Sean Merriman, BTN.com web editor, April 15, 2016

The Ohio State vs. Michigan rivalry continues to heat up, and it's not even football season.

Former Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott appeared on the Paul Finebaum show today. He spoke about the upcoming NFL Draft, where he is projected as the first running back to come off the board and a potential first round pick.

But where things got really juicy is when Elliott was asked about Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines.

"I'm tired of hearing about Coach Harbaugh, he needs to get in check with reality," Elliott said about Michigan's head coach. "You can't talk smack about a rivalry when you haven't won a game. You have to win ballgames to talk behind it."

Elliott's comment is most likely referring to the jabs exchanged between Harbaugh and Ohio State AD Gene Smith.

Just over three weeks ago, Smith was asked about the possibility of the Ohio State football team taking a portion of a future spring practice to Florida, as rival Michigan did this earlier month. Smith shot the idea down, saying, ?If we were jump starting our program, I?d probably try to do that too.?After hours of speculation that Smith?s comment was a jab at the rival Wolverines, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, clearly taking it was a jab, sent out the following tweet.

Smith went to Twitter to apologize to Michigan student-athletes and "good friend" and Michigan AD Warde Manuel, ending the apology with the following: "We at OSU look forward to continuing the greatest rivalry in collegiate football."

We figured this was the end of this feud, but Elliott brought it back today with his comments.

Elliott was 3-0 against Michigan during his time in Columbus, including a 42-13 victory over the Wolverines last year in Ann Arbor.