James Franklin fired back at those in the media who he claims misinterpreted his comments about nonconference scheduling.

It was widely speculated that the Penn State head coach was possibly taking a shot at Jim Harbaugh and Michigan with his message.

“There’s a team in this conference that’s buying out a ton of game contracts to go in another direction,” Frankin said on Tuesday. “You gotta do whatever you possibly can to give yourself a chance to be undefeated.”

However, during his opening statement on Wednesday, Franklin vehemently denied the rumors and pointed to the media taking it out of context.

 

“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,” Franklin said. “Then some national media don’t read the transcript or don’t watch the interview, then they put something out there.”

Franklin bemoans the lack of homework done by the media and rips the bloggers working in “their mom’s basement”.

“Anybody that watched the entire interview or anybody that read the whole transcript, I was actually complimenting the schools from a scheduling perspective,” Franklin said. “It’s what we’ve been doing. Even in the question that was asked to me, that’s what was said.”

Franklin understands the frenetic news cycle and competition for clicks in this day and age but still expects reporting to be conducted in a journalistic manner.

“I know every fan base and different schools are looking for a reason to get angry and get mad and get motivated or something,” Franklin said. “But that to me is disappointing when real media members grab a partial quote and use it out of context. That’s frustrating and disappointing.”

Franklin and No. 6 Penn State host UMass on Saturday (3:30 p.m. EST/BTN).