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Between the Hashes: Coffee, Lion King, shrubbery and the best of Signing Day 2014

Lorenzo Carter also plans to wear this jacket at Georgia's new student orientation. (Brett Davis/USA Today Sports) Throughout the college football season,

Martin Rickman

Between the Hashes: Coffee, Lion King, shrubbery and the best of Signing Day 2014
Between the Hashes: Coffee, Lion King, shrubbery and the best of Signing Day 2014 /

Lorenzo Carter also plans to wear this jacket at Georgia's new student orientation. (Brett Davis/USA Today Sports)

Lorenzo Carter

Throughout the college football season, Campus Union delved into the fun, the weird and the wacky of college football with a series called Between the Hashes. It was a way to decompress from the madness of the week, and to find a few things that you might have missed. Since National Signing Day has now come and gone and there aren't many things more fun, weird or wacky than watching kids put on hats for 12 hours, we felt it deserved its own special edition.

We made it through Signing Day. Another new crop of players is set to play some football, and that's exciting. Sure, the spectacle of frantically waiting to see where a guy will go -- with cameras posted up in a high school gym (while students really should be analyzing the symbolism of the green light in The Great Gatsby) and a daylong marathon of coverage on the ESPN family of networks -- seems excessive. But college football is all about glorious excess. Picking on high schoolers who are enjoying their big moments seems pretty pointless.

No matter what your feelings are about the day, it's not going away. Luckily, there are quite a few things to enjoy about the event beyond the tried-and-true fax machine jokes and the hat switcheroos. If you weren't able to watch the madness or refresh your favorite social media site on Wednesday because of things like "school" or "jobs" or "working out," we've got you covered. Here's the best of the rest from National Signing Day 2014.

BYE FELICIA, HI 'CANES

One of my favorite things in sports is when someone is the son or daughter of a noteworthy man or woman. That includes authors, musicians, actors, politicians and other athletes. Well, Miami got a pretty noteworthy example in quarterback Brad Kaaya, a four-star prospect from West Hills, Calif. His mom is Angela Means-Kaaya, also known as Felicia from Friday.

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People, including myself, were excited.

CanesInsight had an interview with Means-Kaaya in 2013, where she talked about her acting past:

“I had a nice career on the road as a national headliner. I was a stand-up comic who opened for everyone from Chris Rock to Jamie Foxx. Chris Tucker and I worked together all the time and I was doing things. I was five months pregnant at the premiere (of Friday). When I was a stand-up, that’s what I was. When I was an actor, that’s what I was. When I became a mother, the kid just stole my heart and that’s what I am,” said Means-Kaaya.

The Circle of Life

Last June, I did a quick #lookit post for SB Nation on a potential All-Name Team candidate. He didn't have a bio page on any of the major football recruiting sites, and he wasn't going to end up in the SEC. Still, Lion King Conway deserved our attention.

"I like my name," says Lion King, who played on the freshman basketball team this year. On or off the court, his name attracts as much attention as a wildebeest in a pack of hyenas. When he meets new people, "They always say, ‘What? Are you serious? Is that your real name?' And then I say, ‘Yes.'"

Now, he'll play Division I football in the MAC at Eastern Michigan. It's just a shame the Rapacious Bird won't be his head coach.

You know what they say: Ypsilanti means no worries.

Coffee is for closers

There aren't many coaches who had a better Signing Day than Les Miles. He woke up early, remembered his keys and his phone, landed recruits like Malachi Dupre and Travonte Valentine, and signed previously committed top prospects, including five-star star running back Leonard Fournette. Oh, and he had his coffee delivered by the fine folks at ESPN.

(via SB Nation)

Les had a pretty good day.

(via @lsufreek)

Hats are, well, old hat

I find nothing inherently wrong with picking a hat to select a school. I get it. It's tradition. It makes sense. It's easy. But it's downright boring and borrowed interest at this point. We can do better.

Earlier this week, I suggested a number of new ways to improve Signing Day. While we still have a long way to go, a few guys stepped up to the challenge.

Lorenzo Carter went with the hat routine but added an incredible jacket to go with it.

Solomon Thomas didn't let the nerds down, bringing out a tiny little tree and throwing on some taped glasses.

And three-star Duke signee Nico Pierre actually took one of my suggestions, using an enormous and amazing giant pen.

Maybe Adoree' Jackson's bag of tricks didn't hit all the right notes, but he deserves credit for giving it a shot. The kid loves the camera. He'll have plenty of chances to flash his personality at USC.

(h/t College Spun)

At least his family was in on the pageantry.

#WhereWillPoonaGo didn't exactly work out the way it was intended, although Longhorns fans were certainly happy the answer was Texas. But Poona Ford was able to drop a really great video on his way into making his decision.

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As a general rule, if you mention Bojangles, hold up Bojangles, eat Bojangles or even allude to Bojangles, I will write about/mention it.

Best quotes

These are all presented without comment. That's how good they are.

He's oversignin', pawwwwllll

We've heard plenty about coaches taking on too many recruits, using grayshirts to maneuver around restrictions and getting inventive to stick to the 85-scholarship limit. Maybe a new trend is about to emerge. Dacorius "D.J." Law, a three-star athlete from Haines City, Fla., committed to Utah. The only problem? He also signed National Letters of Intent to Ole Miss and East Mississippi Community College.

From Hugh Kellenberger of The Clarion-Ledger:

An Ole Miss spokesman said the school is looking into it. His counterpart at Utah said that she published he had signed as soon “as I was told I could.” But, she said, she thinks the school received the letter of intent earlier in the day.

“Our compliance staff feels very good about the situation with D.J.,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said during his press conference.

Adding more weirdness to the story is this video 

from local TV news station Bay News 9,

 in which Law is clearly choosing Utah and is seen wearing a Utes hat. In at least one frame a woman behind him is wearing an Ole Miss t-shirt.

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Martin Rickman
MARTIN RICKMAN

Martin Rickman is a contributing college football writer for SI.com

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