Editor's note: The University of Florida granted ESPN.com a behind-the-scenes look at what takes place in the crescendo of the college football recruiting season. Here is an exclusive look at how National Signing Day unfolded for a team expected to land one of the nation's top recruiting classes.

By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- By 4:30 in the afternoon, it finally hit him.

	Snapshots
	The waiting game Catching the nation's top high school receiver called for patience for Gators assistant Dwayne Dixon. Everyone's a comedian There's nothing funny about waiting to hear from a recruit on Signing Day. A watched fax ... Just when Michael Stoeber began wondering if there was something wrong with the fax machine, in came letters from five blue chips.

He'd worked his cell phone to the point that it nearly died, scarfed chicken wings and quesadillas to quiet a growling stomach and paced the hallway so much that even his assistants wondered what was up.

Ron Zook needed to get away. With two more commitments hanging in the balance, he needed an escape -- from the phone calls, the paperwork, the nervousness, everything that weighs on a head coach during Signing Day.

So he hopped in an elevator, went downstairs, changed his clothes and lifted weights. Consider it the ultimate release. The man that headed down -- shoulders hung, eyes heavy -- looked drastically different than the one who returned. Zook was renewed -- freshly showered, hair gelled, bounce back in his step.

"Man, I needed that," he said. "I could feel things starting to get to me a little bit, I was starting to drag. I just needed to get away and charge up."

Since arriving at his desk a little before 6:30 Wednesday morning, Zook had seen plenty of ups and downs. He watched one player that had already orally committed to the Gators, tight end/defensive end D.J. Norris, unexpectedly sign with rival Florida State.

	Ron Zook describes his recruiting class to the assembled masses at Florida.

He watched another player, highly touted All-America running back Joe Cohen, wait until the last minute before picking Florida over the Seminoles.

And he watched the high school coach of a third player, Jermaine Moreira, blast the Gator staff in a local newspaper for supposedly reneging on a commitment to have a scholarship available for the receiver.

"It's a little hectic, like it's supposed to be, I guess," Zook said. "There were a couple of surprises, and that's normal. But things worked out pretty much the way we thought."

When he returned from his workout, plenty was left to be decided. Two top-tier recruits, wide receiver Andre Caldwell, the younger brother of former Gator Reche Caldwell, and defensive back Antonio Cromartie, from Tallahassee, were to announce on SportsCenter where they were headed.

And Florida was in the mix on both.

"I'd say it's 50-50," Zook said. "There's two guys and I feel good about one of them, but not about the other."

Caldwell announced first and Zook called it hands-down the most tension-filled moment of the day. Zook said that Caldwell kept his decision quieter than any player. He watched the announcement alone in his office.

"I felt it was going to happen, but he drug it out and drug it out," Zook said. "It was kind of like a long touchdown pass that I'm standing on the sidelines watching fly through the air. And you know what? He caught it for a touchdown."

Caldwell chose the Gators, putting a fresh, ripe cherry on top of an already appetizing cake.

Dotting I's, Crossing T's

The paper trail of a national letter of intent on Signing Day is a complicated one. When a player signs a letter, he then must fax it to the football office of the school he has decided to attend. That paper is then reviewed by an assistant coach to make sure everything is filled out properly. After that, it is sent to a compliance officer, who also checks for errors before sending it on to the sports information department so the signing can be made public. The original letter of intent is kept by the student athlete, while two other copies are sent back to the university. One will be kept on record at the school and the other will be kept at the National Letter of Intent office in Birmingham, Ala. Yet another form the student-athletes sign, a scholarship application, is also returned to the school, so that the administration can begin the processing period. From there, football administrators send another paperwork package to athletes, including admission applications, dorm applications and requests immunizations information. "People think that these kids don't have to go through the procedures of a normal student," said Michael Stoeber, Florida's director of football administration, "but let me tell you, they do." -- Wayne Drehs, ESPN.com

Consider: Zook signed six Parade All-Americans, the most at Florida since 1987 and two more than Steve Spurrier ever signed in Gainesville. The Gators signed quarterback Chris Leak, the first Parade Player of the Year to sign with Florida since Emmitt Smith in '87. And then they added Caldwell, giving Leak a prime target.

Sure, there were disappointments -- including the last-minute decisions of both running back/linebacker Ernie Sims, who signed with the Seminoles over Florida and Cromartie, who did the same. But all in all, the staff unanimously voted Signing Day 2003 as a big step toward improving last year's 8-5 record.

The experts agreed, ranking Zook's staff anywhere from No. 1 to No. 5 nationally.

"I don't know if you would have handed us this sheet with these names on it eight months ago that we wouldn't have looked at you and said, 'Yeah, right,'" said Michael Stoeber, Florida's Director of Football Administration. "I'm not sure we would have believed you. But all the hard work everybody put in has paid off."

A year ago, the staff had been on the job for a month and spent much of Signing Day scrambling to find players who could fill the Gators' holes. Entering Wednesday, Zook's main concern was whether or not the Gators would have enough room for everyone that wanted to sign.

In a closed-door meeting Tuesday, the Florida staff hammered out contingency plans as to what they would do if everyone they Fed Ex'd letters to decided to sign. It's a common practice for a school to send more offers than they intend on receiving, yet an uncomfortable situation when everybody says yes.

"You have to be as honest as you can," linebackers coach Bill Miller said. "The most difficult thing in all of this is telling a kid that you're full and you can't take them. But you just have to be honest.

	Between the phone calls, faxes and appearances, Florida coach Ron Zook found a brief moment of calm before a TV interview.

With the decisions of Norris, Sims and Cromartie, the backup plans weren't necessary. The Gators held a scholarship for Cromartie or Jermane Thomas, so when Cromartie announced he was joining the Seminoles, it opened the door for Thomas, who held a party at his school Wednesday to announce he was going to be a Gator. He was expected to fax his letter of intent on Thursday.

Zook declined to address Moreira's situation, but he did talk in general terms of situations like Moreira's, which come up every year.

"You get wind that you have a chance of losing a guy and you have to do what's best for the program," he said.

At a wrap-up news conference later Wednesday night, Zook thanked everyone from the pilots of the school's private jet to the Florida Field groundskeepers. Even the folks in the Office of Student Life were included.

NCAA rules prohibited Zook from commenting on Caldwell until his letter of intent arrived, but once it did midway through the press conference, he didn't hold back.

Holding a copy of the letter in his left hand he said, "Yeah, baby. That's what I'm talking about."

Forty-five minutes of questions later, Zook left through a back door, rode an elevator upstairs to his office, packed his bags and called it a day. The plan? An evening of beers and stories with the football staff and their families.

There are 18 kids under the age of 10 in the Florida coaching family.

"We all need to get reacquainted," he said. "And when you get all those kids together, watch out."

For the first time he can remember, Zook said he wouldn't set the alarm Thursday morning. Even the energizer bunny of football coaches -- the man known for his fast-talking, constantly working ways -- was desperate for a break.

"I'm just going on adrenaline," he said before climbing into his Chevy Trailblazer and heading to the restaurant. "Luckily, it doesn't hit you until you sit down. So I'm going to try not to sit down."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com