Georgia’s building a recruiting Death Star, and 12 other interesting things from the Early Signing Period’s Day 1

Imagine flexing this hard on an entire sport.

That’s what Kirby Smart did when he tweeted a GIF of himself eating popcorn with a surprised look on his face at a high school football game. He tweeted it right after securing the commitment of linebacker Channing Tindall. Tindall’s pledge got Georgia the top-ranked signing class of 2018, moving past Ohio State on Wednesday evening. This is the best class in school history, slightly better than Smart’s No. 3 overall 2017 class, the previous holder of that distinction.

The Dawgs are already the best team in the SEC East by a clear margin, and they were already the most talented. Now they’re solidifying the latter in a big way. The Dawgs are loaded, and last year was no fluke on the recruiting trail.

The Dawgs inked three top-10 players in the 247Sports Composite, but Clemson did one better, signing four. The Tigers only signed 14 players in last year’s class. They’ve already signed 15 this year, and at virtually the same average star ranking as last season (a stellar 92.8). The Tigers have room to add to the class, and it’s a group that includes two of the nation’s three best players already.

A tried and true recruiting tradition: one fan base getting in a huff because an opponent said something less than positive about a recruiting rival. That’s what happened here, when a recruit said this about Dabo Swinney’s recruiting tactics.

Personally, I have absolutely no issue with what Swinney supposedly said. Carman is the best tackle commitment in Ohio and signed with the Tigers instead of the Buckeyes. People will cry foul, but Swinney’s playing up his school’s strengths by poking holes in an opponent. That’s the game. And it’s one Meyer’s been accused of playing in the past.

When the cameras are on and the emotions get going, slips of the tongue happen. Linebacker Rosendo Lewis said he’d sign to South Florida. The only problem was that he’s going to South Carolina instead.

He caught the flub pretty much right as the words were coming out of his mouth. It’s a funny memory he’ll have around his signing, and hopefully he’ll have a successful career at South Florida Carolina.

A massive flip for the Gators came by way of Ohio State pledge Emory Jones signing with Dan Mullen’s Florida almost out of nowhere.

Jones had been an Ohio State commit for many months, but had also been looking around for almost as long. Jones spent much of the fall flirting with the idea of flipping to Alabama, leading to the Buckeyes offering then-Kentucky commit Jarren Williams in November and taking the commitment of Texas quarterback Matthew Baldwin earlier this month.

Transitional recruiting classes are rarely elite, but Florida’s No. 14 class is pretty good. With Jones as a crown jewel, Gators fans should be happy.

The Buckeyes had to stop recruiting five-star DE Micah Parsons because he happened to take a photo with Herbstreit in Columbus, and the ABC/ESPN commentator got into a Twitter fight a few months back with Carman, the top Ohio prospect who left the state. Recruiting is strange.

The Huskies inked an 11th-ranked recruiting class, including elite WR Marquis Spiker.

By the reckoning of 247 Sports, Spiker ranks as the 12th-best player to sign with the Huskies in the modern recruiting era, trailing only Budda Baker among Washington recruits during the Chris Petersen era. Spiker chose the Huskies over offers from USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington State, among others.

Watch out for Washington moving forward. We know what Petersen can do with decent talent. As this recruiting class feeds into the roster, it’ll be fun to see what Petersen can do with top-level talent.

Also landing the best class in school history: P.J. Fleck’s Minnesota.

The five-star DE literally handed the mic to Patrick Murphy, a beloved assistant coach.

Earl Thomas, Aaron Ross, Michael Huff — to name a few — made Texas the reigning DBU a decade ago, when the program was last a title contender. But the Longhorns are making a play for that mantle again with a stellar array of DB signings.

Each of the six top-25 DBs already signed to the Longhorns is an in-state prospect. They come from all around the state: two in Houston and three in smaller towns around central, southeastern, and northeastern Texas.

This comes a year after Texas didn’t sign a single top-10 player in the state of Texas. Tom Herman’s transitional class wasn’t great, but it’s OK because this one is.

One of the country’s top DBs happened to get a late FSU offer right after he responded to this tweet ...

... with this:

He then signed with the Seminoles shortly after.

Please don’t tweet at recruits, though.

Maryland signed an ambidextrous kicker.

During a live show on Day 1, we got a lovely Ed Orgeron story. While he was at USC, the Cajun never really left him. Former Trojans player Marlon Favorite said Coach O walked up in his house and immediately helped himself to some red beans and rice.

“He comes over to the house, man, and Julie, he makes himself at home,” Favorite told Julie Brinks-Stewart. “He walks in, ‘hey, how y’all doing today?’ went straight to the kitchen. ‘Oh, it smell pretty good in here, man!’ my mom was like ‘well, I cooked some red beans!’ so then, ‘oh, for real?’ So he goes into the refrigerator, pulls out a pot of red beans ‘hey, y’all got some rice?’ my mom comes with a pot of rice, he scoops the rice, puts the red beans and rice together. ‘Hey, so y’all have like a cover? I’ll use a napkin.’ He takes the napkin, put it over there, put the food in the microwave, and then he started talking football. That’s making yourself at home. It really was a big, big recruiting tool that worked like a charm because I was this close to saying ‘hey, should I go to USC?’”

Whatever it takes to get the commitment, man.

Having bowls and a Signing Period at the same time was always going to be bizarre, but the first game to coincide with the period was as odd as it gets. Louisiana Tech destroyed SMU, thanks almost entirely to turnovers, all with new SMU head coach Sonny Dykes actually coaching the game, for some reason.