MELBOURNE, Australia -- The scene couldn’t have been further from Michigan’s famed “Big House” stadium that is regularly packed with 100,000-plus screaming Wolverines fans.
No, this was a windswept, suburban Australian Rules Football oval on the outer fringes of Melbourne.
Sandwiched between a busy highway and a construction site, the oval -- Heatherbrae Reserve, to be specific -- was the venue for the Michigan satellite camp, the first of its kind ever held in Australia.
The Wolverines coaches arrived in Melbourne following a similar camp in Samoa, breaking new ground in the hope of unearthing a diamond in the rough (and, of course, spreading the Michigan brand).