Julian Sayin handled the rivalry question the right way, and Bryce Underwood didn’t do Michigan any favors.
Ohio State’s quarterback gave a blunt answer this week when On3’s Ari Wasserman and Andy Staples asked him about losing to Michigan. Sayin said it “becomes your livelihood,” a line that lands because he’s lived it. He was the backup in 2024, when Will Howard and Co. lost “The Game” at home, 13-10, to a 6-6 Sherrone Moore-coached team.
Underwood took a very different route when he spoke with John Fanta. Rather than lean into the emotion of the rivalry, he brushed it off.
“It’s just another game. Just, with guys in a different color. That’s how I see it,” Underwood told Fanta.
That comment fits with the odd messaging coming out of Michigan this week. The conversation started with head coach Kyle Whittingham, who said during the 2026 Big Ten Football Media Days that he had no real grasp of the rivalry’s “hate” because he doesn’t feel hatred toward Ryan Day.
“I’ve learned how intense that rivalry is and how important the game is,” Whittingham said during the 2026 Big Ten Football Media Days. “Hate is a strong word, but I want to win that game as badly as anybody in Ann Arbor. ...
I just think a rivalry can be intense and emotional without the hatred factor. I don’t think there’s any place for that personally.
I think Ryan Day is a good person. To sit here and say I hate Ryan Day, I’d be making crap up because that’s not true.”
Underwood didn’t need to add to that line of thinking, especially after the way his 2025 season went. He threw four touchdowns and seven interceptions down the stretch against Ohio State and a stretch of Big Ten opponents that included Michigan State, Purdue, Northwestern, and Maryland.
Instead, the Wolverines’ sophomore quarterback put himself in a tougher spot with a quote that downplayed the game entirely. That’s not the kind of thing Michigan fans wanted to hear after the way he’s already been viewed by some of them.
Maybe Michigan knows something the rest of the sport doesn’t. Maybe Whittingham’s program really is poised to give Day and Ohio State trouble, and the restraint is just confidence dressed up as calm.
Or maybe it’s something simpler: maybe they’re not talking like a team that believes it can win in late November. Maybe they’re talking like a group that sees beating the preseason coaches poll’s No. 1 overall team in year one of the Whittingham era on the road as a lost cause.
Either way, the optics are working out well for Ohio State. And compared side by side, Sayin’s comments about Michigan came off a lot stronger than Underwood’s did about Ohio State.
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