signees will not be with the Bears later this year. Lamb said wide receiver Tyton Slade is expected to go on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints mission this fall. Slade is from ALA Gilbert High School in Gilbert, Arizona.
All eight of the signees Wednesday will join the Bears from high school programs. Thirteen of the 14 players who signed in December were high school players last fall.
The exception is wide receiver River Stout, who came to UNC from Moorpark College in California. He is originally from Westminster and Mountain Range High School.
“He helps us build that regional cohesiveness that I think is going to be such a key for us building this program moving forward,” Lamb said.
Stout, offensive lineman Trace Edmundson from Legacy High School (Broomfield) and strong safety Myles Mcclarity from Fountain-fort Carson High have enrolled in classes and are on campus.
Fa’apouli Jr. and running back Mathias Price from Fountain-fort Carson were also among the December signees. Wide receiver Keenan Campbell signed Wednesday to complete the Fountain to Greeley contingent.
“They got a lot of really good athletes down there,” Lamb said. “I think when some of these guys decided, Mathias made his decision pretty early and from what I gather, he started to recruit the other guys.”
UNC also signed two players from Eaglecrest High School in Aurora — free safety Cam Chapa and corner Cory Jackson — and two from Green Mountain High School in Lakewood
— linebacker Blake Weslin and offensive lineman Colton Patterson.
In the 22-player class by position, the UNC coaching staff brought in seven defensive backs (four cornerbacks, three safeties), four wide receivers and four offensive linemen. The Bears also added two linebackers, two tight ends, a defensive lineman, a long snapper and a running back.
The long snapper signee is Laveatu’u Tuiaki from Mountain View High in Orem, Utah. Lamb said Tuiaki “is like a nephew to me” because Lamb has known Tuiaki since he was a boy. Lamb coached with Tuiaki’s father, Iiaisa, at Brigham Young University, and their families are close.
“I know what he’ll add to what we’re trying to build here,” Lamb said of Laveatu’u Tuiaki. “He was certainly a fit.”
Ilaisa Tuiaki played at Southern Utah and graduated in 2006, two years before Lamb became the Thunderbirds’ head coach. Tuiaki is now the defensive line coach at Oregon State.
Lamb addressed the positions of the players signed for 2024 as the coaching staff “going after the best fits for our program.” He emphasized UNC is based on player development with some of Lamb’s criteria for athletes being height (length), speed and GPA. The shortest player in the 2024 class is 5-11 cornerback Marvin Williams from Watts, California.
Lamb said “11 or 12” players transferred out of UNC after last season. He said the number is high for him as a coach but a “fairly small” total by the standard of college football today.