Stanford offers two 2022 QBs in a break from its typical process

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced every coaching staff in the country to make changes and now it has affected one of the more entrenched parts of Stanford's recruiting process: quarterback offers.

Stanford offered 2022 quarterbacks AJ Duffy and Braden Davis Thursday. It's the first time since 2016 that two uncommitted quarterbacks were offered for the same class at the same time. Davis Mills and Jake Bentley were offered in the 2017 class.

(For the 2018 class, Stanford offered Tanner McKee about a year after they offered Jack West but it was with the understanding that McKee was effectively a 2020 recruit because he was going on an LDS mission.)

This is an unusual move for head coach David Shaw because typically there are a couple of requirements for offering quarterback recruits. Most important was that the recruit had to visit and also camp at Stanford. In recent years quarterback offers also were made later in a recruiting cycle after careful months-long deliberation.

The pandemic has shut down on-campus visits and camps and there is no way to know when that will change.

Stanford's main argument for being more methodical than everyone else when making arguably the most important offer in any given class is that they only wanted to give one out.

Part of the recruiting pitch Stanford used to make the wait bearable for young athletes — many of whom already had every other offer under the sun — was that Stanford's offer was special because there would only be one golden ticket.

Making two offers instead of one doesn't dramatically change that effect compared to other schools.

The other Pac-12 coaching staffs have offered the following number of 2022 quarterbacks: Arizona (6), Arizona State (16), Cal (one offer to Duffy), Colorado (5), Oregon (8), Oregon State (4), UCLA (1), USC (9), Utah (7), Washington (3) and Washington State (8).

Cal ended up offering six quarterbacks in the 2021 class and UCLA has offered nine, so you can expect both schools to offer more 2022 quarterbacks.

Duffy told Adam Gorney recently that he's not in a rush with his process and is focused on building relationships with coaches at many of the schools that have offered. Penn State, USC, Arizona State, Oregon State, Oregon and Florida State were some of the schools he mentions that he's in contact with but he admitted he's probably forgetting some among his more than 30 reported offers.

Duffy completed 70.9 percent of his passes for 2,568 yards, 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions over 12 games last fall, according to MaxPreps. He also rushed for 501 yards and four touchdowns.

Like Duffy, Davis has offers from pretty much all of the elite programs (Clemson, Alabama, LSU, etc.) and it's obvious why when you watch him. At 6-5 and about 200 pounds he was clocked at sub 4.8 40-yard dash more than a year ago at a The Opening Regional. This offseason he transferred from Middletown High School in Middletown, Delaware to Lake Minneola in Florida.

He plans to play one season in Florida and then return to Delaware. (He's not the first recruit to make such a decision and won't be the last.)

He reports a 3.5 GPA and is the son of former NFL offensive lineman Anyone Davis.