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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — On Marty Smith’s podcast on ESPN, Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson advocated that he just wants to play rival Ohio State ‘one more time.’ But it’s not just because he hasn’t taken down his arch-rival.
This offseason, there’s been a lot of chatter out of Columbus. First, it was quarterback Justin Fields who stated he just wants ‘to beat the brakes’ off Michigan the next time he sees it on the opposing sideline. More recently, OSU head coach Ryan Day reportedly told his team that the Wolverines better hope the Big Ten institutes a mercy rule, because the Buckeyes intended to run up the score to 100.
Neither of those things are sitting right with the junior defensive lineman.
“Seeing that stuff that they said, that’s just bulletin board material that we’re gonna use in the future,” Hutchinson said via a Zoom press conference. “They can do all the talking they want. It’s kind of out of my control. It’s definitely a little bit frustrating – I want to play them. But just looking forward to the next time that we play them.”
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According to PFF’s advanced college stats, Hutchinson had his second-worst game in both overall defensive grade as well as in run defense against the Buckeyes.
As far as what went wrong, it’s quite simple in his eyes: execution.
The Wolverines continuously field one of the nation’s top defenses. Yet, against OSU, for whatever reason, the wheels tend to fall off. If he gets one more shot at his rival, Hutchinson is vowing that he and his teammates won’t make that mistake again.
“I’ve said this multiple times – we’ve just gotta execute better against Ohio State,” Hutchinson said. “We do so good all year defensively, and then these past couple years we’ve dropped the ball on that second-to-last game. But we’ve just gotta be better with our execution and things will turn out a little bit better.”
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