Every now and then I wake up from this dream — or at least I remember having it — in which I’m working at the Daily Mail in England and covering the other football. More often than not, I’m caught in the middle of the transfer period (kind of like free agency) and elbow-deep in all the rumors and speculation that go into what they call “the silly season.”

Folks, we’re in the silly season here. Recruiting is subjective and silly enough as it is, but this weekend was just a touch heavier than normal on both.

It started last week when word came Travis Bell, who’d committed to WVU in September, was going to visit Marshall … on a big visit weekend at WVU, no less. Now this shouldn’t have been a great surprise. Bell attends Florida’s Glades Central High, which is where Marshall assistant JaJuan Seider, late of WVU G.A. status, played his high school football and then did a little coaching.

Contacted last week, Bell denied such a visit.

“Says who?,” Bell asked when posed the question about the reported coming visit. “I’m not going there.”

Bell said that he is solid with WVU and that he is not taking anymore recruiting visits.

Naturally, Bell visited Marshall and committed. Again, not a great surprise and, again, proof of just how much you can trust anything at this time of year. Really, you can’t get a lot more solid than a kid denying a visit elsewhere … but at the same time, what’s shakier than the word of an obviously conflicted high school senior who is trying to be covert to, shall we say, protect the image of others?

Oh, and then there’s Fred Pickett. Good old Fred. You remember him, right? Tells reporters he’s committed to WVU. His coach says it was taken out of context. He later commits to WVU. That guy. Well, word is WVU became worried about his commitment a while ago. Why? It was pretty hard to get him on the phone. Yesterday Chuck McGill got him on the phone. Why? Pickett flipped to Marshall.

The immediate reaction is to blame and flame Doc Holliday. I don’t see the sense in that. Perhaps there is an ethical and/or loyalty thing bothering people here, but there shouldn’t be. Ethics and loyalty aren’t tools of this trade, to be perfectly honest. There are rules, though, and neither Doc nor JaJuan have broken any here. If anything, they’re doing their jobs, which is pretty important at this stage of their runs at Marshall. And let’s be honest: We saw this coming.

As if it wasn’t bad enough for WVU, Ohio linebacker Davion Rodgers has also flipped … to Michigan.

Rodgers’ switch wasn’t a shocker and doesn’t impact WVU as much as Picket and Bell. Rodgers could have helped, for sure, but he was kind of a tweener who probably wouldn’t have gotten on the field right away. If he was to be a linebacker, he had guys in front of him. If he was a defensive end, he had guys in front of him and he needed to add a lot of weight.

Bell and Pickett, though, were immediate players. Bell is a 6-2 cornerback, Pickett a slick slot receiver and the Mountaineers can and will always use those.

The commitment count is down to 18 — that counts junior college defensive end Bruce Irvin, who wasn’t on campus as of Friday — and the Mountaineers hope to get the maximum of 25 lined up before signing day Feb. 3.