Legacy 2019 linebacker Tristan Sinclair commits to Stanford

Tristan Sinclair announced his commitment to Stanford Wednesday, following in the footsteps of his father, Andy, while also ready to blaze his own path on The Farm.

Andy played center at Stanford from 1985-88 and his son is one of the more athletic inside linebackers in the country whose job will be helping making a center’s life miserable. Tristan emerged as a national recruit March 4 when he posted impressive test numbers at The Opening regional in Santa Clara.

Notre Dame pounced with an offer the day after the camp and the race was on. Stanford officially joined in with an offer May 13. The easy assumption was that the Cardinal were the favorite the moment that conversation occurred with the coaches, but Sinclair also seriously considered Notre Dame, which recruited him to play their linebacker/safety hybrid position.

There were even some schools that evaluated Sinclair as a safety. Stanford zeroed in on his ability to affect the game sideline-to-sideline from the inside linebacker position. He can immediately be a strong special teams player and Stanford loved what he would bring to the locker room.

Sinclair is a star in the classroom with straight As and a 32 ACT score. There are no boxes that he doesn’t check as a fit for the program and university, which is what made this recruitment a must win for the Cardinal.

It’s tough enough to build a championship caliber 85-man roster at Stanford with its academic requirements, so losing a prospect as tailor made for the program as Sinclair would be serious blow.

Sinclair visited Stanford multiple times as a recruit since he was offered, most recently Friday for a junior day. He built a strong relationship with the coaches and the other 2019 class commits and targeted recruits. He seems to have an especially strong connection with fellow Californians Colby Bowman, Austin Jones and Joshua Pakola.

But he was able to connect with many other Stanford targets during those visits and most notably during The Opening Finals in Dallas from June 30-July 3. He explained to Cardinal Sports Report what made it easy for the Stanford recruits to quickly bond:

“I think we all meshed well because we’re all very like minded. Players who choose Stanford are going there for the right reasons. They want one of the best educations possible and care what happens after football. I felt that these people could not only potentially be teammates but future business partners and life long friends.”

Read what Rivals recruiting analyst Adam Gorney says Stanford is getting with Sinclair:

“"Sinclair is a really intelligent and capable linebacker who can fly all over the field to make plays. I have only seen him in 7on7 action but he's a kid who can cover well, can diagnose what an offense is doing and then go and attack. He can still develop even more physically and that shouldn't be a problem in Stanford's system and I think he's a really talented kid who could contribute early in his career."