James Franklin had a lot of reasons to be angry this past Saturday because of what happened on Michigan Stadium’s field.
The Penn State coach was also pretty mad because of something that happened away from the field.
As Penn State and Michigan headed into their locker rooms during halftime of Michigan’s 41-17 win, the teams got into a skirmish.
Michigan and Penn State got into it after halftime.
Nothing like a lil tussle in the tunnel. pic.twitter.com/42VxGUrAzL
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 15, 2022
Video of the skirmish first surfaced not long after it took place. Two days later, new footage revealed Franklin yelling at somebody, although the specific person isn’t clear.
The coach is exchanging words with someone during the first six seconds of the 27-second clip posted by The Winged Helmet, a Michigan-themed social media platform, and appears relatively calm for the next seven seconds.
Then, things got more interesting.
“Would you stop talking?” Franklin can clearly be heard saying, to whom isn’t clear. “We’ll handle our guys, you handle your guys. It’s this fucking guy.”
It’s not clear who Franklin was referring to, but whoever it was clearly upset Penn State’s boss.
Franklin then yelled “just stop talking to us,” before a game official tried to clam him down.
The skirmish ended up doing nothing to help Penn State. The team got outscored 25-3 in the second half.
James Franklin clearly had a rough afternoon in Ann Arbor…😂#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/3gbiWkcRxU
— The Winged Helmet (@TWH_Chris) October 17, 2022
This isn’t the first time cameras have captured an unpleasant Franklin moment. After Penn State’s crushing one-point loss to Ohio State at Beaver Stadium in 2018, video got a confrontation between Franklin and a fan who questioned Penn State’s decision to run the ball with Miles Sanders on a fourth-and-5 late in the game.
Franklin and Penn State (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) need a win Saturday against Minnesota to avoid dropping consecutive games for the sixth straight season.
