Strickland excited to see Stanford after offer to the 2022 four star
Stanford offered Joe Strickland Aug. 31 and the Indiana native is confident that he will want to visit in person once the pandemic permits. Strickland reports offers from Purdue (his mother's alma mater), Indiana, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and others.
"Whenever things open up I'll be out there," he said to Cardinal Sports Report in a phone call after he was offered. "They're definitely a good program. Everything I'm interested in (studying) they have the top schools in most of them. That draws me in."
Strickland has been in contact with Stanford for about a month and has phone calls with defensive line coach Diron Reynolds about every other week. They also text each other regularly since Sept. 1 — when college coaches could begin communicating directly with juniors.
His jesuit high school is proactive about helping its students learn about colleges and Strickland's counselors have sent him information about various schools at Stanford. He's interested in civil engineering and business. (His older brother, Julian, graduated with a civil engineering degree from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.)
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.
"There aren't as many people who took academics seriously because they think they have football. 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."
Amy tagged Joe in a retweet of a video in which Shaw described how Stanford evaluates all the characteristics of a recruit before offering.
"She (Amy) thought it was crazy (to get the offer)," Joe said. "I mean, it's Stanford. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Most people don't even think about Stanford or think about it as a dream school because of how hard it is to get in."
Stanford is one of several schools that has impressed Strickland so far. Penn State and Indiana have done a good job of having multiple coaches communicate with him to let him know he's a priority. Minnesota and Michigan State have also been very active since Sept. 1.
No one knows when in-person visits will be allowed, but Strickland is certain that he will need more than a virtual visit to know if a school is the right fit for him. He has an idea of what he wants to see in at his future school:
"Everyone is connected. Everybody has a goal to get as far as they can and to be there for each other, to push each other, to push the program. The locker room needs to be very energetic. You want to be there every day and you want to show up to practice."
Strickland is on pace for a successful junior season and through four games has already been more productive than 10 games during his sophomore season, according to Maxpreps. He has 20 total tackles, 3.5 TFL, three hurries, 1.5 sacks and one pass deflection. Last year he finished with 24 tackles, 6.5 TFL, five sacks and four hurries.