The best rivalry in college football could be entering its mature era with first year Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham speaking kindly about Ryan Day and the need to not have hatred during the run up towards it. There is one old Buckeye legend who would have disagreed with that approach back in his head coaching days.
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The relationship between Urban Meyer and Kyle Whittingham goes back to their days at Utah. The former Ohio State head coach even expressed happiness when his friend was hired at Ann Arbor, despite Michigan being his arch-enemy. Whittingham was asked if his friend could visit him at the Wolverines. The Michigan head coach agreed, but there’s one exception.
“If Urban wants to come to practice, he can come every week but one,” Kyle Whittingham jokingly said at Big Ten Media Days, via On3’s Nick Schultz on July 31. “There’s one week he can’t come.”
And it’s not hard to guess which week Whittingham is talking about. That’s during the rivalry game week when Michigan takes on Ohio State. As a former Ohio State head coach, Meyer wouldn’t want to hang around Ann Arbor when his favorite team is set to go up against the team up north.
The interaction illustrates the strong bond between Meyer and Whittingham. The two started working at Utah, where the latter even served as Meyer’s defensive coordinator. When Meyer left for Florida, Whittingham became the head coach, a job he held for 21 years.
When pressed by Nick Schultz regarding the built-in hatred between the programs, Whittingham emphasized that while the matchup demands absolute competitive intensity on the field, there is no constructive place for genuine, toxic hatred in modern college football. Even Meyer understands this in his post-coaching role.
When Michigan hired Whittingham in December 2025, Meyer discussed why it was a good fit. “He’s 66 years old, but he’s a 50-year-old body and mind,” Meyer said on The Script podcast. “And then, after we talked for about 20 minutes, my comment was, ‘That’s a perfect fit. I get it. Of all the people in the United States of America that they should call, it’s you.’
“I know what he stands for; I know he’s about doing the right thing. It’s about toughness, it’s about line of scrimmage, and it’s about academics. He’s about the right stuff. And they got a great one.
All the Michigan fans are expecting Meyer’s words to come true after the whole Sherrone Moore scandal. They want some stability for their program and for the Wolverines to not be known for controversy, but rather for national championships.
As for “The Game,” Ryan Day finally ended his losing streak against Michigan during the 2025 season. The Buckeyes came to Ann Arbor and demolished the Wolverines 27-9. This year, Michigan is traveling to Columbus, and Whittingham would like to have a winning start in the rivalry.
As we have often seen, a win in the rivalry game can even brush off other losses during a season. The same happened to Sherrone Moore in 2024. However, he couldn’t take that momentum into the next season. Heading into 2026, Ohio State is in contention for the national championship. On the other hand, Cleveland.com predicts Michigan will finish as the fifth-best team in the Big Ten.
It’s a good thing for such a fierce rivalry to be led by level-headed coaches on both sides. We all remember the chaotic scene that unfolded on November 30, 2024, after Michigan pulled off a stunning 13-10 upset over Ohio State.
Following the final whistle, several Michigan players carried a large Wolverines banner to the middle of Ohio Stadium and tried to plant the flag directly onto the Ohio State “Block O” logo at midfield. Infuriated by that action, the entire Ohio State team rushed the field to defend their logo.
Dozens of players threw punches, staff members collided, and Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer ripped the flag off its pole. The violence escalated so severely that law enforcement officers had to deploy pepper spray and mace into the crowd to break up the melee, leaving players and reporters coughing and blinded on the field.
After such violence on the gridiron, it would be a nice change to get through these rivalry games with some respect for the other side and mature reactions from both the winner and the loser.