STANFORD Sights set on QB — for 2020
For many years, Stanford has embraced high school football players who went on two-year Mormon Church missions. It is expected to welcome another Wednesday morning when quarterback Tanner McKee announces his college choice.
McKee, a 6-foot-6 220-pounder from Centennial High-Corona (Riverside County), has announced he’ll take his mission before he enters college. Stanford, along with many other schools, believes he’s worth the wait. Alabama, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington and BYU are his other finalists.
He threw for 2,147 yards and 29 touchdowns in a senior year cut short by injuries. He missed the team’s loss to St. John Bosco in the state Division 1 semifinal because of concussion protocol.
“His accuracy is his biggest attribute,” Centennial coach Matt Logan said. “He’s very intelligent, very athletic with great pocket awareness and agility.”
In his first game as a starter, as a junior, he managed a twominute drill “perfectly” to beat highly rated Chandler (Ariz.) High, Logan said.
A few hours before McKee’s announcement, scheduled for 8 a.m. PST on ESPNU, the Cardinal hope to learn they’ve landed inside linebacker Dax Hollifield of Shelby High in North Carolina.
Hollifield has narrowed his choices to Stanford, Virginia Tech and North Carolina. He recorded an almost unheard-of 629 tackles in his four-year high school career, which included a state-record 63 games. He helped Shelby win the state title his first three years; it lost in the semifinals in 2017.
“He’s a 4.5 student and he’s everything you could ever want,” Shelby coach Lance Ware said.
Wednesday marks the beginning of the traditional letter-of-intent signing period. Stanford landed 11 recruits in the firstever early signing period, Dec. 20-22. Mainly because so few players are graduating in June, the incoming class of 2018 will be the school’s smallest since the 12-man class of 2013.
As a result, the class was ranked just 39th in the nation by ESPN, 45th by 247Sports and tied for 78th by Rivals.
Two players sure to sign with Stanford on Wednesday are inside linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar of Kempner High in Sugar Land, Texas, and outside linebacker Caleb Kelly of Hapeville Charter Career Academy in Atlanta. Both had been recruited by Cal, among many other schools.
While McKee embarks on his mission, two of Stanford’s 2016 signees — wide receiver Simi Fehoko and outside linebacker Loa Kaufusi — will enter school in the fall after completing their missions.
Stanford apparently will not get offensive lineman Nick Petit-Frere of Berkeley Prep in Tampa, Fla. He had 29 scholarship offers and is expected to choose between Florida and Notre Dame.
Among the other highly ranked players who slipped through the Cardinal’s net: Mater Dei-Santa Ana wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, whose brother Osiris red-shirted at Stanford in 2017, picked USC, and guard Chris Murray will attend UCLA.