Audio of Rich Rodriguez on Bill Simonson’s ‘Huge Show’ yesterday, thanks to the MLive’s Grand Rapids Press. A lot talk about quarterbacks, competition, and the spring game: [display_podcast]

[Ed.  File this under “had to be there” to appreciate this but so be it.] Photo: Terrible Pass One of my pet peeves during games are the fans the choose to scream out their special messages to the coaches and players the entire game.  Especially annoying are those that do this despite being ridiculously out of earshot of anyone actually participating in the game.  This isn’t cheering or chanting or singing—it’s a dude trying to draw attention to himself.  I’ve pointed out a few of these incidents on these pages; it happens all the time and it drives me nuts. I was up at Ford Field for the hoops final on Monday night and once I sat down it was clear I had one of these guys behind me.   From what I overhead, I believe he was from North Carolina and I think he went to N.C. State (although my brother says he was wearing a Duke shirt).  I’m confident he came up here with the sole purpose of taunting the Tar Heels. As soon as UNC comes out the locker room he’s belts out a massive “BOOOOOO!!”.   When Tyler Hansbrough gets a foul or misses a shot he screams, “TYLER GIRL!!!”.   Each time Hansbrough touches the ball he yells, “HE’S TRAVELING!!”.    The game was out of hand after five…

Released tonight from State Street.  Full roster from alumni flag football game: Per the release, “The teams will be announced during WTKA’s broadcast from Michigan football practice this Thursday, April 9 (3-6 p.m.).” One comment.  Certainly the agenda is more than full, but one of the nice things they did at last year’s spring event in Saline was announce the winners of the spring team awards, like the Meyer Morton Award which has been given out since 1925 and went to Will Johnson last year.  Past winners include Jamie Morris, Stan & Braylon Edwards, Desmond Howard, Jim Harbaugh, and Gerald Ford in 1932.   The little ceremony took maybe 10 minutes last year if I recall; I’d like to see them do that again especially given all these former players will be around.  [Update 4/8:  Dave Ablauf at media relations confirmed that the awards will be announced at the spring event again this year.  Good news.] Other stuff: –  Members of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl XLIII winning team, including linebackers Larry Foote and LaMarr Woodley, safety Ryan Mundy and assistant offensive line coach Harold Goodwin, will be recognized during the game. – In addition, three U-M national champions from this season, Tyler Clary (men’s swimming and diving), Steve Luke (wrestling) and Tiffany Ofili (women’s track & field), will be honored…

From an mgoblue.com press release from this evening, a full listing of the available twitter feeds to get your U-M tweet on: Below is a list of Michigan’s official Twitter pages: Teams Football – twitter.com/michigan_fball Men’s Basketball – twitter.com/michigan_mbball Women’s Basketball – twitter.com/michigan_wbball Baseball – twitter.com/michigan_baseb Softball – twitter.com/michigan_softb Golf – twitter.com/michigan_golf Men’s Gymnastics – twitter.com/michigan_mgym Rowing – twitter.com/michigan_rowing Tennis – twitter.com/michigan_tennis Track & Field/Cross Country – twitter.com/michigan_track Water Polo – twitter.com/michigan_wpolo Women’s Gymnastics – twitter.com/michigan_wgym Wrestling – twitter.com/michigan_wrestl Coaches Rich Rodriguez, Football – twitter.com/UM_CoachRod   And one unofficial Twitter page: MVictors.com:  http://www.twitter.com/mvictors

Thanks to Joel Rippel of the MN Star Tribune for forwarding this to me last night.    From the St. Paul Pioneer Press, a story by Rubén Rosario on the family of former Michigan outfielder Mike Watters.    The piece explains how one of the Watters’  five kids was stricken with cancer.   Through the process of treating their young daughter, they met another young patient named Victor [what’s not to like?] who was without parents.  Check it out, and prepare to be choked up.

I made it into Detroit yesterday to enjoy some of the pregame festivities and managed to get decent seats to the big game.   Viva miscellanea: Dick Vitale watched the game on TVs inside the media room but made it out after the Spartan win for a few photos and to yuck it up with the green faithful:   One of my spies was nearby when Vitale was preparing to get his media credential and badge for the weekend.  Per my source, Vitale approached the kids manning the media booth and gave his name.  The kids asked for some ID.  Vitale didn’t have it and said something like, “Come on, I’m Dickie V.!”, which got blank stares back from the people behind the desk.  Thankfully an NCAA official was nearby and resolved the issue.   The debate continues in the M community over whether a true Michigan man can root for the Spartans and I guess it’s an interesting discussion.  I understand if you, the individual fan, are passionate one way or another.  I understand the history, I understand how many Michigan State fans treat Michigan, I understand that many of you work next to some annoying MSU fan and get some pleasure out of watching him suffer.  That’s all fine.  But there is no hard fast rule, and for anyone to…

Izzo with, if my instincts are keen, Sgt.Lt. Krumm, former Spartan football player (photo: Detroit News) Via UM Tailgate, mad props to Tom Izzo from Lloyd Carr, straight from Pete Thamel of the New York Times: DETROIT — At the end of a telephone conversation about the Fab Five and cheating in college sports, the former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr added one request. “If you see Izzo, tell him I’ll be cheering him,” Carr said of Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo. “He and Jud Heathcote, those are two of the best guys in the game.” It’s not clear where UM Tailgate sits on this based on the title of the post (“Noooooooooooooooo. No. No. No. No. No.”) Me?  My title UMT-style title would be “I’m fine with this but it’d be more funnn if Carr ripped Izzzzoooo!” This is probably a real kick in the pants to many of the Michigan faithful (see Rick Leach) who feel Carr should vocalize his support for Rich Rodriguez, that is, if he supports Rich Rodriguez. RELATED: As he notes Thamel’s reason for the call to Carr was to discuss the Fab Five and NCAA indiscretions.  He takes a look back at the Fab Five in the Quad Blog: But as the years passed, the grand jury testimony was heard and the N.C.A.A.…

Fab 5’er Jimmy King talked about the upcoming celebration (it’s no longer being billed as a Fab Five reunion).   Per King, they shifted the focus of the event to open it up to all fans and one set of fans in particular:  Spartans.    He noted that Ray Jackson will not be there so safe to assume you’ll have Juwan, Jalen and Webber joining King at the event. The partial reunion will be held at the Elysium Lounge in Detroit on Saturday, April 4.  The doors open at 9:00 PM and parking is available.   It’s not clear if there’s a ticket charge, or a cover, or whatever.   I’m guessing it’ll be $20 at the door or something like that. Also you’ll see Desmond Howard, Mateen Cleaves, Braylon Edwards, Mo Peterson, is working on getting the “big dog” there–Magic Johnson. [display_podcast] . King also talked about Kevin Kelvin Grady’s departure, and Michigan State’s chances in the Final Four.