Stanford football recruiting roundup: The Big Visit

This weekend was a huge recruiting weekend Stanford targets. Seemingly anyone who was anyone went to Palo Alto for an official visit. There were commits, targets, families, a former secretary of state, and a former US ambassador to Russia. Needless to say Stanford is calling in the big guns for their 2016 class.

Admissions Office

The weekend was important to again meet with coaches in the off season and to also meet with the admissions office. This big visiting group is a great opportunity for the recruits who haven't been accepted to go into the admissions office and talk to them face to face. The admissions office has been getting a lot of flack for their strict standards. There has been speculation about why kids have been decommitting, but its not as though Stanford is going to be lenient just because these kids are athletes. But the students can talk to the admissions office to see what they need to do to be accepted to the university whether that is raising their grades or SAT/ACT scores.

Commits

These are the commits who are at Stanford this weekend:

• TE Kaden Smith
• QB K.J. Costello
• OLB Curtis Robinson
• OT Clark Yarbrough
• DT Mike Williams
• WR Simi Fehoko
• FB Bailey McElwain
• S Malik Antoine
• RB Beau Bisharat
• OT Henry Hattis
• LS Richard McNitzky
• RB Trevor Speights
• TE Loa Kaufusi

This was a big weekend for these commits because they were able to meet up with the coaches in the offseason since the coaches aren't as busy as they would be during the season. They were able to see the team facilities and most importantly they all got to hang out. This might be the most important part about this trip. These guys still haven't played much together so this weekend gave them time to bond and form relationships before they get out there on the field.

This was not just a big weekend for the group, but also individually for Curtis Robinson. On January 15th, 247sports released their last 5-star rankings of the year and Curtis Robinson was among the athletes. Robinson was already a 5-star recruit according to Rivals, which now makes him a 5-star in two out of the three biggest recruiting sites (ESPN has him as a 4-star). 247sports also ranks him as the 30th ranked player in the nation and the third best OLB in the class. Here is what they said about Robinson:

"You want Robinson on your sideline. He's that kind of player because of his athletic versatility, nose for the football and physicality. He's committed to Stanford as a linebacker but Robinson is athletic enough to line up at safety, tight end or receiver."

Targets

Maybe the most news worthy piece of this weekend is the targets that are on campus. This was a great weekend for prospective students to come because they get to be around the core group of the 2016 recruiting class. This isn't your typical five person visit; no, Stanford hosted 15 of their top recruits. Hopefully this weekend will be enough to have the following three targets commit on National Signing Day.

Nate Herbig: You might be familiar with Herbig because he had originally committed to Stanford over the summer, but the Hawaii product recently decommitted. After his decommitment he picked up offers from Washington, Arizona State, and Vanderbilt. He is scheduled to make an official visit the weekend before National Signing Day. Herbig could recommit to Stanford, but the Washington visit in two weeks.

Donald Stewart: Donald Stewart is a wide receiver from Paramus Catholic (NJ). This is also the same school the top recruit in the nation attends, Rashan Gary. Stewart has already been accepted to Stanford so there is nothing else holding him back from making his commitment. Michigan is in his top list of schools and Stewart will be visiting Ann Arbor next weekend. People (including me) are expecting Stewart to commit to Stanford, so I hope they are right.

Obi Eboh: This week two defensive backs decommitted and people went into a frenzy. Even though the Stanford secondary is the deepest positional group on the team, people still worried. Stanford can soften the blow of losing Nygel Edmonds and Chacho Ulloa by flipping current Texas commit, Obi Eboh. There have been murmurs about Eboh flipping to Stanford and those murmurs grew louder as Eboh received an offer from the Card on January 9th. Curtis Robinson thinks this is a done deal, I sure hope so.

ITS A WRAP https://t.co/UhZqybJoyP

— Curtis Robinson (@_curtisrobinson) January 9, 2016