Another day another recruit decommiting. This is somewhat of a familiar feeling for the Cardinal faithful because of the emotional rollercoaster Stanford's recruiting has taken us on. Brandon Stephens a 3-star recruit is the 2nd running back to decide Stanford wasn't the right fit this week and the 4th, commit in general, in the past two weeks. 247sports writer, Ryan Bartow, broke the story Thursday night and said, Stephens "has reopened his recruitment from Stanford". Stephens has offers from schools such as: Alabama, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Texas. These teams have also been recruiting him even though he had committed to Stanford this past fall.
Breaking: One of the nation's top backs Brandon Stephens re-opens his recruitment https://t.co/oSKFqKAON1 @BFame24 @SWiltfong247 @Perroni247
— Ryan Bartow (@RyanBartow) January 22, 2026
According to Bartow's article, Alabama was Stephens second choice and some of the Crimson Tide coaches visited him on Monday. If I had to predict where he is going to end up, I'd predict Alabama. Something of note, Stephens did not attend Big Visit weekend. This might just be a coincidence, but maybe he knew he was going to change his mind. According to 247sports he has not taken any official visits yet, so these next two weeks are crucial for him.
Since Stephens has departed, this leaves just Trevor Speights as the lone running back in the 2016 class. The running back depth doesn't seem so crowded anymore since two out of the three 2016 commits have moved on. I fully expect Speights to compete for the Remound Wright Touchdown Vulture position (patent pending) if Coach Shaw doesn't decide to redshirt him.
On the note of decommiting, rumors are flying that these guys might be flipping or leaving so look out for them:
DT Mike Williams (Stanford)
CB Obi Eboh (Texas)
S Andrew Pryts (Penn State)
