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James Franklin is generally very careful with what he says, the way he says it and is almost always on point in his dealings with the media.
That was not the case this week.
With Massachusetts in town -- the Minutemen are seven-touchdown underdogs -- Franklin was once again asked Tuesday about non-conference scheduling and whether he thought it would change with the impending Big Ten expansion and 12-team playoff format.
The first thing he said was, "Yeah, I would say there's a team in this conference, specifically, that's buying out of a ton of game contracts that are already signed, to go in the complete opposite direction."
The unnamed team is Michigan, even though the Wolverines are still scheduled to play Texas in 2024 -- along with Ohio State, USC, Oregon and Washington.
UM was scheduled for a home-and-home with UCLA prior to the Big Ten expansion. Same with Georgia and Oklahoma before the SEC expanded, and those games were scrapped, either by the schools' choice or the SEC because they could be played anyway.
Indiana begged to move off a couple of games with Louisville, but Franklin wasn't referring to the Hoosiers.
Here's the point: Whether you think Franklin was purposely taking a shot at Michigan or merely further bolstering his case to play Delaware instead of, say Pitt, is irrelevant.
My question is: Why even go there right now? Why even make a headline and add further motivation against a team that already doesn't like you? (Franklin and Jim Harbaugh exchanged barbs last year over an issue in the tunnel at Michigan Stadium.)
Irritated by the national pushback on social media that he got -- over what he claimed was a misinterpretation of his comments -- Franklin opened his Wednesday night media scrum with a clarification.
But that wasn't his only misstep this week.
Colleague (and friend) Cory Giger of DK Pittsburgh Sports asked a question about the deep passing game, which has been woefully missing despite the team's 5-0 record.
Giger wondered if the staff wants Drew Allar "to just take a shot" to give the receivers a chance to make a play on 50-50 balls and establish the threat of the explosive plays Franklin himself has admitted the offense has lacked.
Franklin bristled at the question and tried to make a fool out of Giger.
"I don't really understand what you're saying because we would never -- like my skin is curling when you say 'Just drop back and chuck it deep no matter what,'" Franklin said. "It's like you're speaking from Mars ... We have never done that. Just throw the ball up and maybe he'll be open and maybe he'll catch it. You're making me uncomfortable. I don't know what you're talking about. So yeah, we would not do that."
Franklin also suggested Giger was "speaking Japanese."
Franklin has almost never gotten so personal to a question and from this view totally overreacted and crossed the line.
Afterward, Giger posted numerous examples of Trace McSorley going deep and the likes of Chris Godwin and Mike Gesicki coming down with long gainers.
The "speaking Japanese" reference was inappropriate, and if you're wondering about calls from Mars, just look up the Nittany Lions' strategy with some games on the line over the past few years.
Further, just two weeks ago, Franklin was so jovial that he interrupted most questions by asking writers what kind of coffee they preferred, so a bit of conversational informality, which Giger's question was, had already been drawn - by Franklin.
Of course, Giger took a beating on Twitter/X. He owned that his wording was not good. At the same time, he's asked many good questions over the years - and elicited answers the entire football beat has used - and has coexisted professionally with Franklin just fine.
And to his credit, Franklin called Giger two days later to clear the air.
So what gives? I'll tell you what gives.
As calculated as Franklin almost always is, sometimes he can't help himself. Like with his elite speech after the loss to Ohio State in 2018 that he's still trying to make good on.
Maybe that will happen this year - we'll see.
In the meantime, what we saw this week is an apparently distracted coach who is 1-8 against Ohio State and thinking a lot more how he's going to strangle that albatross than anything else.
Oh, by the way, Penn State plays the Minutemen of UMass today (3:30, BTN).
Maybe the Nittany Lions will take a few deep shots against them because they'll need some chunk plays --- in Columbus.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.