October 15th’s Big Ten battle between Michigan and Penn State featured a conflict in The Big House tunnel.
The conference rivals jawed at each other in a standoff as they made their way to their respective locker rooms at halftime.
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh feels the conflict was caused by the Penn State side. He said the “sophomoric ploy” was brought on by “ringleader” James Franklin.
“You saw pretty clearly they completely stopped, they weren’t letting us get up the tunnel,” Harbaugh said, per Maize N Brew. “It just seemed like such a sophomoric ploy to try to keep us out of our locker room. And he (Franklin) looked like he was the ringleader of the whole thing. I got bigger fish to fry than worry about that kind of whining.”
On Tuesday, Franklin was asked if he had a response for Harbaugh.
“No I don’t,” Franklin said, per Onward Sports. “Ohio State.”
After getting blown out by Michigan, the Nittany Lions bounced back with a blowout win of their own over Minnesota. This coming weekend, Franklin and his No. 13 squad will face off against the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes.
Coming off a bye week, Harbaugh and the undefeated Wolverines will play Michigan State on Saturday.