Be following is a presentation of play fly sports properties change guys. They're trying
to turn the goal line, but the hands pass upo up here comes the
farding. Now the sidelight shown that I don't expect unconditional support from ever.
That's not the expectations that I do have. There's no reason to think like
that in my minds. It may be different for others. And I haven't
coached anywhere anywhere, college or pro or just been unconditional support. I have
not coached anywhere, whether it's here in ninety seven ninety eight, or Mayas,
Ohio, or LSU or Ohio State, or Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville,
Chicago, Alabama, Georgia, Colorado. Here, I've never coached anywhere anywhere
where there's been unconditional support. Powerful words from Michigan State head football coach Mel
Tucker as he described no unconditional support from anyone maybe a handful of people,
and he doesn't expect that from anybody. This this is Sparta. I'm your
host, Jason Strayhorn, along with my co host Otis Wiley and Jay Uchchu
Culprit live with that love of jack on. How's everybody doing today? I
get the false flag on a little lumberjack, you know, hopefully channeling and
some you know, Paul Bunny, that's what he's trying to do. Getting
ahead of yourself a little bit. We know this is homecoming week, but
first we have to break down the game that really wasn't the Ohio State game
against Michigan State. Michigan State lose forty nine to twenty to the buck Eyes.
And it was pretty good early on, guys, but it got out
of hand pretty quickly, didn't it. Yeah, it definitely did. At
the beginning. You know, Michigan State showed some life offensively and defensively,
especially you know with that pick six. You know, what a great way
you know to tie the game up. Be in the game, get the
crowd that were there supporting the Spartans into the game. But unfortunately we could
not sustain that throughout the you know, sixty minutes. Yeah, we were
both obviously everyone's there, but you look at we started with that drive.
But you think about the noise and excitement. I think the buzz, the
everything was there. When you're sitting on the sideline, it was all there.
Everyone's in the right mindset. But we talked about this last week was
you gotta play perfect football when you're playing the Buckeyes, and so you're looking
at we started off, we just we got to put points on the board
if it's the field goal or you got to put them in the back of
their territory when it comes to special teams, and you know, we start
off, you know, hurting ourselves and so you know, it's just hard
to catch up when you're playing this big time, Big ten football on the
Buckeyes. Well, when you looked at the ball game, you know,
as Jay you said, you know there was that pig six early in the
ball game. It's sitting at fourteen to seven, and it seemed to be
a ball game. At the second score that came, I think was the
Montory Foster. You know, you had kicking game issues again. And you
know this this reird its head again this week. Missing the pat Michigan State
sitting at twenty one to thirteen from the second quarter before things got out of
hand before the half. Yeah, that pat is huge and momentum. You
can't play a team like Ohio State and go out there and leave points on
the field. You can't do that. So you have to execute everything a
few weeks ago, we heard coach Tucker talk about playing complimentary football, and
that's comes from all three phases of the game, the offensive, defense,
and the special teams. Everyone has to do their part to help, you
know, drive this team and momentum and success for this team. And we
fell short in their special teams on that worshit of it on something that should
be automatic otis I mean, Jay, you gotta let me speechless on that
one. It's hard, it's tough. It's tough. It's tough because you
want those guys to go out there and play their best, right. I
talked about this. I was on Jack Evelin's little radio gig today and it
was like, no one prepares to lose a game, Like when you prepare
all week, no one's going out there and want to lose. What type
of competitor goes out there wants to lose. No one wants to do that.
And we talked about this game. At the level of this game is
playing your best because of the trajectory of what you want to do in the
pros and the next level. This is a stack game, so clearly you're
playing in the best competition, so you got to ball out and you know
you're looking at you know, our next stat with Peyton Thorn is like,
you know, eleven of eighteen hund thirteen yards and one. TV just doesn't
get it. Man, It's not a it's not even equal to all the
other quarterbacks that's playing right now. And it's terrible because if we have a
you can't even boil down what it is. If it's lack of o line
play, lack of rushing from a running back standpoint, lack of the timing
on the ball with the receivers. Is just nothing's clicking right now. And
it's tough because you know that we've seen it click. We've seen it where
it's a magic of magical offense and it just goes out there and shows on
Saturdays that we're judged by Saturday product. This is the game of football.
So when you talk about coach Tucker saying he doesn't want any unconditional love,
because you know, this is the this is what comes with being a head
coach at a Power five or any coach in that standpoint that this is what
this is what it takes to get to that next spot. And you know
we're playing against the buck guys, Man, that's our program. We want
to get to that level, and they showed it what it takes to get
to that level. And we're not there yet. We're not there yet.
And as you said, you talked a little bit about the quarterback play.
Right now, CJ. Strouss sitting at twelve touchdowns against the Spartans in two
seasons with only eight in completion. Just an incredible stat line that I read
there. But right now we're going to go to the This is spart of
game day stats presented to you by I Hop. The two by two by
two breakfast combo equals one delicious meal. Enjoy two pancakes, two eggs your
way, and two pieces of bacon for only five dollars only at ie Hop.
Hurry in and enjoy this deal for a limited time, dying in only.
Price and participation may vary. Restrictions do apply. Well, guys,
you know, before we get into the stats, we're going to look at
the conditional support. And we have a nice picture here of what conditional support
is at Spartan Stadium. And we talked about this last week about not selling
the tickets and for the most part, you know, there's there was a
there's about fifty to fifty. I said, maybe seventy five of the spartans
on being very generous there did show up. But it was awful lot of
red in the stands, wasn't it. Yeah, definitely, there was an
awful lot of red in the stands. You know, Ohio State travels well
this, you know, boats well on them for you know, future Bowl
game selection, you know, placement and everything like that. Uh, the
committees look at things like that. But you know, Michigan State, you
know, the fans say, you know, give us something to care about,
but they have to be there as well. And I get it,
I get it. It's not the season that we all wanted. But that
doesn't mean we just thrown a towel and and you know, take our ball
and go home just because you pay for a season ticket. Yeah, yeah,
you can do that. But I mean, I don't understand it.
I don't understand why why you invest so much into a program, but when
it's time you support them. You pick and choose when you want to support
a team and when you don't want to support a team. It makes no
sense to me. You have to be you know, spartan dog through and
through through the goods and the bad. I said that last week, and
I'm going to continue to say that, and if anyone have an issue with
the fact that I say that, then let's let's debate it. So I'm
going to ask you, otis the comments that we heard today from head coach
Mel Tucker when he says he doesn't expect people to give him unconditional support.
What do you think of those statements? That statement right there from him.
I think it's from him. It's standpoint of we got to control we can
control, and none of us, I mean, we could talk all till
we're blue in the face here, but like none of us are in that
locker room right now, right so anybody that's watching us or even going to
the games, no one's in the locker room and seeing what's truly transpiring,
what's happening, you know, to Jay's point, Like I recall, Man,
and we were we were highly touted and Ohio State came in and it
was a sea of red. Same thing, man, And you know we
were I mean we were I think we have one loss and Ohio State was
undefeated, kind of similar you know to this, and they were there was
more seal of red when we were playing in my opinion, and so you
know, credit to obviously the people that came out. It was a beautiful
fall day. But to Coach Tucker's point that that was the additional love is
there's no woe as me. Like you think Coach Tucker's gotten this far with
worrying about the critics, you know, like I mean, it is what
it is. He knows what it comes with this this territory. And then
you know, we talked about this straight there was a bullseye on us because
what we've done last year leading up to this season is that we were fully
doing We were heavily recruiting, and we were like leading obviously the brand and
socially like we're in highly engagement in a football break right now. Right so
eyes and ears are all on us. And so now that you know the
season's crumbled a little bit from a standpoint of who can't find a way to
win the game, it's good that he says that because it's it's all on
them, and then he owns it. He's sown accountability. But like I
said, no one's in that locker right now seeing what's happening. And I
think right now, boys down to are they gonna fold or they're gonna join
for you know, join stronger ties together and get this thing going because we
want to we want to see them win. Man. Obviously we're former s
parton Dolls. We want to see our dogs, love the Dolls win.
But right now it's tough, you know, honestly, Yeah, I mean,
that's that's really what I'm thinking. When you hear those words from from
coach Tucker. What is he supposed to say. He's a leader of men,
and he wants to grow these young men into what they need to become.
And that's like, you got to be battle tested. You can't worry
about what's going on on the outside. You gotta just work the next play
and focus on you and what your assignment is and being there for your teammates.
That's really what his function is. But as a former player, and
all three of us are, when you see that, we know what it
means as a player. When you're currently on the field, you're never going
to admit, man, I wish that the people would stay No, they're
never They're never gonna admit that. They're never going to talk about that,
but it is in the back of your mind you guys are still talking about
the Ohio State game, and he came out and to see a rid You
know, when there's boos, you know, as a quarterback, you feel
those things and you should have. Look, there's not a quarterback that's playing
that hasn't been booted, you know. But Brady has been booed. Tom
Brady has been I heard get booed when he was in any Russell Wilson getting
left and right. Absolutely. The thing is this, though. The thing
is this, I rather get booed by seventy five Spartan fans than at home
than sixty percent Ohio's visiting team fans. That's what I'm saying. Rather be
in my home getting booed by my own crowd because they're that vested and that
passionate about the product that we're putting on there, as opposed to the visiting
team invading them, coming to their house, kicking them out of their seats,
you know. So I rather have that. Yeah, that's a good
point. I like that. I mean, listen, we can bake this
all day long. And you know this is a rough patch. Obviously,
the Mischigan State is going through and the fan base is going through. Everybody's
going through it, and obviously people some people handle things differently. But we'll
continue to fight on and as we have homecoming coming up. But like when
we look at the offense and you talked about Peyton Thorn's stats a minute ago,
otis you look here where he opens up with a nice pass over the
shoulder throw to Jade and Reid. I mean, the touch was there,
the timing was just right. And then on the very next play here you
see Peyton and it's just the way too much on the ball, not enough
air, overthrows the receiver and it turns into a turnover. Why the inconsistency?
What is it that when you hear mil Tucker talking about we're not stacking
enough good plays on top of each other right now, what do you think
that's coming from? Ju? The big thing is, you know the first
play that we showed here with Thorn connecting and Reid's good, it brings optimism
because you think Read's getting back to one hundred percent and you can hope that
connection and that you know, communication between the two of them will start to
show. But then you know, you go back and then the next play
is something that's not good The reason I feel this is happening is because we
as an offense do not have an identity of who we are. Last year,
we knew who the hell we were. We wanted to run the football
and that's going to open up the pass game. This year, we don't
know what we want to do. We're not committed to the run, and
what we're donu is we're putting ourselves in bad positions to force us to throw
the ball. We're putting ourselves behind the chain. It's tougher for an offensive
coordinator to call third and eight, third and ten as it is to call
third and four, third and two. So we have to learn to establish
who we are as an offense. You know, are we a team that's
gonna try to go downhill and run the football and show some commitment to the
run game, or are we a team that's just gonna say to hell with
the run game. We're gonna throw the ball around the yard, but we're
gonna do different things to get the ball in our playmakers' hands. Be it
the screen passes, tunnel screens, jet sweeps, little pop passes to the
tight end. Do whatever you can to get the ball out of Thorn's hands
quickly, quickly, so the playmakers can go out there and boogie and get
and get plays. That's gonna get your offensive line going, that's gonna get
the crowd into the game, and that's gonna build Thorn's confidence level because I
always say, if you do a tunnel screen to to read, that's a
negative pass. But he's running at sixty yards for a touchdown. At the
end of the day, going through a sixty yard touchdown pass, you feel
good about that. So we have to form an identity before we can move
forward. So, Jay, I'm gonna ask you this question. You brought
up behind the chain and staying on schedule and playing you know, on in
front of the sticks and keeping you know, you know that. What do
you mean by that? Explaining that a little bit in depth when you talk
about playing on schedule and playing by the chains. Yeah, So for an
offensive coordinator, you have your play sheet. It's broken down to several different
different categories. In there, you have your first and tens. So you're
thinking, that's an offensive coordinator. All right, I'm running this play on
first and ten. I want to the goal is to gain five yards so
I can call second and five. But in the back of your head now
you're also thinking, okay, what if there's a sack and it's a loss
of twelve. Now I'm looking at second and eighteen. That's putting you behind
the chain. So now you have to, you know, come up with
a you know, a crazy play to help gain some ground. And what
that does defensively is it makes you one dimensional. The defense knows what you're
gonna do. If it's third and eight, third and ten, you know
you're gonna either you're gonna throw the football, so the defense can sit back
and wait and play the sticks. Play in front of the sticks, as
Otis, you know this very well. You say, don't let them get
past you. If they get the ball and they catch five yards in front
of you, make you swarm, make the tackle, four down, punt
teams on the on the field and we're off. That's a win for the
defense. So you have to, you know, make plays to keep to
keep you on schedule. So Otis, I'm gonna ask you, as a
defensive player, if a team is playing behind the sticks and you're getting them
into second and long and third and very long situations, what is that mindset
from a defensive player versus third and one, second and two. What's the
difference there for you? I mean when you talk about difference, I mean
you can you can say you relaxed, right, but you also have you
know that it's going to be a pass or it's gonna be some kind of
half back screen or quick drawl. Is just get some positive yards. But
when you're in that third and long pass, know, third to fifteen,
third and tens, those are those opportunities to be like, all right,
let's rally the troops, let's get off the field. Like anything like the
seven yard digs or whatever it's slanted that we can live with those, but
like it's those those comebacks where they're right at the sticks that just irk you,
man, Like those are like you just did two downs where you stop
them for negative yards it's right there, and then you just give up this
one where it's like we're this close. Like it's those like frustrating plays where
think about amount of turner or amount of possessions. If we got three and
out, so we can get the ball back to Peyton, back to the
offense to get in a groove, but like they have no chance to get
in the groove because defense wise, we're not getting off the field, and
then we're getting tired and it's just gas gas gas and plays and touchdowns and
touchdowns, and it's just like, man, you're looking at it. I
mean, that's when you start looking at each other like what is going on
here? Like what's going on? Like that's exactly what is like going home?
Just I'm frustrated looking at it from a mindset of that is a hook
curl like where's the hook curl coverage? Where's the where's the rerouts? Right?
Where's the rerouts? Where guys are running free off the line? That
doesn't help us. Safety doesn't help anyone out where you can only truly cover
somebody three seconds, three to four seconds, like and beyond that, I
mean you got to be locked and loaded because quarterbacks are sitting there with no
pressure. It's just picking us apart. And like I said, it looks
bad on all of us. Where As a secondary like you just get pissed
off, Whereas we need to be off the field and that could have been
an easy pass breakup, but we're not in the position to do a pass
breakup, or we're just giving too much space where we're bailing off versus that's
just to hit him in the mouth, slow them down to the front of
the line, and then let's see what happens. I'd rather play that way
then have these bells and you know we're pressing, but then we're bailing but
we're not getting no pressure, no bumper runs. I'd rather play press,
coverage, cover two, man aggressive, and we live and die by it
versus these zones. Man, these zones are just letting these receivers run scott
free. Somebody's open because you can't cover too long. Let me give you
up. Let me give you a scenario here, all right for the listeners.
I know you guys know this, but for the viewers and the listeners
listening to this, all right, So let's think about this. Right.
You're an offensive coordinator, all right, you have a bruising back. Let's
just say you have Elijah Collins, who's who's our most productive back when he's
in there. All right, So when you when he's in there early in
the game, you know he's gonna get those tough yards. If we're staying
on schedule, and you have a second and one and Elijah Collins come in
now as a linebacker. Your thought probably you're creeping. You're creeping because you
you think it's a run up to middle. You want to make that stop.
But this is why it's so important to have an identity to be able
to run the football, because offensively, you can open up your playbook.
Now you've got Jayden Reid out there, you can take a shot because you
know on third and one you're gonna run the ball and get it if you
don't get that shot, So that's why we have to run the ball.
That's why it's important to establish that run game, to get the linebackers on
their toes buzzing forward thinking run run, run, oh no, you know
that kind of thing. That's when you'll be a very lethal offense if you
can do that. You know, bringing up what you just said, talked
about Elijah Collins last week, we heard a lot about Elijah's going to get
more carries. He's been doing all the right things in practice. You did
hear that? You know, there was a tweet, a cryptic tweet that
came out from Elijah that said he was geeked and blessed he was on the
video where they do the uniform reveal. Yet two carries for nine yards with
a four and a half yard average per carry, but wasn't really in there
for a lion's share of the carries. Mischiun State outrushed two hundred and thirty
seven to seven yards on the ground. Yeah, that's that's a bad day
at the office. It's yeah, you put your head, Yeah, it's
a bad day. You can't. Like I said, I don't care what
level you're at. If you run the ball for only seven yards in an
entire game, you're not gonna win. One hundred out of one hundred times,
you are gonna lose that game. If you run the ball less than
twenty times in a big ten game, majority of the times you're not gonna
win. Because the same is run to win, run to win, all
right, Stroud through the ball twenty six times. They ran more than that.
You know, you have to be able to run the football. You
have to. Your offensive line wants that. I don't know why Elijah Collins
is not getting the bulk of the carries. I don't know. I don't
know. I want to know. It's bugging the hell out of me.
The kid needs to tote the rock. He needs the ball more. But
he's not getting it. That's gonna assert some dominance. I don't care if
we go out there and run the ball four times and you know, come
up short, but we have to establish ourselves. The last time I felt
Michigan State had a commitment to the run game was the first half of the
Akron game. Yeah, and notice for you, I mean you see what
Jayu compounded off of what he said, twenty rushing attemps at Michigan State,
forty six Russian attempts for Ohio State. Ohio said only through the ball twenty
eight times total, twenty six of those coming from C. J. Stroud.
What the commitment to run as a defensive player, it is. What
do you see when you when you see a coach a team that is now
struggling to run the ball, obviously and then completely bailing from the run,
only giving off a twenty run attempts for the whole a whole ball game.
I mean, when you play a well balanced offense. In my mind,
as you're preparing, you got to prepare for it all man. Like I
think when coach d came in me personally, he allowed us to truly understand
the offensive positions like it starts with the guard to tackle play, I mean
straight, you know it, Like you can tell a lot from what's happening
from that guard to tackle play with his pass and run. And so for
me, I would study that more than anything because it allowed me to play
faster. So I got my eyes on that quarterback and my eyes on the
front line. I'm looking at those tendencies of all right, this guy may
have a twitch where it's so much, it's so minute, like so so
detailed. That coach d was like, it's all in the details. It's
all in the inches of game of inches. But if that tackle sets that
foot quick gets to the kicks like it, oh pass, I'm gonna look
at my number two receiver or check one'm I have my keys in my eyes.
Got to be disciplined with the eyes. And I think from a standpoint
when you have to guess run pass and it's such an equal fifty to fifty
that you got to go further into the book of studying study to sow that
self approved. And my first two years I had none of that. My
last two years I truly had to be a student of the game in order
to pass the test on Saturday and so I think we got to be students
of the game. We got to learn want to learn our playbook. Two,
you got to learn the opponent's playbook more than your own so that we
can go out there and play fast and play strong, spartan defensive football because
you know who you got and C. J. Stroud coming in. You
know, this guy has been historically torturing us with his arm. He barely
runs, so like we understand, like his run his last line of defense
or whatever offense is to run. He barely taps into that. So from
my mind is let's focus on the other things that we can control is lock
on your man being where you need to be at, trust the other guys
to be at where they be at, and we let the chicks fall with
him at. Yeah. So to that straight you said twenty were giving,
we're being too generous. Here we have thirteen called run plays. I don't
count the scrambles and different things like that. Thirteen called run plays. Two
running backs in an entire Big ten football game. That's not good. Thirteen
called run plays. And you know I know that they there's a I guess
an agenda out there that says Michigan State gets behind early so that they had
to hurry up and throw the ball and kind of scrap the game plan in
order to keep up. But this ball game wasn't out of hand that quickly.
You know, when you looked at what we just talked about, it
was fourteen to seven. Michigan State's still in there, and then there was
twenty one to fourteen or to thirteen. They're still in the ball game.
No need to completely abandon all, you know, the playbook and start doing
to start air rating the ball out there like your Western Kentucky from a year
ago with Zappy who's falling out in New England right now. So look at
that game, Look at that game in Michigan last week last year we were
down. Did we go away from K nine? Absolutely not. We kept
pounding, power, grim pound and mix it up because we didn't get we
didn't get in that desperation field right we got. We talked about control it,
control the pace of the temple of the offense. The longer you're out
there, and Jay brought the longer the offense out there, the longer I'm
getting gatorade and I'm getting I'm getting I'm getting the gatorade field up right,
So then when I go out there, or at least we get a field
goal, or at least we get down there to their territory, we score
or field goal. My my, my objectives to go out there and get
that three out. But I feel like there's none of that where we got
in the desperation mode where we still like we were in the game. We
were in the game, and I mean I think everyone was shot that we
were in the game because last year we was like that first half was atrocious,
so like we were competing with a pick six and a offenser touchdown by
Red. But then what happened. We started pressing, We started pressing.
It reminded me to some of the John eladays where we will go into big
games undefeated and just because we're playing a big time team, we're gonna change
the entire offense that week, you know, just to play to stay the
course. Coach D'Antonio said it the best stay the course. We are who
we are. Do what got you to the dance, That's what we have
to continue to do. But sometimes we get for we forget about that and
we're like, oh that shiny thing and get impatient. We got to stay
the course otis hit it on the head. Michigan game. Last year,
we stayed the course down fourteen, down sixteen. You stayed the course.
You have to do that, Yeah, miss said absolutely did last year.
You know you look at that ball game. The commitment to the run was
there. You know, you have a star player, but as a offensive
lineman, we know, like, look, the more opportunities, more called
runs you get. You know, Coach Tucker talked about it that there are
a lot of check with mes RPOs that are being called in today's game.
So what happens is, you know there's options where maybe the running backs are
the the quarterback isn't on the same page. They're looking at what the look
is. They're trying to run to the bubbles. They don't see that bubble
there. Then they they're trying to throw the ball more than they should and
they're giving that power to peyton thrown. Maybe that's the issue. You know,
that's something that Mel Tucker talked about. Maybe we need to do more
design run plays right to Yeah, just because you know, if you live
that chop life, you know that's what we're talking about. The more you
hit guys, you know, it may be a two yard game in the
first quarter by the ed to it by the third and fourth quarter. Those
are ten plus yard games. It's just the name for physics. So to
see that more commitment to the run would be something delightful for all of us,
obviously, and you would love to see for Elijah Collins to get more
carries as Michigan State tries to get into the left column and get into that
win column this week as they go and face the Badgers. Now going to
the defensive side of the ball, we talked about the bright side where you
saw the pick from Charles Brenton. Let's show that pick right here early in
the ball game, number zero. He's ready, And it seemed like there
was some kind of a miscommunication between c. J. Strout and in Bimba,
the guy the receiver number two. Here, he feels like he's going
and c. J. Strout said, no, I'm throwing it to the
flat. We'll take them, take it, We'll take them. It looked
like it looked like the receiver was supposed to Stroud thought the receiver was going
to run a comeback or something along the outside there. That's why Brandley was
just sitting out there in the flat there for that, and the receiver must
have seen it. I don't know if there was something in film. If
he's sitting, I'm gonna bend it and go inside. But there was just
a miscommunication there. And as the kids would say, Oski, somebody's watching
out these. Yeah, we talked about eye control. This was a perfect
example of eye control. Like he could have easily kept going with our receiver.
But clearly you look at we were like you said, zone it out
right. So he did his job where he squeezed him inside, didn't get
outside that sideline. You silent. His friend saw j Stroud released that thing.
And you know that's what we need to get right. We need to
take those pick sixes and convert on and score on defense. One thing that
about this pick six it was great. It was great. Don't let me
beat this wet blanket. But one thing that I did I did not see
and I have not seen this year. I haven't seen that one person or
a group of people on the sideline for spartans like getting them going, like
like back in our day, the offense would be meeting otis on the field.
We're going like this, hey hey hey jump, you know, doing
all that. I don't see it. I don't see guys getting on the
bench getting the crowd into it. I don't know if it's the if it's
that, if they're told not to do that, but I don't see that
after a pick six like that, that stadium should be rocking. I mean
it was rocking. It was rocking. Yeah, like our sideline should be
rocking. You know, I didn't see that, and I didn't see that
throughout the game. I don't see that one person like getting getting in the
getting in players faces and getting them going. Do you think that the neutral
thinking, you know, to that point right there, Jayu and otis when
they when mil Tucker talks a lot about neutral thinking, don't get too high,
don't get too low, just get to the next play. Do you
think that affects the excitement when things do go well? Yeah, definitely football.
You're playing a game. You're playing a game. It's a game of
emotion. You play off emotion, you play you see otis when you guys
played Georgia in a bowl game, right and you guys on the side like
dancing, rock and music playing. That's the psyche side of it, now,
that's the mental aspect of it. They're on the other sideline like,
oh man, these boys they're not gonna quit. They're ready. That's that
part of it. You need that, like you need that roller coaster that
ups downs. That's what it is. And the reason when it's down,
that's why you have teammates to pick your chin up and say let's go.
That's why it's there. You need that. And you think about this too,
that last year's squad, like was that COVID squad right? Like classes
you had to go do go in person, right, and you still was
doing some virtual stuff like you had a lot more time to fully fokos on
football the two seasons, you know what I mean. So I'm not making
any excuse. But also, like we already know, the requirements of what
you gotta do day to day can truly weigh in toll you, like they
can push you down where you're not fully freely thinking. But to man,
look, we talked about Charles and we talked about Chuck. That man has
a herder alignement, like right like the dogs about Charles Brantley for a minute,
he's my favorite credit out there. We got to talk about Chuck because
I think from Venice Florida Venice High School. A lot of great athletes down
there. He's related to Herb hay Good, another Spartan legend in the past.
That that's coaching the head coach at mac donald Heights University right now.
And he the smallest guy on the team as far as way is playing the
biggest right now. He reminds me of He reminds me of DeMar Williams.
Right the Jamar them had that DeMar will talk the best trash with the best
of them, and we'll back it up right powerful pound he was the smallest
guy, great returner right legitimately has that body make of the Mount Williams.
But he bringing that thump too, man like he he ain't. He's not
backing down because he is one seventy five with you know what I mean,
Like he's trying to put water you being generous, one seventy five. I
know, Hey, I'm trying to put them stats up. I'm speaking to
existence. Look at the fight, Like, let's get this clip up here
of him hitting tray Yon Henderson. He was I mean, he took him
out. It was a clean hit man for about two hundred and thirty pounds
and that's the thing. You got a guy like Brantley coming up and sticking
big backs, being a form of being a big back all right in the
film room when that film comes up, Hey, coach, I gotta go
to the bathroom. Now you gotta sit your back there out there and chopping
him. He's going. You know that thigh board, I know it hurt.
I mean it hurt. He ain't hit just that thigh board. He
hit less because he got that boy on that it was good. I mean,
first of all, if if if Jay you saw Bryant, he definitely
gonna be like, right, he's about man. I guarantee he didn't know
that Charles Chuck was coming with that thump. Yeah, that's the thing.
If you now you're watching film and you see this guy coming sticking stick and
sticking that's a big back. Now you're second guessing. You're like, oh,
man, I don't want to be that guy on film. So now
you're now you turn into a dancing bear kind of trying to be a big
bat, trying to make a move. And then what happens is supporter starts
coming in all right, and and so you now you're in your head if
you see that. So that's the thing is bear that building bear, that's
you to that point as a big back. That's the easiest way to tackle
a big back when he's running sideline, the sideline and dancing around, right,
there's no momentum. Yeah, especially you you corral that guy. You
know, the pursuits coming inside out. So you know, you do your
think and you're big back. Your mindset is you don't want to be another
victim to Brantley because he's he has a few now and that we talked about
that Maryland thump. He right, oh yeah, you know, I know
last year when he got hurt, I mean he was bringing the thunder.
I think was that Purdue last year. I mean, this guy plays with
a lot of hard and soul. Like you just want to see some of
that energy, that fire coming out as the other players right now. I
know we have talent on this team, but the team just not playing with
a lot of emotion. I know, otis you You've got some plays here
where you see CJ. Stroud and he's out, he's surveying the field and
throwing touchdown at the touchdown six of them to be exact against the Spartan defense,
but I know you wanted to break down a few Yeah. I mean,
let's talk about the first that first touchdown past twenty yards are going in
that north end zone. You know you clearly see we're almost in a cover
two man, right, and you know from a standpoint as a safety,
you know you got some disguise and you're trying to say, hey, we
indep thirds, but we have cover two man. No one truly puts a
hand on the receiver to give him at least a slow and slow and the
reroute. We talked about reroute. So if you look at this play,
I'm looking at odds where just he looks right, but he looks left quickly,
and our safety covers up that slot receiver versus scraping over to helping Chuck
out. Chuck's in perfect position. I mean just a few more interest where
he looked. If he could look back further, that could be a PBu
or pit. But if the safety is reading it perfectly, that is eyes
in the sky. You coming down like an eagle down, that's jumping up
int grabbing that ball out the sky. Right, But you clearly like just
locked on the number two where that's not a bracket, and I don't think
it's a bracket coverage on numbers the number two receiver, So why are you
holding on that where clearly the ball's released looking at the far end, that's
the perfect look. I lick my chops when I see a quarterback trip.
Just load it, get a little bit of air I can go. Try
to get it at least make effort to get it right. And then the
worst part is when they celebrate like you know, everybody's talking about on his
head like that. That gets me upset. Where I put me and coach,
let's just slop it. I'll put the pads on. I'll put the
pads on. But you look at that play and you just get frustrated because
he's in great position. Bradley is a great position. Then you look at
the next play we talked about. Slot receiver peaks to the left, slot
slot corner peaks to the left. What are we peaking at? Like we
know to play? Like are we do we not communicate pre snap? We
should know the play communication key. You run straight to the flat without even
touching the slot receiver, just like turn him loose, Just turn him loose,
like here you go like that? You got to put a hand on
at least an off hand jam, get to the get to the flat versus,
or you can ride him out to the slot, to the hash to
help the receiver, or to the safety to recognize that this guy's running the
street, not just let the man run straight down the street and then it's
an automatic touchdowns scheme. I want to ask this question to you. You're
right here and looking at it right there, just so people can see this
is that scheme or is that a player mental error? That's a player mental
error. And I can't put it on one guy because clearly he looked to
the corner and when depending on how this this this defense ran, the safety
truly calls the call like he tells the call like if it's no man on
the island, but it wasn't. We got slot receiver, so we got
to say that nickelback needs to know. You got to get a rerout.
I think about like that was my main concern. I got to get a
rerout so I can help control the speed recognition for the safety that's in the
backyard, because if you're going straight full speed, that safety's in like a
whole heap of trouble. It's like if I don't get over here quick enough.
I can't even disguise. I got to get here quick enough that ball's
already gone. I got a question for you, Otis. Yeah, you
know, playing in the secondary like you did and watching our secondary now we
see a lot of bail coverage and given a lot of that space, do
you think it's confidence, I say, a lack of confidence. That's a
tough question, man, That's the one. Like we asked Drew its like
like about the quarterback situation. I honestly don't know, Jayu. I think
that we've getten we've've gotten beat so much in the secondary, that's just second
guess and that now we're trying to scheme because of the lack of what with
the holes that we have to feel like, honestly, we talked about DNA
on offense, what's the DNA on the defense? Historically we've always been hit
you in the mouth press. We've always been corners that can just press and
run pound for pound historically. So now you're seeing them drop off because you
got to compensate on the loss of Xavier Himnis and who x was Darius Snow
think about those turnovers that the bulk of those tournaments last year was those two
guys could bind, right, So you losing that leadership, losing that communication
factor where maybe we rely too much on those two guys to communicate and you're
seeing this loophole. We got young guys in the safety spot. Safety's got
to communicate just like the middle linebacker does to the entire secondary of Hey we're
here, hook curl. Like if I got to remind you about the hook
curl, I got to remind you about the reroute. That means you're not
communicating because that's automatic thing. Where hey, reroute, reroute, that's just
automatic. That's be an automatic thing. And if I got a second,
guess, he looks at boss, now go ahead. So on that play
that you showed, it was third and four and you talked about the slot
corner, did not reroute as a safety? Are you yelling reroute? Reroute?
Absolutely? Okay, I mean I mean before even before, like,
hey, make sure you reroute because I mean, if you watch the film,
if you've studied, you shouldn't know that these are the tendencies between that
third and four, right, And in my opinion, you get caught too
far in disguise where you can't run that far to get over there in time,
versus I'm disguising it. I'm in cover three. I need to get
over here. Just all bad man, all bad all bad news bears.
I mean we also, Jason, we didn't talk about like it also starts
in the trenches. We haven't even fully focused on the trenches of like the
defensive alignment getting into that pressure. Did we even get into his face last
Saturday? So there was one play, So so I did see a big
fellow, Derek Harmon, and he got in there and got a hold of
CJ. Put the big men on there was able to get him down.
We'll pull up that highlight for Derek. That was a nice play. But
for the most part, you didn't see that. You did see plays early
on where you saw pressure and it got the CJ. You know, CJ
was a little confused early on that after the pick six, but leading up
to the pick six and right after the pick six, he was kind of
trying to figure out the coverage. There was some disguising going on. I
saw single high I saw the cover twos. We love to run a lot
of that bail coverage. But when there was some all out blitzing and CJ
was able to hit completions. I mean we went completely away from it,
and there was just no one on one pass rushing ability to get off blocks
and get to the quarterback in verse. On the offensive side of the ball,
I saw a lot of regular four man three man stunts, just basic
tackle in twist where three out of the four guys are getting home to Peyton.
And so there were four sacks. Peyton was sacked four times. C
J. Straddle was sacked one time, but out of those four sacks,
three of them. I mean there was multiple Buckeyes converging on to Peyton Thorn,
and one of them he was I think he was a little skittish man.
He slipped out to the right and show that highlight right here. He
goes to the right and goes right into pressure. That was something that I'm
sure he'll look at on film and say, hey, that was on me.
Guys. But still guys like as an offensive lineman to pass off stunts,
you talk about re routing from the defensive back perspective, it's the same
thing. You gotta get a jam, you gotta get your hands on the
penetrating whoever that that defensive linement is that's angling. The first there's one guy
that's penetrating, and then there's a loop around. And for whatever I mean,
we are not I mean, I can't imagine coach Cap isn't coaching.
That's that's like the only thing that you really work on in practice is passing
off games. So to me, when they're going out there on Saturdays under
the bright lights, there's with that that rat trapping thing that's going on.
Guys aren't figuring it out. They're not standing and doing what they're coach to
do. Because you can't tell me that you're not being coached on how to
pass off a twist stunt. While you're at Michigan State, a power five
school in the Big Ten, playing against Ohio State. There wasn't any exotic
blitzes coming that was confusing. This was four man regular Milton meat and potatoes
as mil Tucker likes to talk about rushes. And we couldn't block three out
of four of the guys. That's unacceptable on so many levels. We couldn't
open up holes on the run game. You cannot win with your trenches performing
like that. You know they Xavier Henderson talked about it. Guys in the
preseason, like before the season started, and he said we're gonna go as
far as the offensive line takes us suish statement probably ever, I mean,
yeah, man, yeah, this is that that you can't you can't keep
going when you when your offensive line is a sieve and allowing guys to to
tackle and sack the quarterback, it makes them seat ghosts. It's bad for
everybody. Man. You gotta be able to run the ball, and you
gotta be able to protect the quarterback, and you got to be able to
take care of the football. So you know, I know that that there's
a lot of bad that happened in that game. There was some good things
as well. Absolutely, you know, we're looking forward now to try to
put this behind us and learn from this game so that they can prepare for
the Wisconsin Baphs already started the week of practice and again one of the biggest
things that I see is that this team has not started to end fight and
things like that. They know they have injuries and they're young, and so
what do you see like this for to wrap up this recap, what are
your final thoughts on us? My final thoughts is we got young guys who
are getting prime quality time on the field, and we are going to take
lumps because of our youth. But when the boys are mature, man,
it's gonna be something scary. And so I think it's encouraging because you know,
we played a top squad who snub in the CFP and you know,
competing for a national championship, and so we measured up as best as we
could. But the people that we had and you know, I think we
will be able to take a hard look at ourselves. And you know it's
already released. I mean after Sunday man and things and the trash is ready
to get to the next week. So as we prepare for Wisconsin them coming
off of a win finally, and then obviously on our homecoming for this weekend,
I just feel like we have nothing to lose. And I've said this
before, it's a it's us against the world mentally. I think we got
to go back to those roots. It's always been to us against the world
mentality, and a band of brothers got to bond together and praying that those
guys are are are clicking more than what we see outside on that Saturday,
because we were way more than judging on Saturdays, which we obviously this is
what we play this game, and it's it comes with the territory of being
judged on Saturdays. But we're way more than that, and so we'll win
the game during the weekend. We got to prepare properly. I think that's
what they're doing this week. All right, well said Otis. You know,
I know that our counterpart had to take off and leave for a moment
because he has some husbandly duties to do, fatherly things to do. And
that's okay. It's all about the kids, all about the family, right,
you know, a great show. We look forward to breaking down the
Wisconsin homecoming matchup in our next episode. This will put a boat on the
recap of the Ohio state game. One thing is positive that young people are
extremely resilient. These guys are going to move on, learn from it and
progress and hopefully get to w this Saturday. And for Otis Wildly, I'm
Jason Strayhorn. This is Sparta. Have a good night, God bless and
go Green, go wife. You know about time