Hutchinson Pledged 'Exciting Year' for Wolverines and Delivered
Michigan defensive end recalls conversation that foreshadowed a turnaround season for himself and the team he serves as a captain
Aidan Hutchinson, getting his game face on earlier this season, has 10 sacks and has fueled Michigan’s fire in a 10-win season.
Photo Courtesy of Michigan Photography
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Aidan Hutchinson had every reason to be less than thrilled, less than happy that evening last winter when our paths crossed at the gym we both work out at in his hometown of Plymouth.
His Michigan football team had finished the COVID-abbreviated season with an unfathomable 2-4 record. Hutchinson broke his ankle in the third game, having made 15 tackles with nary a sack nor tackle for lost yardage. Everyone assumed he would proceed to the NFL, where he was being projected as a first-rounder.
However, they were forgetting what stokes the fire in his belly and his love of the Wolverines. Aidan’s father, Chris, was an All-America defensive lineman at Michigan in 1992, and the son’s bedroom was a shrine to Dad, who was on five Big Ten championship teams.
As a boy, he wrote on a piece of notebook paper: “I will play football at the University of Michigan.”
Yet, three seasons into his dream come true, Hutchinson had yet to realize any of his expectations on the campus located just a 30-minute drive from his home.
He told me that night at the gym that he wasn’t about to leave.
“We are going to have our most exciting year as a team,” Hutchinson said. “I am going to have my most exciting year as a player.”
He paused, eyes dancing and a big smile crossing his face.
“I can’t wait!” Hutchinson exclaimed.
Wow.
I was blown away.
Aidan still had a cast on, and a friend was helping him go from station to station for his rehabilitation work. We bumped fists and went back to our routines, but I couldn’t get his words of such great resolve out of my head.
I’d always known he was special, but now Hutchinson had reached another level of special in my mind.
He’s also reached another level as a pro prospect in 2021, with some predicting he could be the No. 1 overall pick. Hutchinson and bookend linemate David Ojabo both have 10 sacks, and are two shy of the school single-season record headed into Saturday’s showdown with No. 2 Ohio State (10-1).
No. 5 Michigan (10-1) goes to the Big Ten Championship game Dec. 4 in Indianapolis if it wins, and likely to the Rose Bowl if it loses. So, the “exciting year” Hutchinson felt deep down in his bones nearly one year ago has happened.
Tuesday night, during a press conference at Schembechler Hall, I brought up that conversation we had during his rehab workout.
“That’s right,” said Hutchinson. “I remember that.”
When asked to explain that belief and optimism at a time when many would’ve been down and perhaps waivered in their faith, he said, “I have a good support system that’s really good at home. For a couple days – the first couple days were hard. But with the people I’ve got in my corner, it’s hard to stay down, and they won’t let me stay down.”
He also inherited the smiling spirit of his father, now an emergency room physician, and mother, Melissa, a highly-successful model before turning to a great career as a photographer and artist. His sisters, Mia and Aria, also have that family glow and ability to succeed in life and career. Aidan will join his parents and siblings as honor graduates at Michigan.
When you have known nothing but joy and success and love your entire life, you see no reason for those things to not continue. That belief is what Hutchinson shows you no matter how bleak the horizon appears to others.
Self-belief is a gift to oneself, and one that Aidan shares with everyone he touches.
He’s one of the team captains, also following in his father’s leadership role. Chris tied Mark Messner’s Wolverine record with 11 sacks as a senior, and Aidan was asked about pursuing that total to come within one of the record 12 set by David Bowens in 1996 and tied by LaMarr Woodley in 2006.
“I couldn’t believe he was an All-American,” Hutchinson said of his father. “To be an All-American, you have to be the best of the best. I’m one off of him (in sacks) but I’m not really focused on numbers this season. But if it comes, it comes, and that’s great. I’m sure it’ll be pretty cool for him to see it happen – if it happens, hopefully.”
Numbers are great, and Hutchinson has plenty of other impressive ones: 44 tackles, 11 tackles for losses, 7 quarterback hurries, 2 passes broken up, and 2 forced fumbles.
Yet, even those numbers don’t do him justice. The 6-foot-6, 255-pounder with fleet feet and an equally quick mind is all over the entire field. I asked him how much of that ability is athleticism and how much is anticipation.
“I say it’s both,” said Hutchinson. “I watch a lot of film, and to play college football for as long as I have, you start to see things a little clearer, and also I think my athleticism, too. I have the ability to move in space and all that.”
He was asked about the thick vertical line of eye black he puts on his face for every game.
“I used to do it in high school during lacrosse,” said Hutchinson, who played at Dearborn Divine Child. “For the NIU game (Sept. 18), I did it and got some weird looks. But a lot of the guys said, ‘That’s cool. That’s you.’ So, I thought I might as well rock with it now. It’s my whole Viking thing. It’s kind of me now. So, I own it.”
That great joy Aidan shared with me last winter is something he emits in so many moments with so many people. Watch his smile when he bounds out onto the field before introductions or slaps a teammate on the helmet after success or pulls himself up onto the brick wall to celebrate victories with the student section faithful.
He absolutely beams.
I asked Aidan what the source of his ever-present joy is.
“I just really love playing football,” said Hutchinson, “and after breaking my ankle last year, it really makes me feel how much I love the game. And this is my last year here. So, after the game, I’m jumping up on that wall after every home game, it feels like. This is the last time I’ll be able to jump on that wall. So, it’s going to be a little emotional.”
The lone certainty for Hutchinson and this team – unranked in the preseason but now playing with all its dreams still intact – is that they will never enter and depart Michigan Stadium again together for a game as players.
“I think about it but I can’t really believe it,” said Hutchinson. “You know, that this is the beginning of the end. And, you know, it’s kind of crazy to think about. It’s something that I won’t be able to understand or grasp until next week.”
He didn’t make any predictions. But, then, he didn’t that night at the gym, either.
“It’s going to be an exciting game for us,” was all Hutchinson would say. “Some of the most exciting players in the country are out on both teams. And for this team, and to beat Ohio State, has been a focus of ours.
“And it’s crazy to think this is Week 12. If we win, we’re going to the Big Ten Championship. If not, ‘See you later.’ So, there’s a lot riding on it. But I think we’re all bought in and ready to go.
“Lot of teams play them scared, and play them fearful, looking back at some of the teams they’ve played. I think a lot of the guys think, ‘Just give it everything we’ve got.’ This is the last time we’ll step in the Big House this year. So, you’re not going to see a lot of scared or fearful play from us on Saturday.”
He said he “can’t guarantee anything,” but added that he likes the “vibe” and “head space” the team has right now.
Remember that all he predicted for this season all those months ago was that it would be “exciting” to behold. And on that pledge, both Aidan and his Wolverines have delivered.
Hope Hutchinson is an absolute unstoppable beast on Saturday!