[SamuelMcF]

My greatest takeaway from a "this is a new reason for optimism" standpoint, is what he said about campus visits. As some of us have lamented, the lack of Spring official visits has seemed detrimental to recruiting.

In this podcast, Shaw talked about how they are finding ways to do what you might call virtual visits in new ways. It's almost like there was a mindset  that if a guy won't visit in person, that's pretty much all there is to it. Now, my read is by trying to accommodate those who would have visited, they are effectively expanding the net beyond those who would ordinarily visit on their own, to those who wouldn't visit if the only way they could is flying across the country to do so. So instead of 25 guys visiting on their own, the program is hosting 50 guys who would and wouldn't come on their own, but have enough interest to check out Stanford all the same.

Will be interesting to see if the program puts more emphasis into virtual visits in the future, and if getting an expanded pool of total visitors in person and virtual, leads to more applications and possibly more coveted players available to sign in future classes.

Thanks for the interview, Troy - was great to hear more in-depth discussion from the man himself.

Have to agree with OF here that the virtual visit piece is most intriguing. There are certain prospects that Stanford has missed out on in the past few years due to the visiting policy. If this time allows the staff to develop a good virtual visit that can be used to show campus, facilities, etc. to future prospects in the same boat, I think it would be a boon to recruiting. Swaying just one or two more of those "ones who got away" per class to apply could make a tangible difference on the field, as they've usually been highly-rated guys.

[SamuelMcF]

My greatest takeaway from a "this is a new reason for optimism" standpoint, is what he said about campus visits. As some of us have lamented, the lack of Spring official visits has seemed detrimental to recruiting.

In this podcast, Shaw talked about how they are finding ways to do what you might call virtual visits in new ways. It's almost like there was a mindset  that if a guy won't visit in person, that's pretty much all there is to it. Now, my read is by trying to accommodate those who would have visited, they are effectively expanding the net beyond those who would ordinarily visit on their own, to those who wouldn't visit if the only way they could is flying across the country to do so. So instead of 25 guys visiting on their own, the program is hosting 50 guys who would and wouldn't come on their own, but have enough interest to check out Stanford all the same.

Will be interesting to see if the program puts more emphasis into virtual visits in the future, and if getting an expanded pool of total visitors in person and virtual, leads to more applications and possibly more coveted players available to sign in future classes.

Thanks for the interview, Troy - was great to hear more in-depth discussion from the man himself.

Have to agree with OF here that the virtual visit piece is most intriguing. There are certain prospects that Stanford has missed out on in the past few years due to the visiting policy. If this time allows the staff to develop a good virtual visit that can be used to show campus, facilities, etc. to future prospects in the same boat, I think it would be a boon to recruiting. Swaying just one or two more of those "ones who got away" per class to apply could make a tangible difference on the field, as they've usually been highly-rated guys.