Craziest Moments of National Signing Day 2016

College football recruiting is unlike anything else in the sports world, and national signing day is the one Wednesday each year when all of the sport's insanity comes to a head.

This year didn't have the fax machine drama and second-thoughts swerves like last year, but it still had its fair share of attention-grabbing moments.

One recruit used desserts and giant decorations to throw off an entire gymnasium of fans. Another one announced his future school like a daredevil.

Then there were the odd sights coming out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In case you missed some of the craziest and downright weirdest moments from 2016 national signing day, here's a recap of all the eye-opening action.

Credit: 247Sports

Deontay Anderson jumped out of a plane

Using props and other creative methods to announce a recruit's commitment is nothing new. Prospects in recent seasons have used live animals, babies and crazy outfits to reveal their decisions.

Deontay Anderson, the nation's No. 2-ranked safety, decided to take the creativity level to new heights—literally.

In a video produced here at Bleacher Report, the Texas native announced he was headed to Ole Miss while skydiving:

That's right. A blue-chip recruit announced where he would play college football in a video in which he jumped out of an airplane.

Anderson's daredevil decision was a hot topic on social media during the early portion of signing day:

With personal commitment videos becoming the norm in recruiting, there's no telling what we'll see in the 2017 cycle and beyond.

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Jim Leyland and Lou Holtz dabbed at Michigan

National signing day was already expected to be a wild one for Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh.

The Wolverines were still after No. 1 overall recruit Rashan Gary, who committed in the afternoon. Ric Flair, among other celebrities, was scheduled to be in Ann Arbor.

But things got weird quickly for Michigan at its Wednesday "Signing of the Stars" event.

Former Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland took the podium alongside rap group Migos, which helped make the dab a worldwide craze. So, naturally, Leyland hit the dab with them:

Later, shortly after Gary announced he would become a Wolverine, former college football coach and ESPN analyst Lou Holtz hit the dab with Harbaugh:

The combined age of Leyland and Holtz is a young 150 years, which probably makes them the oldest pairing of people to ever dab.

There were plenty of other highlights from Wednesday's event in Ann Arbor, but two elderly sports icons dabbing on stage—in the name of Michigan football recruiting—had to take the cake.

And speaking of cake...

Credit: 247Sports

Mecole Hardman faked out everyone with several cakes

5-star Mecole Hardman Jr. was one of the most coveted prospects in the country this season and was the first big name to make a splash with his signing-day commitment Wednesday.

The nation's No. 1 athlete had 32 scholarship offers and was down to Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Tennessee.

The Elberton, Georgia, native had six large cakes on the table where he was set to announce his college decision, and the in-state Bulldogs were surprisingly not represented, per AJC.com's Jeff Sentell:

A large paper banner also covered the entrance to his high school gym. The logos of his finalists were all represented—except, again, for Georgia.

But when the confusion surrounding Hardman's signing-day saga reached its peak, he burst through the banner with a Georgia hat on his head:

New Georgia coach Kirby Smart can only hope one of his biggest 2016 signings is able to keep opposing teams as off balance as those who stared at the cakes and the banner were early Wednesday morning.

Hardman never touched the cakes, but according to Fletcher Page of OnlineAthens.com, at least one person went home with a treat:

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Bret Bielema and Jim McElwain tangled in a war of words

It wouldn't be a headline-making day in the SEC without some saltiness between coaches, right? 

One of the country's most outspoken coaches, Bret Bielema, caused quite a stir during an ESPN interview on Wednesday afternoon by noting the recruiting success conference foe Florida was having under relatively new coach Jim McElwain (per Mark Schlabach of ESPN):

McElwain didn't take too long to fire back during Florida's signing day press conference, according to Jesse Simonton of the Miami Herald and Graham Hall of the Gainesville Sun:

Bielema has a history of purposefully getting under opposing coaches' skin, but he later said his comments were taken out of context.

The Arkansas coach apologized personally to McElwain and Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, per Zach Abolverdi of SEC Country:

"

I said something earlier that came across in the wrong way, I guess. I was paying a compliment to Florida. We’ve seen them kind of pop up everywhere. Before my last couple years here, really had only competed against Florida in Georgia and Florida itself a lot, because I love to recruit Florida. Well, this last week we were competing against them on a wide receiver in Texas, a running back, a player in Louisiana and a player in North Dakota. And I’ve never seen that before; that’s all I was making reference to.

It’s kind of like last week, we stumbled across an offensive lineman in Illinois and I really liked him and started to proceed with him and found out he — before I got anything going —  had committed to Ole Miss. And I told my staff, ‘Ole Miss, they’re everywhere.’ That’s kind of the comment we make. It wasn’t in reference to anything other than that. I mean that wholeheartedly and honestly, and when I said that earlier, I was paying a compliment to Florida.

I’ve called (McElwain) and told him that as well as Hugh, and that was received well. So, I’ll put that little nugget to bed.

"

With that matter settled, it appears we'll all have to wait until SEC media days for the conference's next verbal throw down.

Credit: 247Sports

Brandon Jones served up a Hollywood plot twist

Popular Texas A&M website TexAgs decided to go in depth on the recruitment of one of the state's biggest prospects—Brandon Jones, the nation's No. 1-ranked safety. 

TexAgs made a documentary titled On An Island: Being Brandon Jones detailing the journey of the safety, who entered signing day with a final three of Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M.

According to 247Sports' Crystal Ball Predictions, the Aggies were favorites to land Jones, which would have made for a dream ending for the TexAgs documentary.

But Jones threw in a swerve in the final scene that would've made M. Night Shyamalan proud by signing with Texas instead of Texas A&M, per FootballScoop's Zach Barnett and Good Bull Hunting:

"While the folks at TexAgs know as well as anyone that no recruit is a lock until the [letter of intent] is faxed in, this inspiring drama of hope and redemption will unfortunately be billed as a tragedy when it hits Netflix," SB Nation's Good Bull Hunting posted Wednesday. "Except in Austin, where it is probably a comedy."

Jones' decision should make the war of words between Longhorns and Aggies even more heated for the next few months—as if that fire needed any more fuel.

Credit: 247Sports

Jack Jones signed with a little help from Snoop Dogg

5-star cornerback Jack Jones decided he was going to stay in California on Wednesday by signing with USC. But he didn't have a run-of-the-mill reveal.

No, Jones announced his Hollywood intentions to become a USC Trojan by joining up with one of the program's most famous fans—rapper Snoop Dogg (per Lindsey Thiry of the Los Angeles Times):

This time last year, Snoop Dogg seemed to have dropped USC for UCLA when his son, Cordell Broadus, committed to the rival Bruins.

"I'm throwing all my USC drawers away," Snoop said last year, per Kevin Trahan of SB Nation. "I'm going UCLA 100,000 percent."

However, Broadus quit UCLA football before the start of the season, and it appears Snoop has switched back to the Trojans.

Let's see if Snoop can make it three straight signing-day decisions next February. He's starting to become a recruiting tradition.

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

Duke got things done quickly

National signing day is a marathon for most Power Five programs. Plenty of recruits like to wait until the special day to announce their commitments, and the ceremonies are usually staggered across a huge window of time.

But Duke woke up early and was done before most of the country finished breakfast.

According to Laura Keeley of the Raleigh News & Observer, Duke had all 21 of its letters of intent in its possession by 8:27 a.m. ET:

Of course, the college football corner of Twitter was on standby with plenty of one-liners about Duke's quick work:

While Duke isn't at the level of the recruiting powerhouses that dominate the signing-day news cycle, it's still impressive that the Blue Devils were able to up their highest-rated class in school history in record time.

Duke's 2016 class is currently No. 33 nationally, which is good enough for fifth in the ACC.

David Cutcliffe and his staff put in plenty of work during the 2016 recruiting cycle and were rewarded with a short day of waiting around by the fax machine.

While they were relaxing, the rest of the college football world was just starting to sweat.

Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.