Stanford had an amazing 18 de-commitments

Jim StefaniFeb 5, 2010

Stanford signed 23 prospects on Wednesday. A pretty decent haul for Coach Jim Harbaugh, however it could have been much, much better if not for the little fact that this is a school with high academic standards. So high, in fact, that 18 prospects who had initially committed to Stanford ended up signing elsewhere on Wednesday.

The school, had a total of 19 de-commitments, with one of the players, Eddie Plantaric, eventually signing with Stanford. Maryland DB Louis Young de-committed and re-committed twice to Stanford before eventually signing with Georgia Tech. Although a few of the prospects who de-committed came out and explicitly said that they had not been accepted by Stanford admissions, most didn’t need to say the obvious. A few, however, may have de-committed due to other reasons. Star TE Blake Barker actually de-committed to attend a school with an even BETTER academic reputation – Harvard.

This begs an answer to the question as to why Harbaugh and staff are accepting so many verbals from prospects who are not yet admitted. Perhaps it is in hope that will eventually qualify. Perhaps it is to build recruiting momentum by putting together a class that looks great on paper and would attract additional prospects. Maybe if Harbaugh goes through a couple of difficult seasons he could in part justify the poor performance to the Stanford administration by arguing that his limited success is due to the limited recruiting universe that he can avail himself of. He could pull out a list of all the kids that he received commitments from and tell his boss that if these kids had been accepted into Stanford the team would have performed much better. After all, some of the decommitments are headed to such fine schools as Virginia, Northwestern Navy, Notre Dame, Boston College, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. We are not talking about Cincinnati or Memphis here folks. Perhaps Harbaugh’s reasoning entails a combination of all the above.

Here is a listing of the Stanford de-commitments:

Tyler Brosius QB/LB/TE 6′3 220 5.37 Waynesville Tuscola North Carolina North Carolina State Stanford

Kain Colter QB/WR/DB 6′1 185 4.60 Greenwood Village Cherry Creek Colorado Northwestern Stanford

Brandon Bourbon RB 6′1 204 4.48 Potosi Missouri Kansas Stanford

Tai-ler Jones WR/DB 6′0 167 4.52 Gainesville Georgia Notre Dame Stanford

Blake Barker TE/DL 6′6 230 4.90 Cambridge Buckingham Browne & Nichols Massachusetts Harvard Stanford Academics!

Tate Nichols TE 6′7 235 Union Ryle Kentucky Notre Dame Stanford

Zach Swanson TE 6′6 230 4.75 Katy Texas Virginia Stanford

Harris Williams OL 6′3 278 5.21 Andover Proctor Academy New Hampshire Boston College Stanford

Joe McNamara OL 6′3 280 Weston Cypress Bay Florida Wisconsin Stanford

Will Hampton DL 6′3 270 Houston Cypress Creek Texas Northwestern Stanford

Eddie Plantaric DL/TE 6′5 244 4.70 Fair Oaks Del Campo California Stanford Stanford Recommitted