Hot Links: football recruiting wrap up

National letter-of-intent day, when high school football recruits pledge their services to college programs around America, was last week -- but there's still plenty of buzz.

We kept most of our recruiting coverage over on the Fabulous Forum, so if you haven't checked out the football signings category you should take a look.

If you need more, here are the top 10 links that will make you sound like an expert on any L.A. sports talk radio show:

1. It's not easy being a freshman, and it's especially hard to make an impact as a freshman football player. These five could do it. [Rivals.com]
2. USC, as usual, signed the best class in the Pac-10. UCLA, unexpectedly, was right on its heels. Find out how the conference stacked up. [ESPN]
3. Although the nation gushes over five-star recruits, the player rankings are hardly a perfect system. [Associated Press]
4. As a result, team recruiting rankings don't always translate, either. [Da Wiz]
    
5. Manti Te'o's going to Notre Dame was the biggest news of the day, but did UCLA's Norm Chow make a last-ditch effort to keep him from USC? [Orange County Register]
6. What's it like inside Rick Neuheisel's office on signing day? Bruce Feldman went in as an embedded reporter. [ESPN]
7. Bryce Brown, the nation's top unsigned recruit, has, well, a very close advisor. Sounds more like a ticking time bomb. [NY Times]
8. Actually, it gets even worse. [Dr. Saturday]
    
9. The final list (we think) of USC commits. [USCRipsIt.com]
10. The final list of UCLA commits. [UCLABruins.com]

-- Adam Rose