Kyle Whittingham didn’t arrive at Big Ten Media Day trying to light a fuse under Michigan’s rivalry with Ohio State. If anything, his remarks went the other way: measured, respectful, and pretty easy to understand.
Whittingham said he views Ryan Day as “a good person,” and made it clear he has respect for the Michigan-Ohio State matchup. What he wasn’t willing to do was lean into hate.
“I just think that a rivalry can be intense and emotional without the hatred factor. I don’t think there’s any place for that, personally,“ Whittingham said.
That stance was enough to spark reaction anyway, which says plenty about how charged this series is. The comments drew pushback from around college football media, even though Whittingham never sounded like he was taking the rivalry lightly.
“Spoken like a man who went to BYU and coached at Utah forever. He’s right, of course, but it’s a losing battle,” said Yahoo! senior college football writer Dan Wolken.
“It could be a rude awakening for the new Wolverine head coach come November,” says Patrick Murphy of Bucknuts.
“This is a level of hate that Whittingham has to understand at some point,” says Andrew Hughes of Scarlet & Game. “He has to respect what his blood rival accomplishes, but he has to hate that it’s they who accomplished it. If he doesn’t, the intensity will sweep him up like a raging river rapid and leave him behind.”
“Michigan football’s Kyle Whittingham’s take on Ohio State rivalry will have fans divided,” said Rexwell Villas of Clutch Points.
Whittingham, though, was speaking from a place of familiarity, not detachment. He said he’s watched Michigan-Ohio State games since he was a kid, back when Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes were coaching the two programs. He knows exactly what the rivalry means.
And he still wasn’t interested in dressing it up as something uglier than it needs to be.
”It’s the biggest rivalry in the country, in our opinion. Something that’s in the back of mind every single day, but I am old school and I believe in taking it one game at a time,” Whittingham said.
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