• Bring On the Meat. For the most part, Signing Day is only a matter of preservation: keep the guys who have already committed from being poached at the last second. The early signing trend means there's less drama than in the past, with only ten of Rivals' top 100 still uncommitted, and only three of them (Jones, Scott and the mercurial Pryor, who may not announce any intentions today at all) rated as can't-miss, five-star studs. A quick guide to the top names still on the table:
Player | Schools of Interest | Looking For... |
![]() QB Terrelle Pryor |
Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon | Discipline, sir. |
![]() WR Julio Jones |
Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech | True love |
![]() RB Darrell Scott |
Texas, Colorado | Tradition of phat rims |
![]() LB Jerrell Harris |
Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Tennessee, USC | First rate Comparative Literature program |
![]() CB Brandon Harris |
Miami, Florida, Ohio State, UCF | Cookies! |
![]() DE Nick Perry |
Michigan, USC, NOT Michigan State | Any school ending in -ichigan |
![]() RB/LB Devoe Torrence |
Akron, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Pitt, Purdue | Plea bargain |
![]() WR/TE/LB Jarmon Fortson |
Florida State, Auburn | Secret of eternal life in lock of Bowden hair |
![]() CB T.J. Bryant |
Florida State, every damn team in the South? | Heat, humidity, BBQ and eventual scorn |
![]() WR Tommy Streeter |
Miami, South Carolina, South Florida | "Scenery," if you know what I mean |
The first letters of intent are rolling in, but all eyes will be on nationally broadcast word from Scott and even moreso on the expected silence of Pryor, who veered Tuesday from uncertain whether he'd announce a decision today to dead certain he would announce to 100 percent sure he'd wait and probably take a visit to Penn State. And maybe Oregon. And, I dunno, Air Force. Just throwing it out there. His 12:05 Eastern announcement remains "tentative."
On the Pryor Watch, Scout's Jamie Newberg stokes the fires of the eventually jilted with the latest edition of "Not So Fast: We've Run Out Of Things to Say About Terrelle Pryor, So We Might as Well Call Him a Bust," a hackish comparison to 1998 mega-recruit Ronald Curry based solely on two similarities: hype and basketball. Maybe I'm reading into the `bust' aspect, because Newberg doesn't go there explicitly, and if Curry didn't exactly live up to towering expectations as a quarterback or point guard at North Carolina, he did struggle through injuries on mostly terrible football teams to set the school record for career offense and has caught on with the Raiders. Even here, though, the operative football comparison for Pryor eventually returns from whence it began: Vince Young.
In the meantime, if Pryor doesn't commit today, Michigan apparently will have a backup in mobile Florida QB Justin Feagin, who is only three stars in the eyes of the gurus but might be a perfect fit in the spread option and could immediately challenge "traditional" Michigan statue Stephen Threet for the starting job in the fall. Yeah, cool...seriously, they want Pryor.
Meanwhile... New Georgia commit Brandon Boykin is having a delicious morning:
Mmmmm...commitment. Slobber... Now get back to class.
• Lemplay. Faced with the prospect of another year with Casey Dick at quarterback - without the best backfield in the country behind him - Arkansas is pushing the NCAA for a waiver to allow Ryan Mallett to play this fall instead of the usual season on the bench for first-year transfers. Mallett's parents' backed up the rationale of "extenuating circumstances," but that's only if you believe they had no idea Lloyd Carr might retire at the end of last year and his replacement would not necessarily bring in a system that relied on a cannon in the pocket.
• What, that? Nothing, nothing. Go Gators! The end result of the quasi-scandalous recruiting of Carl Moore and his gymnast girlfriend is the nice headline, "Meyer Clean in NCAA probe" following a review that "does not indicate any violations of NCAA rules occurred," which will immediately silence his critics, I'm sure. No indication of why, exactly, the incriminating evidence that appeared in news reports didn't amount to even a minor violation, but we trust and believe in the integrity of the process. We trust and believe in the integrity...
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