The hiring of Brian Johnson certainly sent shock waves through the world of college football today. It's not often a Pac-12 program hires a guy as offensive coordinator who still could be of playing age.

It just doesn't happen. In fact, Brian Johnson now becomes the youngest coordinator in all of college football - taking the crown from East Carolina's Lincoln Riley, who's currently 28.

So, as we try to wrap our brains around the idea of a 25 year old, two-year 'veteran' now leading the offense, we're left with a lot of questions and concerns.

In one year's time, the program went from having the most experienced and successful offensive coordinator in arguably college football history, to potentially the least experienced and clearly youngest coordinator of the last decade.

That's quite the contrast.

Brian Johnson hardly brings the cachet Norm Chow brought to the program in 2011, but then again, he also brings youth and the possibility of new ideas to help spark an offense that, while forced to battle through injuries last year, was down right awful.

What I do know is that this unconventional hire has its benefits - but it also has some concerning negatives and the hire will inevitably sink or swim based just on that.

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Tom Cella, who helps run UteZone.com, has tweeted that Utah's next offensive coordinator will be Brian Johnson.

I'll wait a second while you pick your jaw up from the floor.

Johnson, of course, is Utah's quarterbacks coach and best known for leading the Utes to a 13-0 season in 2008.

He's only been coaching two years and has no experience calling plays - at least as a coordinator.

Genius move or WTFISHETHINKING deal?

It might not be true, but Cella is a pretty legit source and I don't think he'd put that out there without some confidence. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.

By all accounts, the 2012 recruiting class will go down as the best in program history. With the signing of Alphonso Marsh, a three-star defensive back out of Compton, California, early Wednesday evening, the Utes wrapped up a stellar class that features 28 new signees.

Kyle Whittingham says it's the best class, at least on paper, he's ever signed.

It's hard to find fault in that statement. Utah put together a diverse and deep class that will help bolster the program as it adjusts further to Pac-12 play.

You have to look no further than their recruitment of offensive linemen. Whittingham mentioned during the signing day press conference that the Utes were often undersized at this spot. That's about to change. Carlos Lozano, a near-400 lbs lineman out of Montebello, California, is certainly going to have a huge impact - in more ways than one.

All told, Utah signed nine offensive linemen in this class and I'm sure every single one of them will be put to good use over the next few years.

Of course, with most recruits, the impact probably won't be felt for a while. In fact, some will go on their Mormon missions before seeing a down at Utah. Still, it's hard not to get excited about this class. It helped fill the needs (quarterback, DB, OL) and did it in impressive fashion. Even better, the Utes dominated the state of Utah - signing five of the ten best prospects locally (BYU only got two).

The future is certainly bright for Utah and you can't help but think the recruiting will only improve the better the Utes become in the Pac-12.

The entire list of Utah commits after the jump...

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Today is signing day! The future of every football program across this great diverse nation of ours will be held hostage by a bunch of high school kids and, knock on wood, decent fax machines.

These are the moments that make or break a coaching staff. You don't bring in the recruits, you're not going to win and if you don't win...well I don't need to finish that one for you.

So, as it is every year, the top recruits will fax in their letters of intent and all will be right with the world. Because these kids haven't played a down of football at the college level! That means the sky is the limit or something.

For Utah, it's a chance to cash in all those chips from their Pac-12 invite and Sun Bowl victory.

We'll have updates throughout the day, but if you're really looking for second-to-second news, head on over to Twitter and follow the following accounts: @utahathletics, @utezone, @insidetheutes, and, of course, @blocku.

The first faxes are expected early in the morning, so if you're up around 8:00 MST, get ready for the first wave.

After the jump, review potential Utah commits that are, at the moment, currently undecided.

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Finally, after over a month of speculation, it appears we're close to the end of the wait.

The Utes are expected to announce the hiring of a new offensive coordinator this week and a decision might even come down in the next 24 or 48 hours.

Since Norm Chow left in December to take the Hawaii job, the search has yielded little names. In fact, only one name has definitively been linked to the position - Gary Crowton. However, nothing came of his interview and the lack of names and the expected leaks when an announcement is close, you've got to suspect that, in the end, the hire will come from within - which seems even more likely when you realize the announcement will be made through a press release.

But that's just speculation on my part. We heard last week from Ted Miller that the hire could potentially come from the NFL and that's still a possibility. Either way, because of the lack of names thrown around, even if just in passing, I'm starting to believe it will be Aaron Roderick.

We'll see, though.

Tom Petty hated it. I hate it. You hate it.

But what're you going to do about it? It's now been over a month since Norm Chow officially became Hawaii's next football coach and, outside hearing Gary Crowton's name linked to the job, nothing of note has transpired since.

We've gone over how painfully slow the search has become and I think it's time to concede that Kyle Whittingham will only make a hire after signing day, which is next week.

When Whittingham hinted at the possibility of this going into February, a great deal of us scoffed and yet, here we are, only days away from the end of January - and Chow left in December!

Yikes.

It doesn't help Utah is one of the few holdouts without a coordinator, as even Auburn hired Scott Loeffler, the guy who was Tim Tebow's quarterbacks coach at Florida, to replace Gus Malzahn, who was hired by Arkansas State just a few days before Chow bolted to take the Hawaii job.

So, I guess the wait continues and hopefully there is a method to this madness...because the longer this search goes on, the more anticipation builds for this hire.

Utah's search to replace Norm Chow continues to be painfully slow. Outside last week's news that Gary Crowton interviewed for the job, there has been a blackout of information.

No hint of any other candidate - or even an end date to this decision.

What we do know is that the potential (read hopeful) list of candidates is slowly being whittled down by outside sources.

Mike McCoy, who was Utah's quarterback in the 1990s and a dream candidate of sorts, could be the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

Dirk Koetter was just hired by the Atlanta Falcons as their new offensive coordinator.

Steve Fairchild, whose name was batted around after he was fired by Colorado State, is now an offensive assistant with the San Diego Chargers.

Last month, I asked readers who they wanted to replace Norm Chow and the favorite, though with a plurality of support, was Aaron Roderick. It seems, at this point, if it were Roderick, he would have been named already. Maybe that isn't the case and he'll still be the next offensive coordinator, but why the long wait? It's not like promoting Roderick will negatively impact recruiting like passing him up could (which might be the reason they're waiting until after signing day).

Regardless, the lack of names is a bit surprising, especially when, a few weeks ago, Kyle Whittingham hinted that a good number of candidates had shown interest in wanting the job.

Weeks later, and only Crowton's name has been linked to the position.

Either Whittingham is good at keeping things under wrap or we've been had.

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Who's a bust now?