Junior day made Strickland feel more comfortable with Stanford
It's tough for recruits to get a feel for whether a school is the right fit during the recruiting dead peroid, but Joe Strickland thinks the virtual junior day he attended Saturday helped answer that question for him.
"Major comfort level increase," he said in a message to Cardinal Sports Report . "Of course, it would be nice to go over there for a visit but you know the times we're in."
Strickland is holding onto the plan that he will visit Stanford and several other schools in person before making a decision.
The comprehensive live Zoom event lasted more than three hours and afterward Strickland couldn't pick out his favorite part.
"The highlight was everything! It was nice overall because they went through football, school, class and (current) players talked. It was great."
The players panel included Thomas Booker, Jordan Fox, Houston Heimuli, Ricky Miezan, Barret Miller and Michael Wilson. Strickland appreciated that a lot of what they had to say resonated with him, especially the guys who made the decision to travel across the country to attend Stanford.
Joe wasn't the only Strickland to watch. Both his parents participated and his mom, Amy, gave the junior day a positive review.
"The day was first class by Stanford, which is no surprise," she said. "Coach (David) Shaw is quite a man and it shows through when he merely speaks. They were so organized down to every detail and covered all categories from nutrition to academics and everything in between. They also had current players attend for a Q&A which was wonderful! Honestly, it’s Stanford, it speaks for itself."
Stanford offered Strickland Aug. 31 and his contact with position coach Diron Reynolds began about a month before the offer.
His father, Vern, played basketball for two seasons at Auburn — one with Charles Barkley — and Amy played two sports in high school. Joe has been raised in an environment that promotes a balanced approach to being a student-athlete and he's interested in studying engineering and/or business.
"There aren't as many people who took academics seriously because they think they have football," Strickland said in an interview in September. "I want to be successful past football. If I don't go as far in football then Stanford is a great school. I'd consider it a dream because of the academics and the football program is good, too."
Strickland recently visited Penn State in person for a self-guided tour and the Nittany Lion staff is recruiting the No. 213 overall recruit hard.
“Zoom-wise, I’ve probably done six with them,” he told BlueWhite Illustrated. “I’ve done some FaceTime calls and a bunch of phone calls, too. Coach Barnes, Coach Scott, Coach Franklin and Coach Pry have all been in contact. The first couple Zooms featured the whole defensive staff, and Coach Franklin was on there, too. But I’ve done Zooms with the strength coach, too. I’ve done one with just Coach Scott. We’ve been active.”
Indiana and Purdue have offered and are doing everything short of shutting down the state border to keep him at a home state school.
Strickland may push his decision past his senior season if he has not visited his top schools by then, but he plans to have his finalists named by the beginning of the season.