Steve Stephens is willing to wait for an offer from Stanford

Fresno has a reputation for producing good defensive backs and the latest from Edison High is Steve Stephens, who made a visit to Stanford this past weekend.

The No. 114 overall recruit according to Rivals, Stephens said his contact with Stanford coaches Duane Akina and Toure Carter has “been very consistent recently." He decided to make the drive across The Valley and through the hills to Stanford.

“It was a beautiful campus,” he said of his first impression. “It was eye opening. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. There were trees everywhere, green everywhere."

After breakfast, Stephens watched Stanford’s practice and at first focused on the defensive backs and how Akina teaches. He said Stanford is recruiting him as someone capable of playing any of the three positions.

He was impressed by the Stanford defensive backs.

“It was very interesting. I was trying to catch on to their schemes, but they disguised everything so well I was having a hard time,” he laughed.

“I enjoyed every moment of it,” he said about listening to Akina coach. “He really reminds me of the coaches I have here right now. He’s a great dude and he showed me his history coming from Texas. It was crazy."

Stephens added an offer from Boise State Tuesday and has most of the Pac-12 (ASU, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington State), Nebraska and LSU. He talked about the steps he needs to take off the field to earn an offer from the Cardinal.

“I believe they are waiting for my SAT and ACT scores to come out,” he said. “That will probably be the key factor. They’re showing you have to do more than just ball on the football field. You have to do well in the classroom as well. That was pretty cool.”

And waiting for Stanford isn’t a problem because Stephens planned to do so, anyway.

“It doesn’t bother me at all because in the end I’m going to wait it out until signing day, so they can take their time. They showed me a lot of love when I was out there. They don’t recruit a lot of guys because it’s hard to get in, so they only recruit guys they know have a chance of getting in.”

Stephens said he’s still pretty open about what schools he’s considering and he wants to make some visits to schools such as Oregon, Nebraska and "possibly" Colorado. And with Stanford about a three hour drive away, he plans “to take a couple more unofficials and keep grinding in the classroom so they can push that offer out.”

And if an offer did come from Stanford?

“Man, I would be excited,” he said. “You have a chance to go to Stanford, a prestigious school, it would probably be overwhelming.”