Michigan QB coach Koy Detmer understands the Michigan State rivalry more than his boss

Kyle Whittingham has spent the past week “aw shucks”-ing his way through interviews and questions about Michigan State the way Jonathan Smith did over the past two years and Michigan fans have been hovering over the panic button.

Fortunately for the Wolverines, there’s at least one coach on the staff who understands the rivalry and while it may not be the big boss man, they need to take what they can get.

Koy Detmer, an offensive analyst and the team’s quarterbacks coach, said what Whittingham probably should have when he was asked about the Michigan vs. Michigan State rivalry, stating that he wants to “beat the hell out of (MSU)”.

Honestly, you have to respect that candid answer. At least someone knows how intense this rivalry is and how seriously it should be taken.

Whittingham can dance around the trash talk and keep it respectable like John Beilein all he wants, but at least Beilein won enough to act that way. He was able to be a respectable coach who always praised Izzo and the Spartans because he was able to beat Michigan State regularly and his teams were always in the title mix.

We can’t say the same about Whittingham at Michigan because he hasn’t done anything in Ann Arbor outside of escape one of the biggest upsets of the season thanks to a gifted extra second.

So if Whittingham isn’t going to do the trash talking or share the “we hate them” sentiment, at least the team’s quarterbacks coach will.

I’m not sure he’s the right guy to have that mindset, but hey, at least it’s something.

The Michigan State vs. Michigan rivalry’s intensity has taken a hit

A few years ago at the tail-end of the Mel Tucker era, the intensity in the rivalry was high mostly because the toxicity was at an obscene level. Everyone wanted that toxicity turned down about 10 notches, but instead the intensity has — the toxicity is still very much there, but it’s become much lazier.

There’s still hatred between Michigan and Michigan State, but the crashing-and-burning end to the Tucker era bleeding into the Smith era did the rivalry no favors on the Spartans’ end of things because the understanding of it went out the window.

Now Michigan is feeling the same while Pat Fitzgerald is restoring that culture at Michigan State and, in turn, restoring an understanding of the rivalry that shaped the Mark Dantonio glory days.

It’s time to pump that intensity level back up to a full-blown 10 where it was from about 2007-2022 (I’m only including 2022 because of the tunnel incident).

Less tunnel fights, more healthy trash talk and slobber, snot, and bones cracking. Detmer gets it.

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