Ohio State 2026 opponent breakdown: Week 13, Michigan

Michigan has a new head man for the 122nd edition of The Game.

Kyle Whittingham takes over as Michigan’s head coach after 21 seasons at Utah. (Photo courtesy of Michigan football)

COLUMBUS — We’ve reached The Game. Eleven weeks of Ohio State opponent breakdowns have led us to here: Ohio State vs. Michigan. In many ways, it’s a new chapter of the rivalry with Michigan ushering in a new head coach and Ohio State ending the Wolverines’ four-game winning streak last year.

So let’s dive in on what Michigan is all about this season.

Previous schedule breakdowns

Week 1: Ball State

Week 2: Texas

Week 3: Kent State

Week 4: Illinois

Week 5: Iowa

Week 6: Maryland

Week 7: Indiana

Week 8: Off

Week 9: USC

Week 10: Oregon

Week 11: Northwestern

Week 12: Nebraska

Michigan Wolverines

Ohio State opponent No. 12

Nov. 29, 12 p.m., at Ohio Stadium

2025 stats

• 25 out of 136 teams in final SP+ ratings (No. 49 offense, No. 15 defense)

• 21 in FEI ratings (No. 22 offense, No. 44 defense)

• 32 in adjusted EPA/play (No. 38 offense, No. 41 defense)

• Scored 27.5 ppg (No. 69), allowed 20.4 ppg (No. 29)

History vs. Buckeyes

This will be the 122nd edition of The Game. Michigan leads the all-time series 62-53-6 (including Ohio State’s vacated win from 2010).

The Buckeyes and Wolverines first played in 1897, and played 15 times before Ohio State won a game (there were two ties in those first 15 games). The programs played every year for 102 years from 1918-2019, until the series was interrupted for one year when the 2020 game was canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak within Michigan’s program. Since 1918, Ohio State has 53 wins, Michigan has 50 wins, and there have been four ties.

Ohio State snapped a four-game losing streak to Michigan last year, with the Buckeyes earning Ryan Day’s second rivalry win, 27-9, in Ann Arbor. The Buckeyes haven’t beaten Michigan in Columbus since 2018, with two home losses and the canceled game in 2020 contributing to the home winless streak.

And since Michigan will be breaking in a new head coach this year in former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, we’ll tell you that, since Woody Hayes started coaching Ohio State in 1951, coaches on either side of this rivalry are 10-4 in their debut (Michigan coaches are 6-2, Ohio State coaches are 4-2).

The winners: Earle Bruce, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer and Day for Ohio State; Bump Elliott, Bo Schembechler, Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, Brady Hoke and Sherrone Moore for Michigan.

The losers: Hayes and John Cooper for Ohio State; Rich Rodriguez and Jim Harbaugh for Michigan.

Head coach

Urban Meyer rejuvenated the Utah football program with 22 wins in two seasons from 2003-04, including an unbeaten 2024 season that ended with a Fiesta Bowl win against Pitt and a No. 4 ranking in the final Associated Press poll. Meyer won 92 percent of his games in those two seasons in Salt Lake City, and then left for Florida, leaving the Utes program to Whittingham, his defensive coordinator who had been at Utah as an assistant coach since 1994.