He's A Freak: Michigan's Aidan Hutchinson Receives No. 2 Ranking On CFB List
Though the Wolverines enter fall camp with question marks at several key positions, they also enter fall camp with one of the most dominant and freakish athletes in all of college football - at least according to one college football analyst.
Fox Sports contributor and Writer for The Athletic, Bruce Feldman, released his annual list of the top college football 'freaks'. The list consists of the top 101 college football athletes who are known for their freakish abilities and dominance on the field of play.
Based on that criteria alone, it should come as no surprise that Michigan's Aidan Hutchinson came in at No. 2 overall on Feldman's list of freaks. Here's what Feldman had to say about the Michigan captain heading into his final year in Ann Arbor.
After an injury-shortened season that limited him to three games with 15 tackles, sources inside the program expect Hutchinson, who made 68 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in 2019, to have a huge 2021 season. We had his former teammate Kwity Paye at the top of this list a year ago, and we hear that 265-pound Hutchinson is every bit as big a Freak.
“He’s gonna test really well when he goes to the combine,” one source said. “He has a huge chip on his shoulder and can be right where Kwity was (in those agility numbers), running low 4.6s, with a mid-30s vert, but he’s over 6-6, and he’s gonna bench (225) in the 30s.”
While at Michigan, Paye clocked the second-best 3-cone time on the team at 6.37. This offseason, Hutchinson timed 6.54, which would’ve been better than anyone at the 2020 combine. In addition, he vertical jumped 36 inches, ran a 4.64 40 and ripped off a 4.07 shuttle time. Hutchinson also did a 2.57-second reactive plyo stair, which at 265, amazed even his strength coaches. He is the first athlete that veteran strength coach Ben Herbert has witnessed do a “Turkish Get-up” with 135 pounds and no collars (to lock on the plates) in 24 years working in college weight rooms. (Any mistake or hint of imbalance in keeping the bar perfectly level, and the weight will slide off.)
In case you were wondering, a year later when Paye had his NFL pro day, he matched his time in the 3-cone drill. Paye, then 10 pounds lighter, also ran a 4.52 40 faster than the 4.57 he had last offseason; vertical jumped an inch higher (35.5) and did six more reps (36) on the bench press at 225 pounds.
