[ed. 8/15 – After a few reader comments and questions, I revised this post.  Gotta love Michigan football, where questions about helmet paint get the blood pumping.] I hope you had a chance to catch longtime equipment manager Jon Falk in a recent edition of ‘Countdown to Kick-off’, discussing reconditioning of the Michigan helmet.  In the video Falk notes that there are two brands of helmet at Michigan, Schutt and Riddell (although a few varieties of styles are available for each company).  Back in May I swung by Schembechler Hall to catch one batch of helmets just as they were being scooped up from the folks from Capitol Varsity Sports, the folks who recondition the Schutt equipment.  Here’s a few of the facemaskless helmets sacked up about to be loaded on the truck to Oxford, OH: As wonderfully highlighted in the Countdown video, the man who cares for the Schutt gear once it arrives in Oxford is a man named Russ Hawkins.  While the folks at Riddell use a mold to define the maize wing pattern, Hawkins sets the paint boundary by hand.  To watch him work his magic is a sight to be sure: Sorry Riddell, give me a Schutt. This May I asked Falk about how Michigan hooked up with Capitol Varsity and Hawkins and he told me…