Dadofa17, all so-called "verbal commitments" are subject to the athlete meeting applicable minimum academic standards. In this regard, Stanford is no different from your local diploma factory....except Stanford's standards are surely much higher.
Heck, Vernon Adams, who committed to Oregon last winter to replace Marcus Mariota as a graduate transfer, was not admitted until a couple of weeks ago because he had not passed his last Eastern Washington math test.
A quick browse of the internet shows you that Stanford has lots of 2017 "commitments" out there in lots of sports. These are kids who have "committed" before being admitted. All of these cases are subject to the athlete meeting Stanford's minimum academic standards. It is easier for a coach to provide comfort or assurance about this when the youngster has taken the SAT or ACT.
In your case, where your son has not taken the SAT or ACT, the coach in all honesty cannot give you much assurance on the academic side. You can go to the NCAA eligibility center and see the minimum scores your kid needs to go along with his GPA for NCAA eligibility. This might be good enough for the school in question or they may have higher standards.
Finally, the term "verbal commitment" is a misnomer. All communication is verbal unless it is by smoke signal or emoticon or wink or something like that. The relevant distinction is between "written" commitment, which is legally binding, and "oral" commitment, which usually is not. Conscience is up to each individual.
Which therein begs the question. Why "commit" early and take yourself off the board when you don't even know if your test scores will be good enough to get in? I really don't think the current rush to commit by Freshman/sophomores is really good for the kids.