Just posted on Lost Letterman, former two-time captain and All-American linebacker badass Jarrett Irons posted quite of few thoughts/recollections from his dinner in Chicago with Rich Rodriguez this summer.  A few favorite outtakes: He’s a down-home, cool guy. Obviously, he’s got that drawl. He’s a man’s man. He’s cool, and he loves football, and he loves to talk about it. I love the drawl comment.  As in, “if you can get past that drawl…”. On the new facilities and how it’ll affect recruting: We talked about how recruiting these days is so hard because you have to have really nice facilities. Nowadays, kids are very, very impressionable by what the facilities look like. He talked about how other schools have some nice stuff going on, and we had to upgrade. I’d seen most of it before. I haven’t seen the finished locker room, but he was telling me it’s very, very nice. It definitely mattered to me when I was being recruited. But when I went to Schembechler Hall, it was relatively new. At that time, Michigan had some of the best facilities in the country. Full post here.

So nasty.

Good stuff from Debbie Williams-Hoak and the folks at The Ann Arbor Police Officer’s Association in support of the Ann Arbor Adopt-A-Family program.  You might recall their efforts last winter to raise funds to provide gifts to needy area families around the holidays; WTKA 1050AM was heavily involved as well.  Along with the fundraising that goes on closer to the holidays, they’ve secured the classic Barton Hills Country Club for a golf outing on Monday September, 21.  A cool opportunity for us regular chumps to play this exclusive/private track and support a great cause.  Bullets: Registration starts at 11am for the 1pm shot gun start, Monday September 21, 2009. Entry fee: $135 per person/$540 per foursome for the scramble. Lunch, dinner, awards, Lucy Ann Lance, etc. etc. Hole Sponsorships available for $100.  (MVictors looks damn good on a tee box). They are looking for golfers, sponsors, volunteers, and of course: donations. Here’s the form if you want to join the outing, provide sponsorship or just donate.   Here’s more about the program and who to contact to get engaged:

WolverineHistorian posted the second part of the epic 1997 Michigan-Ohio State game held in Ann Arbor.  Just an incredible game; enjoy the highlights: You can view Part I here.

Another solid call into WTKA from U-M football raconteur John U. Bacon talks about the recent headlines with Justin Feagin and up the road in East Lansing with Glenn Winston, about the perception by those outside the program of Rich Rodriguez (“Rich, in some circles, can not win for losing.”) and more.  As always, worth a listen: [display_podcast] Sorry for the distortion – I spliced the podcast to “cut to the Bacon” and dropped some audio quality in the process.

From the Free Press, the reinstatement of MSU football player Glenn Winston has sent A.J. Sturges, the hockey player Winston assaulted, over the edge.  Sturges’ statement on the matter was posted in full on freep.com.  An excerpt: I now look at myself as naïve. I believed that the people involved in the assault, and those at MSU charged with handling policy, would do the right thing. They haven’t. Me and the other victims have not received any form of apology from Glenn Winston. Nothing. He has not acknowledged to us in any way the damage he caused. While this fact remains ignored, I cannot allow myself to believe that his debts have been paid, or even understood. While the victims of his actions still recover from what he did, Winston’s obligations have been deemed fulfilled by the football program and athletic department. I think his immediate reinstatement after a shortened jail sentence in my opinion is the wrong decision by our athletic program. Obviously an interesting situation that’ll evoke a few emotions on the Green side of the house, perhaps even moreso than when Jimmy Harbaugh took a shot across the bow at old Blue.   This is unique in that the blast is coming from a student athlete at the same school. So, while I don’t have all the facts…

No, Brian Cook of mgoblog is not going to be the new co-host alongside Sam Webb, he just jumped on for a segment on WTKA 1050AM to talk a little football and promote the wonderful Hail to the Victors 2009 preseason football guide. He highlighted some of the content of the book including noting a few submissions from a bunch of studs (you know, Dooley, Bacon, Ross, etc., etc.)  He also ran down his take on the Big Ten slate. Worth a listen, here’s the audio: [display_podcast] Get HTTV ’09 here.

Sad to learn that Saline native Vince Helmuth is transferring from the Michigan football program.  I interviewed him earlier this year in part for a piece for the Saline Reporter, and talked about his transition from fullback to defense tackle and the challenge in making such a switch.   I might reach out to him to understand what drove the decision and I’m guessing it’s about playing time. He obviously wants to play or he wouldn’t have tried to make the move to defense.  In the interview he was also excited about the prospect of his brother Gabe walking on the program this year: MVictors: I hear your brother Gabe is going to walk-on? Helmuth: He’s in the process of reviewing his options. I’m pretty sure he’s going to walk-on, but not totally sure. I want him to do what he’s comfortable doing. Coming in as a walk-on you’re signing up for five years and I want him to make that decision, I try to stay out of it. I’ve been as hands off as I can, besides saying if he comes here we’ll be cool roommates, and all that stuff. I hear that 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…