Big Ten Media Days usually feature diplomatic coach speak, and Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham delivered just that. He called the storied rivalry between the Wolverines and the Buckeyes intense, but insisted it was never personal. Down in Columbus, Ohio State star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith clearly missed that memo. For the young Buckeye phenom, this legendary rivalry is as personal as it gets.
When Urban Meyer asked what pops into his head when he hears about “the team up north,” without skipping a beat, Smith shook his head and delivered the exact opposite of what Kyle Whittingham claims.
“Hate,” Jeremiah Smith said on The Triple Option Podcast. “You know, with everything in me, I hate them.” That had Urban Meyer and co-host and former NFL superstar Mark Ingram chuckling for a full minute.
During the same interview, Smith explained that this intense feeling was taught to him early. As a top high school recruit visiting Columbus, he accidentally showed up wearing a dark blue shirt. Buckeye staffers stopped him right at the facility door and made him change clothes on the spot.
They told him he had to change immediately because those colors are strictly forbidden on campus. That was the exact moment Smith realized just how serious this rivalry really is.
The sophomore also has a personal chip on his shoulder after what happened during his freshman season. Even though he had an impressive year on the field, recording over 1,300 yards and 15 touchdowns, Ohio State still lost a painful 13-10 game to Michigan.
That loss clearly stung, and it is the main reason he is carrying so much ill will towards the Wolverines heading into the upcoming season. In fact, Smith was so mad about that loss that he had already made a massive promise to the media and the fans. The WR publicly guaranteed that he would never lose to Michigan again for the rest of his college career.
His latest comments on the podcast prove that he’s thinking about this game all year round, not just in November.
Urban Meyer laughing it off makes perfect sense when you look at how he ran things in Columbus. When Meyer was the head coach, he famously banned the color blue from the football facility and wouldn’t even let people say the word “Michigan.”
The former Buckeyes head coach spent his entire career building a culture of pure obsession over this one game. So seeing Smith adopt that same mindset probably made him proud.
Although Ohio State fans are absolutely loving Smith’s bold energy, you can bet the folks up in Michigan are taking notes. This kind of trash talk is perfect bulletin-board material for the Wolverines’ locker room, making their next game against each other even more intense.
It is clear that the bad blood between these two teams isn’t going away anytime soon.
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