Stanford Football: Meet the 21st ranked 2019 recruiting class
By Nico Di Fede
Stanford football is a couple of months away and the Cardinal reeled in the 21st ranked class of 2019, so let’s meet some of the notable names of the bunch.
David Shaw has brought in some solid recruiting classes almost every year of his tenure as the Stanford football head coach, evidenced by the number of players Stanford regularly sends to the NFL Draft.
This year is no different as he and his assistants have brought in 23 enrollees who rank as the 21st best recruiting class in the NCAA and the fourth-best in the Pac-12.
Of the 23 commits, eight are four-star recruits, 12 three-star, and three two-star. There are another two players who signed letters of intent, but anything could happen and they could still decide on somewhere else so I won’t include them.
It would take a light novel to go over all 23 players, so I’ll go over a few of the more notable or intriguing guys and go over what they can potentially bring to the Cardinal in the future.
Elijah Higgins, WR — Austin, TX
Elijah Higgins is a four-star wide receiver from Austin, Texas standing at 6’3 & 214 pounds. He is the 14th ranked receiver and 85th ranked prospect overall according to 247sports.
Higgins received 38 scholarship offers and his decision came down to Stanford and Florida, basically choosing between a great education but being far from home, or a little more prestigious football school in Florida that is closer to home.
He, of course, ending up choosing Stanford.
Higgins played for Bowie High School in San Antonio. They never won a state title or were ranked very high in his time there, but in the football capital which is Texas, that isn’t a big deal considering all the great high schools out there.
Higgins only caught 26 balls for 425 yards last year, which are not great numbers for high school, but counting stats don’t mean much when projecting a player.
His highlights show that he has a knack for the deep ball and getting open over the top of the defense. He ran a 4.57 forty at the Opening Finals Camp which is not blazing speed but plenty fast enough for his traits and skill set.
He’s already a big body that can maybe transition into a hybrid TE/WR in the future if he lacks the ability to get separation at the next level as he hasn’t needed to at the high school level being able to use his size to get it over guys.
Higgins showed out at the Army Combine and while they are just drills in shorts, he showed some of his talent at the event.
Stanford has 13 receivers on the roster, four excluding Higgins are freshmen. And as the most prestigious of the bunch, don’t be surprised to see him get playing time as a sophomore in a couple of years.