Sorry, many issues with my hosting company this evening.  Here’s a little chap wrap with “Nancy Smith” in Bangalore:

Former Michigan badass and current Detroit Lion & Barwis disciple Larry Foote joined Jim Rome today.  In the first part of the interview he discussed the Lions’ victory over the Redskins…but I jump right to Foote talking about the Michigan State game this week and the rivalry.       Rome questions him on the Free Press allegations (Foote is apparently pals with Mike Rosenberg) and Foote offers his perspective. Audio: [display_podcast] Notes: “I’m excited what’s going on in Ann Arbor.” “You see the license plates all over town, the S on everybody’s license plate, these green shirts and it just makes me sick.” “They know they’re like our little brother and they don’t like that.   They know they’re second to us.  But it’s been like that for a lot of years now and those guys don’t like it.” “This game’s always a trap game because they always come out…we just need to match their intensity.” And for your mixtapes, here’s Foote with his legendary “Go Blue, and Michigan State ya’ll always gonna suck” from 2008:

“Reckon there’s a lot of peckers there in East Lansing.” So Rodriguez completely played down Tate Forcier’s injury on Monday.  He said it was “sore” and that he’d be limited in practice on Monday but would return Tuesday and expected him to play Saturday.  His body language and tone gave the air of the whole thing not being a big deal and he wasn’t pressed on it. But Rodriguez also said practice was closed to the media on Wednesday–the one day of the week media get a look at the team.  And now we’ve got spies on campus spotting Tate in a sling. The whole thing strikes me as weird.  I know Rodriguez handles injuries a little differently than most (by producing that Thursday NFL-style report) but if anything, wouldn’t Rodriguez at least say he wasn’t sure about Forcier’s status, even if he had a good feeling?   Toss in the shot of Forcier wincing on Saturday with the sling thing and the media lockdown and the whole thing is suspect.  Maybe Forcier is really fine and the sling is just a means to help him heal faster or to encourage him to ‘stay off’ the shoulder.  As reader Lew suggested to me, maybe RR is just trying to keep Forcier focused on playing Saturday.  I’m skeptical.  If Forcier can’t go…

Breaking out the Spiderman Allen ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ on this special day with the Lions ending their 19 game losing streak: [display_podcast] .

After watching a Cutter cut up the Michigan secondary all day, I looked for five star freshman Justin Turner on the sideline.  I spotted him standing on one of those benches behind the team next to the back-up kicker and other guys that only have their helmets because it came with the rest of the uniform: Man, you’d like to see some help back there but obviously he’d be on the field if he were ready.  Sadly the bench surfing only shows me he’s really not close. That said, Rich Rodriguez hasn’t thrown in the towel yet on Turner’s status for this season hinting he might see some time against State or Iowa: But I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a couple more freshmen that haven’t played that may still get in the mix here in the next couple weeks just simply because of the way the injuries happen and no open dates. "(Justin) Turner is one, for example, and I’m trying to think — we have some outstanding freshman offensive linemen. But there’s so much for them to learn. Other stuff: Two things I normally don’t get into are a) predictions and b) postgame grades.  But these are noteworthy: Props to former TE/QB Andy Mignery and WTKA 1050AM “Monday Morning Quaterback” who nailed it on his prediction for…

I guess I’m few that hasn’t really notice meaningful difference in the level of crowd noise this season but we confirmed on Saturday how quiet that place can get.  There were times when it was ‘Moment of Silence’ quiet in there.   I sat 40 rows behind Michigan’s bench and during certain stretches I could hear Rodriguez…with his back to me.  And there were those uber tranquil moments when you could clearly make out the chirping of birds (a.k.a. Crisler crickets).  It’s eerie. I know there’s a lot of folks who are working for things to be louder.  While I think that effort is pretty pointless I’ll will offer this – if you really want to make Michigan Stadium louder you’ve got to work on the students and maybe the band.   And it’s more than just the keys that many hate.  I sat a few seats away from the senior edge of the student section and while they’re standing the whole game and certainly into it, they’re as quiet as the wine and cheese fans during the lulls. Other notes: I have friends that live about a mile from the stadium and they shared an interesting item.  Since the renovation structures were filled out this year, they can’t really hear the roars of the crowd or the PA announcer from their…

Props to Indiana’s Bill Lynch for the classic move of firing his gum down the sideline after the refs initially ruled on Donovan Warren’s interception that effectively ended the game.   I had about the same angle from my seats as the ESPN cameras (a bad one), but I kind of understand Lynch’s rage.  Nevertheless, unlike another state of Indiana coach, looks like Lynch took the high road after the game: "I couldn’t see," Lynch said. "Obviously, where I’m standing on the sidelines it looked like they both had it. That’s as far as I could go." As far as where the gum ended up, I pored over photos from the game and found something strange on one IU helmet: Update 9/28:  Interesting Zapruder frame-by-frame pulled together by SCM over at the great Maize N Brew including this snap shot of initial shot of the ball:

[More tomorrow.  Tonight, a few images from the game.] Fantastic from the M photo store [Ed., forgot to mention, you can use code mvctrs5 for a 5% discount on photo purchases.  I don’t get a piece of that action FWIW]:   Son of a–: Where’s Waldo?   Zack Novak burned the ships, kept the shirt:    MVP: