Tuesday Morning Brews: Paradise lost

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. With the offseason decidedly upon us, there’s not much going on in the world of Michigan football. This morning we have the University confirming the hiring of Dan Enos and a recruiting tidbit. We also check in with women’s basketball, men’s basketball, and wrestling—yes, wrestling.

This offseason is going to be different. Right about now we would normally be gearing up for a major push to National Signing Day in February. But with the majority of recruits signing during the early period in December, including 16 members of Michigan’s 2018 class, it’s hard to tell what January has in store for us. This is new ground for us all and we’ll be figuring it out together, so stay tuned to Maize N Brew.

Without further ado, let’s get to it:

Michigan has officially confirmed the hiring of Dan Enos to be an offensive assistant on Jim Harbaugh’s staff. Most recently, Enos spent three years as the OC and QBs coach for Bret Bielema at Arkansas. He is the second former Arkansas coach that Michigan has hired this offseason (the other being strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert). Before his time at Arkansas, Enos was the head coach at Central Michigan for five seasons, coached QBs and RBs at Michigan State, and coached QBs at Cincinnati. He played his college ball at Michigan State, starting at QB for two seasons between 1987 and 1991.

Two days ago Kenyatta Watson shook up his recruitment by decommitting from Florida State. The 2019 four-star recruit is once again a free agent, and he holds offers from the best of the Big Ten, SEC, and ACC, and then about 22 other schools, too. The 6’2” 177 lbs prospect checks in as the No. 13 safety and No. 213 overall recruit. He recently told Brice Marich of 247 Sports ($), “I am interested in visiting (Michigan), but just don’t have a date to do so yet.” Keep an eye on this one, and check out Brice’s report above for the full scoop ($).

No. 10 Ohio State came to Ann Arbor on Sunday to face Kim Barnes Arico’s No. 22 Wolverines. It was a bruising, back-and-forth game, but eventually Michigan ran out of gas. Ohio State jumped out to a 24-18 lead after the first quarter, but Michigan responded by outscoring Ohio State 11-6 in a second quarter largely devoid of offense. Michigan tied it up after the third quarter, and Ohio State got a late bucket in the fourth to force overtime. The Buckeyes doubled up the Wolverines 14-7 in the overtime period to come away with the 7-point win. Michigan was led by Hallie Thome with 27 pts. and Katelynn Flaherty with 22 pts. The Wolverines will be back in action tomorrow evening against Indiana.

Jordan Poole saw Isaiah Livers cutting to the rim on Saturday afternoon, and he knew just what to do. The dynamic duo may just be freshmen, but they’re making an impact in their inaugural campaign. Poole has played in 15 of 17 games so far, and he owns the fifth highest scoring average on the team with 6.4 ppg. Livers has played in all 17 games, and he’s contributing an average of 4.1 ppg. These totals may not hold a candle to Charles Matthews’ 15.6 ppg, but the potential of Poole and Livers is plain to see. For more on the duo, check out the profile above.

I don’t think I have ever written about wrestling before, but Michigan is off to a fast start this season. This past weekend the No. 8 Wolverines topped No. 23 Purdue by the score of 25-15. Michigan then completed the weekend sweep by besting Princeton 28-10. Wrestling is 5-1 on the season, with their only loss coming to No. 10 Lehigh back in November. Michigan also finished 2nd out of 46 schools earlier this year at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The team will be back in action this Friday against No. 1 Penn State.