2013 Stanford recruiting class set in stone

Last year's signing day was a blur unlike anything Stanford had ever seen before.

With each passing hour, the five-star recruits trickled in, leading to a surprising class that was ranked among the best in the nation.

This year, before 10 am, the entire class was quietly set in stone.

Just 12 guys signed letters of intent to play for the Cardinal next season, and it looks like a class with a lot of upside, if not a class that will make waves on the national scale.

The class includes four four-star recruits and eight three-star recruits - but this class also includes a ton of big, big boys. Look through their heights - five of them are 6-foor-5 or taller and another five are taller than 6-foot-2.

The four stars come at four different positions - quarterback Ryan Burns, wide receiver Francis Owusu (younger brother of Chris), defensive back/linebacker Sean Barton and linebacker Peter Kalambayi.

While it's hard to gauge if Kalambayi or Burns will see any playing time this fall - if I had to guess, they'll both probably redshirt - Owusu will add more depth and competition to the offense right away. That kind of short-term and long-term impact definitely bodes well for this class, even though it's pretty small. (Barton will serve a two-year mission in Africa before returning to the Farm.)

If you're just looking at who might be impactful right away, perhaps the most important part of this class is the three tight ends now slated to come play for the Cardinal - Eric Cotton, Austin Hooper and Greg Taboada. After the departures of Coby Fleener, Zach Ertz and Levine Toilolo in the last two years, it was critically important for Stanford to restock at the position that has produced the most productive receivers on the last two Cardinal teams. All three are big kids that will be competing with one another to play this year - and I have to imagine one of them might redshirt as well.

After that, I'm interested to see what linemen Thomas Oser and David Bright bring to the table. Oser's stock appeared to be rising quickly as recruiting season ended, and both have the requisite size (and the Cardinal like to use enough offensive linemen) that they might play right away.

This class won't be finishing in the top ten of any recruiting rankings list, mostly due to the fact that there are only 12 guys in this class. Because composite rankings take into account the number of recruits as well as how many stars sit next to their names, this class probably won't even finish in the top half of the Pac-12 conference on most lists.

No reason to panic, though: even though Stanford may be looking up in the recruiting rankings, everyone else in the conference is still looking up at the Cardinal in the Pac-12.