Daily Brews: Inside Dax Hill’s flip back to Michigan from Alabama

Tomorrow is a Michigan Football game day. You’re pumped. But we need to find a way to whet your appetite and hold you over. That’s where the Brews come in. Let’s go!

Inside Dax Hill’s re-commitment to Michigan

The Michigan Insider posted an excerpt of John U. Bacon’s Overtime, which is set to release on Sept. 3, with another interesting nugget of information, this time in the form of the Dax Hill decommitment/recommitment to Michigan.

For the uninitiated, the five-star safety committed to Michigan last fall, but after the end of the regular season decommitted and flipped to Alabama. What happened next may go down as one of the biggest shocks in Michigan recruiting history, when he quietly recommitted to Jim Harbaugh in an announcement that nobody had until it was announced on Signing Day.

We’ll join in on the excerpt where Hill realizes flipping to Alabama may have been a mistake.

‘“Coach, I made a mistake. I apologize. I’m so sorry. I do not want to decommit. This is my home. I don’t know what I was thinking. I want to come to Michigan.”

Moore, an even- keeled man, was on the verge of tears. He asked Hill, “Can I tell Coach Harbaugh, and everybody else?”

When Hill said sure, Moore sprinted upstairs to share the good news. But how should Hill handle the switch back? If he announced it, he would generate even more attention— the last thing he wanted.

Michigan’s staff and the Hills decided to “let sleeping dogs lie,” Dudek recalled. “We’ve already taken the knock. No reason to put the wolves on Daxton and make it worse.”

They kept Hill’s flip-back a secret, leaving him to announce his final decision on signing day. In the meantime someone at Michigan talked to Hill every day, and Harbaugh and Chris Partridge flew to his home the day before signing day and stayed as long as they could.”

Hill is currently Michigan’s fourth or fifth safety on the roster as he continues to learn the nuances of the position in Don Brown’s defense. He will also get time on special teams.

Joel Klatt believes it will get ugly at Michigan if 2019 fails

Well, yeah.

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt believes that if Michigan cannot find a way to get past Ohio State and win the Big Ten in 2019, the pitchforks will be coming out. Which, we have already pretty well established as something the fanbase will do.

“I’ve put Michigan ahead of Ohio State at least in my poll (rankings),” Klatt said. “Because, and you have to contextualize this a little bit even further, it’s not just that (former Ohio State coach) Urban Meyer is gone. This is the first time that we’ve seen this, in college football history, a team and a program lose a guy that has won 90 percent of his games at a school, and a first-round draft choice at quarterback in Dwayne Haskins, and a defensive coordinator and, by the way just to throw out on top of that, Ohio State has lost the most first-round defensive players over the last four years in college football.

”So if Michigan does not beat Ohio State this year, there’s no more excuses.”

I will say this. Klatt underestimates our ability to make excuses. This fanbase always finds a way.

Coaches with ties to Michigan debut

You are not going to get a film study on any of these, but some interesting news and notes to drop the nonetheless.

Former Michigan wide receivers coach Jim McElwain made his coaching debut up the road at Central Michigan University on Thursday night (editor’s note: Fire Up Chips!), winning his first game in Mt. Pleasant over Albany by a score of 38-21. His starting quarterback is former Tennessee signal-caller Quinten Dormady, who finished the night with 285 yards and three touchdowns. McElwain has a big rebuild on his hands, but started his head coaching revival on a high note.

Elsewhere, former Michigan teammates squared off down at Bowling Green with the Falcons and first-year head coach Scot Loeffler beating Morgan State, coached by Tyrone Wheatley in his debut with the team, by a score of 46-3. A little Thursday night Wolverine-on-Wolverine crime.

National Brews

• Defensive end Ron Johnson, who transferred out of Michigan this offseason, will not be playing for Rutgers this season after all after committing to the program in the summer. He was unable to meet the academic requirements needed. No word yet on what his next move could.
• We discussed the Brock Hoffman situation at Virginia Tech earlier this week and ESPN’s SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt tackled the issue in a way only he could. Agree with him 100 percent.
• Duke announced its jersey combo for its game against Alabama this weekend in a tease that makes me want NCAA Football back as a video game like, immediately.

Have a safe and joyous holiday weekend, folks. Come hang out with us at Circ Bar before the Michigan game on Saturday and get some beer in your belly and a Maize n Brew t-shirt to cover it up with.