Buster Sports

Erin Andrews' return to college football sidelines one week ago Thursday was a much ballyhooed event with relatively little actual fanfare once the NCSU-South Carolina game kicked off, thanks to her (lack of) presence on the sidelines. But maybe it wasn't just Andrews being shy.

Perhaps it was Andrews being guarded by a freaking Secret Service bodyguard that kept her from being shown too many times on the teevee. (Alternately, it could have been the heavily intoxicated and quite obnoxious student section at NC State, but for the sake of not feeling like everyone at my old school is a dirtbag, let's go with the Secret Service thing.) From the Technician:

“We have an officer assigned to her in addition to her bodyguards,” Younce said. “We have some officers trained in security. Secret service trained us so that is one of our officers is assigned to her.”

And as J-Koot at BC (love saying that) pointed out, FanHouse's David Whitley actually noticed a "Secret Service-looking guy" when he was stalking EA in Raleigh (caveat: I also attempted some "legal stalking," albeit not from the press box -- and I'm only like 28 and a member of the media, so I think it's natural; right??) for the USC game.

But why do I bring this all up? Because EA will be in the ATL for Clemson-Georgia Tech tonight, of course. And it's going to be interesting to see just how much airtime she gets from ESPN this time around; I get the feeling -- and no disrespect to Yellow Jacket fans -- that the mood will be a little more welcoming than the rowdiness of the Raleigh crowd.