McCaffrey takes second trip to Stanford

Christian McCaffrey is waiting to execute any sort of list trimming or announce anything resembling a list of favorites. So as he rode in a taxi to the airport following his junior day visit to Stanford, he did his best to stick to the script. Balancing clichés isn't easy, though.

The weekend represented McCaffrey's second trip to Palo Alto. His father, a multiple-time pro bowl selection, was a standout for the Cardinal years ago. Every indication is that Stanford will land among his finalists when the time to announce those arrives. So when discussing his second experience on Stanford's campus, he attempts to express overly positive feelings while avoiding a tip of his hand.

His walk across the verbal tightrope wasn't without its challenges.

"I definitely love it here, but we'll see what happens," McCaffrey said. "We'll see what happens because I'm going to take some more visits coming up here in late spring and early summer.

"I don't think my opinion has changed. I've always though highly of Stanford, but it's hard to say that once school is a favorite over the over. I need to take all my visits to get a good compassion."

Those other visits will include ones to Washington, Oregon and UCLA. Other campuses outside the Pac 12, Nebraska, Vanderbilt and Duke, will also get a look, but those aren't set to take place until late summer. For now, his mind is focused on the trip that just concluded.

While at Stanford, McCaffrey didn't see much he hadn't seen before. There were few surprises and no moments of shock or awe. Still, that's not to say the weekend didn't make an impression.

"This time I went by myself to really get the lay of the land," he said. "We started off with Coach [David] Shaw talking to us, which was awesome. We went and watched practice and had lunch. We sat in the meeting rooms and got a good feel of the coaches and the players on the team. We got an awesome tour of the facilities."

McCaffrey hasn't started thinking about official visits but says Stanford may receive one despite his preexisting familiarity with the program.

"That's getting way ahead," he said. "Official visits are still a ways away. I'll worry about that once I take all of the unofficials."

As a junior at Valor Christian, McCaffrey ran for 1,390 yards, caught 55 passes and scored 41 total touchdowns.