Braylon James might not have wanted his unofficial visit to Stanford on Tuesday to end. The sophomore from Del Valle, Texas, was quick to give a review in a message to Cardinal Sports Report.
"Just got done with the visit, LOVED IT," he wrote.
"I can’t lie about the experience," he added. "Coach (Bobby) Kennedy, (Tavita) Pritchard, and (David) Shaw treated me like FAMILY. This felt like homes. Everything felt organic. I loved it here and I’ll definitely be coming back."
James could end up being a top 50 overall recruit in the 2023 class and he already is one in the classroom. He tweeted recently that his 5.1 weighted GPA earned him a class ranking of 36th out of 878 — putting him within reach of double five star status.
That kind of profile typically means a young man and his parents are going to enjoy a visit to Stanford. James got a full tour of the campus, dorms and facilities, and he also had lunch with cornerback Kyu Kelly and wide receiver John Humphreys.
The current Cardinal addressed a concern that even the most accomplished high school student-athlete can have about Stanford: how the heck do you balance a serious Stanford course schedule with an equally committed pursuit of football?
"Whenever you think of Stanford, the first thing you think is difficulty within academics," James shared. "I feel like that’s the main thing that turns athletes away from going to Stanford. They really reassured me that it’s not as tough as people make it seem. That’s probably the main take away (from my conversation with them).
"I can’t fabricate how great of a time I had. I loved it here."
James met with an engineering professor during his visit (it's a regular part of visits for Stanford recruits to sit down with a professor in a major they're interested in) and he got an indirect Twitter shoutout from the professor the night before that was posted by Stanford's director of recruiting.
James has participated in multiple Zoom meetings with Stanford coaches and one of the calls was with several other elite 2023 recruits. That group conversation was organized by fellow sophomore four star Jaxon Howard and it was mostly a town hall style discussion with Shaw.
"I loved it," James wrote to Cardinal Sports Report after that Zoom meeting. "Every time I talk with the coaching staff at Stanford I really gain more and more interest. I’ve never experienced anything like that and it was really cool to be in that type of environment."
Shaw, Kennedy and Pritchard undoubtedly hope he's back as soon as possible and they have plenty of competition to earn his future commitment. James has been offered by almost everyone and just in the last month the list expanded to include Texas, Notre Dame, LSU, Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M and others.