NATIONAL SIGNING DAY: What we learned

ATLANTA — Guard your cellphone number like a left tackle does his star quarterback.

Don't believe any coach who tells you you'll start as a freshman.

And try to judge a college by more than just how pretty the co-eds are.

These are just a few of the tips the signing day class of 2007 has for future recruits.

Having completed the pressure-packed process Wednesday, here's their entire how-to guide.

Prepare your rejection speech in advance.

"It is hard to tell a coach from a university, 'I don't want to take your scholarship,'" said Georgia signee Vince Vance, who had to say as much to none other than Steve Spurrier. "It is kind of awkward to say that."

Ask for help if you must. Twiggs County(Ga.) All-American Chris Little suggests consulting your high school coach for assistance with the wording.

Little's simple, to-the-point message: "Thanks, but no thanks. It's not the place for me."

"It's better to tell them so you're not wasting their time and they can move on," Little said.

More times than not, recruits found, the losing coaches will take the bad news better than you might think.

"I called and told them I wasn't coming so they wouldn't read about it in the paper," Tennessee recruit Eric Berry said. "Everybody was respectful."

"Go wherever your heart is," most coaches told Addison Williams, a South Carolina signee.

Remember: No means no.

If they want you badly enough, some coaches won't take "no" for an answer.

That's what the top-rated prospect in Pennsylvania discovered.

"They're still going to hound you," said Derrick Morgan, a Georgia Tech signee. "Penn State was calling like a week before I came [to enroll at Tech], saying there's still time."

I'm sorry, did you not hear what I said last week? Did we have a bad connection?

"There's coaches, you tell them no, and they'll think about it and call you back in a week," said Gainesville's Nick Claytor, who decided to join Morgan at Tech. "You can't just not return the calls. Don't fuel the fire because they're going to call you back. Tell them. And if you're going to commit, stay true to your word."

Stay true to your word. Yeah, that's a big one.

This was the year of the flip-flop, with star prospects saying they're headed to one school, then pulling the switch the next week.

Luther Davis, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution Super Southern 100 defensive lineman from West Monroe, La., announced on national TV he was headed to LSU. Then Nick Saban called, and suddenly, Davis was headed to Alabama.

Little did it, too, flipping from Florida State to Notre Dame, then switching again Wednesday by signing with Georgia.

"Definitely take your visits and take your time," advised Tech recruit Clyde Yandell of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. "So many kids commit early and de-commit. That not only screws up the schools, but you don't need to rush your decision. I don't think that's a good thing."

That said, if you're 100 percent sure of where you want to go, go ahead and get it out of the way early.

Offensive lineman Tanner Strickland has known for most of his life he wanted to play college football for his home-state Bulldogs. So when they offered, he jumped at it. Six members of the Class of 2008 have already done likewise, pledging their early allegiance to Mark Richt's program.

"It really clears your mind," said Strickland, who could just concentrate on getting better his junior and senior seasons. "I had two full seasons of not worrying about where I was going to go."

Make some unpaid trips to be better able to compare schools.

If you're not like Strickland and don't have a college you've wanted to play for since birth, it helps to check out all your options.

The NCAA allows recruits to take five all-expense paid — or "official" — visits. But that doesn't mean you can't hop in the car and make a few other trips on the cheap.

Missouri quarterback Logan Gray checked out 12 colleges, many of them on a Big 12 summer tour his folks funded. He let Georgia pick up the tab on his official visit to Athens, where he plans to spend the next four or five years.

Michigan quarterback Steven Threet did likewise, taking in several one-day camps at various colleges and getting a feel for the position coaches he would work with if he went there.

"You get to talk to coaches on the phone, but you don't really get a chance to see how they coach," said Threet, who signed with Tech. "That was the thing I liked best about one-day camps. I was actually out there throwing routes, and they were coaching me so I could see what it would be like for four years."

Another bit of advice, care of Georgia signee Clint Boling: Plan your campus visits around big games, so you get a feel for the atmosphere during a rivalry weekend.

If a coach promises playing time, don't believe anything else that comes out of their mouth.

"I could smell it out when coaches told me what they wanted me to hear," said linebacker Rennie Curran, who signed with Georgia. "The one thing I didn't want to hear was, 'Oh, we are going to give you all the playing time.'

"The coaches who said you had to earn the playing time, those are the ones you believe."

Remember: Most of these fellas were used car salesmen in another life.

"A lot of them will lie," Little said.

Their job, after all, is to sell their programs — and they're all pros at it.

"[Steve Spurrier] was talking about how they had never won an SEC championship and, 'You can be a part of one of the first classes to ever win an SEC championship here,'" Boling said. "That was pretty intriguing."

But isn't it more attractive to go to a place with a winning tradition than one trying to get there?

"That didn't occur to me at the time. But yeah," said Boling, who signed with Georgia.

Be prepared.

Before making a campus visit, it helps to know exactly what you're looking for — from the academic program you want to study to the ... uh ... co-eds.

"Notre Dame didn't exactly have the best-looking chicks," said Georgia Tech recruit Kyle Jackson. "Not that they were ugly, but they were not what I was looking for. There's a big difference between Southern girls and all the others."

Tech's Morgan wanted to see people who looked like him. At Boston College, he didn't.

Check mark against the Eagles.

"At BC, I didn't think there was a lot of diversity," Morgan said.

Consult current players.

If you're looking for honest answers about what goes on, your most trusted source is your future teammates.

"The first thing I did when I got to campus is talk to the offensive linemen — not the coach, the guys who are playing that position," Vance said. "They are going to be the ones who tell how the coaches really are. They are not going to bull jive you."

Think beyond football.

Twenty hours of your week will be spent practicing. Your fall Saturdays are accounted for, too.

But there's plenty of other time to study and socialize. So it's wise to look at more than schemes and NFL draft history when choosing a college.

Advises Aquinas fullback John Douglas, an Auburn recruit: "Make sure that if you aren't playing football there, you'd still want to go to that school."

Do what's right for YOU.

Not for Mom. Not for Dad. And certainly not for cousin Benny.

They're not the ones who'll be spending the next four or five years of their lives on campus.

"The best advice is go wherever makes you happy," said Tift County receiver Israel Troupe, who signed Wednesday with Georgia. "Don't let people influence you. Go where you want to go. My uncle is a big Florida fan, and he wanted me to go there. And some people wanted me to go to Ohio State."

But Troupe wanted to go to Georgia, so that's where he signed Wednesday.

Keep your cell number to yourself.

Or else, warn star recruits, who field dozens of calls a week from coaches and Web site reporters.

"If you're the type of person who doesn't like to talk on the phone, tell coaches not to give away your phone number," Claytor said. "Give out your parents' cellphone number or your home phone. That way, interviews will go through your parents.

"I get calls from crazy area codes, and if you don't recognize it, let the message hit. If you feel like talking, call back. If you don't, let it go. They'll probably call back and you can decide again."

Save souvenirs to share with the grandkids.

After the first 100 or so letters, it can get a little mundane. But keep those hand-written notes from Bobby Bowden for the scrapbook. They may be worth something someday.

"You get to the point where you check the mailbox and half the mail is for T-Bob," said former NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert, whose son T-Bob signed with LSU. "I was more excited to read those things than he was."

Riverwood's Javarus Blue, a Memphis signee, stores his recruiting letters in a shoebox. Berry ran out of shoeboxes; he dumped the rest in a trash bag he plans to hang on to.

"I treasure a lot of the ones that were hand-written because it was always kind of a dream to get attention from the coaches," said Bailey Woods, an Auburn signee. "My mom will make a scrapbook out of that."

Matt Winkeljohn, Carter Strickland, Jeff Hood and Carroll Rogers write for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.