James Franklin wants changes to Michigan Stadium tunnel after spat
Michigan and Penn State appeared to get into a shouting match at halftime of U-M’s 41-17 drubbing of the Nittany Lions Saturday, a spat U-M players said was started by the PSU players. Penn State coach James Franklin blamed Michigan’s tunnel setup for the spat, asking for changes Tuesday.
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The opposing locker rooms are across from each other, and one team usually follows the other in and out. It hasn’t been an issue in most years, but this is the second time in two seasons there’s been an incident. Michigan and Ohio State players got into it at halftime last season, as well.
“I prefer to talk about these things in the off-season, but the one tunnel is a problem,” Franklin said. “It’s a problem, and has been. To me, we need to put a policy in place from a conference perspective in my mind that’s going to stop [it]. We’re not the first team to kind of get into a jawing match in the tunnel.
“For me, I want to focus on getting my team into the locker room and not jawing back and forth.”
Michigan senior defensive end Mike Morris made no bones about how it started. He pointed to the Penn State players, who were jawing even though they were down 16-14.
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“They started talking,” Morris said of the brouhaha. “And then, they didn’t talk on the field. They wanted to talk at halftime because they got lucky. But yeah … that’s it.”
It was the culmination of a lot of twitter chatter from the Nittany Lions all week, Morris said. Sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy concurred, noting it continued on the field.
“I was late to it. I didn’t see what went on,” McCarthy said. “But just from how they were acting emotionally out there, going into the half, and how they were emotionally all game, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was them starting it.”
Michigan thrashed PSU, 25-3, after the incident, on the way to a 24-point win.
“We just finished it,” McCarthy said with a grin.
And improved to 7-0 as a result.
PSU dropped to 5-1, and Franklin demanded changes.
“Get my team get in the locker room and their team get in the locker room. There really should be a policy that first team that goes in, there is a buffer,” he said. “If not, this team starts talking to this team, they start jawing back and forth, and something bad is going to happen before we put in the policy.
“All there has to be is a two-minute or minute buffer in between the two teams. This team is in before that team gets close … however we want to do it. But we’re not the first team that’s had issues like that. To me, under the current structure, we won’t be the last. To me, there is a really easy solution. We’ve got to do it. But for me, I want to get our team in the locker room. That’s my concern.”
That, and probably a run defense that allowed 418 yards rushing in the loss.
