Kyle Whittingham Takes a Very Different Approach to the Michigan-Ohio State Rivalry
Kyle Whittingham is not treating The Game like his predecessors did, and that is going to make Michigan fans nervous.
The new Wolverines head coach sat down with ESPN on Thursday and made a very deliberate choice about how he talks about the annual rivalry with Ohio State. Whittingham acknowledged the game’s importance but pushed back on the idea that it should dominate the entire season.
“It is the biggest rivalry in the country, in our opinion. It is something that is in the back of my mind every day,” Whittingham said. “But I am old school and I believe in taking it one game at a time, and we have got 11 games to play before we get to that game, so we cannot obsess over it, at least not just yet.”
Michigan fans have been hearing something very different from their head coaches for the last decade. Jim Harbaugh made The Game the centerpiece of everything. His messaging built up to that Saturday like it was the only thing that mattered. Sherrone Moore continued the same tone during his brief tenure.
Whittingham comes from a different world. He built Utah into a Pac-12 winner by being methodical, unemotional, and hyper-focused on the next opponent regardless of the calendar. He has never coached in a program where a single game defined the entire year, and it shows in how he is choosing to talk about it.
Is this the right approach? That depends on how you view the current state of the program.
If you think Michigan needs to reestablish itself as a serious contender in the Big Ten before it worries about beating Ohio State, Whittingham’s messaging makes perfect sense. The Wolverines are coming off a rough stretch, and treating every conference game like it matters equally is exactly how a program rebuilds toughness and depth.
If you think The Game IS the program, and that everything else is just prelude, this approach will feel like heresy. Michigan traditionalists have been raised to view Ohio State week as a religious event. Downplaying it, even in a “one game at a time” cliche, feels like a betrayal.
The reality is that Michigan cannot beat Ohio State right now by focusing on Ohio State. The Buckeyes are among the favorites to win a national championship and have Jeremiah Smith coming back for another year with quarterback Julian Sayin. Beating that team requires having your own team playing at its best, which requires developing that team through the first 11 games.
Whittingham gets that. He is playing the long game. If Michigan wins 10 games and beats Ohio State, he will look like a genius. If Michigan finishes 7-5 and gets embarrassed by the Buckeyes, this approach will get roasted for weeks.
The Buckeyes ended a four-game Michigan winning streak last season, which was the moment the balance shifted back. Whittingham was hired specifically to rebuild the program’s identity and get back to that level of competition.
He is not going to do it by out-tough-talking Ryan Day. He is going to do it by out-coaching him. Whether that works or not, we will find out in November.
For now, Wolverines fans need to trust the process. It is a very different process than what they are used to.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
