Jim Harbaugh, Aidan Hutchinson reflect on Michigan's dream 2021 season: 'Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State'

Michigan Wolverines football defensive end Aidan Hutchinson teamed up with Pro Football Focus to produce the ‘Hutch’ podcast series that goes behind the scenes on the projected No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick’s life, family and football career.

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• Competitive dance, two dinners, choosing Michigan, Jim Harbaugh’s advice: Best quotes from ‘Hutch’ episode one

• Spring ball fights, unfinished business, ‘does he always try this hard?’ Best quotes from ‘Hutch’ episode two

PFF host Austin Gayle interviews a number of people close to Hutchinson, Michigan and the NFL. In the fourth and final episode, which focuses on Michigan’s win over Ohio State, Big Ten title and the star’s NFL Draft prep, Gayle sits down with Hutchinson, his sister, Mia, Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh, fellow linemate David Ojabo, wide receiver Andrel Anthony, ESPN commentator Chris Fowler and others.

Here are the highlights from episode two:

HOW TO LISTEN TO ‘HUTCH’: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4

Aidan Hutchinson’s message after the Michigan State loss

David Ojabo: “One of his big messages was, ‘Hey, man, don’t look for excuses, don’t look at the negatives. If anything, make the negatives positive, try to translate that to the next week, because there’s no going back. We can’t change what the refs did, what we did, any calls the coaches made — no more excuses, we’re looking forward.’ And as soon as he said that, that translated throughout the whole defense, the whole team. You could see it throughout the week, the next week of practice, we were on it. We didn’t come out slouching or crying. We did what we had to do.”

Andrel Anthony: “I don’t remember who said it in our meeting … It was Mike Morris. He said, ‘Somebody has to pay for how we feel,’ after the Michigan State game. We went out against Indiana and killed, we dominated. I remember that very vividly, so it kind of awoke us so we didn’t get complacent. It was like a wake-up call, and we responded really well.”

What the Michigan vs. Ohio State rivalry means to Aidan Hutchinson

Aidan Hutchinson: “This rivalry cuts a little bit deep for me. I grew up losing to Ohio State as a fan, and I think Ohio State definitely won more times than not. But going to Michigan, I just wanted to beat them so bad, and I don’t think there are a ton of guys on Michigan or Ohio State that understand this rivalry as good as me. I’m sure there are hometown guys on both teams, but I just feel like — especially as a major contributor on the team — it just hit a little bit different.

“I was so ready for that game. The game, it’s not as gritty or dirty as that Michigan State game, I just feel like there’s a little bit more hatred. When we had that bus ride to Columbus in 2018, everybody and their mothers were flipping us off as we were driving to their stadium. And that’s when I knew as a freshman, ‘This is for real now. This is what it’s about.’ Every single person we passed on the bus ride was flipping us off.”

Ohio State danced getting off the bus, but Michigan was focused entering The Big House

Aidan Hutchinson: “I think that was the message going into the week — there was no bullshit, no screwing around. We were just locked in with one mission in mind. We weren’t coming off that bus dancing, we weren’t doing any of that.

“We were thinking about this for so long, what are you going to do to beat Ohio State, the ‘Beat Ohio’ drill. Everything that we implemented coming down to one day. And it is nerve wracking when you think about it, but at the end of the day, we’re just playing football, and this is a team that we just want to beat really bad. We just wanted to come in with that focus and be as locked in as we can, because we knew that’s what it would take to beat them.”

Jim Harbaugh: “Just the season in general and not being satisfied and looking for the next opportunity … every step of the way, it was like, ‘Ohio State, Ohio State, Ohio State.’ It’s there, and it just built and built and built and built, and then it was finally there. And our team was ready. We had been thinking about it and preparing for it.”

Aidan Hutchinson’s legendary performance in the 42-27 win over Ohio State

Jim Harbaugh: “Three-sack performance, very well documented, but one of the great performances and I think it’ll go down, for sure, as one of the great performances against Ohio State in the history of the rivalry by either side — right up there with Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard and Aidan Hutchinson.”

Aidan Hutchinson: “I think it was about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, and I was looking at it and you could feel it a little bit. You could feel it coming, you could feel that win coming. I was sitting there, and I literally started crying, with eight minutes left. Just because so much had gone into it, so much mental energy. Literally, all the pain, all the scar tissue I got from watching as a kid, and then losing to them twice in college and all the focus we put on them … I’m sitting there, I’m like, ‘We did it.’”

Mia Hutchinson: “Knowing this game has been 10 years in the works, and here’s my brother, this is the final countdown, this is his senior year, this is it. It’s his last chance to beat Ohio State. And honestly, watching that, the whole game, we were shaking, we were crying. But it wasn’t until probably the last 10 seconds of the game — we were ugly crying. Our faces were contorted. We had tears streaming, we were red, our mascara was dripping down our face. We were like, ‘Is this real?!’”

Chris Fowler: “They had been kicked around, they had been bullied. They had been scorned by their own fans. They had a national reputation being a team that couldn’t win against their biggest rival. For Aidan to come in, put the work in and in his crowning season, be part of that team to beat Ohio State, get the Big Ten championship … and the way they did it — physically dominating them.”

Winning the Big Ten championship

Aidan Hutchinson: “The Big Ten championship, I felt like I was on top of the world. I felt like literally nothing can stop me — and I think that’s how we all felt, because we did this. It was something that we did, and something nobody thought we could do. People were projecting us to win nothing, and we won it all. In my mind, that’s when our season ended. The playoffs was just a cherry on top of everything, but it was just so great for us to beat Ohio State and beat Iowa. Mentally, that’s kind of how I remember the season finishing.”

Aidan Hutchinson’s potential destination in the 2022 NFL Draft

Jim Harbaugh: “Any team that’s looking to draft a player, they’re really going off of three things: They’re going off of talent, which is production, intangibles and measurables. They’re gonna be looking at a guy who checks every one of those boxes. Intangibles: Highest level. Talent: Highest level. Measurables: Highest level.

“Deservedly, he has earned to be the type of player that you build an entire defense around. Anybody who gets him is gonna be darn lucky to have him. I’m personally rooting for Detroit. I hope he keeps playing right here in the great state of Michigan.”