Signing Day is HERE!!

Well today’s the day! The day that bloggers and message boarders from across the country, call in sick (who am I kidding – they don’t have jobs), lock themselves in their basements, in front of their computers, and pine and drool over 17 and 18 year old boys! Is Michael Jackson giving away free memberships to his fan club today? No, it is in fact “National Letter of Intent Day.” A day high schoolers hold 65 year old alumni hostage. Today at least one Division I coach’s administrative assistant will lose their job because they failed to replace the toner in the fax machine. This day marks the culmination of one of the most important jobs a coaching staff has and one that may ultimately decide their fate.

It is true that in order to compete on a national level you must have the best talent, but for every former number one overall (Vince Young, QB/Texas; Adrian Peterson, RB/OU; Percy Harvin, WR/Florida), your team must also find and develop the three star talent (Mike Hart, RB/Michigan; Matt Ryan, QB/Boston College; Jacob Hester, RB/LSU) and the two star (James Laurinaitis, LB/Ohio State). Today marks just ONE piece of the puzzle to build a great program. The others are heart, determination, teamwork, and great coaching! So if a recruiting service has blessed you with a top 25 ranking enjoy it while it lasts and pray that, four years from now, your team looks more like this year's USC, LSU, Ohio State, Georgia and less like Florida State, Miami, Purdue, Washington. Here is Rivals’ ranking of the class of 2004, last year’s red shirt juniors and true seniors.

1. USC
2. LSU
3. Florida State
4. Miami
5. Michigan
6. Georgia
7. Florida
8. OU
9. Ohio State
10. Texas
11. Tennessee
12. Oregon
13. Texas A&M
14. Penn State
15. Alabama
16. Michigan State
17. Maryland
18. Kansas State
19. Washington
20. Purdue
21. Auburn
22. Arkansas
23. California
24. Boston College
25. Washington State