Per my conversation today with an assistant football coach, who said he’s noticed people watching spring practice from afar and wanted to know if I had something to do with it: I must tell you all that I’ve never shunned insiders. If you’ve got something to say, want to call or email, I’ll listen. If it makes you feel involved, a part of the action, then do it! You know who I’m talking about … the guy by the fence who you don’t recognize. The guy who you look at and say “Is that Johnny’s dad?” and then your assistant coach says “No, Johnny’s dad is over there.” The guy who’s there one day, but not the next. Anyway, when I first started this beat I received sporadic phone calls from people who seemed to know a lot about certain programs, but weren’t exactly affiliated with the school. Insiders, if you will. Unlike other people in this business, I didn’t shun them because, as I found, their information was usually accurate. And so the amount of people feeding info to your’s truly grew. And now they blog. Or at least a lot of them do. I don’t know who they are, but they form a good network. One that I feel ultimately enhances the coverage because I can’t be everywhere at once. Maybe one more sandwich from Capri Deli and I’ll be able to, but not right now. Anyway, don’t sweat it. We all want the same thing – to know who’s got what and who’s going to crush next season. I feel better now that we got everything aired out.