[CTcard]

[quote author=Spiny_Norman link=topic=9617.msg122477#msg122477 date=1437438878]
This comment stood out (emphasis is mine).

"Every time I explain to my friends or people that randomly come up to me, congratulate me, everybody knows Stanford," Edmonds said. "Everybody knows how great of a school it is academically and athletically. "

Here we see the Harbaugh/Shaw effect.  Stanford football is building a national brand with recognition among top recruits that would have seemed impossible previously...

Imagine when Andrew Luck committed back in 2007. I have to believe that most people in Texas responded with something like, why the hell are you going there? In 2015, however, kids are congratulated for committing. People view Stanford for what it is -- the Holy Grail.
[/quote]

Let's not get too carried away here.

It's clearly getting easier to recruit - pretty obviously success breeds success in an enterprise like this.

However, Stanford was never chopped liver and it still isn't the Holy Grail for all football players.

Folks like Edmonds and Luck would always have heard positive reinforcement about Stanford.
Edmonds attends a well-established private boarding school in Tennessee that sends a lot of kids to top universities.
While I am not certain what folks across Texas had to say, no one at Stratford High School in Houston was going to be shocked that their valedictorian would choose Stanford over other universities (and Luck's final six included Purdue, Rice, UVa, Northwestern, Alabama - only one football power (at that time)).


Stanford's always had the potential to be THE destination for academically inclined football players, much as it is THE destination for academically inclined athletes in many sports. It's pretty great that Stanford finally starting to more fully take advantage of that potential.

[CTcard]

[quote author=Spiny_Norman link=topic=9617.msg122477#msg122477 date=1437438878]
This comment stood out (emphasis is mine).

"Every time I explain to my friends or people that randomly come up to me, congratulate me, everybody knows Stanford," Edmonds said. "Everybody knows how great of a school it is academically and athletically. "

Here we see the Harbaugh/Shaw effect.  Stanford football is building a national brand with recognition among top recruits that would have seemed impossible previously...

Imagine when Andrew Luck committed back in 2007. I have to believe that most people in Texas responded with something like, why the hell are you going there? In 2015, however, kids are congratulated for committing. People view Stanford for what it is -- the Holy Grail.
[/quote]

Let's not get too carried away here.

It's clearly getting easier to recruit - pretty obviously success breeds success in an enterprise like this.

However, Stanford was never chopped liver and it still isn't the Holy Grail for all football players.

Folks like Edmonds and Luck would always have heard positive reinforcement about Stanford.
Edmonds attends a well-established private boarding school in Tennessee that sends a lot of kids to top universities.
While I am not certain what folks across Texas had to say, no one at Stratford High School in Houston was going to be shocked that their valedictorian would choose Stanford over other universities (and Luck's final six included Purdue, Rice, UVa, Northwestern, Alabama - only one football power (at that time)).


Stanford's always had the potential to be THE destination for academically inclined football players, much as it is THE destination for academically inclined athletes in many sports. It's pretty great that Stanford finally starting to more fully take advantage of that potential.