Mike Tomlin Borrowed Ohio State’s Michigan Rivalry Tradition to Send Steelers Players a Message About Derrick Henry

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The Ohio State and Michigan rivalry is considered the fiercest in the nation, and its influence seeps into almost every sport in America. Recently, former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin borrowed a page from ‘The Game’ to take his unrelenting stance against Derrick Henry.

“Prior to him being in Baltimore, I would call him by name,” Mike Tomlin said on the New Heights podcast on October 14. “But once he got into the division, it’s like Ohio State and Michigan. It’s like the team up north. You know what I mean? I hadn’t said that dude’s name. I can’t say his name. It was a way of making a point to my football team about how significant this dude’s presence was going to be in this rivalry.”

Tomlin also appeared on the pre-game show of the Ravens vs Falcons game and even then refused to call Henry by his name.

“The big runner is 4.2 per carry,” Tomlin said, analysing the RB’s plays.

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Henry has rushed for 3,516 yards and scored 34 touchdowns in 34 regular-season games for Baltimore over the last two full seasons. He carried the ball 632 times, averaging 5.6 yards per attempt. Never mind his 32 rushing touchdowns.

Against Tomlin’s former team, Henry has been more lethal than usual. Across four games, he ran for 447 yards on 82 carries, averaging 5.5 yards per attempt and nearly 112 yards a game.

Going by the numbers, Tomlin had clear reasons to make a statement about the former Bama natty winner. He used the Michigan analogy to highlight further Henry’s lethality. However, that’s not why OSU fans don’t take Michigan’s name.

Woody Hayes, Ohio State’s coach from 1951 to 1978, never mentioned Michigan by name. He disliked the Wolverines so much that he came up with other ways to refer to them, such as “That Team Up North” and “That State Up North.”

Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer kept Hayes’ habit alive during their time at Ohio State, using it to remind players what the Michigan game truly means to the program. Ryan Day and his staff continued the tradition.

“I always had appreciation for the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry,” Tomlin added. “So, I really kind of stole it from that.”

Few NFL rivalries get as personal as Baltimore against Pittsburgh. Since taking over the Steelers in 2007, Tomlin has been part of nearly two decades of clashes with the Ravens, and his touchline confrontations and blunt comments made him one of the central figures in the rivalry.

Tomlin made it clear to his players that facing Baltimore meant preparing for a different kind of game. During the rivalry’s fiercest years, when Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu and James Harrison were on the field, he treated the Ravens as the team Pittsburgh had to measure itself against. His 24-18 record against them suggests the approach worked.

That context explains why Henry’s arrival in the division mattered so much to him. Tomlin had shown respect to Baltimore’s other star, calling Lamar Jackson “Mr. Jackson” when discussing film, which makes his silence on Henry’s name stand out.

Withholding it was a simple way to tell his Steelers players that a new threat had joined the rivalry, and he borrowed the method straight from the OSU-Michigan rivalry playbook. It finally ended when Mike Tomlin parted ways with Pittsburgh in January 2026.

But it’s not just Tomlin who has adopted the rivalry approach. Before facing Washington, former Eagles offensive lineman Allen Barbre wouldn’t call the team by its name. He told reporters in 2016 that he preferred to call them “the Pigskins.”

That goes to show how far the OSU-Michigan rivalry’s influence has spread.

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