College Football

Jim Harbaugh, Ryan Day have helped a once-cool rivalry boil over

Updated Nov. 25, 2023 1:12 a.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The tribalism that is inherent in college football due to its firm roots as a regional sport is almost always invigorated around Thanksgiving, with the schedule-makers almost universally delivering a rivalry week that is full of emotions. And the intensity is not in any way balanced out by copious amounts of tryptophan consumed prior to Saturday.

Whether over a border, across town or along a desolate stretch of highway, this is the sport at its most basic: one school versus another, rivals mostly due to simple geography. The symbiotic pair can become bitter over the years, with bragging rights at stake around the office or family holiday dinners, offering some slight feeling of superiority for the ensuing 365 days.

Of all the contests that fall under such an umbrella this weekend, few compare to that of Ohio State against Michigan. It's a matchup of the two winningest FBS programs in the country, and this year will be the 119th meeting between the two in a series that dates back to 1897 — making it older than five states.

To label The Game as something of a Cold War rivalry would be perfectly agreeable to all but the most fringe elements of either fan base. There have been flare-ups, of course, and a handful of skirmishes that kept the temperature warm enough to simmer the seeds of resentment. But for the most part, there was still enough mutual appreciation of this late November contest — and those who took part in it — being special enough to overcome the natural everyday bias that comes with maize and blue versus scarlet and gray.

"The implications of this game are huge," OSU quarterback Kyle McCord said. "There's a lot of noise, there's a lot of hype around it, and rightly so."

Lately, however, the everyday conflict between campuses in Ann Arbor and Columbus has become fully and undeniably a hot one. There is anger, animosity, a dash of paranoia, and a general setting aside of respect. It's gotten to the point where the hatred is fully palpable.

Part of this is due to on-field results.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Buckeyes had been in control of the series with striking regularity. During a nearly two-decade run between 2001 and 2019, the Wolverines prevailed just twice — cycling through head coaches several times in the process but coming up with the same results. Amid a host of Buckeyes blowouts, Ohio State often challenged for national titles and churned out NFL draft picks while Michigan searched for any sort of firm footing.

No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Michigan: Breaking down the film

A few days after the 2014 edition, Michigan hired who it hoped would be the great equalizer: Jim Harbaugh.

Once a successful quarterback in The Game at his alma mater, Harbaugh ticked off every box imaginable as the most "Michigan Man" possible to lead the program. Yet despite a Super Bowl appearance recently in his rearview mirror, Harbaugh was the first coach Michigan coach to lose his first four games in the rivalry — coming up empty against Urban Meyer and in the initial meeting with Ryan Day.

However, he did slowly close the gap. The infamous spot on fourth down in double-overtime in 2016 was a potential sliding doors moment if there ever was one, and Michigan was even favored over Ohio State back in 2018. Both wound up being wins for the Buckeyes, but it felt almost inevitable that a breakthrough would happen at some point, with both programs playing, recruiting and competing at an elite level.

Given the ages of the two head coaches involved and how successful each was becoming, it was only natural to think that the baton passing from Meyer to Day and the enigmatic alum on the other side was enough to believe there was a brewing Ten Year War, Part II on hand. While the nod toward the Woody Hayes-Bo Schembechler run from 1969 to 1978 was understandable, it was a misguided one, as that era was marked by mutual respect between rivals. Schembechler played and coached for Hayes, after all.

Whatever mutual admiration may have initially existed between Day and Harbaugh back in 2019 has been quickly dissolved, however. The Cold War has gone fully hot.

"It's all about our preparation for Ohio," Harbaugh told reporters Monday when directly asked if he respected Day, misnaming his opponent's school in the process. "The days, the minutes, the hours, everything leading up to this game, that's where our focus is: preparing ourselves and planning. We're going to practice, then execute. Anything else is irrelevant when it comes to this big game week."

What you should expect to see in The Game

There is burying your head in the sand, and there is saying that. If anything, it is everything else that is suddenly relevant this week, and the outcome on "Big Noon Saturday" (noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) is merely the delectable dessert, especially given that Harbaugh will be absent while serving out a suspension levied by the Big Ten over his alleged sign-stealing operation.

Though it's too narrow-minded to think that this recent scandal is the chief culprit in rising tensions between the two coaching staffs, it certainly has acted like lighter fluid to elevate distrust into downright disgust.

"I think with everything going on, and the things that are out there, we've just kind of stayed away from all the distractions we have and just kind of focused on our team," Day demurred when directly asked on Tuesday if he respects Harbaugh. "I think our guys have done a good job of it. I've talked to them a couple times about what's gone on this season and going into The Game, but they're focused on this game. They're focused on this season. They're focused on their preparation. And we're just going to continue that."

The answers from each coach on the question of respect were quite telling, with their deflections almost underscoring the subtle nod that respect must be earned and not given. It seems that neither has done enough to warrant an ounce of it.

While only a dose of truth serum will be able to tell us for sure about the root of the quarrel, perhaps it was Harbaugh's comment in the wake of his 2021 breakthrough in The Game that kicked the acrimony into high gear, saying that Day was "born on third base" by inheriting a championship-caliber program from Meyer.

Sniping between the two sides has seemed to pick up ever since, whether it was over a recruit picking one school over the other or through this latest ‘Spygate' scandal involving former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions. It remains unclear what the ultimate outcome will be from that (beyond Harbaugh sitting at home on Saturday), but you can bet that the Michigan faithful filling the Big House to maximum capacity will echo accusations that the Buckeyes had their own role to play in the Wolverines' latest entanglement outside the lines.

"I was taught that the way you respect a rivalry is to work it every day. Whether it's in the weight room, whether it's game-planning, talking to your players during periods in practice during the spring, periods of the practice in the preseason, and that's it," Day said. "We do respect the rivalry, and I'm certainly excited to play here on Saturday."

That facet of things is likely the most overlooked during the back-and-forth prior to kickoff, with those around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center showing palpable emotion — bordering on frustration — about the nearly interminable wait to get some revenge and the trademark gold pants that come with it.

As a result of Michigan controversially opting out of The Game due to COVID back in 2020, it's been 1,456 days since Ohio State last triumphed in the rivalry. That's a long time to wait for anything, and it's been exacerbated by the two most recent blowouts by the Wolverines.

Expectations for Michigan without Harbaugh vs. Ohio State

"You have to try not to spiral out of control too soon. It's a slow build until the foot hits the ball, and you can kind of let everything go at that point," wideout Emeka Egbuka said. "We know this was coming at the end of the season every single year, so it's always in the back of our mind."

Cornerback Denzel Burke was even more pointed, coldly embracing the role of what he called the "villain" to Wolverines fans going into Ann Arbor this week. The opportunity ahead is to not only get a win to book a trip to the Big Ten title game, but to derail the national championship hopes at Michigan, where the Wolverines have so clearly been pushing boundaries to achieve greatness.

"It's horrible (to lose)," said Burke. "Especially at Ohio State, livelihoods are at stake. You got to win this game. It's mandatory.

"Just thinking about The Game kind of makes my blood boil."

If it hasn't become clear already, he does not seem alone in such feelings going into Saturday.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.