Stanford Football Recruiting: Cardinal Lands 5-Star O-Lineman Joshua Garnett

It's been a lively January in the Pac-12 North, particularly at Stanford. Earlier this month, Barry J. Sanders announced his commitment to play CFB at Stanford. On Thursday afternoon, another national-caliber high school star, OL Joshua Garnett of Puyallup, Washington, also announced his decision to play on The Farm, according to ESPN.

Garnett, a 5-Star recruit and the No. 3 guard nationally by Scout, and rated 4-Stars by other scouting services, is a 6’5”, 295-lb guard from Puyallup, Washington. He had been recruited by the likes of Oregon, USC, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Cal, UCLA and Miami, and had narrowed his final choices down to Michigan and Stanford. 

Puyallup, by the way, is a town of about 37,000 located near Mount Rainier, about 35 miles south of Seattle. The quarterbacking brothers, Damon and Brock Huard, both attended the same high school as Joshua Garnett.

Enough digressing. Coach David Shaw's Cardinal will welcome Garnett, having lost junior All-Americans David DeCastro and Jonathan Martin to the NFL. The power running game has become a virtually unstoppable centerpiece of the Stanford offense, and the OL will return C Sam Schwartzstein, T Cameron Fleming and G David Yankey.

Garnett's attributes include a 500-lb squat and a 3.87 GPA. The former will help on the football field, the latter in Stanford's high octane classrooms.

He will join a Cardinal offense that will return almost all of its backs and receivers from the 2011 team that came up just short against OSU in the Fiesta Bowl. Whoever replaces Andrew Luck will be surrounded by plenty of experienced talent, and a promising freshman class.

More news to come next Wednesday, February 1.