SI All-American Watch List: 2 Stanford commits and 12 key Cardinal football targets named

Top 10 position rankings start this week; preseason SI99 out in August

After being hindered by a string of untimely injuries over the last few years, David Shaw and his staff at Stanford University have rolled with the punches to land top talent on both sides of the ball. 

Two of the current Cardinal verbal commitments in the class were named candidates for the 2020 Sports Illustrated All-America team of high school senior football players.

12 prep prospects uncommitted or committed to other programs with Stanford still under consideration were also named SIAA candidates. 

Listed below is the full breakdown of Stanford verbals and prime targets on the SI All-American watch list. 

VERBAL COMMITS 

Offense: 

QB Ari Patu/6-4, 185/Folsom, Calif. 

Defense: 

CB Jimmy Wyrick/5-10, 160/Dallas, Texas

TOP TARGETS 

Offense: 

OG Drew Kendall/6-4, 250/Dedham, Mass. 

OG Noah Josey/6-5, 280/Brentwood, Tenn.

OG Owen Prentice/6-3, 275/Seattle, Wash. 

WR Makai Cope/6-2, 190/Culver City, Calif. 

Defense: 

CB Ceyair Wright/6-1, 175/Los Angeles, Calif. 

DE Aaron Armitage/6-4, 240/Blairstown, N.J.

DL J.T. Tuimoloau/6-5, 280/Sammamish, Wash. 

DT Keanu Williams/6-4, 285/Clovis, Calif. 

OLB Ethan Calvert/6-3, 225/Westlake Village, Calif. 

OLB Terrence Cooks/6-2, 210/Pearland, Texas

S Jaden Slocum/6-2, 181/Alpharetta, Ga. 

S Tysheem Johnson/5-10, 185/Philadelphia, Pa.

More than 1,000 student-athletes, representing every state in the country, are SI All-American candidates. Video highlights, scouting analyses and a list of each player’s college verbal commitment and/or top college contenders can be found on their bio pages, broken down by state, at SIAllAmerican.com.

Over the coming weeks, SI will unveil its preseason top 10 for each of 14 position groups (kicking off with quarterbacks this week). SI will unveil its initial top 99 ranking, the SI99, on August 24.

The evaluation process will continue throughout the season “until the list of 1,000 contenders coalesces around just 25 young men who can say proudly they are the best of the best -- they are Sports Illustrated All-Americans,” said SI Director of Football Recruiting John Garcia, Jr.

The candidates will be narrowed to 250 in October and 99 in November, and will culminate with 25 first-team Sports Illustrated All-Americans saluted at SI’s annual Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York in December.