Audio leak of alleged players meeting reveals Penn State AD ripping Michigan

The Penn State football coaching search finally came to an end on Friday when the program announced the hiring of former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell to an eight-year deal.

However, the process for the Nittany Lions to find a new coach was far from a seamless one. After Athletic Director Pat Kraft made the decision to fire now Virginia Tech coach James Franklin earlier this season, the Nittany Lions went through the early signing period this week without a head coach in place.

That caused Penn State to sign just two recruits for its class of 2026 in what was a tumultuous time for the football program.

Earlier this week, audio leaked on "Dead Air Sports" of an alleged meeting between Kraft and the Penn State players. The video with the audio recording was edited from a longer conversation.

What Kraft said about Michigan, other Big Ten programs

Kraft aired out a lot of frustrations and had several conversations about ways to help get the Nittany Lions to the top of college football during the alleged meeting, but also got his fair share of shots in about other Big Ten programs, including Michigan.

"Ohio State is Ohio State. But (expletive) A, it’s not like they’re lightyears better than us, talent-wise.," Kraft said in the audio. "Just can’t be able to get over the (expletive) hump! Michigan (expletive) stinks. (Expletive) joke. Cheated their balls off. That’s real by the way what they did. Oregon? Their (expletive) quarterback was shaking in overtime. But we have to win those (expletive) games.”

Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft gives two thumbs up to the student section following a 31-0 White Out football win against Iowa Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, in State College, Pa. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

Analyzing Kraft's apparent beef with the Wolverines

When referring to Michigan's "cheating," Kraft is surely referring to the impermissible scouting scheme orchestrated by Connor Stalions that forced Michigan to pay a large fine and resulted in show-caus penalties for former head coach Jim Harbaugh, Stalions and a three-game suspension for current head coach Sherrone Moore.

Even though the NCAA admitted in its statement regarding the scheme that the "true scope and scale of the scheme—including the competitive advantage it conferred—will never be known," that probably isn't going to stop other programs in the conference from thinking a certain way about the Wolverines in light of the penalties.

However, it's obvious that Penn State's recent failures as a program has nothing to do with Stalions' network recording teams' signals from the bleachers, and Kraft comes off as using an array of excuses to deflect from the Nittany Lions' own shortcomings.

The Wolverines beat Penn State three straight times from 2021-23, but it seemed very clear in all three games that Michigan had better talent on the field, ran the ball at a much higher level and dominated physically at the line of scrimmage in all three matchups—including in 2023 when Sherrone Moore called 32 straight run plays in a 24-15 victory in State College.

Nov 11, 2023; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Michigan Wolverines running back Blake Corum (2) runs the ball into the end zone for a touchdown against the Penn State Nittany Lions during the fourth quarter at Beaver Stadium. Michigan won 24-15. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

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