Michigan fans might be experiencing their own Jonathan Smith era. The ex-Michigan State head coach had two forgettable seasons in East Lansing before the Spartans moved on and hired Pat Fitzgerald.
Now, Michigan might be experiencing their own version of the Smith era.
Just take this quote that he gave after Michigan’s panic-inducing seven-point win over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon regarding the Michigan State rivalry.
Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham on postgame radio says he’s “very interested” in being part of the MSU-U-M rivalry: “It’s not the biggest one, but it’s a big one.”
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) October 31, 2026
This wasn’t quite as bad as Smith saying “I really want to win that thing” and calling the Michigan State vs. Michigan rivalry a “sucker” while clearly proving that he doesn’t quite get it, but Whittingham already has a bad history of talking about rivalry games since taking over in Ann Arbor. At Big Ten Media Days, Whittingham said that he wouldn’t use the word “hate” when speaking about Ohio State which riled up the fanbase early on.
And then he said he would welcome his good friend and one of the most hated figures in Ann Arbor, Urban Meyer, to Ann Arbor if he wanted to visit the program.
”It’s not the biggest one, but it’s a big one” is definitely an unintentional dig at Michigan State but saying that he’s “very interested” in being part of the rivalry was very Smith-esque.
Whittingham really just wants to win “that sucker” and he feels the magnitude of “that thing”.
At least Fitzgerald is going to spare us all the pleasantries.
Michigan fans are hoping Kyle Whittingham is a one-and-done
The Whittingham era has gotten off to a resounding thud and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Michigan fans, understandably, are ready to move on.
If you thought Michigan State fans were impatient, there’s just no way Wolverine fans would be able to survive a 2-6 start to a season these days. Ever since they were spoiled with a national title a few years ago, they have expected nothing but titles.
Twitter was riddled with “leave Whitt and Beck” on the tarmac tweets during the Michigan vs. Rutgers game as the Wolverines needed all 60 minutes to finally put the Scarlet Knights away and a 5-3 start to the season which really should be 4-4 with a loss to Western Michigan has been too much. Nearly losing to Western Michigan was the first nail in the coffin and Saturday may have been the last.
If Whittingham loses to Michigan State on Saturday, he may not even make it to December.
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