Michigan Football: Can the Wolverines Avoid a Late-Season Collapse?

The month of November has been unkind to the Michigan Wolverines in recent years.

Over the last five seasons, Michigan has managed just a 4-11 record, including five losses to arch-rival Ohio State.

The recent 24-16 loss to Iowa might have started the Wolverines on an all-too-familiar downhill spiral.

Three formidable opponents remain on the 2011 schedule. First, Michigan (7-2, 3-2) travels to Illinois Saturday (6-3, 2-3) as one-point favorites.

The Wolverines close out the regular season by hosting Nebraska (7-2, 3-2) and the school from Ohio (6-3, 3-2).

Smarting after dropping a trio of close defensive struggles to Ohio State, Purdue and Penn State, Illinois is also looking to avenge last season's 67-65 triple-overtime loss in Ann Arbor.

Michigan, which has struggled offensively in its last two road starts, will face an Illinois squad which leads the Big Ten in total defense, allowing just 274.4 yards per game.

Add a blustery weather forecast to the equation (23-mph winds), and the Wolverines should be in for quite a struggle.

Offensively, the two teams are practically clones of each other. Denard Robinson and Nathan Scheelhaase are both elusive dual-threat quarterbacks. Michigan has a slight edge at running back since the emergence of Fitzgerald Toussaint, while Illinois receiver A.J. Jenkins (68 receptions) will give Michigan fits.

In fact, the Wolverines have had difficulty with feature receivers all season. Despite the changes in Michigan's secondary, Jordan White, Michael Floyd, Jeremy Ebert and Marvin McNutt have all caused trouble.

Several other concerns have surfaced in the last few weeks. Denard Robinson has been inconsistent at quarterback, the offense has struggled with a variety of blitz packages and both lines have had a tough time controlling the line of scrimmage.

One other concern is Michigan's field-goal kicking. Sure, there has been tremendous improvement from 2010, since Brendan Gibbons has connected on 7-of-9 attempts. But his longest has been 38 yards, and he's yet to try one over 40. Freshman Matt Wile is the so-called long-range kicker, but he's yet to make an attempt as a Wolverine.

One more victory will give Michigan an 8-4 season and a shot at a respectable bowl game. But should the Wolverines lose at Illinois, it would mean a disappointing three losses in four games.

Brady Hoke would then be faced with his first crisis as Michigan's coach. Fortunately, for his sake, the final two games will be played at Michigan Stadium.