GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — Just moments after he put pen to paper to signify his signing to play football at Stanford, McAllen Memorial’s Trevor Speights set his sights on his next goal: a Heisman trophy.
“I’ve been dreaming about that since I was seven,” Speights said. “One of my dreams was signing. My other dream was winning the Heisman. I got one of them checked off. Time to go get the other one.”
After four years of rewriting the Valley record books and feeling out offers from some of the nation’s best college football programs, Speights held a ceremony Monday in McAllen Memorial’s gym to celebrate his signing of a National Letter of Intent to Stanford.
Speights is a three-time AP first-team All-State pick, a Parade All-American and the Built Ford Tough Texas Class 6A Player of the Year, among countless other awards and accolades. But none of that will matter once he sets foot on Stanford’s campus and starts trying to earn a spot in the rotation.
“Pretty much everyone has their shot,” Speights said. “It depends how hard you work and how hard you go in practice. So I like my chances.”
Speights will be competing for touches behind Christian McCaffrey, who ran for 2,019 yards and caught passes for another 645 last season to become a Heisman finalist as Stanford went 12-2, beating Iowa in the Rose Bowl. The Cardinal graduated their second- and third-leading running backs but bring back a pair of freshmen who were four-star recruits in the 2015 class.
Speights, a three-star prospect by Rivals and ESPN, is the highest rated back in Stanford’s 2016 class, which also includes two-start rusher Dorian Maddox.
“It’s kind of scary starting all over again,” Speights’ mother, Alandra, said. “He’s used to being Trevor Speights the superstar. But he’s still a humble kid.”
Playing in an unbalanced, downhill rushing offense that is similar to what Stanford runs, Trevor set Valley records with 9,868 yards and 116 rushing touchdowns for his career.
Although facing a big leap from the Valley to NCAA Division I, Trevor was optimistic he could crack the rotation as a freshman and avoid a redshirt.
“He’s a very competitive kid,” Trevor’s father, John, said. “He’s always set high goals academically and athletically. And, for the most part, he hits it. He does what it takes to get it done.”
Trevor said the academic opportunities at Stanford made his decision a pretty obvious one. On Monday he was already embracing the nerd culture, wearing the signature thick, black-rimmed glasses with white tape around the bridge. He said he intends to study either engineering or business.
“You can’t beat Stanford academics,” Trevor said. “It’s almost impossible. To have the opportunity and not take it would be pretty silly.”
With Stanford the clear frontrunner, the biggest source of tension in the recruiting process was whether he would be admitted. Stanford claims to hold athletes to the same admission standards and procedures as non-athletes, and the school admitted just 5 percent of its applicants in Fall 2015.
“That was definitely the most rigorous part of the whole recruitment process,” Trevor said. “It took me a couple times to take the SAT to get in.”
Once he got the call from coach David Shaw that his admission had been approved, Trevor said the decision to commit was easy. He had already fallen in love with the school, the campus and the program when he took his official visit.
“Stanford is Stanford. There’s no comparison,” Alandra said. “He has the best of both worlds. One of the greatest football programs in the country and one of the most outstanding degrees that you could possibly get.”