Even though National Signing Day was over a week ago the Wyoming staff is still busy putting the finishing touches on their 2012 recruiting class. The Cowboys hosted at least visitors this weekend and one them signed on their visit. They added some more local talent to the team.

The newest addition to the Cowboys is 5'10 188lb CB BJ Hendrix from Rochester Community and Technical College. The Pokes went the JUCO route to help boost their depth in the secondary. Luckily Hendrix will have three years of eligibility remaining since he only played one year at Rochester. Originally Hendrix had planned on signing with FCS level Northern Iowa till the Pokes offered him right before signing day. He decided to hold off and make his decision after taking a visit to Laramie. He must have liked what he saw because he signed on Sunday.

Hendrix is certainly fast with 4.43 speed. He finished the year with 43 tackles, 14 pass breakups and six interceptions in 12 games. He played his high school at O'Fallon HS in Illinois before heading up to Minnesota for school. He is currently not rated by any recruiting services.

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Please join us for the open thread that will be up at 10 AM Mountain time. We'll be talking about the 2012 recruiting class through 4pm today. Stop by and give us your thoughts on the group and who you think will make a big impact.

National Signing Day is finally here for college football fans. After a crazy couple of months we will finally know which players will end up in the Brown and Gold. Stay tuned to Cowboy Altitude all day as we will have updates throughout the day and a live chat starting at 10am MST.

Check out our recruiting section for previous articles on commits and their highlight videos.

Here is a break down of the projected 2012 recruiting class. We've included their "star" rating if they have been graded by Rivals, Scout or ESPN. Just because a player doesn't have a rating yet or has a low star rating doesn't mean they aren't a good recruit. There are thousands of athletes out there and the services simply can't rate every single athlete by signing day. Right now we have a list of 22 recruits that will sign with Wyoming. There could be another named added to the list or someone could end up elsewhere.

SIGNED - Enrolled already this semester

PLAYERS SIGNING TODAY - OFFENSE

• QB Jason Thompson, 6-3, 195, Renton, WA (Kennedy HS) - Two Stars
• QB Tommy Thornton, 6-1, 210, Tempe, AZ (Macros De Niza HS) - Two Stars
  
• WR Trent Sewell, 6-2, 205, Bothell, WA (Bothell HS) - Three Stars
• WR Nico Brown, 6-2, 190, Leander, TX (Leander HS) - Two Stars
  
• RB Shawn Wick, 5-11, 190, Ventura, CA (St. Bonaventure HS) - Two Stars
• RB D.J. May, 5-11, 190, Federal Way, WA (Federal Way HS) - Two Stars
• OL Chase Roullier, 6-4, 290, Burnsville, MN (Burnsville HS) - Two Stars
  
• OL Jacob English, 6-6, 240, Beloit, KS (Beloit HS) - Two Stars
• OL Nathan Leddige, 6-6, 285, Beaverton, OR (Southridge HS) - NA
  
• OL Walker Madden, 6-9, 270, Yucca Valley, CA (College of the Desert) - NA

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The countdown to National Signing Day continues here at Cowboy Altitude. There is plenty to update you on after another weekend of visits. The biggest news comes from a very familiar name to recruiting followers.

According to Robert Gagliardi the latest commit for the Cowboys is former commit LB Lucas Wacha from Pleasant Grove HS in Texarkana, TX. If you are a message board follower then you are probably familiar with the news that the Pokes withdrew their offer according to a poster from Texarkana. If that did happen then Lucas certainly kept it to himself. According to his twitter account Wacha was in Laramie this weekend and Wyoming offered him last week. The only ones who really know what happened are Wacha, his family and the Wyoming coaches. Glad he will end up a Cowboy after all.

Scout is now reporting that QB Tommy Thornton from Marcos de Niza HS (AZ) committed to Wyoming after visiting this weekend. That now gives the Pokes two quarterbacks for this recruiting class.

It looks like the Cowboys have had so much success at recruiting linemen this year that they will actually use a greyshirt. Austin Tixier from Prospect HS (IL) has accepted a grayshirt offer from the Cowboys. That means he will enroll as a part-time student this fall at Wyoming. Then he will be given a scholarship in the winter of 2013 which is when enroll full time and his eligibility will start. He is following that same route that current Cowboy OL Nick Carlson took when he came to Wyoming.

The 6-foot-3, 242-pound Tixier had 8 sacks, 24 quarterback pressures, 5 forced fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries last fall as the Knights made the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season.

He also had scholarship offers from Football Championship Subdivision school South Dakota and Division II Grand Valley State. Tixier said Western Illinois, Southern Illinois and North Dakota were among other schools which showed interest.

"South Dakota is an awesome program and it was very tempting," Tixier said. "I wanted to play at a (BCS) school. Wyoming had a lot of great things to offer and I decided to go that route."

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The continued recruiting of Washington State has paid off again for the Cowboys. This news comes from Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times.

While the Huskies were gaining a kicker last night they were reportedly losing a legacy recruit.

Dawgman had the details on the news that Jason Thompson, a Kennedy High senior and the brother of Everrette Thompson, has decommitted and will instead sign with Wyoming, where he can play quarterback. Washington had recruited Thompson with the idea he would play safety. But he said Wyoming offered him as a QB this week and he decided to pursue his dream of playing quarterback at the next level.

Obviously you can tell that Thompson is very serious about playing QB in college and not moving to defense. He is giving up the opportunity to play with his brother at a PAC 12 school. He chose UW over UW. Bad pun intended. Thompson is a 6-3 195lbs dual threat QB with a two star rating from Rivals.

With the loss of Adam Pittser the Cowboys certainly needed to add at least one quarterback in this class. They may have another addition as well.

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Less than a week till signing day and there is still work till be done. Wyoming picked up another commitment this week on the offensive side. WR Nico Brown from Leander HS in Leander, TX is the latest commit. This is certainly a position that the Cowboys were looking to add depth with this class. Brown is an interesting athlete because he has some great tools but is also sort of a mystery. Scout has him listed as 6'4 200lbs with a two star rating. It also shows that he has offers from Arizona, Houston, Kansas State and Missouri. Certainly a very solid group of schools and even better that he chose Wyoming.

Rivals doesn't have him in their database yet. 247 has him listed as 6'2 190 with an offer from Houston but no rating. So there appears to be some dispute on how tall he is right now. Either way he has great size and caught the attention of some big programs. We scoured the internet for video highlights but came up empty. I'm sure the school will post a video of him after signing day.

There was some other bad news that did happen to Wyoming recruiting class.

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The Cowboys were looking for another defensive end to add to this recruiting class and looks like they found their man. Sam Awrabi is a 6-3 230lb defensive end from Clovis East HS in Clovis, CA and is the latest commit for the Cowboys. Awrabi carries a three star rating from all the recruiting services like Rivals, Scout and 247. Rivals is the site confirming that Awrabi has committed to the Cowboys. He also held offers from Washington State and Hawaii.

I was very high on Awrabi when we reported the offer earlier this month and that is still true today. I like his size, motor and his aggressiveness on the field. He certainly hands out some punishment when he is tackling the ball carrier. This another very good get for the Cowboy staff who has had an amazing January with recruiting. Wyoming now has 18 verbal commitments and six of those are rated three stars by Rivals.

Footage of Awrabi from his junior year is posted after the jump.

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Another weekend in January means more recruits taking official visits to Wyoming. We've got some info on two of the athletes that will be taking in the sights this weekend. With signing day just 12 days away it will be a very busy time as the coaching staff looks to complete the recruiting class.

Dawson Housley is a 6-2 215 OLB from Sheldon HS in Eugene, OR. He's rated two stars by Rivals and has an outstanding high school career. Northwest Elite Index confirms that Housley is visiting this weekend and Wyoming is certainly an opportunity he likes. He also has offers from FCS Portland State and Weber State but will not attend either one. His choice comes down to the full ride at Wyoming or taking a preffered walk-on spot with his hometown Oregon Ducks.

Quintaz Struble is a 6'2 235lb three star defensive end from Heritage Hall HS in Oklahoma City, OK that will also be visiting this weekend. He had offers from Arizona and Colorado State earlier but those fell apart when the schools fired their staff. He had 62 tackles and eight sacks in his senior year.

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