Joel Klatt issued an apology to Penn State head coach James Franklin on Wednesday in regard to some on-air comments he made on Fox’s broadcast of Michigan’s Week 7 matchup against Indiana.
In an apology made on his podcast on Wednesday, Klatt addressed his comments and admitted that he wishes he “could have that one back.”
“There was something brought up on the broadcast, and I just don’t like the way that I handled it,” said Klatt of his own comments.
In his initial remarks, Klatt seemed to take a shot at Franklin over some comments the Nittany Lions’ head coach made about the Wolverines’ scheduling.
Just want to be honest and transparent pic.twitter.com/Wf2g7TCiuW
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) October 18, 2023
After Gus Johnson brought up Franklin’s comments about Michigan “buying out contracts,” which were taken out of context, Klatt responded by saying those remarks were “pretty rich for a guy playing UMass this week.”
In Franklin’s comments, which were made last Tuesday, he referenced a team in the Big Ten that was “buying out a ton of game contracts” in order to give themselves the best chance at having an undefeated season.
While Klatt assumed Franklin had been speaking negatively of Michigan buying out contracts against stronger teams in order to field games against weaker opponents, the head coach actually seemed to agree with the scheduling tactic.
“You gotta do whatever you possibly can to give yourself a chance to be undefeated,” said Franklin last Tuesday.
Klatt admitted that he misrepresented Franklin’s comments in his apology on Wednesday.
“The point he was trying to make is that undefeated is really the goal. Not strength of schedule, which is not what the intent of the playoff was, in its four-team format, at its inception. And his point is correct. He gave a much more thoughtful answer than just the quote that I referred to.”
