Stanford Football: Grading the 2018 Cardinal recruiting class

Stanford football finished ranked all the way back at No. 39 when the dust settled on National Signing Day. Here are the final grades for their 2018 class.

There are always going to be recruiting restrictions that make it harder for the Cardinal. Top-shelf talent needs not only to meet football standards but also the academic requirements for enrollment at Stanford.

Despite the limits on who they can recruit, Stanford finished in the top 25 of the 247sports recruiting rankings in each of the past four years between 2014 and 2017. No longer stigmatized as a whipping boy of the Pac-12, the Cardinal have become a premier football destination as well as one of the best academic institutions in the country.

This year, however, the defending Pac-12 North champions struggled to land a single five-star recruit on either side of the ball. It was an uncharacteristic showing for the Cardinal, who landed three blue-chippers in the 2017 recruiting class. In total they brought in 14 recruits, a haul that will help fortify the division champs but which did not factor among the top recruiting performances of the year.

Where did Stanford land the most help? Let’s dive in and grade their recruiting performance on offense and defense before looking at the team’s final grade from National Signing Day.