Klatt, Urban, and Frames all revising/clarifying their takes on Michigan
Klatt
Don't worry, he hasn't backed off boa constrictor. But guess what, now that the widespread rumors are that Harbaugh's contract extension is imminent, Klatt is less concerned about Harbaugh v. Manuel and thinks there will be a contract extension.
His attempt to give the impression that he's a Michigan insider when he's clearly not at all is an interesting move.
Urban
Urban said a thing.
There’s a lot to be said to that and that means you’re team’s well coached, you’re team’s prepared, and there must be really good leadership on the team. Well they do, they’ve go at very veteran team and they’re doing it very impressively.
To go on the road to Nebraska, I actually said that game might be close, it wasn’t close. I thought Nebraska’s defense would hang in there a little bit but they didn’t. And then Minnesota's not a walk in the park, that’s a tough place to go play.
He had to go wash his mouth out with soap afterwards.
Frames
Our friend NittanyFan already pointed this out in the previous thread about this topic, but Franklin's quote was totally taken out of context and misconstrued. No really, it was. If you look at the full transcript, it seems pretty clear that he was saying all teams, including Penn State, should schedule easy games.
The question was:
Last month you were asked about scheduling teams like Delaware and you said there was pretty good data to suggest that scheduling like that in the non-conference helps teams win championships and get to the playoff. Do you see that approach to non-con scheduling changing or staying the same with a 12-team playoff arriving soon?
And his long-winded answer can be boiled down to:
No, I don't think it's changed. I would say you could even make the argument it's magnified, and that's why people are changing their schedules because you look at who people are going to have to play just in our conference, it's going to be even more challenging than it's ever been.
James being James, he made sure to address this the next day without acknowledging that perhaps he should avoid saying weird things like "There's a team in this conference..." and instead just be brief and straightforward with his responses.
It can be frustrating and a little sad sometimes when you have non-media members but they have some social media presence and they put something out that is not accurate, and then some national media don't read the transcript or don't watch the interview and they put something out there. Anybody that watched the entire interview, or anybody who read the whole transcript, I was actually complimenting the schools from a scheduling perspective. It's what we've been doing. ...
To me, you can't control the person that has their own little social media page or whatever and they're doing it from their mom's basement. I can't really control that person. But it's disappointing when, I think, some respected national and other people put things out that are inaccurate and don't do the homework of actually watching an interview or reading the transcript.
October 12th, 2023 at 10:31 AM ^
One of those three is not like the others.
Do not sully Klatt's name by associating him with Frames and Urbz
October 12th, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
And he's not trying to act like a Michigan insider. He actually has access, extra interviews, etc., in advance of doing the Indiana game this week. He even had JJ on live yesterday. In this clip, he's very transparent about not knowing them that well yet this season but looking forward to the next few days of getting to know this version of Michigan:
For effort, understanding, communication, bluntness, and integrity, I don't think he can be beat.
Someone SHOULD, however, tweet him a link to where MGoBlog referred to Michigan as a boa constrictor last year already.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
He's obviously an mgoblog reader. Meanjoe(l)?
October 12th, 2023 at 12:13 PM ^
MeanJoel?
October 12th, 2023 at 4:25 PM ^
No, it's me. I'm Joel Klatt.
October 12th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
It's also possible that, with negotiations apparently going on regarding the extension, the situation can change from day to day.
October 12th, 2023 at 12:18 PM ^
I should probably elaborate on my comment about Klatt. First, I want to be clear: I like Klatt. That's probably mostly due to him being pro-Michigan/Harbaugh but I do generally find him entertaining and also all the things you said.
I guess I overstated how much he's trying to sell himself as a Michigan insider, and it's probably not a conscious effort on his part. But what I was reacting to is these two recent appearances on Cowherd where he talks about the inner-workings of Michigan athletics (Harbaugh's relationship with Manuel) without any kind of sourcing, as though he has personal knowledge of the situation. In particular this time, where he says, "I wouldn't be surprised if there's a hefty contract extension soon," or something like that.
Well, yeah, Bacon tweeted that the other day.
Anyway, it was just a little jab at our boy Klatt.
October 12th, 2023 at 2:39 PM ^
Klatt's mention of the possible tension between Harbaugh and Manuel was stated as being in accordance with two sources, not his own personal knowledge.
October 12th, 2023 at 3:04 PM ^
Mmmmm. I'm gonna throw the red flag on that one.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/joel-klatt-says-there-tension-jim-harbaugh
In the clip that was posted in that thread he says "I believe that there is some tension. ...I just know that there's some tension."
Happy to be proven wrong, though, if there was something that wasn't included there.
October 12th, 2023 at 6:02 PM ^
I approve of all boa constrictor and ferret bathtub references.
October 12th, 2023 at 1:02 PM ^
One thing I will give Klatt credit for is his belief from day one that Harbaugh would have success at Michigan and never really wavered from that belief as the losses to OSU mounted and then the nadir pandemic season.
October 12th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
Yeah…op with a terrible take on Klatt
October 12th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
loud noises
October 12th, 2023 at 11:24 AM ^
Klatt! Klatt! Klatt!
October 12th, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
Urban Klatt Frames sound like glasses you wear for close-quarter warfare in densely populated city environments.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:12 AM ^
Or like you wear if you're trying to give people the impression that you've participated in urban warfare, or that you totally could if you needed to.
October 12th, 2023 at 2:00 PM ^
Was trying to articulate something like this to myself when I saw you had written it, and captured it well. You see these guys with the tops and doors removed from their absolutely spotless Jeeps in my neighborhood all the time.
October 12th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
Doggie farts
October 12th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
"I can't really control that person."
Uh no Frames you can't, but were you expecting too?
October 12th, 2023 at 10:45 AM ^
I think Franklin gets a lot of heat over some dumb things. He should have been more clear on what he was saying, but I don't think he is a bad guy or some terrible coach like some around here do.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
Yeah, sometimes his time management is suspect, but people make more out of that in general than it really is.
He's a good coach, bad coaches aren't in the Top 10 regularly. Anyone who thinks different than that is entitled to their opinion, and I'm entitled to think those people are dumb.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:28 AM ^
Interesting, I think James Franklin is petty and vastly overrated.
He stat pads and runs up the score for style points against also-rans and inferior opponents, he has repeatedly had gaffes in the press, and consistently flubs in-game situations. When the rubber hits the road against the actual programs in the conference his record tells the tale.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:53 AM ^
He stat pads and runs up the score for style points against also-rans and inferior opponents, he has repeatedly had gaffes in the press, and consistently flubs in-game situations. When the rubber hits the road against the actual programs in the conference his record tells the tale.
Isn’t this what Harbaugh was essentially doing 2015-2020? I don’t think anyone here was saying Harbaugh was a “vastly overrated” coach (besides during and after the 2020 season of course). Harbaugh pre-2021 and Franklin now were good coaches but just couldn’t get their respective teams over the hump against great teams.
October 12th, 2023 at 3:13 PM ^
No it's not remotely comparable to Harbaugh.
I can't think of an instance of Harbaugh rushing to punch in a meaningless score instead of taking a knee at the end of a game, destroying Rutgers in '16 not-withstanding. Hell even Lloyd did that to Bobby Williams in '02, everybody gets one type of thing. Franklin has made a habit of making the score look good, hell I can still remember them trying to hurry up to punch in a score against us in 2017 as the clock expired.
Similar to what our friendly Nittany fan said down thread, I think Franklin suffers a bit from caring far too much about outside perception / validation and so he will do anything he can to prove his team and thereby him, are on the same level as the long-standing elite programs in this conference. The records unfortunately don't balance that out, Franklin is 3-14 (I think) against M/OSU, he has a laundry list of in-game mismanagement issues over his career; several of which have been immortalized in gif fame here on this very site. He has more than once made statements that have been perceived as poking the bear. It doesn't make him an inept coach, but it speaks to his overall approach and I think underlies a lot of why OUTSIDE people simply don't like the guy.
And it gets back to his initial quote the other day re: schedules, his underlying point about schedules isn't wrong, its how he goes about saying it that brings in the scrutiny, and given his track record, that scrutiny is deserved. He's smart enough to know exactly what he was saying, a small shot/tangent in an overall otherwise fair and just point about scheduling, but let's call a spade a spade, he wasn't talking about IU and he absolutely put that in there on purpose.
October 12th, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^
I can't think of an instance of Harbaugh rushing to punch in a meaningless score instead of taking a knee at the end of a game, destroying Rutgers in '16 not-withstanding. Hell even Lloyd did that to Bobby Williams in '02, everybody gets one type of thing.
I don't think we ran the score up on Rutgers, although we did go for 2 for some reason in the first half. I think they just could not tackle us. We did all runs in the second half.
I do believe we tried to run up the score on Dantonio in 2019 with unnecessary late throws. I would have to go back and look for the details, but I would say that was his run-up-the-score moment, even though I think we didn't necessarily even punch in the late TD we wanted.
October 12th, 2023 at 12:14 PM ^
Deleted
October 12th, 2023 at 7:56 PM ^
That’s why he can stay at PSU as long as he wants to, as far as I’m concerned.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
I don't know if he's a good or bad guy - he seems to be liked by his players but I can't quite shake him lying around the Vandy rape case during his tenure there as well as his stupid "I only like coaches who have hot wives" comments.
I do think he's a pretty mediocre in-game coach. We've seen him brain fart through enough games, including ones where he was legitimately out-coached by Brady Hoke, that I'm comfortable with that position. That's the one thing I'll give Urban Meyer credit for - he coaches well during games and generally puts his teams in positions to win. Franklin feels a lot like Mario Cristobal in that he's a good recruiter and program builder but there's a ceiling with him during games.
October 12th, 2023 at 2:00 PM ^
Amen to every bit of this.
October 12th, 2023 at 2:59 PM ^
True. Sometimes due to his (Meyer) deserved bad reputation personally, people tend to forget that he's one of the great college coaches of all time really.
October 12th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
Okay now let's pump those brakes. Franklin>>>>>>>>>Cristobal. It is such a stretch to try to connect the 2.
Franklin is good coach but far far from great. Put Cristobal in the PSU job and he's buried, and cold, after 3 seasons. Hell, he's near that already in Miami.
Ok carry on with these shenanigans.
October 12th, 2023 at 7:51 PM ^
My favorite JF coaching moment was him trying to call a time-out as fast as humanly possible to stop the clock after a change of possession. The ref he was trying to get to acknowledge the time-out call explains to him that the clock stops all by itself after a change of possession. JF meanders back to the sideline trying hard to give off a “just kidding; I totally knew that the whole time” vibe.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:40 AM ^
I think it was Alex in the pre season podcast, his hot take was "James Franklin is simultaneously the most overrated and underrated coach in the country", which I think is correct. Good recruiter, seems like a solid program leader and can hire the right assistants, poor game/clock manager, doesn't bring much to the table himself as a football tactician. He is who he is.
October 12th, 2023 at 4:12 PM ^
Alex hit the target square in the middle. JF is neither here nor there...
October 12th, 2023 at 11:54 AM ^
I'll play psychologist here. Franklin annoys me a bit, but I don't hate him. The "problems" Franklin gets himself into, whether on or off the field, are ALL rooted, IMO, in 3 things: (1) he likes to talk, he doesn't really have an internal stop sign, (2) he wants to be liked, he has a need for validation, and (3) he's not quick on his feet.
(in-game quick decisions and time management: that's #3).
--------
Take the whole "assistant coaches' wives" thing. He made that comment ~10 years ago: he was on a local radio show w/ Clay Travis, and this was before Travis became what he is today. Back then it's just a local Nashville radio guy interviewing the local Vanderbilt head coach.
Clay lays the typical radio show host bait: "“You've bought into my philosophy. I've said this on-air before: The best recruiters have good-looking wives. They out-kick their coverage. Buy-in or not buy-in?”
Franklin's response: "Oh, I've been saying it a long time. I will not hire an assistant coach until I've seen his wife. And if his wife – if she looks the part and she's a D-I recruit – then you've got a chance to get hired. I mean, that's part of the deal. There's a very strong correlation between having the confidence of going up and talking to a woman and being quick on your feet and having some personality and confidence and being fun and articulate [and] walking into a high school and recruiting a kid and selling him.”
That's not a good way to answer Travis' question. There's a way to finesse the question while still keeping the talk show host happy. But the way he answered it: it speaks to all 3 things above: he talked a lot, he seeked Travis' validation, and he wasn't quick on his feet enough to finesse the question (hilariously he indirectly refers to himself as being "quick on his feet.")
October 12th, 2023 at 12:43 PM ^
I think he might have "thought a bit before he spoke." The hours that coaches put in during the season is "very significant" - and, if he would have said - "I like to meet the potential coach's spouse - since this is a very demanding position, especially in season, and I'd like to understand the support structure and approach the family takes because the hours are so long".
In season - my view is - everything (or about 99 1/2% of stuff) - falls to the spouse. So, ensuring there is a good support structure, understanding the environment - number of children, perhaps elderly parents - distance to school and sports - etc. - can definitely impact the "quality of life" for a coach and the family.
A good friend of mine coached in the NFL for a while - and, in season - especially during a playoff run - you NEVER saw him. And, in season - the only time you could really talk was - during a bye week.
The staff - and their family - do SO much, and very little of its usually seen.
October 12th, 2023 at 1:19 PM ^
Yeah, he could have said that except that is not at all what he meant.
What he meant was that if a dude has a smoke show wife then recruits are going to think that guy is cool, which I am assuming is true.
October 12th, 2023 at 2:21 PM ^
That's the thoughtful answer to Travis' question, yes.
There's also "how would Steve Spurrier answer this?" approach. Spurrier was the GOAT at delivering the one-liners and ad-libbing hilarious answers to questions while simultaneously finessing the question. ("You just beat Kentucky, 65-0, coach, what does that say about your team?" "That sort of game didn't prove very much. All it proved is we're better than Kentucky.")
I think that's what Franklin thinks he is doing - the Spurrier approach. That's why he goes on these random riffs from time to time. But he doesn't have that level of wit --- AT ALL. (the "Mom's Basement" comment yesterday, he wanted a laugh but it fell very flat)
October 12th, 2023 at 7:34 PM ^
I think Franklin was at PSU for 4 years before he ever credited the other team for playing well as opposed to PSU is the better team but had injuries and couldn't get a break. His post-game press conferences were unbearable.
I am still annoyed his one Big 10 championship consisted of two big plays (not six) against OSU and coming from behind to beat a Wisconsin team that lost 4 defenders to injury before the end of the game (by halftime?).
I don't hate him, and I try not to envy his success.
October 12th, 2023 at 7:50 PM ^
Excellent recruiter, average coach.
My issue with Franklin/Penn State is they have accomplished nothing yet somehow they get included with Michigan/OSU as national/conf title contenders.
To me Penn State is closer to Maryland than Michigan/OSU and including them in the discussion lessons all the we accomplished last 3 years.
They need to earn it just like we did by taking it on the field.
October 12th, 2023 at 10:48 AM ^
Michigan is in everybody's head.
The tunnel has a hold on them and won't let them go.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:08 AM ^
It's like a Victorian mirror in a horror novella.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:10 AM ^
I think that Yost must have gone down to the Crossroads when they were discussing the tunnel. All those years when people thought the stadium was quiet, little did they know what was lurking beneath.
October 12th, 2023 at 10:53 AM ^
This may be an unpopular take, but I like Frames. The most scandalous thing about him is his super awesome agent that scares PSU into thinking that LSU, USC and Concordia had him as a top candidate for their job. He recruits Michigan better than MSU. And he gives a lot of money to charity.
He's more tolerable than "Hit by Pitch, Wild Pitch, Balk" Day.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
I wouldn't say I like the guy, but I certainly don't hate him. He seems to run a clean program and I don't think he's had a losing season at PSU. He's probably overpaid though.
October 12th, 2023 at 1:08 PM ^
No losing seasons, but he is just as likely to finish with 4+ losses (2014, 2015, 2018, and 2021) as he is 11 wins (2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022). He has also yet to go 2-0 against Michigan and Ohio State. He's gone 1-1 three times (four counting covid, which nobody should ever do when discussing college football), and 0-2 five times. So he typically has the team on the verge of elite, just not able to put it all together. Or exceedingly mediocre. Also, none of his wins against Michigan and Ohio State are on the road. I'm not sure how many of those games even finished close.
October 12th, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
At the risk of being a "Franklin apologist", I'd throw 2014 & 2015 out. There were reasons outside his direct control (namely, lower scholarship #) for 4+ losses. 10-3 was never really in the cards.
Now, after 2015. PSU has, of course, been blown out 3 separate times in AA alone under Franklin. But: Ohio State, there's only 1 blow-out loss under Franklin as a whole, and that was 2015. That one makes sense. Otherwise, despite being 1-8 vs OSU they've always competed. And in 2017, 2018 & 2022 there is this (all against top 5 Buckeye teams):
- In 2017, PSU led 35-20 in Columbus with 11:30 to play, with the ball and at mid-field. Win probability per ESPN: 97%.
- In 2018, PSU led 26-14 at home with 8:00 to play, kicking off to OSU. Win probabiltiy per ESPN: 96%.
- In 2022, PSU led 21-16 at home with 9:20 to play, kicking of to OSU. Win probability per ESPN: 63%.
PSU lost ALL those games. Taking the win probabilities at face value, the odds of losing all 3 is 1:2,252.
He's been close. But he hasn't finished. We'll likely have a few more data points soon enough.
October 12th, 2023 at 4:25 PM ^
I wouldn't label you an apologist for that. It's all relevant info that I couldn't remember details on, and didn't have on hand in front of me. I was gonna say that 11 wins was more likely lately, but Penn State has done both post-covid so I just left it out. I wanted to list by regular season only and break down the games similar to how you did, but didn't have time to delve into it.
October 13th, 2023 at 3:22 AM ^
It's unfortunate that apologist has taken on negative connotations. It used to be considered neutral or in some cases positive (such as historical references to Christian apologists or in Plato's Apology of Socrates). It's based on the Greek apologia and simply meant a response to an accusation. The problem seems to be that apologist gets conflated with our current use of and meaning for apology.
October 12th, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
i don’t hate frames either
besides what you said (he seems to run a clean program and seems to be a generally good dude) he only has a 0.333 win% vs Michigan so that’s nice