With rival on deck, surging Michigan says its not overlooking Northwestern – MLive.com

ANN ARBOR, Mich. It might be easy for a surging and rested Michigan football team to look past its next opponent.

The Wolverines, still unbeaten and up to No. 6 in the polls this week, play host to struggling Northwestern this Saturday at Michigan Stadium (noon, FOX). Jim Harbaughs team is 6-0 and riding high after a bye week, and oddsmakers peg Michigan as a three-touchdown betting favorite to win the game.

And with in-state rival Michigan State on deck, potentially pitting a pair of top-10, 7-0 teams against one another in East Lansing, its shaping up to be one of the biggest games in years.

We cant look to next week because weve got a very good opponent coming in this week, defensive tackle Chris Hinton told reporters on Monday. Weve got to take every game, every week, one game at a time. Because if we dont handle our business this week, the next week and the week after is just not as significant.

Michigan State held on to beat Indiana, 20-15, in Bloomington on Saturday, cementing the Spartans 6-0 mark heading into a bye week of their own. While they have a week of rest ahead of them, Mel Tuckers team will also have an opportunity to get a jump start on preparing for Michigan.

More: U-M football a big betting favorite to beat Northwestern

Meanwhile, the Wolverines have to take the field against Northwestern a 3-3 team thats traded wins and losses, yet is coming off an impressive 21-7 victory over Rutgers.

Remember, it was just three years ago, in 2018, when Michigan waltzed into Evanston as a big favorite and fell behind 17-0 in the first half, only to score 20 unanswered points and escape with a win.

Continually, you see the Northwestern team get better every single week, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. This year, last year, the year before that the year before that. When you play Northwestern in the middle of the season, later in the season theyre really formidable.

Michigan is one two unbeaten Big Ten teams still standing, along with Michigan State, clearing a pathway to the Big Ten championship if it can handle business in the second half of its schedule. In addition to the Oct. 30 game at Michigan State, the Wolverines must also travel to Penn State (Nov. 13) and host rival Ohio State (Nov. 27), a pair of pivotal games required for such a run. But before they get there, or even to the Michigan State game, they must first handle business in front of them.

The team has been very locked in, Harbaugh continued. Daily, weekly. The thing Im continuing to be pleased with is how they attack every single day. They didnt practice Friday, they didnt practice Saturday (but) they came back Sunday and we had as good a practice (as weve had).

Midseason grades: Harbaugh, Michigan get high marks for run game, defensive turnaround

Guys moving around, knowing what they are doing as locked in, focused as Ive ever seen a team come off a two-and-a-half day break.

Harbaugh declined to provide a concrete updated on Michigans injured players, only saying receiver Roman Wilson (undisclosed) and offensive linemen Chuck Filiaga (leg), Zak Zinter (leg) and Trevor Keegan (shoulder) are day to day but progressing.

But if there was ever a cautionary tale, look at Iowa this past week. The Hawkeyes were unbeaten and ranked No. 2 in the country and lost a stunner, 24-7, to Purdue to fall out of the top 10. While they remain the favorites to win the Big Tens West Division, their College Football Playoff hopes have dimmed. For Michigan to keep all of its hopes and dreams alive, total effort will be required on Saturday against Northwestern.

Were not overlooking them at all, receiver A.J. Henning said. We know theyre a great football team. Theyre going to come in here and give us their best shot, so were going to take the necessary preparation to try and have a successful outcome.

While Michigan is off to its best start since 2016, the team has taken a unique approach to preparing each week. Players say they treat each week of practice like theyre preparing for Ohio State, long considered the Big Tens best, while treating each team as a nameless, faceless opponent.

They hope that holds true on Saturday against the upset-minded Wildcats.

Each week, were going in with a 1-0 mindset, linebacker Kalel Mullings said. We want to be 1-0 for that week and as long as we continue to do that, well reach all of our goals.

There was never any looking past our opponent this week or onto other games. We know that we have to take of business this week, take care of business next week and if we continue doing that well be set.

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With rival on deck, surging Michigan says its not overlooking Northwestern - MLive.com