Tuesday Morning Brews: Train rolls on

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. Those of us on the East Coast are in for a wet week as Hurricane Florence bears down on us, but for the time being the forecast for Michigan’s game against SMU on Saturday looks clear. This morning in the Brews we have a mix of both football and non-football related content.

Let’s get to it:

Wolverines are BIG favorites over SMU. After being favored by nearly four TDs, or more than four TDs depending on where you looked, against Western Michigan last week, Michigan has another big line to live up to this week. The Wynn opened the Wolverines as 32-point favorites over SMU, and the line moved all the way to 35 points within the first hour. For comparison, WMU was ranked No. 107 in the S&P+ last week while SMU is currently ranked No. 116. Giddy up.

Field hockey wins back-to-back games. Field hockey had an interesting week, winning both of their games by the same score—2-1, in overtime. On Friday, the Wolverines took on Pacific and Emma Way played the hero by netting the game winner 1:43 into the overtime period. On Sunday, Michigan took on Monmouth and Emma Way sealed the deal again just 1:43 into the overtime period. The Wolverines are now 3-3 on the season and will be back in action against Rutgers on Friday.

Volleyball’s streak rolls on. Volleyball has played nine games so far this season, and they’ve swept opposing teams nine times. It’s possible that volleyball simply can’t lose at this point. But in all seriousness, Michigan’s streak has kept rolling on the hardwood. In the Michigan Challenge, the Wolverines swept Oakland, LSU, and Colorado State. Michigan will be back in action against Notre Dame this weekend for a home-and-home on Friday and Sunday.

Solomon and Marshall could return any week. At least that’s what Harbaugh said during his press conference yesterday. Nick Baumgardner quotes Harbaugh as saying with respect to Aubrey Solomon and Lawrence Marshall, “I can’t really put a time on it. They’re getting into the category of questionable. Week to week.” While that’s all well and good for the non-Notre Dame portion of the team’s non-conference schedule, I think the defense could need these two up front by time the Wolverines get into the heart of the Big Ten schedule.

Shea Patterson’s debut in the Big House was a long time coming. How long? Since he was a kid, he used to dream about playing QB for the Michigan Wolverines. Patterson told MGoBlue, “Dad would sit next to me and tell a story about how we would be in the stands, and one of the quarterbacks went down and the coach would call for the next quarterback, but didn’t have a backup. My dad would whisper, ‘And the crowd calls for the Shea Man.’ That was my nickname when I was little.” If you have the time to the full profile above, I recommend it.

One of the more undersung members of the sportswriting business are photographers. They mostly stand on the periphery of the sidelines, and you see their work everywhere—like the main image for this article—but they’re somehow not as prominent as the folks who write articles. The Michigan sports world is fortunate to have several talented photographers roaming the sidelines of football and basketball games, so check out Dustin Johnson who shoots for MnB during the football season and will be posting a weekly photo gallery after home games and Mike Mulholland of MLive in the tweet above.