The fax machines are running on fumes today.  On the plus side, they can rest up in the closet for another year.

• 5-star OL Seantrel Henderson first made news by pushing USC over the top with Rivals #1 recruiting class.  Then, the New York Times published a great article detailing his recruiting process with nuggets like Jim Tressel is boring (who knew!?!).  And then, he made some more waves (can you imagine a 6'8" 330 lb. cannonball?) by holding off on signing his letter of intent until after USC's NCAA hearings in three weeks.  If you're worried about Henderson backing out, don't be.  If USC is handed harsh sanctions, Henderson's exit will hardly register a blip compared to the mass exodus you'll see from the players currently under scholarship.  If you want to worry about something, check out the NYT's throw-away line regarding Henderson not having academically qualified yet.
• If Matt Barkley fulfills his potential, yesterday was the day that he got a little help from his friends.  The coaching staff gave the wunderkind QB a ready-made offense for 2011 and 2012 (if he sticks around).  With Henderson protecting his blind-side, Barkley will have plenty of time to pick out his new trio of top receivers (Markeith Ambles, Kyle Prater and Robert Woods) or dump it to TD machine Dillon Baxter or find the comforting hands of one of his three new monster tight ends. 
• The national consensus yesterday was that "we knew Lane Kiffin could recruit, but can he coach like Pete Carroll's staff?"  There is great irony in that question.  Those close to the program the last couple of years credit the attrition in quality assistant coaches with the resulting poor play.  With the hirings of Monte Kiffin, Ed Orgeron and Joe Barry, the defensive staff is now filled with qualified experienced coaches not hard-working yes-men like Rocky Seto.  And while Kiffin's play-calling experience can certainly be questioned, he did a heck of a job as the receivers coach during the Carroll era.  Since Kiffin left, the Mike Williams, Keary Colbert, Steve Smith, Dwayne Jarret pipeline ran oftly dry with disappointments like Patrick Turner, David Ausberry and Vidal Hazelton.
• The Pac-10 had a great day yesterday, but will it translate into national wins?  On the whole, the conference has turned to younger coaches, who recruit better than their older counterparts.  Kiffin (34), Steve Sarkisian (35), Chip Kelly (46), Jim Harbaugh (46), Rick Neuheisel (48) and Jeff Tedford (48) can hang with the big boys on National Signing Day, but when will that start translating into non-conference road wins or BCS bowl victories?  Pete Carroll has been carrying the conference's reputation for a decade, but it's a new era now and Kelly's Oregon Ducks got off to a bad start by laying an egg in the Rose Bowl.
• Rick Neuheisel had his best day as the Bruins head coach yesterday.  The baby blue hats were getting a lot of wear and tear on the TV by highly-touted recruits.  However, the monopoly will end when Neuheisel beats the Trojans out for a top signal-caller.  Under the radar, UCLA has been playing solid defense for going on five years (13-9 anyone?), but they have not moved the ball consistently since Bob Toledo was the coach.
• Crenshaw LB Hayes Pullard might be the least touted player in USC's 2010 class.  However, Crenshaw had been running a mini-boycott of USC during the Carroll era after Ken Norton mishandled the recruitment of DT Brian Price years ago.  Pullard crossed the lines at just the right time.  You can expect a holy war to break out for 2011 RB DeAnthony "The Black Mamba" Thomas.  Now there is an offensive player that could swing the balance of power in the USC-UCLA rivalry...
• Rivals top 5 classes: #1 USC, #2 Florida, #3 Texas, #4 Auburn and #5 Alabama.  Which one of the five does not belong?  Auburn had fallen off the map since Nick Saban took over at Alabama.  If Gene Chizik can at least help dilute the talent at the rival school, he'll be doing Florida and everybody else a huge favor. 
• On a day when everybody was happy, Notre Dame's Brian Kelly, Michigan's Rich Rodriguez and Georgia's Mark Richt seemed like the only three coaches on the other end of it.  Kelly complained that the lack of winning in recent years is more important on the recruiting trail than the Notre Dame name.  Fair point, but while he takes pot shots at Charlie Weis's lack of success on the field, he should be grateful that Weis left him a relatively full cupboard (that has to be a first for big Charlie) with solid QB Dayne Crist and outstanding WR Michael Floyd.
• As for Rodriguez, he is a great coach who continues to look like the wrong fit at Michigan.  The Wolverines fans are as traditional as they come and Rich-Rod is the poster boy for the new wave of coaches.  They will lose patience with him before he wins enough games to do whatever he wants in Ann Arbor.
• Mark Richt is the Mike Riley of the SEC.  He seems like a real nice guy, who is a solid coach.  However, when push comes to shove, he gets bullied by his coaching brethren.  Georgia landed the #16 class in the country, but he was only #6 in the SEC.  When SEC coaches look to steal recruits, they identify Richt as the weakest animal in the herd.
• Did you notice that Ohio State is not even ranked in the Rivals Top 25 recruiting classes?  They did not land a single 5-star talent.  While it has become cool to hate USC, you will miss them next season when the Buckeyes make a run for the BCS title game.  Without the Trojans on their schedule, who is going to stop Terrelle Pryor in the Big Ten, which landed one 5-star player in the entire conference (Michigan St.'s William Gholston)?
• I'm looking at Florida as a test case over the next few years.  Can they overcome what befell Pete Carroll's dynasty and so many before them?  Without Dan Mullen and Charlie Strong to develop all this talent, will these top recruiting classes turn into crystal balls or near misses?  If they asked for advice, I'd say don't promote from within.  Inside hires don't bring fresh ideas and are often unqualified.  And, don't try to find the next Tim Tebow or Percy Harvin.  Great coaches tailor their system to their talent not the other way around.  Use Mack Brown as the model, he is not the best coach, but his program is the best built to last. 
• There was a lot of talk yesterday about how "national" recruiting has become.  In the past, schools recruited their state and their region unless a kid came to them.  The change has little to do with the coaches.  Budgets and the Internet are the difference makers.  With million dollar recruiting pots, coaches can afford to scour the Earth for talent, while the Internet helps make that Earth a lot easier to scour.
• Lastly, with Blind Side getting an Oscar nomination for "Best Picture," Coach Ed Orgeron has to go down as one of the all-time great characters.  Think about it, he was the Ole Miss coach for only three years.  In that time, he had two books written about him (The Blind Side and Meat Market) plus an Oscar nominated film.  He's such a character that authors could not help but make him their lead character. 

The man could sell Hummers to Green Peace...