twitpic Via Tom VanHaaren Obviously there are so many thoughts here as this disaster unfolds.  One is the complete lack leadership at Penn State in handling this mess properly. But there’s still an opportunity to do the thing seemingly everyone involved in this mess had failed to do—move beyond protecting the sanctity of the football program and do the right thing. Forfeit Saturday’s game.  [Update:  Umm, so me and my buddy Drew are going ride a tandem bike to the next home game.  He posted this right after I posted the above:  Drew Sharp: Penn State should forfeit Saturday’s game] Follow MVictors on Twitter

  Denard Robinson: 4 decals – 5-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald Toussaint in 1st QTR; 20-yard run in 2nd QTR; 21-yard run in 3rd QTR; 7-yard TD pass to Kevin Koger in 4th QTR Ryan Van Bergen: 2 decals for TFL on 4th Down Stop in 1st QTR and 2nd QTR TFL Mike Martin: 2 decals for 2 TFL Blake Countess: 2 decals for 2 PBU’s Defense: 1 decal for every member of unit for 1st QTR 4th Down stop Fitzgerald Toussaint: 1 decal for 5-yard TD catch in 1st QTR Kevin Koger: 1 decal for 7-yard TD catch in 4th QTR Mark Huyge: 1 decal for fumbled snap recovery in 2nd QTR Will Heininger: 1 decal for 3rd QTR QB sack Craig Roh: 1 decal for 3rd QTR QB Sack Vincent Smith: 1 decal for catching Denard wounded duck to set up 3rd QTR FG Brendan Gibbons: 1 decal for 32-yard FG in 3rd QTR Desmond Morgan: 1 decal for 3rd QTR PBU Martavious Odoms: 1 decal for 28-yard kickoff return in 4th QTR Jake Ryan: 1 decal for 4th QTR TFL Junior "Megatron-Completed-the-process-but-didn’t-get-credit-for-it" Hemingway: 1 decal for TD catch that wasn’t called! Will post updated season tallies next week.

Earlier this week Free Press writer Mick McCabe joined “the dean” of Lansing sports Tim Staudt and talked about John U. Bacon’s new book, Three and Out. He’s got a lot of opinions for a book he admitted he didn’t read (“I don’t read fiction”).  [display_podcast] Hat tip to Papa D

Certainly you had to wonder how John U. Bacon’s Three and Out would perform commercially.  It’s required reading for the hardcores of course, but would it extend beyond that circle?  Well, Bacs revealed on WTKA Friday that his book would debut at #6 on the New York Times non-fiction list.   Sure enough: Sorry Herman, Ellen and Madoff—you got served.   Young Harmon can’t believe it. Hop in–the water is warm.  Order Three and Out today.   Related: The Clans React to John U. Bacon’s ‘Three and Out’

Last week we talked about when Fritz Crisler and his Princeton Tigers faced Harry Kipke and his eventual 1932 national championship squad. Flash forward to this week in Michigan football history in 1938, and the two men are involved once again.  Kipke is now the disgraced coach who couldn’t score a point against the Buckeye in four seasons and was at the helm when illegal practices and fake jobs for players were abound.  Michigan inserted the straight-laced, no-nonsense Fritz Crisler to fix it all. Ironically, it was the boring, business-like Crisler who introduced to Ann Arbor arguably the most recognizable element of any football uniform anywhere—the winged helmet. Here’s this edition of TWIMFbH, as Crisler, his super sophs and those winged helmets faced Penn in the sixth game of the 1938 season.  As always, you can listen to it out before the KeyBank Countdown to Kick-off on WTKA 1050AM tomorrow, or click play now: [display_podcast] You can hear all of the  This Week… clips here. Related: 1932 –“I thought Crisler was a Violin Player” 1934 – Harry Kipke and the Fall of 1934 1937 – Fritz’s Secret Practice 1938 – Harmon and Old Number..Six? 1938 – Debut of Crisler’s Winged Helmet 1944 – Michigan’s Debut as a Nocturnal Eleven 1945 – Army Program from Yankee Stadium 1947 – 1948 Rose…

This is something I’ve been pining for since at least 2009, here’s proof via this mgo-guest post: Willis Ward:  The African-American end and U-M track star was Gerald Ford’s roommate for road games and a member of the ’32 and ’33 national championship squads.  This man’s story deserves a full documentary or movie, not a blurb on a blog post, and it’s safe to assume he gave some interesting remarks to the banquet crowd… Blue and Blue is done and it will debut soon.  I even contributed to it in a small way (or a big way if you count circumference of head with respect to screen size).  I’ve seen the full length version and it is very well done—you can get a copy now (with free shipping for MVictors readers).  Another feather in the cap of Buddy and Brian at the Emmy-nominated Stunt3 Multimedia.   The film is done in the Ken Burns-style—they tell the story while jumping between the key players & flashing vintage photos, clippings, letters and where available, film footage.   You get a feel from the trailer:   More later, but a few quick highlights.  First, I loved the shots of the actual wires and letters between Georgia Tech and Michigan, along with a few of the letters from U-M fans to Kipke and Yost chiming in…