Amon-Ra St. Brown discusses interest in Stanford after visit
Mater Dei rising senior wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the most important Stanford recruiting targets in recent years and the five-star prospect visited The Farm this week.
St. Brown and his high school quarterback -- 2019 five star and Stanford offeree JT Daniels-- took in the action of Stanford’s football camp Tuesday. Amon is not a stranger to Stanford or its football program because his older brothers Equanimeous and Osiris were both recruited by the same Cardinal coaches who are currently on the staff.
Equanimeous is a rising junior at Notre Dame and Osiris is moving into Stanford this week to start his freshman year. It’s Amon’s turn to be the focus of conversations with head coach David Shaw, offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren and quarterback/receiver coach Tavita Pritchard.
“So finally coming up and me being the main priority for them in recruiting is a little different,” he said. “It’s good. I’ve always had a pretty good relationship with those coaches. I’ve known them since they started recruiting Equanimeous and came up to the house for the home visit. I know them pretty well now. I wouldn’t say the relationship has changed. It has been pretty good since we started talking. The only thing that’s changed is they’re focusing on me more.”
The St. Brown brothers have been held to high academic standards for years, which is why only top schools with elite football programs appear to under serious consideration by Amon. He said about choosing a school: “I think it’s more of a football decision. I’d say 60-40 football.”
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Amon said he and the Stanford coaches spent a lot of time breaking down video and discussing how he’d be used in their offense. It sounded like a similar visit to when JT Daniels came up to visit Stanford in May.
Stanford’s offense is a run-first approach that rarely in the past six years produced big passing statistics. That may seem like a recruiting disadvantage compared to Notre Dame, USC or any of the other schools that have captured St. Brown’s interest, but that’s not necessarily how the Mater Dei receiver views the comparison.
St. Brown said other programs he is considering throw the ball more, but they play against defenses that drop back more players in coverage. He broke it down another way as “more targets but probably more incompletions” vs. “less throws but more completions.”
While different offensive systems are interesting to analyze and consider, St. Brown is at his core a confident athlete who has earned that self belief by repeatedly beating top competition.
“I think it doesn’t really matter what offense I go to as long as I’m producing and making plays,” he said. “Whatever offense I go to it’s really up to me to make plays and put myself in the best situation possible.”
And St. Brown enjoys bringing excitement to the football field. He has said football is entertainment and he put on a show two weeks ago during the Rivals Five Star Challenge at the Indianapolis Colts practice facility.
“He’s awesome,” said Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell after watching St. Brown in the seven-on-seven competition.
“He adjusts to the ball so well, he gets separation, he’s powerful, he high-points it, he almost attacks the football and doesn’t let anybody make a play on the ball. He lived up to the billing for sure.”
St. Brown's competitive mindset and elite skills are why Rivals ranks him as the No. 4 overall 2018 prospect in the country and the No. 1 receiver.
His camp performances showed he may be able to improve on a special junior season (1,229 yards and 21 touchdowns) with Daniels as his quarterback.
“It would be nice for us to go to the same school,” St. Brown said. “Him getting a Stanford offer is nice and I know he wanted that for a long time because he loves Stanford. For him to get the offer I was happy for him, but also that means if I go here and he might go here, then we might play together again. That would be great, too.”
The general timeline of a decision remains the same for St. Brown. He’ll let the college football season play out so he can further evaluate the potential of each program he may join. It's likely he will take another visit to Stanford to watch a game.
Then he could announce his college choice at the Army All-America game -- “That might be cool” -- or wait until signing day.