Don't look now, but preseason training camp is right around the corner. Football is no longer far away. Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that the Stanford mailbag is busy enough for two installments this week.

As always, be sure to follow me on Twitter and ask any questions there, or email them to me at davidmlombardi@gmail.com.

Here's the first round of your questions and my answers. Stay tuned for Part II later this week.

Garret Stallins writes: How active can a commit be in recruiting other players? Is K.J. Costello doing something like what Shayne Skov did back in the day?

Lombardi: There are no restrictions on how active a commit can be in recruiting other players, and Costello is reportedly taking full advantage of that. The touted quarterback is flying the Cardinal flag on the camp circuit and delivering some big talk.

"Right now, though, my selling point -- and the reason I'm going there -- is not just for the degree, it's to play the best football in the country and to try and win a national championship," Costello said . "That's our goal, that's why I'm going there, and the only way we are going to do that is to get the top guys in the country."

To be fair, we should note that Costello's job is much easier than Skov's was. Remember that Skov committed on September 1, 2007, the day of Jim Harbaugh's Stanford coaching debut. At the time, the last data point measuring the Cardinal program was an 1-11 record. Skov might or might not have had to use some Jedi mind tricks to get the ball rolling. Like Harbaugh, he was indeed persuasive, and Stanford’s resulting recruiting success became stuff of legend. Four BCS bowl appearances later, I'm guessing that Costello's mission of selling the Cardinal program to fellow prospects isn’t quite as daunting.

With all the DB talent recruited the last 2 years, how is it that a converted QB and WR are the starting safeties? Makes me skeptical.

Lombardi: Nothing will be set in stone until Stanford releases its first depth chart of the season about a week before the season opener, but head coach David Shaw did indicate that converted quarterback Dallas Lloyd and converted recceiver Kodi Whitfield were the Cardinal's leaders at safety during the spring.

I don't see reason for skepticism here, though. Defensive backs coach Duane Akina didn’t find these guys at the junkyard -- like the youngsters in the secondary, they were also touted players coming out of high school (Whitfield was actually an excellent defensive back at that level, and Lloyd is one of Stanford's best athletes), so they should actually be expected to grab the Cardinal's safety vacancies by the horns. They're both seniors, after all, so they have had more time than the others to digest playbook intricacies, even if they did begin their careers playing elsewhere. In fact, Akina has suggested that the duo's offensive background has helped enhance their knowledge of coverage concepts. He's coached several successful position converts during his career, and those players often do a good job anticipating how opposing offenses might attack them.

There are plentiful examples of quarterbacks and wide receivers successfully making a switch to the defensive backfield. We don't even have to leave the Stanford program to find two prominent ones: John Lynch (whom the Cardinal recruited to play quarterback) and Richard Sherman (initially a wide receiver). If anything, Stanford is excited about Lloyd and Whitfield's readiness, because it can allow the younger talents behind them to ease into heavier playing time. I'd expect to see at least some of Brandon Simmons and Denzel Franklin on the field in 2015. We'll have to wait until camp to hear initial word on true freshmen Justin Reid and Ben Edwards.

Who is Stanford's punter?

Lombardi: With Ben Rhyne graduated, Stanford will likely turn to touted incoming freshman Jake Bailey, who also will compete for the kicking job (Bailey also played cornerback in high school and featured a pick-six on his recruiting tape, but we figure he won't also enter the competition in the secondary). Bailey was ranked one of the top 10 high school punters in the nation, so he's a favorite to win the job over walk-on Alex Robinson. In fact, it looks like Bailey will own Stanford's strongest leg in all phases of the kicking game, but I've been told that assigning him the full trifecta (punting, field goals, and kickoffs) might be too ambitious. Even if he does end up the best candidate for all three of those jobs (Conrad Ukropina is Stanford's other kicking option), the Cardinal want to keep Bailey's leg fresh.