I may be wrong but I was under the impression LA got most of his info from USC Rivals or ISD
LA goes to the ISD lunches, so meets with personal at ND along with Mike Frank when they can attend. He obviously also personally attends a good amount of practices / events at ND.
Yeah, definitely get a ton of info from USC Rivals and ISD.
But it's also been just moving into town. Through the ISD tailgates I know the mods there, and have become friends with a couple of them. And they are really candid at tailgates and those ISD lunches/live Power Hours, as long as you don't go blabbing everything online. A couple of times after the Power Hours, everyone bounces, and since it's the summer and I'm off, I've sat around and hung out with just Mele, Stires and Mike Frank, and the stories/info those guys have are tremendous (ex: a couple of weeks ago, they called Riggs and told them that it was basically a done deal that he'd be Irish. This was the night before the ISD lunch, and it was the first I had even heard his name mentioned).
Also, the two barbers I go to cut a lot of the players' hair and most of the coaches, so they have all kinds of stories as well (got to see and/or meet Lou Holtz, Manti, Tuitt, Calabrese, Brey and quite a few others there). And my wife works at ND so we meet people with some info as well, and I get to watch a practice or two not open to the general public (I saw an hour of practice the week of the Pitt game...the attention to detail in the passing game, and the utter (basically) disregard of the running game that day was pretty jarring, and made the result of the game more understandable).
Unfortunately, most of the stuff the ISD guys I can't post online, but sometimes I can (like now that it's out, you guys have no idea what an AWFUL recruiter Diaco was his last year. As in, He. Simply. Did. Not. Care.). The rest of the info I pass along to any poster who bought me a beer last year (TP made fun of the beer I was drinking, but it's aiiiight) and a few mods.
As far as the USC stuff, I still know a few coaches down there in SoCal, and my friend works for Pat Haden, as long as having a few friends that are alums who have some nice info.
Anyway, in reality, this should just be called the "TP Insider of the Year Award." He truly talks to players, families, coaches, etc. I have no true 'sources'. I just happen to be lucky enough to have met some people who know some stuff. But TP is the true insider (Lax knows some people as well).
EDIT: Little-known fact, "Irish Intel" was partly my idea (not-so-humble brag). Their "Recruiting Notebook" was pretty good, but it was on Saturdays, had a boring-as-hell name, and didn't give any insider stuff on the team that I know Mike always has. So I emailed Christian and Mike with some ideas on how to make it better. Turns out they had been talking about it, but my email really got the ball rolling. Christian was kind enough to include me in all the decisions they were making, about the title and the day they'd release it and stuff like that. About the only cool ND-related thing I've ever done lol...
