Michigan's Khaleke Hudson shows he's still the big man on the block

Ann Arbor — Michigan linebacker and co-captain Khaleke Hudson has a knack for punt blocking and he did it again in the win over Michigan State on Saturday.

Hudson has five punt blocks in his career after he blocked a punt early in the fourth quarter to give Michigan the ball at the MSU 22-yard line. Michigan needed one play, a 22-yard pass from Shea Patterson to Nico Collins, to score and take a 34-10 lead.

“Just max focus and executing your job,” Hudson said. “There were two punt returns I was close to blocking the punt and on the third one, I knew the guy was going to over pursuit, so I took it under him and I kept my eyes on the ball and ended up blocking the punt.”

Hudson had two blocked punts last season, including one for a safety in the Peach Bowl.

He carried the Paul Bunyan Trophy after the win on Saturday at Michigan Stadium. Hudson said it was a highlight “just having the Paul Bunyan trophy in our hands again for another year and being able to run around with it on the field, show our fans and to celebrate with the team.”

Nearly realized a goal

Quinn Nordin was 3-for-3 on field goals, making them from 28, 49 and 33 yards. He made the 49-yard field goal with 2:13 left in the third quarter, giving Michigan a 27-10 lead.

“He comes in and hits a 49-yarder from the right hash,” Harbaugh said. “He told me when I was recruiting him that someday he was going to kick a 49-yarder from the right hash to beat Michigan State. So that was kind of a cool moment after he kicked that. I walked out there and reminded him of that. That was a big kick at that moment of the game.”

Quotable

Michigan receiver Ronnie Bell on the 98-yard scoring drive that culminated with Patterson’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Nick Eubanks with 4:18 left in the first half: “It was huge. I don’t think any of us realized it was at the 2. We thought it was on the 1 and everybody was saying, ‘Let’s take it 99,’ and that’s what we did. The O line executed it and everybody executed. It was a huge drive. Once we put points on the board, you could just feel it rolling. We just stepped on it and kept it going.”

angelique.chengelis@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @chengelis