Stanford head football coach David Shaw
An excellent recruiting class for Stanford became a superb one Wednesday when five-star tackle Andrus Peat of Tempe, Ariz., announced he was coming.
Head coach David Shaw said the reaction from him and his staff “was heard many places around the building.”
An equally joyous sound, he said, was heard later in the day when another five-star tackle, Kyle Murphy of San Clemente (Orange County), said he would join the Cardinal. While Shaw was praising the class in a news conference, he got word that still another five-star player, defensive end Aziz Shittu of Atwater (Merced County), was officially on board.
Shaw’s first complete recruiting class was ranked fifth in the nation by Rivals.com and sixth by Scout.com. Both services had the Cardinal tops in the Pac-12 even though USC, UCLA and Oregon all did well.
Kyle Murphy
Shaw called the 22-man group “one of the best classes in the history of the school.” As it turned out, he fared even better on the recruiting trail than his predecessor, Jim Harbaugh, a master salesman who landed three straight Top 25 classes.
After three straight bowl seasons, the Cardinal are clearly in the nation’s upper echelon. That might not necessarily mean a top-10 finish next season without All-America quarterback Andrew Luck, but the program is landing more elite talent than ever.
One of the big names of the group is running back Barry J. Sanders, son of the Hall of Famer. “Skill-wise, he reminds you of his father, he really does,” Shaw said. He added, “He loves to run the ball between the tackles, and that’s what we do.”
In addition to Peat and Murphy, Stanford grabbed five other offensive linemen, including five-star tackle Joshua Garnett of Puyallup, Wash., who probably will move to guard. The group also includes Brandon Fanaika of Pleasant Grove, Utah, who will delay his entrance for two years to embark on a Mormon mission after high school.
Still another highly regarded offensive lineman, Nick Davidson of Eden Prairie, Minn., is the fifth son of a former NFL player in the class. His father, Jeff, the offensive-line coach of the Minnesota Vikings, played for the Broncos and Saints.
Aziz Shittu
“This could be one of the best offensive-line classes (for any school) in modern football history,” Shaw said. Stanford attracted such talent because “we let the offensive linemen tee off” in a pro-style offense, he said. “We play a scheme that translates very easily to the NFL.”
There were no quarterbacks in the group. Shaw pointed out that the team already has several on scholarship and is on the trail of “four of the top five quarterbacks in 2013.” Stanford reportedly is still in the running for quarterback Jameis Winston of Hueytown, Ala. He’s also considering Florida State and told ESPNU he won’t sign until Friday at the earliest and might wait until next week.
Peat was torn between going to Stanford and following his older brother and cousin to Nebraska. The son of ex-Raider Todd Peat told Scout.com, “It is Stanford. I just felt it was my best opportunity academically and on the football field as well. I really like the coaching staff as a whole, especially coach Shaw and coach (Mike) Bloomgren, my position coach.
“I feel I have a chance to come in and compete early and the coaches have told me they see me as their future left tackle.”
Shaw didn’t want to discuss which players are most likely to make an impact as freshmen, but Peat and Garnett might be possibilities. Another is outside linebacker Noor Davis of Leesburg, Fla., who was one of Stanford’s earliest commitments and helped recruit others in the class. He and safety Zach Hoffpauir of Glendale, Ariz., also will play baseball.
According to Shaw, Hoffpauir is “cut from the same cloth” as former Stanford and NFL safety John Lynch, who also played college baseball.
Safety Alex Carter of Ashburn, Va., is the son of Tom Carter, who played defensive back for the Redskins, Bears and Bengals. He is now regional director of the NFL Players Association.
By Tom Fitzgerald
