[washingtonismoney]

The big question for any recruiting class is whether you take in more talent than you lose. While the class of 2016 looks to be in a strong spot, there's also quite a bit of outgoing talent in the classes of 2011 and 2012 to replace. Judging strictly by high school rankings, here are the once-upon-a-time-premium prospects we'll definitely be replacing (rated by 247 composite):

4/5 stars:
Kelsey Young
Wayne Lyons
Brandon Austin
Remound Wright
Kyle Murphy
Josh Garnett
Aziz Shittu
Luke Kaumatule

(Noor Davis, Jordan Watkins, and Barry Sanders seem like possible not-invited-for-fifth-year candidates; Ryan Burns or Keller Chryst are possible transfer candidates; Peter Kalambayi a possible leave-early guy.)

So that's eight definitely gone; figure ten as an estimate to retain the same rough talent level. Can we reach eight or ten -- or even exceed it? It would take a very strong effort by Stanford standards; the 2012 class brought in 11 premium prospects. (2014: 8; 2015: only 5).

I'll leave it to prognosticators whether or not it'll happen, but I see the 8-10 premium prospect range as the separation between likely success and failure.

(Note that we've already got four committed.)

[washingtonismoney]

The big question for any recruiting class is whether you take in more talent than you lose. While the class of 2016 looks to be in a strong spot, there's also quite a bit of outgoing talent in the classes of 2011 and 2012 to replace. Judging strictly by high school rankings, here are the once-upon-a-time-premium prospects we'll definitely be replacing (rated by 247 composite):

4/5 stars:
Kelsey Young
Wayne Lyons
Brandon Austin
Remound Wright
Kyle Murphy
Josh Garnett
Aziz Shittu
Luke Kaumatule

(Noor Davis, Jordan Watkins, and Barry Sanders seem like possible not-invited-for-fifth-year candidates; Ryan Burns or Keller Chryst are possible transfer candidates; Peter Kalambayi a possible leave-early guy.)

So that's eight definitely gone; figure ten as an estimate to retain the same rough talent level. Can we reach eight or ten -- or even exceed it? It would take a very strong effort by Stanford standards; the 2012 class brought in 11 premium prospects. (2014: 8; 2015: only 5).

I'll leave it to prognosticators whether or not it'll happen, but I see the 8-10 premium prospect range as the separation between likely success and failure.

(Note that we've already got four committed.)