Stories by Zach Helfand
When he’s not a Tootsie Pop or an extra terrestrial, Jake Ryan is a defensive playmaker
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
If you listen to his teammates and coaches, Jake Ryan is many things. He’s been a skinny defensive back in high school and a sturdy outside linebacker at Michigan. He’s been called goofy and a free spirit, simultaneously a football savant and an airhead. He’s also a chocolate-filled lollipop.
Zach Helfand: Out of the desert, Michigan feasts on Big Ten bounty
- Todd Needle/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
WEST LAFAYETTE — Welcome to the place where interceptions fall into Michigan hands as if dropped from a cloud. Where the Michigan linemen can dictate games. Where good just might be good enough.
After wandering for four games in the non-conference desert, Michigan can finally see the promised land. Football fans, welcome to the 2012 Big Ten.
Breakdown: Michigan will answer questions against Purdue
- Adam Glanzman/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
Things happen when you’re a football team with a .500 record or when you’ve committed six turnovers in your most recent game. Things like being just a three-point favorite against Purdue.
Slippery Rock officials say they are exploring a football game at Michigan Stadium
- Patrick Barron/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — Slippery Rock, the Division II school whose football team’s scores are announced at Michigan home games, has engaged in discussions with the Michigan Athletic Department about playing a football game at Michigan Stadium, according to multiple sources at the school.
‘Unbelievably high’ number of missed assignments plague ‘M’
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
The worst part of film study, Jordan Kovacs said, is when you know you messed up. Those glaring missed assignments, when you should’ve done one thing but did the other, and all you can manage now is to pray the coaches stop the film.
Notebook: Michigan, Big Ten, fighting perception of decline
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
Redshirt junior safety Thomas Gordon answered as he was supposed to, as he’d learned through osmosis from Michigan coach Brady Hoke. With two losses already this season, has Michigan taken a step back from last year?
For Robinson's friends and family, a familiar memory, then silence
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
SOUTH BEND — Durrel Robinson came back here on Saturday, back where the legend of his little brother, Denard, began. Now, at halftime, the magic had eluded the younger Robinson, but Durrel wasn’t nervous.
Toussaint will be key to establishing rhythm against Notre Dame
- Adam Glanzman/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
Fitzgerald Toussaint was uncharacteristically gregarious on Tuesday, slapping backs, cracking jokes and smiles. But when the subject of last year’s game against Notre Dame arose, he stiffened.
Five-year old Oklahoman reigns as king of the Big House on Saturday
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
A 5-year old held court in the press box of Michigan Stadium on Saturday. About 15 reporters gathered around Cooper Barton, the boy from Oklahoma City with a thick mane of blonde hair. He wore a painted Wolverine claw and a timid smile on his face and toyed nervously with the thing that got him here in the first place: a Michigan t-shirt.
Breakdown: Michigan should dominate FBS newcomer Massachusetts
- Erin Kirkland/Daily
BY ZACH HELFAND
Three weeks into the season, there are questions surrounding the No. 17 Michigan football team, there’s no denying that. Both lines have been less than Big-Ten worthy, the running backs have hardly shown up at all and the offense still relies all but exclusively on senior quarterback Denard Robinson.
