McNamara wowed by Stanford trip
Taylor McNamara has a ton of offers and can pretty much choose where he wants to play his college football and after visiting Stanford for its junior day this past weekend the San Diego (Calif.) Westview tight end said the Cardinal will get serious consideration.
McNamara, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound prospect who is arguably the best tight end in the state of California, said the combination of academics and athletics that could be afforded to him in Palo Alto are unmatched and it's something to seriously consider.
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Stanford is moving up his list in a big way.
"They wowed me," McNamara said. "It was unbelievable with the campus and some of the people we met and the academics.
"The combination of academics and athletics they have there, you can't really get it anywhere else. The Ivy League can match the academics but they don't have any sort of football program to match it."
During the weekend visit, McNamara said former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, now a professor at Stanford and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, spoke to the group of junior prospects about the school and what it offers.
McNamara was also impressed when he was told business leaders from various fields are regular lecturers.
"They jump up for sure," McNamara said. "I'm going to think very, very seriously about them. It was unbelievable. If football doesn't work out, you're going to have that degree for a lifetime. We met a lot of great people. It was wowing to see."
With so many offers, McNamara said he's now starting to consider trimming down his list to a more manageable level, probably getting to around five schools probably relatively soon.
So far, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida State, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Cincinnati have all offered.
McNamara, a member of the Rivals 250 to watch for 2012, is not quite sure of the programs that will make the cut but he said after his weekend trip to Stanford that it will definitely be in his final group.
"Stanford definitely makes the list no doubt," McNamara said. "After that I don't want to fill in any others because I don't know for sure. There are still some schools I want to check out."