A fan becomes a recruit: Stanford is a familiar place for Sinclair

Tristan Sinclair is not a stranger to the Stanford campus. His father, Andy, played for Stanford from 1985 to 1988 and the Sinclairs are regulars at Cardinal games.

And now Sinclair is a recruit who is quickly rising as a top prospect in the eyes of scouts and coaches. He visited Stanford Saturday during a cross-country tour of schools that included Harvard, Notre Dame and UCLA all last week.

"The visit was awesome because honestly I’d never seen the facilities or the behind the scenes of the program. It was great to familiarize myself with all of that," he said.

"The highlight for me was probably watching some film with (inside linebackers) coach (Peter) Hansen. It was cool seeing the position that I’d play and listening to the coaching points. Hopefully I can bring a few things back to my school that I learned."

Sinclair returned to Stanford Tuesday to watch a practice and spend more time around the coaches.

"I think I’m building great relationships with all the coaches there," he said.

Sinclair has a versatile athletic skill set and he has the ability to play all over the field. His test numbers March 4 at The Opening regional in Santa Clara offered eye-opening proof. He measured in at 6-1.5 and 199 pounds, but he also ran a 4.54 40-yard dash and had a 3.93 shuttle.

The next day Notre Dame offered him and since then so have Utah, Cal, Washington State, Oregon State, Vanderbilt, Nebraska and Illinois. Notre Dame offered him to play the "rover", a linebacker/safety hybrid position.

"Recruiting definitely picked up after The Opening so it was fun to see a lot of hard work pay off," he said. "My timeline hasn’t really changed much and I’m still unsure on when I want to make any decisions. I think I’ll know when the time is and I haven’t felt that quite yet. I want to make sure wherever I end up is the right place for me."

An offer from Stanford would certainly change Sinclair's outlook on recruiting.

"I talked to them a little bit about that and my understanding is I’m high on their board but obviously Stanford is a very selective school. They want to make sure I fit their mold. They’re going to come out to some workouts or our spring practices soon so that will be a great chance to see me move around a little."

Stanford is looking at Sinclair as a linebacker and the junior doesn't prefer linebacker or safety more than the other.

"The only preference I have is to play defense because it’s a lot more fun to hit people than get hit, in my opinion. I’ll play wherever any team needs me and I’ll play whatever gets me on the field fastest."