Shaw Signing Day review: Defense

A few hours after the final Letter of Intent from Stanford's 2016 recruiting class arrived in the Cardinal's football offices, head coach David Shaw met with the media to review the incoming freshmen.

Here's a position-by-position look at Shaw's comments on the defensive side of the ball.

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Stanford's four-player defensive line class is the Cardinal's largest since 2012 - both in numbers and body type. All four 2016 defensive line signees are listed at north of 270 pounds. Bo Peek (296) and Michael Williams (300) will be among the larger defensive players on Stanford's roster the minute they step on campus.

"Defensively, at Stanford University, it's tough, always trying to get enough defensive linemen," Shaw said. "To come through a class with four guys - our incoming freshmen are bigger than our seniors that left us. We're always talking about size and pushing the pocket and knocking people back up front. So I'm excited about those four guys being able to come in - big guys, physical guys with athleticism as well as pass rushers."

"To have guys that are starting out at 270, 280, 290 on the defensive line, to be physical up front, I'm excited about that, just having that size. We did a great job. Coach Hart and Lance Anderson did a phenomenal job this year playing with a defensive line that's 265, 270 and 265. And now to be able to say in the future we're going to have 285 290, 300 pounds being able to push the pocket. That's huge."

Whether any of the four will be called upon to contribute in 2016 remains to be seen. Stanford still lacks depth along the defensive line with the departures of Aziz Shittu and Brennan Scarlett, but the return of Luke Kaumatule and Eric Cotton's move to defensive end could reduce pressure on the true freshmen to play immediately.

"We'll see (if the incoming freshmen defensive linemen play)," Shaw said. "Now, we're also coming to the point where Luke Kaumatule was really, really good at the end of last season (during a redshirt year). Luke is about 300 pounds right now at 6-foot-6. Flipping over Eric Cotton from offense to defense. It takes the need down for those guys to have to be able to play as freshmen, but the competition is going to be there. If a guy can come in and help us, whether it's an incoming freshmen or our sophomores who were freshmen this past year, being able to come in and help us, we need these guys to step up and play. So whoever is ready to play, we're going to play them. I'm just excited to be able to have the numbers to be able to bring in our guys in a class - I can't remember the last time we did that on the defensive line. That's a special thing to be able to do."

Stanford's incoming quartet of defensive linemen will head to The Farm from several regions of the country - and the world. Three-star Thomas Schaffer played his college football at Lake Forest Academy in Illinois, but he's from Austria.

"For Thomas, like a lot of international guys that we've had here, Stanford's still that one school that their extended family knows about," Shaw said. "Europe and Canada and different places, Stanford is a special school. So it's not just one of these other schools that play football. The family in Austria says. 'Oh, wow, we know Stanford. You have a chance to go to Stanford?' That's a big thing.

"And I think the thing with Thomas, too, he had people that he knew had parents who went to Stanford. There was an identification there as well... 'This was not a normal deal. You need to go check this one out. This is a special place and if you fit there this might be a good option for you.'

"Early on, it took a while for him to come visit but when he was finally able to come he was like a kid in a candy store. He just fit so perfectly and he was excited ever since."

Stanford technically signed a pair of outside linebackers in the 2016 class - five-star Curtis Robinson and three-star Utah standout Loa Kaufusi. However, Kaufusi will serve a two-year LDS church mission before beginning his college career.

Still, the Cardinal will add two OLB's in 2016 in Robinson and 2015 signee Jordan Fox, who will rejoin the program after a year away.

"(We're) bringing in two outside linebackers - one in this class in Curtis Robinson and honestly one from the previous that we feel good in Jordan Fox joining us this year," Shaw said. "Two guys that are physical on the edge but also great pass rushers."

Stanford did not, however, sign any inside linebackers in 2016. On the heels of adding two in 2015 (Sean Barton and Mustafa Branch) and 2014 (Jordan Perez and Bobby Okereke), the Cardinal didn't think there was a need at the position.

"We're at our number for the inside linebackers," Shaw said. "Our number for those guys is six and we have six on the team right now coming back, so that wasn't a place where we felt the need to add another one. And not to mention most of those guys are young, most of those guys are coming back again after this year. I think after this year we only lose Noor Davis. The rest of those guys are coming back again. It's a young group that we feel really good about."

Thanks in part to a pair of flips from traditional college football powers Texas and Penn State, Stanford ended up signing a four-player defensive back class that includes players from Texas, Louisiana, California and Pennsylvania.

This year is the third straight the Cardinal has inked at least four defensive backs; they also signed four in 2015 and added five in 2014.

"(We signed) a group of secondary guys that are long, athletic, quick, explosive,"Shaw said. "You can visualize some of these guys playing safety, corner, nickel, helping us out on special teams. A really dynamic group of guys."

"Pryts is the one safety and the other three guys (Obi Eboh, Treyjohn Butler and Malik Antoine) are corners. And once again, I'm excited about seeing where those guys can play and who can play nickel. I have a feeling that really all three of those corners could jump inside and play nickel. And with all of the spread teams that we play, it's nickel, it's dime. Quenton Meeks came in and played great but there were games we had to bring in a dime guy, we had to bring in another defensive back. And Terrence Alexander played extremely well there, and Terrence finished the year last year playing really well at corner, too. So do some of those guys move out (to corner)? Do other guys move in (to nickel). Duane Akina does a phenomenal job of teaching these guys what to do and then evaluating them, and not just in general but also game plan to game plan and saying ok, there's a game where Taijuan Thomas came in and played great for us because we had a game that we were playing a style that fit him perfectly. So I think the fact that we could move some of our guys based on game plan keeps everybody alive all year and keeps everybody competing all year to hopefully utilize the best guys each week."

There's been a clear uptick in the quality and quantity of top defensive backs interested in the Cardinal in future years. Shaw thinks that dates back to the 2010 season, when Stanford changed from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4, and that secondary recruiting has continued to improve with the hiring of Akina.

"I think it started years ago really when Vic Fangio came and took over," Shaw said. "I think Vic did such a great job of highlighting what our defensive backs could do well. Richard Sherman was put in some great positions to show how great he was and has only gotten better and better and better. Derek Mason, being a secondary coach and being the defensive coordinator, I think did a great job of getting those guys to continue to develop. and then you bring in a Duane Akina, with his track record and nationally he's got a lot of respect for what he does.

"Combine that with the success that we had before he got here and now you're looking at defensive backs that say, 'Who do I want to go play for, and wow, Coach Akina is there and I've got the grades to go to Stanford? And what they've done on defense, they've put a lot of guys in the NFL, but the guys have played extremely well. Gosh, that's a place I want to go play.' I think that combination - that short history and then our current success. And once again, the group that we have right now is a group that's still a young group but can play extremely well. And you can start to see that some of these guys are going to play on Sundays. We're starting to build a reputation that is founded in guys that are successful. I think it's been really appealing to the recruits the last couple of years."

Stanford shored up its special teams for the foreseeable future by adding a pair of scholarship specialists, kicker/punter Jet Toner and long snapper Richard McNitzky.

"(We addressed) a potential need in a year with a kicker," Shaw said. "Bringing in a kicker and bringing in a scholarship long snapper - some of those games come down to field goals - snap, hold, kick has to be on, and you have to have the uys to do things like that."

Toner, like Jake Bailey in 2015, has the ability to handle both multiple responsibilities as a kicking specialist.

Toner is "a dual guy," Shaw said. "He can do either and we'll see how it goes. Jake last year is one of those as well - kickoffs, punts, field goals. I'll leave it to Coach Alamar and our work with those guys to see which guys settle into which roles but it's great to have some guys that have versatility that can do a little bit of everything. They can specialize in what they're really, really good at. To have multiple that can do both is really exciting - actually all three if you include kickoffs."