The following is a presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties.
Well a pleasant, good evening till you find folks out there and Spartan nation.
Shit. It is Tuesday, March fourteen, twenty twenty three. I'm
your host, Jason Strayhorn, along with my co host Otis Wiley and Jayu
choot Choo Collorick. This is Sparta. Thank you for tuning in today.
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a future episode, let us know in the comment section below, and now
back to the show. Hey gentlemen, so how are you guys doing this?
Fine Pie Day's National pizza Pie Day. That is, it's not pizza
pie. Tell me how it goes. No, No, I know people
celebrate with actual pies, but it's really about just pie. How you guys
been, I've been good. I didn't get a chance to get pie pie.
I did see some of that grand Traverse pie uh in in the office,
but I did not indulge in the sweets three point one four? Yeah?
How long? How far can you take that out? Though? Like,
come on, you're all college graduates here. I'm just saying, I
I'm just, first of all, this first time we know they celebrated pie
Day. I'm just be honest with you. I don't even this is the
first time. It's like, yeah, AnyWho. I did get pizzas,
but they were squares from jets, so I got jets too, but it
was Sorry. What I can't wait for is, uh what is it Thursday
that stone cold Steve Austin day three sixteen? I thought or from the Bible
that to make goodness guys. I mean, we do have a jam packed
show today, guys, we do have a special guess that it should be
coming with us making his way from down in Texas. But before we get
into that we have some sad news to report. Susie Merchant had to step
down as women's basketball coach. Guys, Yeah, Susie has did has done
a lot for our program, specifically for our obviously female student athletes. She
has been a trail blazer and supporting young girls who may be battling with you
know, confidence and just their identity or et cetera. And she had,
you know, a great impactful program that happens, you know, every year.
It caught empower her and so sus Susie has been very very good for
Spartan Nation and a lot of a lot of student athletes and a lot of
players that went to the w n B a from from her, from her
two legs or from her leadership. And so it is a bittersweet standpoint of
her retiring, but one thank you, coach for what you did for the
Green and White, and hopefully that you stay around and continue to do some
good work. But thank you for what you did for us in the time
being. Yeah, Otis said it best, you know, she she was
great for the program. She came in when when we were there, you
know, so that tenure has been there a long time. Uh, talking
to anybody that's played for her, you know, there's nothing but love and
admiration, uh for her. She you know, developed these young ladies.
Uh. You know some of them went on to you know, for their
career in the w n b A and continue to play afterwards. But you
know they come back, you know, to the program. She injected life
into that program. Thank you, Coach Merchant for what you've done for the
Green and White and continue to carry that flight for the Spartans. The question,
she'll definitely be missed. You know, this is a person that would
always light up a room when she was around. You see her smiling and
all that. So we really hope you rest up and are able to come
out someday to a basketball or a football game so we can all show you
the love that you deserve. Coach Merchant, thank you for all your service
and everything that you've done. Definitely, the program from Michigan State women's basketball
was in a better state than it was before she got here. Thank you,
Coach Merchant. Shifting gears over to the women's gymnastics program, I mean
they're just rolling, guys. They had a nice win over NIU this weekend.
Yeah, big one for the Spartans women again. You know this was
actually senior night here and you know they went out and performedtinue what to to
catapult themselves into the NCAA's congratulations to the m s U Women's Gymnastics. Yeah,
I me and the family had a pleasure of going out there last weekend
where it was it was breast cancer wearings wear pink and uh, the atmosphere
is electric. Man. It makes all the all the kids that are in
attendance, you know, are dancing and someone will go and you know to
the opposite end, you know how like back in when you were young,
and you know, I'm not gonna watch it. I'm just gonna start flipping
and dancing and cartwilling. And so my daughter definitely went and did a bunch
of million. She probably did a million cartwoders and ran across that track a
couple of times. And she still didn't take a nap after we were doing
it. I thought it was gonna be a success. Uh success, She
still didn't take a nap. But yeah, like you said, uh,
the girls are doing do a phenomenal man. They getting prepared for postseason NCAA
tournament. So yeah, we'll look forward to you know them at the big
Championships, and we'll keep you guys updated when when we get those results.
It's right, Big Ten Championships coming up this weekend. A lot of tournament
action happening for women's gymnastics and also for men's basketball as they hit a record
twenty fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance. That's incredible. Buy Coach Tom is a
man. It's power and continuity in a coach with with what's happening nowadays,
you know, you make you You will only get probably too three or four
years of coaching now and if you're not winning right away, you know it's
the next man or next women up. So coach coach Coach Tom and coach
O has done a great job year and year out. You know, it's
always those teams that we don't think have the grit or the the talent to
go far, go far, right, Like we think about that Minneapolis run
and Final four, you know we had we didn't have that squad which I
thought we was gonna have when we had the Valentine's and Gary Harris in the
world, Like I thought that squad was gonna go and then we had Miles
Bridges and all them. I thought that whole squad was gonna go. Uh,
but coach gets those guys going for this turn up specifically, so hoping,
hoping we get to Columbus and we don't show like we showed up Chicago.
You because you use like the conference tournament ain't it's not Uh is worthless?
It is worthless. Listen is worthless? Ye look at that series.
We're the same that we were going in and coming out same. I guess
the first round is worthless too. Then, no, the first round is
not worthless. You want That's why we're gonna be sprouting, ready to and
bushy tails and ready to go. We better win. That's what I got
your lifts of gods is I like our draw. I like our draw here.
You know, I think you know playing USC you know, first game,
it's a big game. But but you got but you got marquess tough.
Now we got there. But you know, smart and smart man that
man can coach, and man is one thing he can do. He will
coach. But he doesn't have twenty five n c A appearance of straight NCAA
appearance, I might add, let's look at the video from when that moment
actually happened Friday and Sunday. The spark I don't know, man, too
cool to school man, it's almost twenty five times just not expected. Now
it's mag thing. I know we're gonna get more into it on on Thursday's
show before that, but you know, right now, I'm gonna start cultivating.
Start the callouts to the guys like Joey Hawsers, the the guys that
are, you know, the seniors. You know, this is the opportunity
to make your markets and cement yourself in Spartan basketball. This is your opportunity,
So get yourself mentally ready for that. And also too, I'm gonna
call out coach Izzo as well. You know, I've seen what you say.
Oh this is go ahead, go ahead. I've seen a lot of
buzz on social media people want coach Izzo to put the suit back on,
you know, to coach on the sidelines to say it's been it's been lucky
when you or the suits. You know, ever since he stopped wearing the
suits in a tournament, we haven't made as deep of runs. So I'm
a superstitious guy, so I'm in on that. So throw the soup back
on coaches. Yeah, that's negative. Train the yeah, yeah, trade
in the comfort for superstition, maybe, coaches or subscribe to that. I
don't know. Can you send him a DM on his Twitter? Oh he
doesn't have social media, doesn't He doesn't have that, you know, So
I don't know. Maybe maybe maybe not. But you know, guys,
we want to break down a lot of this spring football action, but it
doesn't make sense not do that with our special guests. Before we bring him
on the show, Let's listen to a message from our friends over what I
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All right, gentlemen, now for the moment we've all been waiting on.
You know, man, it doesn't need much introduction. In Spartan Lore,
guy who spent ten twelve years in the NFL second round draft pick of the
Saint Louis Rams got out a big arm, was drafted in Major League baseball
before he came to Michigan State. A great guy and a great teammate and
a recruiting class guy of mine. Tony Banks joins the show. Welcome,
this is Sparta tone. Hey, hello, gentlemen. I have to know
to get on this pod cast. Man, oh man, we love to
have you. We were so excited. What's going on? We're talking about
pie? Pie? Man? What's going on? Yeah, let's talk about
pie for a second. Three point one? What like? How far can
you take that out? I mean, I don't know who can think?
I can't go past three point one? Four? What about you? Tony?
That sounded like a Saint Louis area code to me. Man, big
facts. Man, how you doing Man? I'm doing well. Man,
I'm doing well. Just trying to I'm approaching fifty, so just trying to
fight that off as best I can. Man, what they say, uh
I five? The time is undefeated. He's on us all how much juice
I drink? You know it don't help that age? You know, month
next month? Yeah, Oh, we gotta be invited to the big birthday
celebration. So where the big fight. What's up? Where are you at?
Man? Man, I'm my son's going to believe. So I'm just
gonna be here in Dallas. Man. I'll get it in my own way.
You know, I was playing on going to Vegas, but you got
all my friends are broke. Man. You know that ain't no fun.
No, no, no, no. I want somebody to pay for my
birthday. You know, shot. I need pay for my shot. So
we're talking about so your career, when you got to the NFL, you
ended up retiring. We're going to go back in time for a minute,
but right now we're in Houston, the Dallas area coaching some football with a
high school team. Yeah yeah, yeah, I uh. I kind of
evolved into that, you know. And during my playing career, I wanted
nothing to do with coaching on any level. Most of my playing experience had
been in the NFL. Didn't play high school till my junior year, went
to Juco, then went to Michigan State. So I saw all these coaches
spending so much time in the office and basically living in their office, not
knowing their kids. And I come from at least me and my dad were
always really tight, so I always envisioned myself being very close to my son,
so I really didn't want to coach until I started coaching him at a
young age and all his buddies and I tried to set myself up to where
I could coach him in high school and it just kind of worked out that
way. So now we're still going through that. Man oh Man, Yeah,
Hey, which high school, Tony. I was in Dallas at SMU
for a few years. But what part of Dallas are you around? You
might not know. I just finished up at Greenhill. I'm about to accept
another job at another private school. But it's Greenhill School, which is academically
the top co ed school in the state, really expensive private school, but
their football program has been down, and my ego told me I could turn
their program around in no time. And little did I know that soccer players
and lacrosse aren't always do football players. So I got the coaching bub you
know, I freaking love coaching. I love impacting kids. I passed up
a couple opportunities to go in college and pro to coach because you know,
I got divorced when my son was with five years old, and it was
really important to me to be around you know. So fortunately him and I
are really close, even after me coaching him last year, which can be
you know, I thought it would be awesome, but you know, I
guess it's not always awesome when you're coaching any kids. So but I still
really enjoy it. We'll talk about Duce for a second. So Duke is
just some What position does Duce play? I've seen it looks like he's about
tall as you now. Yeah, yeah, he about six for approaching two
hundred pounds. He's a quarterback too. Man, He's always wanted to play
quarterback. I sometimes I tried to push him to other positions because, man,
I tell you what, playing quarterbacks got enough anxiety when you're the guy,
let alone when you're your son's the guy. You know, that's that's
even more stressful. So but he loves the position. He's a town and
kid and a little further along than I was at his a. So we'll
see how it goes. Yeah, so, you know, talking about the
coaching side of things there, let's just go back you know, three four
years ago, how the game has evolved and through the recruiting side of things,
and you know, colleges coming after kids and different camps and everything that
they have to go with go to Like how do you take that as a
coach and try to keep you know, like someone like your son and the
guys on your team grounded while you know everyone's trying to tell him how great
they're to come to my school. Well, I've had to kind of change
my thinking because you know, I'm still from the old school. You got
to play well on Friday night and then they come, they come knocking on
your door. Whereas now you know, you can get involved in the camp
circuit early. You can be seen on seven on seven where if your team
doesn't throw the ball much or whatever, you can you can kind of uh
show your skills in that arena. Or if you're not playing for a great
program, you can have other avenues to get recruited. Whereas, you know,
I fought it for a little while, like I tell my son,
like, you know, you know, it shouldn't be all about the camp.
You got to play well on Friday night. You got to go ball
out on Friday night. Then all that stuff comes, which there needs to
be a healthy balance of all that. Yeah, it should be a healthy
balance of about nim deals. I was like you know you got a ball
out on Friday night. Person, you know, we always always, you
know, I'm gonna get it. When I get an nil deal, I'm
like, well you in Texas, you got you can't even do that in
high school. So as far as I know, I don't know. So
uh so. So he's got big dreams and I just wanted to help him
as much as I can. Look at someone, look do Revise says?
Are you as tough of a coach's nick? Coach? Save it? Uh
all my quarterbacks? I am man. I think you know, now,
I think it might be healthier for my son to get away from me and
senior year oh man, yeah, yeah, I mean Gary Tank will level
like, well, you know I responded to tranquil. You know, I
responded to that getting cussed out and all that because that's the family environment I
grew up. My mom rarely said any words other than four letter words,
you know, so I was used to getting cussed out and and Gary TRANKI
sparked me that way. He's been my favorite coach, even though all my
years in the NFL. If I got coached by Trank, I probably would
have had a better NFL career because he wasn't scared of me. You know,
in the NFL, when you're starting quarterback, everybody scared of coach it
right, you don't like me. If he don't like me, I'm getting
fired, you know, whereas uh I wanted to be coach TRD so mm
hmm. Yeah, speaking of that, you were originally coming out of San
Diego area, right, say Diego area, and then about saying ocean side,
Man, I ain't no where from rival. It's all six nine love
a little, you know. Yeah, but you originally were in the baseball
world, talking about that different from the baseball world that you were in in
basketball. Then you end up playing football later. Well, I grew up,
even though I was a baseball and basketball kid, I grew up loving
just quarterbacks, just people that threw anything, you know. So, and
all those guys, the Marinos, the Lways, all those guys that I
grew up watching, they played baseball. Now it's such a specialty position.
Like my son doesn't play baseball. I train a ton of quarterbacks that don't
play baseball, which to me is a disadvantage. You know, there's there's
so many things that you can learn from throwing a baseball that will help you
throw football. But now everything's such a specialty deal. You know, you
play one sport, especially here in Texas where football is like a religion.
You play football. You shouldn't be playing anything else. It's all like it's
a full time deal, which I don't always agree with. But you know,
these kids in Texas, and my son is included. He that's all
he wants to play. He wants to play m Yeah, hey, let's
play a little baseball, didn't he Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's still
a couple of sprinkled in there. But then you gotta go, like,
I don't know what my homes high school was, but I went to a
small high school. So the coaches were just excited that I was coming out,
even if it was I'm coming to basketball a few games late because of
football. I'm coming to baseball a few games late because of basketball. They
were just happy for us to be out there. So now I trained quarterbacks
where there's a ton of coaches like, no, don't play baseball, Like
some of them don't even want them to run tracks. Wow. Yeah,
So let's uh, you know, get into you know, the whole the
quarterback thing here. And you came from an era where there was a stigma,
especially being a black quarterback. You know, there was that stigma on
it. Hey, you know, they're not smart enough to play the position.
And then we you know, fast forward to nowhere we have two black
quarterbacks started in the Super Bowl. There. What's your thoughts on the evolution
of that and how colleges are tailoring their game to the athleticism of these African
American quarterbacks. This is what a lot of people don't understand about the quarterback
position the NFL. So when I came out, I was being compared to
Randall Cunningham. I was athletic, I like to run around, but as
soon as I started smelling the NFL, it was like if you moved around,
if you tried to run, you didn't know what you were doing.
You were playing playground football. And the year I came into the league,
Randall Cunningham was basically kicked out of the league, like he deserved to be
in the league, probably still starting because he was just a year or two
removed from NFL Offensive Player of the Year. But he worked out for the
Rams before they drafted me, and they chose to sign Steve Walsh, who
was I ain't trying to offend anybody. He couldn't throw it from here to
the screen man, you know. So he was a smart guy, but
he couldn't physically do these things. So that's why I played as a rookie
because he was just he couldn't do the physical part, you know, and
they just signed him to a ton of money and Randall's on the street.
So I always tried. In the back of my mind, I was like,
Okay, I'm approved. I scored high on the Wonder leg. I'm
approved to these NFL guys. I don't need to run around. So I
went to the combine, ran a four to seven, and nobody cared.
If you went a four to three back, then nobody cared other than they
were going to ask you to play another position. Tommy Fraser was asked to
play another position in my group. He came out my year. Now he
wasn't a quarterback, but he at least deserved a shot after all he had
done in college. So I'm really excited about today's game that you know.
Now you got the Anthony Richardson's blowing the doors off the com line building and
people are excited. Whereas when I came out if you were a quarterback and
you put up those kind of numbers, nobody really care, right man.
Happy to see that it has evolved a little bit. You know you're thinking
about, you know, when you came in to Michigan State under George Perlis,
Right, you talk heard you talk about, you know, the pressure
trying to save his job. You know, I remember coming in ninety four
too. You mean you soup Amp Campbell in that class, and uh,
you were coming in from a it was was it a Juco? Yep?
Yep, you came in from Juco and I mean you just had to I
just remember how I mean, your arm, dude, it was ridiculous.
I don't think they had any kind of arm talent like yours. Since you've
been here, to be honest with you, and I saw a lot that's
true. You don't know now you know it's real. So I remember.
He So, what was it that attracted you to Michigan State over schools that
you know, like close by? I think U c. L A Is
one the ones that was top on your list for sure. Well. UCLA
made a couple of coaching changes. Homer Smith went to Alabama Rick Neuheisel,
who had been recruiting me since high school before I went to go play baseball,
went to take the head job in Colorado. And honestly, man,
George Perlis came into my living room and you know, in the hood in
southeast San Diego, and he shook my hand like he knew me my whole
life. Man. He was so comfortable in our tiny little home, man,
and and I could picture myself playing for him. He also told me
some things that you know, at the time, I wanted to play football.
I wasn't worried about going to school. He was like, come play
football, major in football. I'm like, that's what I wanted to.
I want to. So I got brothers who are students, you know,
great students and doctors and architects. But that was never me. My dad
did a great job with us. But I was that knucklehead kid that was
easy to go to the league or bust. But you made it I did.
It's a good thing because you had that talent. Now you know you're
talking about Pearls. I remember, Yeah, he was smooth. I was
with the Super Bowl rings from the Steelers era. I mean, Purlis was
that guy. The next year, your senior year. Yeah, we go
from George Purlis to Nick Saban. Now talk about the difference in coaching between
those two. And I tell people now, like I'm so happy that the
transfer portal wasn't a thing back because me and and all those guys that George
Purlis had recruited, we were all talking about transfer, you know. Unfortunately
I didn't because like playing for Saving and Gary Trankle as my offensive coordinator who
came from the Cleveland Browns with Saving, really was the reason I was able
to play early in the NFL because I got taught that pro system and coach
Saban as you know, Jay that the attension of detail is just ridiculous when
it comes to that guy, and I needed those things. I was kind
of care free Cali kid who thought I could throw it over a mountain like
Napoleon Dynamite, you know. So I needed some structure and I needed a
guy with that pedigree to tell me. I mean he told me early.
Coach Steven told me Early, hey, you got a chance of play in
the NFL. And coming from him like he was fresh out the NFL,
I'm like, okay, all right, well this guy, you know,
he didn't have the credentials he has now where you just believe anything he says.
But he had that aura. He wasn't a lovey dove coach like Perlis
and some of the other coaches I played for, but he shot you straight,
you know, if you could play at that next level, he was
gonna get you ready. So with that transition that you talk about that and
I think, you know, Otis and I we can fit into that because
we went from a transition from a coach up from John L. Smith who
was kind of you know, loose, loose around the edges, you know,
training camp, wouldn't even have to stay in dorms, you know all
week. Yeah, and then coach D'Antonio comes in and it's like, what
I have to stay in the dorm senior year, I'm just staying and I
have to room with someone I don't know, a DV, you know,
and you know my team not a shot at you, oh, because you're
DV. I did room with TKS. It was a DV. So you
know, it was just like you know, those things there and I get
what you say with the if the transfer portal you know, was there,
you know, because that thought came across everybody's you know, am I gonna
fit into this system here? You know, am I gonna be you know
their guy? Yeah, you know kind of thing there. So that mentality
that you had there, and how did that transpire to the NFL when you
go there, because you know there's always coaching changes year and a year out,
coordinators, position coaches, head coaches and everything. How did that transpire
for you? I got that foundation from coach Saban and his staff. So
once I had that foundation of a professional offense. How it's called the verbage,
how you get in and out of the huddle, Like even though it
was only one year, I mean, I'll just rolled into the NFL like,
Okay, this is I've done this before. The verbage might be a
little different, but I've done this. This is all stuff that we did
at Michigan State. I changed protections, I audibled in the better plays.
So I was ready, you know, as ready as I could have been
at the time, because at the time, there weren't very many rookies starting
back then. You know, Steve McNair got drafted the year ahead of me.
He didn't start till year three, so I was I was starting before
him. You know, even though I was drafted later and so those things
didn't happen that often back then. But it was because of that foundation that
all teams I played for, and there's a lot of them, that I
was able to transition pretty smoothly. I knew what to learn first, you
know, I was coming in. I was learning protections. You know,
past concepts are all everybody runs the same stuff, man, other than you
know, a little wrinkle here or there, a little tag here and there.
But I had all that. I had the concepts down. I just
needed protection is usually the first thing the quarterback needs to learn, like who's
not blocked? It's usually pretty important. Once you get through that, everything
else for me was was fairly easy. Yeah, so talk about we've all
had that pleasure of transferring coming in from you know whatever, the high score
Juko and then getting into the Green and White, and that first game running
out that tunnel, like talk about like that first time, won't run it
out there. My first time running out the Michigan State Tunnel was a Notre
Dame. But I had just stunk it up the week before at Kansas for
thirty or something like that. I was I was throwing the ball into the
stands. I pumped up. You know. We should have won that game,
hands down, but we ended up losing I think by three or maybe
a touchdown or something. And would have won that game. But then we
go Notre Dame the next week and we jump out to an early league.
You know, coach left me even though it's just my second game in their
offense. He lets me, you know, audible, get to line of
scrimmage and do some different things. So we really played well in the first
half. I scored my first college touchdown against was my first college touchdown was
a run versus Notre Dame because like I said, I like to run around
back then. So it was electric. Man. I had never been a
part of une like it. You know, in high school. I went
to a small high school. Even at homecoming, he just got you know,
one hundred people or something and Juco. Nobody comes to Juco games,
so it's all parents and girlfriends you're trying to avoid, you know, allegedly.
So you know, coming from you know, I was, I was
out of state coming to Michigan State. Jason was and Otis was in state,
so he lived it a little bit. We had to learned a little
bit about the ms U U of M rivalry. When did that When did
that start becoming embedded with you? I had to learn that too, man,
my first time obviously, my first year in Michigan State, we played
go at to Michigan and we lose against uh Todd Collins and Tyron Wheatley and
all those guys, and we battled, but they were just deeper than us
who were a little overmatched by the end of the game. So when I
started developing the discuss for them, you know, just the aura they had
on the field. You know, at the time Michigan State we were,
we were guys in Michigan didn't recruit, you know, so we kind of
took that personal. And you know, my best friends were you know,
Mussim Mohammas and the Ike Greeces and the Reggie Gardner and all those guys who
were you know, had a little chip on their shoulder. So it was,
uh, it was eye opening to say the least. So after we
beat them my senior year, and I don't even know if this is true,
but in my eyes, they didn't want to shake our hands. You
know, That's just how I took it. So like the discuss for Michigan
still to this day is on high alert. You know, I grew up
on the usc UCLA ribery. You know, I didn't really get down with
the Michigan State Michigan other than watching the Lorenza. Why I carried the ball
forty times a game from time forty times? Tell them forty times? Yeah,
fifty three one time? I mean, because before you know you touched
on it. What was your favorite game as a spartan, Oh, the
Michigan game, I send you for sure, No matter what I do,
like anytime I go back, that's all anybody talks about, you know,
the drive and all that. And after playing as long as I did,
like having that warm and fuzzy feeling when I go back to the Lansing in
East Lansing is pretty cool, Tony. Something you just brought up some special
He's talking about the drive. Let's look at the last drive of that Michigan
game in ninety five. Right here he banks in the shotgun, drops to
throw steps up, fires right sideline hat. It's gonna be rolled a good
catch. How close can you get? Did they pick it up on fourth
down? Yes? Tony Banks from the shotgun A is twenty five, stepping
up with time over the middle for Scotty Green forty forty five. Scotty Green
in midfield, Scotty Green down at the Michigan forty nine. Tony from the
shotgun, stepping up to throw, fired at his tap Dad caught falling down
by Mason. That's a great grab at the twenty five yard line. Wotson
tempt it, but Derek Mason cradle it and pull it in. Tony Banks
to throw with time. Mal Rose to his right, fires deep looking for
I got im cut touchdown. Touchdown starts Tony Tonight cheer for the score twenty
four to go. He went topside for twenty five out of a great scramble.
All I can see is he had all day back there, which wasn't
typical if not those days. Yeah, you know, we were on the
field a lot of the offense that day. Michigan's offense didn't do anything,
so Brian Greasie and that offense didn't do anything. So I think their defense
was a little tired, and we ran the ball decent on him in the
first half, like we probably had thirty more plays than they did. You
saw that one with Charles Woodson what he barely tipped the ball, but yeah,
deg basically came down with it on. Yeah, when Michigan people tell
that story, Oh the ball went right through Charles was no he no,
he didn't know think your tip on it? No, it didn't. Man
like walk us through those that that drive like calls right like signaled like I'm
assuming that you can play that thing like like the back of your hand.
It up. It was me, man, a battery situation. Right.
Let's talk about the young George voice though, like you heard did that?
It was blah and Larry Surnic in the background, just like he did at
the other Michigan game twenty years later. That's crazy, man, I just
think that's me screaming like somebody who's having a coronary. It is Larry cern
He was doing it back in ninety five and he did it in fifteen.
Great, dude, right straight where you were on the field snapping at that
time or not yet. No, it's on the signline like I was.
Actually, so that's my red shirt here, red shirt here. So the
ball I remember that that tip passes right in front of me on the sideline.
So I was like you, like I was a little young, you
know, but those are the best. Those are the best. Though,
when you red shirt and you know you and gonna play you, yeah you
did? It was so cold man, right right right? You know what's
funny though, Let's let's talk about this is this is how bad it was
if you red shirted or was a walk on. Coach Coach Smith will put
you in the stands yo with your parents, use your use your own tickets.
That's how it is now though. No, yeah, well you're talking
like really like injured. I didn't. I don't. I haven't heard that
everyone doesn't dress. Oh if you don't dress, you and the fans so
now they go, they go, they just kick it at home. Oh
man, Now that's that's a way though, right, No home too.
I've seen a lot of dudes dressing last season. No, we don't dress
one hundred and ten dresses like the like the league. He dresses like five.
I think he dresses seventy five. But yeah, you don't, you
don't. We'll get all those details. We want to bring him on the
show those to find out that. Yeah, but yeah, otis that was
a great, you know, great question that you're asking about, you know,
breaking down that drive. You know for the listeners, Tony there,
you know what was the mindset? What was the plays and everything? Is
that big deuce? That's big? Okay, what's up? Duce man?
He've been as fartan since birth? Yes he is? Oh man, dang
I was asking before you got jumped off, was everyone knows those plays like
the back of their mind, like you can play that drive like nobody's business,
but like walk us through or Spartan nation listening here and who or who
will two? And then later walk us through that. I had some studs
on offense, man, so our confidence on offense was sky. I had
missed I think four games with a high ankle spring that year, and we
struggled through some of those four games, and even when I got back,
I couldn't move around like I wanted to. But I mean, Scott Green
was an absolute monster. Move Sin and Derek Mason all got involved on that
drive. NIGEA. Carter, who originally we thought he was going to be
the best receiver of the crew man moved in, and Derek Pson ended up
having the double digit years in the NFL and had great careers. So but
I do remember that was a drive that was over one hundred because we had
a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike penalty and we really tried to shoot ourselves in the foot.
I think that's what made it fourth and eleven and h. D Mas
just stood a great job. I don't know if the ball crossed the marker
with his feet did when he did that little great and I'll take it man,
I'll take it man. That was And that was another thing when we
talked about how quarterbacks have changed, like that was a route, the outside
comeback, that eighteen yard comeback on the sideline. That was how quarterbacks were
judged if they could be a starter in the NFL back then. Now offenses
don't even have that in their offense. They don't throw those outside routes anymore.
Now it's all back shoulder. If you're throwing stuff on the sideline,
it's not an actual comeback. I mean there's still a couple, but what
we were judged on back then is totally different than what those guys are judging
on now. Yeah, I want a whole question before ju because he liked
to ask all the dang questions. Now, the question would be for me,
he would be in all those throws, what was your progression on all
those throws, because I mean you sitting there boom, I've seen you a
couple of times, Pauls and have to make a little movement. But like,
what part of the progression of each of those throws were you in.
Well, you see, like the throw to Scott Green, they playing deep
zone and if you hit Scott Green on a checkdown, he could do damage.
Man, that little tweeter white full back slash tailback, he could get
it in. Man, I'm telling you, put the ball in his hands,
he could get it in. And Uh. Then the one where d
Mace caught that one on fourth and eleven, that's just uh we called that
nine to eighty nine. I think backs cross and that's it's basically verticals inside
with backs running crosses, and then you got comebacks outside and if you get
any kind of coverage where there's no help over the corner, then you got
a chance to one on one over there where there's quarters, one, three,
whatever. And uh and that's what I saw. And I ended up
throwing it a little late actually, but uh, fortunately, like like straight
said, I had a had a pretty decent arm, so I could get
it out there pretty quickly. And U and then the one in Nigeria that
was just a broken play, which is what quarterbacks got to be able to
do today, you know today, yesterday, you know, last year,
ten years ago. You had to be able to make some plays off script.
And that's Nigia gave me a chance. I knew if I threw it
over the top, he'd run out of room in the end zone, so
I had to back shoulder it, and you made a great play, man.
I remember the celebration like it was yesterday. Man, guys jumping all
over each other, and I was that Cali kid. I just acted like
I did it there all the time to the sideline, let everybody else celebrate.
Which now when I look back on my career, I regret that.
You know, I was coached to kind of, you know, never show
my emotion. But I think when like when I showed my son highlights of
me, especially in the NFL, it looks like I'm not having any fun
man, when I'm just having a blast inside, you know. So I
encourage him to show his emotions while also not being emotional. You know.
Yeah, like I was gonna say on that on that whole series there,
my favorite play was the checkdown to the back, you know, being a
former, you know, because a lot of quarterbacks, you know, they
don't realize they always wanted to think that, you know, the you know,
you know, you don't eat an apple the whole bike, one bite
at a time, you know. And as my grandpa people would say,
you never go broke taking talking about, hey, you know you never eat
a chicken. Way, But the question, the real question, Tony.
So after that game, it was a big win. You know, I
was dually some sensations that night. Things were good, man, things,
the life, life seemed right. At the time, I was already you
know, living it up anyways. But after that, I mean I didn't
have to pay for any meals. I forget the was it lew and Harry's,
Yeah, it be my spot, man, I go there. I
never had to pay for anything, Like, we didn't get no NIM money
back then. But I definitely frequented the spots, the food spots that let
me eat for free. You know, those went up after that game,
you know, so that whole environment, man, was just different than anything
I could have asked for. California, Like if I'd have went to UCLA,
I wouldn't have been in that environment. You know, Like one of
the things that drew me to Michigan State when I took my trip is these
guys are getting after it, man, even though they ain't all going to
the NFL, they all working like they're going to the NFL, you know,
whereas that UCLA man, they want to be rappers, they want to
be actors. You know, I'm like, this is not what I need.
I need some casts a lot of fire to me. And it was
such a blessing to have the team we had and then ended up saving coming
in and you know, moves in still one of my best friends and friendships
that last a lifetime without question, man, you know, thinking about how
things were then and then how things are right now. I mean, I'm
sure you follow the Spartans, You've always followed Michigan State football from AFAR and
you go to bowl games. I've seen you in some bowl games, which
is great. You know, we'd love to have you back maybe for the
spring game if schedules. Yeah, yeah, this is gonna go to the
Michigan State camp this summer and yeah, okay, yeah for sure perfect.
I mean, so like what we're doing, what we're gonna do now is
like you're gonna help us with this the spring outlook for mel Tucker and the
staff, you know, because they've you know, they coming off for eleven
two. They had a great year with Kennath Balker the third. Then they
have a disappointing five and seven season after a lot of injuries and we we're
hearing a chemistry issue so and health obvious health issues. So this week,
this past week, this week yesterday actually mel Tucker had a press conference and
he talked about the outlook for this season of this spring football season. He
talked about like competition at every position, it's going to be open at the
quarterback position. You know, you've got a chance to see what peyton Thorn's
progression has been. I think we talked to Drew Stanton, he talked about
that as well as a former mister stay quarterback. How do you look at
Drew peyton Thorn and the guys who are challenging him right now and Noah Kim
and kateen Houser. Well, I like to tell quarterbacks now, no matter
what level, you know, you're basically a point guard, right so point
guards that can get their shot off anytime they want aren't always the best for
your team, you know, so when you're a guy that sometimes Peyton Thorn
relies on his legs, you know, he's not Michael Vick or anything,
but I think when you have that in your pocket, you don't play the
position maybe as structured as you should to start the play right. So I
think if he continue to grow in that area, then that makes your mobility
even more dangerous. Right, So that's something that and talk to, you
know, back to when D'Antonio was still the coach and his staff, like
they started going away from like the drop back guy. I had a guy
in Texas here that I was really high on ended up going to Virginia and
I thought it would have been a great fit for Michigan State. But they
wanted a guy that's a dual threat. And you know the problem today,
I trained a lot of quarterbacks too here in the metroplex in Texas, and
everybody claims to be a dual threat. But if you don't do one exceptional,
that's not a dual threat. You're just you can't do either. Really
well, I'm trying to figure out what year was that and who was her
quarterback? Yeah, I'm not gonna say anything after maybe, like Connor Cook,
that's when we started looking for different types of quarterbacks, true story.
You know, looking at what mel Tucker talked also about was the different levels
of development because you know, we obviously are a team now who really focuses
on the transfer guys. This is something that we didn't have we played Tony
and now there's a big influx of transfer guys in a nice mix of high
school freshmen that are coming in along with the guys who are already here.
Here's what mil Tucker had to say about that. But we have guys,
we have guys going in the spring ball and there there are different stages of
development and that's something that we that's the reality of the situation. Like I
said, we have you know, new midyear guys. You know, we
have guys coming in with you know, they may have some deficiencies. That
guy might have a shoulder, he may have an ankle, he may have
a need. We might have a freshman is coming in and he's got the
skill set, but he hasn't you know, he doesn't have the strength yet,
and so we have to be very mindful and very deliberate and uh,
and relentlessly focused on you know, how we match guys up in practice.
All right? So yeah, the words from coach melt Tucker there like Tucker,
by the way, I love coach Tucker. Yeah, a great,
great guy, great coach. Like thinking about today's world, like how do
you manage all the different skill sets and people are you know, where they
are in the development along with the personalities, Like what do you think mel
Tucker's Well, I think it has to be almost like an NFL mindset.
You know, these these transfer portal guys, they're like free agents, right,
so if they can help your team right away. Similar to me as
a JUCO quarterback, I wasn't going to a to a school where they wanted
me to sit for a year or two. You know, I had uh,
I had two years to get it in and I didn't want a red
shirt. I had already played a year minor league baseball. I was trying
to I was trying to get paid. So I think that's how you got
to look at it, and you got to try to do what's best for
your team for the here and now. But this is something that I've noticed
when it comes to the transfer port when it comes to quarterbacks. Like when
I was at Michigan State, every quarterback on that roster had just accolades out
the Union, right, they were player of the year in their state.
They were this guy the Gatorade. You know. All this. Now with
the transfer portal, it's really hard to even keep two quality quarterbacks on your
roster because if a guy thinks that he should be playing, he's getting in
the portal and he's going anywhere humanly possible where he can play. So that
has really changed the dynamic in my opinion, when it comes to the quarterback
position, especially where it used to be such a competitive room. Now I
take my son to go watch this in U spring practice. My son's like,
man, the backup's terrible. Man, I can play over him right
now. He's a sophomore high school, you know. So it's just that
kind of deal where it's hard to really keep everybody happy while also doing what's
best for your team. So I don't know, these coaches, it's definitely
gotten harder, guys, what about you. Listen, I'm out here,
I'm listening to a breakdown because I'm like, hey, look, sometimes the
way he's breaking it down no more than me, right, now because because
I'm thinking, I'm thinking, like, yes, we finally answered the call
to everybody's questioning behind the scenes, but even like probably internally, it's like
this should be an open QB competition room. I feel like every position other
than QB historically has always been open room competition. It's always been like best
player is going to play. Like I had to make sure every year I
wasn't taking a step backwards because I knew that it was young guys sitting there
waiting. I mean, you got guys coming in every year, so but
for quarterbacks, it just seemed like they had a lot of room to just
mess up. I mean, yeah, it was a long leash. And
he was like, all right, I'm a I'm a shorten the least versus
you know what, get your mind right. We'll put the next man in
and see what he can do, and then if he signs with the first
string lineman, then get this man a shot. And so now it's gonna
be interesting. I think it'll be just like we have that QB competition with
Kirk Cousins and Keith Nilly. I'm in the spring game, like it went
down to the last mint second where he had to throw a hill Mary and
you know score you know, with that point system. But it's gonna be
interesting seeing how the pressure of I'm no longer QB one for two years.
It is open and you need to come with it because these other guys have
been putting in work and they're ready to like they are ready. So it's
gonna be interesting how he plays it. Yeah, I agree with you.
Otis one hundred percent there. I think you know, I hope, you
know, like to coach Tucker's point, I hope it is a true open
competition for the quarterback position. There. I hope it is, you know,
true true, true. And then all the checking now in the back
right exactly, that's all beautiful play. That was a beautiful place. You
couldn't drawn up any better got it into. Yeah, here's a question for
you, when is the last time? Because I I have vivid memories because
I had to always come from the deep third to come intact when it was
a half back draw. I haven't seen a half back draw from our squad.
You know, you know, you're right. We we just tossed out
the drum playing Yeah, like bro like that is. Yeah, we didn't
last year. We better because because but that's the thing though, we couldn't
really because we were inconsistent and throwing the ball this year, so you didn't
really have that, you know, like the defense didn't think like, okay,
you know we're they're gonna throw the ball. You know they're gonna run,
so you couldn't you couldn't put them on their heels like that. And
but you know, I think the last two years we haven't truly ran a
draw play. And running a draw play for one the running back that's one
of the best things because you have the backers they're taking their take, you
know, taking their steps back because the quarterbacks coming up like it's a pass,
you know, go looking boom boom, boom, and then give you
the ball. DB's are you know, in their back pedal and then they
have to come up and then you see that that one on one with otis
coming down there. And all I know is I'm seeing in my thought process
that dB is gonna come chop my knees. He's coming for the absolutely absolutely
me. But straight To used to be in there. Really it was like
the red seed parts and he always he always did he always did his like
exaggerated side steps like boom, open up and you're he's just you. You
can tell he's dancing like oh it's boom. Yeah. I remember those,
man, some concussions, some not. But that's why I had to start
going to the thigh boards knocking him down. Do that every day in practice.
Yeah. Man, Yeah, that's that's a lot of that's a lot
of man coming at you. You know, you know from how mean,
how far apart of you, guys. I mean, that's major collisions there.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The football that I know wasn't like that.
You know, Tony Man experienced a little bit of that playing a quarterback,
especially in the NFL where you know, some people can bring it to
you seriously, but like Tony, you know, welcome back. I know
you have some technical difficulties there. I'm on my phone now, okay,
it turn it sideways, boom like that all the way side usually will I
didn't readjust you get good to go. So, so we're talking about the
day's staffs. You know, when we were there, you know, we
did have Jeff and Sally, you know, we had coach many but you
know now that they've had they'd have a more scientific way of looking at things.
And with nutrition and all that. So Coach Tucker talked about a holistic
approach to roster evaluation for this spring and going forward. Here's a clip from
that right here. Yeah, we we we've we've done some things. It's
been a holistic approach with with Rod or the head trainer, and with Amber
and UH nutrition and then with the coaching staff and and then also UH coach
Novak and just talking about what what are you just discussing what are the best
ways to prepare our guys And so we've we've adjusted some things and UH it's
worked out well for so far, and we're going to continue to do that.
We're meeting more about it, you know, we're going over the roster
more often with everyone in the room, you know, talking about discussing what
stages are these guys in, you know, each individual guy, what do
we think he's prepared to do, you know, physically as we go on
to spring practice, and we're going to continue to evaluate that all the way
through. Telling a little different than when we play back in the mid nineties.
Yeah, well, now it's I think service if you train everybody the
same way, right, just throw a workout out there first, couple are
clean back on the end of my like, nobody was that you did it
on your own. I'll taking care of you in more particular, and that
oh are we is it breaking up a little bit? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean I know he was saying because Doctor Guest talked about that last year.
Darren Spartan dot Com was like, you know, the dB is not
going to train like the office and lineman. Like back then we used to
always do the same workout. You know, it's upper body and hit the
hit the dumbbell station, hit the hang clean. But like now some of
these is like they touched, but it's catered their make and their body.
Well God gave them what their frame, it's catered to them. And uh,
you see a difference. You see a difference into what the make is
on each section or each position. Uh, you know, DB's looking like
big linebackers, linebackers looking like dns. But it can move. But I
do think from the standpoint of how conditioned are we is the question because we
had a lot of cramps last season. It was a lot of game like
gas and so you want you wonder what they're gonna do to the time to
do that? Is that summer, they're gonna really hit running. But I
haven't seen a world workout, but I do remember they don't do the gas
and test no more. So that's one of those things. Yeah. Yeah,
I think you know, to to what Otis is saying there is you
know, I think last year, I don't know, I wasn't too sure.
You know, I questioned if I'm gonna be one hundred percent honest the
strength and conditioning, you know, portion of it, because I saw we
had a lot of injuries, and I'm glad that coach Tucker took this head
on in this press conference, you know, yesterday talking about it. And
because I think that goes into the training and the conditioning and everything like that.
That's when you know if you're if you're a well conditioned team, you're
gonna avoid some of these injuries that you know that could happen if you're not
as conditioned. So hopefully that's an approach that they take, you know,
and into consideration this season. Yeah. I mean, Tony, you know,
before we let you go, you know, you still have some records.
I think you still have the longest touchdown pass in MSU history to NIGEA
Carter against Indiana, right, remember that I forgot about that one. You
know, we always just beat the Brakes of Indiana. You know, they
got a little better this year, though. But uh, before we let
you go, Tony too, you know, you you had you know,
great stints in the NFL there, you know, playing for the you know,
drafted by the Rams and then winning the Super Bowl with the Ravens.
You know, and when it comes to that, like winning a Super Bowl,
winning a championship, just like every team, there has to be that
one moment that it's like, this is the defining moment of our season.
We're gonna win a championship. What was that moment with you guys when we
won the Super Bowl? Yeah, well, so I got there ninety nine
and they had never beaten the Tennessee Titans, right, they had never been
the Tennessee Titans or the Janet Jacksonville Jaguars. I think it's I guess,
two times a year for four years. So they had been getting beat for
a while. In the year before we won the Super Bowl, we beat
Tennessee. The year they went to the Super Bowl and lost to the Rams,
and I threw for you know, I don't know three fifty and four
touches and we finally beat them to get over the hump. And then in
game two of the next year when we won the Super Bowl, we're playing
Jacksonville and I have another big game and throw five touchdowns and we beat Jacksonville.
So those moments where we were beating teams that we couldn't beat before and
we beat them with not just the great, great defense was really eye opening
for a whole team. We had a very We had a lot of vets
on that team, especially defensively. We had I think that year we might
have seven guys on that defense go to the Pro Bowl, and they had
all ray Lewis was probably the youngest one out of all of them. So
you know, you need those aha moments, whether you're in the pros or
in college, where Okay, we can beat this team. That means we
can win the division. If we can win the division, we can move
on. You get your your foot in the playoffs. In the NFL,
anything can happen. So I was real proud to be a part of that
winning the Super Bowl. I mean, it took me a while to get
over not beat the guy in that Super Bowl, But you know, now
like I said, approaching fifty and it's one of the greatest times in my
life. HM with our question, Man, I mean, hey, we
normally ask guys to bring out that ring. I don't know if you got
it on hand somewhere on the spot. You know it's I'm sure it's not
as god as they are nowadays. This is ridiculous now for sure, it's
still a conversation piece. Don't get it twist of course, No, Tony
Man, thank you for coming on the show man. We love to see
up in Michigan State. How about some of them quarterbacks that he could maybe
spend a little time with a few of them in the meeting room when you
get up there for a spring or fall practice. Man, thank you,
you hear us some when you bring your son to camp for this summer.
Some watch everything that's gonna be June, isn't it. Sometimes it's June fourteenth
is the one we're coming to. I forget. I think it's June fourteenth.
Yeah, okay, the time of year. Tony, thanks, ladies
and gentlemen. The audio issues, but thanks for having me on, Thank
you, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it, ton all right, Fellas
Tom Banks guys. Hey man, look, I'm telling you, when you
talk about talent, bad boy right there had it. He I mean for
sure. I mean you could hear that ball whistling. I'm talking well off
of the sideline. You could hear it. Oh man, Like what who
wants to put their hands out on that? Right? That's different? Yeah?
I saw it. I saw like I think though, I only saw
one clean catch on that drive because everything else was like, oh yeah,
we're gonna talk about that. You gotta embrace down, you're gonna bunt it
now. No, he didn't. He didn't complete the catch. He let
it go before he hit, you know, before he got off the ground.
So that was taking Jee is a great guy, man, a man.
Special things to to Tony Banks for coming on the show. Uh,
we're gonna cover the pro day, which is going to be tomorrow. Guys,
there's gonna be a pro day for Michigan State's gonna be a lot of
NFL scouts in town in East Lansing chicking out all the players that were at
the combine and beyond. Here's the participants right here. Yeah, we already
know what our boy Jayden Reed put on. And uh and uh punter.
Yeah, Bearinger. I mean we saw that little report that he's clearly the
best that was there. But now I'm really interested to see how our guys
have been working out in the off season, because you haven't really been seeing
a lot of noise. Really, they've been quiet and they've been putting that
work and I'm looking forward to seeing X being healthy and working out. I
truly believe X has an upside and playing at the next level. He is
a smart defensive back safety wise, been in the system for He's been in
two different systems, and so that should give him something a leg up hopefully.
And then you got KB Kendall Brooks coming to But I'll be interested to
see how they fare out tomorrow. But I know it's a lot of nerves.
It's stressful right now, but put putting the prayers up that that would
be all calm when you warm up and get ready to get to it,
because it's all about that action tomorrow. It's where they write their stories for
sure, exactly, and you know the nerves. You know, we can
say this now because we've gone through you know, the pro day and everything
like that, and it's tougher to do it. But like, let's just
say the Hayes in the bar now, you know, let your athletic abilities
come out. Some of these guys, Jay Reid, Bryce and stuff.
It's a it's a Swans and come back to East Lands and interview meet.
You have another opportunity to meet with scouts and gms that are there, chair
your teammates on these guys here. You know, a lot of a lot
of talented guys are on that list. You know a lot of guys are
gonna get opportunities, and you know, at the end of the day,
it's not where you're drafted, it's how long you last in the league,
you know. So I think we're gonna have a lot of guys on that
list that might not be drafted, but they're gonna be on an NFL squad
this fall. Looking forward to it, guys, definitely. It's gonna be
an exciting week coming up here. You know, you have Pro Day,
You've got all kinds of eventing and you know Miss State men's basketball coming up
on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. But until Thursday, guys, I mean,
we'll be back and we got some special stuff going on in a couple
of days. We'll stay tuned for that. I think that's gonna be a
rap on this show. Guys, what do you think for Otis Wiley?
Jay? You two true called Grim Jason Strayhorn, This is Sparta. Have
a good night, God bless and go green Awa Otis. This is part
of MSU as a combined presentation of Playfly Sports properties in Michigan State Sports Properties.
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