Stanford's tight end future continues to look bright. Jim Harbaugh started the approach of targeting tight ends -- and we know how things turned out with the Tree Amigos.

Earlier this week the Cardinal picked up a commitment from another A-list tight end for the 2016 class, Texan Kaden Smith. He chatted about his decision with Andy Drukarev of CardinalSportsReport.com, and said the coaching staff was "pumped" with his decision.

"I've been thinking about it for a while," Smith said. "I think I might have been leaning toward Stanford for a quite a while, but I was just waiting to pull that commitment. The only thing that kind of slowed me down was the admissions process but I'm not too worried about that.

"...They had the best education I was looking for. They use multiple tight ends in a game, three, maybe four next year. And just the campus life, it is great, something that I'm looking for."

If anything, he can dunk a shot put ... and catch a lot of balls with one hand ... so that's pretty sweet.

For the immediate future, look for the tight ends to once again play a pivotal role in the Stanford offense in 2015. Austin Hooper started to emerge last season with 40 catches for 499 yards and a pair of touchdowns.