Hockey-izing. Michigan takes on Michigan State in a home-and-home this weekend and desperately needs a sweep to keep on any sort of pace for the NCAA tournament. Fortunately, Michigan State looks far more obliging this year when it comes to that sort of thing:

MSU is 10th place in the CCHA with an overall record of 4-9-3 and a conference record of 2-6-2-2. They haven't won a game since Halloween night when they beat WMU 3-1. Since then they lost seven in a row, bookended by two ties. Before exploding for four goals in a 4-4 tie against Minnesota, the Spartans had scored 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 goal in their last seven games. It's like they're starting Billy Sauer in net every night. They've scored more than 2 goals just three times this season.

Hogan will play Friday and if things go well is expected to get the start Saturday.

If you're interested in going to Munn, there are huge numbers of tickets still available. I will be in attendance.

Looking a little farther down the road than this weekend: Matt Rust and Aaron Palushaj have been selected to the USA World Junior Championship team and will miss the GLI. Michigan takes on Tech in the first round and either State or North Dakota in the second. Also, Steve Kampfer's return looks to be sooner than anyone expected:

Junior defenseman Steve Kampfer is back skating with the team and could return by the Great Lakes Invitational according to The Wolverine.  Kampfer had said a few weeks ago that he was about a month from being full strength and that any decision to return to the team was in the hands of head coach Red Berenson.

That would put his return in early January, which would be great. Given Michigan's scoring struggles it also might mean a return of Chris Summers to forward.

Scapegoatin'? People have been muttering about a potential change at defensive coordinator ever since Justin Siller turned Michigan's secondary into Swiss cheese, and this might be an indication the mutterings have some validity:

Miami (OH): We hear that Michigan defensive coordinator Scott Shafer is interested in the Miami (OH) head coaching position.

That's from "Football Scoop," which is a website I've never heard of and may not be credible. I tend to give any site that reports on the fate of schools from Michigan to Eureka College the benefit of the doubt.

There have been some rumors—nothing solid—suggesting that Shafer was not likely to be back next year; this could be a symptom of that. For the record, I remain ambivalent about a potential change.

Rick Leach. No one in associated with the program has been more publicly supportive of Rich Rodriguez than Rick Leach, and here's another example:

“I’ll make you a promise before I go,” he said. “My promise to you is, I know that day’s coming. Maybe you had your fun and got your pound of flesh out of Michigan after 33 years. I don’t care if it’s Mark Dantonio, Charlie Weis or - you better believe it - Jim Tressel. Your freakin’ day is coming.”

This will draw immediate comparisons to Charlie Weis' statement last year that people should "have their fun now" (or, if you're Syracuse, in the future) but here it's a loose cannon ex-quarterback and not, like, the freakin' head coach.

Not a good week for Michigan State receivers. Remember Charles Rogers? Yeah:

Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Charles Rogers is being held in the Oakland County Jail on $100,000 bond for a probation violation.

Jail records show the 28-year-old Rogers has been locked up since Wednesday.

I still think Plaxico wins.