The following is a presentation of play Fly Sports properties. I'm proud of this
football team. I believe in this football team game. We're in position to
player best football this season. But these people don't realize is that like we
expect to win. Look at this dude next to you, man, this
guy next to you, look at him. This guy's next to you,
this guy's behind you, this god, that guy is count on you to
do your job. He's count on you to do your job to the best
your ability. We just play geam football, okay, but mischief State first,
do everything you can can't go ahead and get this done. Michigan State
money performance here tonight. This why came is a state man, I'm an
underdog and mel Tucker does it again defeating a ring team on the road.
Like I said before the game, I've never been more proud of a football
team. This is a special, special, special group. Okay. And
what your what's your? What we accomplished today? Okay? Was was something
no wonder up just to do. But us just what sparts you're all about?
Guys, we don't we go quick way go right. We just be
in a Lloyd at twenty three to fifteen yes, and you know what I'm
said. The three day he hurt this one that some you wrong fas fast
and that's why is thinking along ard, I have hurricane that Holliday right by
the guy me. Why go right, yeah, why you go ahead?
Why you do? Everybody ain't even way way bye bye, honey, bigunna
ask you whoa whoa? Well, well, when we got here, it
looked like a little bickery celebrating in there. What they didn't they can do
it and they went down to champagne and everybody had them count out. I
look like Barker, Daniel Barker that is, had a little one of these
in the locker room for the celebration. If you looked a little closer.
That was a nice job by Daniel Barker there. Uh, just so you
guys know, this is sparta I'm your host, Jason Straighthorn, along with
my co host Otis Wiley and jay U Culprit. Add the spirit fingers,
get after it, get after button up all the way, button up to
the neck. Right, My East Coast people this today, you know,
yalla, the East Coast. I gotta love it. Spartan's win on the
road against a top fifteen opponent in the fighting a line nine, number one
defense in the country, number one running back. Didn't matter. Michigan State
goes on the road and beats him twenty three to fifteen. What an impressive
win by the Spartan Shillman. Absolutely, I mean it was great to hear
on the radio leading up to Like I watched listen on the radio for I
say, like half of the first quarter and then I finally got to the
tube and TV to watch it. But like you can tell based off of
even the calls that you stray and George and then with jay U's in the
first quarter, you know segment when he comes on, you can tell just
the energy was different, right, Like it was like us against the world,
regardless of what happened in the past. We got our guys. We're
gonna play football and we're gonna, you know, win, and we're gonna
work on you know what we did for this week, which I heard was
the practice was electric. It almost looked like nothing happened. They're dancing.
Somebody told me they was doing the Titchy roll in the middle of the practice.
Like everybody's dancing and vibes are great, and the guys that are there.
You gotta win with the guys you got, and so good to feel
that vibe again of like guys celebrated. Man, Like we've we've had those
close losses and you know when you when you get to count how many points
you put on the board and you've seen the fight song. There's nothing better
man in that locker room after you know, going on the road and being
a team that you know was expected to beat us, beat us really bad.
Absolutely absolutely otis and uh, you know it was just all week.
You know, I had a feeling that Michigan State was going to pull this
off. I said it. I told Stray this at of the week.
I was like, I think we're gonna true story, Gonna lose your credibility
if you're wrong. But Day says that every week, man, you're telling
me about I didn't out the man like that, but he did this week.
Yeah, it was you know, yeah, definitely, and you know
after you know, the week previous, there's a dark cloud hanging over East
Saints and hanging over the Sparking pro And we talked about it on the show.
Guys are gonna have to step up. Guys are gonna have to come
in to this game and the play loose. There's no pressure, nothing to
lose, and that's exactly what they did. Otis you hit on the fact
that you could feel a different type of energy. That definitely was. There
was a different sense of energy on the sidelines. For once, we had
that when the offense was on the field, we had defensive guys standing up
cheering. When the defense was on the field, the offensive guys were standing
up. And both times kickers and punters were just in the back corner where
they belongs. I mean, listen, the pumbler was probably listen. These
might be the MVP of this game. Weather traditions kicks in a moment.
Let's break it down us getting back to the I have game day stab breaks
down, present it to you by I have 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 I Hop hurry
in and enjoy this deal for a limited time, dying and only. Price
and participation may very restrictions apply. Well, guys, well, we're gonna
start with the defensive side of the ball defense win first, No, let's
talk about let's let's talk about about time. We get to start with the
defense. You always start with the We are starting with the defense defensively championship
game. We don't care about the win on the defense man. That's an
advantage for us man, Like you know, we ay ball gonna come up.
We ann gotta get it right. Fifty are going our way. But
one shout out to finally having a Newton kickoff. We're gonna talk about that
for our next next show. But now we get to have some pancakes,
I hop finally, so shout out to our boy Cal shout out to I
hop. I can't wait to have two for two for two. But in
our tail gate, Yeah, but you know, we talked about defense,
right we talk about the guys that have been let go from the team in
definitely right now until further investigation, Jay, you hit it last. Our
last show is next man up mentality and you saw that immediately on that first
first drive when the defense took the field, is that you got guys in
there that that are fresh legs but have a sense of new energy. We
talk about you know, talk about Deshaun Mallory, playing defensive end. You
got Siamon Barrow obviously has always been in that mix, but it was just
a different feel to the ball. Everybody was getting heads hats to the football.
You didn't see that many missed tackles. You saw everyone celebrating each other.
If you look at that stat line on the tackles, we had eighty
four total team tackles. We had two. We had a mere speed.
Who's your I don't still don't know how he does it. He's always leading
the team in each game on the tackles twelve total tackles. I mean you
look at right now the clip on our goal line stands. This is where
it's started. This where the tone set the tone, where Illinois is coming
at us and it's like, hey, we're better than you. We're gonna
line up and we're gonna give you four downs in terror where yeah, Gold
stands like show us what you're working with right look at this man, like
lockdown, baby, lock down man. And that was where it starts.
Set the tone for the offense to come out and it's like we are here,
We're here man, and everyone is all all hats to the football.
That's what wins the wins wins games when you get everybody front line starts it.
Look at the leverage we got. Everyone's just in their place. You
see look KB talking Junke Man, Come on, man, don't disrespect us,
knowing that we played the same same type of football. We suit up,
we put our shoes on the same way, and let's do the stands
where we set the tone. And we already know defense has the tone here
man. So it was good to see this straight out the gate. And
then you look at the entirety of that game. His defense kept setting the
tone. They kept keeping the momentum on our side, and I never saw
Illinois take that from us when in past games we've seen the tie turn gradually
and the momentum gets over to the opposite team. And you know, you
see guys truly setting up. And let me go one quick highlight of benfit
Sumer ten tackles Kyle Holliday, Kendall Brooks nine tackles Malik Spencer. We finally
saw the true freshman from Georgia. You know, he would have been playing
if he hadn't had the soldier surgery, right, and so coming out still
with the sling on his shoulder, coming out putting speed out there on the
linebacker side, and he's flying around too, And it was good to see
them having fun. Man, in the midst of all the turmoil we've been
getting, it was good to see the defense truly, truly plays some spartan
football defense. Go ahead, Jay, Absolutely, I'm not you know,
look at here. You see we got to play again, play it again.
We we got to make the sound played again one more time, one
more time. Lines up, Yeah, look at Chase Brown on you don't
even see it, brule with the recovery. Look at this man. Everybody
sex lines up on the line and oh yeah this guy. Oh now,
there was a shot, j U. Before you you say something, there
was a shot the screenshot of Xavier and Chase Brown in this moment where you
paused it and his eyes. This is a perfect fit for for a tackle
when we when I talk about you know, you got to see the ball,
eat the ball straight up, head up, punches the ball and tackles
him. Chase Brown didn't know it hit him. He was like, what
was that? Go ahead, Jay, that eighteen Absolutely, And the thing
that I love about this you see this, You see guys celebrating together,
having fun, and that's the best. That's the thing that's been missing the
past few weeks. If guys out there having fun jumping around. We saw
early in the earlier highlights of goal line stands, guys swinging their arms,
you know, waving know and having a good time putting up the four for
fourth down. That's what this defense needed, and you got to give for
it. Like I said, as much grief that Scotty Hazelton gets, he
had a great game plan for for this game. He did a lot of
exotic things. He did a lot of stunts up front, He did a
lot of blitz and he brought in a ton of pressure on Illinois. And
I think the defense had fun with that because od As you know this,
anytime your number gets called for a blitz, you're licking your chops. You're
excited. We had corner corner crash coming in, you know and twisting with
the lineman the d line stepping out and the corner going in the middle.
There. Those are some exotic blitzes and some exact things that coach Haylson dialed
up. And I loved it, and I think the players loved it as
well, because they were having fun with it. They were bouncing around the
sideline was electric all game long. Yeah. I mean with Brandon Jordan this
past week because he was in the middle man and the offensive line on those
blitzes. Several times they looked really, really good and put a lot of
pressure on Tommy DeVito. Yeah, and shout out to the d line coaches,
man, And you see the discipline that every time you saw the shotgun,
you know, uh, pitch option kind of riding it our defensive ends
kind of road and it stayed home to make sure like they didn't dive into
that dive. There was a couple of times where like you could easily bite
on and say, oh man, we had it, and they stayed home
just so that they didn't make sure you either. Tom DeVito pulled it.
I mean he's reading that defensive end and you can see multiple plays throughout the
game because our defensive ends did their job and everybody was doing their job.
So when everybody does their job, the whole puzzle fitch perfectly. Man.
And it was great to see. I was excited, man, you know,
I'm cheering real allowed with my parents, and you know, it's good
to see we finally got that dub Man so good. I mean, what
do you go about the personnel. I mean, you got the bigger guys
playing on the defensive end. It seemed that they had more success out there.
Guys like the Sean Mallory. You got guys like Jalen Hunt, who
we haven't seen much at all. This is six four, three hundred and
twenty pounder playing on the edge. And then you have the guys on the
inside, the Borrows of the world and Derek Harmon obviously, you know you
Jacob Slave was in the game for a while before he had to leave with
an injury. But it was just more beef upfront, and as mel Tucker
said in the press conference, he said, you know, we weren't gonna
get rolled up out of there by that offensive line. So we had more
size up front, which allowed those linebackers to scrape more and make the plays.
Like you said, even the secondary guy for getting that getting a hat
on the hat. Oh. Absolutely, the flow of the game, man,
Like we always hear, they got a great line. They are the
best line in a Big ten. You know, you look at the opposite
side of that division. They're leading that division and we're at the bottom of
the vision. Well, you know what, you know, it don't matter,
right, we talked about you know they are big, We've faced bigger.
But I think to your point, Jason, is that they couldn't really
game plan for the guys that we had coming in to fill our holes and
gaps. So they're truly recognizing in game this guy that they had no kind
of film on and they will be able to study on and the way we
switched it up. Kudos to the defensive staff man because they've been taking some
lumps this season right on what are we doing and what are we running or
what coverage is not working or the blitch is not working, each level is
not communicating, and now you see kind of now we're fitting the puzzles to
where all right, the game plan appropriately and we have the staff to do
what we know we can do. And so Spartan Nation, I mean,
he should be in should be ecstatic with confidence knowing that we went out there
and played that team the best way we could and we we came out on
top. Absolutely makes her a nice plane ride home too. Oh yeah,
let's talk let's talk about your your your Chris, your Chris travels man Mike
McNamara, you know, take me down on a private jet down there at
the airport. Yeah, I went to the Pontiac airport, was greeted by
Mike. Guys, come take my bag, call me mister Calcrik. He
had he had his best favorite shirt on, his fine garments with some fresh
cohans on and stuff on that plane. Club old or something. Man.
Yeah, birthday party, steakhouses. I mean, this guy was living it
up out there, oh dying this weekend. Big shout out to Mike,
to Mike, Michaelmer and big shout out to George Blaha too for you know,
being part of that to set it up and everything. But okay,
it's a birthday, Happy birthday. Yeah, yeah, sublet's have some fun.
Yeah. So what with defense, I'm gonna go nice transition here is
we wouldn't be where we would be if it wasn't for that offense. And
finally truly answering the call where complimentary football. Now, jay U, this
is your side, Jason. Finally y'all can go ahead talk about the great
offense that we had uh last Saturday. And we're gonna start off with jay
Us position BRU and that's that running back position. And yeah over yards in
the backfield, which was great, and jayalen Berger did his thing. Yeah.
Something I saw that was really impressed with the running backs this game is
they put their foot in the ground and went north every time to touch the
ball. They're big explosive plazers. Get it one, two, three,
boom, stick a foot, go up north, shake off tackles, lower
your shoulder, and deliver the hit. As you see Berger doing that and
having a little fun while getting up. Here's another one. Go boom hash
number sidelines use put the ball in the outside arm. Use that other arm
as a weapon. See that's the best thing right there. Hash number signing.
You fumble the ball, it's gonna go out of bounds. Look at
this here. Put in the ground, stick it. Go get low and
get in there. Have fun. Let's go. That's what we're missing.
You run the ball. You're gonna be able to throw the ball when you
do stuff like this. Now defense starts creeping out, and then you can
get your offense going. Peyton Thorn can go here connected deep to Jayan Reid
routine catch all because the run game's working all Without question, the offensive line
did a phenomenal job of protecting Peyton on that. We took a little shot
there, but look at the Jaden Ree taking the top off that defense.
Two defenders not enough. Look at that pocket straight you'll be proud of.
Look at that pocket that was created for Payton on this throw. Clearly,
that was the best game I've seen them play all year. Absolutely, I've
not seen the energy of like they were picking them up, moving those feet
active. Yeah, there's a sense of urgency out there. You've got to
play this game on a verge of a rage. We talk about that all
the time. You have to. You cannot be laxa day's goal and blise
flag whatever it is out there while you're playing on Saturday under the lights with
everybody watching you man on national television. Better get your butt moving. And
the look, guys, they were down a starter, you know, you
think about Jared Horse wasn't there, and they start Brandon Baldwin. It's a
young guy sophomore out of Southfield, very big after let player. They'll get
number fifty three out there playing left tackle, nice switch star Cavan starting that
man. Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, look, one thing
that we didn't have on the offensive line that we typically haven't been having all
year. Is the ridiculous penalties that were drive killers. Didn't have that this
week. Things kept moving along and they were able to punch the ball in
when they needed to. This is a team. Remember they only had five
touchdowns scored on them the entire year. Missig State comes out and hits them
for what three? I mean, it was a big day for Michigan State
all the way around the board. Like you talk about complimentary football. The
running backs got in the ball game, which helped Peyton Thorn be Peyton Thorn.
You saw him really settle down and that's a homecoming for him. You
will him and Jayden Reed, both Naperville, Illinois guys not far down the
road. It was where they went to high school. They knew a lot
of these guys that they played against in this particular game, so it means
a lot to them. So you know Daniel Barker, a guy who transferred
from Illinois who was in the mix, He kind of got out of the
mix early after the interception on the first throw. Talk about overcoming adversity guys
first pass of the ball game, and Jayu you can attest to this,
talk about the wind out there while you were down there in Illinois. Yeah,
that wind was brutal. If my I'm tundred fifty five pounds and I
was getting blown around like arak doll out there by the wind. So yeah,
hey, we ain't gonna go there on. Wayne was absolutely crazy out
there, and you know, I think that's what affected Peyton Thorne's first throw
of the game. And this was a question I believe I asked. I
reached out to ask you, Jason, that first throw of the game was
an interception obviously going in. You know you've been an offense guy, Jason.
You know your first ten places are scripted. Do you figure you should
change the script a little bit if you're going into the wind like that,
or just stay on schedule? Now? You gotta you gotta be able to
change and adapt to what the weather's given you in that time, because if
your quarterback isn't able to throw in that, then you're gonna That's exactly what
happened the first play. The ball got caught in the wind. Yep,
he got blown backwards. You were seeing kickoffs in that game that would take
a forty five degree turn and go out of bounds. I mean, these
are kicks that were going straight down the fifty down the middle of the field
towards a goal post, and they would end up, you know, out
of bounds on a free kick situation or you know, a penalty situation.
The legal procedure, so you have to be careful. But for whatever reason,
didn't bother Peyton Thorn at all after that first throw, that touchdown to
Jayden Reid at the end that second, the second touchdown he threw not this
one, but we're gonna get to that one in the second. Well,
yeah, Jason, I heard you and George on the radio line. He
had to change his club right there, that's in the wind. That is
in the wind right there. Yeah, they had to change it up,
just like a golfer. You know, when you're out there, you see
those golfers pick the grass up and throw it in the wind and let it
blow by so they can see how strong it's going in what direction. Well,
hey, you know Peyton had the club up and down for every throw
depending on which way he was going and that golf in that ball game,
and he did great job. Yeah, absolutely, I think you know.
One of the reason why you can make a throw like that, or you
can even attempt to throw like that is because the momentum that the offense had,
you know, they were running the football, they were passing the ball
around, so they had that confidence instilled in them that they're like, we
can make any throw now, it doesn't matter when rain, sleet or snow.
We can we can make it happen. And I think that's a confidence
play call by coach Ja Johnson and a confidence throw by Peyton Thorn Thorn.
Yeah, you talk about Peyton Thorn spreading it around to eight different receivers.
He didn't just target one guy. Eight different people caught the ball. Peyton
got a lot of running backs in the ball involved in the passing game with
short screens underneath throws, got tight ends involved, and he had everybody moving
and it was a collective effort, even on the special teams side of the
ball. Ju's favorite aside from the kicking situation and the snapping the punter Bryce
Behringer, I mean outstanding as that punk that came. I was like,
how did one? That's unbelievable? Like, you know, how hard guy
because obviously passed away this past week. That man has won that award time
and time out every week. Like besides that one botch BA Staff and Michigan.
This man has been time and time again a weapon and has been forceful,
like and I wish we able to add more complimentary football to his his
art like his weapon, this weapon we have. But I mean, let's
talk about like I was reading an article Peyton Thorn has this quote obviously espn
Ap and an article is like he remembers his dad telling him that there's a
lot of opportunity in adversity adversity, and I think that's that was the mantra
that you can tell Peyton was different, Like it was like we ain't had
nothing to lose, so obviously he's saying in a pretty adverse situation what they
went through. There's not a lot of teams that went through what they had
to go through, and so for them to just truly play ball, like
I think Mel Tucker coach Tucker finally like got these guys to understand man,
like we all we have and so regardless of what's happening, like, let's
play ball. And like that was a good Like that was a good vibe
when man, I keep saying it like it was just the vibes was different,
Like these were the times where we wish we had this vibe earlier in
the season, but we weren't getting over the top, and the adversity was
truly hitting us in the face and we weren't answering the call. But you
finally see these guys truly jail as a squad through the adversity that we had
to go through. And so I just wanted to say that, Yeah,
so we're all we're all sitting here he he hind, but we're gonna act
like our kicker didn't drink one off the uprights and then missed a thirty one
yard huh, hey man, look that kick will be coming from ju Man.
Look you time he sees on the sideline straight he almost he once got
me one time, all standing behind the net and he put one through there
came almost got me. Yeah, you know, something accidentally happens and jay
you on the sideline. Everyone, you know why you Stone? There's something
in Stone coming after me. Let's talk about I mean, there's an elefant
in the room. At the end of the ball game. Now there can
say it's up by eight points going in it's first and goal from I believe
around the nine yards and here's the sequence right here, two forty six five
to go, and you're looking right now, you're thinking about, Okay,
the most important thing is to solve the game away time wise. Make sure
that he did. I mean the clown was running still, but like we
almost lost you can we lost gas too, like the blocks weren't sticking,
and we just talked about like why would you run the ball in between the
hashes right there? Last time here, guys, that called fourth and third
and goal minute ten and you get an incomplete and now Jay, You's favorite
situation happens. I think on this play here, we got a little greedy.
We wanted to hit Barker with that corner route and gosh there though too,
because I think they wanted Barker to feel good about himself. I think
we got a little greedy with that with that throw there. But if if
I'm Peyton, if it's not there, just slide slide down, keep in
the middle. Yeah, you're right, I mean he has We can ask
the guys. We did ask Peyton in the post game show what was the
call? Did he have the ability to change the call? He said no,
He said that was a call pass play that they wanted to have happened,
and he was thinking about the running back, and upon further review we
see Barker was wide open behind him, and it makes sense. I understand
what Jay Johnson was trying to get done here for the homecoming of Daniel Barker
there. But if you talk about mel Tucker's philosophy, right gus is to
worry about the end of the results of the game when the when the clock
strikes zero. Do you think in a situation like this you need to be
a little bit more cognizant of the score and the time that's left. Listen,
this place had been done in previous in the previous part of the game,
like get that ball to Barker before like this is a decision that we
need to seal the deal. And this could have changed. This could have
changed really drastically with if we didn't have the defense playing the way they were
playing, like and they were driving too when they got the ball back,
they were driving, you know, it would have been I was hoping we
just didn't go to overtime because like I felt that kind of momentum start to
change. It was like, man, all we had to do is make
the field goal or at least get closer and it was just mishandled. But
you know what I loved about that. After that miss, the defense came
on the field fired up. And what I absolutely loved that Scotty Hazelton did
was he did not sit in a prevent defense. He brought fire. He
had movement up front, he had stunts, twists, brought it to them.
There had him in a fourth and tent situation. They got that,
but he continued to bring fire. Usually a lot of coaches will sit in
the prevent defense and let a team trip away down the field on them and
then to get inside the red zone, then they started, you know,
to bring the pressure. But I love that by coach Hamilton that he did
not sit back and let these guys pick him apart. He decided, hey,
we're gonna come after. You're gonna pin their ears back. What got
us to this point is gonna get us out of this. And that's what
happened. He did a phenomenal job with that pressure all the way through.
He got to the point where a lot of spartans all around the around the
country, around the world were collectively holding their breath as Illinois marched down the
field. But ultimately, two sacks to Tommy DeVito sealed the game for the
Spartans and they come away with the victory. Now shifteen years a little bit
here, we have a special guest. Otis, yes, we do.
We have a special guest. And uh, you know doctor Ashley Baker.
You know, she is chief Diversity Equity Inclusion Officer at Michigan State Athletics,
and she has became a dear friend of mine but also others in the department.
And uh, you know I would read her bio, you know,
just to tab just to give her a little juice to come into the show.
But you know, she obviously is holds a Bachelor of Ours UH in
business and Master Education Sports Administration. She is alum of Bowling Green State University,
and uh has a pH d in Sports Management and Policy from the University
of Georgia. So sometimes you will see her say god dogs when it's not
Michigan State plan. And also, uh, she's doing a lot of research
largely centered on black mother's experiences throughout the collegiate athletic department or her the recruiting
process, which we did mention Mama Hall. And so it's just just right
to bring someone on to give us some insight on you know, the D
and I perspective inside, but also in the landscape of college and athletics.
As you know Stray, you have boys going into the recruiting and then your
wife obviously being involved and and this is her specialty. So I wanted to
bring her on to just have just a dialogue of open conversation and just discuss
things that that we're dealing with in the future of Collezia athletics. So I
want to welcome doctor Baker. Is she on? Is she coming on there?
She goes the shoe game on game day. Yeah, we forgot to
tell her. She is the full professional of judging what you have on and
where during game days. So sometimes I gotta make sure my shoes are clean.
I'm always checking. I always got an eye out for it. Always
had to be on brand, exactly, exactly. Well, welcome, Welcome
doctor Baker. We appreciate you taking some time. I know she's been asking
like, hey, well you guys, don't put me on the podcast,
when are you gonna put me on? Don't do that. Don't make it
like I was you were. But no, I think from a standpoint of
doctor Baker. You we talked about this is a celebration Title nine and kind
of the elements of what Michigan State has done in leading the charge and you
know, one of the best schools in the nation and what we're doing to
celebrate that, and so kind of wanted to talk to you about, you
know, what we we did as an athletic department. And then we do
have a clip obviously obviously sawing kind of the shoes of what you got a
guy with the designer, but kind of talk us, talk us through like
what's going on from a Time nine perspective and internally and you know, the
future. Yeah. Sure, So first, thank you all for having me,
even though Otis made it like I was begging to come on the show,
but you know, I catch catch the show each week and I appreciate
what you all do to highlight what's happening within our football program and even just
to have this conversation beyond what happened this weekend, which of course was a
great game, great win, much need to win, but our you know,
this year, twenty twenty two is the fiftieth anniversary of the Title nine
legislation being passed and one of the things that has been seen throughout college athletics
that I wanted to make sure we were doing here at Michigan State was to
honor and celebrate the legislation, the purpose of the legislation and its impact on
women in sports since nineteen seventy two. And so going into this year,
this this is year two for me with Michigan State Athletics, and so my
first year just getting a lay of the land, understand the culture. I
grew up here in Michigan, but you know, obviously didn't attend Michigan State.
So coming here and just learning what's important, what's special about this place,
and one of the things is the storied history, you know, of
race and gender here at Michigan State. And so I wanted to make sure
that as a department, we not only acknowledged and celebrated the fifty years of
legislation and what it's meant for women, but that it also set the tone
for what it meant for the future of women in sports. And I obviously
have a special connection and care for what happens with women in sports because we
still are in many spaces the minority, whether in administration or coaching, and
the experiences of women I think are critical to the success of this industry.
So for our athletics department, we put together a small group of women throughout
the department and I simply asked them, if Michigan State Athletics was to celebrate
Title nine, what should we do? And they generated a whole bunch of
ideas and thoughts of how do we celebrate the women that have come before us?
That was the main piece. We need to honor the legacy of the
women who not only use legislation to their advantage and push this institution to do
more for women in sports and to recognize and acknowledge and create varsity opportunities for
women, but also have had some of the first women to do what we
do in our industry, doctor Sally Nogel, which I know you all know
doctor Sally is. She's a og She's one of the first women, if
not the first woman, to ever be a head athletic trainer for a football
program. And so we wanted to honor all of those who came before us,
but then also celebrate who we have right now, the student athletes now.
So in true Michigan State forum, we wanted to do some things that
were unique and really cool that maybe other institutions had done in some way,
but others that we created ourselves. So you will see our logo in our
signage celebrating the fifty years, showing up all of our venues and lots of
our different things that we have, and every single one of our varsity sports
will have a Title nine themed game. And this is where the tennis shoes
come in. So again Otis is correct. I think fashion and sport really
go together. I would not consider myself like any special fashionists or anything,
but I do technically match my outfits with the uniforms that the football team has
on. But we want to do something cool with our shoes. We've seen
this. University of Oregon did something similar. They had our partnership with Nike
and they created a custom Title nine shoe. When we thought, okay,
let's not do exactly what they're doing. We need to do something that's very
authentic and true to us, and custom shoes and having stuff that other people
don't have is something that we do and all of our head coaches for all
of our teams have a custom Title nine shoe. We specifically identified a woman,
a woman owned business. She's an artist that does the customization, so
we're supporting her business, helping her build her brand. And she designed over
twenty pair of shoes for us, so all of our head coaches have them,
and then our athletic director Ad Haller has a pair as well, and
she did some really cool things. I don't know if of the video that
you have. Coach Tucker had a really cool set. His shoes had turf
on him. We have a really special reveal for Coach Izzo's he hasn't even
seen his shoes yet. There's a really cool basketball thing for his and so
throughout the year you'll see those shoes show up. And then what we'll be
doing at the end of the year here is auctioning off one pair of shoes,
and that one pair, the proceeds from that is going to go to
a local organization as well as our thirty seven words campaign that we just recently
launched over this past weekend. Yeah, we got a video right here.
Yeah, Holly Rodus Tucker tell me about your special shoes. I love your
shoes. Yeah, celebrating title nine of Universes. So all of the local
there wonderful. Thank you for sing women and meet something to take you absolutely
great great stuff there and uh we'll be over. When can we pick up
our this asparta branded ones? Well yeah, yeah, fifteen. Uh,
I'll see what I can do. I'll see what i can do. Yeah,
we were like some nice ones man, like you know, we'll even
provide them in pay her man. But yeah, those are nice. And
I didn't realize that was Holly Rose Boyce. I didn't realize that was her.
But she's done so much for obviously women in broadcasting and as we you
know, Jason and jay are broadcasting. We kind of all started and I
started radio, and you know, Jason's still doing it and Jayu as well.
But you know, kudos to you and and the women that you know
internally to build that that uh you know, initiative, because like I said,
it's it's fresh, it's nice, it's showing some swag. And you
talk about you you met your shoes with the team jerseys. Uh, I
think your fashion, Uh, Nisa, you are so go ahead A lot
of questions. So I know that this is the fiftieth anniversary of Title nine
and we're really highlighting a lot of things that they go along with that.
But I'm gonna ask you that what do you see, if any things that
we can do better, Like, is there something that we can do better
from from our standpoint to highlight women's athletics and women in general more in your
opinion? And are we are we doing where's the bar at? Are we
doing okay, we're underperforming as a university or do we need to get better?
Yeah? So, you know what, I think Michigan State has done
an incredible job of highlighting and celebrating the success of our women's teams, even
even historically they have. You know, something that's part of our Dee strategic
plan that we have in place is that we will prioritize and amplify the success
of our student athletes. So having cross country and women's soccer winning Big Ten
championships, you know, there's one piece to win championship, Like, of
course we're always going to celebrate the champions but the way in which we then
continue to celebrate them. You know, we just hosted on campus today the
NCAA selection show for women's soccer we're hosting. We're super excited about that.
So, you know, we've done a good job. I think when we
talk about resources and access to opportunities. There's still improvement to be made,
and this is across the landscape of college athletics, not just a space like
Michigan State. You look at media coverage, you look at access to facilities,
access to financial resources, equipment, all of those things continue to be
a challenge even at the lowest level of sports. So you're talking about youth
sports and young girls having opportunities to participate and get positive experiences as young people
so that then they can continue to play and have opportunities and have access to
playing in college. Then you talk about going on to professional sports, and
when you get into that space, you're talking about pay equity and resource allocation
and things like that. We've done a really great job. We have a
number of women who are incredible in our senior leadership directors throughout our department.
Leaders throughout the department that impact what we do on a regular basis. Us
having an opportunity to sit in leadership spaces, and our voice is being heard
and considered in the decision making process. You know those things that's been improvement
for Michigan State. When I first took over my role, obviously Ad Haller
wasn't the ad at that time he was a deputy, but I worked closely
with him and reported to him from day one, and we looked at the
demographics of the department. We looked at the demographics of the leadership room,
and we said, not only from a race and gender standpoint, but even
just an experience standpoint, we needed to broaden what that space looked like because
we didn't have enough perspective and voice in the room. And now you know,
we've done some incredible things to highlight the different experiences and different skill sets
that we have throughout the department. And that includes a number of women in
our department, you know, I mean, it's it's incredible. Everybody talks
about my sons and the recruiting process, but you know one thing that oldest,
Shay, you and myself all have a kind of we are all girl
dads, by the way, all of us now. My heart is my
daughter, my youngest, and these two definitely have our daughters up and coming,
and we can't wait to see them, you know, as they begin
to mature and all that, and and maybe you know, in the field
of play and some sport one where or another, because their dads are pretty
good at what they did obviously well. And I think I'll tell you I'll
add to that, not only just that you all have the experience and the
perspective, but that the access to opportunities has changed, right the way that
we can advocate for women and young girls, you know, having you know,
we I love hearing like girl dads. So I have three sisters,
four girls. So my dad didn't have anything but girls, and so he
didn't he didn't have a choice. But knowing that we're in a space and
place where you all have a platform where people like me have a platform to
advocate for women girls in sport to say this is what we want to celebrate,
this is what they deserve, this is what value they bring to the
space, that becomes important too, because I think people sometimes forget that you
need the allies in the room. Right So we can have a room full
of women, but we need the men who also speak up for us,
who speak our names and rooms that we're not in, or say hey,
I think this person has some valuable perspective to add, why don't we ask
them or involve them or include them? And so I think that that's critical,
not just for those who are girl dads, but also those who sit
in spaces where they can they can advocate and speak on behalf of maybe women
who aren't in the room bringing them into those spaces. Absolutely. Yeah,
doctor Baker, I know you know you did your research on a huge topic
that on recruiting in football. College football is college athletics, but more so
for black mothers. I mean, can you kind of dive deep on statistics
analytics on kind of which you found in that research that you know, you
see that's happening today and how it's evolved, but also how it can improve
moving forward. Sure. So technically my dissertation was a qualitative one, so
I didn't do a lot of numbers, but the data is actually why I
did the research that I did. I spent a number of years being a
director of student athlete Services and I worked primarily with men's basketball and football,
and I kept having these interactions with mothers when they came on campus, particularly
for those male sports, where they were super quiet, they didn't really ask
a lot of questions. But then they leave campus and they call me back
and they you know, it was Ashley back then I went to doctor Baker
yet and they're like, Ashley, I have these questions, and I kept
wondering, what is it about this space that we've created where these moms aren't
asking questions like while we're there, or they're asking outside of it. And
so I knew right the lack of representation of women in football spaces whenever I
always show up. When I was working with the men's basketball team. This
is when I was at Bowling Green the majority of my career working with them
and traveling with them. He was the only woman who was ever on the
road with them, and a lot of times when we were doing things as
a team, if it was me and then if the coaches wives came and
so I recognized that that lack of representation of them seeing women in those spaces,
and then in particular seeing black women in those spaces was very rare,
and so that's what actually had me dive into that research. I also have
a son, he's sixteen now. He's played sports for all of his life.
He's played football, basketball, and baseball, and so the way that
women and mothers navigate male dominated spaces was really important to me. And so
when you look across the landscape of college athletics, there's more women in leadership
now, but you're still looking at an industry where you know, we're fifty
years outside of Title nine and less than fifty percent of assistant coaches and a
low percentage of head coaches are women, and then administrators and coaches in athletics
there's not as many women. The numbers have increased over time, so we're
making progress, but not seeing themselves reflected in these spaces continues to create some
distance and some barriers to even being able to communicate with coaches, being able
to communicate with administrators when they're on campus. So that's really what brought me
into that space I navigated. I've navigated this world. I've always been a
black woman who has either been one of the only black people in the room
or one of the only women, and majority of the times the only black
women, and so I wanted to do research. They gave voice to the
experiences of black women in a space that I knew, and other mothers that
I interviewed their sons has signed letters of intent to attend Power five institutions.
So that was important to me too, that we're talking about high level football.
The mothers navigating these spaces, and they had a lot of really interesting
things to say about how they were treated as women and how they were treated
as mothers and the assumptions made about them as women in spaces where it was
male dominated. Stuff. Good stuff, good stuff. Yeah, that is
very interesting. And you know, like everybody here, you know, you
went on visits, you took your mama with you. The mama has like
that final edge say in kind of things. So I think it's very important
that you know, there's that connection, is that platform that you know they
can feel free to you know, ask questions and you know, for the
right guidance of uh of their kids, you know, going to that next
level. Real quick, I want to just ask you a quick question before
you jump off here about you know, not race in sports. You see
a lot of sports. You see football, You see it at the NFL
level, the college level. The majority of people in the NFL, there's
seventy two percent of the players are black in the NFL. But the coaches
there's not a lot of minority or black coaches, you know, in their
same thing with college. You know, how what do you think has to
happen in order to you know, knock on that door, kick down those
barriers to get more and more minority coaches, you know, the opportunity for
head coaching jobs. So there's a couple of things. The first thing,
and I'll quickly share, right, when you think about the people who are
hiring in these positions, there has to be diversity reflected in that space.
You know, when we hire in college athletics, we use search firms.
We in NFL does this, to NBA, lots of sport organizations do this.
We're using search firms. And you know, our presidents are very involved,
our athletic directors are very involved. And so when you start to look
at the leadership at all level, it's not extremely diverse. So when you
have the majority of college presidents, right, if you look at the one
hundred and thirty or so FBS institutions, only sixteen percent of those college presidents
are people of color' that's including and beyond black. And so when you're looking
at that, who their network of people are. And then you look at
athletic directors, there's very few black athletic directors at the college level, and
so that networks, that net has to be cast why, and so I
think some of that is the representation in the leadership. The other pieces.
We have to be able to look beyond, you know, some of the
things that we typically look at, right we have to look at skills that
we have to look at experience. I know right now there's a lot of
commentary over the Indianapolis Colts and the coach that they just hired as the interim.
Like I just saw a question of like when was there a black player
whoever went into a role of an analyst and consultant for a team that hopped
right to being a head coach. And so when you think about that,
there are dynamics and ways in which black coaches and black athletes are measured that
are very different than their white counterparts. And so some of that has to
go right the stereotyping and the ways in which we evaluate and stereotype black coaches
and black athletes, and we have to expand our thoughts on what their value
is and how they see themselves and how we see them in leadership positions,
and then the representation of the people who are hiring simply have to see more
diversity at that level because I think when you get to that level and you
have a different type of experience, you look and evaluate candidates in a different
way. Dot, I think that was a beautiful point there. I mean,
when I first saw Adam Schefter break the Jeff Saturday gonna be the new
head coach of or the interim coach of the coach, I thought it was
a joke. I had to make sure it was in April first, honestly
did That doesn't again any sense to me, But that's a great point.
Now I have the question for you. You know, with your your your
research and the things that you've learned about the experience for black women in the
recruiting process, is this something that you actively work with the coaching staffs right
now to help them have a better experience for those families. Yes and no.
Uh, there's some of the coaches that I work much closer with.
I do work outside of Michigan State as well with working with coaches, sometimes
high school coaches. Obviously, because of NCAA rules, I'm not actively helping
with recruiting, but helping connect with parents who need a better understanding of the
recruitment process and navigating what's happening. I've done it, you know. I
have a niece and a nephew. My nephew play college football. My niece
is playing college volleyball right now, and I spent a lot of time with
my sister. I'm like, ask these questions, look for these things.
So I do some of that within our department and working with some of our
teams. Want to also be able to have conversations with those parents, to
talk to those parents about the things that we're doing at Michigan State to help
give them a broader picture of what this institution offers for their students, what
our leadership and our our you know, athletic administration focuses and goals are.
So I do some of that, but I do do a lot of this
working with high school athletes and their families outside of HERECT. Yeah, so
I know we have we have mothers that listen to the show right now.
We have mothers who kids are getting recruit right now. So you just hints
at you said when your nieces and nephews going you were saying, you don't
ask these questions. What questions would you say if you could say, like
two or three questions that are must ask these mothers have to ask when they
go to these universities. For any mothers that's listening with kids that are getting
recruited right now. Yeah, So the first thing what I made my sister
do and my nieces and nephews do was what's important to you in a school?
Right? Is it? The location? Is it? The major?
Is it? The coaching staff? Is it? The you know, opportunity,
is it? Exposure? What? What is it? You want?
A big school, small school? So the first piece that's really important is
to identify what's important to you and what you want in an experience as a
family, as a player, you might want the experience of the coaches,
whatever it is, and use that as a guide for how you go in
and ask questions. So you always want to ask questions about you know,
the ex's and o's are gonna be taught, right, We're gonna we're gonna
know what position, We're gonna know what the offense is, the defense,
right, we know all those things, but asking questions about support staff?
What support staff is in place to help our student athletes. As it relates
to academics and education, you know, there are some institutions where they push
and guide student athletes into particular majors. Is your major there? Are you
going to be able to major in it? There are institutions across this country
where they, you know, may say that doesn't fit really well with our
program, and it's a sad reality, but it's a reality asking questions about
experiences outside of participating in sport. What type of holistic experience will that student
have? Right, we know you're going to class, we know you're going
to practice. Are you getting career development? Do you have opportunities to study
abroad? Do you have opportunities to have internships? Right? Because once those
four, five, six, however many years are done, whatever you move
on to do, whether it's professional sport or not, there is a skill
set that you need to have and experiences that you should have at a time
when you're eighteen to twenty two that can really set you up positively for your
future. And the exposure to other things throughout campus, exposure to things in
the community are really important for holistic development of student athletes. So those are
the things, right, all the things outside of sport. The sports stuff
takes care of itself. Yes, you care about you know, who's ahead
of me in the depth chart, who's you know coming in maybe in my
recruiting class. But all of those other things have to be questions as well
when you're thinking about what that experience is going to be. We have the
transfer portal now, so it's a little bit different in that, like maybe
you get somewhere and you can leave if you want, but that's still you
don't want to bounce around. You want to really be intentional about how you
align your values and your priorities with what that institution has to offer. Wow,
hey, we need to we need to save, we need some more
time, We need a whole show because this is a lot of good stuff
here. We need a whole entire hour just to block this off here.
And you don't have people even fire questions about I got on once, maybe
I can get on again. Yeah, well you said, you said an
important thought, and I know, well, well, we'll let you go
and appreciate you spending time with us. But it's I think we're forgetting that
you have to make the decision about the institution. Can I be here for
four years if a coach leaves or staff leaves. Am I in love with
the city and I love with the university and what it's going to provide me?
And I think that you know all the transfer portal and in the nil
stuff is kind of overshadowing, like you still have to make a business decision
on like can I spend my future here for four to five to six years?
And you made a good point there of like those are those are questions
that need to be asked. That's outside of the football because you're here on
campus. They know you can ball, they know what you fit into their
system. And so great point, doctor Baker. We appreciate you. I
appreciate you obviously, and so we're going to have to fire got ways to
do a little segment thing. We got to you know, once a month,
we got doctor Baker segment coming up. You know, I'm with it.
I'm with it, just a little special feature once upon. Definitely much
Yeah, thank you all for having me appreciate it. All right, Yeah,
that was very very good man. We could talk to her, I
mean for hours. I think it's real deep man, when you talk about
making that college decision. And she talked a little bit about does this fit
with your schedule, your football or basketball, whatever sports you play. Does
the extracurricular things you want to do, be it your major or career development
things, you know, internships, does that really fit? How many stories
have you heard across the country with your friends. Though they told me I
could do this major as soon as I signed. I mean, that's a
part of the deal, right, I say, Jay, what did John
L tell us? Man, I don't want to put him on fresh Street,
but he's starting off recruiters and told us a whole bunch of stuff.
And then when you get into the system and he goes, otis, you
like that otis? You know it's it's education first, football second. That's
the thing that he would do. He's like, you're a student first and
an athlete second, and he'd be like, god lord, But no,
that was a good one, man, that was a good one. That's
the truth of it. No, that's a very great segment. We got
to figure something out to have doctor Baker on more often, and you know,
I think that that will put a bow on this show. The recap
for the Illinois game, big win for the Spartans, and hopefully that can
carry over as we get ready to talk about Rutgers next week. Don't forget
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hosts Otis Wilie and Jay you to culchrit. I'm Jason Straehorn. This is
Sparta of good Night, God bless and go White. H