Michigan's Bryce Underwood Downplays OSU Rivalry as 'Just Another Game' After Whittingham Comments

For fans of Michigan and Ohio State, "The Game" is arguably just as big as the Big 10 championship or even a College Football Playoff game.

Bryce Underwood doesn't have that mindset.

"It's just another game. Just with guys in a different color," Underwood said. "That's how I see it."

Underwood isn't the only one on Michigan's team who has downplayed the rivarly recent. At Big Ten media day, first-year Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham said The Game doesn't need the "hatred factor."

"Hate's a strong word," Whittingham told reporters. "But I want to win that game as badly as anybody in Ann Arbor ... I just think that a rivalry can be intense and emotional without the hatred factor. I don't think there's a place for that. Personally, I think Ryan Day is a good person. To sit here and say I hate Ryan Day, I'd be making crap up because that's not true."

Whittingham clarified his comments on Monday, saying that he wasn't trying to downplay the importance of the matchup against Ohio State.

"Would we have a better chance to win if I hated them? I mean, I don't understand," he said. "I want to beat them worse than anybody around. So I don't know how that got to be such a hot topic. There's periods, practice segments and things in the weight room where that's talked about. 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."

Julian Sayin, Ohio State's quarterback, didn't shy away from discussing how big The Game is on Tuesday.

"It becomes your livelihood," he said when discussing the rivalry.

Michigan won four straight matchups against Ohio State from 2021 to 2024, but the Buckeyes bounced back with a win last year. Both squads have national championship hopes, but they also have Nov. 28 circled on their calendars.