Finally official word from the official site on the officially private 2008 Michigan football spring game: ANN ARBOR, Mich. — University of Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez and the 2008 Wolverine football team will hold a closed final practice at Saline High School on Saturday, April 12. Due to the size of the stadium the public will be unable to attend. “We appreciate the gesture and effort made by Saline to help make this practice possible,” said Scott Draper, Assistant Athletic Director for Football. “Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate a practice open to the public.” With construction taking place at Michigan Stadium and to the back practice fields at Schembechler Hall because of the new indoor facility, Michigan is unable to accommodate a public practice at the University.

College football beat writers are loving the access to Schembechler Hall. SI.com’s Stewart Mandel just published a summary of the state of affairs in Rich Rod’s camp. ESPN’s Bruce Feldman dug in a little deeper. He was camped out at practice for the last few days and even appeared on WTKA on Wednesday morning. Yesterday he unleashed a Q&A with everyone’s hero Mike Barwis. I’m not sure if the interview is available to everyone, so here’s a few beauties: Feldman: How patient do you have to be when you take over a new program? Barwis: I love challenges. I’m a person who really loves to rebuild things, redesign things and work hard to take kids to a physical level they’ve never played at before — or where they don’t think is possible. It was funny when we first started working out, we’d hear ’em saying “Holy s—, there’s no way in hell anybody can go through this.” And I’m thinking, boy, you’ve got no idea. We’re just beginning. That first day, guys were falling out doing sprints and I said, “Guys we’re just learning, and we’re just warming up. This is a warm-up.” But you know what, by the end of that eight weeks, their confidence was higher. They physically felt better. They started to hear from guys who have…

Saw this last night on the SI on Campus page. It’s some of West Virginia University’s finest applying their engineering skills on a beer pong table: Man, I think they used half the available wiring in the state on that one. For all that wiring I’d expect that thing should be able to order your pizza and take you to pick it up. The space shuttle is envious of the wiring on that table. These guys will no doubt have a prosperous career setting up carnival lighting. Perhaps their next project will focus on creating a coach that won’t bolt for Ann Arbor. Speaking of Beer Pong, the same site (SI on Campus) found this link to the latest Power Rankings of the sororities and fraternities at Michigan [SAE #2?? How are the men of 1408 not #1?].

A few good posts from around the M nerdosphere and beyooooond: * What Happened? MGOBLOG explains how Michigan hockey overcame the dismal preseason projections to end up the #1 seed and in the Frozen Four. BC also has a few nice photos including my favorite here. * More on Michigan’s win over Clarkson: Hoover Street breaks the game down into tiny little pieces. * BYE, BYE No. 1 : Sport Illustrated’s Vault reaches back to 1969 into the aftermath of Bo’s greatest win, one of the most popular retro reads on SI right now. * Family Matters to Rodriguez : Bruce Feldman’s blog on ESPN.com. I’ll save you some time: Having been around the Michigan program for the past four days, I got the feeling that the Boren comments have been shrugged off by a lot of players, who have really appeared to buy into the new regime. In truth, it actually seems to be the opposite of that, where guys who have been in the program for years have been invigorated by the spirit Rodriguez and his staff have brought. * Rodriguez on WTKA. MLive has Coach Rod from this morning:

I didn’t hear any f-bombs that would scare any more 300 lb lineman away. Dig it:

New coach Rich Rodriguez is continuing his good will tour. First he met with the current players and staff, then he met with various groups of former players, now he wants to see you. And by you I mean those that paid your Victors Club or alumni dues. The timing might be perfect as someone typed in the phrase “I am concerned about Michigan football” in Google today (and found no answers at MVictors.com). Yes indeed, Bill Martin will join Rich Rod on the cleverly titled ‘On the Road’ tour from April 17 to May 1, 2008. They’ll start with two nights in Michigan, then hit Chicago and New York before two final dates in California. Here’s the info on the Michigan dates, I’m planning on hitting the debut: Thursday, April 17, 2008 6-8 p.m. EDT University of Michigan Athletic Campus Junge Family Champions Center Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Monday, April 21, 2008 6-8 p.m. EDT The Dearborn Inn Dearborn Ballroom 20301 Oakwood Boulevard Dearborn, Michigan 48124 Complete info is here. The cost is $25 and if you’re an alumnus and your dues aren’t quite up to date, you can pony up now and join the fun. In a perfect world we’d get the van fired up and follow Rich Rod around the country: