Blue White Illustrated

With two losses on its ledger heading into this week's visit to Beaver Stadium, Michigan would seem to be out of the running for the College Football Playoff. But don't tell that to Jim Harbaugh or his players. "That's our goal, always to win the Big Ten championship [and] make it to the national championship," tight end A.J. Williams told the Detroit Free Press this week. "That's the goal, that's the stan- dard. It's always been the standard at Michigan. You just want to win." A lot of highly ranked teams would need to fall apart in late November in order for any two-loss team to receive a spot among the final four. But the remaining schedule at least lets the Wolverines dare to dream. Currently in 12th place in the CFP rankings, they face a 7-3 Nittany Lion team on the road this Saturday, and a week later they will meet No. 3 Ohio State in Columbus. If they win out, they would definitely be ending the regular season on a high note. What's more, vic- tories in those two games, coupled with a Michigan State loss to either Ohio State or Penn State in the final two weeks, would propel them to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship Game, where their opponent would most likely be Iowa, currently undefeated and ranked No. 5. And if they were to defeat the Hawkeyes… Suffice it to say, that's a long list of hy- potheticals. The one certainty is that for any of this title talk to matter, the Wolverines will need a victory over the Nittany Lions on Saturday. They appear entirely capable of getting it, with a passing game that has been coming on strong in recent weeks and a defense that is second in the nation in yards allowed. But if their recent history is any indica- tion, this game may well be undecided until the very end. In the past month, the Wolverines have played three of the more exciting games of the Big Ten season. They fell at home to Michigan State on Oct. 17 when the Spar- tans blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown on the final play of the game. Two weeks later, they held off Minnesota at the goal line in the final seconds to pre- serve a three-point lead, and last week they overcame Indiana in double overtime. Except for a 49-16 romp over visiting Rut- gers two weeks ago, the Wolverines have been engaged in more than their share of brinksmanship, with the Michigan State, Minnesota and Indiana games having been decided by a total of 14 points. But if the goal is simply to win games and put themselves into the most advan- tageous postseason situation possible, they've been doing OK. And that is the goal. "To me, if you're in playoff situations, you're going to play more games if you win. If you don't win, you've got to watch," said Harbaugh, who is 8-2 in his first season in Ann Arbor. "We're in that kind of situation. If we win, we get to keep playing aAer the next two games." Michigan has been led by senior quar- terback Jake Rudock, who has thrown for 2,220 yards through 10 games, with 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He had an incredible day against the Hoosiers last week, hitting 33 of 46 passes for 440 yards and six touchdowns. The Wolverines have also been terrific on defense for much of the season. They posted consecutive shutouts over BYU, Maryland and Northwestern, and even though they've struggled at times during the past month, they still are surrender- ing only 268.7 yards per game. Michigan is one botched punt away from being 9-1 and a strong contender for the playoff field, rather than a long- shot outsider. But even if the odds are against them in their bid for a spot in the final four, it doesn't seem far-fetched to imagine them playing in the Big Ten title game. Indeed, it seems entirely plausible, especially to the Wolverines themselves. "If you haven't thought about going to Indianapolis and playing in the top four, you're in the wrong place," Williams said. "If it's meant to be, we'll be there. But we have to handle our business first." M A T T H E R B | M A T T @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M N O V E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 AIMING HIGH To Michigan, college football's ultimate prize is still within reach PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www.PSUtixman.com at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

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