National Signing Day (College Football, Not the Language Kind)

For hardcore Southerners, National Signing Day in college football ranks right up there with Christmas, Confederate Memorial Day and Mardi Gras on the holiday scale.

It’s the day when 18-year-old player prospects, typically endowed with more brawn than brains, play king for a day by holding nationally-televised press conferences at which they very slooowly look over the collection of ball caps bearing the logos of their various suitor schools until finally they reach–or wait, maybe not!–for The One and plop it on the ol’ noggin, much to the delight of their classmates, coaches, parents, siblings and long string of cousins who have gathered for the big event.

Meanwhile, millions of breathless, diehard fans are all atwitter as they attempt to appear busy whenever the boss walks by while simultaneously keeping one eye on their fan board of choice and the other on the live ESPN feed. All told, it’s one of the least productive work days of the year.

For Crimson Tide fans, the prospects appear bright for another banner recruiting class. The nation’s top running back, 5-star prospect Trent Richardson out of Pensacola, Florida, will likely be in the fold by day’s end but not before making us wait all day for him to sign. Reuben Randle, one of the nation’s top receivers, had a good visit to Bama but will in all likelihood stay at home and play for LSU–but not before throwing Tiger fans a little curveball. He’s still a longshot, but it was worth it just to watch the catastrophic emotional meltdown on the LSU fan boards.

Meanwhile, down at The Barn, Auburn HC Gene Chizik has been busy assembling his own stable of top shelf prospects. Check it out.

Come on home, Trent! And Roll Tide, Roll!

9 Comments

  1. That Girl

    Bama’s list has a few more stars (as always) but I am very pleased with Auburn’s list of recruits.

    War Eagle.

  2. Mike the Eyeguy

    Auburn did better than many expected. DeAngelo Benton sure was a surprise. Considering that he was a “firm” LSU commit, the eleventh hour nature of the switch intrigues me. Was this his decision, not wanting to compete with Randle for playing time, or were “The Mad Hatter’s” fingerprints all over this one?

    A few more stars “as always?” I don’t recall Bama having the number one recruiting class in the nation two years running recently. Something has changed, don’t you think? 🙂

    Roll Tide, Roll.

  3. Mike the Eyeguy

    Looks like it was The Hatter (click here).

    As talented as he is, Auburn nevertheless has two problems with Benton:

    1) Will he make the grades necessary to get on the field?
    2) Once there, will anyone be able to get him the ball?

  4. Laurie

    I have stopped by here several times and each time I read, “National Singing Day.”

  5. Mike the Eyeguy

    That’s because we are singing–“Yea, Alabama!”, “The Rammer Jammer,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “WEEEE ARE THE CHAAAAMPIONS OF THE WOOOOOOORLD!”

  6. Mike the Eyeguy

    Man, I would have thought that a post on National Singing Signing Day would have elicited a few more comments from my Southern readers.

    You guys are getting your doors waxed by one of them thar communist, soccer-lovin’ libruls from up Nawth!

  7. kristiS

    Nah. It’s just cause here in Arkansas we know not to get our hopes up. We can have all the recruits in the world and fail to execute.

  8. Mike the Eyeguy

    My spam filter really has it in for you for some reason. I don’t understand it.

    I didn’t look over Arky’s list, but I heard it was actually pretty decent. Better times are ahead for Petrino’s crew–just when the SEC West is about to turn into even more of a slugfest.

  9. That Girl

    I just meant that Auburn doesn’t generally get as many 5 star recruits as Bama. Even in Bama’s ugly years, the history of the program has attracted players.

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