BOULDER — Mike MacIntyre recalls first evaluating Blake Stenstrom as a high school freshman at Valor Christian High School, and now more than four years later, the Colorado head football coach continues to marvel at Stenstrom’s talent.
“Blake has all the tools you’re looking for in a quarterback,” MacIntyre said. “He can make all the throws and he’s an extremely bright young man.”
That reverence, built over years of recruitment, is mutual.
“CU was there from the beginning,” Stenstrom said. “I really respected that.”
On Wednesday, Stenstrom was among 19 players who signed a National Letter of Intent to play for CU next fall. He’s ranked as the No. 4 player in the state and is the top-rated quarterback, per 24/7 Sports. However, Stenstrom differs from his highly regarded class of CU signees in one distinct way.
From 2015 to 2016, he backed up Michigan-bound quarterback Dylan McCaffrey, and last season Stenstrom split time under center with another McCaffrey brother, Luke, a 2019 prospect with a variety of Power 5 scholarship offers.
At no point during Stenstrom’s Valor Christian career was he a full-time starter.
A reason for concern? It would appear not in today’s college football recruiting landscape.
With the continued development of summer seven-on-seven camps and the wide availability of game film posted online, the tools coaches use to evaluate players have certainly evolved since MacIntyre’s playing days in the 1980s at Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech.
Stenstrom’s starting status didn’t impact his selection as 2017 Elite 11 finalist, among the premiere quarterback camps in the country, where Stenstrom was hand-picked as one of 25 national candidates. And despite not being the full-time starter at Valor Christian, his career statistics still impress: 136-of-209 (.65) passing for 1,494 yards with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Stenstrom also rushed for 637 yards and five more scores.
“I think competition has always made me a better player,” Stenstrom said.
It would have been understandable had Stenstrom transferred from Valor Christian, and yet, he stayed the course. Itap a mentality that stuck with MacIntyre during his evaluation.
“I think that it just shows his character to be able to handle that situation the way he worked at it, the way he led that team,” MacIntyre said. “Sometimes quarterbacks, I call them, ‘The Golden Child.’ The kind of think they’re a little bit special. … To me, (Stenstrom) has great confidence, but he’s a very humble and very talented young man.”
A perceived lack of playing time hasn’t haltered his mechanic’s, either. Stenstrom, the son of former Stanford and NFL quarterback Steve Stenstrom, stands 6-foot-3, 205-pounds, and CU co-offensive coordinator Darrin Chiaverini says: “He is as polished of a quarterback coming out of high school as I’ve seen in the last four years. He has great feet, football IQ and football bloodlines. He has a bright future at CU.”
Stenstrom said by phone on Wednesday afternoon that it hadn’t quite sunk in that he was officially a member of the Buffaloes.
After years of waiting his turn to start, Stenstrom is embracing his shot at the spotlight in Boulder.
“They told me from day one that I’m going to fit in perfect there,” Stenstrom said. “I’m going to try to compete and win the job this upcoming year.
“I’ll give it my all.”