Thursday Morning Brews: Moving on Down the Highway

Happy Thursday folks. I’m a little rushed in writing this, so Brews is going to be shorter than usual. And, as a programming note, Nick will be covering Brews for me next week as I’ll be out of town during the middle part of the week. In this morning’s Brews we tee up fall camp, which is just around the corner. We also check in on the assistant coaching search for John Beilein and Michigan basketball. And we wrap up with a look at what Vegas thinks win totals will be for the B1G.

As usual, there is a musical theme to this morning’s Brews. There are at least three clues woven into the article this morning. Clues can be photos, words, or phrases. These clues will combine to reference a song and band. Fire away with guesses down in the comments.

Without further ado, let’s hit the links:

The leaves will soon change colors, the air will soon grow crisp, and, like the north wind whistling down the sky, fall camp is just around the corner. In fact, it starts in 11 days (Jul. 31st) and Jim Harbaugh is ready to get on with it already. Harbaugh recently told Nick Baumgardner, “I'm champing at the bit. Ready to go.” New this year are some additional practice rules. Two-a-days have been banned and athletes must be given one day away from practice per week; both are intended to cut down on injuries.

To compensate, fall camps have been moved up - which is why things get started in late July this year, rather than early to mid-August. On the new rules, Harbaugh said, “You have to adjust out of necessity and that's all happened. The schedule has been made. The practices have been planned out for the next year. All the rules that have been necessary (to follow) have been put in. . . . I think it's common sense and good.” Whether it actually helps the athletes or not remains to be seen. Regardless, everything gets started in 11 days - and that’s something to look forward to.

John Beilein’s assistant coaching staff has seen some turnover this offseason, and the basketball program has been oddly quiet of late. As you may recall, Billy Donlon left for Northwestern where he’ll be coaching with long-time friend Chris Collins. Jeff Meyer left for Butler to coach with former Michigan assistant LaVall Jordan. That leaves Saddi Washington as the lone assistant coach, so obviously Beilein is looking for more.

Regarding the search, Beilein recently said, “I wish I could give you an update, that would mean I'd have it done. I'm still in the process of doing it." Nick Baumgardner is reporting that potential candidates include Charles Thomas, currently at Duquesne, Preston Murphy of Creighton, Bob Simon of Alabama, and Beilein’s son, Patrick, who is currently the head coach at Le Moyne. I’m personally a little surprised that hires haven’t yet been mad, after all it has been a month since Billy Donlon left For Northwestern. But there’s no reason to panic yet. We’ll just have to be patient and see how this one plays out.

CBS Sports is the latest outlet to take a look at Over/Unders on win totals for the B1G. They utilized data from South Point’s sports book, and, don’t worry, I had to google it too. Apparently, South Point is indeed in Vegas but it’s south of the airport. As things stand, Ohio State is at 10.5 wins, Wisconsin is at 10.5 wins, Penn State is at 10 wins, Michigan is at 8.5, Northwestern is at 8.5 wins, and Michigan State is at...5 wins. Tom Fornelli at CBS says he’d take under, under, under, over, under, and over, respectively.

I think Fornelli gets it about right. Ohio State has precisely two difficult games this year. I’d take the over there because I expect they’ll beat Oklahoma and lose to Michigan, for an 11-1 record. I’ll also take the over on Michigan. As I said in the Michigan Sports Roundtable earlier this week, I think Michigan is undervalued by a lot of college football pundits. Yes, there’s a lot of youth there - but there’s also a lot of talent. The question will be how it develops. Where do you think Michigan will end up this year? Weigh in below with your record predictions and down in the comments.