Michigan football defied all odds after having a 2% chance to win the Big Ten

INDIANAPOLIS — The Michigan Wolverines have surpassed all odds after defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes last week and propelled to an even higher level after defeating Iowa on Saturday. Michigan did it, it finally did what it set out to do — win the Big Ten and get a playoff birth.

The Wolverines beat the Hawkeyes, 42-3, to win their first Big Ten Title since 2004, and the postgame scene felt glorious for the men in maize and blue. The celebration was fantastic for the players — so much happiness, tears, pride, and joy.

Aidan Hutchinson was selected by the media to win the Grange-Griffin MVP award — just another award to add to his mantle. The Wolverines defense stifled anything that Iowa tried to do — like shut down the run game that it wanted to do.

After the celebration, picture taking, and high-fiving fans, some selected players and Jim Harbaugh met with the media to talk about their epic win.

There were many pundits in the media saying that Michigan may have a 6-6 record, or slightly better, but the Wolverines had next to a zero chance of winning the Big Ten or even getting 10 wins. Like most teams, that was some solid bulletin board material for Michigan, and Aidan Hutchinson talked about how that did stick in the back of the team’s mind — beat the odds.

“Yeah, I read a couple of those, a couple people in the crowd I remember, their predictions for what we got,” said Hutchinson. “Man, we defied all expectations. Nobody thought we could do this. Nobody thought we could ever do this, especially not this season. And, man, we did it. And we did it in a very dominant fashion.”

At the start of the season, ESPN had Michigan as a 2% chance of winning the Big Ten. The Wolverines were predicted to finish fourth in the Big Ten standings, and the maize and blue had a 0% chance of making the College Football Playoffs — boy were they wrong. Andrew Vastardis and Cade McNamara shared that the team learned about that statistic last week, and that has been the team’s new saying, ‘2%’. McNamara says that Michigan has really embraced the ‘it’s us against everybody’ mentality this year.

“So the beginning of the year, the odds — I don’t know, whatever it was, two-percent likely we’d win the Big Ten Championship,” said Vastardis. “That was preseason predictions. I don’t know how it works out.”

“But, you know, we believe in each other. We believe in ourselves. But, you know, there’s always that little external motivation. So, you know, internally motivated, bring each guy along. But sometimes just some of the stuff that’s out there, you just take it and ride with it and fuel to the fire.”

“Well, we didn’t find out the exact statistic until this week,” said McNamara. “But, yeah, two percent for the last week. We thought about two percent the last week. And, yeah, I mean, we knew that this team — guys on this team, this team is just — you know, we’ve gone under some scrutiny. We know that. And we’ve battled through. We’ve — you know, we’re just such a great group of guys who just care about each other.

“And, you know, it’s — we’ve really had the mentality of Michigan versus everybody. And, you know, I just don’t know much to say other than I love these dudes, like, really.”

So how exactly did Michigan flip from going 2-4 last year to going 11-1 and winning a Big Ten title? Aidan Hutchinson says that the team bought in and the culture changed. The guys believe in each other and they wanted to change the narrative surrounding Michigan.

“Yeah, I really think it was a consistent belief, really, from week one,” said Hutchinson. “You know, we saw what we were about against Western Michigan. I knew we had something special off the jump so — you know, really, the whole time, I knew we had something special.”

“Just the way we built the team, the foundation, the high energy throughout the whole off-season. I mean, that doesn’t amount to wins, but, you know, it amounts to the culture and the investment of the guys on the team.”

Jim Harbaugh said that he knew this team was special, and he has known it for awhile. He talks about how this team always comes to practice hungry, and that they always have a smile on their faces. He said that they talked about this last night and what a win against Iowa would mean to this program. The coaches and players will have pictures up on the wall in Schembechler Hall and this team will go down with a rich legacy.

“Oh, yeah, I could feel it,” said Harbaugh. “We all could. We talked about it last night. What more — how much more can we pile into one game, the importance of one game.”

“It’s a lot, yeah, the championship, chance to go to the playoffs. To walk past the sign we all walk by, “Those who stay will be champions.” To make that valid and that true. You know, for guys to — to live on, really, in Schembechler Hall forever. I mean, this picture is going to be up there on the All American wall. Every guy on the team in the team picture is going to be up there as part of Big Ten Champion. We’ve got a banner in Glick Fieldhouse that’s going to say Big Ten Champion.”

“And, you know — and, also, I knew that they would — I just knew they would handle it because they give it their very best every single day whatever they’re doing.”

Well, Jim, you guys did it.

List

Three takeaways from Michigan football winning the Big Ten Championship