MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — I'm often amazed, even though I perhaps shouldn't be, when I discover the new multitudes in people I know. Even the multitudes that end up being mundane — friends with hobbies I had no clue about or family that spent their 20s in another country — still offer so much insight into how that person came to be.
I thought I had a pretty decent handle on who Rick Stockstill was, at least as a coach, before Saturday night. His devotion to his players was evident in so many ways, from how the players I interview week in and week out talk about him and his staff, to how many of them come back long after they've graduated just to say hello after practice, how he would always protect them in press conferences, it all clicked in my head for why he had a reputation as a player's coach.