Here we go with another round.

Q: Have the UW coaches tried to use "video conferencing'' to get around the so-called Saban rule?

A: For those unfamiliar with the premise of the question, here's a good primer on how some schools are trying to work around a new NCAA rule that prevents coaches from visiting high school campuses during the May evaluation period. The word from UW officials is that the Huskies are not doing anything like that at the moment over concerns about what is legal and what isn't. Sounds as if they are going to look into it further to see what may be possible to do next year. Here's a story out of Eugene on the topic that mentions that Oregon didn't do it this year, either, but that Mike Bellotti will also explore ways it could be done in the future

Q: Did Brandon Johnson have surgery on the knee he injured during the spring?

A: Yes, he had minor arthroscopic surgery and it is expected that he will recover fully in time for the beginning of fall practice.

Q: Why can't you guys at The Seattle Times call recruits the way sites like Dawgman.com can?

A: We can and we do. There is nothing in the NCAA rules that prohibits media from talking to recruits other than during official visits --- the NCAA doesn't want schools to publicize the visits. We are also discouraged from talking with recruits when they are on unofficial visits at practice. But we write all kinds of stories about recruits. We do stories all the time during the high school football season on local kids who are getting recruited by all kinds of schools. We probably don't usually do it in the same manner as the sites that specialize in recruiting, however, usually focusing more on the player's high school career than just on his visits or something (and please don't take that as a criticism of what those sites do in such stories, just pointing out that there is usually a difference. When we write about, say, Jake Heaps, we are doing so for a general audience that we know includes Husky fans, Cougar fans, general sports fans, etc. When Dawgman.com writes about a guy, they know their audience is pretty much Husky fans). For this blog, I do my own interviews of recruits from time-to-time. But because this blog is pretty much a one-man show and it is also in addition to the stuff I do for the paper and the regular web site, I don't have as much time to devote to recruiting as the other sites do. So my plan of attack here has always been to try to keep you up-to-date on the major recruiting happenings --- commitments, visits by significant players, updates on guys who have already signed, etc. But on this blog, we're not at the moment going to get into the detail that the "recruiting'' sites do.

Q: Who is better live --- the White Stripes or Bruce Springsteen?

A: Having never seen the White Stripes, I have to say Bruce, though I would love to see the Stripes --- is it just the two of them in concert or do they bring in others? As for Bruce, I'm ashamed to admit I've only seen him twice --- including a couple of months ago in Seattle (other was 2000 in Tacoma). For whatever reason, I just didn't "get'' Bruce at first, so while I had the requisite copies of Born to Run and Born in the USA in my record collection, he wasn't a regular on the rotation for a long time, and I just didn't get around to seeing him until that 2000 concert. That show, however, made me a much bigger fan and I now am one of those who goes around bugging people I know by telling them how they really need to listen to this Bruce song, or that one. Among my favorites right now are Crush on You, Lost in the Flood, and The Fever.

All for now.