Tuesday Morning Brews: I believe I can fly

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. After last Saturday’s game, it feels like this team has the “edge” that Michigan hasn’t had in some time. It seems like the kids believe, it seems like Harbaugh has his Stanford/San Francisco swagger back. What does that all mean? I feel back for Rutgers because Saturday could get really ugly.

Let’s get to it:

Volleyball beats No. 5 Wisconsin. Michigan faced off with No. 5 Wisconsin on the hardwood this past Sunday and came away victorious. The Badgers took the first set, 19-25, before the Wolverines took the next three: 25-20, 25-22, and 25-22. The win moves Michigan to 19-6 (8-6) on the season. They’ll be back in action on Wednesday against Maryland.

Men’s soccer tops Penn State for slot in semi-final. The football team weren’t the only Wolverines with a victory over Penn State this past weekend. Men’s soccer was tied 1-1 with Penn State at halftime, but the second half was all Wolverines. Michigan pulled ahead in the 53rd minute and then added a third in the 81st minute. The Wolverines will move on to the Big Ten semi-final next Friday.

Hockey splits the weekend. Two games, two times the victor scored five goals. Unfortunately, Michigan only scored five once this weekend. The Wolverines split their weekend series with Lake Superior State. The Wolverines scored first on Friday, but the Lakers then scored the next four. After trading the next two, Michigan found itself on the wrong side of a 2-5 game. On Saturday, the Wolverines struck back winning 5-3. Mel Pearson’s squad is now 4-3 on the season. They’ll be back in action against Notre Dame next weekend.

It’s hard to describe Michigan as doing anything but emphatically winning the weekend, and SB Nation’s CFB site agrees. On Saturday, Alex Kirshner wrote, “The Wolverines threw Penn State into the wastebasket like almost no one can. In doing so, they got rid of the only possible impediment to a Big Ten East-deciding game against an Ohio State team that has looked way worse than Michigan all season. Michigan should be considered the East favorite and a strong Playoff bet. No one this side of Bama has looked distinctly better.”

We’ll find out where Michigan actually falls in the CFP rankings this evening, but Jason Kirk from the SB Nation mothership offered his thoughts on Sunday afternoon. As you can see in the tweet above, Kirk has Michigan in the No. 3 slot ahead of Notre Dame. Why? Kirk writes, “I think on the year as a whole, Michigan’s already been a better team than Notre Dame has. Plus, looking forward: 13th game, conference title, and so forth.” We’ll see if the committee agrees later today.