For 10 weeks, the Michigan Wolverines have gone out and taken care of business. Just one more game awaits before the highly anticipated showdown in Columbus, with the Illinois Fighting Illini coming to Ann Arbor. A bit of the shine has fallen off this matchup after a pair of Illini losses, as the Big Ten West crown has all but slipped away for the visitors.
Jim Harbaugh has not had any trouble in pre-Ohio State tune-ups since taking over. His only loss directly preceding The Game came in 2017, when a bad Michigan team lost to a top-five Wisconsin squad, so narratives about overlooking teams like Indiana, Maryland, or now Illinois, have never materialized into anything.