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Words from Michigan State had football coach Mel Tucker and as weekly press conference.
Michigan State now drops two and three, zero and two and Big ten
play with a healthy loss all the road in Maryland. This is smart.
I'm your host Jason Strayhorn along with Otis Wiley and Jay You to to col
crit Well, genlemen, let's get right into it. Misigan State goes on
the road to College Park, Maryland on Saturday, and the offensive and defensive
bowls continue, although there was some signs of improvement. Yeah, you're right,
Strey. Michigan State goes on the road. This is a game that
they could have won, and this is a game that they should have won.
Did a lot of good things, but did a lot of bad things.
Did a lot of things that came back to hurt us. We'll take
a deeper dive into that as we go on with the show, but you
know, obviously a disappointing trip to College Park for Michigan State. Yes,
straight, it started out as a call. It had a seven or seven
game on those first two drives, right, and you know, the opportunity
to just to to give three and outs, just get a couple three and
outs and keep that momentum going. I think the tie would have turned.
But you just felt like the adjustments didn't go as planned. Once we started
to get into that first half, it was competing in that second half,
it was just like what happened to that team to have that kind of drive
going into it. So you know, you look at it, you say,
you know, Michigan State, you know they go out there on defense
first. You know, we've been talking about that a lot during this season.
Maryland goes right down the field for ninety three yards and twelve plays,
capped off by a fifteen yard touchdown by Antwine Littleton to open up the game
on the road against the defense. That's not good to start, is it?
Os Oh? I mean absolutely not. Clearly. The momentum, like
we're at their home, on their home turf, and you knew that you
have a dynamic quarterback, you had elite running backs, and it almost that
script. I mean, Jay, you can probably attest to it. You
have a script that's called for that first drive, and every player on that
script was a success. There was no hiccup, there was no pressure,
and it's almost like we've worked and warmed up for that moment and then it's
almost a shocker that they're running the players that we kind of seen in prep
for and so when the first drive happens like that, like you kind of
rub your head and be like man Saan Wolve's happening. Man, same things
happen, and so I think we responded. The offense came out and responded
very well, and then that shit it gave the defense and like, all
right, we just need to get three and out and since our offense is
clicking, and they still just didn't happen. So it's just said, you
see it feeding off one another, right, the offense feeding off the defense
and in vice versas, right, Jayu, Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And a couple of weeks ago, coach Tucker said, the big thing is
they got to play comp complimentary football. And if you're able to do that,
if you know your defense goes and gets a three and out and your
offense goes out and get some type of points you know, be it field
goal or touchdown or even sustain a long drive. Because if you're in the
offensive room, you know you have the saying you have there's a mantra in
a lot of offensive room of end every drive with a kick, that being
a punt, a field goal, an extra point. You know that's how
you end your drive and that the defense is going to play off that they're
gonna be able to get some rest and do that. But you know,
you talked about Otis hit a little bit about that. You know, Maryland
won the coin toss. They elected to receive the ball right away because they
wanted to make a statement at home, opening up the big ten in their
own field. They came out there those first ten fifteen plays that are scripted
when exactly to plan, even in the third and shorts, they had the
exact calls planned for it, and we were able to capitalize on it.
But the thing that really impressed me with Michigan State is offensively early on in
the game that did a lot of things well yeah, you know, and
to Maryland's credit, Tonguevloa Talia. You know, his brother Tua was in
the news for the multiple concussions this week because of his multiple cussions down in
Miami Dolphins, and prayers go out to him and his family. But Tellia
looked very good with thirty two or forty one on his throats for three hundred
and fourteen yards in a touchdown. Yeah, he was. He was hitting
on all cylinders, you know, doing things. You know. The going
into the game. One of the things that I was saying is, you
know, if we he's got to beat us, throwing the ball, you
know, take away his legs, making one dimensional. And he did that.
He beat us throw in the football. He had his way, he
had he had time with the offensive line that gave him a lot of time
so he could sit back there and really find his spots in the defense.
Yeah. And I think we talked about last last week on the recap or
a preview, is that keep him in the box. And you saw a
play on that clip where he scrambles, and that's where, you know,
like we're in a whole weep of trouble when you're pointing at your receivers like,
hey, go that way, you have time to truly just throw the
ball, Like that's where you're getting your d line going east and west,
sideline sideline scrambling versus keeping them in the pocket. And then you have people
in the vicinity that are just too far away to make a play on the
ball. And you saw that the entire night of just wide open receivers because
there's no one in the communication of the hook curl or getting debt further enough.
And then you just broken plays man like this, making you know,
he made us look like, you know, we had so many holes in
our defense when in reality we're doing the drops. If you look at the
film, we're doing the proper drops, which is not getting further debt.
And also everything is in front of that second line of our linebacker, so
you see just the kind of debt perception. I don't know if it's off,
meaning like I don't know where my landmark is or is I'm not being
able to read run past properly quick enough to get a proper read. That's
a good point, Otis, and we're going to ask for your expertise as
we continue to break this game down as we go into the game day stat
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Restrictions do apply. And Jay, we're going to get right into the run
game for mister Run Game. We talk about it at nauseum here on this
Sparta and it's something that really is near and dear that both you and I
as heart. You're running back, I'm an offensive lineman, and we understand
that the running game can open up so much for whoever is playing quarterbacks in
Michigan State. And Michigan State has three running backs who played Jalen Berger nine
carries for thirty four yards, Jared Brossard three carries for sixteen yards, and
Elijah Collins who made an appearance of five carries thirty six yards of a touchdown.
Yeah, the run game is important. We have the Michigan State especially
as the Mantra Pound Green Pound. If you want to win football games,
you have to run to win. If you want to win Big ten football
games, you're gonna have to run the ball to win offensively. For Michigan
State, between the three backs, we called seventeen run plays. I know
Thorn had five runs there, but they were not designed runs, so I
don't consider those as a called run play. You can't win a Big ten
game running the football seventeen times only. You have to run the football,
find some success running the football in order to open the pass game. If
you want the pass game to work, you have to run the football,
get your offensive line, get them that confidence, you know, going downhill,
mauling people. Your running backs will start getting that confidence. And then
what happens is the defense gets on their heels. All right now they're playing
run, they're being sucked up to run. Then you do a play action,
then you do something different you have and then your playbook offensively opens up
at a at a bigger magnitude, And it's a lot easier to call up
game if you're an offensive coordinator, if you have both run game in pass
game, going you know otis you know you've played on the defensive side of
the ball. As from a defensive perspective, when a team is continuing to
run at you, even though you may be have an early defensive success.
Is that something in the back of your mind when you have a guy like
Chu Chu running the rock at you ten, fifteen, twenty times, and
then you're like, I hope they stop calling this guy's number. Are does
it not matter to Oh? No, it matters. I mean you talk
about bruising, right, Like, you get a bruiser who just wears and
tears on your defense, you know, hit after hit. This guy's coming
at you every time he touches the rock. Now you think about it,
these guys aren't able to get into a rhythm. You know, if Eliza's
out there, he gets you to the end zone on that touch. Feed
them in the ball, like, just keep feeding him till he can't go
anymore. And I don't think we've had that where you're able to get that
guy to get a couple of possessions where he is his motor's running, he's
able to start to get that confidence. You know, he ran that touchdown
and he made the play a play out of nothing really because you looked at
that office a line and you know they did shift the com of a little
blocking scheme for him, but he bounced out may one miss and no one
wants to tackle him because he's coming down the downfield and so you know he
gets one touchdown and then me personally, I wasn't a runner back, but
I think, Jay, you can attest to this. Then you pull the
man out and then he's he's getting cold. I mean it's it's it's windy,
it was not a warm day. So it's opportunity for him to just
feed that man the ball and let him put the team on his back because
he has the mantra of the Spartan dog way of let's go pound gree pound.
And then to that point, we start seeing the fleet flickers. We
start seeing the pass down the field where people are you know, our tight
ends wide open on the crossing route because they're now having to attest and make
Elijah Collins a focal focal point. Well, and then you put the other
guys in. He's just they're not reading those holes properly, man like.
It's it's it's it's mind blowing to see it where I know the kid has
worked his tail off and not to be able to keep that going. And
so it's just kind of the question of the day is how do we lead
into this week knowing that this defense that we're about to come come against is
hardcore runs run past all of across the board. Let's feed this guy the
rod. Yeah, Jayu, you know how this goes. When you're a
running back you share time with Javon Ring or another very good all time running
back from Michigan State, is there a certain rhythm that you would like to
get into. You know, we hear coaches talk about we're gonna go with
the hot hand in this game, the hot hands seemed to be number twenty
four, yet they went away from them late in the ball game. Yeah,
definitely, you want to go with the hot hand. That's running back
by Committee, the hot hand place. Everyone in the running back room understands
and knows that. You know going into the game Michigan State, and I
said this in a previous podcast before. This is true running Back by Committee.
Here, they're going series and you can't do that. You cannot go
series because one person's gonna be hot one game. One person's not gonna be
hot one game. And at the end of the day too, I get
it, you want to eat just as bad as the next person. But
run should be going to coaches and like, hey, he's hot right now,
feed him, give him the ball. Javan and I used to do
that all the time. We will go to a running backs coach and say
like hey, I'll be like, hey, Rings is hot right now,
let him eat. He go and say, hey, you choose hot right
now, let him eat. That's how it goes, and that's that's how
you build that confidence off each other as running backs. And when you're in
there and your teammate, your running mate, believes that you're the guy.
You know what you're gonna do, You're gonna run ten times harder to prove
that point, right, all right, Elijah Collins. I don't know what
happened. I don't know what he did, who he wronged, or what,
but he's not getting the football enough. He needs to get the football
more. He is right now the back that is running hard, running downhill,
making life a little easier for the offensive line, making the offensive lineman
get that confidence boost, get that juice. When you're an offensive line,
you're in the hoddle. You tell your guys, hey, you give me
five, I'd give you five. At the end of the day. Your
offensive line see you pass them. That's a great site for them, all
right. So Elijah Collins needs to get more touches. There's no way the
kid, you know, has five carries, thirty six yards and one touchdown
and the rest of the time he's in there it's for pass protection late in
the game. That is absolutely acid nine and something some change has to be
made. Elijah Collins needs to get more touches if the Spartan offense wants to
go Currently, Elijah Collins for the season sitting at fourteen carries ninety four yards
three touchdowns, folks, and that's good for six point seven yards per carry.
That's a nice ball game. And then for either of you, if
a guy came in and said, hey, this is my game, my
body of work. Fourteen carries ninety four yards three touchdowns, I'd say you
had a healthy game. That's a great stat line. The next day reading
in the paper, and you walk through that football facility the next day after
a game with your chest puffed out a little bit like I'm the guy,
you know I can carry this team. Pullout question. We're showing players here
of him moving the pile, the fleet flicker like you said, it works
when you have a running back to people. Key on. Now, I'm
going to ask you guys a question about chemistry now, But it seemed to
me, it seems to me that with you and Javon jew with you guys
had a great chemistry. And a year ago, you know, since the
advent of the transfer portal, it seemed to be the Michigan State struck gold
and bringing in so many new players, but everyone seemed to get along so
well. I mean, look at that Elijah Collins, the guy who almost
had a thousand yards three years ago. In comes Kenneth Walker, the third.
He becomes Kenneth Walker's biggest cheerleader. Now I'm not hearing those same things
coming out of that locker room. I don't do you guys get a sense
that may be chemistry or you know, they may need to work on,
you know, one for all, off one one for all, those kind
of camaraderie things a little bit more to get more success out of the guys
in the backfield. Well, I think you know, like you talked about
Javon and I, we had a unique relationship as to who because a lot
you know, behind the scenes stories to see who would start and who will
go in we will play rock paper scissors. You know, that's just the
way that that it was with us and the coaches had to believe and try
really rock paper scissors one two, three, shoot best of three. That's
who you got to start, yes, and you know the yeah, and
you know we would know we'll play off each other like that because we understood,
you know, if there was a game that you know, I won
the rock paper scissors game and in the first eight it's a screen or something
in his wheelhouse I'd be like, hey, I won this, but you
take it. You owe me one, you know, and that's how we
will go about it. But we we understood each other. We you know,
we were because we we had that belief that one win, we all
win. Because if I'm going in there and I'm the bruiser, pounding,
pound and pounding, he comes in, he can do those other things now
we and tire the defense out. He can run away from them. He
can put a move on them and make a miss. And I think that's
where we're missing a point with Elijah Collins and brusarden Berger. Those guys are
elusive, but Collins is the pounder. He's the one that can go and
get those tough, dirty yards, wear the defense down. And then those
guys come in. You can run your screen game, you can swing them
out, toss it to them, you can put them out in the pass
game and you know, in the pass route there. So that's what has
to happen offensively, and we saw that. You know, Collins got the
ball, had a nice few runs. He took that run, he pressed
the hole on that on that run that we showed, pressed the whole slice
to cut made chicken salad out of chicken poop on that on that play scored
a touchdown. Yeah, exactly, coming up. So yeah, you see
with that, you saw what happened is we started to go into the flea
flicker. We started to throw the ball around. And what really worked for
us in the first half of the game, we got the ball out of
Thorn's hands, quicker, we you know, we did to screens to read,
we got you know, tight ends involved all those different things. It
keeps the defense guessing. Second half, we went away from that and we
became one dimensional and then the defense just sits back in e otis. You
know this when you know what teams passing, you're just sitting back. You're
not even worried about coming up. You're taking your drops. Yeah, yeah,
you know Otis. I mean you talk about chemistry of yourself. So
do you think that today's player may be a little afraid that if I give
the carries or give the shine to someone else, that it may hurt me
versus. Hey, the ship rising with the tie. That's what we were
taught, you know from the olden days when Nick Saban was on campus,
right, he used to talk about, you know, you win championships,
big ten titles, national titles. More guys are all Big ten, more
guys are all American. More guys get drafted. It's just the way it
is. And then sometimes you get into that me mindset and nothing happens right
right, Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the algorithm on
when is it too soon to get pulled or to get benched. There's this
happy medium of you want to stick with the kid. You want to make
sure his confidence is up because you've seen this kid play at the highest level
what are we talking about here? But you also see that there's opportunities that
the pits and if you get stuck in the valley, like, we got
to find some type of way to reset the mindset, reset the triggers,
right, to reset this guy to make sure he responds in a positive manner.
And I recall quickly, man, I was struggling one game and then
that next one, you know, I didn't start like that was the first
time I truly got benched, Like coach dude, Like it was I wasn't
playing the top of type of ball that I was supposed to be playing,
right, But what was me? I could have been like, oh,
man, you know I'm about to transfer. I did think about that,
but I felt like, one, let me try to, let me get
my stuff back together, man, Like I know I could be great.
I know I was playing at the highest level. I was once a starter,
but that made me work harder on the other things, the elements of
the other part of the game, the mental part of it. So then
we fast forward Ohio State. I'm back at it, you know what I
mean. Like it's one of those things where see how a kid responds.
And I'm not not pulling blame on anyone on our quarterback situation, but there's
times where you absolutely have to figure out how do I reset the the meter
up here where he played a decent ballgame to what he has right, he
played a decent ball game, but we also saw some wide open throws that
you just kind of scratch your head, like those are the throws he made
last year? So what is what's going on? So go ahead? I
think you know, you draw a great point to that artist with the fact
of you know, your personal story from that, and I think what a
lot of people don't realize that sometimes when you're in there, you don't see
everything sometimes it's about taking a step back and looking at everything, looking at
the big picture, and then that's when it clicks. Just like you,
you were in there in that starting position. Maybe you weren't in the best
position to be successful at that time, but you took it. You know,
Coach d pulled you. You took a step back, and you you
got that hunger, you got that chip on your shoulder back and you saw
things from a different perspective, and things slowed down for you. So maybe
let's let's let's be real honest. I was real salty though, like of
course, right like moment if you're not a two competitor, like you're gonna
be real salty about it. But it was also the time where all right,
I'm going to make the best of what I have. I'm about the
ball out on special teams. I remember homecoming. It was the absolute worst,
just running out on kickoff, like, man, this is terrible,
Like night game, you know, you wish you could. I didn't even
get my name call to go out on defense. I'm like, all right
now, it's truly a self reflecting conversation with me internally about I'm going to
be the best cheerleader for my squad, because like that's what I feel like
a leaders. Sometimes you gotta take a step back, like you said,
Jay, you and really see it. Like almost I was putting too much
into it, Like take all of the craziness out of it, and let's
start playing ball and having fun the game that we all love. Right,
Let's have fun. I feel like we are. We're playing with so much
pressure. We're tight. Yeah, Like we have nothing to lose when you're
playing on a college football field at a Division one school. Let's just start
having fun and like flying around. You don't even see any of the dancing
around like we had with last year. You know, you score, you
have, you have read, doing the you know all this other stuff.
We don't have that right now, and I feel like we got to get
that, Batman. We have to. Yeah, I think that's a great
point. I think we're doing a lot of pressing. You know, we're
playing tight and then maybe you know, maybe it is you know, a
new person jumps in there. I know we're all talking about the same position
here. You know, a new person jumps in there, it rejuvenates the
offense a little bit, gets a little spark, and then you can you
can be able to work a couple of different things in there and go from
there. But I think right now we're playing tight offensively, especially straight question
for you. Question for you I got, do you think it is detrimental
to have a one and two quarterback system to give to our point of our
run back to kind of a run in by committee? Is it detrimental to
keep that defense guessing on one? We do prepare for QB two, but
we also know what QB one brings. But let's figure out how we get
them both some snaps with the ones, right, Let's figure it out in
real time. What can he do in a one first half situation versus A
at the end of the game and you see him gun slinging because he has
all the energy in the world versus let's see how he really operates, because
we also can be putting our foot in our mouth where we do give him
those those snaps earlier and it's like, oh man, he's not ready,
so we don't. Is there is there a detrimental like to that team cultural
to that that quarterback if we did a one two situation like that team down
the road was doing. You know, So what I think there's there's two
ways that you can do this as an offense or from from the top down
when you have a quarterback that's struggling a little bit, which we all know
that's what's happening right now. Now. We all know also that besides the
kicker, the quarterbacks are fragile as far as the way that they, you
know, conduct themselves, and you gotta be a little gentle with them as
you bring them along. We all know that as a fact as well.
But when you look at what's going on right now with Michigan State, and
we talked about it, I think it was a tweet that went out on
our behalf about and know what, Kim, if you know Peyton Thorn doesn't
take care of the football, now, he was fortunate in this ball game
that he had. I believe it was two interceptions Paul overturned because of penalties,
so there was no true turnover from Peyton Thorn. But what I what
we think of I think about it like this, if you either have him
on a short leash, if there is a turnover, and then as they
do in basketball right here, ma teen Cleeves talk about, is oh would
bring him and send him down next to him sometimes because he wasn't playing the
best ball right and he told him he set him down, Like why you
sit me down? He said, good, I want you out there embarrassing
yourself like you're doing right now. And it gave him a different perspective as
Jau as you just said on what the hell is going on out there?
Because sometimes you can get very tumbel vision. The other way, you can
do the quarterback by committee, similar to what you know. You've seen Kirk
Cousins doing that with Keith Nickel, there was you know, as they were
competing for the starting job. You also see the Damian Terry with the tyler
I forget the other guy O'Connor. You've seen that in Ohio state and they
were able to come up with the w because Connor Cook was hurt. So
there's been situations that that has been effective. But you have a guy who's
the heir apparent starter, like he the balled out last year. He was
the guy. He is the guy, so there's no real competition so to
speak. But I think there is time now for him if he continues to
turn the ball over, because you gotta protect your house first, you know,
the season's not loss that it's only been five games. I get it,
they've got three losses, and I know that there's murderer's role coming up.
However, there's a lot of issues going on in Madison right now.
Okay, a lot of issues over there. That's not the game that we
thought it was gonna be in the preseason that it's gonna be now. But
whatever, we'll get to that in two weeks. But you look at where
we are right now, and I think it is time for Michigan State to
really have a short leach because you can't continue to do that. You need
people. There's there's plays over We can show this play here where there's a
breakdown where Peyton Thorne is clearly looking for a receiver. Something's not right.
He takes off and runs for a first down. He doesn't get up and
celebrate. Look look if you see him right there, he's talking to Jayden
Reid as if Jaden you miss something. That Jayden responds with the oh dang,
I'm messed up now that these are guys who've been playing together since pee
wee and they're not on the same page right now. For whatever reason.
I know Jaden's not one hundred percent, and we could tell the running game
is not one hundred percent and peyton Thorn definitely is not one hundred percent.
So there's a lot of things that are going on that need to get fixed
from from behind the scenes at the practice field, and then from the top
down. Decisions need to be made as far as who gets to play what,
and like how long of a leash do you give of peyton Thorn if
things get ugly this weekend against Ohio State. So to answer your question,
and I appreciate your honesty, you know O this when you just talked about
how you felt when you were benched, Because there's not a player in America.
There's not a player that has played at this level or above in America
who hasn't thought about quitting, who hasn't thought that this ain't the place for
me, this ain't the game for me. There's not a player. So
all those guys out there that are thinking that, they're the only ones that
are feeling this way. And that's why I'm gonna hurry up be from my
name of the transfer portal or this coach sucks. All the coaches suck when
it comes to that because they all tell you you know you're not good,
because that's what it's about. It's about challenging you. It's about mental conditioning.
As we heard coach Meth Tucker talk about in that press compete. He
said, you know you gotta have more reps. It's about how you respond.
That's what they're looking for. How do you respond to the adversity.
Plenty adversity to go around for the Spiders right now, right plenty that if
of adversity to go around. But it's all about the response, not about
what happened. No, poor means I think we've all been in that position
where we could have been Oh man, this you know it ain't no good
man. I mean I'm tired, man. I mean what time of day
is it right now? Oh? I mean it doesn't stop right after football
is over. Guys, doesn't stop. We got you said, challenge is
now in your life. Who we need to bring on is our guy,
Clifton Ryan. And the stuff that he talks about is like, quit blaming
everybody else for your career, like it's it's it's you right like you.
I can't say, oh, if it wasn't for my five knee surgeons,
I would have been in the league longer. Man, No, man,
Like, there's there's ways that I could have fought through that, but clearly
I had a God had a different plan, right, So there was look
at yourself, look at yourself in the mirror and say what can I do
to get better for the next day and what can I do to have fun
in this game? Right? Because like I'm not trying to like I'm like
about to my sermon. I'm about to close in like five minutes now.
I saw you hear him going on when your last time last? I think
it's just where's our identity? Man, Like, we've got to get it.
You got to get it back. You got to get it back.
Man. If it's the whole team, need to go down to the water
and sure we get baptized and come out and hold again, Like we gotta
get better. Back to that energized Spartan football where at the very least at
the end of the game, which me and and I think you as well,
straight is that regardless of the winner loss, that team that we play
is going to be bruising, batter and I feel like teams are coming and
playing us feel it, and they don't feel a darn thing. Man,
Like they come out just like fresh and the pophin carrying their chick fil a,
Yeah, like coming in. You know, just we got to get
back to that. Man. The woodshed has not been the wooshed. And
this true statement, true fashion. We're not whooping on people when they come
into town or when we go to their their spot. Now, you know
what, to that point, you know what makes me, I think the
most proud. It's not people telling you all this stuff about you were all
big ten, you were this, you were a captain, and Ohio say
victory. All that stuff is great. But I'm on the west coast,
right and I run into a guy who played for Notre Dame. Came out
in nineteen ninety seven. Now this is before your time. And ninety seven
was the first year that we start of that win streak on the road in
South Bend. I think it was like seven eight years, whatever it was.
It was a lot of years of winning, beating the out of Notre
Dame. Okay, there was a lot of years of that and Peter beat
But he said to me, was, man, you played in Michigan State.
He said, Man, all we ever thought was like this is gonna
be a physical game. Like all week long they prepared for war and Ballet.
I said, we might win this game, but it ain't gonna feel
like we won when we come out. And I said, yeah, you
didn't win either. So so that when you when you meet a peer who
who represents and can see and say, look, I played you guys,
and the brand of football that you guys bring was physical. I mean,
to me, that's football. That's what football is. It's not the raffles
and that like and and to your point, guys, I did see guys
bouncing off of terrafor players. I've never seen that in my life. I've
never seen a defense bounce off of offensive Maryland Terrafin players. And we saw
that this past weekend. And I don't know if guys are you know,
obviously there's there's injuries, right and we look, we can we can talk
about the injuries as you can put up a depth chart right here. You
can see. I mean, when you start the season and you lose Savior
Henderson, you lose various Snow and this is for clearly so you can understand
this. Then you lose Jacob Slave and you use Petrowski at the fourth.
Then then you come back and you lose Bogel. I mean, that's five
key figures in your essentially in your front seven. But really, you know,
Xavier is a quarterback of that secondary. You take those guys now,
you're replacing them with guys who are obviously less in experience, may maybe not
a huge talent drop off, but definitely younger and newer to the program.
And the void of that voice being on the field is damage. It's just
what it is. So Michigan State. You know, it was one thing
that was very encouraging this week to see Xavior Henderson on the road. He
was there on the sideline and you guys got a chance to spend the time
with him, right, yes, with a little slight job and his little
Peppini step man, so you know, you know, giving a little dapping,
a little hug like he's basically we're closed from them along the way basically,
right. And you know, you kind of look at it from a
being selfish standpoint of you know, don't rush back, man, like you
gotta you got a long career ahead of you, right, like you're ready
for the next level. But that's not the type of guy he is.
Man but Jay, you you know, can speak on the point of this
guy is coaching these boys up. Man, Like I look at the opt
I'm being an optimistic here. We got young guys who are getting mad experience
right now. We might be taking these huge losses, which you know,
it's very disappointing that based off of last season coming in this season, but
those young guys getting the experience, game speed, game time, experience is
going to build warriors for this next season. Like I'm not saying I'm giving
up on the season. We're looking forward to on. But it should be
confident for a spartan nation that we have young guys finally able to get experience.
Regardless of what it may be. They may get beat, but they're
gonna live and learn from that standpoint, and so it's very it's very confident.
It's very encouraging to see that that we're all taking these these losses together
and then in that moment we're gonna respond with a better you know, outcome
hopefully later down the season. The really good thing, otis to your point
to see ezieger Henderson you know, back out there, and one of the
biggest things that I'm gonna be so excited for. It's gonna be very emotional
whenever he does return. But the really good thing of was seeing him out
there coaching these guys. You know, during timeouts, he's in the middle
of the huddle, getting them ready, getting them in the right position to
be successful. So I think that's something that's gonna be you know, that's
gonna go a long ways with him and his teammates and a guy that is
an unsung hero on that defense. Uh, mister Bradley, he's the guy
that you found the toughest hitter on that team. Uh really that first place
we gotta come up there, right Yeah, had Maryland deep in their own
territory, and he comes up with a big stick right there. Yeah,
Like that's that dog right there. I get chills about that, like like
hitting Jau when he comes down through the middle of the got him, man,
Like I finally got him. Oh man, gotta love, gotta love
Charles Brandley. And then you know, otis I know, we gotta we
gotta wrap up soon, but we're gonna talk about the secondary issues continue,
right You see the bright light of the secondary right now is Charles Brandley.
You've seen a little bit of movement happen in this season, this game with
Angelo Jello Gross moving from his safety position down for the nickel spot. How
do you think he faired. I think he held his own. I mean
from from a standpoint of you know, you can tell that you know first
time going out there. I mean it was you when you play like you
already understand, like when you fully get to play, like the pressure,
the stress. You don't want to mess up because if you mess up and
quickly like lose that platform like that quickly, like oh he wasn't ready versus
like do what you do best, go out there and just play ball.
And I think getting some young fresh minds out there some speed, he held
his own. I think it's really like how can we get clicking on every
level at the same time, Like our linebackers getting re routes on these slot
receivers, can't let people just go free and run without getting a hand on
them. Like it's it's it worked in tandem with everything from the pressure to
the linebackers getting reroutes, dropping their hook curls, and the safety is being
on top of those routes. Man, Like I feel like we're just not
close enough to even make a pass breakup like we got to be there,
hit to pocket aggressive. We're also losing sight of our DNA of pressing,
like I'd rather live and die by the press, right, live and die
by it. We get beat who cares man, But I'd rather punch them
in the mouth, slow them down gradually as they're like, this is a
battle every time I got to come off the line. And at that point,
like regarding the best crew or the best receiving corps with Keyan Coleman and
read every day, So why can't we do that then with our opponents.
So I think that's what we want to look at this whole week is preparing
for Ohio State crew who's coming in and they are ready to stack stock us
right now looking at this game of this is where I'm going to put my
stats up all the way. Let's go ahead and just shut that. Hit
that in the mouth right from jump. And if that mindset is we're gonna
compete to the end, because that's what we see. We competed to the
end. It was the mental breaks that was like self inflicted wounds that we
just can't do when we're playing top talent in Ohio State. In Wisconsin to
Michigan. Yeah, a lot of question, and I think there were some
positives to take from that. You know, as you just stated their otis
and from the defensive side of the ball, you saw another great goal line
stand and we're gonna show a little bit of that here another great goal line
stand in Michigan State offensively wasn't able to get much going in that second half
to speak of. But what I'm gonna talk about real quick is a third
down. So right here you're gonna see a third and nine from Michigan State.
Scottie Hansen dials up a blitz, brings up linebackers right over the garden
centers. They come in with the stunt. They put pressure on them.
Look he's got he gets off his he throws an incomplete pass, or just
try to throw a screen and it doesn't work. They have to attempt the
field goal, which they did. You know, he's upset, but the
pressure affects them. Now we'll go period to this third and six. Subsequently
we do let's just sit back rush three or four barely it's third and six.
As you said, otis the second level. Just as they're waiting for
the guy to catch the ball at the six yard line and then he crosses
for a first down. I don't understand that. You know, you know
years at the NFL level that the great quarterbacks, the more you blitz them,
the more they destroy you. Right when you're facing Patrick Mahomes or you
know, Josh Allen, the more you blitz them, they'll they'll just eat
you alive. But at this level, at some point, you gotta put
pressure on the his quarterbacks to make them make the quick decision and to challenge
them and make them prove that they're an elite quarterback. Right, Oh,
I agree, I mean keep them guessing. Man. Like you saw last
night with the you know, Kansas City Chiefs and Patriots game, is that
to the left, you don't even see his trips left, you don't even
see that that corner kind of incognito hiding there. And Mahomes doesn't even see
it even happen to Brady too, Like he doesn't even see it. And
I feel like the disguising of it, like let's bring some speed off of
that side from the corner blitz standpoint where let's sim Brentley on that corner blitz
and so he gets home, right, he may get shipped, but at
least he's gonna put some pressure on it. I mean, he's our best
cover corner, but they would never guess that he's coming through, right,
And I think those are the elements of I need to who's coming this time,
Like I need to know who coming, like at least have somebody come
with pressure. But if you sit down and you get your linemen come in
this, they're getting double blocked or getting chipped. There's no He's just sitting
back there looking his chops and we historically you can't cover longer than the three
and a half four seconds, like if you go further than that man like,
I mean, it's fast as quick and they can just run everywhere across
the field and you got to keep up. But there's no pressure to at
least get him to throw back pass or the second guests where they at least
we get a sack. So I think that's the element of element of surprise
is what we got to make sure we keep these quarterbacks doing. And we
got a quarterback that we're going to meet this weekend who is a stud and
we got to do something to make sure that he's off his game because he's
he's coming in and expecting to truly stat build his stats, and so how
do we keep him going? Go ahead, say you, Well, the
thing that you talk about bringing pressure off from an offensive standpoint, what that
does is it eliminates, it takes It takes things away from having possibly a
four or five man route to possibly just a three man route combo out there,
because you have to have your running back in for protection and sometimes you
might leave your tight end, you know, if you're having trouble with that
with that d ND or they're doing stunts and everything, you keep her tight
end. And next thing, you know, you just have a three man
pressure and it's putting more time on the quarterback and it has to they have
to go back to their routes, to timing routes as opposed to longegated routes
route combination. So that's that's one of the things from the offensive side,
when a team is blitzing a lot and you have to set have someone in
to help and protection. Well, great insight, guys. You know,
we could break this thing down to its most granular form, you know,
and that's why we'll have to, you know, come back again for another
show. We're going to come back in a couple of days for the Ohio
State preview show. You know, this was the Maryland recap, and I
mean, there's a lot of things to go around to get better for but
I know that the mississ State coaches are going to be doing their best right
now to get those guys ready to play a game against the highly talented Ohio
State Buckeyes to bring in the Heisman Trophy candidate and c J. Stroud and
a very very good defense. And you know, so any final thoughts for
you otis, Yeah, I think one plugging in for our next episode,
we're going to have one of the Spartan greats, one of me and jay
U's teammate on with us and Drew Stan number five quarterback who truly knows what
it's like to be a competitor, highly competitive out there. We talked what
is that down river up Rivers where he's from? Down he was originally he
was born in Oregon. Yeah, so we're gonna have number five on.
Man, he's gonna give us come of that true breakdown from the quarterback perspective
of like what do we need to do to get back on track. I'm
excited about that. But lastly, I think practice, man, this is
the opportunity to truly find the depth of our souls and like, truly find
who we are in these moments where everyone's turning against you, everyone's questioning,
questioning what you are, who you are as a team personally, and I
think that's where you find who your true selves are. So I'm gonna drop
that knowledge bomb there next week, this weekend. I can't wait to talk
on Wednesday about what's to come out for the weekend. So back to you,
Jay, You, back to you. Yeah, it's home. But
yeah, I mean I don't know how. I don't know how to follow
that out. But except for the fact that we just, you know,
we got to put Maryland behind us. You know, I said last week,
you have to have a memory like a fish. You have to do
that, learn from the mistakes, look at the things that you did well,
improve upon it. And this week and practice just stack good days on
top of good days, and you come out ready to play. I'm excited
for the Ohio State preview. I'm excited Drew is gonna be joining us.
We're gonna have some great stories. We're gonna, you know, have a
lot of fun. If you're going to the game this weekend, stop by
Tuck Town presented by Meyer to see me be DJ booths everybody some tickets toyotas.
We at least got four at least stop by Town check check people.
Come on now, people needs them. Dog one Buckeye is gonna try to
buy up all the tickets out there. Spartan Nation, don't let them do
it to us now, don't let them make this a home stadium for them.
Don't let them do that, you know so, so please please show
up and support the guys. I mean, they need you now. It's
easy to cheer for a winner, you know you need to be there.
This is what Spartans about. Maybe with three hundred man, what's the battle?
Tell you? What's the battle that the three hundred Spartans went through?
My daughter's sleep And I can't go with that as far as well as your
profession, I can't. I just said the battle they we're in. I
know that we don't have all the battle. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what we're going through right now. The Battle of Thermopyla, in the
woodship, all this cut, all this, that's what we're doing, man,
so like you know, that was a battle to see that. The
Spartans, you know, no, I don't think any of them made it
out alive. But look they did put on a hell of show. Okay,
all right, they took a lot of people with them. Okay they
felt all this went over, say they felt it, didn't it? Like
thankfully? No, no, no, no, no, keep this now.
That's to put a bit of ball on this show. Man. You
know, thanks to my co host Otis Wiley and jauche chew Culprit. We'll
see you guys next time on the next episode of This is Far to have
a good night, God bless and go greet, Go white, Go white.
Do you know how time