Terrence Stephens was a one man wrecking crew in helping put together that '09 class.
He really was a force of energy beyond anything I could ever imagine anyone else replicating.
As we think and talk about this class, and what role momentum plays, thought I would share (copy and pasted verbatim) an email which Terrence sent out way back when as he tried to cajole a class together,
Remember, this was sent with Stanford coming off a 1-11 season, and then the 4-8 season, so there was still a lot of work to do in convincing kids that Stanford could go to BCS bowls.
Start of his email:
Dear Jamal, Drew, Joel, Stephan, Jemari, Khalil, and Trent:
First of all, let me introduce everyone to one another:
Jamal Patterson, WR, Georgia
Drew Terrell, WR, Arizona
Joel Gray, Offensive Lineman, Texas
Stephan Taylor, Running Back, Texas
Jemari Roberts, WR, California
Khalil Wilkes, Offensive Lineman, New Jersey
Trent Murphy, DE, Arizona
I am writing to you as a group as you are all very seriously considering Stanford as a place to go to college and play football. In fact, many of you have already finished your Stanford applications. You have all visited Stanford personally and seen first hand Coach Harbaugh's energy, commitment and vision for where he wants to lead the Stanford Football program. He wants players like you to join him and the other '09 commits in PROVING TO THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL WORLD THAT YOU CAN BE SMART AND WIN BCS BOWL GAMES, that it doesn't have to be one or the other.
But everything starts with recruiting. If we want to win the PAC 10 tomorrow, we have to out recruit them today, every single team. And to out recruit them today, and if you are ready, we need your help. We want to show the college football world THAT STANFORD IS CHANGING HOW RECRUITING WORKS, THAT THE TOP KIDS IN THE COUNTRY ARE NOW CHOOSING STANFORD TO PLAY THEIR COLLEGE FOOTBALL. NOT ONLY BECAUSE THEY WANT A STANFORD DEGREE, BUT BECAUSE THEY WANT TO WIN FOOTBALL GAMES WHILE DOING IT.
Already, we have had some enormous success. We have 9 verbals from some of the top ranked kids in the country. But that is not enough for what we want to achieve. We are not done. We need more of you to join us in our mission to be the best team in college football. And if you are seriously considering verballing to Stanford, you can help yourself and STANFORD Football now by deciding to verbal to Stanford sooner rather than later. Decide once and for all that Stanford IS the place you want to play, call the coaches and let them know that you are ready to verbal your commitment to Stanford. I know all of you are ALMOST ready to do it. Talk to one another, your parents, your coaches, your pastor, whomever, but decide and start the WINNING NOW.
If you guys do decide to verbal you will move Stanford one step closer to becoming THE STORY OF ALL COLLEGE FOOTBALL. The 7 of you can make it happen. TELL THE RECRUITING WORLD, "STANFORD TAKES A BACK SEAT TO NO ONE."
If you guys do verbal soon, you will make our GOAL of a BCS BOWL that much possible given your own skills, but also because we can use your verbals to attract our last group of recruits. We have an amazing group of recruits who are considering us, but unlike most of you are still looking at other schools. With your verbals, we will have 17 total and then we can go to that group of recruits with further proof of the change happening at Stanford, that Stanford's '09 class is going to be the best in the country. Just so you know, this next group
includes:
Manti Te'o
Jelani Jenkins
Marlon Brown
Michael Philipp
Xavier Sua Filo
Frankie Telfort
Zeke Motta
Vlad Emilien
As you can see, Stanford is talking to some of the TOP talent in the country. With you 15, we could fill out our '09 class with 24 scholarships and make Stanford the TOP RECRUITING class in the country. You can see how close we are, but we need to get some more momentum going to keep the Harbaugh Express moving. ARE YOU READY TO SHOCK THE FOOTBALL WORLD? Look at the above 15 names on this email, we can win the PAC 10 with all of you. Imagine it, all of us in uniform together hoisting the PAC 10 Trophy together. It can and will happen. But we need you.
Discuss the above amongst yourselves. Simply hit reply all, and delete my name from the email recipient's list so you can talk privately. Discuss what are the things that are keeping you from verballing now, and what are the benefits to deciding to verballing now. Maybe you as a group can help one another decide what to do next, and as a group decide you want to join Stanford's team now. I don't want to be your almost teammate anymore, I want to BE your teammate, and start working together to make our dream true.
A quick story on one of our verbals and admissions. Shayne Skov, the first person to verbal in our class, was offered a scholarship in Coach Harbaugh's office after the UCLA game last September 1st, the first day it was legally possible to offer scholarships to '09s. ON THE SPOT, SHAYNE VERBALLED. HE DID NOT WALK OUT AND TALK TO HIS DAD, CALL ANYONE, NOTHING. HE DID NOT LEAVE COACH'S OFFICE BEFORE VERBALLING. At that point, Shayne had a 3.2 GPA and had not yet even taken the SAT. There was no guarantee that Shayne would be admitted given his background. In fact, many would have considered him a longshot to get in. But after spending time with Coach Harbaugh, Shayne knew he did not want to play for anyone else. And he was going to do whatever it took to get into Stanford and let Coach Harbaugh lead him. This past year, Shayne got the BEST GRADES of his life. He got 4 As and a B while taking 2 AP classes and 3 honors classes. And then after studying lhe scored a 1960 on the SAT. Shayne knew that if he worked hard enough, there WAS NO REASON to be scared about admissions. That it was in his hands. And he spent his Jr. year absolutely committed to making his dream happen. There was nothing that was going to stop him, and there is nothing that can stop any of you. Believe in yourselves. We believe in you. Lets believe in each other and become the best TEAM in the Country. WE CAN DO IT.
By the way, Ken Norton Jr. of USC just called Shayne 4 days ago and offered him a scholarship. Shayne politely told him, why would I want to go to USC? I am going to win the PAC 10 Championship AND GET a STANFORD DEGREE. So thanks for the offer, it is very flattering, but I don't need USC to win a PAC 10 Championship. I can do THAT at Stanford.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to being your teammate. As you can see, there is NOTHING I won't do to try and make us the best football team in America, NOTHING. I would love it if you would join me and the other 8 current verbals in making the Stanford '09 recruiting class one that will shock the world today. WE CAN DO IT. But we have to do it together. Join us now.
Sincerely,
Terrence Stephens
Stanford '09 VerbalRivals Profile: https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=79378
This post was edited on 4/14 8:56 AM by Baboli
He really was a force of energy beyond anything I could ever imagine anyone else replicating.
As we think and talk about this class, and what role momentum plays, thought I would share (copy and pasted verbatim) an email which Terrence sent out way back when as he tried to cajole a class together,
Remember, this was sent with Stanford coming off a 1-11 season, and then the 4-8 season, so there was still a lot of work to do in convincing kids that Stanford could go to BCS bowls.
Start of his email:
Dear Jamal, Drew, Joel, Stephan, Jemari, Khalil, and Trent:
First of all, let me introduce everyone to one another:
Jamal Patterson, WR, Georgia
Drew Terrell, WR, Arizona
Joel Gray, Offensive Lineman, Texas
Stephan Taylor, Running Back, Texas
Jemari Roberts, WR, California
Khalil Wilkes, Offensive Lineman, New Jersey
Trent Murphy, DE, Arizona
I am writing to you as a group as you are all very seriously considering Stanford as a place to go to college and play football. In fact, many of you have already finished your Stanford applications. You have all visited Stanford personally and seen first hand Coach Harbaugh's energy, commitment and vision for where he wants to lead the Stanford Football program. He wants players like you to join him and the other '09 commits in PROVING TO THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL WORLD THAT YOU CAN BE SMART AND WIN BCS BOWL GAMES, that it doesn't have to be one or the other.
But everything starts with recruiting. If we want to win the PAC 10 tomorrow, we have to out recruit them today, every single team. And to out recruit them today, and if you are ready, we need your help. We want to show the college football world THAT STANFORD IS CHANGING HOW RECRUITING WORKS, THAT THE TOP KIDS IN THE COUNTRY ARE NOW CHOOSING STANFORD TO PLAY THEIR COLLEGE FOOTBALL. NOT ONLY BECAUSE THEY WANT A STANFORD DEGREE, BUT BECAUSE THEY WANT TO WIN FOOTBALL GAMES WHILE DOING IT.
Already, we have had some enormous success. We have 9 verbals from some of the top ranked kids in the country. But that is not enough for what we want to achieve. We are not done. We need more of you to join us in our mission to be the best team in college football. And if you are seriously considering verballing to Stanford, you can help yourself and STANFORD Football now by deciding to verbal to Stanford sooner rather than later. Decide once and for all that Stanford IS the place you want to play, call the coaches and let them know that you are ready to verbal your commitment to Stanford. I know all of you are ALMOST ready to do it. Talk to one another, your parents, your coaches, your pastor, whomever, but decide and start the WINNING NOW.
If you guys do decide to verbal you will move Stanford one step closer to becoming THE STORY OF ALL COLLEGE FOOTBALL. The 7 of you can make it happen. TELL THE RECRUITING WORLD, "STANFORD TAKES A BACK SEAT TO NO ONE."
If you guys do verbal soon, you will make our GOAL of a BCS BOWL that much possible given your own skills, but also because we can use your verbals to attract our last group of recruits. We have an amazing group of recruits who are considering us, but unlike most of you are still looking at other schools. With your verbals, we will have 17 total and then we can go to that group of recruits with further proof of the change happening at Stanford, that Stanford's '09 class is going to be the best in the country. Just so you know, this next group
includes:
Manti Te'o
Jelani Jenkins
Marlon Brown
Michael Philipp
Xavier Sua Filo
Frankie Telfort
Zeke Motta
Vlad Emilien
As you can see, Stanford is talking to some of the TOP talent in the country. With you 15, we could fill out our '09 class with 24 scholarships and make Stanford the TOP RECRUITING class in the country. You can see how close we are, but we need to get some more momentum going to keep the Harbaugh Express moving. ARE YOU READY TO SHOCK THE FOOTBALL WORLD? Look at the above 15 names on this email, we can win the PAC 10 with all of you. Imagine it, all of us in uniform together hoisting the PAC 10 Trophy together. It can and will happen. But we need you.
Discuss the above amongst yourselves. Simply hit reply all, and delete my name from the email recipient's list so you can talk privately. Discuss what are the things that are keeping you from verballing now, and what are the benefits to deciding to verballing now. Maybe you as a group can help one another decide what to do next, and as a group decide you want to join Stanford's team now. I don't want to be your almost teammate anymore, I want to BE your teammate, and start working together to make our dream true.
A quick story on one of our verbals and admissions. Shayne Skov, the first person to verbal in our class, was offered a scholarship in Coach Harbaugh's office after the UCLA game last September 1st, the first day it was legally possible to offer scholarships to '09s. ON THE SPOT, SHAYNE VERBALLED. HE DID NOT WALK OUT AND TALK TO HIS DAD, CALL ANYONE, NOTHING. HE DID NOT LEAVE COACH'S OFFICE BEFORE VERBALLING. At that point, Shayne had a 3.2 GPA and had not yet even taken the SAT. There was no guarantee that Shayne would be admitted given his background. In fact, many would have considered him a longshot to get in. But after spending time with Coach Harbaugh, Shayne knew he did not want to play for anyone else. And he was going to do whatever it took to get into Stanford and let Coach Harbaugh lead him. This past year, Shayne got the BEST GRADES of his life. He got 4 As and a B while taking 2 AP classes and 3 honors classes. And then after studying lhe scored a 1960 on the SAT. Shayne knew that if he worked hard enough, there WAS NO REASON to be scared about admissions. That it was in his hands. And he spent his Jr. year absolutely committed to making his dream happen. There was nothing that was going to stop him, and there is nothing that can stop any of you. Believe in yourselves. We believe in you. Lets believe in each other and become the best TEAM in the Country. WE CAN DO IT.
By the way, Ken Norton Jr. of USC just called Shayne 4 days ago and offered him a scholarship. Shayne politely told him, why would I want to go to USC? I am going to win the PAC 10 Championship AND GET a STANFORD DEGREE. So thanks for the offer, it is very flattering, but I don't need USC to win a PAC 10 Championship. I can do THAT at Stanford.
Thanks for listening. I look forward to being your teammate. As you can see, there is NOTHING I won't do to try and make us the best football team in America, NOTHING. I would love it if you would join me and the other 8 current verbals in making the Stanford '09 recruiting class one that will shock the world today. WE CAN DO IT. But we have to do it together. Join us now.
Sincerely,
Terrence Stephens
Stanford '09 VerbalRivals Profile: https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=79378
This post was edited on 4/14 8:56 AM by Baboli
