A few thoughts on the press conference and media activities down at the Junge Center outside the Big House tonight: RR getting a bit thin up front, might need to go tight like the Webmaster To start things off a frog throated Rich Rod, suffering from both the recruiting and flu seasons, gushed about the 27 commitments to the class and identified those responsible in the recruiting process.  Speaking of his voice, ironically an illin’ RichRod sounds very much like a healthy, wolf-strangling Mike Barwis. Then came the general media Q&A and things got interesting, and you’ll have much more tonight/tomorrow from the writers.  Dave Birkett of AnnArbor.com and Drew Sharp hit Rodriguez hard on recruiting Demar Dorsey, who was acquitted of some serious legal issues, as summarized by AnnArbor.com: Dorsey, ranked the No. 2 safety and No. 12 player in the country by ESPN.com, was charged with two felonies while in high school, according to court records in Broward County, Fla. He was acquitted by a jury on a 2008 charge of robbery with a deadly weapon, and had an earlier charge of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling dismissed. Dave Ablauf had to step in and request the media move on, Rich Rod suggested people didn’t have the entire picture and then urged people to be positive.  Sharp wasn’t…

Today is a good chance to recall a piece from a favorite interview of mine, Michigan legend Mark Messner. I pick it up, Messner just had the time of his life on a recruiting trip at UCLA, and he already told then-coach Terry Donahue that he was a Bruin.  Then this happened: But Coach Moeller and Coach Bo knew UCLA was my last visit.  So when my parents and I pulled up the house on the way back from the airport, there was this Delta 88 by the side of the driveway.  It was like 9 o’clock at night and getting dark.  It’s January or December.  Both doors open up and out stepped Moeller and Bo. Bo walks over, just hands me a tape and says [Messner in perfect Bo voice]: “You’re a Michigan man and you belong at Michigan.”  And got back in the car. That was it.  He didn’t come in the house, they just took off.  I couldn’t believe he came back up there. Mark Messner interview: Part I:  Posted on these pages, Messner talks about his recruiting process, Bo and more. Part II:  Mark Messner Interview (extended version)

Continuing my interview with Sam Webb, managing editor of GoBlueWolverine, Detroit News Columnist and WTKA 1050AM morning show host.   This time we take a look at Sam’s take on the morning show, what works and what doesn’t.  We then talk about Sam’s perspective of the rivalry between Webb’s GoBlueWolverine and The Wolverine, their competition. You can also check out Part I, Part II, and Part III here. MVictors: How are the ratings for the morning show on WTKA?Sam Webb: I haven’t seen a [ratings] book since Andy left. They changed the way they do ratings, it used to be with Arbitron and I haven’t seen anything since all that changed. The last book I saw, it might have been a few months before Andy left, we were actually the top morning show in this building. MVictors: So are Cumulus and folks in this building happy with you and [WTKA morning co-host] Ira [Weintraub]?Sam Webb: You know and if they aren’t, I haven’t heard about it yet [laughs].  When I first started the morning show one of the major things I was interested in, because I was not a radio guy by trade, was getting the best opportunity to be good.  Just give me an opportunity for it to work.     I think when we first started, with my first…

The Spartan hoops head coach joined Jim Rome in the second hour today, talked about the state of his team of course, but also reflected on the early days of the Michigan rivalry, much about the new Spartan logo, and finally on kicking Kalin Lucas out of practice.   Audio, approximately 11 mins: [display_podcast] Izzo joked that the 2000 NCAA title seems like it occurred “100 years ago” Admits he was “Too fixated” on Michigan basketball in his early days. “To this day I still love Chris [Webber].” On the “uproar” [Rome’s words] on the new MSU logo.  “We didn’t get a chance to sell the whole package [because the logo leaked out].” Izzo admits is that it was frustrating swapping logos/emblems over the past several years. On the resistance to the logo: “I was shocked…I could hardly tell the difference.” Izzo mentioned that several folks have likened the change to changing the U-M helmet, which Izzo dismissed because the winged helmet’s been around for many years [Izzo said “90 years”, technically it’s been 71 – history nerd!] and the Spartans have changed their logo several times over the years.   We all recall when Tom Goss tried to put ‘Hail to the Victors’ inside the maize wings of the winged helmet, but Jon Falk thankfully nixed it. Rome emailer Stu from…

Per the Detroit News, the Cold War deal is done between MSU and Michigan and will be Saturday December 11th at 3pm.   Earlier this month Rick Comley made some snarky remarks about assuming the game wouldn’t happen, but as I mentioned in that post I thought this was merely Comley taking a pot shot at U-M on local radio.   Given that this is going to happen, I restate my plea to Marty Bodnar and the ticket office: Take care of the hockey season ticket holders.  There are obviously plenty of seats to go around.

Via WTKA 1050AM podcast, here’s Coach Beilein joining Ira and Sam in the wake of the Michigan State loss: [display_podcast] Of note, Beilein explains that the play down the stretch that resulted in a Peedi airball three wasn’t definitely not the play as written up.  Beilein wanted Manny to take the ball to the rack but didn’t blame Sims for trying the shot given he had just hit two in a row.

Continuing the posting of my interview with Sam Webb.  GoBlueWolverine.com just posted another portion of the interview and you can view that here.   The rest will be in the next issue of GBW and will eventually be here on MVictors.   One thing I’ve noticed having interviewed a few folks in the media biz: people, like Sam, who interview a lot of people give excellent interviews themselves. Here’s a few excerpts for you, first on how Sam got started in recruiting: MVictors: So how did you get started in the recruiting business? Sam Webb:  It was never planned.  I was going to Michigan to get a computer engineering degree, don’t laugh [laughs].  At the time, and I think it was around 1997 and recruiting on the internet was just starting.  I remember being in the computer lab over on North Campus and going in there one late night to work on some ungodly program.  One night I went in and there was this website that someone had left on a computer called GoBlueWolverine.com.   On that site was basically anything you could have possibly wanted to know about Michigan recruiting. So I started looking at that site incessantly.  And not long after that site morphed with what is now The Wolverine, and the guy that was managing it was Tom Beaver.   Then…