Thursday Morning Brews: The deuce

Happy Thursday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. We have a mix of football and non-rev. content this morning to help ease your way closer to another Michigan football game.

As usual, there is a song referenced in this morning’s article. There are at least two clues. Clues may be words, phrases, or photos, and may reference lyrics, the artist, or the album. If you think you know this morning’s song, fire away down in the comments.

Let’s get to it:

Saturday is the Military Appreciation Game. This Saturday Michigan will be honoring military veterans, active service members, and their families. Among the festivities will be a flyover of two F-35A Lightning II aircraft at the conclusion of the national anthem. Other festivities include the USMC Drill Platoon performing at halftime and veterans and service members participating in the pre-game national anthem.

Men’s soccer tops Marquette. Men’s soccer has begun the season on the right foot, winning four straight games after an opening loss to Tulsa. Over the past week, the Wolverines have bested Western Michigan by the score of 3-2 (OT) before blanking Marquette, 3-0. The Wolverines are now 4-1 on the season, after having gone 12-6-1 last year. The team opens their Big Ten season tomorrow evening against Rutgers.

Athletic department creates new “Champions Fund”. According to a University press release, the athletic department has inaugurated a new fund, “that will allow Michigan to retain its standing as one of the top college athletic programs in the nation.” The fund is designed to support counseling services, career and leadership development, nutrition, athletic medicine, strength and conditioning, international travel, and recruiting. Additional details can be found HERE.

Ambry Thomas jacked to be playing offense. It appears that Michigan fans weren’t the only ones who wanted to see Ambry Thomas get snaps on the offensive side of the ball; Thomas wanted to play there, too. Of being on offense, he recently said, “I just like knowing you have the opportunity to change the game if you get the ball in your hands. That’s something that’s really exciting to me. In a clutch position, in a clutch spot, (if) we need to score, I feel comfortable with our offense and our play-calling.” For more check out the latest from Orion Sang linked above.

You don’t often seen young guys being the voice of reason, but Shea Patterson wants the Michigan faithful to chill a little bit after the Wolverines’ first two games of the season. Appearing on 97.1 FM, Patterson asked for patience and said the team had already learned from their disappointing start against Notre Dame. Patterson said, “You do one of two things after a tough loss like that: you can think about it for the whole week and let it carry over to the next game, or put it behind you and get better. I think we did a good job of coming in on Sunday, watching film and getting better, practicing hard all week, and it paid off.” For the full story, check out the article from Aaron McMann above.

College football, and football in general for that matter, can get a bad rap these days. It’s a physical, violent game where sometimes people get hurt, sometimes critically. Add that aspect to some of the controversies swirling around the NFL and it’s easy to be down on the game. Well, here’s the University of Tennessee showing how sports can lift people up by offering free tickets to those who are fleeing the path of Hurricane Florence. UT’s AD said in a press release, “if we can provide just a few hours of distraction and normalcy for these families, I believe we should do all we can to make that possible for them.” Go Vols.