Would the last one left on the Farm, please turn out the lights?
As noted by 247Sports’ Transfer Tracker, Stanford senior receiver Donald Stewart has entered his name into the portal and is exploring a move out of Palo Alto. While that name doesn’t ring a bell for most, it should be ringing alarm bells for David Shaw and his coaching staff given that the wideout is the 12th Cardinal player to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal.
Yup, a full dozen. And this isn’t a school all that well equipped to lose players period given the academic restrictions at play -- much less 12 of them.
It’s been a steady parade of names too. Offensive lineman Devery Hamilton was added on Thursday, senior QB Jack Richardson on Wednesday and offensive guard Henry Hattis the day prior. They are far from the only ones but it’s the pace and overall amount that has to be concerning if you’re a fan of the program.
Shaw has been vocal in his criticism of many NCAA rules over the years and saved some of it for the portal earlier this season at Pac-12 Media Day in late July.
“The recruiting machine in college football right now I think is very misleading. That’s the reason why we have so many guys that transfer,” said Shaw. “They don’t know who they are, and they’re picking colleges for the wrong reasons, and they get to the college and they get to their first bump in the road, they’re third string as a freshman and say I shouldn’t be third string, I’m going someplace else, instead of saying, hey, I chose this college. This is where I want to go to school and play football. So if I’m not starting, that’s on me to work my way up on the ladder as I’m going to the school I wanted to go to.”
Shaw’s words now carry quite a bit of extra meaning given how they’re now impacting his roster in a rather unprecedented way this offseason.