For a day, there are only smiles

Two years from now, will we remember more than half a dozen of the high school football studs whose college choices were dissected with breathless eagerness Wednesday on ESPN, Rivals.com, Scout.com and Internet message boards across the country?

Will we recall that running back Darrell Scott of Ventura St. Bonaventure High wore a fashionable, three-piece tan suit to appear on ESPNU for a few seconds to say he chose Colorado over Texas?

Will it be forgotten or part of a budding legend that he was tempted to stay near home and play for UCLA but decided to join his uncle, receiver Josh Smith, with the Buffaloes?

That his mother, Alexis, was touchingly and justifiably proud of her son’s ability to stay grounded while recruiters swarmed around him and told him how great he could be at their school?

Fueled by the immediacy of the Internet and cable TV’s ravenous appetite for content, national signing day has become a soap opera on a grand scale.

Clearly, it’s the height of absurdity to ask even the most diligent expert to project the potential of 17- and 18-year-old kids who are still growing and, in many cases, have yet to face a sizable defensive line.

Or live away from home and eat anything other than Mom’s cooking.

“Absolutely, this is not an exact science,” said Patrick Stiegman, executive editor and producer of ESPN.com. “Nor is the NFL draft or the NBA draft. You’re going to see just as many first-round flops as sixth-round Tom Bradys in the NFL draft.”

No matter. The airwaves on Wednesday were filled with talk about Miami’s great recruiting class and who had the best day in the SEC and which school had stolen which kid from under a rival’s nose.

“There will be coaches fired three or four years down the line in part because of decisions made today,” Stiegman said. “And there will be coaches who win a national championship three or four years down the line because of decisions made today and you can’t tell which is which. But it clearly has a major impact.”

It was entertaining. Sometimes, it was dramatic: T.J. Lawrence, a wide receiver ranked 11th among the 7,500 players evaluated by ESPNU, had three schools’ caps on a table in front of him and pretended to pick up each one before he jammed an orange-and-blue Florida Gators cap on his head.

Fans apparently devoured every image and every word.

They watched the recruiting class rankings change throughout ESPNU’s seven-hour telecast as signings trickled in, and they participated in ESPN.com’s eight hours of chats with 20 recruits.

Signing day is a key reason ESPN in 2006 acquired Scouts, Inc., a service staffed by full-time scouts who roam the land to watch and assess high school, college and pro players.

Stiegman said indications were that ESPN.com had set a record for traffic on signing day. That’s after a record traffic year for recruiting information overall.

“The interest has always been there among the real recruitniks, who have been around as long as I can remember,” he said. “Now, it has expanded among more casual college football fans.”

Scott Kennedy, director of scouting for Scout.com, said his site has set records for visitor traffic on signing day each year and would do so again this year.

“It’s speculation. And it’s hope,” Kennedy said of the day’s appeal.

“Hope is what gets us up in the morning. Hope is what inspires you to make a sale. It’s the hope that this is the guy that brings me to the championship level. Nobody is wrong on signing day.”

Thankfully, a few things were right and there were enough poignant moments to balance the experts’ all-too-serious demeanor and rescue the day from becoming a babble of talking heads.

For a lot of these kids, including those who never become starters or never play in an NFL game, Wednesday was still a life-changing day. For their parents too.

Alexis Scott, who manages an obstetrics and gynecology office in Simi Valley, beamed while her son Darrell -- “my only baby” -- pulled on a white Colorado cap to end a process she said had become “kind of stressful” despite her valiant attempts to keep it sane.

“There’s closure. No more contemplation,” she said at the ESPN Zone in Anaheim, where Darrell announced his choice during ESPNU’s telecast.

Darrell said he was undecided as late as Monday, but Colorado’s warm welcome during his visit outweighed his qualms about playing in cold weather.

“I just went there because I liked the atmosphere and everything. I bonded with the whole coaching staff and all the players,” he said.

He sounded like a happy kid, not just some coach’s meal ticket. Let’s hope he sounds the same two years from now.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.