Bobby April III announced as Stanford's defensive coordinator
On Wednesday there was plenty of noise around the college football world for this little known event called early signing day.
Programs such as Oregon, Alabama, and Texas have been viewed as the winners as we saw them each bring in spectacular hauls. There were recruits flipping from commitments, and of course the wait for Travis Hunter to announce his transfer destination once he hit 100k subscribers on YouTube. Spoiler alert, as we all expected it was in fact Colorado.
However, one thing that was lost in all of the recruiting madness, was the fact that Stanford head coach Troy Taylor finally find who will be running his defense. As reported first by Bruce Feldman of The Athletic/Fox Sports, Wisconsin's outside linebackers coach since 2018, Bobby April III is set to become Stanford's defensive coordinator.
April is renowned for his recruiting and development abilities as he is credited with recruiting and developing notable names such as NFL draft picks Andrew Van Ginkel (2019 Miami Dolphins) and Zack Baun (2020 New Orleans Saints). Nick Herbig, who has declared for the 2023 draft, led the Big Ten Conference in sacks (11) and tackles for a loss of yards (15.5) this season. The first-team All-Big Ten performer finished his career with 21 sacks, 36 tackles for a loss of yards and 147 total tackles.
April is credited for bringing in players such as Herbig (four-star prospect, 2020 class), and other four-stars like Kaden Johnson (2020 class), TJ Bollers (2021 class) and Darryl Peterson (2021 class).
Prior to working at Wisconsin, April had a stint in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles (defensive quality control), New York Jets (linebackers) and Buffalo Bills (linebackers). He began his college coaching career at Louisiana Lafayette and then made stops at Tulane, Portland State and Nicholls State.
As expressed by Taylor during his opening press conference, the defensive coordinator that he hires will have full control of the defense as Taylor will be controlling the offense. This means likely for the first time in his career, April will be running the show on defense.
