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Signing Day: Moment by Moment
UHND.com - Darrin Donnelly - Used courtesy of IrishToday.com
2/8/2002
This is a special preview for uhnd.com readers. Irish Today subscribers receive articles like this daily.
1:20am - I put the final touches on the Feb. 6th issue of
Irish Today. We want to make sure readers have all relevant information as soon as
they open their e-mail on the morning of Signing Day. Right before I send it out, I
make some quick rounds of all the recruiting sites to make sure no late-breaking news has
been announced. Nothing is found and the issue is sent out.
9am - I hit the computer and find that linebacker Dedrick Harrington picked Mizzou over
the Irish. Not too big of a shock here. When a guy schedules a public
announcement with the local Columbia, Mo. TV station, it's probably because he's got good
news to share with the Columbia, Mo. community. One down, two to go.
9:30am - Take care of the morning business, answering e-mails, welcoming new subscribers,
etc. All the while, I'm itching for more news.
10:10am - It's going to be a long day, so I hit the gym to work off some impatience.
10:50am - During my workout, a Lorenzo Booker segment begins on Sportscenter (shown live
to the fitness center everyday to remind us all what good athletes really look
like). ESPN puts a nice spin on the segment making it seem as though the only thing
Booker thought about during his trip to ND was how cold it was there. The other
three schools (USC, Florida State and Washington) were all given positive assessments from
Booker.
When I first saw this, it was a bit disheartening. Yet, by the end of my workout I
acknowledged that none of us Domers should be too surprised at the spin ESPN put on it.
11:50am - I see the replay of the same exact segment on Sportscenter. Nope, ESPN
didn't make any last-second changes before airing the re-run. It was nice to see the
Booker highlights again.
12:10am - Back to the Net. Rumors are rampant from just about every major recruiting
publication that Booker has made up his mind and is heading to ND. I'm excited at
first, before reminding myself that these are just rumors and until he signs on the dotted
line, we won't know where he's going.
12:25am - I check out the online version of Booker's hometown paper, the Ventura County
Star. The front page boasts the headline: BREAKING NEWS: BOOKER LIKELY TO CHOOSE
NOTRE DAME.
Upon seeing this I obviously get excited. 'OK Darrin, get a hold of yourself.'
But then it hits me, this local columnist BETTER have something to contribute. For
today and today only, the entire sports world is focused on his backyard and he better
make some kind of contribution. It hits me that this columnist, Joe Curley, probably
has been doing the same thing as everyone else; hearing nothing directly from Booker about
his pick but scouring the web for info from other publications. There's not a single
quote in the entire article that backs up the speculation in a factual manner.
So there, nothing to get too excited about.
However, there was an interesting passage in this article. According to Curley, Ty
Willingham FedEx'ed Booker a package on Tuesday. Inside, there was a picture of the
Heisman Trophy with Booker's name engraved on it. Along with the picture was a
personal note from each of ND's coaches. Willingham wrote: "Mr. Everywhere, we
want you to lead us back to the national championship. You can do that because you are Mr.
Everything and Mr. Everywhere." Nice gesture, in my opinion.
Bobby Bowden sent Booker a picture of his O- line with the words, "These are the guys
that are going to be protecting you for the next four years." A little cheesy
if you ask me, but of course, I'm biased.
1:05pm - The nation's No. 2 recruit (behind Booker) DT Haloti Ngata signs with Oregon
despite verballing to BYU earlier this year. This was a huge shock to BYU fans and
coaches. This gets me a little nervous. All of our verbals ARE signing with
us, right?
I hit the Net to make sure all of our verbals are actually signing with us. Whew, no
one has backed out.
2pm - SuperPrep's Allen Wallace (via the Detroit News) is reporting that WR Rhema
McKinight chose UCLA over the Irish. The official announcement is still three hours
away, but Wallace isn't known to back up a commitment without good cause to do so.
Looks like all of our eggs are in one basket now: Lorenzo Booker.
2:15pm - CNNSI reports that Booker has eliminated two possibilities: Washington and
USC. That leaves the decision coming down to Notre Dame or Florida State.
The good news: Booker has made it clear that he doesn't have to stay close to home.
The bad news: I was under the impression that FSU was pretty much out of the race.
Now it looks like the Noles, Booker's favorite team growing up, are right in the mix of
things.
2:30pm - I've got other things to get done and I convince myself to get away from all the
rumors for awhile.
5pm - Sportscenter starts and it's clear right away that the Booker announcement probably
won't occur within the first hour.
5:35pm - New word that McKnight chose Notre Dame over UCLA. This is a nice change of
events if it is true.
I go back to a frantic confirmation quest and find that McKnight is Irish indeed!
Great news! Now if we can just land Booker, we've got a top five class despite
having such small numbers.
5:45pm - ESPN plays the same Lorenzo Booker segment that they played this morning.
This is my third viewing of this segment. Damn, this guy looks great!
5:55pm - Several recruiting gurus are reporting that Booker is Irish. It's all just
a matter of him making the announcement.
6:03pm - Booker announces. What did he say? Whoa, what just happened here?
I'm not sure I heard him right, but there he is wearing a Florida State hat.
Booker says the basis for the decision is that FSU has always been his favorite team and
that is where his heart is.
ESPN cuts back to Tom Lemming who is clearly caught off guard with the announcement.
Lemming assumes it was a last-second decision because Booker had reportedly told several
reporters, as well as Notre Dame, within the last hour that he was heading to Notre Dame.
My heart sinks a bit, but I hear Coach Chmiel's words echoing in my head, "Don't
worry about the ones we don't get, worry about the ones we do get."
Coming into today, we had three prospects that could've gone either way. We very
easily could've not signed a single one of the three.
Rhema McKnight bumps this class to a new level and we shouldn't underestimate the
importance of McKnight signing simply because the top overall prospect went
elsewhere. In all honesty, we need big time receivers before we need big time
running backs at this point.
What a day, what a day. One out of three really isn't too bad when you consider who
those three players were.
This article used courtesy of IrishToday.com. Click here for more of their articles.