Michigan Football: Wolverines should be ready for Brandon Peters

Former Michigan football quarterback Brandon Peters is the starting quarterback for Illinois and if he’s healthy, the Wolverines need to be prepared.

A few years ago, Brandon Peters committed to the Michigan football program with a fair amount of hype. After all, Jim Harbaugh said the quarterback reminded him of Andrew Luck.

Unfortunately, for the Wolverines and Peters, the four-star signal-caller never really developed in Ann Arbor and once Shea Patterson became entrenched as the starter, Peters transferred to Illinois.

It was a good move for him because he was buried on Michigan football’s depth chart and now he’s the starter for a 2-3 Illinois team that will welcome the Wolverines to Champaigne this Saturday.

Ever since Peters went to Illinois, it has brought some extra attention to this game. There weren’t necessarily bad feelings when he left, Harbaugh had good things to say about him even Monday in his press conference, but still, you know Peters would love to stick it to his old team.

The only problem is that he’s not a sure thing to suit up Saturday after leaving the loss to Minnesota last week with an injury and not returning. Here’s what head coach Lovie Smith said via 247 sports:

"“(Peters) knew that Michigan was on the schedule when he decided to come here. Nothing has changed. It’s Michigan week now, so I know he’s pumped up and of course hoping he’ll be ready to go this week. Hopefully, that’ll be the case.”"

If Peters does play, it creates an interesting dynamic of him going up against some of his old teammates. Yet, after watching what Michigan football did to Nate Stanley, maybe sitting this one out wouldn’t be so bad.

In all seriousness, Peters has been effective for Illinois this season, throwing 10 touchdown passes as well as four interceptions, even if he’s completing only 58 percent of his throws.

Watching him and Shea Patterson square off will be interesting. We know Peters will want to prove a point and hopefully, Shea will too after a lackluster showing against Iowa.

This is a key game, especially with so many challenges ahead. The Wolverines can’t afford a slipup and that’s why the defense absolutely can’t overlook Peters.

One thing that might help him is his familiarity with Don Brown’s defense, so a few wrinkles would be helpful. As long as the front seven continues to dominate the way it did last Saturday, it should be smooth sailing.

But if Michigan football expects to see the same-old Peters, that would be a mistake. If he’s healthy, he will be extremely motivated and facing a guy with a chip on his shoulder like that is always dangerous.

This sort of feels like a trap game regardless, especially with Penn State looming and the element of Peters makes it even more frightening.