A father's perspective on JT Daniels' visit to Stanford
The goal for any father on a trip to a college with his son is to make sure it’s a good fit for the young person to flourish. Steve Daniels said he and JT, a five star sophomore quarterback according to Rivals, viewed their third trip to Stanford as the best opportunity up to that point to “peel the onion back and see the lower layers.”
And after interacting with coaches Thursday and Friday, Steve said the experience did not disappoint.
“It was very much the goal of these meetings that, ‘Hey is this place as great as we think it is,’” Steve said. “And after two days of meetings with all the people who are significant to us and we wanted to get to know, we found that it checked every box and then some.”
Steve knew before the trip -- after being at Stanford for a camp and game -- that he had a good baseline of knowledge about the football program. But the two-day visit offered a chance to take in more of the university.
“I knew it was going to be incredible,” Steve said. “Now, one of my expectations was by far exceeded. With all these super elite people ... does that lead to an elitist mentality? I was looking for that and I didn’t see that at all. It seemed like a bunch of down-to-earth people. They are saying a lot of thought provoking things, but they are regular Joes. That was really exciting for me to see that.”
There wasn’t a specific reason for why Steve was on the lookout for snobbish character, but it speaks to how thoroughly he thought through everything he wanted to check off the list during the visit. This was an exploratory mission, and it also was an invaluable opportunity to have extensive one-on-one time with the offensive coaches.
Thursday night they had dinner with head coach David Shaw, junior wide receiver Trent Irwin and offensive assistant Robbie Picazo: “Which was awesome,” Steve said. “We got to talk a lot of football and a little bit of academics. We heard some great stories from Coach Shaw.”
Quarterback/wide receiver coach Tavita Pritchard and offensive line/offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren were out of the area recruiting, but they flew back Thursday night. They got back about midnight, Steve said, and met the father and son for breakfast Friday morning. Picazo and other offensive assistants were there as well.
The rest of the day included sitting in on a psychology lecture -- JT’s academic interest -- and then lunch with Bloomgren. They had two separate meetings with Shaw in the afternoon and then dinner with Bloomgren and Pritchard.
It was during dinner when Pritchard and Bloomgren worked with JT to test his football IQ, which has received top-mark reviews for several years.
“We watched film and they asked JT to explain: 'Why did you set this protection? What routes did you call? How did you identify this cover?'” It was a lot of fun for both sides to see the kid is pretty far ahead of the game in terms of the mental aspects of what a Stanford quarterback needs to be able to do. Which, frankly, is the same thing an NFL quarterback needs to do.”
After going over Stanford's protections and language, they played video of Mater Dei games and JT had to explain what was happening using Cardinal terminology.
“It was really fun I think for them to see JT understand the protections and not only understand them but use their vernacular to explain the protections that were being used,” he said.
JT’s passion to learn the game goes back to when he was a kid and had what only sounds like a simple epiphany: “The game is a lot easier to play when you understand what the heck is going on out there,” Steve recalled.
“Honestly, nothing the kid does surprises me,” he said. “It is absolutely surreal to see it. When he was six years old and playing Madden, I was watching him play. He keeps moving a receiver in motion. It’s not part of the play … but he’s always sending someone in motion. So I asked him why he was doing that and he said, ‘So I can identify if it’s man or zone.’”
Steve guessed that JT watched a broadcast of an NFL game, heard that advice and decided to try it on the video game.
Anecdotes such as that make it seem JT was destined to be a football player who is the top target of coaches across the country, but a great deal of work has been done to translate his advanced learning to physical success. And it’s because of the many good options available to JT that the family plans to take a step back from recruiting for a while and focus on Mater Dei football.
Steve said the plan is to return to Stanford June 20 for the camp and take more college visits in July.