Wolverine TV: Jaylen Harrell, AJ Barner talk Michigan win over Ohio State, look ahead to Iowa
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football senior EDGE Jaylen Harrell and senior tight end AJ Barner meet with the media ahead of their team’s Big Ten championship game matchup with Iowa. Watch video of Harrell in the player at the top of the screen and Barner in the embed below.
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Harrell had the pressure on the junior safety Rod Moore game-sealing interception against Ohio State. He described the game he had up front with sophomore defensive tackle Mason Graham and broke down the play.
“Me and Mason had a little stunt going on,” Harrell said. “I came inside, opened up, he wrapped around. I came in, and it wasn’t really opened, so I kinda just bulldozed my way through. Ran him over and then [got to the] quarterback.
“I was really excited — too excited. I got a flag. If Rod didn’t catch that, it would’ve been bad, so I think God he did. I won’t do that again.
“[Michigan head] Coach [Jim Harbaugh] definitely did [say that to me]. I shot him a text after, because Mike B did the same thing at Penn State, so I shot him a text like, ‘My bad, Coach.’ He said, ‘Beat me to it, pal.'”
Michigan ran the ball down Ohio State’s throat on the drive prior to that, with a seven-minute possession that resulted in a field goal, which pushed the Maize and Blue’s lead to six points. Barner loved to see his offense be able to stay on the field and chew so much clock while moving the ball to score.
“It feels really good,” Barner said. “Just to be able to run the ball and they kinda know that you’re going to have to run the ball. It’s kinda, we’re gonna run the ball and you’re going to have to try to stop it. I think all of us would’ve liked to finish it out there and been able to get that last first down, but we were going to take a lot of time off the clock and the defense was able to make big plays.”
Barner may have played his final game at Michigan Stadium, but he still has a decision to make.
“Probably sometime soon,” Barner said of when his choice will be made. “But yeah, I definitely thought about that a little bit, [the possibility of] that being my last game there. I’ll make those decisions as the season winds down. But my main focus is whatever I can do to help us win the next three games — and this game next up, most importantly.”
