This spring, Stanford football landed a commitment from 2026 3-star outside linebacker/defensive end Lucas Shanafelt out of Peters Township in McMurray, Pennsylvania. Shanafelt visited Stanford on April 7th for an unofficial visit and will return for his official visit the weekend of June 6th. Shanafelt projects to play at the outside linebacker position.
Currently rated a 5.5 by Rivals, Shanafelt held offers from Pittsburgh, Purdue, and West Virginia in addition to several Ivy League schools and others. Duke, Penn State, and Rutgers also showed interest.
Listed at 6’4”, 235 pounds, Shanafelt has great instincts and plays with a lot of physicality. He’s used to playing as a defensive end, doing a good job of busting his way through opposing offensive lines to make plays in the backfield. He’s also comfortable in coverage, so the transition to outside linebacker shouldn’t be too bad for him in that sense. He’s clearly a strong kid and should only get stronger once he gets put on a college level strength and conditioning program.
On offense, Shanafelt plays wide receiver and has good hands as a result. That should serve him well as an outside linebacker as he looks to get interceptions. Having good hands is a very underrated skill for linebackers to have.
Shanafelt won’t be the only Peters Township player on The Farm when he arrives. Stanford freshman outside linebacker Mickey Vaccarello is a Peters Township alum, so it’ll be fun for the two of them to reunite and be teammates again.
Overall, Lucas Shanfelt looks like a nice pickup for the Cardinal defense. Even though he isn’t rated high, he plays the game the right way and seems like a guy who could be coached into something good. It’ll be fun to see how he develops once he gets on campus.
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