Stanford coach Shaw turns in top-25 recruiting haul, despite a down year
STANFORD >> Stanford announced a consensus top25 recruiting class Wednesday during the NCAA’s early signing period, showing that the first losing season since 2008 had no immediate ill effect on the program’s recruiting efforts.
“I understand from the outside looking in, whether it’s media or alumni or people that want to cast the first stone, the doom and gloom nature of a difficult season,” coach David Shaw said. “But inside the program there’s energy and enthusiasm and excitement, and I think you see that with the class that we have. A lot of these guys never wavered.”
The class is ranked No. 16 nationally by PrepStar and Top 25 by 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN, behind only Oregon and Washington in the Pac-12.
Here’s what we learned since the end of this year’s 4-8 campaign, and what questions still linger:
Recruits
The class is led by consensus five-star OT Myles Hinton, who came from the same school (Greater Atlanta Christian) as current Stanford QB Davis Mills.
Hinton, whose father Chris Hinton was a seventime Pro Bowler, is ranked as a top-four tackle by Rivals
and ESPN.
The last commitment was from E.J. Smith, a running back from Dallas and the son of Emmitt Smith, who picked Stanford on Wednesday over Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio State.
The class also includes the nation’s top kicker, Joshua Karty from Burlington, North Carolina, whose father was a rower at Stanford.
Shaw said that 6-foot-5 receiver John Humphreys, California’s all-time leader in career touchdowns (78) out of Newport Beach, reminded of him of Ed McCaffrey.
“I (see) a tall long fast receiver that can make difficult catches but can also get out of breaks,” Shaw said. “That’s hard for a guy who’s over 6-4 to truly run a curl route and a comeback route but this guy does it just like the 5-11 guys can do it, and that’s rare. I do think he’s the most underrated receiver in a nation. He is a serious weapon.”
While not officially a part of this year’s recruiting class, Stanford also received official word that QB Tanner McKee will be joining the program. McKee, the composite No. 3 prostyle quarterback in the Class of 2018, is finishing a two-year Mormon mission in Brazil.
Transfers
Stanford has at least a dozen players in the transfer portal.
The list reportedly includes QB K.J. Costello and four likely starters in guards Devery Hamilton and Henry Hattis and defensive linemen Michael Williams and Jovan Swann.
Shaw didn’t express concern on Wednesday. He is a longtime proponent of allowing graduates to transfer, and noted that there wasn’t an undergraduate from Stanford in the portal.
“People get nervous about the graduates but I said it repeatedly, if they have an opportunity to find a better situation, I’ll be the first one to help them,” Shaw said. “If you find a better situation, great, take it. Some people see it as a negative, but that doesn’t bother me.”
Those players have another month to decide whether to come back to The Farm or go elsewhere.
NFL decisions
First-team all-conference tackle Walker Little announced Monday that he would return for his senior season.
Little suffered a seasonending knee injury in the opener, but Shaw said that Little is stronger than ever before.
“He wants to come back and dominate,” Shaw said. “He’s decided it would be best for him and his family to come back and play another year at or above the level he played at before the injury and finish his career as one of the top tackles in America.”
While there could always be a surprise, at least two players are expected to still be considering turning pro — TE Colby Parkinson and CB Paulson Adebo.
Shaw doesn’t anticipate any announcements this week. The deadline for college players to make their decisions is Jan. 20.
“We’re about to go on a bit of a holiday break, so I don’t feel the necessity to speed up anybody’s timeline,” Shaw said. “Come mid-January it’s going to be time to get to work. They’re going to be guys in the boat, there’s going to be guys out of the boat, but we get back to work.”