The following is a presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties.
A welcome and good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, May second, twenty
twenty three. I am your host, Jason Stranghon along on my co host
Otis Wiley and Jayu Chew cult Chrit and this is Sparta. Thank you for
joining the show today. We got a jam pack show. We got some
interesting things, a lot of hot topics. Sorry we couldn't get to you
over the weekend because you know, it's just there's so much to gather.
We want to make sure we bring you the facts as we know them,
up to date and right now. Don't forget to click the like and subscribe
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Have an idea for a future episode, let us know in the comment
section below. And now back to the show, Fellas. You know,
I mean, it's been kind of a whole home weekend. I don't know,
like there's a lot, not much going on. Is there anything to
talk about grasping at straws? You know anything? It's a slow week,
slow week, right, little good. You know, we have a special
guest that we're going to get to in a minute, and everybody is definitely
anticipating this. It's got a wealth of knowledge you're talking about Jim. But
we all to talk a little bit about NBA basketball. Draymond Green advanced is
to the finals against the Lakers. Golden State Now, uh playing the Lakers,
Fellas, Oh yeah, man, look this is gonna be ah.
I remember well Jay, you you know, saying Noah Kim is him and
I feel like they heard him say that, and then it was like Steph
Curry is him. You see that graphic with you know him on the back
back of his jersey. You saw like hip the beam when you know they
won, and they put a little thing going on the graphic animation. But
uh, this is gonna be a good, good series, man, Like
everyone counted out, you know, King King James and the Lakers. But
you see that he's answered the call. And you know, Dylan Brooks woke
up the bear. He said, he didn't poke a bear. He pokes
bears, and he woke up that bear and you saw what happened. But
this is gonna be a good series. And Dredanmond is talking that talk as
always, so you know it's gonna be real interesting knowing that their their brothers,
like they're cool, you know, off off the court, but when
they get on that court, man, it's a fierce competitor. I'm looking
forward to seeing, you know, the Warriors and the Lakers go at it
to two. Hey man, I know you're like chomping at the bit right
now. I mean, like you want to talk about all kinds of stuff.
But let's move on to the award, right, Can I just get
my NBA analysis real quick and give us some of the NBA man, go
next straight, hey man, look the next you see when you know,
when you know, our boy uh is out there on the course side and
Spike Lee and he's a stack, you know, because remember that whole tobacco
where he got kicked out. It was a whole issue, right like right
now they're balling and uh, you know they got a young spat man and
so it's it's that's good. The next remember that Knicks Bulls man like that
was legendary, the Nick Bulls series on the Eastern Conference. But yeah,
don't forget that Pacers next. That was some Reggie Miller man for those town
Nap Pound stand up. That was a series right there. Yeah, you
talk about I thought you're gonna talk about the brawl too with the Pistons,
you know. Yeah, Bllicte in the Palace. You gotta bring Jordan talk
about that. Let's do it. There was some awards given out for the
Spartan Media Network today. Yes, man, uh you know, if you
look at Will Teaman and Lovely Will Wendy Hart, this is our you know,
people that have won what hired me when I was a sideline broadcaster and
I know ja u is and Jason is you as well. But the spark
Meetia network took away some hardware from a broadcast standpoint. So little do anyone
know that there is an awards. You know, when it comes to the
state of Michigan from a broadcast network standpoint, and so one we won a
few awards from one. I'll say our MSU basketball feature with Tom and they
have a sports live special show, the Tom Izzo Show, specifically that Christmas
special that broadcast alone took away some hardware in first place. The Mel Tucker
Show that's on Thursdays took away you know, the first place. Also the
network also you know MSU hockey. So just our coaches shows are bringing in
garner and some attention, but also some awards. And it's not voting on
from a state of Michigan standpoint. They actually have neighboring states or Midwest states
that vote. So this year was the state of Wisconsin from a media standpoint,
voting on the Sparkan Media Network. And hey, you guys being a
part of that as well, have you know, helped Will and Wendy and
spark Media Network get those awards. So just wanted to show some highlights and
some love to our fellow peaks at Spartan Media Network. So congratulations Wendy and
Will and all our radio talent personalities stray Ju, you know Matt, you
know Mandy Jones, uh, you know Dalton shelter got more like all the
man like. It was a whole collective effort. Now Scott is loving it.
Man. Baseball's rolling to number two in the conference. So no broadcast
numbers, man, revenue man, keep rolling man. So you know how
I do it. I gotta get some love. You have to the professional
that you are. Go ahead, you funny how I come to the broadcast
and now we're winning the wars. Before you got here, we were winning
the ones since he was on the field before you was on the and we
wanted to Ain't nothing wrong with that. Hey, listen, guys, we
got we gotta get to this. There's a lot love and we got a
lot to cover, especially with our special guests. But we're gonna get to
that after this message from our friends over at IP introducing I hops New expandedis
when you take a poached egg and to a crispy English muffin, fire roasted
poblano peppers, and shredded beef with our rich and buttery Hollandaise sauce, you
don't just get our handcrafted New Eggs Benedicts on your plate, you get a
smile on your plate. New Eggs Benedicts in four delicious flavors on me for
my hot well, fellas, they're watching us over in Belleville, Michigan,
Clinton Township, Michigan, Milford Lancey. I mean, man, we're worldwide,
Australia. Australia in Australia is the water, Bobby, you gotta love
it. Let us bring on the constant professional, the guy who has covered
all of us, spark Dot all of us, all of us. I
mean, he's got a wealth of knowledge and this is a delight to have
him on the show. Jim Compriani joins the show. How are you doing,
Jason, I'm doing great. Can you hear me? Okay? Oh
yeah, great to be I'm great to be on the This is Sparta podcast.
Jason, You've only known me for thirty years. I got to work
with your Italian name pronunciations. But you're not the only one that's gotten the
name wrong over the years. Tom Smith used to be the baseball coach of
Michigan stayed back in the nineties and I covered his team for a couple of
years State News, Lands State Journal. He never got my name right.
And Mike Garland, who I've known him for thirty years, called me Joe
for about twenty years. To Jason, I wanted to give you a little
little guest for that because I know some of our subscribers are going to be
saying, come, man, I thought you knew Strayhorn. I'm like I
do, but you rhymes breaking down every halftime in the hallway up. You
know, it's part in state and we talk all the time. Man,
what's the pfer? What's the proper pronounce rhymes with macaroni. It's Camperoni,
Jim Camperoni. Now we got it. Yeh man, Listen, you've been
here, you know, in Misiter State covering Misiter State football for I mean
longer than you know I've been alive. I think I don't know about that.
But like so tell us, like you know, like what you see
today before we get into like the real deal, what's going on right now,
Like where you see the game changing from when you cover guys like me
and as before me all the way through choo choo. There's a lot of
today. There's a lot of things. Everyone knows what's going on with college
football these days. But also, I mean it's May first, May second,
May third, whatever, it's a second day, May second. We
never used to have college football news like this may second. I mean what
happened on Sunday at the end of the portal windows that that's what created the
log jam of decisions and news. With what happened, it ended up being
like signing day a little bit for recruiting. I've heard that there were a
lot of coaches all over the country that were nervous. Have we talked to
all of our guys, Do we know that everybody's here? We're not going
to be surprised about anybody leaving, are we? All over the country coaches
were like that, which reminds me of like midnight the night before signing Day,
when coaches think they know who they're signing, but they don't know for
sure until the next day. We've never had that before on April thirtieth.
So that's just one of many things that are different in college football these days,
and we just experienced that most recently. Well, I mean, Jill
like, go ahead, right, go ahead, No, I'm waiting on
you. Oh yeah, I was on you, Jim. I mean you
talk about just a wealth of knowledge like you got experience with you know,
through and through you are sparting through and through as well. To say,
hey, you are a Hall of Famer, like you need to be designating
that right from a standpoint of covering us, but from decades to decades of
just talent coming in and you being evaluating and writing for Michigan State, you
know the voice better than anybody, the tone. You've been with all these
coaches through and through. You know, we were talking backstage before we started,
and you share some stories about each one of us, and I feel
like two tuos is waiting to start with that, and then we're going to
get into the nitty gritty, but like talk about just us as players,
as you evaluated. Just share a little bit of stories from just us,
stray to to it myself. I mean, I appreciate you seeing those kind
of words. You know, a hall of famer. I'm not sure I'm
a Hall of Famer in my own hallway at my own house, but I'll
take it. I've been here a long time, that is true. And
I've been here to cover the recruitments of all three of you, gentlemen,
going all the way back to stray Worn in the nineteen ninety three class.
It's been a while, cal Criak, you know we were talking off air
before this happened or before the show went on the air, and I was
talking about something that I wasn't sure that we'd want to talk about, and
Jay was like, now let's talk about that. It's not a big deal.
But it goes back to when Colkirk was being recruited out of New York.
He was an under the radar type of guy, and back then that
was before the internet. He saw the size and how big he was,
you know, listed okay, running back out of New York whatever. I
was at camp that day in the summer Michigan State football camp. Colkirk was
there with a number of other recruits like they do, and then another one
hundred or so that we're hoping to get recruited but you know, aren't quite
at that level. I was over like halfway across the field. I saw
this big dude, just like trucking as we used to hand a long time.
Just move into the forty yard dash. I'm like, that's probably that
dude from New York. And I went over there to see what the forty
yard dash time was. Matt Dorsey was over there. He covered it for
us and JAYU I mentioned that name earlier and Jay was like, Yeah,
Matt Dorsey, what's he do in these days? He's still over at spidermag
dot com and he's he's in the bullpen a little bit and he's he comes
out and speaks a little bit, and we've got ideas for him to do
even more things in the future as he as we get warned back up.
But where spartanmag dot com is now. But Matt's a very good friend.
He was in town last summer anyway, when Colkirk was being recruited. Matt
was over there, and Matt was handling the recruiting back then. And Matt
really had, you know, his ear of the ground on recruiting out on
the East Coast especially, and Colcrik ran the forty and I was like,
man, what, I wonder what he ran. I'm sure that was a
good time for that big running back. And Matt was he kind of got
it. But Stoutland was over there, Jeff Stalin, the offensive line coach
of Michigan State. He was he recruited the eastern part of the United States.
He recruited New York. So Stolin was the guy that brought Colkirk in
to camp. He was Stoutland's recruit, and the forty yard dash was run,
and Stoutland just looked at me, and he was a very nice guy,
and you know, coaches can't really tell reporters what to write and what
not to write and stuff like that. But he gave me a look,
and I knew what he meant was that forty yard dashtime that I'm trying to
get, and that I got and then I thought that I heard it right.
He looked at me like, that doesn't get out. That stays here.
That's our secret. That big dude from New York that just ran that
four four nine, it's not getting reported. He didn't say that, but
he said it with his eyes were we're you know, we're allowed to watch
camp this this is a long time ago. Allowed to watch camp and give
our observations here and there. We're not allowed to interview recruits while they're on
campus. After they get off campus, we could interview them and so forth,
but we could talk about what we saw and what the recruits, what
their observations were. But in terms of taking a forty yard dashtime, that
was proprietary information and it was not going to get out because they were JAU
they were trying to keep you a secret. They didn't want it getting gotten
over that you had to put that four fort nine on Jim something lad to
say for fort nine four oh nine, you get faster every year. I
don't know. It was a good clocking, it was. It was good
enough that they wanted to keep quiet and they didn't tell us that. But
you just kind of know, and you know what, and that's I mean,
we're we're in there covering recruiting and stuff. And it's a public university,
so you know that a lot of the doors are opening, a lot
of the fields there's just public access to it. But they don't want to
take everything behind closed doors. And they would have to start doing that if
you know, if we're if we've got our nose and everything and reporting all
the broad jump things like that. So you know, when you're a reporter,
I go I mean, it goes all the way back to years and
years and years ago. I mean Ernest Hemingway covered World War two and he
was embedded with the troops and there were things that he was not allowed to
report because you can't tell where you know, where the troops are. Now,
World War two is a lot more important than what we're talking about here.
But ins of coverage, there's always been a give and take there.
Yeah, you can have access to this, you can watch the recruits and
stuff, but you can't write about these things. We got to keep some
things in house. But that with cole Creek, they were trying to keep
cole Creek quiet. And one year later, Stalin had another running back that
was coming through campus and he went to Misigan State's camp and he was trying
to keep back quiet also, And I mean it got out anyway, but
that running back from New York came to Michigan State, Miscansate had a great
chance to get him, and on his way out of town, he was
talked into going and visiting ann Arbor on his way out of town, and
that running back ended up being Mike Hart. Mike har Mishkin State was leading
for him. Stotlin was going to get him, and Stoutlin always was bothered
by the day that he stopped a n Ann Arbor on his way home from
he's lancing. But Stalin was a good recruiter and one of his best recruits
was mister Kulkreek right there. Oh look, look, you know, life
just Mike har can't go. Well, look, evolution of recruiting though,
like you had to, like just to your point, it has evault to
what it is now. The more secrets back then, there's very few secrets
now. Back then there were legitimate secrets. There was no Internet, there
were no iPhones that you know video, Like I said, there was no
video of ju Culcrik out there anywhere. I mean he would. I'm sure
that his coach sent out VHS tapes here and there, but there there.
Now it's harder to find those secrets. Apparently there is footage of shoot YOUO
headed the ricks on any hit the weekend daylight. It doesn't matter he was
doing that. So we do have some footage of him back in the day.
You know, my film, I know was blurry. It was like
on the with the eight millimeter film and all that, So you didn't really
get a chance to see us play like you do now. We didn't have
Instagram right like we do. But Jim, you know, you're talking about
where we stand today. You have, you know, wealth and knowledge.
You've been covering the game for a long time. Fireworks happened this weekend where
we saw three starters, you know, a starting quarterback, receiver in Kean
Coleman, a major play maker uh In Kean Coleman, and also defensive back
Charles Brantley all hit portal on the same day. The last day of the
portal was open. What do you make of this? You know, as
soon as I heard it it was stunning news, right but two seconds later
or less than that one second later, if you know the program and you
know the situation, you knew you knew why right away Thorn. My immediate
reaction was, man, he knows that he may not win that starting job.
Now if not, he may know that he was behind coming out of
spring. That's what that meant to me. It's like, Noah Kim is
like really seriously pushing for this for this position. There there's other things there
too, but that was the first thing. And Keon Coleman, It's something
I've been predicting on our podcast for a year and a half that when he
broke through there would be schools coming after him from near his hometown down to
the south. If he at once he established himself, they would be coming
after him. And I said the same thing about BT Jordan when he's defensive
ends. Coach or pass rush coach at Michigan State. I said, if
he does really well, it's just a matter of time before the Florida's,
the A and M's, and the you know, the let's use come after
him, and Michigan State's got to be prepared to match that. So when
I heard that Coleman was going in, you didn't have to know anything more
about what was going on subsequently through sourcing and so forth. I'm sure you've
heard some of these things also, and that you know some of those some
of the you know, name image and likeness packages and talk out there in
what is today college football free agency. Those things were being voiced to him
weeks ago, not just this weekend. It's been going on for a long
time. So that's and you know, I've spoken with some people inside the
program, some high ranking people in the program, and they feel that Thorn
and Coleman do not want to leave Michigan State. They're just doing what they
think they need to do to find out what else is out there. For
two different reasons. Coleman, because wow, if there's this crazy money you're
hearing about, you got to go listen and talk to it and find out
who the quarterbacks are are those places because this is his contract here. He's
wanting to get drafted the year after that. It's a business and with the
freedom that they have now, be silly for him not to listen. And
for Thorn, why would he go in You know, maybe he's you know,
concerned about you know, losing his starting job and that would be his
senior year. We've seen it happen in Rocky Lombardy, but he still had
a couple of years of eligibility remaining. He was able to go to another
school. So different reasons for different players. And you know, Michigan State
still likes both guys. And at spartanmag dot com, we reported a Sunday
night that Michigan State could potentially lose these players. We didn't write it like
they were definitely gone. We wrote it that they could potentially be gone.
You may have noticed that none of those players, including Brantley, when they
entered the portal, they did not put it out on social media. A
lot of times players these days, when they entered the portal, they'll have
a little image and they'll say, you know, you know, thank you
Spartan Nation. You know, but I've decided to you know, and those
things are usually construed as a goodbye. There were no goodbye social media tweets
or anything from Coleman or Thorn saying you know, it's been great, we
love you, I'm leaving. That still could happen, but they entered the
portal somewhat quietly. They did it without you know, it was reported because
there's a lot of reporters out there who have access to the transfer portal and
they can see when a name comes in and then it gets reported by reporters.
But those players did not send it out there with you know, with
spotlight and flashlight and everything saying it's been great, but I've decided to enter
the portal. They entered the portal to find out what's going on. Now
there's more discussions being that are taking place, and we talk a little bit
more about that. But that's my long run on response to that question.
But we can talk about it some more if you'd like. I mean,
we talked about this too, though, like if we let's put ourselves in
the shoes right now of student athletes like you. We asked ourselves collectively.
We're talking non stop over the weekend, and when we first heard the news.
It was like, oh man, this shit is it's sinking right,
Like we kind of initially, you know, quickly made this decision like hey
man, what is truly going on? Like it's our program. We have
so much pride in our own program. But we talked about would we test
the waters if you had this great year and you feel like maybe there may
be something else out there where it can help me propel myself to the next
level. You know, would we have hit the portal if it was that
open and transparent like we talked about free agency. I think from the standpoint
to your point, Jim, is that the portal. We truly took advantage
of the portal the past two three years, right like we got r K
nine of the world, we got Jaden Reid, we got vin Vin Schimmering.
But then and like it finally hits home internally that our guys now have
starters, have now said all right, let me go see what's out there.
And I feel like spartanation. It the entirety of spartanation is like,
let's support our guys regardless, like we welcome them back, well we should
ridicule them on a they're going to test the waters. It's best for them,
right Let's let's support them. But Spartan nation and such, it's finicky
right now, like you know, what have you done for me lately?
Let's let's speak asistent and let's support our guys regardless of the decision. Obviously
we want them guys back. They're Spartan dogs for life. But you know,
I think it's open up for our group of you know, everybody's feelings
on how this truly felt. I think everyone has a different opinion. But
to your point, Jim, it is a different ballgame with free agency now
with college football. Yeah, I think any fair and sensible fan can understand
why players in this in this structure would be interested in going and seeing what
they're worth on the and the free agency market. And I don't follow a
lot of the responses on Twitter. I see some of the things on our
message board at spidermag dot com. I was so busy Sunday night writing that
I didn't see a lot of the discussions. I know that some people were
bothered by it, but really the only people, the only Michigan State fans
that were bothered by it were mis just say fans who don't follow college football
and don't know what's going on. If you follow college football and you know
what's going on, you know this is going on all over the country and
it's going to get I don't know if worse is the right word, but
it's going to be more and more amplified where you know. I've heard I
think someone else mentioned did Lane Kiffin mentioned this. I know that Terrence ogles
Be mentioned. This former basketball player at Clemson, he's got a podcast,
does really well. I heard him say this summer, I'm sorry this winner
just before the tournament started. He said that he could see the day come
when every single college basketball player enters the portal after the season. It just
becomes compulsory. Everybody enters the portal year after year after year. Because right
now there might be a little bit of a deterrent if you're a player,
you might be able to gain a little bit of loyalty from the coach that
you're trying to impress for playing time by not entering the portal. But you
know what, if ten or twelve guys did, fifteen guys did, then
they all you know what's to keep everybody from all going to find out every
year what they're worth on the market as it stands right now, something like
that could happen in college basketball football? Could it happened there also? Maybe?
But we've we've seen what more than thirty five hundred players in the portal
this year. You know, Texas A and M had this great recruiting class
last year and seven of those freshmen went into the portal After one year,
I think A and M has lost twenty five scholarship players in one off season,
and eighteen of them were like blue chipper type guys, because that's all
they've been recruiting late at these blue chippers, like eight top one hundred guys,
that includes some starters. Now, the question with Michigan State is do
they have the depth to absorb this. The other question is if you're a
fan, you're and you're insecure about Man, my football team is losing its
best players. What does it say about me? Doesn't say anything about you
as a person. If it does, you need to take a break for
a while and realize you're gonna be It's that sorry, You're gonna be all
right. But for the fans in general, and I mentioned the talk showing
Grand Rapids today, yeah, everybody wants you know, Keon Cole to stay
if you're a Michigan State fan, and good for him that he's got opportunities.
These schools that we're hearing that are interested in him. LSU of course
in Tennessee, you know desperate programs where the tail wags the dog and when
they pass, they had to raise money. They they they get big money
and it just means more down there. You guys are probably hearing it.
It gets into the six figures, maybe the high six figures for a player,
maybe seven figures. You know, that's what we're hearing. If you're
a Michigan State fan, do you want Michigan State to pay that for a
player? You know, that's just for everyone individually to think on their own,
not that every individual has power to help make that decision. Nothing gets
key on on that. But on one hand, if you're going to get
all bent out of shape about you know, what's going on with the coaching
staff losing this player. Now now that you say that, do you really
want those type of chips pushed to the middle of the table. Meanwhile,
if you are Mel Tucker and you're looking at it and you've got these quarterbacks,
you got Peyton Thorn. You got Noah Kim. Peyton has been pretty
good. Managed the offense with Kenneth Walker, won eleven to two, finished
number nine in the country, won the Peach Bowl. Hey, that's quite
a ring that he has. That's a great season the Michigan State had with
him as quarterback. He can win at a high level when he's got good
teammates around him, like any good quarterback. Right, You've got him.
But Noah Kim has been closing that gap, closing that gap. Mel Tucker
has told us in the past, those of us in the media that Noah
Kim has the best arm of anybody in the quarterback room, and he's getting
better, getting better. I heard that Noah Kim looked really good in the
first two scrimmages of the spring. The third scrimmage, I thought Noah Kim
did some things downfield a little more aggressively than Thorn did. If Thorn was
out there that day trying to defend his championship, his title belt, so
to speak, he was not real aggressive downfield. Noah Kim looks pretty good
now. Peyton Thornton's had twenty plus starts. Whatever it is, Noah Kim
small sample size. I don't want to say we know as much about Noah
Kim. But if you're Mel Tucker and you've got this situation going on,
what do you want to have happen? You want to fix it somehow so
that they both come back. And last year he managed to do that.
They both did come back. Noah Kim still has three years of eligibility left
because he had the COVID year and he red shirted one year, so he
would love to have both of them come back. So if you're Mel Tucker,
do you come out and say Thorn is my starter at the end of
spring practice? No, because you might lose Kim, right, Or do
you say Kim is my starter? No, because you might lose Thorn.
I mean, obviously you want both of them back, You want both of
them to be happy, and you want to give them as much information as
you can. But it's a tough situation as a head coach to juggle that
situation when you don't want to be left with zero quarterbacks, which is possible
also, so it's tough on the coach from a communication standpoint when you have
a quarterback battle like that. The good news is Noah Kim is good.
He's closed the gap. He might be better than Peyton Thorn. I don't
know. We've not seen him in games, but that possibility exists. You
know, you brought him a couple of good points there, Jimmy, you
said, you know, does MS you want to be a school that gets
into the nil game and pushes all those ships to the center on the table.
As you said, you put it just a second go, you know,
for for you on the outside, like we're former players, we I
know what we look at this ass why why would a fan base or you
know, you look at Michigan State as a business community of the donor as
at large. We have a lot of We've got a lot of money at
Misigan State. We've got three NBA owners, one a minority NFL owner possibly,
you know, we have tons of billionaires. We have guys even all
the way down to like small business owners like this. This nil game,
as it lives in breeze all over the country, isn't always run by the
uber rich. It's collective the fan bases that collectively care enough to put their
money where their mouth is. And because they everybody shows up to these games
on Saturday, they all cheer for their team, their home team. They
want them to win. Everybody knows that. Why would you not want to
get in the game knowing that it's legal now you know, for years it
wasn't legal and it was going on in the South as we know it.
Why would you not, now that it is legal, get into the game
when it's about talent And you see, I've heard it from myself from on
the donuts. We don't you know, maybe maybe we don't. Don't you
don't want to write checks if you know the team isn't winning currently. Well,
the team won in twenty one and they didn't write the checks for the
players. So now that they're losing, you say you don't want to write
the checks for the players either. But it's clear the reason that we won
in twenty one was because it was talent acquisition. It was a little bit
before the nil was you know what it is today, But it became that
after Kenneth Walker, the third this is as we're talking about, got the
campus and we saw the production and we saw the wins. Why not continue
that gym? In your opinion, you know, that comes down to an
individual decision for all those donors, and it comes down to that collective you're
talking about, put together by small business owners and fans and big time donors,
all of it put together. How good is Michigan State in that area?
How well organized is Michigan State. We heard from the outset that Tennessee
was becoming very well organized in the collective game, and now you're starting to
see them throw some money around out there in the open market. So it
comes down to each athletic department and the organization and how well that's organized,
and how well that that money is available for players once they get to Michigan
State. As you know, legally, you're not supposed to use that as
an inducement to get someone to sign with you, but you know everybody's doing
that. They're saying, when you come to this school, this is what
you'll get, and you might get it your first check today, even though
you're in high school today. That's the way it was in the years past.
It's not supposed to work that way now. If that's I mean,
if that's the cost of doing business now, those are discussions that have to
be made and that's not up to the head coach. I mean, he
could ask for it, but those things need to be organized at other levels,
and when he came to Michigan State from Colorado, it was communicated to
him that Michigan State would have all the plugins that he needs to be successful
at that time. That meant, you know, refurbishing the you know,
all of the facilities, and doing what needed to be done in terms of
assistant coaches, keeping them compensated at a level that was competitive with everybody else
in the Big Ten and some of the powers around the country. And support
staff. That's something that Tucker thought was really good at Georgia and Alabama support
staff, recruiting, support staff, all those things and those things, among
other things were communicated to him that those would be in place at Michigan State.
Michigan State needs to make sure that those things continue to be done for
mel Tucker. That was his understanding when he came from Colorado. So Michigan
State might have work to do there. I'm not saying Mischigan State sitting there
with empty pockets getting cherry picked by LSU or Tennessee and they're going to lose
Kean Coleman. That could happen, but again that gets back to the question,
how many chips do you want to put in the table to keep him,
and then what else do you have for the rest of your roster?
And once that's established, where do you go from there? All of this
it's new frontier and this is the first time that Michigan State has had a
standout player really have a breakthrough season as a sophomore who was a three star
recruit, mind you, coming out of Louisiana. Michigan State did a really
good job of identifying him as an underrated three star, getting him in a
recruiting battle, and then developing him. He's a great athlete, but some
development needed to take place there. So you had evaluation and you had development.
Those are keys for Michigan State. Anytime Michigan State has been good,
they've gone to places like New York and they've turned over some rocks and came
out with a guy like jau Culcriik. That's evaluation and then player development.
It's not just going out and getting a Charles Rogers. That's part of it
too. You know, winning those five star recruiting battles is important in Alabama
and Georgia do that all the time. But when Michigan State has had those
top ten teams. They've had some three star recruits that they've evaluated, like
a Keon Coleman, and then player development, evaluation and development. But now
it's evaluation, development and retention retaining some of those players. It's easier to
retain a guy theoretically they're from Michigan or Ohio, but as you know,
there's a disproportionate number of talented and great players eight hundred or more miles away
from Michigan State in the Sun Belt region. So that becomes a task for
Michigan State when they are fortunate enough to do a good job and evaluation and
player development. Now it's retention, and we're seeing that exhibit A with Kean
Coleman. It's kind of a landmark deal here for Michigan State right now.
I mean, was really getting excited there to what what what do you say
about this right now? You're a guy from from wet western New York that
they came here in the days where you know it was under the right ar.
You wouldn't be under the radar today if you were coming out of high
school like you fell in love with the campus and what guys like like coach,
what was the coach that that brought you here, Jeff stouton just the
study. This is complete stuff. He was a great recruiter today. Like
if in this world, what would it would you care about? Nil?
If people, if if other schools are offering you this, would it matter
to you as a high school player if the school decided to pay you or
not pay it with that factor in, Yes, that will definitely factor And
at some point, you know it's it's you know, the amount is different,
but yes, the Nils piece of it would factor in. And uh,
you know I came in there, you know, and Jim you know,
gave me, you know, the great reviews and everything like that.
I came in as a highly rated running back you know from New York.
And I came in my freshman year. I was moved to linebacker, so
you know, it was one of those things, you know, I could
have transferred out and everything like that. But yes, I do understand what
it is with the transfer portal. What it is today, Today's game has
changed, and I think that's what we're missing as fans. I'm old school
guy, I'm very old school and I say that and I get, you
know, hell on here from you Stray and otis a little bit and everything
like that. But like, yeah, I believe in that, but I
don't fault today. The game has changed, all right, The game has
totally changed from now, you know, like it's that old saying it's not
funny when the rabbit has the gun, you know, because what has happened
traditionally, is it? We're talking about this early before it came on.
I was recruited by Bobby Williams. I was offered a scholarship by Bobby Willams.
Bobby Williams got fired. I was still in high school. I opened
up my recruiting process again. John ll came in. I came in under
John L. Smith. John LL got fired, all right, he could
go somewhere else. Bobby went to Alabama with Nick or wherever Nick was at
the time, you know, and I got a new coach. I got
coached Antonio. I had three or four different running back coaches throughout the thing,
throughout my stay at Michigan State. You know, those coaches left and
went to better jobs. They went to you know, NFL. Ben Sermons,
he went to the Green Bay Pass. You know, he elevated himself.
And now what we're seeing is these kids have the opportunity to elevate themselves
and from the outside looking in and it's like, oh no, these kids
are you know, they're not They're not going to learn how to do this.
They're not gonna arn how to do I get it. I get a
little bit of that point there, But there was there's coaches have no repercussion
of ramifications. If they leave a program, they can go and go and
get another. They'll get paid the rest of the contract if they get fired
or if they leave you know, anything like that, and they'll go and
get more money somewhere else. Now that the game has changed that college kids
can you know, dip their toe in there and see, Okay, who's
looking at me? Where do my adds? You know, raise up for
me. At the end of the day, no matter what you you go
to Michigan State, you go to to If a kid that's an engineer major,
he's coming in to position himself for the best engineering job when he leaves
Michigan State. A kid that comes in to play football in aspirational play in
the NFL, they're here to position themselves for the best position to play at
the next level. And we as fans, we have to understand that we
as a as a society, we have to understand that as well. And
that's the new NCAA. Yes, I get it. And you know guys
you know, dipping their toes in checking it out and everything like that,
and you know that's great. But my message to spartanation is, don't bash
these guys that go in the in the system and you know and enter the
name there, because all that's gonna do is push them away, you know,
let them let them know, Hey, good luck to you if you
leave, but we're going to welcome you here. We want you here,
we want you to stay here. That's the message Spartan Nation should be sharing
right now with a guy like Kean Coleman, with a guy like Peyton Thorne,
with a guy like Charles Brantley who did decide to come back. But
like you know, those are the things that you know, we don't bash
the guys for you know, intern they're doing it for their own reasons.
They have Everyone comes from different family economic backgrounds. You know, not everyone
has the opportunity to go through different steps in life. You have to come
up and make your paper. How you can make your paper at the end
of the day. So we have to realize the ass fans and yes,
do I want Kean Coleman to say, Hell, yes, I do want
Keon Coleman to say, I love that kid. I think he's a great
asset to the university. He's a great representation of the university. You know,
forget football. He's a guy that I want to say, Keon Coleman
was a spartan dog. Keyon Coleman is a guy that was on this team
that I played on. You know that I was, you know, part
of this, this this university football program, and Keon Coleman was there.
Yes, I want that, you know, but I want what's best for
him as well. I've not seen I've not are people criticizing the players.
I don't have my ear to the ground on fai. Yes, yeah,
it's like it's a business decision, clearly. I mean we talked about this
transfer portal is what to college basketball is to test the water for the NBA
Draft stats. That's just that's what it is. And so you know,
if you don't like what you don't see with the results, it's okay to
go back to your current program. I think now kids are like afraid to
even do that because they might get shunned on it's you're not loyal, you're
not fully committed to the program of culture, and like you have kids and
coaches that may have a different dynamic. That's program a program. But what
we do know is that male's like we will welcome you back, my brother,
like you are our guy, Like we have your full support. But
I just feel like there's this there's just an ever changing support, Like why
can't we just be consistent with everybody that we have in our system, regardless
he's a spartan doll for life. He paid, earned the strips, earned
the green of white. But like I'm gonna teot you like, yeah,
we want to be walking on stead clearly, like we know he's our guy,
he is the he's a dude. It's made the decision to say,
hey, I'm returning back to the program because as you see, you know,
you test the waters in what we say. The grass isn't always greener
on the other side, where it's the song don't let the grass green fool
you, the green grass fool you, right, I think that you see
that and you don't get the immediate love. There are ten thousand plus football
student athletes in the portal like it is launched, it is humongous, and
think about the percentage of those guys that aren't going to land where they think
they're gonna land. And so it's almost like stick to it, grind it
out, and the pro scouts will find you. Trust us, right,
we all know this. On the NFL Draft, you will. You will
be found and the film doesn't lie, numbers don't lie, and so you
will be found regardless of which program you're at. But to that point too,
you're like, yeah, we love Tekena and we support him regardless,
Like there's no indifference here on this show because we know, you know,
if if we were in those shoes, I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
I'll test too beyond you know, I didn't realize I didn't realize that
like the fans were coming down on players. I've detected that they've come down
on the coaching staff at mel Tucker, you know. Like but like like
you said, drawing the comparison to NBA, nobody's coming down on Izzo because
Hogard and Aikins are are in testing the NBA waters. Nobody's blaming Zo for
that. So I don't know why you should blame mel Tucker for these guys
testing the waters in a similar situation. And that's what I detected that you
know, people were wondering about the state of the program things like that.
Maybe some of those are fair questions, but in terms of fans criticizing players,
I don't. I don't spend much time with that because those opinions are
worthless in my opinion. Nothing against other fans, but those opinions, I
don't. I don't, I don't. I think you're too Jim. What
you say, what you stated earlier is that people that you know say this
and everything like that don't really follow the program. But those are the people
that are, you know, criticizing these kids. No matter to me,
right, So my question for you, Jim, like, you know,
there's all these you know, stories and you know, stuff coming out and
everything like that, especially with uh, you know Ki, because like overall,
like I think Peyton is gone. I think Peyton's gone. I think
Keon still has an opportunity to come back, and I think you know,
there's still that chance he comes back. But you know, you stated,
you know there was that Tennessee, you know interest Lsu interests and stuff like
that. What other schools have you heard? And how much water does that
carry? You know? Do you you know? Yes, LSU Tennessee.
We've heard a little bit of about Oklahoma also maybe Auburn a little bit.
But I mean, I mean, he's gonna be one of he's gonna be
one of the best receivers in the country next year, I would think.
And he's he is a valuable commodity. And these programs are a multi multimillion
dollar entities with starving fan bases, demanding fan bases Tennessee, LSU. So
it just means more. Yeah, it means a lot to them. So
how much does it mean? It shows itself in monetary means. So coleman
is is is a good player, and Michigan State has had has open communication
with him. You know, this is not a deal where he's in the
portal, he's not even listening to Michigan State. He's still talking. He
likes Michigan State, he likes Miltucker. He'd like to make it all happen
here. You know. Again, it's a business decision, and he needs
to know whose quarterback is too. So a lot of those things are being
talked about. And there's a lot of Michigan State fans that are hoping that
Keyon Coleman goes back, and that would be really interesting. Also if Michigan,
Michigan State withstands this, puts a package together and keeps him. And
this is new territory as far as college football goes in terms of these things
being done semi publicly and the passengers have been There's been a lot of recruiting
battles in the past where things like this have happened underneath the table with other
schools and so forth. But this is interesting. It's new for college fans
and we'll see what that does for the the size of the college fan base.
Does that change in the years ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt.
You go ahead, no, no, no, you're good. I have
a question for that though, Like you know, you're you're hitting heavily on
the nil side of things. Do you think for Keon it's an nil thing
or do you think it's you know, because I think from Jason Otis and
I like it's a different opinion and stuff like that, and from you're the
media media like out there and you know, you know, talking to other
media outlets and everything like that. We don't you know, so like,
do you think it's an nil thing or do you think it's positioned himself for
a better draft. I think it's a combination combination. I heard that,
you know, he he was looking at it is his contract here, and
he wanted to go somewhere where you know, he could run all the routes
and the ball would be delivered. That's one of the things i'd heard that
he thought that nil money was just a one year shrug type of thing.
He was wanted to set himself up for first round draft pick money. To
understand, now, I've not talked to him about that, as you can
imagine, players when they're in the transfer portal, they're not doing any interviews,
as you can imagine. But then when the when the money started being
talked about at SEC levels, then it becomes more than just shrug off money.
And he's in today's market and what other players are presumably making, and
what kind of player he is as a difference making player. He's worth it.
He's worth was a Jackie Gleason. He used to say, you're worth
whatever someone's willing to pay you. Right if someone's willing to pay him.
He must be worth it. So uh, I like the kid. I
think he's I think he's a team guy. He's he's smart, he's energetic,
he's focused. You know, wherever he was, Like Mel Tucker always
says, be where your feet are, he is always where his feet are,
whether it's basketball or at a basketball game or at moneyball. He'd go
there and watch that, you know, workouts and so forth. He's an
excited, excitable teammate too. And he and he and he, he gave
his all for Michigns stay there for a couple of years, and I know,
say Vans or hoping he comes back for another year. But I understand
all of it. I don't have a problem with any of it. I
don't know. I know, I know college football is an emotional thing for
fans, but it's economics, it's geography, it's timing, it's all that
stuff. Who you know, it's tim and tim and timing who is your
quarterback at this particular time as part of it. So, Jim, when
I hear you say, is I know everybody's getting their tax refunds and it's
time to up. That's somebody else's job. I'm just here calling balls and
strikes. I don't know, I don't know the absolutely yeah, you know,
I'm seeing a lot of comments in the chat right now and people it's
it's it's quite spirited the conversation. I mean, I like this. It's
it's it's a very hot topic. It's emotional, you know, when you
have a player that you like. I mean, we obviously no Keyon.
He's been on the show. He's done an il deals you know with with
Cal and I hops so has Chuck Brentley, which is you know that that
took Cal and had him in an emotional state, a shock a little bit
because the two guys that he's done nil deals. He's the one of the
only guys that stepped up in Michigan State to do that. It has entered
a portal. So you know, partly I think you're right with the money,
but you know, there there's a lot more to this for players like
this. You know, there's there's players and said opportunities have been pushed in
the portal by coaches. We know these three guys weren't pushing the portal.
They were not you know, I think maybe Peyton Dorn may have felt that
from you know, the fan base and not getting the you know, after
being a two year starter, he probably feels that he should be knighted or
ordained the starter going into the summer. But as you said, that's just
too much of a risk for the coaching staff to give that to him because
they need him to work, they need to get better as a player.
That's not the case with Kean Kleman. We know that, you know,
Charles Renley is back on campus now. He said he is one hundred percent
on thousand percent committed to Michigan. Say when you look at what Keon Coleman
is going through right now, you know he was unsure the quarterback play,
and there's a little bit of you know, am I going to be featured
those kinds of things, which are valid things to try to be a first
round a pick, but you know, like it's it's it's something that you
know. I think that the fan base is starting to do showing key on
the love that he deserves, but it also has to be on the on
the side of the coaches as well, so they can show and outline a
plan for him. I think that mel Tucker personally is one of the best
talent of valuebators in the game of football. That is why mel Tucker is
where he is because of his ability, his eyes that he's seen on the
college level, on the pro level. He knows talent when he sees.
That's where he got how he got the key On. He's been the primary
recruiter for Keon Coleman. He's the guy who's still communicating with Keyan. He's
not having off here in any way. I personally feel like and On these
guys will probably relate to this that you know, mel Tucker will not only
you know, if the ship can be righted, it will be righted by
mel Tucker and Kean and his his his crew, his family who who really
are are trying to do the right thing here. They're not chasing bags.
That's not for whatever whatever that's worth. People think that he's chasing back.
That's not the case. It's not chasing bags. He wants to be the
best player, I mean, you put in the best position and can to
benefit his family in the long term. So mel Tucker will not only do
that, but also dip in the portal as he has before and find guys
to be around him. Because one thing ke On doesn't want to do is
be double team and triple teams where you know, do we have some other
threats on the other side with like how he had Jayden Reid over the last
few years on this side, that can can can open up holes for him
and make it better for him to be that first round draft pick. So
so, Jim, when we talk about where things stand right now, I
don't I don't believe that you know, you have It's it's time to like,
you know, throw the baby out with the bath water right now from
Michigan State, I think that melt Tuck or his staff where Kean is right
now that we're still in the play here, we're still in play and I
and I I want your opinion on where do you think, uh, what
do you think needs to be done in order to to to kind of get
that message over to him. You said that they're still communicating. What do
you think in your your experience, how do you see this playing out and
how does it end? You know, you make a good point also about
you know, is he going to get double team? I mean, those
are some of the things you saw in the Michigan game. He was the
dominant player on the field. Then second half Michigan changed some coverages a little
bit. Things they were able to do because he didn't really have the players
around him. Jaden Reed was around, but maybe not one hundred percent.
I can see why that would be something Keon would be interested in being,
you know, being around other receivers that are, you know, strong enough
threats. Some of those guys I think do have good potential to be that
this year. I think Montory Foster could could really step up this year.
As far as Keon Coleman and what he needs, I'm not sure. I
don't know what's in his head, in his heart. I know he's listening,
so that's good for Michigan State. But if you're Michigan State, let's
say, theoretically, let's say you hear that Tennessee's offering nine hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, just talking theoretically here, if you've got eight hundred thousand to
give him. I'm just asking, you know, I'm just wondering about fans
out there that want to pretend general manager a little bit. You could give
one player eight hundred thousand dollars, or you could give sixteen thousand dollars to
fifty players. I think that's what the math is. What is stronger for
a team. Can you imagine fifty players, I'll get sixteen great or one
guy gets eight hundred grand, you know what I mean? What you know
in terms of building, in terms of building a team, these are some
things that some coaches around the country are going to be They're going to be
massaging the numbers and figuring out what's the best way to build a team,
because you know, increasingly now, guys, I think in college football,
yes, the portal is part of it. Yes, transfers are part of
it. I think last year, like what fifteen percent of all starters were
transfers, A big number of transfers. You look at Michigan State the number
of transfers on its roster. The programs that managed to get a culture,
a collective culture, a team oriented culture of blocking and tackling the old school
elements of football, those coaches that somehow make that happen are going to find
an edge. I think that's my prediction for the future. It might not
be the team with the five or six you know red letter, you know,
big money players like Miami Hurricanes had last year, or Texas A and
m hasn't worked out real well for those two programs so far. Look at
Michigan right now, I mean, they got it rolling pretty good. They're
strong. I hate to say that on your podcast here. You may not
want to hear that, and we are no one's a bigger critic of Jim
Harbaugh than I am. But right now, at least last year, they
had good leadership, and they had, it seemed to me, players playing
for one particular goal, which for decades wasn't the case of that program.
They had a big problem with divas at Michigan. Everybody knows that they've gotten
rid of that. Somehow Harbaugh barely survived. He was on the ropes about
ready to get fired, and somehow, in this era of transfers and nil
he has put together a team it looks like they were last year. I
assume they'll be that way again this year. Across the country, the coaches
that are able to sift through some of these minefields and the big money nil
and transfer portal and put together an old put together, old fashioned collective teams
playing for one another, Teammates playing for one one another, blocking and tackling.
Finding a way to do that is going to be it's I don't know
how to do it, but there are going to be coaches that do it
well. And maybe it's dividing up eight hundred thousand among fifty players rather than
paying one. I don't know. Hmm. You know, you know when
you talk about Michigan, I mean, that's a good point. You bring
up Michigan. Michigan, you know, you know very well versed on what
they what those guys are getting paid. I understand, you know, their
their collective market. I know players over there, no coaches over there,
I know guys that are paying those guys. I know the agents over there.
And there's not fifty guys making sixteen thousand over there. Now, they
got guys several guys in the mid to upper six figures. I'm talking five
hundred thousand and above. At Michigan. They have groups of guys making well
over one hundred thousand dollars. So I'm talking when I say groups, I'm
speaking of ten plus guys on the team doing that at Michigan, like like
fifty at sixty. That's more. That's that's on par with I don't know
what's the issue of deal. The UWM is what five hundred dollars is six
thousand dollars for the entire team, every team, everybody on the team,
team on football and basketball, as it says. Right now, the basketball
is in jefalty because he's now an NBA owner. So they're all making six
thousand dollars right now, everybody five hundred bucks a month. There's like that
eight hundred thousand dollars thing that you're talking about in fifty plays. That's not
that's not what. That's not gonna get you winning football though, Jim,
I don't think so. I don't think that you're gonna get the talent that
you need to have on your roster with sixteen thousand for everyone, like,
that's not where the market is at that level. You know, we're expanding
the playoffs to four from four to twelve. Right now. At four you're
out of them. There's no you have no shot to twelve. You're gonna
have to have more guys. You know, it's gonna expand the playoffs and
all that, but you're gonna have to have more players making the fifty thousand
dollars market and above than we do right now. That's that's what we're talking
about. And for whatever reason, is it's always like this feasts or famine
idea, like everybody's got to make a million bucks. That's not that's not
that's not the case. A guy like Kean Coleman, our guy that's the
starting quarterback for your Power five team, he garnish that in the Power five
if that's where we want to be, If we don't want to be,
this is where we are right now as Michigan State football. Right, we're
in the Big Ten. Right the Big Ten is going to go to We're
at with fourteen teams, We're going to go to sixteen. We're at the
USC and UCLA, who continually get the best quarterbacks and skilled players in the
country. And we want to say we're going to give our guys sixteen grand
We can't compete with that. I'm just seeing that on a realistic level.
You're seeing through the prism of recruiting, and you see it all the time
on a national scale. There are a lot of fan bases and in their
schools at DYU that aren't that Oklahoma State. These aren't schools that are like
we think of his playoffs, they're they're they're kicking our ass in nil.
Absolutely, that's that's the facts, guys, you know as it stands,
and we don't know that. It's like we we don't want to believe it,
and we come up with excuses as to why we don't want to do
it, you know, and we don't win or we didn't win enough or
whatever it is. Everybody, I think I seen in the chat art do
revised. You ask a question like how do you do it? I think,
call cal talk to others. There's there's ways of being able to contribute
to the nil if you're if you want to do it, Like that's the
difference between our fan base and others. We we we sit back and say,
I don't know how others are, like hey, they're throwing the money
first and saying, I don't care where does it need? I need to
get to that player. It's almost in your heart, like truly, what's
in your heart and if you want to do something, there's nothing that's gonna
stop you if you want to. And that's why because we don't really want
to do that. That's what these players are feeling. Because guys, everyone's
connected now, they all have they're on they're they're they're connected in social media.
They're talking to one another. They're sharing information, and this is what
causes guys to dip into the portal pow Simply. I'm not saying that's what
Kean, that's what I'm not saying that's what Chuck is doing. I'm not
saying that's what Peyton's doing. But it will happen and it will continue to
happen if we don't really collectively. I don't I don't care if it's a
buck, a dollar, isn't that what you just said. I think I
saw Cal say send me a dollar, a thousand bucks and we'll get it
to him. He's one of the guys at Michigan, stated a former player,
a student alumni of Michigan State who stepped up and said he came to
us and said, what can't I do? I need to do what my
part? You know I have? What does Cal have? Three? Three
eye hops? And he said, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get
these players money so that they can stay and they can feel comfortable because he
sees the stories he's talked to these players, and he understands how it is
on the weekends when they don't have foods, and people like you care for
him on the weekend, but you don't want to step up and help him
out because you don't feel like you're a billionaire. You don't need to be
a billionaire and fell with fans people. You don't need to be a billionaire
in order make a difference in this world. That's where I'm coming from.
And I just I think that message is lost and ODIs like, you know,
I know that you as you know in your role with Playfly, who
is the media multi mean the right holder for Michigan State Athletics. Understand this
from a big, perfect, a holistic view. What is your opinion on
like how we can help people that don't know where to go and how to
go? I mean there's some things that are cooking in the background, right
I mean, you're on you're on mute. I know, Jim, I
know, yeah, that's Jim for your show. We let you go work,
continue our conversation here, but you know, appreciate you're going to bring
We're going to bring you back. You're going to bring you back, you
know, because I think this is a hot one. Man. We got
some more stuff to talk, but I know your show is plugged right here.
Uh, you know, watching Spartan Man Live. Right back in our
day when you when you had an article on Spartan Matt, you know you
made it when Yeah, yeah, back in our day Spartan bag paper.
Yeah cool. Yeah, I appreciate you. I appreciate you guys saying that
it's all all website now. Spartan Mag dot Com is part of the on
three network. Spartanmag dot Com. Tonight right now at nine to fifteen pm,
we have Spartan Mag Live. Just just search it on the YouTube channel.
Once the show is finished, you go find it. You can catch
up with it, but and then check out as we go forward in the
off season. Spartan Mag Live over on the YouTube channel here. Thanks a
lot of guys. Looks and background, Jim, love that background press box,
stadium press box. That's game day during COVID. Yeah so Jim.
Yeah, we'll love to have you back. We'll love to have you back
on the show again. Really appreciate you coming on. Thank you for asking
me. It was a pleasure you guys. Take care. We'll see us
soon. Thank you absolutely too. Thanks you. But I mean back to
your question straight. I know you asked me about what about you know what
am I seeing in the escape of initially what NIL was intended to be,
right, it was one, you have a corporate business, you have corporate
partners you have the entities of more so internally athletics utilizing images of ourselves and
promoting it marketing. But from a corporate partnership standpoint, it's truly intended for
players to then build their personal brands and then gardner those royalties or those fees
or those payments from being promoted. That's social, that's digital, that is
making appearances. Basically what we have done deemed necessary with I Hop and Kyle
and others and you know Jolly Pumpkin with the Juice Squad office alignment. That
is the that is the attendant purpose for NIL. Now when you go from
now we're playing pay to play, like that's where I think the NCAA also
we saw the beast, you know from the long Game, but it was
so russ like you know, basically nca able to force their hands like we
need to make sure our players are getting this. And it really starts with
merchandise and peril sales of you have numbers out there back when we played,
you just had numbers that were going out but you knew that was your number,
but you didn't have the name on it, but you didn't get royalties
from that personally. And I think that's now how it's set up to where
any autograph sessions anything signed up, you know you're able to then get that
money back and it's really easy. Money from a standpoint, helped me build
my brand if I aligned with the corporate partner, and that's what it's supposed
to be. Just stay in the fact. Yeah, I get that,
and let's let's let's make something clear here. I think, like you know,
I might be on the island of my own, but I know I
don't think so with this group that's on here otis and myself like this.
You know, I know we're talking nil and how you can support and everything
like that, but I'll go unstated, like, I don't think it's about
money for Keon Coleman. It's not about that. I get it. Yeah,
you want to see what's out there. I think it's about positioning himself
to be in the best position to get to the next level. You know,
I don't think he's going into transfer portal because he wants more money.
I don't think it's that that's the reason I think he's in there to see,
Hey, you know, I don't know we have a quarter you know,
we're not we're not committing to a quarterback. We have a quarterback battle.
Who's gonna throw in the ball? You know, I don't know.
Am I gonna get this mantarius? Am I gonna get that? Am I
gonna get this? Let me see what's out there? And it's a business
decision on his part, you know. So I don't you know, I
don't think you know, it's it's it's the it's the money side of things,
So don't I don't want. What I don't want is fans to look
at this guy and think it's it's some type of holdout situation he's holding out
for more money because he's not. You know, that's not the case with
Keon. Keon wants to play football. Ke On. We all talked to
Kean and all he said is like, screw, I want to play football.
I want to play I want to play in the NFL. I want
to know that's where that money will come, you know. So that's I
want to get that out there. You know, Like it's not about the
money with Keon. So I think, like I, I don't know if
it's just wishful thinking, if it's whatever, but I strongly, strongly believe
that Keon will come back and he will be playing as a Spartan this year.
Man, from your lips of God's ears. Man, you know,
Yeah, let's be clear this. When I'm talking about players that are struggling
on the weekend, I'm not talking about ke On. Keon. We we
said it. You're right that that's I want to be very crystal clear.
This is not a Keon play. I'm talking about other players that may follow
after this. We've seen it before, you're seeing in other schools, and
it's look, twenty five percent of players I think I've just seen Laura Rupe
in the comments talking about twenty five percent of the players in the draft transferred.
Okay, that's a stat that we haven't seen before in the NFL draft.
Guys. So there are players that make business decisions, not just for
the money right now, to get themselves into a position to be noticed.
Look at Keith Walker. Look at Kenneth Walker. He's the guy that at
Waite Force. Was he gonna get the Notrewiley? Was he gonna get on
national television every single week. No, coming to Michigan State gave him that
platform. He knew his athletic ability was there. But it's positioning yourself and
putting yourself on that platform to get that spotlight and get that look. You
know, yeah, I get it. You know people that will find you,
Yes, they will find you, but it's a lot easier to find
you when you're in their face. Yes, it's a lot easier to find
you know, when CBS is paying eight billion dollars to take your games every
day, you know, yes, yeah, we talked like that's some great
deal. So we know guarantee you will be on CBS every home game in
Mission State. Like it is what it is, man, But with everybody
out there hearing about CBS, but that's what's coming, That's what's coming down
the pipe right now, USC versus you know, Penn State on CBS,
that's that's coming. So you know when we're talking about top us SEC on
CBS, it's the big ten on CVS Big ten, that's right, yep.
And they wrote a big check for it. Guys. Look, you
know, like overall I think that we've we've we're trying to convey this that
it's really not a time to panic for Michigan State's you know, fan base
at all. I think that you've seen, you know, we all felt
that that initial shock that happened was at Sunday when everybody entered the portal on
the last day of the portal. Those three players one came back, you
know, when eisen moving forward. You know, you see the coaches of
recruiting, you know, you know that, you know there's there's been a
you know, you're looking at who's gonna play quarterback next? You're looking to
know what Kim that's that's jay U's guy. You know know what Kim is
him? And and here we have some uh here there's the players right here
telling everyone to settle down. Guys. Can you read some of those those
tweets? Yeah, you say, Spartan nation has a lot to look forward
to, believe it. You know. The best one I thought was one
there uh there, I said, there is no saying redacts, but Trey
Moseley was like the ship gonna saill regardless. But what we say on our
you know, I saw the coach D'Antonio always say we are going together in
one direction. If you feel that the heat in the kitchen, getting too
hot, jump off the bus, but like we're gonna keep going, you
know, regardless. And I think that's the standpoint of how spartans respond,
Like we we're resilient. Whoever suits tough for us, we're gonna ride with
and we're gonna go to battle with. And it's just that simple. And
we also going to support the guys that make the decisions to do what's best
for them. So I'm all about, like, you know, one,
let's call the Spadus fade, Like I'm tired of just the lack of consistency
and support. Like yeah, just just just support, Like we just support.
That's it. Like just we are all all American coaches, general general
managers. You know, if you didn't play the support, like just support,
man. This is your Alma monter, this is the fan base,
and there's the people that you love. Just show your love so that when
guys do hit the portal, they don't see all the bad ju ju that
you're sitting out to the air right and be like you know what, they
just showed their face. I'm gonna go somewhere. I'm being celebrated the love.
So I feel like as a collective unit Spartan Nation. As a fan,
just support and that's my that's off my soapbox, to drop my mind.
Support support number fourteen. He's gonna be fil I like that. I
like that support because the other players that may be looking to come to Michigan
State are watching. They're watching, their parents are watching. They're paying attention
to these things, you know, looking into comments and seeing how this fan
base reacts to things that that are are you know, look at listen,
look at how you know emotional. We all are getting about this, like
the fan base, and how would you like to be a coach right now?
Like you how hard it is? I mean it's it's incredibly hard.
It's difficult. And you know, to that point, there was a new
hire guys. You know, Mel Tucker did hire a new recruiting director here,
Executive Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting, Mark Dethorn. Shoot the Spartan
Nation. Mark, welcome to Welcome, Let's get it done. You shoot
you tell me, you know, I know you you've done some homework on
Mark, and tell me what's your opinion? Hey five? Yeah, you
know, I think Mark's gonna be good, you know whatever, He's asked
of him. It depends what you know you ask him to do, He's
gonna do it. He's a spartan. Now, he's been around some uh
you know, he was that pit with coaching our dooozy. So he understands
the culture about, you know, what it's like to be at Michigan State.
He understands that pressure of what it's like to be at Michigan State.
I think he's gonna be fine. He's gonna come in and uh, he's
gonna get his footing under him and he's gonna, you know, let's get
this thing going. Previously at Virginia Tech and and Pitt so welcome to the
family. I mean, he's got a lot of work. You gotta roll
up his sleeves and get the work right away. And we behind, yeah,
we behind a little bit. So go ahead, come in thousand percent,
make us run, make us splash. Yeah, get them on for
sure. Can I give a shameless plug? Please do? All right?
So I'm watching the show here. We really this is our highest number of
you right now. You know everyone needs to take a second. Hit that
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guys, we can't do this. So that's my shameless plug. Yeah,
we uh gross about one seventy was like, okay, all right,
so I will I will give some I will give some uh some insight,
all right, you know, I will get some insight here. You know.
I I've always talked about how I like Noah Kim. I always talked
about how I think he's the guy. He has to arm strength, he
has to you know, the smarts to accument for it and everything like that,
you know, through all this and like that that tweet he said there,
you know, he's like, hey, you know we're gonna go.
You know, Spartan Nation has a lot to be to look forward to believe
it. That is that's someone that's you know, assuming that role as a
leader. That's a leader you don't taken everybody and saying Spartan Nation relaxed.
We got this because at the end of the day, September one, Friday
night, September first, Central Michigan is coming to time. We're going to
play a football game. Whoever's on the fit, We're gonna play a football
game. But I feel comfortable, feel confident, and I feel comfortable with
number fourteen. He's been he's been in the program. He's he understands.
He's been on the sideline, he's been in the games and everything like that.
It's not like we have some guy that's unknown that's coming in, you
know. So, yeah, he's gonna have he's gonna have this ups and
downs and everything like that. But he's gonna have more ups than he's gonna
have downs. This kid, he's working for it. He's working for it
all right. He's not just sitting back and saying, like, give me
the position. He's working for it. So this is mindful because I believe
in this head. This is just believing this kid, you know. And
and I'm all for I think he's gonna do really good things. Uh for
this part. He's gonna shock a lot of people. Some people that doubt
him, He's gonna shock them. And I love the chip that he has
on his shoulders. You know. I won't disclose the conversations him and I
have had, but I love his confidence and I love where his head's at
right now. Well, you gotta you gotta award him for it. Stay
in the course is what true is, because like you could have hit the
portal at any given time, he's been here but he stayed the course.
He's all about team, he's all about Hey, when my time comes,
I will not lose that, right, I would take full advantage of it.
And he does come in every time you see and what does he do
straight down the field? Right, it doesn't matter if it's garbage minutes.
He's just stays the course. He's confident. He doesn't lose that confidence.
I would you do to like, because like, look at first, I
was like really at first, I would say like I was. At first,
I was like, man, look, we all know, like that's
the hottest seat is quarterback, Like it is the most scrutinized position obviously kickers,
head coaches, but like in that order, right, But for him
to sit there and it's truly like, I'm gonna support the QB one,
I'm gonna do my part. But he's been behind number two, and truly
who knows the playbook better than number two? I mean it's him, right,
So to that point, I think Coach Johnson is going to truly get
in out of that room and get him right and get him tight. But
like we're gonna have a new juice. A new tournay of the page,
new chapter and just sell the consistent support for us. Someone who's going to
be able to learn. He has he has that security blanket because he has
number five in the backfield. Nate Carter see saw his comment. We really
aren't sure who you really we don't know what's the Kim's number? Four?
Two? What's we said? Fourteen? Yeah? So one four? What's
for minus one? Oh? Boy? One? What is that for?
One three? That's the number of draft Michigan State had. Welcome about that
guy. Here we go. We got Jadeen Reid going second round pick number
fifty overall to the Packers, to Jane Reed. He's gonna be mayor a
nightmare for you Lions fans. Yea, you got you gotta see him twice.
You are a Bill's guy. Don't talk about us, bro. You
stay on that side on the Bill's my field. Just stay in your just
stay in your lane. Don't worry about what we got over here. Man.
Bryce Berger goes to the sweater vessel in New England who picked the nioker
and a punter in the draft. By the way, Hey, you know
special teams wins championships too, brother, He's not like the forty nine ers.
I know you're just But then also, the sweater vests picks a mere
Speed. Why you calling the sweater vest he's the hoodie. I'm sorry,
you're right, Yeah, you're absolutely right, Trestle's sweater vest. I'm jet
lagged, as you know, but you're right, the hoodie picked a mere
Speed. And right, so that's two too. I mean, Mel,
you know Belichick Belichick sabing Mel, I mean, hey man, so he's
evaluating talent Amir Speed, like talk about him, like no one really talked
a lot about him being drafted because of what we thought the production on the
field, but his traits, his physical tools, him making that move to
go to the Georgia Pro Day guys that might have paid diffidence for him.
M well, you know, Bill, Bill Belichick loves those like physical bbs
like you think about the Twins and the mc cordy brothers, right, like
smart, you know, we know Amir Speed's gonna tackle, like we know
that. I think as well, you converted, where can he make that
transition of you know, you need some PBUs, need some interceptions in the
league, right, and so now we know he's a specimen where he ran
what for four you know, and he's what I feel like. I think
he's like six five four three four three four to three and sound like too.
As his times went from four to three to four or five. Yeah,
he said, yeah, yeah, we get it. Speed was great.
Yeah, let's go to the guys that you know are gonna make an
impact there. We got some other guys that went undrafted, but they're gonna
be Look, I'm gonna get you, now stick with it. No,
Kim's fourteen four plus one is five. We got five undrafted free agents there.
We go guys Kims everywhere. Xavier Henderson going to the Washington Commanders.
I think that's a very good fit for him. I love what they're doing
then, and I love the fact that he has an opportunity to play.
I think he's a guy that would have got drafted if he didn't have that
bum leg. But I think, you know, healthy, he's gonna do
something. Ben ven Summer going into him loaded loaded team with the Philadelphia Eagles.
There, you know he's going to be a hell of a player.
Jacob Slade getting that money before he even steps field, even steps foot on
the field, getting that guaranteed money, you know, with the Cardinals,
Ken Dell Brooks also with the Cardinals is always great when you have former teammates
on the same team together, you can navigate the rookie life together. And
then you have Jared Harsh, that lineman going to that Dolphins Miami loves Michigan
State Dolphin lineman's you know, they picked up a ton of them, you
know, in the past. But you know those guys there, you know,
congratulations to those guys. That's not where you get from. How you
start the journey is how you finish the journey. Those guys are going to
be great spartans going on for hair on out. We can't forget about Ronald
Williams. Justin Perkinson's here, who's just been invited to camp at forty nine
ers one a year old up and grounds. You know. Look, Jared
Horst also, you know, being the first pick in the USFL draft for
the Michigan Pansas, looks like he's going to He's going south. He's not.
You don't want to be in the snow man. He's going down there
in Miami. Good time, you know. So guys, look, look,
look there's a lot today. I mean lots of the fact. I
mean in the involvement from the chat room. I mean, well over six
hundred comments. It's crazy. That's final comments from you guys before we get
out of here. Otis well, I'm done. I've said all I hand.
You know I'm good. Next, next, on to the next one.
Maybe like I'm ready to rick Man, ready to turn the stage finals
with you know, turnage had We're going to talk about that because you know,
you know to too. I can remember last show and wonder what's the
last show we had when we were talking about a quarterback going into the portal
for Notre Dame, and he said, once you go into portal, you
don't want him back. It's completely when it's your own, it's okay.
We're gonna all that Thursday when you go, when you go, And we
had a little shame because you know, I said, it's okay to bring
him back, and you know, well, hey, because you never you
never feel it's gonna happen to you. You never feel that girl you how
she then you're gonna take her back? Never feel mean to podcast melody guys.
Very soon we're gonna pull up that tape. Hey man, let's bring
out Hey look, let's do a throw back rubens stutter because this is not
sorry for two thousand, that is, and maybe maybe we gotta we gotta,
we gotta get Chuck the newly sign the reborn Chuck Brandley him on the
born again Chuck Brantley. Look, guys, even fantastic show. Thanks to
Jim uh Macaroni comparone. That's what he said, Jim comperone. Okay,
all right, we did you know? It's right, John John, thanks
for coming John now Spartan may that was our excellent analysis, John John.
That's what he said. And somebody called him John for twenty Joe Joe whatever,
guys, great show you know for for otis Wiley, Jay U coacher,
I'm Jason Tree or this is fart Have a good night, God's bless
and gold Green White, go Wiet. This is part of m s U
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