I was one of the 13 Michigan fans that made it to East Lansing to watch the Wolverines get smoked. A few observations from the game: On the play: – Not much to say here. These guys just don’t look comfortable out there and have trouble getting squared up for shots. It’s painful to watch a team that relies so heavily on the three with guys that don’t look comfortable shooting. – M rebounded ok (I need to see the final numbers) but many from the offensive side were the result of badly clanked triples. – Free throw shooting was terrible. – State obviously didn’t need to play their best to beat these guys. Guards Nietzel and Lucas were far and away the difference. Take away those guys and State looked average. Sights & Sounds: – I wouldn’t say tickets to this game were hot, but it took me about 15 minutes to find a reasonably priced seat. One guy was trying to sell at single ticket behind Izzo’s bench for $150. – I seriously think there were about 100 Michigan fans there. I didn’t see a group of students anywhere. No cheerleaders although there’s nowhere really for them to stand. – You probably know that the Izzone consumes three quarters of the lowest bowl. One thing I hadn’t noticed…

A collection of a outtakes from ESPN.com as they monitored Chad Henne at the Senior Bowl workouts this past week. Overall, looks like the former M QB did himself some favors and based on this week is looking at a possible second round pick. And who does he compare himself to? Tom Brady. Good answer. If you answer Tom Brady to just about any question your going to do ok. First, from ESPN. Full story available here for ESPN Insiders only. For non-subscribers, here’s the summary and final grade: One of Henne’s main goals heading into this week was to prove he has adequate pocket presence to make up for his lack of mobility. Henne did a fairly good job of stating his case. He was adequate in moving his feet, avoiding the initial rush and finding throwing lanes. Although he does not display good initial quickness or elusiveness running out of the pocket, Henne was able to make accurate throws on the move during only a few opportunities. Henne was also able to put a stamp on his overall passing efficiency. Displaying a strong arm and quick release, Henne showed the ability to make all the necessary throws at the next level. In addition to arm strength, he was accurate and made sound overall decisions throughout week. Henne’s natural…

GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit called in for a brief segment on Colin Cowherd’s show on ESPN radio today and discussed Big Ten football. On the topic of the Wolverines’ outlook for 2008, Cowherd projected 9 wins in Coach Rod’s first year. Herbstreit offered that he sees a rough break-in period for Rodriguez, yielding just 6 wins. Each thought the USC and Wisconsin games were the key tests for the pre-season #1 Buckeyes next season. I’ve heard a lot of media folks say 9 wins, I’ve heard as high as 11 wins. Coach Rod pretty much gets a pass next season but there is a limit to my patience. Six is right around that number. 

You may have heard that fellow ’93 Michigan grad Dana Jacobson had a rough night in Atlantic City last month. It was at the roast for ESPN’s Mike Greenberg & Mike Golic, and according to various accounts Dana was seen taking pulls of vodka and stammering around. She then started to dump on Notre Dame (Golic’s alma mater) and decided to go all in: “f*** Notre dame”“f*** touchdown Jesus”and – the step-aside-because-lightning-is-about-to-strike… “f*** Jesus.” And there you have it. Apparently, she realized the gravity of the comment because she took the time to warn everybody. She was promptly booed off the stage. Take: We all hate Notre Dame, but typically that doesn’t extend beyond the football team. Heck, Bo even said ‘To Hell with Notre Dame’. As far as Jesus? None of my business but I think it’s ok for people to love the real Jesus and hate Touchdown Jesus at the same time.All in all, this is a case of people getting their pants in a bunch over nothing. Forget about whether she was drunk or not, she knew she needed to come strong to hang with the comedians in the room and of course flamed out. I mean, does anyone really think that Jacobson (or anyone else) hates Jesus? I thought Jews and Muslims still hold Jesus in…

What we learned: Not much. But we were sure reminded that Michigan weather can be brutal. Not that any visit in mid-January would yield bikini-clad co-eds mud wrestling in the Diag, but weather couldn’t have been worse. I stepped outside for 30 seconds on Saturday to get the mail. Once the wind hit me I went scrambling back to my car like a little girl. All the drinks in my garage froze. It was a harsh Michigan weekend. Maybe not quite as cold as in Green Bay but pretty close. It is hoped that he got to see some of the town and the facilities. The net? He’s from Pennsylvania so I don’t think this is a big deal for him. We did learn that the text message is king these days. It was reported that TP text’d an AP reporter and commented that on his visit, “It’s Cool”. It’s unclear whether that was a comment on the quality of the visit or the temperature in the air. It’s amazing to me that a) an AP reporter has Pryor’s cell phone number, and that b) Pryor knew the writer enough to respond to his message. We also learned that Rich Rodriguez has some pretty big paws and that Barwis gave a solid presentation on the direction of the strength and…