Thursday Morning Brews: Grab bag

Happy Thursday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. The looming prime time matchup with Penn State is being covered with reckless abandon by sportswriters, and that’s sure to not stop ‘til it’s over. As a result, there isn’t really one particular item of news that I want to riff on this morning, so today’s edition will be similar to the link roundups of yore. This morning we have the new mini-movie from the Indiana week, an interview with new Michigan hockey head man Mel Pearson, and more.

Since it’s Thursday, there is a song referenced in this morning’s Brews. Clues may be words, phrases, or photos and may reference lyrics, the title, the album, or the artist. When you put all the clues together, you should be able to identify the song and artist. Fire away down in the comments section with your guesses. I will also give you a hint: today’s song is much, much more recent than every other song used so far.

Let’s get to it:

This first link is the aforementioned mini-movie from Indiana week. The video opens with players discussing the loss to Michigan State and how they nonetheless need to be ready to go against Indiana. One of the early highlights of this week’s installment is Don Brown giving his pregame speech, telling the defense that Indiana must feel them (and presumably their intensity and so forth). Karan Higdon’s TD runs also feature in prominently.

Michigan hockey has its home opener tomorrow against Vermont. It will be the first game at Yost for Michigan’s new, but familiar, head man Mel Pearson. He was a long time assistant to former Michigan coach Red Berenson, before striking out on his own to start his head coaching career. When Berenson retired after last season, Pearson was viewed as a natural replacement. Despite a slowing of the Wolverines’ on-ice success in recent years, there were still plenty of Michigan players that went on to play in the NHL. Players like Dylan Larkin, Zach Werenski, Kyle Connor, and Jake Johnson are all contributing to their respective clubs. While Pearson seeks to return Michigan to the Frozen Four, it’s also incumbent upon him to keep player development strong. For more on Michigan’s new head man, check out the interview linked above.

Nick Baumgardner over at the Detroit Free Press has a new series where he interviews former Michigan center Jack Miller each week to get the perspective of a former player. What’s Miller’s take on the team and season so far? “So, reality is, you have a scrappy team. A team full of guys with loads and loads of potential and very little experience. It’s not all that unrealistic to think that if you’re going to win games (ugly).” Miller also said, “Right now, it is John O’Korn’s team. I don’t think people want to make the same mistake of going down that road that we went down when Wilton wasn’t playing all that well in some people’s eyes of ‘why isn’t O’Korn in there?’” For more, click on the link above.

In a bit of recruiting news, Michigan target and current Tennessee commit Shocky Jacues-Louis has commented on the potential turmoil with the Volunteers’ coaching staff. If you have missed this particular storyline so far this season, Tennessee is struggling and Butch Jones may be on his way out. If Jacues-Louis does decommit, expect Michigan to make a push. On the Wolverines, Shocky said following his visit earlier this month, “Michigan was lovely. I didn’t know it was a committable offer, but Coach [Jim] Harbaugh made it very sure that it was a committable offer. I had plenty of fun, and coach Harbaugh is a really cool due [sic].” Keep an eye on this one going forward.

Penn State are the betting favorites going into Saturday’s game, but it appears that plenty of money is coming in on Michigan. The SBN CFB site points out that the line has fallen by three points since it was announced, and Penn State is now only a single digit favorite. For a betting preview of Saturday’s game and a breakdown of how each team has performed against the spread in recent history, check out the link above. Also check out our very own Von Lozon’s take on the betting lines around the Big Ten each week.

With the basketball season fast approaching, single-game tickets will be going on sale soon. Tomorrow, in fact. The highlights of the home schedule include Indiana (Dec. 2), UCLA (Dec. 9), Purdue (Jan. 9), Maryland (Jan. 15), Ohio State (Feb. 18), and more. With all the new faces on Michigan’s roster, the team will look considerably different than it has in years past. Our way too early conference predictions from August picked the Wolverines to finish third, behind Michigan State and Minnesota.