Harbaugh: Franklin at fault for UM-PSU tunnel tiff

The Michigan and Penn State football teams got into a halftime shouting match in the tunnel at Michigan Stadium during their game on Oct. 15. After the game, Penn State coach James Franklin said there should be a policy in place to keep that from happening in the future, but Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh thinks otherwise.

On Monday, Harbaugh told reporters that he doesn’t think there is an issue and that it wasn’t the tunnel or a policy that caused the scuffle.

“Like you saw, pretty clearly, that [Penn State players] completely stopped. They weren’t letting us get up the tunnel,” Harbaugh said Monday. “And it just seemed like such a sophomoric ploy to try to keep us out of our locker rooms. And [Franklin] looked like he was the ringleader of the whole thing.”

Franklin made comments after the game, saying he would prefer there to be a buffer between when the teams enter the tunnel and go to their respective locker rooms. He said having one tunnel is a problem and there should be new policies created to prevent anything from happening in the future.

“All there has to be is a two-minute or minute buffer in between the two teams,” Franklin said at the time. “This team is in before that team gets close and 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.”

There were no reports of anything physical transpiring, but after the game, Michigan offensive lineman Trevor Keegan said his teammates claimed food was thrown.

“I didn’t get a sandwich thrown at me, but R.J. [Moten] came up to me and said I just got hit with a PB&J in the face,” Keegan said. “So, I guess they were. I didn’t see that, but that’s what he told me.”

Harbaugh said he isn’t focused on the scuffle as he and his team prepare to face in-state rival Michigan State this week.