• The Sheets

    I’ve that had a little more access to the football team this season.  I’ve made it to my share of press conferences, a few practices (before we were booted) and even on the field & press box for a couple games.   It’s a nice privilege, but while the performance on the field the past several weeks has been beyond tough, watching all this crap go down behind the scenes all season has been brutal.   Blabbering about it on these pages isn’t really a ball either as I’d rather blabber about old ticket stubs and the like. Nonetheless, a couple thoughts about the Detroit News report that football failed to keep the practice logs that would (help) demonstrate the team’s compliance with NCAA practice regulations: -> Since U-M’s audit and findings came out well ahead of the Free Press practicegate story, is it safe to assume that a Deepthroat inside either leaked the report or more likely, nudged Rosenberg and crew to dig around on this topic?  Viva la conspiracy! -> Next, I’m not sure who I’m mad at here.  It bugs me that this was allowed to go on as long as it did.  "All other varsity sports submitted their CARA forms timely,” according to the July 24 letter sent to Rodriguez.  The football program probably has the most complicated…

  • Full Rodriguez Press Conference (audio Purdue)

    Took 9 photos – this one was the most flattering Here’s the complete audio from Rich Rodriguez following the Purdue game.  I’ll add some notes and more in a bit: [display_podcast] – And it got a little chippy about midway through the presser.  Apparently when Rodriguez and Purdue coach Danny Hope met to shake hands, the Boiler coach brought LG Zach Reckman along with him to meet RR.  Why?  Reckman was suspended by the Big Ten the week after the Jonas Mouton suspension and Hope blames Rodriguez for the whole thing.   Hope wanted to put it in his face, officially dropping a match on the snake oil feud which had seemingly died. Reckman missed the Notre Dame the following week. Here’s Rodriguez explaining the encounter after the game, not happy and I can’t blame him.  Needless exhibition of childlike behavior on Hope’s part after their great win: For the record, I thought Rodriguez pushed the Mouton-Big Ten thing waaay to far, but that doesn’t excuse Hope’s postgame stunt. Other shots: Minor giving a local reporter the stink eye during the post-game, flashing a dizzying array of tats: Forcier, signing after the game, knee iced: