A few post-Signing Day 2017 class notes. Can try to answer any questions folks have about events that occurred during the first half of the '17 cycle as well.
-Defensive line recruiting may have been the most interesting part of Stanford's 2017 class. The Cardinal offered a handful of defensive line prospects early in the cycle when Randy Hart was still on staff: Wade-Perry, Johnson, CJ Thorpe, Martin Andrus, Donovan Jeter. Early spring, however, and the Cardinal really honed in on Ryan Johnson. Johnson visited for Stanford's early-April Junior Day, and the Cardinal felt he was a strong fit.
This comment - which I did not publish - from our post-visit interview was a bit of an eye-opener.
"(Stanford) was telling me that I'm on the top of their board for the d-line," Johnson said. "They were saying I'm either going to be their one d-linemen they're taking this year or they're not taking any."
And... Johnson was right. This was not a case of a prospect misrepresenting or misunderstanding his position with a program. That really was the Cardinal's feeling at that point.
The situation started to change over the next month or so, during the spring evaluation period. That was Diron Reynolds' first opportunity to go on the road and evaluate Stanford's DL targets. He really liked what he saw from Dalyn Wade-Perry. The Cardinal got Dalyn on campus for Junior Day in late May, and from that point forward Stanford's 2017 DL offer board was pretty solidly Dalyn and Ryan.
And, clearly, the numbers worked out so that Stanford was able to land both players.
(Stanford felt good about their standing with Dalyn pending admissions for quite a while. I think there was optimism surrounding Ryan - heard back in September that the commits thought Stanford would land him - but certainly some uncertainty given the dynamics of that recruitment. I.e. highly-ranked Alabama kid who grew up rooting for Auburn with an Auburn offer. Texas was also a threat, as were who knows how many of the other 60ish offers he had.)
-Texas athlete McLane Mannix committed to Vanderbilt in June, but he was actually a secret visitor at Stanford's Friday Night Lights camp in July. (Well, he worked out for the coaches on that day.) The Cardinal viewed him as a running back possibility (perhaps with some sort of role in the passing game as well). Apparently he really did impress - even more than a kid named Billy McCrary from Texas who got a looong look from Stanford but ended up at Cal a few years ago. If Stanford had to go to Plan B/C at RB, McLane would have gotten a look. Interestingly enough, McLane ended up signing with Nevada rather than Vandy. (On a related note, Stanford, or at least folks I spoke with, did not expect Christian McCaffrey back for his senior year even prior to the beginning of the '16 season.)
-I don't know how the Jaelan Phillips saga concluded. But some background from the earlier months. As one might suspect given the recently published article noting Jaelan was actually on the phone to commit to Stanford before having second thoughts, the Cardinal was very, very confident they would get him at one point. Apparently Jaelan communicated that he was 99 percent in. (And, per the report, seconds away from 100 percent.) And Stanford loved him. Way back in early April, before the scouting services really realized what an elite player he was, unprompted, a source down in the Stanford neck of the woods asked me how the heck he wasn't a top-five prospect nationally on Rivals. So his commitment to UCLA really did sting. In the months following the UCLA pick, there was a pattern of sorts that emerged. Several weeks of relative pessimism followed by something to keep hope alive - maybe Jaelan would call, or there would be something relatively positive with the family. And that's kind of where I left things - clearly not looking great, but enough glimmers of hope to keep trying.
-Again, kind of goes without saying, but Stanford felt confident about getting Elijah Molden for several months there. Not sure what all happened.
-Obviously the conclusion to the Leonard Warner recruitment seems a bit odd (and I still don't know what happened), but as of like August/September it didn't even seem like it would get to that point. Stanford literally had a hard time reaching him at times - like, messages would go un-returned. Which is not usually a good sign. I did see an interview where Leonard commented that he lost his phone or something along those lines, but couple the communication challenges with the lack of any pre-January visit and it sure seemed like Stanford faced stiff odds to land him.
-Defensive line recruiting may have been the most interesting part of Stanford's 2017 class. The Cardinal offered a handful of defensive line prospects early in the cycle when Randy Hart was still on staff: Wade-Perry, Johnson, CJ Thorpe, Martin Andrus, Donovan Jeter. Early spring, however, and the Cardinal really honed in on Ryan Johnson. Johnson visited for Stanford's early-April Junior Day, and the Cardinal felt he was a strong fit.
This comment - which I did not publish - from our post-visit interview was a bit of an eye-opener.
"(Stanford) was telling me that I'm on the top of their board for the d-line," Johnson said. "They were saying I'm either going to be their one d-linemen they're taking this year or they're not taking any."
And... Johnson was right. This was not a case of a prospect misrepresenting or misunderstanding his position with a program. That really was the Cardinal's feeling at that point.
The situation started to change over the next month or so, during the spring evaluation period. That was Diron Reynolds' first opportunity to go on the road and evaluate Stanford's DL targets. He really liked what he saw from Dalyn Wade-Perry. The Cardinal got Dalyn on campus for Junior Day in late May, and from that point forward Stanford's 2017 DL offer board was pretty solidly Dalyn and Ryan.
And, clearly, the numbers worked out so that Stanford was able to land both players.
(Stanford felt good about their standing with Dalyn pending admissions for quite a while. I think there was optimism surrounding Ryan - heard back in September that the commits thought Stanford would land him - but certainly some uncertainty given the dynamics of that recruitment. I.e. highly-ranked Alabama kid who grew up rooting for Auburn with an Auburn offer. Texas was also a threat, as were who knows how many of the other 60ish offers he had.)
-Texas athlete McLane Mannix committed to Vanderbilt in June, but he was actually a secret visitor at Stanford's Friday Night Lights camp in July. (Well, he worked out for the coaches on that day.) The Cardinal viewed him as a running back possibility (perhaps with some sort of role in the passing game as well). Apparently he really did impress - even more than a kid named Billy McCrary from Texas who got a looong look from Stanford but ended up at Cal a few years ago. If Stanford had to go to Plan B/C at RB, McLane would have gotten a look. Interestingly enough, McLane ended up signing with Nevada rather than Vandy. (On a related note, Stanford, or at least folks I spoke with, did not expect Christian McCaffrey back for his senior year even prior to the beginning of the '16 season.)
-I don't know how the Jaelan Phillips saga concluded. But some background from the earlier months. As one might suspect given the recently published article noting Jaelan was actually on the phone to commit to Stanford before having second thoughts, the Cardinal was very, very confident they would get him at one point. Apparently Jaelan communicated that he was 99 percent in. (And, per the report, seconds away from 100 percent.) And Stanford loved him. Way back in early April, before the scouting services really realized what an elite player he was, unprompted, a source down in the Stanford neck of the woods asked me how the heck he wasn't a top-five prospect nationally on Rivals. So his commitment to UCLA really did sting. In the months following the UCLA pick, there was a pattern of sorts that emerged. Several weeks of relative pessimism followed by something to keep hope alive - maybe Jaelan would call, or there would be something relatively positive with the family. And that's kind of where I left things - clearly not looking great, but enough glimmers of hope to keep trying.
-Again, kind of goes without saying, but Stanford felt confident about getting Elijah Molden for several months there. Not sure what all happened.
-Obviously the conclusion to the Leonard Warner recruitment seems a bit odd (and I still don't know what happened), but as of like August/September it didn't even seem like it would get to that point. Stanford literally had a hard time reaching him at times - like, messages would go un-returned. Which is not usually a good sign. I did see an interview where Leonard commented that he lost his phone or something along those lines, but couple the communication challenges with the lack of any pre-January visit and it sure seemed like Stanford faced stiff odds to land him.
