Junior day goes well for Murphy

Kyle Murphy attended Stanford's junior day this past weekend and like many other recruits he was impressed that former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice met with everyone in attendance. The San Clemente, Calif., offensive tackle liked everything about the place.

So many programs are after Murphy, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound prospect, that it's still tough to narrow down his list but Stanford should stick around for a while especially after his visit.

"I was pretty impressed," Murphy said. "It's a really nice campus and I like their whole academic setup and their academic support for their players. I really like the football program, too.

"It's pretty impressive how many connections you can get if you go there and graduate. It seemed like all the people who go to Stanford or have been to Stanford really respect each other and help them out as much as they can.

"They're up there. It's kind of hard to say no to a school like that. They're pretty high up there right now."

So far, Auburn, Cal, Colorado, Duke, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, SMU, Stanford, USC, Utah and Washington have offered Murphy, who plans to attend Cal's junior day this weekend.

He recently took an unofficial visit to USC as well. Utah, Colorado and Nebraska have offered recently.

After the Cal trip, Murphy hopes to attend a junior day at Oregon in early April and then during that trip head up to Washington to check out that campus.

It has been a hectic time for Murphy, who said he'd like to start narrowing his list down over the next couple months and then have only a handful left by the summer. Some official visits might happen but the Southern California standout is looking to make his list more manageable by he enters his senior year.

"I don't really want to keep the list as long as it is or even longer into my senior year," Murphy said.

"I want to probably by summer have it down to a handful of schools and then take a trip to the schools next year and maybe go to some camps to see how the coaching is at those places."