Auburn commit likes Stanford

While four-star safety Ben Edwards of Jacksonville (Fla.) Trinity Christian says the strength of his verbal commitment to Auburn is "about 90 percent," he admits the other 10 percent is open to Stanford, one of the schools he plans on officially visiting.

The class of 2015 Edwards also plans on officially visiting UCLA, Ohio State and Auburn. Of his official visits, he said the Cardinal represent the biggest threat to Auburn.

"They're a great academic school and I take academics seriously as well as football," said the 6-foot, 196-pound Edwards, who has yet to visit Stanford. "I know if I get a degree from Stanford, I can get a job anywhere because they're in the top five in the nation. That's really big for me and I can play for a great football program.

"They've been to a lot of bowl games as well as Auburn."

However, Edwards has been committed to Auburn since April, when he attending the Tigers' spring game with his family. Since then, he's been in communication with Tigers assistant Charlie Harbison, whose nickname is "Coach Cheese."

"I talk to Coach Cheese every week," he said. "I stay in contact and he talks to my parents and we keep on building our relationship. … When I visited and brought my family in, they showed my parents the most love and they're the only ones that really did that. They stay in contact with all of us. They show me the most love when I visit and I always have fun.

"I love their scheme and how I fit in, and I love Coach Cheese. He's like a father figure to me and I feel real comfortable with him."

Edwards has also become close with a few Tigers players, including Cameron Toney and Brandon King.

As for what it would take for Stanford to open the process back up, Edwards wasn't sure.

"I don't know, whatever my heart tells me," he said. "I can't answer that."

Adam Krohn is a Southeast Region football recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.