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2017 Introduction: Stanford legacy Brycen Mussina

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The son of one of the winningest pitchers in the last decades of Major League Baseball is carving out his own athletic legacy - potentially in a different sport than his father.

2017 quarterback Brycen Mussina, whose father, Mike, was a five-time all-star on the baseball diamond (and amassed 270 career wins), only picked up football in the last few years. But he's emerged as a talented multi-sport athlete who could have a future on college gridiron.

Stanford, Delaware, Bucknell, Holy Cross and Duquesne are among the programs that have expressed football recruiting interest in Mussina, who intends to camp with the Cardinal, Delaware, Bucknell and perhaps Holy Cross this summer.

Despite his strong ties to Stanford, however, Brycen didn't pay particularly close attention to Cardinal athletics for a portion of his youth. With his father in the midst of a successful (and time-consuming) baseball career (playing for East Coast teams), Brycen didn't spend much time around Stanford.

"My dad was still playing until I was about 10," Mussina said. "I knew he went there and I liked them, but I didn't really follow them a lot. I was young, and since we didn't spend a lot of time there it wasn't something that I really knew a lot as much as baseball. But when he retired and I got into football and baseball, we actually visited there the year after he retired. That was 2009 - that was when I was 11. I really liked it then. That's when I started following them and talking to them and stuff like that."

Mussina didn't actually begin to play quarterback until he was in eighth grade. Prior to that he focused on baseball and then basketball in middle school. He quickly acclimated to the gridiron, however.

"I didn't start playing quarterback actually until eighth grade," Mussina said. "That's when that first started. That was just the position that I thought I could help my junior high team the most. And then from there I really enjoyed it. I was interested in it. And I started working hard to become a better quarterback. I ended up moving up my ninth grade year to be on the varsity squad. I learned a lot playing with older kids that year. And then my 10th grade year I got the opportunity to start, which (was) pretty lucky."

Mussina's recruiting relationship with Stanford began when his area recruiter, Peter Hansen, spotted him at a regional camp in Pennsylvania. The two sides have been in touch since, including a Junior Day trip to The Farm in April.

"Definitely the facilities are fantastic," Mussina said. "The academic facilities are just as good. So definitely seeing all of the great facilities and how good of a learning environment it could be academically. Also the football aspect - talking to the players was really cool. Just seeing how balanced they are, I really liked that. They're smart guys but they're athletically also just as incredible. It was cool to see everything and to talk to the guys."

Mussina was accompanied by his family on the visit. The trip sparked a number of memories for his father.

"He wouldn't stop talking about everywhere he'd seen," Mussina said. "He said, 'Oh, back when I was around this was different, that was different.'"

Stanford is recruiting Mussina as a preferred walk-on. The Cardinal already has a scholarship commitment from one of the nation's top signal callers (No. 23 overall prospect Davis Mills), and they intend to sign only one scholarship signal caller - Mills - in the 2017 class.

"I understand that they already offered and (Mills) is committed," Mussina said. "I talked to (Pritchard) about being a preferred walk-on and just what that would be like for me, if it would be that different or not. That's where I'm at right now - considering my couple of options at this point."

Beyond Mussina's football recruiting process, there's also the matter of which sport the Pennsylvania native will pursue in college. He was a baseball standout before football, and there's still a possibility Mussina goes the baseball route on the next level.

"I've thought about it a lot and at this point I'm really not sure yet," Mussina said. "I don't really have one picked out. So I'm still trying to my options and get my name out there in both sports and see what I can get. From there we'll see what's the best choice."

For the time being, Mussina has received more football recruiting attention by baseball, which has been partially by design. That might change as Mussina gets more exposure this summer, however.

"Honestly I've kind of focused more on football to get my name out there," Mussina said. "That just happened to be how it went my ninth and 10th grade year. At this point in baseball I really haven't talked to many schools but I'm going to be playing on a travel ball team this summer for baseball after my football camps are over so hopefully I'll be able to get my name out there a little bit more for baseball and then toward the end of the summer I'll see what my options are."

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