Be following is a presentation of play fly Sports properties height twenty four to seven
lead and you guys did have five hundred and forty yards of offense. When
did you sense it it might be slipping away? And the last drive and
regulation when you got down looked like it might be a player to try to
get in the center of the of the goalposts and it didn't wind up there.
Can you talk about that drive? Yeah, you know, I don't.
I don't feel like I ever felt like it was slipping away. I
still was, you know, it was one hundred percent convinced we're gona win
the game. Uh. You know, it's a tieball game with about six
minutes left, and you know, so we're going to win the game.
We're going to going down the field to win it. You know, we
went down the field obviously, you know we were able to finish the drive
off. Uh, and yeah, we called a play to the right.
I haven't watched the film, so I'm not I'm not quite sure on what
happened. I you know, I kind of looked back. I saw we
had you know, maybe a little penetration. I'm not sure, but you
know, either way, you know, I don't know. Interesting words from
quarterback Peyton Thorn after the heartbreak loss on Senior Day in the Woodshed against the
Hoosiers of Indiana thirty nine to thirty one in double overtime. Spartans lose yet
another game after a two game win streak, heartbreaking loss. I'm your host
Jason Straehorn along with my co host Jayu Caulcrick. This is Sparta. Jayu
will get right into it, hit this thing head on. It was disappointed,
to say the least. The performance offensively and defensively, and most importantly
the special teams were a big disappointment for Michigan State this weekend. Yeah,
absolutely, big, big disappointment. That was just if you're a Spartan fan,
if you're a former player or anything associated with Michigan State. That was
just a big, big kick in the gut, you know that game.
And you know, just like Peyton said in that in that post game press
conference there, you know, I was like him. There was no point
in time where I was like, man, we're gonna lose this game.
I just I felt like, wow, you know, we're making an easy
game hard and but unfortunately didn't come away. You know, you go from
you know, being in a position to become Bowl eligible and the next week,
you know, you're playing for an opportunity to play somewhere warm either you
know, maybe in Arizona somewhere or in Florida somewhere extend your season. But
now you're going on the road in a hostile environment in state college at Happy
Valley. You know, with your lifeline on the on the line. There,
So tough, tough game. Tough game. Yeah, definitely a tough
game. Spartans now five and six and yet one more game to play for
that all important sixth victory to be Bowl eligible. As you just said,
Jayu, as a travel to Happy Valley. We're gonna break down this game
here in a second. But you know, be sure to follow us on
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No pool That's all I can advise. And if you don't know,
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I hop. I had friends in town from Oklahoma this weekend and went
to the Playfly Hospitality tent there and you know, the first thing you get
there nine thirty in the morning, you know, a nice buffet set up
food. Those pancakes are on point. You know, the different uh,
different syrups, bacon, everything. Big shout out to you, I hope
made me look like a VIP. My guest felt like VIP, you know,
in that tent and having that good food. Gotta love I hop,
we love him absolutely, thank you. We love you man. We're gonna
get right into this. The defense had struggles today Saturday against the Hoosiers.
You look at the mobile quarterback Dexter Williams, the guy who just torched Michigan
State defensively with his legs. Did not do it through the air j au,
but definitely with his legs. Yeah. Absolutely. You see over here,
you know, just a simple you know, he's faking the jet sweep.
It's a modification of a zone read, but going with the jet sweep
there and you know you got to stay home. You got to have a
spy on him, and you can't let a quarterback. You know, Torch,
you like that, so you know, kudos to him. You know
he's had himself a day running the ball. But you know, defensively we
have to you know, corral and you know tackle the ball carrier. Nex
to Williams sixteen carries for a net of eighty six yards, actually had one
hundred and thirteen with his legs, but was sacked. In you know,
college football, the sacks count against the rushing total, so eighty six net
shows up in the stat sheet. But just an elusive guy all day long.
Did not beat him with his arm at all, only seven yards through
the air until the second overtime. But plays like this bad angle there by
Xander Henderson try to click his heels to get him out of bounds. They
reviewed that play not to be not to go to Spartans way. Somehow it
still was seven total for Indiana early in that ball game. Then you look
at the next play by Sean Shivers defensive break this play down here, Ja,
Yeah, it's just the guys being you know, defensively, Guys not
in position to make the play, Guys getting sucked in and putting themselves in
way to be blocked. There. This is something that should have been you
know, no more than a gain of three yards there. You have guys
crashing down. Linebackers aren't scraping over the top to get in position there.
You know, you have to read your keys defensively, and we did not
do that on this play. Defensively, you know when the when the line's
crashing down that linebackers should be scraping over the top there to get in positioned
to make this play. Yeah, that's cal howadays missing a tackle? Yeah,
And you know when you look at this play, you know we're the
very beginning the design of it. When you look in Indiana, how they
set up. Yeah, trips to the left, we're in press coverage and
then receivers flew out wide to the right. There's only five defenders in the
box on that play. And how many offensive linemen do we have on any
given play? Right? But you know the thing is too you see the
guard and tackle or pulling. You know, as a linebacker you should be
in there for you read those keys, you know, follow the polers.
The guards will take you to the play. A lot of the times,
you know, there's no fullback in there to take you to the play.
So you have to read your keys. The line pulled and you know how
they got sucked inside. I'm not sure what he was seeing or if he
just lost the ball, but he should have been you know outside there to
either, you know, take on one of those blocks and hope the other
people come a corral to the tackle. But that did not happen obviously,
so you know, not a you know, the run defense was not there
for Michigan State this game. Yeah, it seemed like the players played a
little stiff, little cold, not really getting after it at this point.
This is in the third quarter, right here, right after halftime, when
Michigan State has a seventeen point lead. At this point, this is where
Indiana cuts it to and we go to another defensive play. Not really a
defense play. This is a special teams When you look at this one,
Jalen Lucas kickoff return. You know, all game long, the special teams
is a killer from Michigan State. You know, starting with the very opening
kickoff. Michigan State won the coin toss deferred to the second half. They
kick the ball off at the beginning, and you know, Lucas has a
big kick return, getting Indiana in positive yards and then you know, they
go back again. Michigan State ends up scoring, you know, puts it
up thirty one to fourteen. You know, kick the ball off and this
happens. We have guys running down and not having contained. That's the issue
that you see. You just have the guys on the outside the ones they
should have contained outside, the twos. Inside there's numbered from the outside end
one, two, three, four, five and whatever side. If you're
in the right year our one, R two, R three, R four,
R five, our four and five and four and five. Those guys
are what they call ball men. Those guys are designated to hok and seek
to the ball like a heat seek and missile. We have guys over there
that are getting blocked. So those guys are not in position to make the
plays because they're getting blocked and you have to avoid, you know, if
the defender, whoever the way the defender's coming at you, you avoid to
the right and get back in your lane. We had people avoiding and staying
on blocks and not getting back in their lane. So that's why big plays
happen like this on special teams because guys are in staying in their lanes and
when they avoid like this, you should be avoiding to the right of the
defender and then get back in your lane. But we didn't have that happen.
So and this is what happens when you don't you know, do your
job on kickoff cover. Just an unbelievable play right there. That's I mean,
that was like an eighty yard return. The play before that was seventy
yards. Ye shivers from the offensive side of the ball. Big plays for
Indiana kept them in the ballgame. And you look at the overall stats,
Michigan State had five hundred and forty yards of total offense to Indiana's two hundred
and eighty eight yards. When you look at the stats JAU just looking at
ninety plays for five hundred and forty yards fifty one plays for two hundred and
eighty eight yards. You look at time possession, Indiana twenty three minutes twenty
three seconds the Michigan State's thirty six minutes and twenty five It's like that's a
that's a season high possession time possession for Michigan State, and yet they lose
the ballgame. When you look at just the stats, you know, nine
of eighteen on third downs to three or twelve when you look at those stats.
Could you who could possibly think that Michigan State would lose that ball game
if you look at it from a statistical standpoint, You know, that's what
That's a great question. You know if you lined up Ray Charles, and
you lined up Stevie Wonder and you tell and you read those stats to them
and they just listening to you, would everyone would say, oh, yeah,
Michigan State one. You know, they control the game with the time
of possession, They controlled the first down, They had two running backs over
one hundred yards Russian, They had over five hundred total yards of offense.
The opposing team only had two hundred something yards of turn off. There's no
way that Michigan State loses this game. That's what you say. A blind
person, you know, can can you know diagnosed that this will be a
win for Michigan State if you have those those stats. But obviously that was
not the case. And at the end of the day, you have to
play well on all three phases of the game, offense, defense, and
special teams. I think the offense came to play, the defense did not,
and the special teams did not either, not at all. And you
look at the special teams one of the hidden yardage points. So statistically,
if you look at it will be the kickoff return yards. Michigan State two
kickoff returns for forty yards, Indiana six kickoff returns one hundred and ninety two
yards. You know, Nick Sabe's always say every hundred yards offense, don't
matter where it is, equals six points. It's generally what you said.
So right there, you're talking about a twelve to fourteen point swing in just
kick return yardage. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta look at it though,
you so you know that stat that you said, Coach Savian would say,
you know, so they had you know, they had almost two hundred yards
of kick or kick return yardage. So let's look at once for a touchdown.
The second one was setting up a touchdown in the second play, you
know, putting them in that position, you know, to have Michigan stays
on the hills the very second play of the game. So that's where those
hidden yardage is happening. A lot of people want to focus on offense and
defense heide of the ball, and sometimes the special teams get lost in the
mix. There. Special teams don't get as much time in practice as it
deserves, but at the end of the day, those hidden yards and those
things can cost you games. And that's what it did today on Saturday against
Indiana, no doubt. You look at the offensive performance of Michigan State running
the ball wasn't so bad. You had the the killer Bees this time.
This was actually Jalen Berger and Elijah Collins combined for over two hundred yards.
Berger twenty one carries, one hundred and nineteen yards net. Elijah Collins had
a day nineteen carries, one hundred and seven yards and two touchdowns for Elijah
Collins. You know, we're going to get into the breakdown of the offensive
side of the ball, and you look at this particular first play fleet flicker
to Keon Cohlan. See the running game was working. They respected the running
game. So these plays work early on. You know, you see this
play here because it's the first play of the game. It's a product of
the last two weeks of Michigan State has rushed the ball for over one hundred
yards in both those games. And now this is why something like this happen,
and a good job. It's just a little wrinkle to the flea flicker
here because if you see that play, you see Thorn hand the ball to
Burger and slides a little to his left make it looks like he's running out
of the way. So what's gonna happen is that defense is going to collapse
in a ball carrier and take away the pressure from from Thorn. So Thorn
needs to get some more air under that give us receivers a chance to catch
and run. You know, he can't hang that up too long. But
you know, that's a great job. You know, open up the game
with excitement, open up the game, get everyone into it, get the
offense into it. And that's what happened here. Like I said, Michigan
States offense did a tremendous job. You know, this game. The offensive
line played well, the running backs played well, Thorn played well. The
receivers you know, they made big plays, you know, just like this
one here. So you know, kudos to the offense for Michigan State.
But you can't, you know, at the end of the day, it's
a whole it's a whole, cohesive unit game. I think that you know,
what you're saying is partly true, Jay, Mostly they played good.
Express seeing that first half of the game, when you live at the offensive
performance, but it was very up and down when you look at the game
and you start watching the film again. Here we're gonna show the third down
and goal situation that Michigas State was in early in the ball game that that
did not work. Peyton Thorn rolls out on a little little bootleg, can't
find anybody and throws the ball away. And what do you see next?
Well, fourth and goal and look at where the ball is. This is
irly. Take a mental note of this right here. The kicker we can't
call his name, easy chip shot from the ten ish yard line and the
left hash he makes it. How about that Jayu? Yeah? And you
know Thorn had he had Malie Carr on this on this play, so if
he just if he just you know, catch that ball sets Melie Carr opens
up. What Car did was as a as a receiver, you have to
find the soft spot, especially when you're in the red zone, especially when
you're inside your ten in the end zone area there, you have to find
the soft spot. You can either break it out to find that soft spot
to see where the linebackers are, or just sit. And that's what Malik
Carr did. Melie Carr came out, turned down like he was blocking,
snuck out and just found the sweet spot. Boom right there throwing throws the
car. He had two guys right there, but he didn't do that,
and he kind of got rushed and he was pressed a little bit. But
you know he had car and bag and I'll read right there. Just throw
it, make it. Let your players make plays. Let your players make
place. Trust your players to make place in that situation there. Don't press
theirself and don't get out of your element. Yeah, you saw that when
he made the bootleg turn to his left and he saw the defensive line or
defensive end in his face a little bit not too close, he panicked a
little bit and decided to bail. I think you're right. I think that
he fell right here. Can make that throw. Set his feet and make
the throw. Yeah, even a pass like that straight Like I'm not a
quarterback, but I don't think you need to set your feet for a two
yard You know you're not throwing it too far. You don't just throw it.
Let your receivers make place. A little flick of the wrist, a
little flick of the wrist, just a flick of the wrist, you know,
right there, Boom, let your guys make place. You trust them
all the time to make place, trust them this time. Yeah, and
so this is the first half thing. Now, here's the end of the
first half. After two bad plays. You know, you look at second
and first and goal, second and goal. Let's see what Peyton Thorn does
here in the sequential order. He tries to use his legs to outrun the
defense. Not something that he's known for. Definitely not something known for.
And definitely don't race to that. If you're a quarterback. You know,
if you're running back, race to the pylon, that's great, but uh,
you know, second and goal, get what you can stick your foot
down and go. Same thing here now. Now he had a chance to
race to the pylon there on that play, but he decided from the previous
play to stick his foot in the ground and go. But you know,
you just gotta what a great catch, What a great catch? Hey,
Now, that's just like you talked about on the previous play on the other
side of the end zone, where he could have just let the ball go
and make it. Let us guys make a play. That's exactly what we're
talking about right there. Because Keon Coleman has covered on that play. But
it's key. You know, you have Kean, you have Jaden Reed and
Kean. You'll take them one on one any day against whoever and allow them
to make a play. He didn't do that on the previous play. This
one he does do. But the decision for Payton, it's a little up
and down in his decision making process, like, Okay, I'm gonna try
to run the ball, use my legs. Now I'm gonna stop and cut
back in instead of trust my speed. You know, I'm going to the
right and to the left. And then now, okay, I'm just gonna
trust my receiver. I'm gonna stare at him, but I'm gonna trust him.
And he makes the play. Yeah, exactly. That's one of those
places you know, they line him up and say my guy's better than your
guy, and we're gonna we're gonna prove it right here. And he threw
to Coleman. And that's why it's so disappointing and so frustrating to see that
the previous drive going to the tunnel end zone there when he had two guys
wide open and didn't trust it and trust himself to make that play, so
it's like you hit on It's that inconsistency. That's why Michigan State's in the
hole that we're at right now. And at the end of the day too.
I know we're talking a lot about you know, the players, you
know, executing on on the field, but we also also have to put
some of the strain and pressure on the coaches to put these players in the
best position to be successful. All right, I am not as an offensive
coordinator. I am not gonna be at my own two yard line when I
have a back like Elijah Collins that's a bruiser. I'm not gonna sit in
the gun or and run a zone out and run a zone read, you
know, to put the ball in my quarterback's hand to run it. If
I'm gonna do anything with the ball in the quarterback's hand, it's gonna be
throw the ball. But if not, I'm gonna hand the ball to my
backs and say you go and you get two yards. The coaches have to
put these players in the best position to be successful, and we did not
do that offensively at times. That's why there were some of those points that
were you know, taking off the board that we couldn't get and also to
that's why we're in a position to have to kick field goals because we need
to put our heads down. Run the damn football. Run the damn football.
If you're on inside the the five yard line, you have a bruising
back that's proven time and time again that he can pick up those tough yards.
Run the damn football four times in a row. Let your old line
do their thing. I agree with you, no doubt about it there.
I mean, you talk about fourth down conversions for Michigan State in this ball
game, one of four on fourth downs. I mean, we could do
a whole show breaking down the fourth down plays and it will make you sick,
as coach Mel Tucker loves to say, watching the film of the fourth
down plays as an offensive lineman, I know for you as a running back,
ju it makes you sick because personnel wise, ability wise, we have
the players. The structure and the intensity in which they go about the business
gives them no chance in order to convert. Now, five percent is unacceptable
on fourth down. Those are hidden turnovers, right, that's a turnover.
That's the reason why straight is we try to be too damn c Yeah,
you know, we try to be too cute for we try to play Trickham
Dickham offense on fourth down as opposed to you know, doing the bread and
butter. You're in the Big ten. It's cold outside. You run the
football when you run down Bill, you you have two backs for two hundred.
Indiana did not want to tackle these guys when they're going downhill. These
running backs were finally sticking the foot in the ground and getting north and south.
We have to run the football. You're playing Big ten football. Yeah,
look at the second half of this ball game. We're talking about the
inconsistencies of Michigan State offensively. Here is we open up the second half early
in the second third quarter and Peythorne makes a good decision. Is great route
by Barker, just missus the ball. That's third down and sixth instead of
third down conversion first down and ten from roughly the forty seven yard line.
You have to punt the ball. Yeah, this play right here is just
all it's all mental. It's all mental on Barker's part there. You know,
that's an easy pitch and catch. You can't let you can't be like,
Okay, we're up seventeen we can be lethargic out here. It's all
mental. You have to, you know, make a good throw like Thorn
did, a good read, good throw, put the ball in the right
position. It's you know, he has to come up with this catch.
Barker has to come down with this catch. There's no excuse for it whatsoever,
No, none at all. And then then you move on to the
touchdown run here. Now look at look at this. The offensive line looks
great. Here. You got Elijah Collins running with a full head of steam,
strong, great balance. Look at how look he doesn't get touched until
he's four or five yards down the field. You know, there's a drill
that you do for this this play exactly. And if you're running backs,
if you're running back, if you're running backs, coach, get this clip
here and show your running backs. And all you do is you hold two
bags together. You blow the whistle. The back puts his nose against that
pump is like pumps, like pumps, like puns. Bleg pump, blow
the whistle. It opens up. This is the exact same thing you practice
day in and day out. Elijah Collins did that exactly. His offensive line.
We're making movement look at that. The offensive line pushes the guy three
four years downfield. Collins is patient back in there, grab their back.
His legs are moving. The reason why I say pump your legs is so
the people that are falling down can't have a still target to grab a hold
of. You keep your legs moving, and once you see daylight, boom,
you explode through that. And that's exactly what Collins did here. And
the thing that pisses me off is we can be you know, on our
forty yard line, our thirty yard line and run the ball like this,
but then we get inside the five and the inside the two, we decided
we want to be cute and do zone runs and put the ball of our
best players hands. The coaches have to put the players in the best position
to be successful. Gotta be downhill. That's when you're most dangerous, especially
with a team like Indiana who really doesn't have an answer for you. If
you go mono, I mono, and just lean against him and come fire
off the ball and press them like you did there. I mean, the
offensive line looked beautiful coming off the ball. That was a tremendous surge right
there and gave Elijah Collins all that room and you said, just kept its
legs moving and the crease happens. He didn't. He wasn't looking for cutbacks.
You see later on in the game and when the game's on the line,
he starts looking for cutbacks because the line wasn't coming off with that same
intensity. And you're having those those zone read runs, those those outside zone
plays on fourth and one that are mind boggling to guys like you and me.
Look at look at what happens right after that touchdown. Michigan State has
the ball. Now now it's you know, the kick return has just happened.
It's ten point game here and Peyton Thorn that was ball. It gets
tipped and Indiana comes down with it. Mh. This is a huge play
in the third quarter. The tip drill here. You have the young freshman
Jeremy Bernard here just didn't seem look a little bit out of sorts there.
Ball hits him. He kind of falls down. Looks like the moment was
a little big for him right there. Pissed down your leg absolutely, ball
down. Now you hit your hands, get it down. Yeah, you
knock it down. I mean, man, this play here, if you
see too and this is like, this is getting greedy. You know,
my Grandpapy will always say you never go broke taking a profit. And with
what that means is, you know, you work your way down for you
take what the defense gives you. If you look at this play here,
you see Malik Carr in middle of the field on the hash wide open.
You know it's gonna be a six yard game. You know, boom right
there, throw it. You never go broke taking the profit. You never
go broke taking the profit. That's like a if you throw the car and
he gets tackled right there, that's a that's like a good five yard run.
All right, throwing needs to stop and look staring down his receiver and
go through his his reads. You know, unfortunately the ball was tipped and
everything like that, but you know that happened. But you know, you
you make it easy in yourself, you know, don't put yourself in a
position to to you know, have the stress. You know. That's like
I said earlier, it's like the Spartans trying to find a way to make
an easy game hard and any way that we could even at this point here,
all Indiana wanted to do was get out of town. It was cold,
they were on a seven game losing streak, and we made it tough
and kept them in a game and gave him something to believe in. And
you can't do that if you're gonna be a good team, if you're gonna
be a contender, you have have to find ways to step on team's throats
when they're down. And we did not do that this past Saturday. No,
I mean after this interception, Indiana was able to go down kick the
field goal to bring it within one score late in the ball game. Then
going into more offensive play from Michigan State, you see Elijah Collins now here
with a little cutback run and not being able to get anything. This is
third in goal, third in goal from Michigan State here with thirty three seconds
to go in the ball game. Everyone talked about this. This is what
we opened with with Xander Henderson up there with Peyton Thorn, and Peyton said,
hey, the play was to go to the right. I was trying
to get out of there, you know. So what everyone's want to know,
where was that ball getting centered? Was it trying to get centered for
Ben Patten to make the kick looks like it was, And yeah, yeah,
you know, I think that the thought process in this was this,
we're gonna we have a left foot, a kicker or our kicker you know,
has struggled all year. What we're gonna do is we're gonna try to
run a ball. We're gonna center the ball in the middle of the field.
We're gonna run a play that's designed to go to the right, and
if we break it for a big one to the right, great, If
not, we're gonna be centered and uh be in a position to kick a
field goal and win the game and get out of there on senior Day.
But as much as I praise Elijah Collins, as much as I love the
guy as a back, you you you're a senior, you have to know,
but this is a freshman mistake. This is something that happens when you're
a freshman or a sophomore. Even that, because, like I said,
another quote from my grandpappy, we forget that objective is to drain the when
we're up to our ass and alligators all right, and something else. Absolutely,
you know, Elijah Collins at that time forget the objective is to win
the game. He didn't have to win it himself. I know, I
get it. I've been a running back. I've been in that position there
where I actually cost us a game. You're feeling that, you're feeling your
mojo, you're rushing over one hundred yards a senior day. You want to
put that explanation point on it. But at the end of the day,
you have to do what what plays called. And that's why football is the
most selfless game you can play out there, because it takes eleven guys to
do everything right and what they're supposed to do for five seconds. There's no
other game like that. And that time there were ten guys doing what they
were supposed to do, and one guy did not do what he was supposed
to do. And like I said, you forget the objective is to drain
the swamp. When you're up to your ass in alligators to you, I
want you to look at this play again. So if he keeps this play
play side, he goes to the right, the blockings there, the blockings
there, it's absolutely there. I think he can score. He could go
bounce to the right, go scoop and if he even has to go chase
the pylon, he could do that. But the blocking was there. The
play is there. There's no need. There's one guy and there's four defenders
on the left. There's no need to go on to the left. There
the blocking is there. You just have to go. And I get it.
I've been in Elijah Collins' shoes before. All the praise I give him,
I have to give him some of the blame on this because I love
the kid. I want him to come back again next year. I think
he's a hell of a back. But that time he had to run the
play that was called yeah, which then leads us to the all important field
goal. Look, hey, this is two yards deeper than the one that
we just showed a few moments back. It just had no chance. I
just no chance. You know, this is absolutely inexcusable. We cannot have
this, and everyone gives me grief because I have a gripe with kickers.
This here is why I have a gripe with kickers. You have one job
to do. It's your time now. And you know you had all the
he he's and ha ha has last week and now, Like my grandpappy would
also say, the same thing that make you laugh will make you cry,
And that's what happened right there. You have to be able to execute,
you have to be able to execute on all phases. I you know,
special teams at Michigan State has to get from the long snapper, the holder,
and the kicker. The only shining star in special teams is Bryce Berenger,
the punter, and I will even classify him as a defensive player as
opposed to special teamers. You know, you can't miss that. You're here
to do one job. In practice, you lolly gag around you. You
do all these drills on the side while everybody's you know, busting their butts
getting ready to put you in that position to be successful. And we talked
to this kicker last week and it's a lonely position. I get it.
But when you're called upon to do your part, you have to do your
part. Yeah, there's no if, hands or butts about it. You've
got to execute when it's your number and your numbers called in that situation right
there, super unfortunate for him and obviously for the seniors for that play.
Not deal not, that's not the only play that lost the game. But
let's let's let's be real. That is a makeable kick. Then you go
to overtime, you have a similar situation. You block the kick from Indiana
in the first overtime, and then it's a bad snap from Mission State,
a bad snap, just unbelievable, unbelievable special against them life. You see,
the students are out there with no shirts on, risking their own lives.
But the bad snap, I mean literally, we should in this position.
We should not have been in this position at this time, this point
of time in the game. We should have been back at the cars having
our favorite toddies to warm us up. These students should have been at the
land Shark or at Ricks already enjoying their victory. These seniors a bar,
at the graduate the rock bar. Absolutely, they should have been up there
at the rock bar and looking at Spartan State him saying, wow, we
just did what we just had Yes, exactly, we shouldn't have been in
this position at all. And we put ourselves in this position from not playing
in all three phases and from not being in the best position to be successful.
Is that what well we're gonna do too. Let's show like Spartan Nation
real quick, how two other programs were able to execute a last second field
goal this very day. DCU kicker comes out right, Yeah, TCU.
You know, let's play here. They called fast field teams practice this.
It's fast, he'll goal. The clock is running, you're out of timeouts.
You run your kicker out there. Your kicker now mentally knows his steps.
You know it's gonna be one, two, three, boom kick.
And you see that he didn't even have to pace him off. He knew
what yard line he had to be on. And and that's a guy that's
coment. That's a guy that's ready for the moment right there. Hey,
we're ranked four in the nation, we have a chance for the CFP.
This is on me. I'm gonna embrace this. Yeah, Spartans, we
need kickers that will embrace the moment. Absolutely, you talking about a guy.
They're ten and zero the seasons on the line right there, seven seconds
on the clock, no timeouts. They execute on the road by the way
road kudles to that special teams coordinator. Yeah, at those guys ready to
play. Then the school down the road. They have a similar situation at
home against Illinois. Illinois has him on the ropes. What happens here,
Well, Illinois blew that game. You know, all they needed was to
get a first down and they couldn't do that, and then Moody comes in
and does his job, does what he's supposed to do. That, folks,
is the difference. I know, it seems that it's a big gap.
It feels like it's a long way away. But Neil Tucker talks about
this, it's not that big of a difference between those teams that are at
the top aside from Georgia, the rest of those teams in the top five,
six, top ten, and then the rest of the country. It's
not that big of a delta as far as execution is concerned. Talent,
obviously, is something that we have to continue to work on. Having recruits
there this past weekend and watching that game, you hate to see that.
You hate the temperature's cold. The one thing that's gonna warm those young guys
up is a nice victory party at the end of the ball game, and
they weren't able to do that. JAU just a tough overall game for Michigan
State football wise. Yeah, absolutely, And you know one of the big
things is, you know, some someone people could be watching this and say,
wow, these guys are tough on these players. You know, I
get it, you know, I've been in that position. I've been criticized,
I've been praised, I've been cheered, I've been booed. It would
not be doing us. This is not that our show is. You know,
we love the Spartans were from Michigan State, you know, but we're
just like a fan sitting back at home. We frustrated as well. We
see that and we talk about it. You know, this is the type
of we want that atmosphere with this show, this barbershop feel where you you
talk sports, you talk about it. But you know that's all we can
do. You know, we wouldn't be the show that we are. We
wouldn't be the former players that we are, if we're not talking like it
is. Because you can go through your group text for former players, I'll
go through mine and it's you know, this whole conversation you're talking about that,
and I think you know, if you're a fan, this is something
that you would appreciate as a fan. So you know, we're gonna keep
it straight with you. We're gonna tell it like it is. You know,
when it's good, it's good. When it's bad, we'll say it.
Yeah, we're gonna say it. We're gonna tell you how it is
because we want what's best for those young men, because we understand how to
end of this story goes, too. We understand what it feels like to
walk around campus having made those plays, and we also understand how it is
to walk around campus having not made those plays. And I don't know about
you, J Well, I do know about you, Ju. I'll take
making the plays every time over not making the places in situations such as that,
because it can stay with you now. It doesn't define you unless you
allow it to define you. But in situations like that, you have to
stay in the moment and do what you've been trained to do. Do not
think about what it's gonna be like if I make this, what it's gonna
be like if I make this block, if I do this touchdown, if
I cut back, don't think about all of what IFPs think about what you
need to do right now, right now, what not not a second from
now, right now, when you're in those moments. And that's how guys
like Kenneth Walker that you've seen a year ago were able to execute the way
they do. He doesn't think about the outside. He thinks about what he's
doing right there. That's why it works so hard every day. You know,
when we see things like that, we appreciate it as former players because
we know what it takes. It's really not focusing on something outside of what
everybody else thinks that you're not. You're not being extraordinary and thinking further.
You're being extraordinary by not thinking further. You know, you get more with
less, and that's what we want. We want what's best with the Michigan
State football players and any athlete in Michigan State because we understand how hard it
is on a daily basis to do what you do. You've got class,
you've got all these outside situations, social calendars, and coaches screaming at you,
guys like us, old fat guys like us talking bad about you.
But look, we also love you. We love you hard, and we
love you well. So on to more brighter news. Jay, you we're
gonna talk to you to get that nil money. Yeah, il money.
We're going to talk you know. I l yeah, un, that's you.
Basketball team, baby, We talked. We had a little show.
Otis nu. I got on there and did a little show about the Indianapolis
game, the big victory in double overtime, we had two double overtime games
this week. How about that which you say basketball over Kentucky just annihilated the
Wildcats and this double overtimes. They go on to beat Villanova at home,
had a big lead that kind of shrink a little bit from one seventy three
to seventy one. In Jayu, you and I talked about the debut.
What it was gonna be in the top twenty five? Did we not?
We did? We did? Jay You said, you know, look we
had a little argument on him. He said they're gonna be twenty one.
I said they're gonna be top fifteen, and you said, I said,
at least top twenty is what I said. You did? You did say
top fifteen. You did say that. I'll give you that top twelve.
Michigan State basketball makes his debut on the top twenty five at number twelve today
in the ap pole and our standing job. Funny thing at this football game
pregame, Coach Izza was down there, so I went up to him.
I was, you know, he he ha hid with him. I coach
you know, heck, hell, you know, you guys are the Cardiat
kids. Heck of a season so far. Man. He's like Hey,
hey, don't praise me yet. You know it's too early. And just
like that, it is too early, you know, So Top twelve enjoy
enjoy those. You're gonna get more primetime games as we have to learn to
finish. You know, we get these leads, we're a great first half
team, and then we're great end of the game. We can show resolved.
So let's let's have that consistency all the way through. But hey,
this team's gonna be fun to watch. I love watching them play defense,
and they look like they're having fun out there, and they look like a
close knit group that've been doing it for a long time and enjoyed themselves this
summer getting better. They look outstanding. You're right, fun to watch it.
Be sure to follow. This is part of MSU because Jayu's gonna have
some some nice tickets for you guys. Anybody wants to come to that nice
toasty Breslin Center to watch the Spartans get out there and annihilate the competition.
Don't forget to follow us on all of our social platforms. This is part
of MSU. You're talking Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and even
TikTok for the hip hop. The young ones. You know what I mean.
Every week we're on Thursday, Tuesdays and Thursday at eight pm on any
of those platforms, and you can also go to anywhere else that you get
your your podcast. Miss will be out west Man in Oregon at the philm
Night Invitational coming up on Thanksgiving. How about that nice? I think I
might subpribe to the podcast so I can win tickets to who games. You're
gonna be out there handing You're gonna be one handing them out. Then you
do. That's what I want to sit back and you know, win these
tickets and sit back. If I'm looking the podcast giving my tickets like this,
there's no other podcasts that does that. No, not like weekend in
week out. So you know, I'm gonna we're gonna patter ourselves in the
back because we take care of our fans. We take care of our subscribers.
Go to Seek and see the tickets. Look at the seats too.
We're not talking on those bleeds great seats. If you go to those socials,
you'll see some of our fans are followers that have won the tickets and
they taken pictures and say, hey, thanks, this is Sparta thank you
because and I think if I wasn't in the booth, I take those seats.
I definitely would all day long. Mister State plays Alabama on Thanksgiving night,
ten thirty pm Eastern. You know we're playing. They're gonna roll and
tie in basketball. Thank god basketball. But that's that's that's gonna be.
After my my Buffalo Bills take down the Detroit Lions. Oh my god,
sacriligious, you know, the State. So they had the game here,
talk about that ju The Buffalo Bills had to cancel their home game because it
was too much damn snow and come over to Detroit and play in the Detroit
in the Ford Field House against the Cleveland Browns. Yeah. I was at
that ball game. And you know, a great strategy by the by the
Bills. They were the home team, but they chose the visiting team sidelines,
they chose a visiting team locker room. So it's just like a test
run for them. They already won once there, you know, in Ford
Field. Now now it's an opportunity to come back on Thanksgiving and win again.
And for all the listeners out there that are Lions fan, you're not
a true fan if you're not throwing hate at me, you know, for
rooting against you guys. I want all the hate and all the heat that
you guys have after watching this, so when it's over, I can have
the last laugh at you guys. No, Jay, you definitely a glutton
for punishment. He loves this stuff and he knows they got Josh Allen over
there. They so so that's so be careful. That's why you're not getting
a lot of hate because you got a pretty damn good quarterback. Jay.
You also more issues for the tunnel, more tunnel issues from the school down
the road. This past weekend against Illinois, it was another issue in the
Michigan tunnel. At halftime, Red Bueloma came out of the locker room and
was yelling that Michigan was running late and yelled for all of the different officials
to hold Michigan back. But they let Michigan go and then Illinois was held
back and entered the field plate so built some issues in that tunnel. They
added two minutes onto the clock because Illinois had to come out late because of
it. Pile of hey. In the words of both old running backs coach
Bobby Williams slash head coach Michigan State straight horn. That's a pile. You
know what. That's crazy, man, I don't We still don't have to
figure out. You know, prosecutors got this and I mean, it's just
ridiculous. What's going on over there? And they got every coach. So
so it's what's the common denominator? We got Penn State pissed off, Michigan
State fight now Illinois problems. What's the common denominator? You tell me,
Jau, I don't know. Explain it to me like a mckinner gartner.
What is the common denominator in the tunnel incident? Oh? Maybe where it's
at, Maybe who it's against. They gotta figure this out. Man,
This is getting ridiculous. But we all know those guys. They do nothing
wrong. They invented the game of football. There you're all whatever, But
yeah, I'm done with that. I'm done with them. Let's move on.
I don't want to talk about Let's stop talking about him again. Michigan
State had the disappointing laws. Now five and six, one chance at redemption
as they go on the road, four pm kickoff in Happy Valley, and
we're gonna come back on Thursday night to talk more about that game. And
we're gonna have a special guests for everybody, a very special guest of Spartan.
Great. You know a guy who played in the Super Bowl too,
winn Yeah, super Bowl champion, Michigan State Spartan. That's the teaser for
Thursday. All right, pease it up, baby, I'm punching my pearls.
All right, everybody, let's put the ball on that one for jay
U coping on Jason Strayhorn. This is Sparta. Have a good night,
God blessed, and go Great, Go White.