Less than a week after welcoming the best recruiting class in team history, the Stanford football program was honored for its efforts, as assistant coach Lance Anderson was named the National Recruiter of the Year by Scout/FOXSportsNext.

Anderson, who coaches outside linebackers, took on the role of recruiting coordinator after that position was vacated by Brian Polian in January. Despite Polian’s departure for Texas A&M, Stanford had anything but a drop-off, in large part thanks to Anderson.

Head coach David Shaw emphasized that Polian’s departure would not derail the team’s recruiting efforts, telling ESPN.com, “Losing Brian does hurt because he was a good recruiter, but he wasn’t recruiting everybody… Lance has the best relationship with our admissions people as far as making sure these kids are taking the classes and finishing strong and re-taking tests, etc.”

Since coming to Stanford from the Jim Harbaugh-coached University of San Diego in 2007, Anderson has been the team’s liaison to the admissions office and has held various recruiting positions in addition to his work on the defensive side of the ball.

Anderson’s work helped the Cardinal bring in the nation’s sixth-best recruiting class according to Scout.com, including five-star linemen Andrus Peat, Joshua Garnett and Kyle Murphy, five-star defensive lineman Aziz Shittu and several four-star recruits, including running back Barry J. Sanders and linebacker Noor Davis. Stanford was able to draw several high-profile recruits away from rivals like Cal and USC, helping the Cardinal notch the best class in the Pac-12.

–Jacob Jaffe