[Hulk01]

This would have been an even stronger class but it was an epicly bad year for Western high school seniors. 

That hurt us on the OL.  In 2012 we landed five-stars OLs Garnett (Washington) and Murphy (Cal), plus four-star Fanaika from Utah.  This year Casey Tucker was the only elite OL prospect West of Texas with any chance of Stanford admissions.  That left us heavily prospecting for OLs in Maryland (Mustipher), New Jersey (Nelson),  Florida (Cole), North Carolina (Spain), Ohio (Dalton) and Iowa (Pierschbacher).  Those are tough areas to recruit for us.  But it’s also a sign of Stanford’s strength that we flat-out passed on two four-star OLs with good offers (Gibbons and Mike).

I don’t have a read on OLs in the West for this next class except for Luke Kaumatule’s brother, who I assume becomes an elite left tackle and a star of our 2015 class---pending admissions, of course, but the Kaumatules are workhorses.  Canton will retake the ACT seven times if he has to.
Hoge is a stretch for us fit-wise (I have contacts on this one).

We faced a similar challenge for DBs this year.  No Sua Cravens in the West this year, so we worked Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.  Simmons and Alexander are clear four-star prospects and Murphy, Holder, and Tucker all are hammers in the Mason style, great and aggressive tacklers who can stick with guys.  (Franklin is a mystery).  And we still are in play for Kendall Randolph, another four-star Floridian.

And regardless, the 2015 DB class looks great for Stanford.  We’re in excellent shape for four or five DBs ranked in the top 150 players in the class. 

OL (Barnett from Oklahoma) and power back (Soko Jamabo out of Plano Texas may be RB 1) are the positions to watch. Plus we will want two good receivers in this class, particularly if Trevon Lee sticks close to his Florida home and chooses Duke or Vanderbilt.  But those schools really aren’t that close to Lee’s family and he and his family draw the same line between Stanford and those two schools that we alums do.  But here too, we have a great start with four top 200 WRs in 2015 (Christian Kirk (AZ) and C.J. Sanders (buddy of Shuler and from same prep school) if we fail to land Lee.

There’s ample evidence that everyone but Randolph and Lee is a silent verbal and strong evidence that everyone will clear. 

As for Alijah Holder not being Jabrill Peppers, that's part of the good news.

[Hulk01]

This would have been an even stronger class but it was an epicly bad year for Western high school seniors. 

That hurt us on the OL.  In 2012 we landed five-stars OLs Garnett (Washington) and Murphy (Cal), plus four-star Fanaika from Utah.  This year Casey Tucker was the only elite OL prospect West of Texas with any chance of Stanford admissions.  That left us heavily prospecting for OLs in Maryland (Mustipher), New Jersey (Nelson),  Florida (Cole), North Carolina (Spain), Ohio (Dalton) and Iowa (Pierschbacher).  Those are tough areas to recruit for us.  But it’s also a sign of Stanford’s strength that we flat-out passed on two four-star OLs with good offers (Gibbons and Mike).

I don’t have a read on OLs in the West for this next class except for Luke Kaumatule’s brother, who I assume becomes an elite left tackle and a star of our 2015 class---pending admissions, of course, but the Kaumatules are workhorses.  Canton will retake the ACT seven times if he has to.
Hoge is a stretch for us fit-wise (I have contacts on this one).

We faced a similar challenge for DBs this year.  No Sua Cravens in the West this year, so we worked Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.  Simmons and Alexander are clear four-star prospects and Murphy, Holder, and Tucker all are hammers in the Mason style, great and aggressive tacklers who can stick with guys.  (Franklin is a mystery).  And we still are in play for Kendall Randolph, another four-star Floridian.

And regardless, the 2015 DB class looks great for Stanford.  We’re in excellent shape for four or five DBs ranked in the top 150 players in the class. 

OL (Barnett from Oklahoma) and power back (Soko Jamabo out of Plano Texas may be RB 1) are the positions to watch. Plus we will want two good receivers in this class, particularly if Trevon Lee sticks close to his Florida home and chooses Duke or Vanderbilt.  But those schools really aren’t that close to Lee’s family and he and his family draw the same line between Stanford and those two schools that we alums do.  But here too, we have a great start with four top 200 WRs in 2015 (Christian Kirk (AZ) and C.J. Sanders (buddy of Shuler and from same prep school) if we fail to land Lee.

There’s ample evidence that everyone but Randolph and Lee is a silent verbal and strong evidence that everyone will clear. 

As for Alijah Holder not being Jabrill Peppers, that's part of the good news.