Stepfan Taylor: Stanford's Top Recruit

Stanford is used to seeing its name near the top of various rankings. But it's usually academics -- not athletics -- that give the school its lofty reputation.

Stanford is currently ranked as the fourth-best university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, and ranks among the top two in law, business, education, and engineering.

Yes, we're used to seeing Stanford ranked as one of the best academic schools in the world. But brace yourself, because Stanford might find itself near the top of another list in the near future, and this one might come as a surprise.

Stanford -- yes, Stanford -- is assembling one of the best recruiting classes in college football.

Most major recruiting services rank coach Jim Harbaugh's class among the top twenty in the nation. The Cardinal has twenty total commitments -- including seven "four star" players according to Rivals.com -- with a week to go before national signing day.

One of those elite recruits is running back Stepfan Taylor from Mansfield, Tex. Taylor is 6-foot, 180-pound back who ran for 1,789 yards and 22 touchdowns last season.

While many running backs roll up big stats in the spread formation, Taylor is an old-fashioned "I-formation" runner who saves his best runs for the fourth quarter.

"I feel like I get stronger as the game goes on," Taylor told Vype Magazine. "I think every running back if they get stuffed on the first two plays, it's because they haven?t figured out the defense yet. Then you figure out what they're doing and the game gets easier."

However, football was never easy for Taylor when he was younger. Taylor hung around his older cousins, and frequently got picked on for being too small. But in the end, Taylor said that playing against older boys made him tougher.

"I feel like I can go out there and do anything," Taylor said.

Taylor committed to Stanford back in November, and he will fit right in at the school thanks to his 3.83 grade point average. In the end, the academics -- plus the chance to join a rising program -- were enough to sway Taylor.

"Academics was the main factor," Taylor said. "Just having the Stanford name on my resume was the main factor. It's an up and coming program, and this class is really good, so we?re an up and coming team."

Date of Article: Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:07 pm

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