Tuesday Morning Brews: This Must be the Place

I’m going to start off this morning’s brews on a personal note, as you may have noticed that I’m not Nick. Over the past three years and roughly 7,500 comments on MnB, the thought of helping out in some capacity has crossed my mind a handful of times. Last week, Nick and I were in similar frames of mind and I agreed to join up. This is going to be a new experience for me, as my background is in law, not journalism. Nonetheless, I’m excited to be here and to get started with this new endeavor. To that end, I ask for patience - as I will certainly have a learning curve to navigate.

I would also like to take Morning Brews in a slightly different direction. There will continue to be links, blurbs, and tweets as normal, but I would like these to be a starting point for discussion and participation in the comments section. If you have seen something relevant that I have missed, feel free to post it in the comments. If you have an idea that isn’t formed enough for a fanpost, post it in the comments. If you want to talk about anything tangentially related to Michigan athletics (any of the teams), feel free to post it in the comments. I’d like Morning Brews to be a twice-weekly place where we can talk about anything Michigan or B1G sports related. Something of a twice-weekly open thread, if you will.

With that being said, let’s hit the links:

Minnesota found their new Head Football Coach in PJ Fleck. The charismatic character who took Western Michigan to the Cotton Bowl will certainly bring an air of excitement to TCF Bank Stadium not seen since Coach Kill stepped down due to health reasons in October 2015. Fleck inherits a program that went 9-4 last year and beat Washington State in the Holiday Bowl.

Classes for Michigan undergrads resumed on January 4th and, with the conclusion of the Army All-American Game over the weekend, all 2017 Early Enrollees are now on campus. Michigan is taking eleven early enrollees: Donovan Peoples-Jones, Ambry Thomas, Corey Malone-Hatcher, Benjamin St. Juste, Donovan Jeter, J’Marick Woods, Ben Mason, Cesar Ruiz, Jaylen Kelly-Powell, and Tarik Black.

The Army All-American Game also saw Michigan receive a key commitment, and narrowly miss out on another. Chuck Filiaga committed to play his college ball for Coach Harbaugh during the second quarter of Saturday’s game. Ranked in the 247 Composite Top 100, Filiaga is a 6’6” 335 lb 4-star offensive tackle that figures to make some noise on the depth chart right away. As the weekend wore on, so did the Najee Harris sweepstakes. The country’s #1 recruit held the recruiting world hostage by declining to publicly make a decision between Alabama and Michigan leading up to and during the Army All-American Game. However, a resolution was reached on Sunday afternoon as Harris arrived at Birmingham airport and communicated his intention to enroll at Alabama.

The Michigan world still waits for a decision from Jabrill Peppers. The electric do-it-all athlete wowed us at a variety of positions on the field during 2016. Peppers was a Heisman Finalist and is projected to be selected in the middle of the first round should he decide to declare for the draft. Peppers has until January 16th to declare for the draft. He would then have a three day window during which he could change his mind and return to school.

In a recruitment that now features as many twists and turns as Najee Harris’, Michigan is back in play for 5* DE Aubrey Solomon reports Sam Webb ($). Solomon recently drew the ire of the Michigan faithful for a video in which he said “F—- Michigan.” Solomon promptly apologized both publicly to Michigan fans and privately to Michigan coaches. Since that incident, contact between the two has continued and Michigan now looks poised to factor into his decision - which seemed an impossibility a short time ago. This would seem to be an appropriate time to issue the first of many reminders to NOT tweet recruits leading up to National Signing Day on February 1st.

That puts a wrap on my inaugural Brews. See something you liked? See something you didn’t like? Want to see more of something? Sound off in the comments below.