The Wolverine Magazine excerpts (actual football stuff)

So I buy The Wolverine magazine's season preview every year, and it's always excellent.  This year's edition is no exception.  But this isn't about the season preview, it's about the September 2012 issue that just came out a week or so ago.  You see I went ahead and got the subscription because it's pretty sweet.  Here are some excerpts of said sweetness that I thought I could share with the board...

• This year's opener against Alabama is the first time we've been in a Top 10 vs. Top 10 match-up in the opener since 1992 against ND (they #3, we were #6)
• Jordan Kovacs needs 34 tackles to become the first Wolverine defensive back in school history to amass 300 tackles in a career.  Like, ever.  In 133 years.
• They have a Magnus-style list of top impact players for 2012, a sampling: 3. Kovacs, 5. Schofield, 10. Jake Ryan, 15. Blake Countess, 16. JT Floyd, 23. Stephen Hopkins
• 5 Freshmen most likely to play?  Funchess is #2, Pipkins is #4
• Gardner switched from #7 to #12 for reasons that remain between he and coach Hoke (not a teaser, he doesn't say so in the magazine either)
• Back-ups to Brennen Beyer? Tom Strobel is practicing at WDE along with Mario Ojemudia
• 2011 Brink vs. 2012 Burzynski hype is probably about 5 parts to 4
• So they did a little poll of 16 players at Media Day.  Who's the team's predicted breakout player?  Gerald Robinson (hmm... just like that ESPN poll of outgoing seniors last year)
• Our old friend Tim Sullivan has another great piece on our awesome recruiting, including a look at decommitments of the past.  Remember these and heartbreak no longer: Caleb Stacey, Tony Drake, Jordan Barnes, and Shavodrick Beaver are all out of football.
  • Bonus 2013 recruiting awesomeness: "When Derrick (Green) first walked into the Big House, I was standing there. He said, 'Man you're a real big dude,'" Tuley-Tillman said with a laugh.  "I said, 'Wait until you see the rest of us. There's three more of me upstairs.' We had an amazing time together."
• BONUS 2012 PREVIEW ISSUE material, in which this statement is made: "Jake Ryan has star potential and will be expected to vie for tackles for loss records... that's how much confidence the defensive coaches have in him."
• BONUS OMG WILL CAMPBELL 2012 PREVIEW ISSUE material: "I was really big when I first got here, 356 pounds, and when you're taller it's harder to bend your knees so you have to overcompensate at your waist, and when your gut is in the way, you can't bend over," he said.  "So for me, I needed to get my weight down.  I needed to get rid of my gut."  The gut is gone.  Come on baby.
• BONUS 2012 PREVIEW ISSUE material ALL OF THE KOVACSES: "When you talk about a Michigan defensive football player, embodying everything you want, he's who I think of.  A guy that comes to work every day and plays as hard as he can.  That studies football.  That is a team player.  That is tough.  All of it.  I wish I had 11 Jordan Kovacses." - Greg Mattison

Again it's a great magazine, and this is just a fraction of what's inside each.  Preview issue was $12.95, last month's issue was $3.95.  Hopefully they don't mind the brief content and the plug, though mods do what you will if inappropriate.  Just trying to share some football.