National Signing Day couldn't have gone much better for Stanford, which received signed letters of intent from every player who had previously verbally committed to The Farm, and added a few highly touted recruits to that already impressive group.
The Cardinal received 22 national letters of intent in all. The first fax arrived at 4:45 a.m., from DT Jordan Watkins. The last one arrived at 3:19 p.m., from DE Aziz Shittu. In between, the Cardinal received signatures from WR Michael Rector and S Zach Hoffpauir, who flipped on verbal commitments to Pac-12 rivals Washington and Cal, respectively. Two of the biggest signees faxed their LOIs within 8 minutes of each other:
Back-to-back faxes from top two OTs in the nation!!! No. 20 @AndrusPeat at 1:48pm, No. 21 Kyle Murphy at 1:56pm. #cardclass12 #gostanford
— Stanford Football (@StanfordFball) February 1, 2012
Peat chose Stanford over USC and Nebraska. Fellow five-star recruit Murphy chose Stanford over USC. (How does it taste, Lane?) They join what must be the most impressive group of offensive line recruits ever. As Tyler Mabry tweeted, "The State of the Union is Strong!!!" That would be the Tunnel Workers Union, the Cardinal's primary purveyors of character and cruelty.
Head coach David Shaw said the class was one of the best in school history and said to "stay tuned" when asked if Stanford could sign more players for 2012. The Cardinal could still be in the running for QB Jameis Winston, who didn't make a decision today.
Here's how a few of the national sites rate the Cardinal's class:
Rivals - 5th
Scout - 6th
CBS Sports - 6th
You can check out videos of most of the recruits here.