A few semi delicious takes for you this Sunday morning following the bye week for Michigan: * I went to the Michigan State vs. Notre Dame in East Lansing this week, more validation of why college football is great if for nothing else, the atmosphere on campus and the excitement of the game. State and Ringer looked very sound, a few question marks with the defensive backfield and with QB Hoyer. News flash: Michigan’s got to make Hoyer beat them in Ann Arbor. * Jimmy the C and Notre Dame are just not very good. Clausen just isn’t ready to play at this level and I wonder if Irish fans are wondering what other options they’ve got there. * Has anyone noticed the disturbing proliferation of guys wearing their collars up, 80s style? I have, here’s one of many I saw out there today: * MSU added a ring of honor in the stadium this year, on the West side of the stadium they’ve displayed State’s national championship teams, on the east, the retired jerseys of former players (George Webster, Bubba Smith, etc.). * The Stanley Cup was on display outside Spartan Stadium thanks to current Red Wing and former Spartan Justin Abdelkader. I snuck behind it for a shot: Turd Ferguson, err, Burt Reynolds doesn’t like to wait in…

Keeping with tradition during bye weeks, from noon to 3WTKA 1050AM will broadcast a historic game featuring the legendary Bob Ufer. This time, it’s the game that includes Ufer’s most famous call-Johnny Wangler to Anthony Carter as Bo and the Wolverines took down Lee Corso’s Indiana Hoosiers. For those out of coverage area, check out wtka.com and try their listen live feature, they’ll probably stream the game as well. Don’t forget to pick up your limited edition MEEEEEECHigan t-shirts (click here): Support Ufer: Want to get involved? Buy some CDs, ringtones and other cool items from the official Bob Ufer site at ufer.org, proceeds benefit the Bob Ufer Foundation Scholarship Fund.

From the September issue of the Ann Arbor Observer. In the article titled ‘WVU versus Rodriguez’, author James Militzer discussed the buy-out and Rodriguez’s pursuit of a settlement. Militzer contacted West Virginia legal counsel Thomas Flaherty who claims that that Rich Rod, Bill Martin and perhaps even Mary Sue Coleman negotiated a cap on Rodriguez’s exposure to the WVU buy-out during their meeting in Toledo last December. The terms: Michigan would cover up to the $2.5 million (which of course U-M eventually ended up paying). And Flaherty claims the the school and administration have tried to hide the deal. It’s not available online so I requested and was granted permission to publish an excerpt. As an aside, I was interviewed for the article that’s how I knew it was coming out, I don’t get The Observer at home: ..Thomas Flaherty, lead counsel for WVU, says the U-M appears to have cut a deal with Rodriguez at the time he was hired. “We’ve seen an email that went from [Rodriguez’s] financial advisor, Mike Wilcox, to athletic director Martin on December fifteenth, 2007, confirming a conversation they’d had earlier that day,” he says. “I believe it was cc’ed to Mary Sue Coleman. It said that the liquidated damages clause with West Virginia was a huge issue, and that the U of M…

Thanks to Biggie (whose Spartans have a biggy this weekend in East Lansing- I’ll be there with bells on) for passing this along. Check out Detroit News Michigan beat writer Angelique Chengelis’s latest conference power rankings: Hello, Angelique! That’s tough medicine for the Blue there. I’m more inclined to slot the Wolverines around 8th in the conference (ninth if including Notre Dame) per the current MVictors Power Index. Elsewhere: Chengelis dialed up Stoney and Wojo on WDFN this afternoon. After you get passed the chummy banter in the beginning, she talks a little about the Notre Dame aftermath and more. She observes that many Michigan fans aren’t too bent out of shape after that game (which is of course out of character):

Great piece on Zoltan Mesko on mgoblue.com, check it out. A slice: Zoltan’s grandparents walked five miles through the snowy streets of Timisoara to deliver presents and the family enjoyed a tense Christmas Day. That night, they watched television together and witnessed the end of Romanian communism. Nicolae Ceausescu had been tried and executed and the aftermath was broadcast across the country. “I remember them showing the bodies of Ceausescu and his wife on television,” said Zoltan. “They showed a lot on TV in Romania, not like here.”