Last month at Big Ten Media Days, new Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham raised eyebrows across the Midwest. Asked if he hated Ohio State yet, Whittingham refused to play along. He called hate a strong word and praised Buckeyes coach Ryan Day as a good guy. Naturally, fans wondered what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot.

Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer didn’t mince words on his Triple Option podcast. He said if Ryan Day ever uttered those words, Columbus would go berserk. According to Meyer, telling Buckeye fans that you respect Michigan isn’t viewed as sportsmanship. It is viewed as an unforgivable problem.

“If the Ohio State coach ever said that, that’d be a problem. People would lose their minds in Columbus, Ohio, and they would,” Urban Meyer said.

If Day tried that balanced approach, sports radio hosts and message boards would call for his job before nightfall. Columbus expects total devotion to the rivalry. Day knows the local culture far too well to ever test those boundaries.

Meyer defended Whittingham as the “epitome of common sense.” He pointed out that personal feelings and professional competition are two different things. You can respect a man off the field while working tirelessly to beat him on Saturdays.

“Did I hate Jim Harbaugh? Did I hate Brady Hoke? Of course not,” Meyer said. That answer clearly caught his co-host, former Buckeyes player Mark Ingram, off guard. “Are you sure?!?!” Ingram fired back.

Meyer didn’t back down. Before anyone could get on his nerves about it, he offered some perspective. He emphasized that when it comes to the game itself, a coach’s job is essentially to hate the opponent. Once you step onto that field, professional hatred is simply part of the contract.

The reason Meyer can speak so freely about Whittingham is that the two go back decades. Before Whittingham spent more than 20 years winning games at Utah, he was actually Meyer’s defensive coordinator there in the early 2000s. The two remain incredibly close friends, and Whittingham even sought Meyer’s advice before taking the Michigan job. Meyer has been one of his biggest cheerleaders, calling him the perfect guy to clean up the drama in Ann Arbor.

Even after facing backlash from the Wolverine faithful for sounding a little too friendly with the enemy, Whittingham has firmly stood his ground during subsequent fall camp press conferences. He recently fired back at his critics by asking whether hating Ohio State would somehow magically give his team a better chance of winning. To him, it’s all about focus and execution, not emotional storylines or screaming about how much you despise the other side.

Still, Meyer doesn’t think Whittingham’s calm and peaceful approach will last forever. Michigan has to travel to the infamous Horseshoe in Columbus this November.

Meyer warned his former assistant that once he walks down that tunnel, gets things thrown at him, and hears the incredibly nasty things the Columbus crowd will scream in his face, he will naturally develop a dose of hatred, whether he wants to or not. Just like Ryan Day did.