• Yeah, this would have been nice, but in no way feasible, as a rumor that Michigan might open 2010 against Georgia was floated, then debunked just as quickly.
• Dr. Saturday’s “All Up-and-Coming” teams include two Michigan Wolverines, but on defense. Defensive tackle Mike Martin and cornerback Boubacar Cissoko are among those he expects to have breakout years in 2009. Offensively, I noted the absence of Kevin Koger at tight end (in favor of a player who I predict will probably have as many catches as Michigan’s 2nd or 3rd tight end this year), and Brian did the same.
• This may belong in a more recruiting-y post, but the Daily Gopher is all set to provide your breathless Seantrel Henderson updates.
• Zoltan named to the Playboy All-American team. Such a shame: it comes just as being on the team gets a lot less cool.
• Adam Rittenberg updates Michigan’s summer schedule for getting started on the season:

Players report: Aug. 9
First practice: Aug. 10
First practice in pads: Aug. 14

Most players, obviously, either haven’t left town in the first place (spring/summer semesters), or have already reported to town, in the case of the freshmen. The official reporting day is for coach-run activities.

• Speaking of which, Jeremy Gallon has qualified, which, like, yay. As soon as he can get on campus, Michigan’s talent pool at the slot position (already booming this spring) will increase greatly. Justin Turner is the only 2009 player remaining with any potential academic hurdles to clear.
• Hail to the Victors 2009 is out. Yrs truly teamed up with Tom Van Haaren to write a chapter on Tate Forcier, who I guess is a Michigan football player?

Anything else I missed? A recruiting update is likely going to be delayed slightly, because I have mounds of information to catch up on.

-T

8:00: Locker room tours.
9:00: The MGo/VB tailgate starts near the bus stop outside Crisler. Brian’s said that’s the earliest he’s going to show up, but I’ll probably get there a little earlier than 9 if you happen to be around.
9:30: Gates to the stadium open.
10:00: The alumni flag football game begins. Most people I’ve spoken to do not plan on going to this, but I’ll probably at least stop by and check it out.
12:00: Spring Game/final practice/whatever starts. At this time, most tailgating will probably cease, perhaps to be resumed afterward.
3:00: Baseball and softball games.

So, that is established. For more info on the MGo/VB tailgate, check out the official planning thread on MGoBoard. Why, you can even participate, if you’re so inclined! There’s also a much more unofficial Spring Game Discussion thread on the VB Forum.

Also: Paul and I put together a Spring Game Guide, which contains pertinent info for people to pay attention to during said game/practice. We’ll have 250 copies on tabloid-sized paper to distribute at the tailgate, at the game, etc., but if you won’t make it there, and still want to absorb our delicious knowledge, you can download a PDF of it here and print it out on normal-sized paper for yourself.

As far as VB coverage tomorrow: I’m going to set up a CoverItLive chat here, as we’ve done for various games and other events in the past. The catch: Since Paul and I will both be at the spring game, we won’t be able to be present for comment approval. Therefore, I propose the following:

• Paul and I will send in our observations, thoughts, etc., on the chat via our Twitter accounts. This can be the end of it OR
• If someone is interested in moderating the chat, let us know here,  and I can have you be the official gatekeeper for the chat, and others can chime in. Paul and I would still be sending in news and whatnot via Twitter.

So, if you aren’t going to be able to make it to the Spring Game, and will be able to set aside 3 or so hours to sit in front of your computer, let me know, and we can have a bit more interaction go on during the event. Otherwise, tweeted in updates.

Spring game-centric recruiting update coming later this afternoon.

• Ricky Barnum has sprained his ankle, and will miss a few spring practices to get wrist surgery. His wrist was (apparently) pretty damaged, and he was working through it before. While it sucks that he’s sustained another injury, at least it gave him the opportunity to get the wrist taken care of.
• Denard Robinson has claimed the 2nd-fastest 100m dash time in the country so far this year for high-schoolers. The incoming QB ran a 10.44 time, and expects to run in the 10.3s when track season gets underway in earnest. (Photo by Tom Ervin for the Miami Herald).
• Devin Gardner plans to publicly commit to Michigan either Thursday or Friday. He apparently did so silently at junior day, but wanted to finish out his basketball season before worrying about dealing with the press.
• Darryl Stonum has debunked the rumors that he’s intending to transfer from Michigan at the end of spring practice.
• SPRING GAME WOO GET AMPED.
• VB (Paul and Tim, at least) plans to be at todays 3:05 PM baseball game at the Fish. Feel free to say hello to us.

And, in site news: If you take a look at the top of the right sidebar, the subscription options have changed slightly. You can still subscribe via RSS, but there are now other possibilities. There is now an official VB Twitter account to which you can subscribe @VarsityBlue. You can subscribe via e-mail, which will inform you whenever there is a new front page post on Varsity Blue. And, perhaps what we’re most excited about, we’re going to start rolling out a VB Newsletter, which we’ll send out once a week (you can help us determine which day when you sign up), and will include a recap of the week’s action on Varsity Blue, along with a bit of information that may not have made it to the front page, and even a preview of what is coming in the next week. It might start out a little spartan in design (no pun intended), but we’ll be beefing it up in short order.

In other site news, we plan to debut a couple new features on VB in the coming weeks, though they’re not quite ready for public consumption yet. I’ll keep you posted when everything is ready to go live.

The Michigan Class of 2009, Current Michigan Depth Chart, and Michigan Eligibility Chart are still around, but they’re now lumped together under one item called “Personnel HQ.” Soon, I’ll also be putting the finishing touches on the Eligibility Chart by Class, and that will fall under that category as well. The only thing that’s tricky to find is the 2009 Recruiting Board, which can be found on the Class of 2009 page, which is newly spruced up.

New to the site is the “About Varsity Blue” section, which gives a brief synopsis of how Varsity Blue came to be, and links to bio pages for each member of the VB staff. If you’d become accustomed to seeing an invite to follow Paul on Twitter in that left sidebar, fear not, as you can now find that information on his bio page. The same information for the other two of us can also be seen on our respective pages (Tim and FormerlyAnonymous).

The 2010 Recruiting Board is still linked on the left sidebar, and probably will be until around this time next year, after most members of the class sign with Michigan. There are also a few slight adjustments to the site’s design coming along a little further down the road, so be on the lookout for those. For now, feel free to check out some of the new pages and get a feel for the new structure.

If anything is broken, missing, in need of update, etc., or if you have a suggestion for something that you’d like to see, let us know in the comments of this post or the relevant page. I apologize for the abundance of links in this post, but I’m pretty excited to have people checking out all the new and/or updated content.

So, be sure to tune in to 1050AM in the Ann Arbor area or WTKA.com outside of it around 3:30 today.

Football offseason posts will continue, though they might be slightly more theory-oriented until spring pratice begins and there’s actual news to talk about. While on the topic of spring practice, I should have a bonanza of information up during that period, and it should be a fun time to be around here. I’ll spread news about some of those items as they get a bit more solidified.

I’m hopefully going to get the podcast up and running again, since we haven’t really made one since the end of football season. Possible topics include the end of basketball season, football and recruiting (obviously the bread and butter here at VB), or baseball. Let me know how much interest there is in each of these things (and a podcast in general).

Baseball coverage will continue to go strong with new contributor FormerlyAnonymous, who never got a proper introduction. Without further ado: FormerlyAnonymous is the newest member of VB, bringing the total to 3. He’ll bring the baseball coverage, making Varsity Blue the #1 site for Michigan Wolverines baseball coverage.

Recruiting update #1 for the week should be coming tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, but baseball season has left VB up to our ears in content, and I want to make sure every post get the attention that it deserves.

Thanks for bearing with us at a (surprisingly) busy time for the blog.

Finally, Tim will be appearing on the Big Show with John U. Bacon on WTKA at 4pm (listen live online here).  He’ll be talking about blogging and recruiting. It should be interesting, or at least something different.

Tomorrow we switch gears to basketball and talking about Michigan State. If you don’t want to wait until tomorrow, Dylan at UMHoops.com is off and running, including a chat with KJ at SpartansWeblog.  We’ll have a limited UFR (just the plus/minus) from the Penn St. and UConn games as well as the standard preview of the opponent.  There will a be a live blog on MGoBlog (maybe cross posted here).

Wednesday we’ll have reaction to the basketball game and hopefully be ready to run some of the player interviews from the signing day press conference.  Standard caveat of all great plans of mice and men, etc., but that’s our tentative schedule. Should be an exciting week.

Recruiting update this afternoon. Thanks for bearing with us.

Recruiting post this afternoon, and Illinois UFR coming tomorrow.

A couple things to point out:

1. Links to the recruiting boards and personnel info are on the top left.  Check out the boards if you haven’t; we’re constantly adding video and notes about the recruits.
2. In addition to tags, we’ve added categories.  For example,  all the recruiting updates and commitment announcements are under Recruiting. Podcasts/photo libraries are under Media.

We’ve had this up and running for a while, but both Tim and I are a bit close to the project and, more specifically, run OSX, so if anyone notices something off or not working with IE6 or any other paleolithic browser, leave a comment on this post.  Beyond that, let us know what you think and of any new features you might want to see on the site.  It’s obviously still evolving and we have a lot more freedom on this site.

Hope you all enjoy the new digs.

UPDATE: I think I solved the issue the right sidebar in Safari. Can someone with IE5/6 chime in and let me know how it looks? Also, if someone wants to let me know how it looks on a mobile device, that’d be great.

• Varsity Blue may or may not be moving venues starting on Monday. I’ll let Paul fill in the gruesome details, since he’s far more knowledgeable on the matter.
• I currently believe that I am going to be unavailable most of the time (as I was last weekend, hence the inconsistency in posting).
• With the season over, there is little to post about, and I think it’s time to take a little break from scraping together content.

That said, the Big Ten Recruiting Class Rankings that are typically posted on Saturdays will make their tomorrow afternoon. Friday Night Lights (the final substantive update of the year) will appear on Monday. There may be a post or two shuffled in today or tomorrow as well, but no guarantees.

There are a few season-wrapup posts that I’m planning on making, and some reasons to be optimistic (or otherwise) going into 2009. On top of those, I’ll look at the similarities and differences between Michigan’s 2008 season and some struggles by other programs in the recent past.

Once all that is through, it’s time to delve (even deeper than normal) into recruiting. For the sake of consistent content, I’m going to start mixing 2009 and 2010 recruiting updates together, and having a singular “Recruiting Update” post that fills both categories. I’m also going to change up the style of the posts as well, so there is more information in the posts instead of “player name – brief with link” repetition.

The new recruiting posts will be published as they fill up, rather than being locked into any particular day. My prediction is that this will lead to more recruiting information. In addition, there will be more recruiting posts that are a little more than just updating the statuses of particular players.

And of course, as always, I welcome your mailbag questions, so send them in to the e-mail address on the right.

Speaking of Friday Night Lights, by the time you read this, it is highly likely that we are in Youngstown to see Fitzgerald Toussaint, Isaiah Bell, and the rest of the Liberty Leopards as they face off against Warren Howland. Full report, of course, included when we get around to posting early next week.

We’ll be back as soon as possible, and in the meantime, Go Blue!

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a ridiculously long post I’ve been working on for OSU week. Since the PSU portion of the story is both very long and relevant to this week’s game, I’ve decided to post it as a standalone.

October 14, 2006 provided a roadtrip opportunity. We left for State College on Thursday night, so Danny could visit his girlfriend, a freshman at Penn State. By the time we got there, it was nearly midnight, so we dropped off Danny and his friend, then Paul and I explored the campus a bit, and paid way too much for one night in a hotel.

The next day, we were completely free from responsibility. We explored the town, bought Penn State gear (I’m an avid collector of any and all college merchandise), went for a ride on the Nittany Lion (a phrase which here means “sat on a stationary statue”), and generally took in the Penn State experience. It is at this time that I should probably recommend against going to an away game 40+ hours before it starts unless you have something or someone to see there, or are 21.

That night, Paternoville was certainly an experience itself, and the atmosphere among the student body was awesome. Of course, a friendly PSU fan offered me a paper plate to tape over the Michigan decal on the back of my car, to avoid getting all my windows broken. After failing to find a random couch to stay on (are there even house parties at Penn State?), we found a parking lot that didn’t seem to be a towing threat, tilted the seats in my car back, and slept. When we woke up the next morning, we found my passenger seat permanently reclined. This was a bad omen.

Fortunately for us, Penn State’s media relations office had furnished us with a parking pass. Unfortunately for us, their instructions on reaching the parking lot were something short of “subpar.” After finally dealing with myriad parking lot attendants, we left the car in the Black Lot and trudged back to the dorms. Once there, we snagged something to eat in a food court (all the while managing to avoid being stabbed by Chris Baker) and camped out on a couple of couches in a common room. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, catching up on sleep from the previous night, the games that we watched are kind of hazy. I remember seeing Indiana shock Iowa, diminishing the importance of our tilt against the Hawkeyes the following week. Whatever, I guess it would be that much easier to focus on tonight’s game.

As we left the commons area, I stripped off my Penn State sweatshirt, under which I had been wearing a maize Michigan shirt all along (take that, punks!). After revealing to the unwitting Nittany Lions all around me that I had been nothing more than a mole from the beginning, I became the recipient of all sorts of “friendly trash talk,” a phrase which here means “death threats.” On the death march back to my car, one thing really struck me: the Penn State fans had no doubt that they would win this game. Perhaps it’s just a difference between the fan bases, but I think the general tailgating attitude in Ann Arbor is mortal fear (or this year, resignation), especially when facing a more-highly ranked team that didn’t get housed by Notre Dame (Zing!). If I could extract that excitement from their fan base without getting the “threatening asshole” factor, I would certainly love to inject it into Michigan fans. There was no sense of entitlement, just excitement leading to confidence.

After changing into Official Media Costumes and arriving at the empty stadium, I took some time to snap a few glamour shots of the Beav. Beaver may be one of the most minor league hockey-like venues in the conference (of course, it doesn’t hold a candle to Sparty’s eye lasers), but the facility itself is nothing short of impressive. I’m not one for electronic music, especially when said music is “Zombie Nation,” and the pump-up videos on the board were bordering on brutally cheesy, but there are certainly aspects of the game experience that are redeeming. The inside of the stadium (you know, the part that doesn’t look like an erector set) is certainly one of them.

The students started to filter in before the rest of the fans. This took place two hours before the game started. Every single one was wearing white. Are you taking notes Michigan students? Be more like that. Always. The white-out was in full force. Like I had been weeks earlier against Notre Dame, I was on the sidelines. This time, I knew I wasn’t alone. Mike, Adrian, and Alan were definitely there. Steve Breaston may have been the unsung hero of the game (as he was for much of the 2006 season). Though the defense played well, I managed to hear a spirited Ron English rip into them at halftime. They responded.

The details have faded with time, but I remember the sense of elation once more, as the visiting fan section celebrated following the win. Danny was equal parts confused and excited. After Notre Dame, I couldn’t stop smiling for a week. Again, I was ecstatic on the drive home. This time, it was too long, and I was too tired to smile the whole way.

This afternoon, Paul will post the podcast, in which I talked to Dan Kukla of The Miami Student. Maybe it will assuage a few fears about this weekend’s games.

Also, Coach Rodriguez announced at his press conference yesterday afternoon that the Taylor Hill transfer is indeed going to happen. Also reported is that Marcus Witherspoon will not join the team this year (or ever). Eligibility Chart updated accordingly.

Ed. Note: I think there are only 19 scholarships available so far, but math tells me 20. Am I missing on somewhere (nested note: I’m not counting Sheridan or Lopata, et al, who will have renewal on a by-year basis).

• Recruiting Updates will now be relegated to one day a week, which I have yet to definitively determine. However, I am contemplating making Saturday morning posts dedicated to the Friday night performances of Michigan commits. Thoughts?
• I will be posting a draft BlogPoll ballot for commenting on Mondays, then the final ballot on Wednesdays.
• The podcast will be switching from Sunday to a time late in the week. The new focus of it will be previewing the upcoming opponent. Tomorrow, the podcast will feature our guest Tony Pizza, live from Salt Lake City, Utah (by which I mean “recorded yesterday from Salt Lake City, Utah”).
• I’m thinking about posting a new video feature each week that will be called “Inside the Play.” It will be an in-depth breakdown of one notable play from the game in the preceding week. All in favor? Opposed?
• I will also (possibly) be trading posts once a week with our colleagues/rivals at Buckeye Commentary. More details on that forthcoming.

If you have any requests for features you’d like to see on a weekly basis, let me know in the comments.

Anyway, look forward to the Wildcats preview later today, and hang on tight, because the fun is really about to begin.