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Coachspeak: James Franklin

A capsule look at James Franklin’s weekly news conference:

Opponent: Michigan

Kickoff: Saturday 7 p.m., Michigan Stadium

TV: ESPN2

About the Wolverines: They’re having one of the worst seasons in program history at 2-4 and 0-2 in the Big Ten; lost three games before October for first time ever; coach Brady Hoke is on the hot seat, and many expect him to be fired after the season, if not sooner; lone wins are over Appalachian State and Miami, Ohio; have lost three in a row to Utah, Minnesota and Rutgers; 109th in nation in passing yards (173 per game) and 104th in scoring (22.3 per game).

Last time vs. Penn State: The Lions won at home in four overtimes last season, 43-40.

Line: Michigan is favored by 1; over/under is 41

No magic wand: The Lions abandoned the running for a long stretch against Northwestern, but Franklin said the offense must stay committed to the ground game. He said that all summer, too, but that hasn’t been the case so far this season. “I wish it was that magic wand that you just kind of wave over people’s heads or situations’ heads, but football doesn’t work like that and life doesn’t work like that,” Franklin said of having success running. “You know, you want to get better at something. You just have to keep working and you just have to keep practicing.”

Holding himself accountable: The coach put the onus on himself and his staff to make sure the commitment to the running game remains, even when it’s struggling. “We can’t abandon the run game, and that’s myself and that’s the rest of the coaches,” Franklin said. “You get frustrated because you’re not getting as much positive yardage as you want and you’re trying to stay out of third-and-long. But we’ve got to commit to the running game, and we’ve got to be patient.”

Flying high: Franklin took to the skies to recruit last week, flying around from stop to stop in a helicopter. “The main part is efficiency,” he said of that decision. “You’re either in cities where you try to see a half of a first game and half of another game, and you get stuck in traffic and you never make it to the second game.” Instead, he added, he was able to make it to four high school games on Thursday because of the helicopter. “I don’t think there’s any way that you can do that without (the helicopter),” he said, “unless we go back Star Trek, transporter-type deal.”

Man cave: Franklin was scheduled to go recruiting on the off day Saturday, but when the schedule changed, it allowed him to stay home and watch football games on TV. He said the man cave in his house is now finished, so he watched from there. “My daughters came down and snuggled on the couch,” he said. “Walked upstairs about six times and got something to drink and something to eat, and I just posted up in the basement, which was awesome.”

TV scouting: Coaches seldom get to watch much live TV action on Saturdays, particularly a game featuring their upcoming opponent. But with the bye week, Franklin was able to do that with Michigan playing at Rutgers. It wasn’t intense scouting, like when coaches break down film, but the TV broadcast did reveal some things. “A lot of times you can learn stuff from what the announcers are saying from interviews that they did before the game,” Franklin said. “So it’s really more of a big-picture feel that you’re trying to kind of get about the game. I think it also helped that we played at Rutgers and I know what the environment is like there, so that kind of factored into it, as well.”

– Compiled by Cory Giger

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