BlueTimesTwo

October 11th, 2023 at 10:27 AM ^

He may give some thoughtful football answers, but he also does the Urban Meyer thing where he uses the media to send his "used-car-salesman" pitch to recruits/pollsters.  He doesn't feel like a genuine person.  Then again, if there is one thing kids seem to love, it is shameless self-promotion.

WolverineHistorian

October 10th, 2023 at 2:20 PM ^

Pre-joining the Big Ten, the game in Seattle that was supposed to be played during the covid season was rescheduled to 2027.  But now they’re a conference member so that’s moot.

A home/home with Arkansas for 2018 and 2019 was dropped to get Notre Dame back on the schedule those years.  

A home/home with Virginia Tech was cancelled for 2021-22.  Don’t remember the reason for that.  

mgeoffriau

October 10th, 2023 at 2:47 PM ^

Thanks. I was aware of the Washington game but that seemed silly since we played the home game when we could and moved the canceled away game to a future open date.

Dropping Arkansas for ND makes sense and doesn't really fall into the category of ducking a strong opponent.

VT I had forgotten about, but looks like that was canceled back in 2018...seems like a weird thing to complain about now.

DelhiWolverine

October 10th, 2023 at 3:55 PM ^

we had UCLA lined up for 2022-23. When the Big Ten flipped around our home and away schedules with MSU and OSU after the Covid season, it meant that we would only have 6 home games one of thoseseasons instead of seven. So I believe the AD cancelled the UCLA home game because they were unable to flip which team was home and which team was away in order to schedule Michigan a 7th home game in 2022. Doing so at such a late juncture meant that there were very few teams who had the dates open and so we scheduled G5 teams to fill those gaps.

rob f

October 10th, 2023 at 2:02 PM ^

Countdown to East German Judge and his "Frames" gif.

5...4...3...2...1...

(edit: looks like you had the same idea, "trueblueintexas")

yossarians tree

October 10th, 2023 at 2:25 PM ^

Some of these college coaches are so full of themselves that they have zero ability for self-reflection. You would think after being massively outcoached by Harbaugh and staff on several occasions this guy would just learn to stay down before he has to play them again.

bronxblue

October 10th, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^

Franklin is the perfect coach for PSU - he keeps them sorta-close to national relevance without actually getting them there because he's a bit of a goober.

Logan88

October 10th, 2023 at 3:24 PM ^

I'm pretty sure you are allowed to count one win against an FCS school towards bowl eligibility. I've seen some teams this year sneakily circumventing that rule by playing an FCS school and a team who just moved up to FBS from FCS (Sam Houston and Jacksonville State are the two schools I believe) which is really like playing two FCS schools.

BleedThatBlue

October 10th, 2023 at 2:20 PM ^

I was worried about PSU given that it’s at Happy Valley. After this, worries are basically gone. Have fun, Frames. I’m sure JH will get his giant awake for this one now. 

Perkis-Size Me

October 10th, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^

Says the guy who's team played FCS Delaware in Week 2 and is playing an FBS bottom-feeder in UMass. 

Give me a f*****g break, Franklin. We'll find out which team is better in a month's time but this shows a complete lack of self-awareness. 

NittanyFan

October 10th, 2023 at 2:47 PM ^

Sigh.  I guess I have to comment ................

He's not entirely wrong, but his perpetual passive-aggressiveness annoys me.  There are considerably more artful ways for him to make that point.

As to the OOC schedules, I prefer scheduling fairly tough.  And I do give Ohio State credit.  They have regularly had strong OOC games and have shown how that helps when you're a 11-1 non-conference Champion.  They've made it in 2016 & 2022 in both spots, and their OOC wins over Oklahoma and Notre Dame in those years definitely helped.

jwfsouthpaw

October 10th, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^

.... But he sort of is wrong. Michigan replaced one OOC opponent with Notre Dame, played Washington in 2021 and (as of now) will play Texas next year and Oklahoma in 2025 and 2026. Which marks 2022 and 2023 as definite outliers in terms of Michigan's non-conference schedule, regardless of how Michigan has shifted things around.

And it's definitely an odd time to bring this up because--being kind--Penn State's OOC this year isn't exactly a murderer's row.

Even if he somehow has a point, why is he talking about this? There is no benefit whatsoever unless he's already campaigning in case Penn State and Michigan both end up with 1 loss. And while Michigan plays Indiana in conference, they won't get the benefit of playing this year's Illinois or Northwestern teams like PSU did.

So how are their schedules really different? Just odd all around.

flashOverride

October 10th, 2023 at 2:50 PM ^

Aww, someone has a sad that the last couple weeks Michigan has shown the first few games were just rust, not overrated like he was hoping, if he wants in the Playoff he's going to have to beat Michigan himself, and probably won't.

I don't completely disagree, at least the last two years, that Michigan's non-con has been embarrassing. But people acting like this has always been the case are liars or have poor memories. Harbaugh's had Utah on the road and BYU in 2015, Colorado in 2016, Florida at a neutral site in 2017, a home-and-home with Notre Dame in 2018-19, Washington in 2021, and went 5-2 in those games. That some of those teams weren't at their greatest when Michigan played them isn't their fault, they're scheduled years in advance.

BornInA2

October 10th, 2023 at 3:01 PM ^

He's not wrong on either count: Losing any games means low chance of making a four-team playoff. And we have bought out games with good teams to schedule shitty ones.

That said, Michigan also beat every Big 10 team and won the conference championship last year.

UMForLife

October 10th, 2023 at 3:01 PM ^

UM is the top dog in the conference. Second fiddlers like OSU and PSU are going to take potshot. Happy valley is going to be very Unhappy is this year in November.