Any discussion of 2014 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds or fail to gain admission to the University. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 5, 2014, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.
You probably recognize the name. Christian McCaffrey's father, Ed, played fourteen years in the NFL and won three Super Bowl rings, but before that he wore #40 for the Cardinal and was one of the school's all-time greats. Christian's mother, Lisa, was also a Stanford athlete, a soccer player. (As an aside, one of my drawmates at the time had an insatiable crush on her.)
So Christian McCaffrey is a double legacy (here's a great article about that by The Bootleg's David Lombardi), but that's not what earned him his scholarship offer. Both Scout.com and Rivals.com give the Colorado running back a four-star rating, and when he committed to Stanford last week he turned down offers from twenty-one other schools, including Oregon, UCLA, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida State, and Nebraska. That's a serious list, and McCaffrey is a serious player. He's an all-purpose back, and his highlight video demonstrates both his receiving skills as well as his 4.47 speed. At 6'0" and 193 pounds, he's also big enough to take the pounding that a three-down back has to endure, and there's no doubt that he'll develop into an excellent pass blocker. All in all, this is a great, great signing for the Cardinal.
