Jones had eyes opened on visit to Stanford and then he was offered
Stanford doesn’t offer many recruits in person, but that’s what happened for 2020 defensive back Brandon Jones of Narbonne High. Jones is already a national recruit and he received his latest offer Saturday during the junior day visit, which was his third trip to The Farm.
Head coach David Shaw pulled Jones and his parents aside at the end of Saturday after the lecture on Stanford’s academic requirements for recruits. They went to Shaw’s office, where he shook Jones’ hand and told him:
“‘Congratulations, I’d like to offer you a scholarship to Stanford University,’” Jones recalled. “Then my mom started crying. I just couldn’t stop smiling. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. To be offered by Stanford is huge -- knowing that they rarely give out scholarships, especially to the 2020 class. It was a big deal for me.”
Jones is not a stranger to Stanford’s coaches. They’ve kept tabs on him for more than a year and made sure their interest was passed on through his high school coaches.
“After going to Stanford for the third time, Stanford is definitely one of the top choices,” he said. “Even if I make like a top five, Stanford would be on that list without a doubt. That’s one place I’d love to take an official visit to, because Stanford has been showing me love since I was a freshman. There have been a couple big schools showing me love like that, but not like Stanford.”
Nothing else during the visit could top that one surprise moment, but there were several other highlights.
He spent time with defensive backs coach Duane Akina and sitting in on a video session left an impression: “He’s a great coach and a legend. Knowing all of the players he has recruited and coached, all the first rounders, is amazing.”
Jones has a variety of interests of what he wants to study and he enjoyed talking with several professors during lunch. While most recruits talk about a top five of football programs, that’s not the only such list Jones has on his mind.
“Engineering is one of the top five majors I’m thinking about,” he said. “I have like a whole list of different majors in mind. We’re trying to get it down to one, but engineering is at the top, definitely.”
The others are communications, history, international relations and film studies. Jones thinks he may want to get into movie making or some part of the film business.
Not surprisingly for someone with such varied interests, the academic pitch he heard while on campus was very appealing, and motivating.
“They told us that the networking you’ll find at the school is second to none,” Jones said. “And after visiting the school I believe that … because I hear all the great names that came to the school. And all the great names that would like to be a part of the school -- Bill Gates has his own building there and and he didn’t even go there. The networking will be extremely important for life after football.
“And the admissions (requirements) were at the end of the day, so I got to see everything first. I was like, ‘I have to do this. I have to get accepted here.’ My whole mindset changed. I thought I was at a good level … but now I need to step it up. It was a mind change.”