Wednesday’s guest blogger to kick off the camp is the irrepressible John Barnes, who is on his way to State College…

Ok guys. I can’t access the blog as I am at the airport. Everyone have safe travel to SC today. Look forward to meeting everyone.

On another note…

I left the house at 6am this morning to get to the airport, leaving my 4 and a half month old son with the babysitter. It’s tough to not see him for a few days, but he has the Nittany Lions on his nursery wall to think about. There are pictures on my camera for those that wish to view all 1,000 of the baby and the nursery.

Nursery! There is a word I never thought I would use to refer to a room in my house. I thought it was a place you bought plants. Now, there is enough production going on in there to fertilize plants, but no plants.

Anyway, got to the airport and saw that there was a later direct flight to State College, around noon, which clearly will impact my performance at camp because I could have used the sleep. But then again, who really sleeps when there is a 4 and half month old in the house?

Plus, it will give me some extra time with which to possibly inject some money into the state college economy. I am thinking, because this is my second year at camp, what will I see this year that I maybe overlooked?

Who will the coaches be? Will we get some insight into the much discussed HD spread offense? Who will emerge as the go to guy for kickoffs and point after attempts? Can I draft Blair Thomas to play on my team be some method of disguise? Will the blue team correct its losing ways? Will we provide entertainment to the current players, who might get the best chuckle from us?

Notice – I’m from MD coach Johnson. If I’m not picked on your team, where’s the love? I guess I’ll have to take down that antenna sending subliminal messages to all the MD/DC crowd. Will I be as good a writer as Mark Harrington, one of the founders of Fight on State? Will they give me a free subscription for that shameless plug???

All of this, plus the benefit of seeing some individuals I have not seen since either last year at camp or during the Fantasy Bowl against Notre Dame in the spring. By the way, mentioning the Fantasy Bowl, I was hoping Dave Lipson had signed up.

From here on out, if you are queasy, you may want to stop reading. Or maybe you stopped reading when you saw who this was by. You are probably asking Patrick to stop having this guy email (let alone letting him loose on the blog). What can I say, I just read Kenny Mayne’s book about sports while not being about sports, so I am inspired.

Dave Lipson was unfortunate enough to crack two ribs during the fantasy bowl practice. It happened as he fell against my leg, which left a deep bruise forcing me not to play. I should have tried to crack more ribs.

Also last year, we had a player get carted to the hospital, who then came back, stitched up, and kicked the game winning extra point or field goal! I can’t really remember and did I mention I have been up since 5am? Who will be that type of player? By the way, that injury was not the cause of that guy’s unique look at the world. I just figured his parents had been hippies.

I can’t wait to meet everyone. Nuke, please may sure you have been appropriately decontaminated. Scott Heiser, I am sure that the 40-yard fly pattern will be open. Doug Stewart, I have no money for you.

Eric Ratner – a special recognition for making it to camp a week after surgery.

If I missed any of the prior year people, did I mention I have been up since 5am? Let’s put that in bold letters FIVE.

I hope they still are sending someone to pick me up. This could be a lonely walk to the hotel.