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Aidan Hutchinson didn’t necessarily want to pay attention to the Michigan State at Ohio State game as he prepared for Maryland, but it was kind of hard not to.
The Buckeyes managed 49 first-half points with over 400 yards passing this past Saturday. Certainly, that will pique the interest of any defensive player, especially when you know that you have that same offense to contend with the following week. Still, Hutchinson feels like that won’t be a similar situation come Saturday when Ohio State comes to Ann Arbor.
“Yeah, a couple guys were talking about it in the locker room. Obviously you want to ignore it, but it’s kinda staring at you right in the face,” Hutchinson told Jon Jansen on the ‘Inside Michigan Football’ radio show. “We were talking about it, we saw the score. But we know we’re at The Big House, this is a game of matchups, this is a game of execution. The better team is gonna come out on top.”
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In order to get to this Ohio State game, Michigan had to take care of Maryland first, which it did, 59-18, in a resounding performance in all three phases of the game. While that was expected now, it wasn’t before the season.
Critics in the media and in the fan base, alike, contended that the Wolverines were an also-ran, while singing the praises of Wisconsin and Penn State — though all three had similar 2020 seasons. But it’s Michigan at 10-1 with wins over both in 2021, and it has a chance to go to Indianapolis for the first time on Dec. 4 should it find a way to beat the Buckeyes — something the Wolverines haven’t done since 2011.
Hutchinson is laser-focused on righting the wrongs of the past two decades in order for this Michigan team to achieve its goals.
“I think we’ve silenced the critics for the most part. We have this one final test against Ohio State. This is a team that we simply haven’t beaten in many years,” Hutchinson said. “It’s something that we have to get over. It starts on Saturday. Hopefully we will go out there and get the win and break that streak.”
But in order to right those wrongs, this team can’t get too high, too caught up in the spotlight.
There’s a lot riding on this game, more than the last time the two teams faced off in 2019. Whoever wins, they’re off to Indianapolis — which also can’t be said of the 2016 iteration of The Game. It was true for Michigan that year, but not Ohio State, since it had lost to Penn State already.
Hutchinson says that while this team wants to reverse course, if it looks too much at everything it’s playing for, the recent history (the past 18 years against this team), it can cause some atrophy. Instead, it’s all about taking each and every play one at a time, and stacking wins accordingly.
“It’s important to keep the emotions out of it, just because you can get so wrapped up in the Big Ten Championship, beating Ohio State and ending the streak,” Hutchinson said. “You do get emotional and you do want it so bad and that makes you focus so much on just winning and the outcome. That’s one thing I’m gonna stress this week is staying unemotional and staying in the process and focus on just taking one play at a time.”
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The most challenging aspect for this Michigan team will certainly be the defense going up against the vaunted Ohio State offense, which is rated as the No. 1 passing offense and scoring offense in the country. Michigan enters the game with the nation’s No. 8 defense — a far cry from the moribund outfit of last year. But, again, there are a lot of components to stall or stop.
OSU has three NFL-caliber wide receivers in Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba; it has a Heisman Trophy-contending quarterback in C.J. Stroud; it has a cadre of running backs in TreVeyon Henderson, Master Teague, and Miyan Williams; it has a stellar offensive line.
Reading that, you might be daunted, but Hutchinson says he and his defense is not. Regardless, they intend to give it their all, do as much as they possibly can on every play to ensure that the Wolverines break that haunted streak.
“It’s probably one of the best offenses in football. If we’re gonna win this game it’s gonna be on us, the defense, and the matter of our execution,” Hutchinson said. “They’re stacked at wide receiver, running back, O-line — you name it, they got it. That makes me excited because I’m just so ready to go out there and I’m gonna lay it all out on the line. I know every single guy on the team will. No one’s afraid, no one’s scared. I think we’re gonna go give it every single thing we’ve got. At the end of the day, we’re gonna look at the scoreboard. If we win, great. If we lose, hey, we gave it all we got, and that’s the best we can do.”
For his part, Hutchinson isn’t even thinking about losing. Instead, he’s seeing in his mind’s eye what it will be like to get the first Michigan win over Ohio State since 2011, and doing so in front of the home crowd.
Right now, that’s all he sees and that’s all he believes.
“I’m already visualizing it, I can already see it all,” Hutchinson said. “It would be everything. I can’t wait. I want to walk off that field as a winner, knowing that I was on the team that beat Ohio State.”
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