Mike Florio

[Editor’s note: When I volunteered on Tuesday night to help John Taylor and Keith Arnold with the signing-day details by monitoring the moves of the Big East, I didn’t appreciate the magnitude of the assignment.

THE HEIR TO PAT WHITE?

Though WVU quarterback Coley White eventually will get a chance to follow in his big brother’s footsteps, the kid brother of Pat White might have some competition.Eugene Smith of Miramar, Florida has committed to the Mountaineers.The 6-4, 190-pound quarterback runs the 40 in 4.55 seconds, and was ranked No. 98 on ESPNU’s list of the top 150 recruits.

22 SIGN WITH WVU

The folks at BlueGoldNews.com have the list of 22 incoming freshmen who signed on the dotted line their letters of intent to attend West Virginia University, and play football there.The biggest name is running back Tavon Austin, a five-star tailback from Baltimore.

GLAUD PICKED HIS TEAM WITH A COIN FLIP

After posting a fairly mundane item on the decision of linebacker Ka’Lial Glaud to play college football at Rutgers, we noticed a far more interesting item about the basis for his decision.As it turns out, Glaud used a time-honored football tooil for making up his mind.He flipped a coin.Per the Courier-Post, it was heads West Virginia, tails Rutgers.”

RUTGERS HAPPY TO GET GLAUD

Linebacker Ka’Lial Glaud has opted to attend Rutgers, according to Scout.com.Glaud picked Rutgers over Maryland, Iowa, Louisville, Tennessee, and West Virginia.Glaud, who is 6-1 and weighs 209 pounds, also played quarterback in high school.

ANNOUNCING THE CFT PEPSI PARTY PACK WINNER

As we pointed out the other day, our new friends at Pepsi have provided us not one but two Super Bowl Pepsi Party Packs for distribution to a reader at PFT and CFT.So we decided to give out the prize based on the person who made the best comment on each site.The winner at CFT was Louisiana Guy, who put together an impressive work of football poetry.It appears in full after the jump.

SOMEONE’S GETTING SOME FREE STUFF

As some of you might know, we’re running a little contest over at PFT.

ESPN’S NEW MOTTO: “IF IT’S NOT OUR NEWS, IT’S NEWS TO US”

When ESPN sniffs out a hot rumor or story, ESPN sets the blender of its various platforms to “liquefy,” whipping the thing into the biggest story that the sports world ever has seen.And when ESPN has had no role in uncovering a hot rumor or story, ESPN’s new approach apparently will be to pretend that it had no idea that the hot rumor or story even existed.It’s the only conclusion we can draw from Steve Levy’s proclamation on the Tuesday night/Wednesday morning SportsCenter loop, during which ESPN displayed the angry Notre Dame quote shooting down rumors of Jon Gruden replacing Charlie Weis and Levy quipped, “No one hear at ESPN had even heard the rumor.”

‘BAMA GETS A NEW LINEBACKERS COACH

Alabama coach Nick Saban has a new assistant coach on defense.And he’ll also double as the official taster for Little Debbie’s cakes sent from places like Knoxville, Gainesville, and Baton Rouge.Per the Birmingham News, Sal Sunseri is leaving the Carolina Panthers and heading to Tuscaloosa.In Charlotte, Sunseri spent seven seasons as the defensive line coach.

46 PLAYERS LEAVE EARLY FOR THE DRAFT

The dust has settled, and 46 college players have been cleared to enter the draft at least one year early.By rule, a player is eligible three years after the graduation of his high school class.The NFL announced the 46 early entries earlier in the hour.The list appears below, with name, position, and university.Asher Allen, DB, GeorgiaKenny Britt, WR, RutgersEben Britton, T, ArizonaDonald Brown, RB, ConnecticutEverette Brown, DE, Florida StateCarson Butler, TE, MichiganJairus Byrd, DB, OregonJames Casey, TE, RiceJeremy Childs, WR, Boise StateGlen Coffee, RB, AlabamaEmanuel Cook, DB, South CarolinaJared Cook, TE, South CarolinaMichael Crabtree, WR, Texas TechAndrew Davie, TE, ArkansasNate Davis, QB, Ball StateVontae Davis, DB, IllinoisMaurice Evans, DE, Penn StateJosh Freeman, QB, Kansas StateMike Goodson, RB, Texas A&MShonn Greene, RB, IowaBrian Hartline, WR, Ohio StatePercy Harvin, WR, FloridaDarrius Heyward-Bey, WR, MarylandP.J.

DEAR NICK: AVOID THE LITTLE DEBBIES

Alabama coach Nick Saban has a well-known soft spot for the cuisine of a renowned pastry chef known colloquially as “Little Debbie.”

NFL SOURCE SAYS PITT SHOULD FIRE WALT HARRIS AGAIN

With the ascension of Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who is two wins away from becoming the first rookie quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, an NFL source tells CFT (yeah, I still work here, too) that Pitt should track down former head coach Walt Harris -- and fire him again.Though we can’t find any past reports on this, the source tells us that Harris actually wanted to move Flacco to tight end.In the process of researching this one, we learned some more about the guy who (as a PFT reader has pointed out) bears an uncanny resemblance to Bert from Sesame Street.First, Flacco came to Pitt knowing that Tyler Palko was the quarterback of the future.Second, when Flacco transferred to Delaware of Division I-AA (currently the Football Clusterf--k Subdivision . . . not to be confused with the Football Bullsh-t Subdivision), he still had to sit out a year because Pitt refused to release him from his scholarship.

UTAH A.G. GETS DEFENSIVE ON HIS BLOG

Last week, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (we sure hope he named his first-born son “Detlef”) suggested that the BcS system might violate federal antitrust laws.Over the weekend, Shurtleff posted an item on his official blog defending the effort.”

ANOTHER GO FOR TEBOW

At a time when it wasn’t clear whether quarterback Tim Tebow would return for a fourth season at Florida or take a chance on the NFL draft, Tebow cleared up any confusion on Saturday night.”

MEET YOUR NEW BOSS

While we still mourn the departure of MDS (we can’t think of a good way to say that without making it sound like he croaked), we’re thrilled to welcome our brand-spanking-new CFT Editor-In-Chief, John Taylor.But first we need to clarify something.John Taylor is not the former 49ers receiver.John Taylor is not the bassist in Duran Duran.John Taylor is not the kid from Home Improvement.John Taylor is the former Editor of NFLtalk.com, and he was blogging long before blogging became known to the blogosphere as blogging.

CRABTREE COMING OUT, TOO

The NFL’s version of the gold rush continues.On the same day that Missouri receiver Jeremy Maclin said he’ll enter the draft, Joe Schad of ESPN.com reports that Texas Tech wideout Michael Crabtree is expected to do the same on Tuesday.Crabtree is recovering from an ankle sprain.

MACLIN DECLARES FOR THE DRAFT

Missouri receiver Jeremy Maclin is taking his game to the next level.Literally.Maclin has announced that he’ll enter the 2009 NFL draft.Maclin caught 102 passes for 1,260 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2008.

WHITTINGHAM SAY HE VOTED FOR THE UTES

Despite a contention by some paper-pusher at the AFCA that the members who cast a ballot in the USA Today coaches poll physically cannot vote for anyone other than the winner of the BcS National Championship game as the No. 1 team in the land, Kyle Whittingham of Utah cracked the code.And voted for his team.Whittingham told Dan Patrick on Friday of his decision to break ranks.”

FLORIDA WINS AP TITLE

Well, any hope of using this year’s outcome to the bowl season as a catalyst for sparking meaningful change has taken a dramatic hit.The Associated Press has voted Florida the No. 1 team in the country.

TEBOW DOESN’T KNOW IF HE’LL RETURN

After winning his second National Championship in three years, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow told FOX’s Chris Myers that Tebow doesn’t know whether he’ll return for his senior senior in Gainesville.”

LeSEAN IS LeGONE

Despite having two years of eligibility remaining, Pitt tailback LeSean McCoy will be leaving school and entering the NFL draft.The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, citing unnamed sources, reports that McCoy made the decision after consulting with former Pitt players, including Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald.McCoy skipped a Thursday team meeting, which fueled speculation that he will be leaving.In December, McCoy said that he would be staying in school.

BUH-BYE, BEANIE

A weekafter giving strong hints that he might return to Ohio State for another season, running back Beanie Wells has made it known that he’s taking his talents to the NFL.Wells announced on Thursday that he’ll leave school and enter the April draft.Prior to the Vandalay Fiesta Bowl, Wells created the impression that he viewed his work in Columbus as unfinished.

BcS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP LIVE BLOG

In yet another transparent effort to drum up hits for our five-year-old red-headed stepchild site before handing the baton to the newest CFT editor-in-chief (whom we’ll name at some point tonight), we give you a Live Blog of the BcS National Title Game.

STOOPS DEFINITELY NOT ON BRONCOS RADAR, SUPPOSEDLY

Our friends at PFT (actually, we think they’re assholes) have posted a blurb regarding the status of the Denver Broncos’ coaching search.As it turns out, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops won’t be a candidate for the job.Stoops recently said that he hadn’t been contacted, and he suggested that he’s not interested.Then again, we never rule out anything.

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