Northwestern travels to No. 18 Michigan this weekend for a battle of top-20 teams, one that suddenly contains far more intrigue and importance than originally thought. The No. 13 Wildcats enter the game undefeated at 5-0, and both teams will be looking to announce themselves as Big Ten contenders. Both also pitched shutouts in their Big Ten openers.
Jim Harbaugh's first season at Michigan has followed an interesting trajectory. Preseason hype was mitigated by plenty of anti-hype-machine opinions, and even rational analysis couldn't definitively figure out what to make of the Wolverines.
Then, after one week, everybody buried them.