Michigan Football: 3 reasons Wolverines must beat Michigan State

The Wisconsin win won’t mean as much with a loss this week

After dominating Wisconsin 38-13 Saturday night, there is a feeling surrounding the Michigan football program that there hasn’t been in at least a couple years. The feeling that this team is a legit contender and on the cusp of being one of the elite teams in the country is real.

Following the win, the Wolverines went from 12th in both the coaches and AP polls, all the way up to seventh in the coaches poll and sixth in the AP poll. Of course, those polls don’t matter, but generally, they don’t differ a lot from how the committee will rank things.

If the Wolverines win this game, they will be 7-1 heading into the bye, with solid wins over Wisconsin and a road win against a good Spartans team, one good enough to beat Penn State on the road anyways.

Finally, Michigan football seems to have momentum, honestly for the first time since 2016, before the Iowa game. A win this week will keep that going forward, a loss and suddenly, it will feel like back to square one.