The Ohio State football program has been keeping one eye on the Michigan situation as they prepare for the Cotton Bowl. As TTUN has been trying to find its next coach after firing Sherrone Moore, they decided on Kyle Whittingham. He got a five-year deal from the Wolverines.
Michigan introduced Whittingham over the weekend as the new leader of the program. Whittingham has been the coach of Utah since 2005, which is when Urban Meyer left the program to be the head coach of Florida. During that press conference, Whittingham talked about how Meyer helped mentor him.
That wasn't the only thing that Whittingham said that raised some eyebrows. During the press conference, Whittingham also said that he fell in love with college football when he first watched Ohio State and Michigan when he was seven years old. That turned out to be a lie.
Ohio State football fans catch Kyle Whittingham in a lie in his introductory press conference
While Whittingham talked about watching that game when he was seven, Ohio State fans noted that it was not possible. The Game was not played when he was seven, because of when his birthday falls. He was either six years old or eight years old, but he was wrong when he said seven.
Not only that, but Whittingham claimed that he watched Bo Schembechler coach in that game. He wasn't hired until two years later, so that was another lie. It seems like he was trying too hard to impress TTUN fans.
Is this the biggest deal in the world? No. It's likely that Whittingham just misremembered what age he was when he watched that game. Yet, Michigan coaches do not get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to lying. It has been a constant cycle of them doing just that over the last few years.
Ohio State has already defeated Whittingham under Ryan Day, so the Ohio State Buckeyes are not afraid of him. The Buckeyes defeated him in the 2022 Rose Bowl. TTUN hired Whittingham because they wanted someone who could clean up the program and fix their image.
This wasn't a good start if that is the goal.