Taking the Michigan job means inheriting the most intense rivalry in college sports. Sitting under the bright lights at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago, new Wolverines coach Kyle Whittingham knew what was coming. Reporters immediately pressed him on the central question: Does he personally hate Ryan Day and Ohio State? Whittingham chose composure over headline bait. 

“I don’t know what that dynamic was,” Kyle Whittingham said via Matt Fortuna. “I thought Ryan was a pretty good guy when I interacted with him in the Rose Bowl.”

Whittingham first bonded with Day during bowl week before the 2022 Rose Bowl. Later that season, Whittingham’s Utah team beat USC, accidentally opening the door for Ohio State to enter the College Football Playoff. That shared history created genuine mutual respect long before Whittingham ever moved his office to Ann Arbor. 

“I just think that a rivalry can be intense and emotional without the hatred factor,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any place for that personally. I think Ryan Day is a good person. And to sit here and say, I hate Ryan Day, I’d be making crap up. That’s not true.”

Those comments stood out because they cut against the recent tone of college football’s biggest rivalry. The last several years have been packed with drama. Michigan has beaten Ohio State for four straight years, but the games have been remembered for more than the final score. The sign-stealing saga swallowed the 2023 season. 

The next ended in chaos, with Michigan celebrating at midfield, Ohio State refusing to let it happen, and the post-game turning into a mess that police had to break up with pepper spray. Kyle Whittingham isn’t ignoring the intensity of The Game. But he isn’t carrying any of that baggage.

“I’ve learned how intense that rivalry is and how important the game is,” he said. “Hate is a strong word, but I want to win that game as badly as anybody in Ann Arbor.”

Kyle Whittingham speaking well of Ryan Day isn’t out of left field. Before he became the guy at Utah, he was calling the defense for Urban Meyer. Then their paths split. Meyer headed to Florida and later Ohio State, where Michigan never beat one of his teams. Years later, Day inherited that job in Columbus. Different careers, different stops, but the connection never really disappeared. 

Ryan Day, meanwhile, made it clear that beating Michigan remains the standard in Columbus, even after winning the national championship.

“To me, it’s always about winning the rivalry game first and then winning a national championship,” he said. “We want to win the conference, but we want to win the conference to put us in the best position to win the national championship.”

So don’t mistake Kyle Whittingham’s comments for indifference. He understands what Michigan vs. Ohio State means.

“Everybody knows that that game’s looming out there,” he said. “The best-case scenario, it comes down to that 12th game. That’s for all the marbles in the Big Ten.”

Kyle Whittingham isn’t trying to soften one of college football’s fiercest rivalries. He’s simply drawing a line between obsession and personal resentment. The game, in his view, should stay ruthless between the whistles. It doesn’t have to become personal once they’re over.