Big Ten Football Morning Coffee: Will It Be a Rough Road for Michigan in 2012?

Rise and shine, friends. Here's what's going down in the Big Ten today.

— The guys at AnnArbor.com wonder aloud whether Michigan can win more than half of its six games away from the Big House in 2012, and set the over/under for road wins (including the trip to Dallas to play Alabama) at 3.5. We don't want to go spoiling the answer for you, but it rhymes with "blunder."

— The inimitable Sara Ganim of the Patriot-News noticed that the Freeh report on Penn State had a vastly more comprehensive look at Penn State's failures than what the state of Pennsylvania concluded in its case against Jerry Sandusky, even though the state had subpoena power and Freeh didn't. One key piece of the puzzle: the prosecutor was a Paterno loyalist. So, yeah. 

— BTN's Tom Dienhart listed the top newcomers at each Big Ten school, and his choices are pretty solid. Some are obvious, like Danny O'Brien at Wisconsin and DeAnthony Arnett at Michigan State, but Dienhart correctly notes the strides made in camp by freshmen Joe Bolden at Michigan and Taylor Decker at Ohio State. You'll be seeing both of those guys this fall.

— Northwestern comes in at No. 59 on Pre-Snap Read's annual preseason team rankings. Money quote: "It is therefore not a far stretch to call Fitzgerald, as both a player and a coach, the most important figure in the history of Northwestern football." And yes, Paul Myerberg fully backs that statement up. Well worth a read.