Illinois vs. Michigan: Key Matchups in Today’s Game

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00:00It's the Illini and the Wolverines. Michigan pays a visit to Champaign today to take on

00:08Illinois. The Mays in blue, a three and a half point road favorite against this Illinois

00:13team. What's the key matchup for this Big Ten battle in your estimation?

00:18I think Jack Tuttle, the quarterback for Michigan, is going to be a huge key if they're going

00:22to mix it up a little bit. Illini has got that feel for, I just think they've got a

00:27way to win games like this. And there's an old saying, if you've got two quarterbacks,

00:30you don't have a quarterback, we'll exclude Texas this year. They've got three quarterbacks

00:34and they're on their third. And you don't put the guy third for the preseason, for the

00:38offseason, for the first three games, unless there's something less in that position than

00:43the other two quarterbacks. So when I look at this, when I look at the uncertainty at

00:47quarterback for Michigan, and I think Illinois will come back and will win this football game.

00:53Coach, when you look at the emotional aspect, they're honoring Red Grains. They have the

00:57uniforms today. They're going to be a lot of fans in attendance. What can Michigan do

01:02and the coaching staff, Jerome Ward, do to at least take this

01:05fan base out of this game early on from a team perspective?

01:11Well, again, they've got to move the ball in offense. If you play great defense,

01:14it keeps the game going. But you've got to have some offense too, to put the home team

01:19on the defensive edge. We saw what happened at LSU, the closer the game got to the end,

01:24their fans, when they played Ole Miss. You've got to get yourself in a position,

01:28and I think you've got to do it offensively. You've got to make some ways to score points,

01:31because that factor, it'll be a factor in the crowd, the crowd's input into the game.

01:36The Illini did not cover last week as a hefty three touchdown favorite against Purdue.

01:41That game went to overtime, but under Brett Bielema, Illinois, not great as a favorite,

01:467-11-2 against the number. As an underdog under Burt, five and eight against the spread,

01:52including nine outright victories, Coach Bowden, like you alluded to,

01:56for this top 25 tilt in Champaign today.