CHICAGO -- Some Michigan football head coaches come in and pound podiums as they talk about rival Ohio State. Others make no guarantees. Others ensure they understand the importance, which is more than lip service, but actions indicate that they don't understand the importance. And for longtime Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, now leading the Wolverines
, he's somewhere closer to the middle than anything.Before Thursday, Whittingham either did regional Michigan media or one-on-one interviews. But on Thursday, he had his first foray into the Big Ten media as a whole, making his appearance on the dais at Big Ten media days. And with that, he was asked about what the Ohio State rivalry means to him.
And not unlike at his introductory press conference
in Orlando, he noted that he's long watched The Game from afar.
"I haven't learned really much more than I already do," Whittingham said. "I mean, it's a national game. Everybody knows about it. It's 'The Game,' as we call it. And it's of great importance, obviously, to both sides.
"I'm an old-school coach. You know, we've got 11 games that we play before that, so we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. But make no mistake, I understand the implications that it has. A friend of mine, Urban Meyer, he was at the other place for a few years. And we've talked about The Game, of course, in that time span. And so very well-versed in what it means, the intensity of it, the national allure that it has. And our players are the same. I mean, everybody knows that that game's looming out there. And I think the best-case scenario, it comes down to that 12th game. And that's for all the marbles in the Big Ten. I think that would be ideal. So hopefully that happens."
Whittingham has maintained the signage inside Schembechler Hall that asks: what have you done to beat Ohio State today? But he's also not overly emphasizing the rivalry. Given that he coached under Meyer at Utah, he certainly knows what his former boss had done in Columbus and how he had prioritized the rivalry. It will be interesting to see how he handles it when The Game actually comes, because the rivalry isn't for everyone.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kyle Whittingham weighs in on Michigan-Ohio State rivalry
