[BostonCard]

Now that the recruiting cycle is in the books, I wanted to see how our recruiting has filled our needs.  I like to think of recruiting as a series of overlapping two-year cycles.  Especially for Stanford, there is too much year-to-year variability between recruiting classes and class sizes to be useful, and in any given class, you will have some people redshirt and some people playing as true freshman.  Moreover, any recruiting class will have its greatest impact in its third to fifth years, when guys are juniors and seniors.  So, it makes sense to consider this class jointly with last years (and again in a year with the class of 2015).  I also like to consider short term needs (places where we are likely to play freshmen and sophomores, versus longer term needs).  So without further ado, here are my thoughts (stars are based on scout, but they should only be considered a loose guideline).  Grades are based on how well our recruits fit our current and future needs.

QB: Ryan Burns ***/Keller Chryst ****: A
Short term, we have Kevin Hogan for at least another year, probably two, and Evan Crower can continue to back him up.  Longer term we are set with Burns and/or Chryst, both of whom are very highly regarded.  Burns could conceivably pass Crower on the depth chart this spring; he certainly has the raw tools, it is just a question of whether he has the mental aspects of the game.  Remember he did not play in a passing offense in high school.  Chryst is our most mentally prepared QB since Andrew Luck (helps that his dad is a QB coach).  You never know how these things turn out (both Nottingham and Nunes were 4* QB's out of high school and neither really panned out for us), but it would take a series of disappointing events for us not to be in great shape at QB for the next four to five years.

RB: Christian McCaffrey ****/Isaiah Brandt-Sims: A-
McCaffrey is considered a stud; Brandt-Sims elicited a little bit of an eye raise by Hulk, whose evaluations are pretty good.  Short term, we have a lot of returning running backs, but not a lot of carries between them, as Gaffney gobbled up PT last year, and our starter (Gaffney) and top back-up (Wilkerson) both are graduating.  Still, we have a lot of highly regarded players (Wright, Young, and of course, Barry J Sanders, not to mention Ricky Seale). So, there is a possibility that McCaffrey could impress and play right away, but it seems almost certain that one, and perhaps both running backs will redshirt this year and one of them will back-up Sanders (presumably) when Wright and Young graduate after this year.  Longer term, it is good that we took two RB's this year, because after this coming season, it will be Barry J Sanders (senior), McCaffrey, and Brandt-Sims.  I suspect we will still need to take one RB next year.

[EDIT: Forgot One, sorry]
FB: Daniel Marx ***: A/B
Fullback is a tough position to evaluate because we recruit very few (we have had exactly two starting fullbacks since the 2007 season, Marecic and Hewitt), and yet it is a key position to our offense.  That's why I am giving it a broad range.  Marx could be awesome (Owen Marecic) or he might not pan out.  I would bet on him being awesome, but you never know.  The bottom line is that we need a fullback and we got a fullback.  Short term, we are fine; despite Hewitt's graduation, we still have Ward (1 more year) and Skov (2 years, I think).  So, we should probably be fine for the next five years, barring injury or disappointment from Marx.

WR: Francis Owusu ****/Taijuan Thomas ** [subject to Thomas possibly going to CB]: B+
We like Owusu a lot, enough to play him as a true freshman (though sparingly) an Thomas is fast.  Short term, we have a ton of returning talent at WR, so not signing anyone this year is not a problem at all.  Basically, all our top receivers from last year (Montgomery, Rector, Cajuste, Whitfield) will be back, and only Montgomery will be in his last year of eligibility.  Longer term, we will certainly need to sign a wide receiver, probably two, next year, as the 2016 season will feature a bunch of guys likely in their final year of eligibility (Rector, Whitfield, Owusu).  The long-term needs will be somewhat alleviated if Thomas thrives and stays at wide receiver.  Fortunately, 2015 is supposed to be a good year for west coast wide receivers.

TE: Greg Taboada ***/Austin Hooper ***/Eric Cotton ***/Dalton Schultz ****: A
I considered giving this two-year stretch an A+ given the quality (Schultz top tight end in the country) and depth (four promising players), which will hopefully re-establish Stanford as Tight End U.  And after this last year, boy do we need it.  Expect a starter and a significant contributor (perhaps two) out of this set of four.  The only reason I didn't give it an A+ is that all three of last year's tight ends redshirted, and if there ever was a year that someone could have been a significant tight end contributor as a true freshman, it was this last year.  Nonetheless, we have a brobdingnagian need for the tight end position going forward, and the two-year class seems almost certain to put us in a good position for at least the next four years.

OL: David Bright ***/Thomas Oser ***/Brandon Fanaika *** (2012 signee coming back from Mormon Mission, so he will be entering with this year's class)/Casey Tucker *****/Reilly Gibbons ***/Austin Hall ***/Jesse Burkett ***/: A
OK, so not quite the 2012 class (who looks destined to start at every position of the offensive line in 2015), but still, we got quality and depth.  We are more than fine in the short term (next two years, as the 2012 class could, barring injury, potentially start together for over 25 games unless Peat goes pro after this coming season), though I suspect some of these guys will see action as backups or in the Ogre/Elephant etc. formations, and with 7 offensive linemen signed over the last two years, we should be fine over the next four to five years.  Stanford has been on a phenomenal run of having the strongest offensive lines in the Pac-12 (probably the top or one of the top two lines for 6 years running), and we should continue our run of dominance for the forceable future.  We will need a couple linemen next year, but OL is a position we need to recruit every year.

[Continued with the defense in the next post].

BC

[BostonCard]

Now that the recruiting cycle is in the books, I wanted to see how our recruiting has filled our needs.  I like to think of recruiting as a series of overlapping two-year cycles.  Especially for Stanford, there is too much year-to-year variability between recruiting classes and class sizes to be useful, and in any given class, you will have some people redshirt and some people playing as true freshman.  Moreover, any recruiting class will have its greatest impact in its third to fifth years, when guys are juniors and seniors.  So, it makes sense to consider this class jointly with last years (and again in a year with the class of 2015).  I also like to consider short term needs (places where we are likely to play freshmen and sophomores, versus longer term needs).  So without further ado, here are my thoughts (stars are based on scout, but they should only be considered a loose guideline).  Grades are based on how well our recruits fit our current and future needs.

QB: Ryan Burns ***/Keller Chryst ****: A
Short term, we have Kevin Hogan for at least another year, probably two, and Evan Crower can continue to back him up.  Longer term we are set with Burns and/or Chryst, both of whom are very highly regarded.  Burns could conceivably pass Crower on the depth chart this spring; he certainly has the raw tools, it is just a question of whether he has the mental aspects of the game.  Remember he did not play in a passing offense in high school.  Chryst is our most mentally prepared QB since Andrew Luck (helps that his dad is a QB coach).  You never know how these things turn out (both Nottingham and Nunes were 4* QB's out of high school and neither really panned out for us), but it would take a series of disappointing events for us not to be in great shape at QB for the next four to five years.

RB: Christian McCaffrey ****/Isaiah Brandt-Sims: A-
McCaffrey is considered a stud; Brandt-Sims elicited a little bit of an eye raise by Hulk, whose evaluations are pretty good.  Short term, we have a lot of returning running backs, but not a lot of carries between them, as Gaffney gobbled up PT last year, and our starter (Gaffney) and top back-up (Wilkerson) both are graduating.  Still, we have a lot of highly regarded players (Wright, Young, and of course, Barry J Sanders, not to mention Ricky Seale). So, there is a possibility that McCaffrey could impress and play right away, but it seems almost certain that one, and perhaps both running backs will redshirt this year and one of them will back-up Sanders (presumably) when Wright and Young graduate after this year.  Longer term, it is good that we took two RB's this year, because after this coming season, it will be Barry J Sanders (senior), McCaffrey, and Brandt-Sims.  I suspect we will still need to take one RB next year.

[EDIT: Forgot One, sorry]
FB: Daniel Marx ***: A/B
Fullback is a tough position to evaluate because we recruit very few (we have had exactly two starting fullbacks since the 2007 season, Marecic and Hewitt), and yet it is a key position to our offense.  That's why I am giving it a broad range.  Marx could be awesome (Owen Marecic) or he might not pan out.  I would bet on him being awesome, but you never know.  The bottom line is that we need a fullback and we got a fullback.  Short term, we are fine; despite Hewitt's graduation, we still have Ward (1 more year) and Skov (2 years, I think).  So, we should probably be fine for the next five years, barring injury or disappointment from Marx.

WR: Francis Owusu ****/Taijuan Thomas ** [subject to Thomas possibly going to CB]: B+
We like Owusu a lot, enough to play him as a true freshman (though sparingly) an Thomas is fast.  Short term, we have a ton of returning talent at WR, so not signing anyone this year is not a problem at all.  Basically, all our top receivers from last year (Montgomery, Rector, Cajuste, Whitfield) will be back, and only Montgomery will be in his last year of eligibility.  Longer term, we will certainly need to sign a wide receiver, probably two, next year, as the 2016 season will feature a bunch of guys likely in their final year of eligibility (Rector, Whitfield, Owusu).  The long-term needs will be somewhat alleviated if Thomas thrives and stays at wide receiver.  Fortunately, 2015 is supposed to be a good year for west coast wide receivers.

TE: Greg Taboada ***/Austin Hooper ***/Eric Cotton ***/Dalton Schultz ****: A
I considered giving this two-year stretch an A+ given the quality (Schultz top tight end in the country) and depth (four promising players), which will hopefully re-establish Stanford as Tight End U.  And after this last year, boy do we need it.  Expect a starter and a significant contributor (perhaps two) out of this set of four.  The only reason I didn't give it an A+ is that all three of last year's tight ends redshirted, and if there ever was a year that someone could have been a significant tight end contributor as a true freshman, it was this last year.  Nonetheless, we have a brobdingnagian need for the tight end position going forward, and the two-year class seems almost certain to put us in a good position for at least the next four years.

OL: David Bright ***/Thomas Oser ***/Brandon Fanaika *** (2012 signee coming back from Mormon Mission, so he will be entering with this year's class)/Casey Tucker *****/Reilly Gibbons ***/Austin Hall ***/Jesse Burkett ***/: A
OK, so not quite the 2012 class (who looks destined to start at every position of the offensive line in 2015), but still, we got quality and depth.  We are more than fine in the short term (next two years, as the 2012 class could, barring injury, potentially start together for over 25 games unless Peat goes pro after this coming season), though I suspect some of these guys will see action as backups or in the Ogre/Elephant etc. formations, and with 7 offensive linemen signed over the last two years, we should be fine over the next four to five years.  Stanford has been on a phenomenal run of having the strongest offensive lines in the Pac-12 (probably the top or one of the top two lines for 6 years running), and we should continue our run of dominance for the forceable future.  We will need a couple linemen next year, but OL is a position we need to recruit every year.

[Continued with the defense in the next post].

BC