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Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham didn’t make many friends by not openly detesting the enemy.
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Whittingham acknowledged the significance of Michigan’s rivalry with Ohio State during last week’s Big Ten media days, but he wouldn’t go as far as to say he hates the Buckeyes.
“Hate’s a strong word,” Whittingham said. “But I want to win that game as badly as anybody in Ann Arbor.”
Whittingham also wouldn’t start a feud with Ryan Day, calling the Ohio State head coach a “good person.”
“I just think that a rivalry can be intense and emotional without the hatred factor,” Whittingham opined. “I don’t think there’s a place for that.”
Some college fans seemed to hate Whittingham’s unwillingness to hate, but the 66-year-old didn’t think his comments merited any fuss. He explained his thought process on Monday, per The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich.
“Do we have a better chance of winning if I hated them? I don’t understand,” Whittingham said. “Whatever gives us the best chance to win, I’m all for it. I want to beat them worse than anybody around, so I don’t know how that got to be such a hot topic.”
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“It’s a huge game”
Whittingham also highlighted The Game’s “great importance” last week and hoped that Michigan and Ohio State would play for Big Ten championship implications. Yet he didn’t want his squad to look past the 11 games on the schedule before going to Columbus on Nov. 28.
Despite that mentality, Whittingham acknowledged on Monday that Ohio State remains a constant topic of conversation as Michigan prepares for the 2026 season.
“There’s periods, practice segments and things in the weight room where that’s talked about,” Whittingham said. “I’m not trying to downplay that at all. It’s a huge game. Gigantic. It’s something we all have in the back of our mind 24/7.”
While he hasn’t appeared to develop an intense hatred of Day and the Buckeyes over the last week, Whittingham wished he had presented his comments better.
“I probably should have worded it differently,” Whittingham added. “But that game is of the utmost importance.”
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This story was originally published August 11, 2026 at 9:52 AM.