Come late November, the Michigan 
fanbase is used to singing the same 
melancholy song: 
There’s always next year. 
But, as the Wolverines have espoused 
since the first day of the 
season, this year — and 
this team — is different. 
On Saturday, when 
Michigan led Ohio State 
at the half, fans started 
to believe that it could be 
true. The 14-13 score was 
hardly an indication of 
the dominance to come, 
but rather a hint that 
this time, maybe, their confidence wasn’t 
misplaced. 
The momentum in the stands continued 
to grow with each ensuing touchdown. 
When 
senior 
running 
back 
Hassan 
Haskins brought the score to 34-20 with a 
touchdown early in the fourth quarter — his 
fourth of the day — the feeling turned from 
excitement to one of surreal acceptance. 
Fans might not have to wait any longer. 
By the time Haskins ran into the end 
zone with the Wolverines’ sixth and final 
touchdown with just over two minutes 

left on the clock, the spots of red began to 
disappear from the stadium as Ohio State 
fans tried to avoid the inevitable. Michigan 
was going to win and the field would fill 
with maize and blue. 
The fanbase that has sustained itself 
on blind hope and willpower for nearly a 
decade has finally gotten what it wants: a 
win against Ohio State. 
But what happens from here? 
When you’ve already surpassed your 
own bar for success, how do you gauge what 
comes after? It’s a question Michigan coach 
Jim Harbaugh has surely had to ask himself 
several times this year. 
“Just everything about the team,” 
Harbaugh said. “Every day, every week, 
every month. Going back to the beginning of 
this year, it’s always felt like the beginning. 
Accomplish one goal then go to the next and 
the next and the next.”
Coming 
into 
the 
season 
carrying 
mediocre expectations, the Wolverines 
have raised their ceiling with each win. On 
Saturday, they shattered it completely. 
The win opened doors for the remainder 
of the season, doors Harbaugh has never 
walked through. A Big Ten Championship 
and College Football Playoff berth are well 

within reach. 
It’s been said before every 
big game in Harbaugh’s 
seven-year tenure, but this 
time the notion rings true 
more than ever:
This is very possibly 
the turning point in the 
Harbaugh era, the moment 
the 
former-Michigan 
quarterback 
has 
been 
waiting for, a chance to 
elevate 
this 
program 
into the upper echelon of 
college football. 
Or it could be a repeat 
of 2011, a good team and a 
good season that ended one 
Ohio State drought just to 
start another. 
The difference between this being a 
different Michigan team and a different 
Michigan program will be decided in the 
coming weeks. 
A different Michigan team can end the 
season 11-2 with a win over the Buckeyes and 
an appearance at a Big Ten Championship. 
A different Michigan program has to prove 
to recruits that Harbaugh has made good 

on his promise and made the Wolverines a 
real national contender. That would mean 
capturing the program’s first Big Ten 
Championship since 2004 and notching its 
first-ever berth in the playoff. 
When Harbaugh said in his postgame 
press conference that this felt more like the 
beginning than the culmination, this was 
what he meant. Michigan has moved past 
its biggest hurdle under Harbaugh — and its 

largest barrier to success 
since the turn of the 
century — opening a whole 
new box of challenges. 
There’s 
a 
different 
feeling about this team, 
obviously. 
If 
anyone 
can 
pass 
through 
the 
challenges ahead, it’s this 
team. A team that’s kept its 
fans on their feet and sent 
them out onto the field at 
the end of the game. 
And 
players 
feel 
confident that they can 
keep it going. 
“Long term, we’ve set 
the 
expectation 
now,” 
junior quarterback Cade 
McNamara said. “It’s been 
so long since we beat Ohio State, but we did 
that today. For the guys coming back, now 
we’ve got to do that every single year. We 
know what it took.”
The Wolverines proved they knew what 
it took to turn the page on Ohio State. In the 
coming weeks, we will find out if they have 
what it takes to start a whole new chapter of 
Michigan football.

All season, this Michigan team has had an 
identity: run the ball. 
With two players at the center of that ethos, 
sophomore Blake Corum and senior Hassan 
Haskins, the ‘thunder and lightning’ running 
back duo became a bellwether for the offense. 
On Saturday, Haskins led the Wolverines’ to 
a 42-27 victory over Ohio State.
His performance, which totaled 169 yards 
on 28 attempts for five touchdowns, will go 
down in the record books — it’s the most rushing 
touchdowns in The Game’s history, as well as 
tying Michigan’s all-time single-game record.

But his historic performance went beyond 
the stat sheet. 
Haskins dictated the pace of the game from 
the very start. He touched the ball on five of nine 
plays, including three 3rd-and-short downs. In 
those three downs he ran for 35 yards total, 
keeping a crucial opening drive alive, a drive 
that ended with the only Michigan touchdown 
Haskins wouldn’t take in himself.
His quick cuts found holes and broke 
through a Buckeye defense that had yet to 
stack the box, demoralizing a defense that held 
Heisman candidate Kenneth Walker III to just 
28 rushing yards a week ago. Yet when Ohio 
State adjusted, stacking the box, Haskins still 
found a way to fall forward. 
“They thought they saw a ghost but it was 

number 25, Hassan Haskins,” Michigan 
coach Jim Harbaugh said. “He has great 
determination, great purpose. Creatability.”
On a crucial drive to reestablish itself 
in the game, down 10-7, Michigan faced a 
fourth-and-one. Following a timeout, the 
Wolverines set up in a three tight-end set 
with Haskins in the backfield. Clearly, there 
was one place the ball would end up. Yet after 
a push and a twist, the chains moved and the 
drive stayed alive.
Four plays later, Haskins dove over a pile to 
stretch the ball in for his first touchdown of the 
afternoon. Michigan never trailed again. 
“It was a big emphasis to be able to run the 
ball this week,” fifth-year offensive lineman 
Andrew Stueber said. “We thought that a lot 

of teams came out and played a little scared 
against them, a little timid, and that’s just not 
Michigan football. That’s not what we like to 
play as an o-line, as Michigan football, as a run 
game, as a unit.”
As time wound down in the end of 
the game, Haskins played an even bigger 
part. Up eight with just 14 minutes left, 
the Wolverines needed to accomplish two 
things: drain clock and score. So they turned 
to Haskins. A nine-play, four-and-a-half-
minute drive featured eight runs, six of them 
from Haskins. 
In one instance, he showed his patience, 
waiting behind a wall of blockers before finding 
a hole and darting for six yards. Other times, 
he showed his innate ability to fall forward, 

turning a five yard rush into an eight-yard rush 
and keeping the chains moving. 
On its last drive of the game, Michigan 
needed to move the sticks twice in order to ice 
out Ohio State. Haskins listed off five rushes 
for 63 yards through a humiliated Buckeye 
defense, sealing the game. 
At the beginning of the season, it seemed as 
though the Wolverines’ reliance on its rushing 
game would be a hindrance against the best 
teams in the country. Against an explosive 
Ohio State offense? There was no question, 
Michigan would fail to keep pace.
Instead, on Saturday, as Haskins walked in 
for his fifth touchdown, it became clear that 
this Wolverine running offense is capable of 
dominating just about everyone.

LANE

KIZZIAH

SportsWednesday: It’s a new team, is it a new program?

KENT SCHWARTZ
Managing Sports Editor

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Sports
 Wednesday, December 1, 2021 — 11

With historic day, Hassan Haskins guides Michigan to victory

Despite first-round projections in the 
NFL Draft last season, senior edge rusher 
Aidan Hutchinson returned to Michigan 
for one reason: to beat Ohio State.
“I told you guys at Big Ten Media Days 
that we were emphasizing this game more,” 
Hutchinson said. “Everyone seemed to have 
a lot of questions about that, in terms of how 
we were doing it, but I told you to trust me, 
we were doing it.”
He was right — pretty much nobody 
outside Schembechler Hall bought his 
optimism. It wasn’t Hutchinson’s own 
abilities that people doubted; it was the 

ability of his team to actually beat the 
Buckeyes. At the start of the season, national 
media gave the Wolverines no shot in 
The Game. This publication unanimously 
picked Ohio State.
And still, Hutchinson persisted. On 
Tuesday, he reiterated that the Buckeyes 
had been a focus since January. He opined 
that, while a lot of teams play Ohio State 
“fearful,” his defense would have no 
fear against the Buckeyes’ top-ranked 

offense. Once again, no one listened — this 
publication included, of course.
Saturday, though, Hutchinson realized 
his vision. In the fifth-ranked Wolverines’ 
42-27 upset of the second-ranked Buckeyes, 
he recorded three sacks — including his 13th 
of the season, which set the Michigan all-
time record — on Ohio State quarterback 
and Heisman frontrunner C.J. Stroud. 
Over those three-and-a-half hours, 
as the Wolverines solidified themselves 
as a legitimate College Football Playoff 
contender, Hutchinson himself solidified 
his position as one of college football’s 
top players, and maybe even stole some of 
Stroud’s hype along the way. 
“(Hutchinson’s) performance was … 
dominant,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh 
said. “Single-season 
sack record already — 
definitely should be in 
strong consideration 
for 
the 
Heisman 
Trophy.”
In every moment 
where the Wolverines 
needed a play from 
their 
defense, 
Hutchinson 
was 
there to deliver it. 
After a first quarter 
interception sparked 
a long Buckeyes drive 
and a 3rd-and-goal 
at Michigan’s eight, 
Hutchinson recorded 
his first sack and 
forced Ohio State into a field goal. That stop 
preserved the Wolverines’ one-score lead 
and helped the team carry its momentum 
into the second quarter. 
In the third quarter, with Michigan 
nursing an eight-point lead and the 
Buckeyes again finding some rhythm 
offensively, Hutchinson notched another 
sack that forced Ohio State to punt. On 
the next defensive possession, with the 
Wolverines up 15, he recorded another sack. 

Even when he wasn’t sacking Stroud, 
Hutchinson’s 
drive 
was 
present 
on 
virtually every defensive snap. On one 
fourth down, as the Buckeyes worked to 
mount a comeback, Hutchinson was seen 
visibly jawing with the left tackle prior 
to the snap. As soon as Stroud took the 
snap, Hutchinson ran directly over the 
lineman into the backfield (Ohio State 
still converted, thanks to a borderline 
miraculous throw from Stroud).
Even beyond the Heisman comments, 
Harbaugh continued to sing Hutchinson’s 
praises after the game. He named him 
among a group of players he called the 
“foundation” of the team — players who had 
been with Michigan through the struggles 
of 2020 and beyond and refused to give in. 
“If there was a train, like a locomotive 
going down the tracks, they literally stopped 
it, picked it up onto their backs, turned it 
around and started pushing,” Harbaugh 
said. “(Saturday), the rest of us started 
pushing, too.”
More 
than 
anything, 
though, 
Hutchinson’s performance represents a 
clean resolution to a truly historic Michigan 
career. An athlete raised in Wolverine 
tradition — his father, Chris Hutchinson, 
was a Michigan captain and All-American 
defensive lineman in the early ’90s — 
Hutchinson had already achieved just 
about every individual accolade he could 
hope for entering Saturday. Like countless 
Wolverine greats in recent years, he only 
lacked the elusive win over the Buckeyes. 
Saturday, he sat grinning and shaking 
his head at the postgame press conference, 
as if in disbelief of what his team had just 
achieved. With his Michigan journey 
almost complete, he allowed himself to 
reflect on that sack record and the elusive 
rivalry win:
“Man. It was crazy. I can’t really put it 
into words. I really just wanted to beat my 
dad, and I went a little farther. It’s so cool, 
and it’s a moment I can’t wait to share (with) 
my dad.”

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Editor

At last, Aidan Hutchinson has his moment

Following a thorough, dominant victory 
over Ohio State — the most important win in 
his seven-year tenure as Michigan coach — Jim 
Harbaugh went home. 
He spent the night surrounded by family, 
commemorating his parents’ 60th wedding 
anniversary. Festivities included watching 
football, as they “always do,” and a few episodes 
of “Heartland” with his daughter.
Then Harbaugh went to sleep. On to Iowa. 
“The thing that hits me first is that this is a 
new beginning,” Harbaugh said on Sunday. 
“(We want to do) what we always do. We 
prepare, we practice, we try to have great 
days. One good day of meetings, practices, get 
ourselves healthy, get ourselves ready and go 
play the game.” 
That’s a mentality that Michigan has stuck 
to throughout the season, one instilled by 
Harbaugh. 
But as much as that quote feels familiar, 
something about Harbaugh seemed different. 
He conducted the press conference like a man 
who just had a burden lifted from his shoulders. 
He was downright giddy recounting his 
postgame interaction with Juwan Howard, 
laughing that the moment was “so cool.” He 
rattled off the congratulatory messages that 
flooded his phone, highlighting a memorable 
text from John Madden, who lauded the 
Wolverines’ offensive line for one of the best 
performances he’s ever seen. 
“They really like our team,” Harbaugh said 
of the common thread through the messages. 
“They really like how hard our players play. 
Kinda that’s been the theme. Comes through 
the TV set. See a bunch of guys that really like 
playing the game and playing the game the way 
it’s supposed to be played.” 
The “new beginning” phrase also speaks to 
his refined mindset. Harbaugh is cognizant of 
the implications looming this weekend, just as 
he was aware of the stakes against Ohio State. 

Remaining levelheaded is difficult following 
a victory of such emotional magnitude. These 
situations are conducive for letdowns. 
That’s why, when Harbaugh thinks about 
the pending Big Ten Championship Game, he 
is reminded of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey 
team. The group famously stunned the heavily 
favored Soviet Union, but still needed one 
more victory to secure the goal medal. The 
Americans finished the job, rallying from a 2-1 
deficit to defeat Finland. 
Harbaugh wants the Wolverines to follow 
their lead. 
“This is the championship this week,” 
Harbaugh said. “This week, that’s for all the 
marbles. That’s for the championship. It’s 
a continuation of the playoffs. … That’s the 
message towards the team this week.” 
Harbaugh carried that out in his press 
conference. He showed appreciation for Kirk 
Ferentz and his Iowa team, noting that there’s 
“pretty much no one” he respects more. 
And though Michigan opened as 10.5-point 
favorites, he’s not overlooking the Hawkeyes, 
either. 
“We know how good Iowa is,” Harbaugh 
said. “What stands out is how good and 
conscious they are in all three phases — offense, 
defense, special teams.” 
As Harbaugh flipped the page to Iowa, he 
allowed for moments of reflection, too. He 
thought back to the spring, when he realized 
the potential of this collection of players and 
coaches that no one else saw. 
“That’s one of those feelings that you have, 
and the guys start feeling it too,” Harbaugh 
said. “… The comments back then were, ‘Well, 
everybody says that.’ But we felt it.” 
And against Ohio State, they sure did show 
it. Now, if the Wolverines can do so one more 
time, they’ll be Big Ten champions. 
“Maybe we were better prepared, maybe 
we were stronger, maybe we were more 
talented, a lot of factors there,” Harbaugh 
said, reflecting on the victory. “The fact is that 
we’re here. We’re excited about it. We want to 
go finish.”

JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Editor

‘We want to go finish’: Harbaugh, 
Michigan begin shifting focus to Iowa

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily 

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily 

