Michigan Football will beat Illinois and here’s why

Michigan football is a heavy favorite going into its matchup against Illinois and here’s why the Wolverines will improve to 11-0. 

Michigan football play host to the Illinois Fighting Illini’ on Saturday in a game that, should the Wolverines come out on top, would all but secure their spot in the College Football Playoff.

Illinois is reeling a bit right now. Despite starting off the season with a close loss to a bad Indiana Hoosier team, the Fighting Illini went on a bit of a run and looked to be the favorite in a weak Big Ten West division with a great shot to make the conference title game in Indianapolis.

Unfortunately for Illinois and their fans, the last two weeks handed consecutive losses at the hands of Purdue and Michigan State.

With everything on the line for Michigan football, and nothing to lose for Illinois, will the Wolverines succumb to looking ahead toward a monumental matchup against Ohio State next week?

Let’s talk about that, and more importantly, discuss our reasons why we think Michigan football will win on Saturday.

Veteran leaders won’t let Wolverines look past them

We could’ve buried the lede, but let’s not and say we did.

There’s no point in trying to make this a narrative when it’s not: Michigan and its veteran leaders won’t let the team look past Illinois.

There’s been plenty of times this season where the Wolverines could’ve looked past a poor opponent but leaders on the coaching staff and veteran players such as Ronnie Bell, Mike Morris, Mazi Smith, and Blake Corum haven’t allowed that to happen.

Whether by their interviews with the media, their social media activity, or the way they have approached every game this season without taking plays off, Michigan was “gotten up” for every opponent they’ve played this year — which is arguably the main reason why the Wolverines are the only team in the nation to have a top five scoring defense and a top five scoring offense.

This week won’t be any different. As much as these Wolverines would no doubt love to play Ohio State in the parking lot right now, they understand that there’s still a task at hand. That task must be handled first and there’s no reason to think that Michigan won’t be ready for the challenge of beating Illinois.