MORGANTOWN - If you followed the action on college football's National Signing Day, you saw some fireworks.
There were flips. (With flops sure to come.) Ohio State, Florida State, Ole Miss, Clemson, LSU and Alabama fought for the top-ranked class.
Texas of the Big 12 had an impressive surge. And, overall, that league fared well for once, especially Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma and the Longhorns.
Aside from the fireworks, though, there were also neat moments.
One for WVU came when recruiting coordinator Casey Smithson tweeted a picture of folks dancing and the caption of "How you feel when Kyzir White's NLI comes through." Another was a message from former Mountaineer star Kevin White on his brother's signing. "Family tradition continues," he tweeted before adding "#Kwhites." Current receiver Ka'Raun White is already on the team.
For West Virginia, though, the neatest moments hit the Internet around 7 a.m.
First, four-star linebacker Brendan Ferns tweeted out the news that he'd picked WVU over Penn State. That was a huge get for Mountaineer coach Dana Holgorsen. Ferns is, in fact, the seventh-highest-rated recruit to ever sign with the West Virginia program.
Yet right after that came a picture of two young boys with the backdrop of Mountaineer Field. It was a picture of Ferns back in the day with his older brother Michael, who transferred to WVU from Michigan.
"Never thought when I took them to their first spring game 10 years ago, they would reunite on that same field," was the caption.
It was a shot posted by Ferns' father, Mike. And it was nice to see a touching moment like that amid the madness that is Signing Day. See, Mike Ferns' son could have gone anywhere: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pitt, Stanford, USC, Texas A&M all offered the St. Clairsville, Ohio, player. And Mike Ferns heard from them all.
Again.
"Beep, beep, buzz, buzz, that's my phone," he said Wednesday morning. "I haven't been out of recruiting for six years. Brendan's [recruiting] started before Michael went to Michigan. I've had two sets of recruiting. I'm thankful, but I'm OK to be out of it, believe me. It's a little consuming."
Mike Ferns runs three motorcycle dealerships and an automobile store. Oh, and he has a daughter, Kaitlyn, at Wheeling Central. Think his world has been crazy?
"The nice thing is, we've really been able to experience a lot," said the father. "We've met five Heisman Trophy winners. We've been everywhere from Oklahoma to Georgia and the SEC. It was cool for the first wave, but then it gets exhausting."
His son, of course, could have pulled the plug on much of that. The linebacker narrowed his choices to the Mountaineers and Nittany Lions, but didn't make a final call until Wednesday morning.
"Brendan is a procrastinator by nature," said the father, "but then you have grown men throwing options at him. It's tough. How do you choose between the 25 hottest women? That's probably not a good example, but that's what it's like."
The father continued.
"I think he was a little nervous because of what happened with Michael and Michigan. ... What looked like the most perfect deal turned into chaos. Plus, there were rumors some of the coaches he was dealing with might go elsewhere."
Ferns' main recruiter for WVU was line coach Ron Crook, but the father meant the false alarms around Mountaineer defensive coordinator Tony Gibson and Penn State assistant Brent Pry.
Whatever the case, WVU is getting a good one in Brendan Ferns. If you watch film, you'll see he was like a man among boys in high school. In St. Clairsville's first game of the season, against Carrollton, Ferns played seven positions: running back, tight end, wide receiver, quarterback, middle linebacker, outside linebacker and free safety. He had 74 yards and a touchdown rushing, a TD while at QB, three catches for 101 yards and 17 tackles on defense.
On the season, Ferns had 118 tackles, 1,066 yards rushing, 600 yards receiving and a combined 22 touchdowns. Thus, the 93.5 grade by 247 Sports. Thus, the deluge of offers. Thus, tough choice.
"When you make this decision, you don't know if it's the right one for years," said Mike Ferns. "Statistically, the coaches you deal with won't even be there at the end. The system is a little tough. But it was much easier this time around. I knew how to control it better."
Now his hope is less stress.
And many, many more of those neat moments.