My colleagues in the blogosphere do a much better job of the periodic link-out posts.  Today’s posts and articles reacting to Rosenberg’s piece are really solid.   My initial reaction was more of a stream of consciousness starting from 1am last night and finishing up this morning.  Good to see a range of reaction across the nerdosphere and elsewhere: * mgoblog: props to TomVH for getting a few quotes from parents, here’s the father of Michael Schofield: The worst part of all of this is that the reporters targeted the freshman, with misleading questions they can get them to say anything. I’m a fire chief, and I deal with the media. I don’t let my men deal with the media, because they can get them to say anything. They could make us sound like the worst station out there if they wanted to. Without names, this article means nothing to me. * Maize ‘n’ Brew: Dave presents his own smattering of thoughts, here’s one: 7)  I would like some answers from the coaching staff.  It’s not just that UM passed the rules a little bit – if the article is 100% true – they obliterated them.  That’s the kind of thing that strikes me (a casual fan and observer, nothing more) as being a bit reckless. * The Wolverine Blog: Ace…

More from WTKA today as Le’Ron Stokes (father of Je’Ron) and Alvin Warren (Donovan) dialed in.  Here are links to the podcasts on WTKA: Stokes audio Warren audio

Here’s the piece.  Abstract: Michigan football consistently has violated NCAA rules governing off-season workouts, in-season demands on players and mandatory summer activities under coach Rich Rodriguez, numerous players told the Free Press. We learned that many, probably most, of Michigan fans can tolerate a little losing.  If the allegations are true, I’m sure they won’t be as tolerant toward rules violations.  The issue I see with the report is that the alleged ‘voluntary’ participation may be tough to define and interpret and therefore these allegations will probably be viewed by most fans as a another attempt by the Freep to discredit Rodriguez.  The Freep stresses that the players interviewed said they faced punishment if they didn’t come to workouts; maybe that’s where the NCAA will have grounds to take a look. One other item – the names of all the players interviewed weren’t released but if the NCAA takes a look, I assume they’ll come out.   There are clearly guys who have left the program with agendas, so I think it’s important to sort out who said what.  More later but would love to get your initial reaction in the comments. Ed. 8/30:  A couple more thoughts this morning.  Looking it over, the NCAA might narrow down on the post-game Sunday workouts that the Freep (and ESPN) alleges far exceeded…

A pleasure to join WTKA 1050AM’s Michigan Insider show this early this morning in the 7AM hour.  New host Ira Weintraub invited Brian Cook of mgoblog to run the show from 7-10AM and I joined them in the first hour with Craig Ross of Obscene Diaries and the Ann Arbor Observer joining shortly thereafter. After battling a few technical difficulties in the beginning, we got rolling.  Here’s a segment with me, Cook and at the end, Ross talking quaterbacks, quaterbacks, quarterbacks, Coke, Big House sound and more: [display_podcast] Here’s the rest of the WTKA podcasts from the morning, including later when Jon Chait, editor of the New Republic, Mike Rothstein of AnnArbor.com and the great John U. Bacon joined Cook to round out the day:   Chait Segment Bacon Segment Related: April 2009: The Future of Ann Arbor Journalism (WTKA audio) March 2009: MVictors hits the Big Show (WTKA audio)

HT: mgoblog, Word is out that former FB-turned-DE-turned-transfer Vince Helmuth will indeed land in the MAC, but not at Eastern Michigan as speculated here a couple weeks ago: I hear that [Vince’s brother] Gabe is going to end up at Eastern Michigan to focus on track—perhaps that’s where Vince is headed to join his bro and former Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English. Wrong! Now word is coming out of Oxford (and after a Google search, looks like Mark Snyder of the Freep was on this already, see the notes) that Helmuth will instead land at Bo Schembechler’s alma mater, Miami of Ohio.  Related:  Interview: Vince Helmuth

Having now some exposure to the life of a regular journalist you learn a few things.  One thing I’ve appreciated for a while, having done a few now, is the effort that goes into prepping, executing, transcribing and finally republishing an interview.  I grabbed a bunch of audio on Sunday but 90% of it won’t see the fiber-optic light of internet beyond the audio Rodriguez telling us that he’s planning to use three quarterbacks against Western Michigan. I ran over to catch Tate Forcier on the practice field after RR presser and found some sound worth talking about.  First notes: On whether he’s going to keep the “T.” of Forcier on his jersey now that there’ll be no “J. Forcier” rejoining the Wolverines.  We already know he will keep the T., but  interesting that Tate was actually curious about that as well. On why he ended up at Michigan and his brother role in encouraging him to give Ann Arbor a look. On living with his brother, who Tate says is staying in town to start his own business.  They have an apartment and Jason sleeps on an air mattress next to him.  [Sorry, no confirmation whether they are going to build a bunk bed a la Step Brothers]. Regarding Denard and competition in general, the freshman did admit some…

Rumor, gossip, unsubstantiated but it’s Friday night, right?  Word on the street is that Detroit sports radio station WDFN 1130AM may have won over the Clear Channel corporate brass that called for the clean-out of local radio shows back in January 2009.  If you recall, they wiped Sean Baligian, Matt Shepherd and the iconic Stoney and Wojo show from the schedule, prompting this piece of Photoshop gold: Stoney recently filled in for Mitch Albom on WJR and we know Wojo (above, eating something) is still around.  If true, could they be tapping the duo to return before football season? Take: Beyond that this is purely scuttlebutt, I doubt Clear Channel would go back to these guys unless they were able to negotiate a compromise on pay.  Stoney was jokingly known as the show’s “franchise”, hinting that he probably made a nice paycheck.  We’ll see.

Via AnnArbor.com: Jay Riemersma is drawing on his football past to generate support in his 2010 bid for a west Michigan congressional seat. The former University of Michigan and NFL tight end announced today that former Wolverine coach Lloyd Carr will campaign on his behalf on Sept. 17. Stops are planned in Holland, Grand Haven and Grand Rapids. Riemersma played at Zeeland High School before moving on to Michigan and then Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the NFL. He’s one of several Republicans seeking to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland, who’s running for governor. Interesting a few levels.  First, that a former Michigan player is seeking office and swinging for the fences right off the bat.  He’s got a slick campaign website and Lloyd Carr will certainly give him a boost as the Coach seems to be increasingly revered as the days tick away. And while Carr is understandably supporting the man, most indications we have is that the our former leader leans very left, contrary his conservative mentor Bo Schembechler.  I don’t talk about it much on these pages but I spent a couple summers on Capitol Hill, first working for Senator Donald Riegle, and later for a guy will be watching this campaign pretty closely:  Congressman Fred Upton (R) from the west side of Michigan as…