Urban Meyer didn’t waste a second when The Triple Option asked him to name the top must-watch game on the 2026 college football schedule.
Before co-host Rob Stone could finish laying out the countdown, Meyer jumped in with the answer he clearly had ready.
"I mean, you can answer it for me," Meyer said. "This is the same one that Fox Sports picks every year."
Stone knew exactly where Meyer was going. "You're going late November," he said.
Meyer made it official from there.
"It's in Columbus, Ohio this year," Meyer said. "It's going to be two guys that worked on my coaching staff, Ryan Day and Kyle Whittingham, two guys arguably the top two coaches in college football, if not certainly top five.
"Look at their records, look at what they've done. Elite coaches, elite people.
And that by far is No. 1.
It will always be No. 1."
The game Meyer was talking about is Michigan at Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 28 at noon ET on Fox. That matchup has now landed on Fox nine straight times and has kicked off at noon in 19 consecutive meetings, which makes Meyer’s joke about Fox choosing it every year land a little harder.
What makes his pick especially interesting is the coaching tree underneath it. Whittingham once ran Meyer’s defense at Utah in 2003 and 2004, including the 12-0 season that ended with a Fiesta Bowl win over Pittsburgh.
When Meyer left for Florida, Whittingham took over the Utes. Day’s path runs through Meyer too: he was a graduate assistant on Meyer’s first Florida staff in 2005, later joined Ohio State as co-offensive coordinator in January 2017, and then took over in Columbus two years after that.
Now both coaches will be on opposite sidelines in the same game Meyer called the clear No. 1.
Whittingham, 66, stepped down at Utah in December after 21 seasons and a 177-88 record, then took the Michigan job. Meyer’s own connection to the rivalry still hangs over this one, too. The Ohio native went 7-0 against Michigan from 2012 through 2018 and has said that record means more to him than the 2014 national title.
Day’s track record against the Wolverines hasn’t matched Meyer’s. He is 2-4 in the rivalry, with wins in 2019 and last November’s 27-9 victory in Ann Arbor that snapped a four-game losing streak. Ohio State still hasn’t beaten Michigan at home since 2018, and Michigan leads the all-time series 62-52-6.
Ohio State heads into the season with Julian Sayin back at quarterback after he completed 76.7% of his passes for 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year. Jeremiah Smith also returns after catching 87 passes for 1,243 yards and 12 touchdowns and finishing sixth in Heisman voting. The Buckeyes’ season ended with a 24-14 loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl playoff quarterfinal, and Indiana won the national title.
At Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, Day pointed to the work ahead in camp.
"It's an important preseason camp," Day said on Wednesday. "The season that we have ahead of us is going to be a monster and we are fired up about that."
Michigan’s offseason brought a much rougher backdrop. Sherrone Moore was fired in December after the school found credible evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. The Wolverines finished 9-4, fell 41-27 to Texas in the Citrus Bowl and ranked 11th in the Big Ten in scoring offense.
Whittingham’s first Big Ten Media Days appearance in Michigan gear is set for Thursday, with sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood back after throwing for 2,428 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions as a freshman. Michigan also brought in Jason Beck to run the offense.
Meyer’s top pick came with a loaded list behind it. The rest of the must-watch countdown included Oregon’s trip to Columbus, Ohio State at Texas, Lane Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss and Miami and Notre Dame in November.
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