It's Signing Day

Andy Staples Live Blog for Signing Day
8:15 a.m. -- The inside story
A few schools will take you deeper than you probably ever wanted to go into the machinations of national signing day.
At South Florida, the Bulls are hosting an all-day extravaganza that will incorporate Twitter, a live chat and a UStream broadcast.
Meanwhile, at Miami (Ohio), the Redhawks will go live on the Web to discuss each of their signees.
Meanwhile, at Heritage Hall, former USC walk-on Ben Malcolmson will provide fantastic signing day coverage on the Trojans' blog, USCRipsIt. That's probably the one to watch as the day goes on, because USC is in on more top undecided players than any school in the country.
8 a.m. -- McCartney to West Virginia
SI.com contributor Krisitan Dyer is reporting that Ivan McCartney, a U.S. Army All-American, will commit to West Virginia this morning. McCartney, a consensus top-five wide receiver, is ranked No. 37 in the nation by Rivals.com.
One of the top remaining uncommitted players in Florida, McCartney will join fellow Miramar product Geno Smith in Morgantown. A source indicated that McCartney has developed a close relationship with West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart and the Mountaineers coaching staff.
In addition to his bond with Smith, McCartney also developed a close relationship with future West Virginia quarterback Barry Brunetti when the two played for the East team in the 2010 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. McCartney also held offers from Boston College, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Oregon and Pittsburgh.

7:45 a.m. -- The dark side of Twitter

ESPN.com published a heartwarming story last week about how one fan formed a special bond with Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco through correspondence on Twitter. Now, for an example of the dark side of fan-athlete Twitter relations.
On Tuesday, reports began to trickle out of Georgia that Calhoun, Ga., receiver Da'rick Rogers had made the switch from Georgia to Tennessee. Not long after, someone using the handle atmdawg hurled a stream of insulting tweets at Rogers on Twitter. The person apparently opened the Twitter account just to torment Rogers, because eight of his nine tweets were sent to Rogers.

Here's a sampling:
"You're nothing! you (sic) need to put some meat on that 14 yr. old body if you want to play in the SEC!"
"lol... when you were a dawg???? you were never a dawg.. maybe a @#$%& but not a dawg! good luck at tennersee (sic)"
"lol i love to hear you respond b/c your ignorance amazes me!! People told me how stupid you were i just had to see it!"
Hopefully, the account was created by a friend of Rogers for the purposes of a Web 2.0 practical joke. I fear that isn't the case, though. Unfortunately, there's probably a fan out there who either is really upset that Rogers might sign with Tennessee, or he's a fan of a Georgia rival trying to make Georgia fans look bad.
Either way, it's pathetic.
7:30 a.m. -- Harbaugh ready to roll
National signing day knows no time zones. Witness this tweet from Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh.
"Signing Day at Stanford has begun!" Harbaugh tweeted. "First fax hit our office at 4:00am Pacific. I see you, 404!"
Harbaugh didn't name the player, but judging by the area code, the letter of intent came from either College Park, Ga., defensive end Henry Anderson or Roswell, Ga., offensive lineman David Yankey.
Stanford wasn't the only Pac-10 team expectintg faxes from the eastern time zone. USC should get a fax this morning from Frostproof, Fla., cornerback Nickell Robey. Robey originally committed to Georgia, but he dropped the Bulldogs after the firing of defensive coordinator Willie Martinez. Robey had been considering a flip to Tennessee when Lane Kiffin coached the Volunteers. In the end, Kiffin landed Robey at USC.

Five Burning Questions For Signing Day
1. Where will Seantrel Henderson sign? Henderson, a 6-foot-8, 330-pound offensive tackle from Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Minn., is the nation's top-ranked offensive lineman and the highest ranked uncommitted player. Unlike the top-ranked players in the past two classes (Terrelle Pryor and Bryce Brown), Henderson doesn't plan to drag his recruitment past signing day. He has played things close to the vest, and today he'll sign with Florida, Miami, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Ohio State or USC. The Buckeyes are the favorites.

2. How will Lane Kiffin close? Last year, Kiffin's first and only at Tennessee, he finished with a flourish. He swiped receivers Marsalis Teague and Nu'Keese Richardson from Florida's class and safety Janzen Jackson from LSU's. Kiffin, now at USC, did a great job keeping the Trojans' class together in the wake of Pete Carroll's departure, and he and his staff are hoping for a huge finish. Still on the board are Henderson, McDonough, Ga., receiver Markeith Ambles, Palmdale, Calif., tight end Christian Thomas, Tampa offensive lineman Chaz Green, Frostproof, Fla., cornerback Nickell Robey and Ventura, Calif., offensive tackle Giovanni Di Poalo. All are ranked in the Rivals 250.

3. What about Kiffin's old school? Derek Dooley, Kiffin's replacement at Tennessee, also hopes to close strong. After getting a commitment last week from Calhoun, Ga., quarterback Nash Nance, it appears Nance's teammate, receiver Da'Rick Rogers, will drop Georgia to come to Knoxville. Tennessee also remains in the hunt for Ambles, who originally committed to the Volunteers. Meanwhile, the first Wednesday in February will have a Third Saturday in October feel. Tennessee will duel Alabama for the signature of Nashville offensive lineman James Stone.

4. Will Nebraska land another defensive lineman from Portland? The last time the Cornhuskers signed a defensive lineman from the hometown of Voodoo Doughnut, it was Ndamukong Suh. Now Nebraska is in the hunt for Owamagbe Odighizuwa, a 6-foot-3, 234-pound defensive end who some people think might wind up as good coming off the edge as Suh was coming up the middle.

5. Who will win the utterly meaningless national recruiting title? Pundits such as myself will rank the classes, and fans will take to their message boards to rank the classes, but those rankings are complete conjecture. There is no way to truly rank a recruiting class until the players have been in school for at least three years. Need examples? According to Rivals.com, Florida State had the No. 2 class in 2005 and the No. 3 class in 2006. Judging by the rankings, the Seminoles should have dominated the ACC the past few seasons. They didn't. By contrast, the 2007 class that contained most of the stars from Georgia Tech's 2009 ACC title team clocked in at No. 18. The 2007 Boise State class that provided many of the stars of the team that went 14-0 ranked No. 68. Of course, sometimes the rankings are right on the money. In 2003, Rivals ranked LSU, Florida and USC in the top three spots. Although USC probably deserved to be first, players from those classes all played major roles on national title teams.
It's Time We Forget The Hats
When Pensacola, Fla., tailback Trent Richardson donned a houndstooth hat -- paying homage to Bear Bryant and Andre Smith at Alabama, he officially ended the recruiting announcement hat dance. Never again should a recruit play a game of three-hat monte. No matter how dramatic the decision, it will never look cooler than Richardson's headgear pledge.
Besides, the hat game was played out anyway. It's classless for players to disrespect schools they didn't choose by donning a school's hat before ripping it off and throwing it to the ground. It's time the nation's blue-chippers got a little more creative. So here are some tips in case players making announcements today want to make any last-minute alterations to their signing announcements.
If Henderson, picks Ohio State, he should don a red sweatervest. Hopefully, someone makes a 5XL sweatervest.
Oviedo, Fla., linebacker Christian Jones shouldn't use a garnet-and-gold lid to announce his intention to play at Florida State. He should run to the 50-yard line at Lake Howell High and plant a flaming spear.
When any of the 20 Lone Star State blue-chippers who will commit to Texas for the class of 2011 in the next few weeks make their announcements, they should have their high school's entire cheerleading squad file into the gym wearing chaps.
If Greensboro, N.C., safety Keenan Allen picks Clemson on Wednesday, he should rub a rock before he signs his national letter of intent. If he picks Cal, he should make his announcement while sitting in a tree.
Hopefully, the players will heed this advice. If they want to stage an announcement to remember, they'll have to think outside the hatbox.

Pete Carroll Leaving USC has Spun Recruiting Out of Control
Anyone who read Jurassic Park understands the concept of Chaos Theory. The most common example used to describe the theory involves a butterfly flapping its wings off the coast of Japan and setting off a chain reaction of events that eventually causes a thunderstorm halfway around the world.
The chain reaction aspect makes Chaos Theory a perfect way to study college football recruiting. For example, if a college coach in California spreads his wings and flies to the NFL on Jan. 10, does it set off a chain reaction that eventually causes a snowstorm in Knoxville, Tenn., on Jan. 30?
Obviously, Pete Carroll's departure from USC didn't result in the arctic blast that tormented Tennessee coaches trying to get official visitors to campus for the final visit weekend before National Signing Day. But Carroll's move did affect schools across the country -- even South Alabama. It also may have helped Tennessee land a blue-chip receiver and a budding superspy. It definitely helped TCU land a quarterback, and it caused a brief tug-of-war between a Pac-10 school and a Big 12 school for a quarterback from New Orleans named Munchie.

Here's how:

When Carroll accepted the Seattle Seahawks' head coaching job, the USC recruits at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl were thrown for a loop. "I'm wide open," San Diego's Dillon Baxter said on Jan. 10. "I'll talk to any school."
It seemed USC's class might scatter and kick off the Chaos, but that's the most intriguing part about Chaos Theory: We never know what will happen after the butterfly flaps its wings. On Jan. 12, USC athletic director Mike Garrett hired Tennessee's Lane Kiffin, a former Trojans' offensive coordinator. Kiffin brought with him Ed Orgeron, a former Trojans' recruiting coordinator.
All of a sudden, USC's class was secure. Chicago-area receiver Kyle Prater, who three days earlier had said he would reexamine his options -- giving hope to coaches at Notre Dame and other schools recruiting him -- said the night of Kiffin's hiring that he would enroll immediately at USC. Baxter enrolled at USC as well. Now, it seems almost all the players who committed to Carroll will sign with the Trojans.
But Kiffin's departure to USC threw Tennessee into its own kind of chaos. The night Kiffin was hired at USC, Oregeron enraged the coaching fraternity by contacting recruits who planned to enroll at Tennessee the next day and attempting to recruit them to USC. (It's not against any rule if the players haven't attended a class, but it's an unwritten rule that coaches shouldn't try to swipe committed players from the school that just finished sending them paychecks.)
A few of Tennessee's recruits bailed, but no one landed immediately at USC. Defensive end Brandon Willis of Duncan, S.C., was set to drive to Knoxville and attend classes on Jan. 13. He applied the brakes when he learned of Kiffin's departure. Now, Willis is enrolled at North Carolina. Meanwhile, McDonough, Ga., receiver Markeith Ambles reopened his recruitment. On Jan. 18, Ambles received visits from LSU receivers coach Billy Gonzales and Alabama coach Nick Saban. Four days later, Ambles -- who had been recruited by Carroll before he committed to Kiffin at Tennessee -- visited Kiffin at USC. All the while, he kept UNC on his mind. This past weekend, Ambles braved the snowstorm to visit Knoxville again. He tweeted his hope to meet up with a local radio host, but it seems he got rejected. We'll learn whether the rejection hurt Tennessee's chances Wednesday, when Ambles announces his school choice.
Now the coach recruiting Ambles at Tennessee is Derek Dooley, whom the Volunteers hired away from Louisiana Tech three days after Kiffin's departure. Dooley went straight to work to bring Ambles back into the fold, but he also chased players Kiffin hadn't offered. Dooley thought he had a sleeper in Demopolis, Ala., defensive end Martaze Jackson. Jackson had received brief interest from several SEC schools, but they had backed off, and he had picked South Alabama. Jackson told Rivals.com in November that South Alabama coaches had told him they would understand if jumped ship for an SEC offer. That's exactly what he did when Dooley offered a scholarship late last month. So, South Alabama coaches, if you want to blame someone for the loss of the crown jewel of your 2010 class, blame Pete Carroll.
Jackson wasn't the only previously committed player Dooley swiped. He also grabbed Tyrone, Ga., tailback Rajion Neal from Mississippi State and Hoover, Ala., linebacker John Probst from West Virginia. Dooley's biggest get, however, is a quarterback from Calhoun, Ga., who could one day save the free world.
When Mike Nance named his son, he guaranteed that the child would grow into one of two things: a stud quarterback, or a secret agent who routinely saves the planet from feline-stroking supervillains bent on world domination. Judging by this video, Nash Nance has turned into a fine signal-caller.
Nance committed to Vanderbilt in June, but during a stellar senior season at Calhoun High, other schools showed interest. Kiffin called from Tennessee. Coaches from Arkansas and Louisville called as well. Last week, Nance met with Vandy coach Bobby Johnson to break the news that he had changed his mind. Nance had decided to attend Tennessee. Nance has not mentioned how this decision could affect his future as an international spy, but if the film Point Break taught us anything, it's that former college quarterbacks with great names make outstanding EFF-BEE-EYE agents.
Speaking of great names, Nance's Calhoun teammate, receiver Da'Rick Rogers (no relation to this guy), was committed to Georgia but may now join his quarterback in Knoxville. Rogers visited Tennessee this past weekend. If the (since-removed) photo of Rogers kissing Tennessee's 1998 national title trophy that surfaced Sunday night on Chattanooga Times Free Press writer Wes Rucker's Twitter feed is any indication, Rogers had a good time. So, presumably, did the crystal football.
Nance wasn't the only quarterback whose college choice was ultimately affected by Carroll's move. The most complex chain reaction involved Matt Brown, the Allen, Texas, quarterback that recruiting guru Allen Wallace last week told SI.com's Stewart Mandel might be the biggest quarterback sleeper in the class of 2010. Brown made up his mind last April to attend Arizona. He was sure of his choice until last month.
On Jan. 19, Arizona coach Mike Stoops and offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes visited Brown at his home. Dykes never once mentioned that he might not be employed at Arizona 24 hours later. So when Brown saw on television the next day that Dykes had been hired to replace Dooley at Louisiana Tech, Brown reconsidered his commitment. "Coach Stoops called me another two days after that," Brown told ESPN's Bruce Feldman. "The thing was -- and I told them this -- if they would've at least talked to me and said, 'Hey, coach Dykes is leaving and this is what we're going to do. We're going to be fine. Don't worry about anything. You need to stay here.' But they didn't say any of that. I think they were just expecting me to stay." Brown didn't stay. He decided to sign with TCU.
That left Arizona looking for a quarterback. Readers of this space first met New Orleans quarterback Benton "Munchie" Legaux when I wrote about some of the best names in the classes of 2010 and 2011. Since then, Legaux settled, or so he thought. Legaux committed in November to Colorado, but Arizona coaches seriously stepped up their pursuit of Legaux after they lost Brown. So if you're keeping score at home, here's how the Chaos Theory of Recruiting connects Pete Carroll to Munchie Legaux in five simple steps.

• Jan. 10: Carroll accepts Seahawks job.

• Jan. 12: USC hires Tennessee's Kiffin to replace Carroll.

• Jan. 15: Tennessee hires Louisiana Tech's Dooley to replace Kiffin.

• Jan. 19: Louisiana Tech hires Arizona offensive coordinator Dykes to replace Dooley. Allen, Texas quarterback Brown decommits from Arizona.

• Jan. 25: Brown commits to TCU. Arizona coaches step up pursuit of Legaux.

Cincinnati's staff, in place because of an entirely different butterfly wing flap, also has offered Legaux a scholarship. Which is good thing, because Sunday night Arizona took a commitment from Keller, Texas, quarterback Cameron Allerheiligen, whose only previous offers were from Northern Illinois and Toledo.
So Legaux will announce Wednesday whether he will sign with Colorado or Cincinnati. When he does, another butterfly will flap its wings and the Chaos will start all over again.


Rivals.com's Top 20 Recruits

1. Ronald Powell Rancho Verde (Moreno Valley, Calif.) ***** DE 6-4/230 Florida
Was named MVP of the 10th annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl.


2. Seantrel Henderson Cretin-Derham Hall (Saint Paul, Minn.) ***** OL 6-8/301 Florida, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC or Minnesota
Led team to its second state title in school history.


3. Kyle Prater Proviso West (Hillside, Ill.) ***** WR 6-5/205 USC
Finished senior season with 64 catches for 1,151 yards and 23 touchdowns.


4. Sharrif Floyd George Washington (Philadelphia) ***** DT 6-3/310 Florida
Led all players with two sacks in Army Bowl.


5. Keenan Allen Northern Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.) ***** DB 6-3/195 Alabama, Cal or Clemson
Helped team win first conference championship in school history.


6. Robert Woods Junipero Serra (Gardena, Calif.) ***** ATH 6-1/180 USC
Led school to first CIF-Title in more than 20 years.


7. Dominique Easley Curtis (Staten Island, N.Y.) ***** DT 6-3/258 Florida
Selected as one of the game MVPs in Under Armour Game.


8. Owamagbe Odighizuwa David Douglas (Portland, Ore.) ***** DE 6-3/234 Nebraska, Oregon State or UCLA
Had 90 tackles and 10 sacks as a senior.


9. Da'Rick Rogers Calhoun (Calhoun, Ga.) ***** WR 6-3/206 Georgia
Finished senior season with 86 catches for 1,641 yards and 22 touchdowns.


10. Marcus Lattimore Byrnes (Duncan, S.C.) ***** RB 6-0/210 Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Oregon, Penn State or South Carolina
Earned South Carolina Mr. Football award while leading team in rushing yards and receptions in 2009.


11. Michael Dyer Little Rock Christian (Little Rock, Ark.) ***** RB 5-8/201 Auburn
Dyer was named Gatorade Arkansas Player of the Year in 2009 after rushing for 2,484 yards in just 12 games.


12. Jackson Jeffcoat Plano West (Plano, Texas) ***** DE 6-3/230 Texas
Recorded 82 tackles and nine sacks as a senior.


13. Robert Crisp Athens Drive (Raleigh, N.C.) ***** OL 6-7/299 N.C. State
Led team to second round of the playoffs in Class 4A as a senior.


14. Lamarcus Joyner St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) ***** DB 5-8/166 Florida State
Defensive star was fourth on the team in scoring while returning three kicks for scores in 2009.


15. Latwan Anderson Glenville Academic Campus (Cleveland) ***** ATH 5-11/185 West Virginia
Helped team to state championship game as a senior.


16. Jordan Hicks Lakota West (West Chester, Ohio) ***** LB 6-2/220 Texas
Was the recipient of the second Annual Dick Butkus award given to the nation's top high school linebacker.


17. Dillon Baxter Mission Bay (San Diego) ***** RB 5-11/187 USC
Was awarded the Ken Hall Trophy, which recognizes the nation's top high school player.


18. Chris Martin Grandview High School (Aurora, Colo.) ***** DE 6-4/240 Cal
Was named starting linebacker in the Army Bowl.


19. Spencer Ware Princeton (Cincinnati ***** ATH 5-11/220 LSU
Leading rusher in Army Bowl.


20. Christian Jones Lake Howell (Winter Park, Fla.) ***** LB 6-4/220 Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Rutgers, Tennessee or USC