2013 big ten media days

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Big Ten Media Days are under way in Chicago, and if you've been watching on the BTN you've already had your fill of questions about Ohio State's discipline and WHY ARE YOU TALKING SO LOUD, TIM BECKMAN. (Beckman: "Huh?")

Anyway, here are the important points from today's breakout session, culled together from the Twitters:

• As posted earlier, LB Antonio Poole's career is over due to injury. He'll be a student assistant this year.
• According to Brady Hoke, all of this year's freshmen have qualified, and aside from Poole all of the returning players are on track to be eligible for fall practice.
• Injury updates: Fitz Toussaint "continues to improve," but still isn't cleared for practice, though they're meeting about that on Monday. Blake Countess, on the other hand, has the green light to practice, and Hoke expects his medical redshirt to be official before the season.
• Taylor Lewan called Ben Braden the "most physically gifted athlete" he's ever seen, and claims that Braden is up to 322 pounds with just 12% body fat, which... yowza.
• As for Lewan himself, he's on a 5,600-calorie diet, with 1,000 calories per day from olive oil — per Chris Balas, he looks to be in the best shape of his life.
• Devin Gardner plans to room with Shane Morris during fall camp and help him deal with the hype and the process of waiting his turn.
• Hoke stands by his comments about Notre Dame "chickening out" of the series, saying, "I know Brian (Kelly) didn't make that decision, and neither did the players on the team."

And here's the full presser transcript from Hoke's turn at the podium, courtesy of the Big Ten and asapsports.com:

THE MODERATOR:  We’re joined by Brady Hoke.
COACH HOKE:  First off, I know we’re all excited that you’re all here and you took the opportunity to travel up here and it’s really an honor and a privilege to represent the University of Michigan and the team 134.
We’ve got 12 days until fall camp, look forward to it.  We’ve had some good things throughout the summer and since we got back from the game with South Carolina a year ago.  Not a year ago, but in January.
We’re a young team.  We’ve got to replace some guys who have been very important to Michigan football.  But with that youth comes a lot of competition, and that competition is always good.
And the expectations, though, never change.  And that’s to win Big Ten championships.
A year ago we were 8 and 5, and that’s unacceptable.  It’s unacceptable at Michigan.  It’s unacceptable for us.
And in those five losses, we had 18 turnovers.  So it tells you a little something that we need to be a little more diligent in taking care of the football.  We need to be a little more diligent in making better decisions.  And those are things that we’ve talked about and we’ve had through spring ball, had a good spring.
I like our football team.  I usually don’t say that.  I said it after the spring.  I will continue to say it because I like how they’ve handled themselves on the field and off the field so far this summer.  I like their work ethic, and I like how they’ve represented Michigan in a lot of ways.
Me liking them doesn’t guarantee us anything, because we have a lot of work ahead of us still.  And at the same time we’ve gotta do a job as coaches to make sure that we are doing everything capable to help our kids perform at a high level.
We’re excited about the season, the challenges that lay ahead.  Questions now?

[Hit THE JUMP for the full transcript.]