National Signing Day "another solid day at the office" for TCU

The fax machines have calmed down.  The phones have silenced for the time being.  The focus of television cameras has moved from the students to the analysts as they break down today's National Signing Day happenings.  All but a handful of recruits have made their decisions and the emphasis now changes to training and teaching these young football players.  For the TCU coaching staff, it marks the end of another successful recruiting season.

The Horned Frogs reeled in a total of 18 recruits on Wednesday, all of them rated three stars or higher by Rivals, while nine were given ratings of at least three stars by Scout.  Of course, those rankings aren't always worth much.  After all, Jerry Hughes was rated as a two star recruit coming in and that seemed to turn out okay for him.  Regardless of that little fact though, it's still fun to look and see how the recruiting class looks in comparison to the others. 

Curtis Carter and Ethan Grant top the list for the Frogs.  While those two are very talented players with a lot of potential to fit very well into Coach Gary Patterson's system, Examiner focused on Carter and Grant yesterday.  Some other very solid recruits signed on the dotted line Wednesday for TCU and here' s a look at some of the highlights TCU had cooking on National Signing Day.

Quarterback Matt Brown may be the recruit that has gotten the most publicity.  Coach Patterson, himself has proclaimed Brown the "sleeper of the draft," according to Keith Whitmire's blog for the Dallas Morning News.  As many TCU fans may already know, Brown switched his commitment from Arizona to the Horned Frogs just a handful of days ago.  His highlight video can be found here.

Defensive end Clifton Murphy may have made the most interesting commitment.  According to a blog by Wesley Willis, Murphy grew up as a Horned Frog fan and dreamed of playing for TCU since childhood.  The route he took to make his commitment though is the interesting part and for the sake of journalistic integrity, please check out Wesley's blog to get the full scoop.  The report has been neither confirmed or denied, but in all honesty it's just so crazy that it's probably true.  He's also a basketball player, but his letter of intent was signed for football.

Wide receiver Chris Hawkins switched his commitment in the final hours as well, after changing from his verbal commitment to Minnesota.  Hawkins is super quick and has a good size to him as well, which could become valuable assets for the Horned Frog passing game. 

Late in the afternoon, running back Josh Huff announced via his Twitter page that he was going to sign with Oregon and did so moments later.  Despite that recruit loss though, the Horned Frogs received commitments from Carter, Grant, Brown, Hawkins, Murphy, Jonathan Anderson, David Johnson, Marcus Mallett, Matt Anderson, Travaras Battle-Smith, Sam Carter, Elisha Olabode, Blake Roberts, Michael Thompson, Stephen Bryant, Antonio Graves, Nykiren Wellington, and Kevin White.  The chances are, most of those names aren't recognizable right now, but just wait 2-3 years when they start making big plays for the purple. 

The road of a college coach during recruiting season takes all kinds of twists and turns while taking a stressful toll on a team's coaches.  They get messed with, misled and even fibbed to at times.  But in the end, perhaps that's just another day at the office.

For more recruiting content, check out Joshua Burns, our College Football Recruiting Examiner and Kevin McGuire, our College Football Examiner.