Wednesday, December 21st was Winter Solstice, which is the day in which the tilt of planet earth is furthest from the sun. It needs to be understood that this is for the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, it was the opposite of Winter Solstice as it was the Summer Solstice. This means all those father penguins in Antarctica bravely shield their chicks from the cold in the months of June and July. That’s when their wintertime is.
Tying this all back to Christmastime, the process by which father penguins protect their young is called a crèche, meaning that they as a group shield the chicks from the cold. Crèche of course is also what you call works of art that model/depict the Christmas nativity scene.
In many ways, one can argue the most festive day of the year aside from Christmas Day is the Winter Solstice. After all, it’s those pagan holiday roots that have given rise to our modern celebration of Christmas. So, in the spirit of bringing college football fans holiday cheer, college football held their National Signing Day on the same day as Winter Solstice. Stanford was rather active on this day, signing 19 players to their 2023 recruiting class:
Edge Chip Allers (Preferred Walk On), 3-star WR Tiger Bachmeier, 3-star OT Luke Baklenko, 4-star WR Ahmari Borden, 3-star WR Ismael Cisse, Edge Carter Davis (Preferred Walk-On), punter/kicker Aidan Flintoft (Preferred Walk-On), 4-star CB Jshawn Frausto-Ramos, 3-star edge Gavin Geweniger, 3-star WR Jackson Harris, 4-star RB Sedrick Irvin, Jr., 4-star QB Myles Jackson, 2-star CB Aaron Morris, 3-star OG Simone Pale, Edge Omar Staples, 3-star OT Charlie Symonds, OT Allen Thomason (Preferred Walk On), 3-star ILB Tre Williams, and 3-star OT Zak Yamauchi.
Of that group, Ahmari Borden, Jshawn Frausto-Ramos, Sedrick Irvin, Jr., and Myles Jackson are the four highest rated players. All at critical positions. Borden could be a real spark to the wide receiving group and be a dynamic player in Troy Taylor’s offensive system. The same goes for Irvin, who has a lot of upside. He’s got tremendous speed and knows how to make plays in the open field.
As for Jackson, Stanford really needed to add a topflight quarterback in this class and so to get him is big-time. Things are shaping up for him to be the future starting quarterback of the program in the coming seasons and thus be a cornerstone piece of Taylor’s offense. Last but not least, Frausto-Ramos could be a real difference maker at cornerback and bring elite playmaking to a secondary that needs to be replenished after losing some key pieces to the graduate transfer portal and NFL draft.
The 4-star recruits aren’t the only good players in this class. Tiger Bachmeier has a lot of upside and has an ability to make difficult catches in traffic, Tre Williams has Stanford bloodlines from his dad Tom who played and coached on The Farm, Aidan Flintoft is one of the top kicking and punting talents in the nation and is a great addition to the special teams unit, and then the rest of the group all have different things about them to be excited about as well. The offensive line unit in particular.
It should be noted that Stanford is not done adding to their 2023 class. At least potentially. There are at least a couple of other preferred walk-ons that are expected to join the fold and then there are two verbal commits who did not sign: 3-star DT Cameron Brandt and 3-star RB LJ Martin. Brandt informed CardinalSportsReport.com that he is waiting to sign until February. Martin hasn’t confirmed that to us, but it is expected that he’ll be signing in February as well. So, Stanford has a chance to reel those guys in over the next couple of months.
One other big name that is out there as well is 4-star tight end Walker Lyons. After backing off his pledge to the Cardinal after David Shaw stepped down, he visited Stanford this past weekend on an official visit and appears to be giving Stanford a good deal of consideration. The hire of Troy Taylor, who coached at Folsom High School where Lyons goes to school, appears to be making a real positive impact.
Stanford has the 47th best recruiting class in the latest Rivals 2023 team rankings, but there’s a chance for that class to improve if they are able to lock in Brandt, Martin, and Lyons. All three of those guys play positions of need and would be a real shot in the arm to the class. If Stanford is able to bring them into the fold, that would be huge.
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