For No. 21 Michigan, the mission seems pretty clear heading into November.
The remaining schedule for the Wolverines sets up favorably to run the table until hosting Ohio State in the season finale, where an upset of the Buckeyes could put Michigan into the Big Ten championship game and College Football Playoff.
The first step toward all that is winning the three games left until Ohio State, with the initial one being a home contest against Purdue on Saturday.
Michigan (6-2, 4-1 Big Ten) comes in having won two straight since a 31-13 loss at USC, the latest being a 31-20 win at rival Michigan State last week.
The biggest keys to Michigan’s success have been its defense and running game. The Wolverines have given up just 17.4 points per game and 95.5 rushing yards per contest.
Offensively, Michigan is fourth in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game at 220.1, which has been needed to help insulate five-star freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood as he gets more comfortable.
Junior Justice Haynes, a transfer from Alabama, enters Saturday leading the Big Ten in rushing with 857 yards. Sophomore Jordan Marshall has also been productive, accumulating 544 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 99 carries.
“I think both of them have the ability, as we’ve seen, to have that explosive play ability,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said. “I think both of them could run you over, make you miss, do that. But Justice, we’ve just seen more of the 50-yard runs, 60-yard runs, where Jordan has only had a couple of them. Jordan is really that thumper, that wear-you-down back that moves the pile, where Justice isn’t that as much. But they both have that ability.”
Purdue (2-6, 0-5) comes in reeling, having lost six in a row since winning its first two games under first-year head coach Barry Odom.
Despite his team’s recent slide and the daunting task of facing a ranked team on the road, Odom sees Saturday as an opportunity based on what he saw during a 27-24 home loss to Rutgers last week.
“It was the first time (this season) I really felt like a team,” Odom said. “From the emotional investment to guys really celebrating each other’s success, you could feel it building up last week that it really meant something to us. I’m not saying it hadn’t meant something to us in the previous seven weeks or so. Just Saturday, we looked like a closer of a team that had made progress.”
One of the big problems for Purdue has been turnovers, both committing and forcing them.
Purdue enters the game dead last in the 18-team Big Ten in turnover margin at minus-11, which is three more than the next-worst team, Wisconsin.
On the flip side, Michigan is the league’s second-best team in turnover margin at nine.
Michigan has won the last six meetings. Purdue’s last win over Michigan came during the 2009 season in Ann Arbor (38-36).
