Kerry Coombs wants less hate in The Game

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — At Big Ten media days last week, new Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham controversially said that there doesn't need to be the hate and vitriol between the Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes. The rivalry has recently gotten toxic in many ways, and coaches, players, and fans have been at each others' throats in recent years.

Both schools have seen coaches defect from one to the other over the years. In 2018, Jim Harbaugh hired Ed Warinner to oversee the offensive line, a few years removed from being in Columbus. In 2019, Michigan lost two coaches to the Buckeyes, with Greg Mattison and Al Washington joining Ryan Day's staff. In 2024, the Wolverines hired Tony Alford away from OSU, and in December 2025, Sherrone Moore brought in Kerry Coombs — the longtime secondary coach and former Ohio State defensive coordinator — to be Michigan's special teams coordinator.

On Thursday, Coombs — who had spent eight years wearing scarlet and gray, and most of his coaching career in Ohio — opened up about the rivalry, noting that it should be ferocious on the football field during The Game, but otherwise, it should be respectful, as it was between Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes.

"Here's what I think: it is the greatest rivalry in sports, and it's not just a rivalry between the two football teams," Coombs said. "It's a rivalry between the universities. It's a rivalry between the states. It's people that live there, I live there, people that live here. It's real. We don't discount that at all. 

"At the same time, there's no reason — I grew up with Woody and Bo. One of the reasons why I'm a football coach is because I grew up with Woody and Bo. There's no reason for any of it to be nasty. It doesn't have to be hateful. It doesn't have to be unnecessarily violent. Violence between the lines during the game, that's what we do. But it doesn't have to be. Those things don't have to be."

As Coombs notes, one side isn't full of good people and the other riven with bad. As he notes, he has friends who still coach in Columbus, and just because they're wearing what are seen as the wrong colors doesn't mean that the deserve true ire beyond typical sports rivalry fodder.

Yes, in The Game, both teams should go full tilt, but beyond that, it shouldn't necessarily get nasty.

"I've got friends coaching on that staff, and guys that I respect that I coached with and watched them grow," Coombs said. "I coached with Arthur Smith at the Tennessee Titans. Matt Patricia hired my son with the Lions. These are good people. To me, The Game is going to be The Game. Those cleats are going to ground into the dirt, and we're going to come off and try to knock the crap out of each other. That's The Game. That's what it's supposed to be.

"Everybody's supposed to be excited about that game. But I think what Coach (Whittingham) was saying was, and I don't speak for him, but it doesn't need to be nasty. It doesn't. And so I'm excited. You can't be in the game of football and not be excited to be in that game. You can't. And I'm thrilled that I get to do it again."

Coombs has coached in one Michigan football game, the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year's Eve in 2025. He'll make his maize and blue Big House debut on September 5 against Western Michigan.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kerry Coombs wants less hate in The Game

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