The following is a presentation of play Fly Sports properties. Welcome to another episode
of This is Sparta. I'm your host Jason Straighthorn, along with my co
hosts Otus Wiley and Jayu to Chu Culchritt. We all know what the events
of last weekend were, and we're obviously going to get into Illinois as that's
the next game on the schedule, but we'd be remiss if we would not
continue to discuss the events that took place on Saturday night as they continue to
update in the marketplace. We've seen more suspensions, but we'll get into more
detail because one of our own Spartan Media Network colleague, longtime w JR personality
in the Detroit metro area market, Steve Courtney, joins us today and Steve
yes, sir, to the show. First of all, Steve, welcome,
Steve Hey, welcome fellas a real pleasure and might I say honor as
well. You're making me plush, Steve. That's a hard thing to do
there. J Absolutely, I know it's going to be just a regular day,
well as you know it's uh it's it's a regular great fall day right
now. But we still got some overcast from uh you know, the post
post game issue that that transpires. Steven On on the on the show last
yesterday, we discussed obviously what transpired and sold some video and then you know,
as we kind of rolled through, we we realized that our very own
it was in the middle of it all and saw kind of developed and also
kind of heard saw the post or middle and the post, and so we
wanted to kind of ask you, you know, one and you're on the
sideline, you know, kind of start in game and kind of seeing everything
festering up and the emotions being really high during this rivalry game, but just
kind of talk us and walk us through kind of everything leading up to what
happened in the tunnel. Well, you know what fellas you could feel the
temperature rising immediately after the game. You know, Michigan gets their first win
over US in three tries, and you know, it really wasn't for them,
in my opinion, a postgame celebration for the victory as it was going
out of their way to come towards US. There was some melees going on
on the field shortly after, and I'm thinking to myself at this point,
this has the potential of being a powder keg, so you know what that
goes on, and I start making my way to the ton Well, as
I'm walking up, I see Jamon Green in the tunnel as collectively as Spartans
were leaving, and I'm thinking to myself self, this is kind of odd
how he's here. I thought there was protocol as to how two teams leave
at Michigan Stadium. So not only is he walking amongst us, but he's
also spitting a little bit of venom. And I'm thinking, you know what,
with everything that just took place, and you're talking about obviously an in
state rivalry, two schools that really don't care for one another. We've had
some confrontation on the field, and now this, I'm under the impression,
with all the security that's on hand right there, that they had one priority,
and that priority was get these teams off the field one at a time,
Let Michigan State go we go, and then Michigan does whatever they got
do. So subsequently, fellas you know you read, and the school down
the road has taken it upon themselves to say, yes, the tunnel's been
there for one hundred years and there hasn't been any problems. Well that's not
correct, because now you've had problems in two of the last three ball games
there, and at halftime they've said publicly the protocol is this, since the
visiting team is right there, they leave first and then we leave. Well,
where was that now? I'm just going to say it this way.
I've been around a little bit. What transpired in the game Saturday was sad.
It was borderline horrific. But at the same time, it's an event
that could have and should have been avoided if some people did the job that
they were probably supposed to do. You're not having me on your podcast right
now, and I feel bad about that, but I would rather that be
the case than what we're going to talk about, not only today, Fellas,
but every time we get together with that school down the road. This
is going to be what's discussed. Now. To take it a step further
quickly, I was reading a piece yesterday, how about this? This is
where we're at right now? Is it time for Big ten Commissioner Kevin Warren
to pull the plug on the Michigan State Michigan rivalry. Are you kidding me?
It's unbelievable where we're at. Oh yeah, Kevin Warden was actually at
the game on Saturday, saw him a couple of times in the press box
walking around, and now that would be a terrible thing to stop the rivalry.
I know this is something that's going to come up a lot, especially
next year. It's going to be all eyes on Lancy when this comes back
around. Steve, you talked a little bit about it, and you know,
tell us if you want to get into it. But you mentioned venom
being spit. You know, everybody wants to know what led up to this.
You know, we saw, you know, a player from Michigan skipping
into the tunnel, like from the outside of the of the tunnel, and
then we saw the melee inside. But they had to be there's something that
happened in between and the venom you spoke about, what was that exactly?
Well, it was Jason was trash talk. As a matter of fact,
I was walking up and there were no players, None of our players were
in front of me. There was a collection of our representatives, you know,
in our gear and whatnot, and Green is going on and on and
one of our fellas turns and says, dude, you're a third stringer.
Shut the app up. And that's where I left it, I kept going
on my way, and I think at the end of the day, Fellas
is this. You know people in this great state they want a rivalry.
Well, look they've got one. And the truth of the matter is you've
got to take that rivalry the good, the bad, and in this particular
case, the ugly. It is very tough to defend a moment when you
get to helmet swinging, because there is no place in sport for that.
But look, this isn't the first confrontation between these two schools in the long,
illustrious history of the rivalry, and chances are better than not that it
won't be the last. Certainly, I hope not to this degree. So
what we've done is a university is head coach Mel Tucker Athlotic director Alan Haller
have handled this post haste. There have been now I think eight total suspensions,
and that's just the way it goes. And I know that nobody feels
really good about what transpired, but I can say it because I'm not going
to get fined or whatever. But I think there's a case here where if
you're a visiting or the winning player here, putting yourself in that really short
tempered situation. Understand this, If you go for the bull, you get
to horns more times than not. And I'm not justifying anything that took place,
but look, nobody knows better than you guys on this esteem panel,
having played at this high level. It's a very emotional game period. You
bring a rivalry into the situation where things didn't go your way and there's not
a whole lot of good feeling Fellas. I just don't think it was the
time or the place to have players from the school down the road in the
tunnel when we're trying to get the hell out. That's just a little editorial
now, well said. Let everyone be very very clear in our message here
that there's no way that anybody on this panel, anybody on in Spartan Meetia
network, condones violence in any way. That's not what we're saying at all,
exactly, not even in the least bit. You know what Fellas though
it has And this is again where we're at as far as social media goes.
Everything that I've pointed out is available on social media. Not to mention
the point in time where Number one takes it upon himself to cut around several
people to get into the tunnel while we are leaving as a team. Now.
I don't know how it works there in a squared but for the life
of me, I can't imagine they're not being protocol in place that if a
player attempts that he has grabbed and said no, not right now, get
your behind back there with your team and leave with everybody else. But it
wasn't done. And Jason, you're so right not here condoning, and I'm
not here justifying, and I'm not defending. Some of our guys went a
little bit too far and they've been dealt with and hopefully that's a lesson that
they will take with them for the rest of their lives. But you know,
there's gotta be There's got to be, and I haven't heard a lot
about it, and it kind of obsessed me a little bit. There has
to be some sort of accountability on their end. Absolutely absolutely, I mean
you don't see I just still can't fathom of, like why there's no separation
when you see them walking in the tunnel on post game, like you see
you see people in black, but there should be more. You just see
green. You should see the field being like legitimately, no one from Michigan
even close to it, man, And so you know, like like Tomel's
point, we're looking forward to what's next now, like it's time to you
know, move past it. Matt passed it. We did what we have
to do from a protocol standpoint risk management. And you know, obviously this
is all national news now, right, so everyone's finding a way to discuss
this, talk about it. But now you got to figure out how we
heal and we move forward. And you know, praying for those guys who
obviously are suspended, because I know that they if they could take it back,
they probably would take that that mistake back. But SHO has never been
put in that position. To your point, Steve Is, operations should have
been stepping in fully as they're trained to do for postgame exoiting. Well,
you know what, there was absolutely no room that I could see, and
again being right there, allocated for the heat of the moment, and it
began right after the game ended, and there was some melees on the field,
and if you have anything to do with security at that venue, you
had to have known that the top priority was then more than ever so important
to get these teams off the field one by one. Had that been done.
Again, we're not having this conversation right now, So Steve, I'm
gonna ask you a question so that people probably want to know, and that
is, was there any way for the eruption that occurred to be prevented?
If given that the guy made it through German, whatever he gets through,
he's in there. Did he get in close proximity with Michigan State players?
Did he put his hands on anyone that you saw? No, I didn't
see any of that, Jason. All I saw from Jamon Green was him
being in the tunnel at what I thought at the time was a very inopportune
time and probably not the right thing to do to get into verbal gymnastics of
any sort with somebody who just lost a rivalry game. You know, it's
again very very emotional, and you know, for y'all who were players,
you know, only you know what it's like for us on the outside looking
in as broadcasters or support staff or what have you. You know, it's
not the same. But still we've got a piece of the program and you're
not feeling all that well. You were hoping to come out of a square
shock the world and and and come out with a w So tempers are short
all the way around. So, like I said, at the beginning of
our conversation, when I saw that he was there, I was kind of
taken aback by it, thinking this probably isn't the right time for this,
dude. And you know that's when somebody turned. I think it was a
support individual from Michigan State. Dude, you're a third stringer. Shut the
f up, And I think we were probably off and running from there.
Now, that's all I saw. I did not see the main confrontation,
So there's that, but I saw plenty. Okay, Well, yeah,
you know, first of all, we appreciate you joining us, Steve,
and you know, for me, you know, obviously like you guys all
feel, this is definitely a black guy on the university, on Michigan State
University. Definitely for our players, our fan base, and you know that's
been you know, expressed out there. Ad Hallard has, you know,
put a statement out, the President's put a statement out. Coach Tucker.
You know, he's you know, been in this throughout the entire time.
And you know, all I can say is, you know, like we
said earlier, you know it's not you know, that kid put himself in
a position there, but it did go a little too far, you should,
you know, that moment coming down and hitting him and everything like that.
Just I just hope we can move on from this. We can find
some uh some grace to also keep in mind, you know, people that
are out there with comments and everything, you know, I just hope that
you can realize that these are eighteen nineteen year old kids. You know,
a couple of kids made a mistake. There is no need to be you
know, coining them as thugs, coining coining coining them you know, you
know for you know, jail time and everything. They feel terrible about the
mistake that they made. You know, they're suspended, they're paying for it.
And also let's look at the mental aspect that athletes go through as well.
This is taking a toll on them as well. And like like Jason
stated, everyone stated here, there's no fact that we condone you know,
what happened. We're not you know, here chairing and applauding them, you
know, because they're Michigan State guys. But we also you know, feel
for them because they're kids. At the end of the day, Yeah,
thank you for time, Steve, you know, appreciate you man, thanks
for joining us. I know you have other obligations today, but again,
great insight to what happened on Saturday. Unfortunate incident. Hopefully you can learn
from it. All right. I can't say enough, fellas, how much
I enjoyed being around y'all. A tremendous atmosphere. I got four games left
in this season. Hopefully our spartan's able to finish strong. Uh put the
ugliness by behind him, Jau. Like you said, sometimes kids make decisions.
Remember the decisions we made at eighteen nineteen years old. The way we
handle adversity certainly not the way you got to handle it in your late twenties
and then beyond. So you learn from it, and I think we will.
Fellows a pleasure, go Green, thanks for having me on. I
appreciate see, appreciate you. Interesting leords from Steve Courtney there that was well
documented report of what happened. Those are some eyes and ears that no one
has had to date. So what I heard him tell you there, guys,
is that he didn't see any initial contact from a player from Michigan.
So you know, there's a lot of speculation about that, but apparently a
date we have not heard or have any confirmation or video evidence of a Michigan
player touching a Spartan player. To me, we got an is there?
Yeah? I mean, you know you got to be there to be able
to to to witness it. But like I said, man, I think
it's time to put it, put it to bed, and let's let's turn
our attention to how we can mend and kind of rebound. And you know,
it's redemption of going down to this weekend of champagne. Clearly people are
going to try to bait everyone on this this topic. It continuously poke the
bear and poke the bear, and you know, it's un fortune that we
have to talk about it. You know, it's already been done. You
know what, you lose that game, you know. I think the mentality
of a former player is that, you know, once Sunday hits, man,
it's like God's grace and mercies are new every morning. And so people
are still going to try to talk about it. And to to Stee's point
at a great point is that it's just going to be forever embedded into this
rivalry and it's gonna be uh mentioned when they come to town next year.
Similar to it happen with the Devin listen hitting her turf and scratching up and
putting a divid in there. And you know that's part of the ESPN reels
and ABC reels as they looped us into this rivalry game. And you know,
Otus, I'm gonna cut you off right there, and that's one of
the things too. I'm sorry to cut you off there, but you know
that's part of the problem as well. You know, we talk about,
you know, the rivalry game and you see that, like you talk about
those reels that come on there, you see you know, Michigan State player,
you know, fighting a Michigan guy on the field, pushing each other
and everything like that. If it's basketball, when it's North Carolina Duke,
you always see that famous scene of Tyler hensbro bloody nose and everything. That
is what is showed out there. And like I said, these are kids,
you know, they feel okay, it's hate week. You know,
let's go out in unleash hate. You know, that's another part of it
as well. And you know, all I can tell people that you know
continue to watch is you know, and making comments and passing the judgments and
everything like that is you know, we were all eighteen nineteen, you know,
twenty years old. We made mistakes. These guys are paying for it.
They're paying for it dearly. They're losing opportunities, you know, for
their future. You know, some guys you know, possible play at the
next level, you know, losing opportunities for it. And you know,
I've got to say kudos to Michigan State. You know, they've been coming
out, they've been you know, being doing the due diligence, they've been
cooperating with everything. And like Jason alluded to earlier, you know in the
show that you know, there were four more people suspended, and there was
you know, a joint statement that was released yesterday. Yeah, yeah,
there was a joint statement right here. It was released yesterday by both Alan
Haller of the vice president of Michigan State Athletics and Awesome Director of Athletics UH
and Melton Ucker, Michigan State University had football coach. And I'll just read
the first paragraph here. Michigan State University Athletics and the football program are committed
to the highest level of sportsmanship. As we continue to gather view electronic evidence
of the altercations between Michigan State and the University of Michigan student athletes. On
October twenty ninth, twenty twenty two, we are suspending student athletes Malcolm Jones,
Justin White, Ja Kobe WindMan, and Brandon Wright. These suspensions are
effective immediately. Jenleman, as we spoke in the previous show, there were
four suspensions, all on the defense side of the All more video evidence comes
up, you have four more suspensions. I think these are all defensive players
the looks of it, and one absolutely the one three time Big Ten Plays
of the Week, uh In Jacoby Winman, who had a heck of a
season. Going from an individual standpoint, it's really tough to see this happen
and come down on a young man, all these young men. However,
we cannot condone the violence. There are consequences for your actions. And look,
we talk about being a spartan dog. We indoctrinate the kids, so
I mean the guys that are coming in from high school, guys that are
coming in from transfer portal, whatever, and we talk about the spartan dog
mentality and all those things that it means to embody a spartan dog. It's
how you care to yourself. Both on and off the field. Now the
dog mentality, as far as the violence and being, you know, taking
nothing from anybody and being just a relentless player. Let's been done between the
lines. Those are things that have to be done between the white lines,
through the whistle. When the whistle stop blows, you have to come back
to reality. No matter what happens. Fans are going to talk, other
players are going to talk. Referees, hell, they're gonna make bad calls.
Things are gonna happen. Coaches are gonna get in your face, Teammates
are gonna get in your face in any of those circumstances that come about.
There is no green ticket, a golden parachute to give you the right to
put your hands on any other person. Not at all. That is unacceptable.
We understand that, and these young men will learn from that. You
cannot carry on like that. You know, I do not think honestly that
they deserve to go to the being prosecuted and all that, because it still
within the confines of the game. They haven't showered, they have they're not
on the streets. But they have to learn from this, and that's for
the youngsters that are coming behind these players. You can't. Is never a
right way to do a wrong thing, and that is definitely wrong. No
matter who you are where you are, never put hands on anybody outside of
the confines of the game that we play. Absolutely absolutely and this is the
you know, the game of football is. It's an absolute crazy game.
You It's not like basketball. It's not like baseball where you play, you
know, three games in a week, two games in a week. This
is something where you get your body mentally and physically prepared for one game in
a six day span. And you know, you do that, you have
all this pent up raide, you build up, you go on the field
and you have the opportunity to unleash it on someone and you know, do
that in that way. But at the end of the day, then you
have to also have that that the mental aspect coming where you have that control,
that mind control. When the game's over, now you have to go
back, you know, to being a civilian and you know, so to
speak. So you know this, this game of football is unlike any other.
You know, if until you've played it, until you've you know,
played it at a high level, you can you you will be able to
understand a little bit. But you know, like we said, you know,
they're you know, these kids are paying the consequences for their actions that
happened, you know, and you know, rightfully so at the end of
the day, rightfully for so the suspensions are warranted. I don't think any
of you guys are going to disagree with me on that. But also to
let's take a whole let's take a dive in a looking at the bigger picture
here and the whole scenario. And you know, at the end of the
day, you know, these are you know, these are somebody's kids as
well. So the hateful comments that are coming in uh to these kids,
uh to you know, future players, you know, coming into Michigan State
coming into the program. You know, I think that's unacceptable. And what
Jay he is referring to is some attacks that are happening the players, current
players on Michigan State's roster, as well as recruits, committed recruits and their
family. As we can see here Jordan Hall's mother, Serena Hall, Mama
Hall. You know, she posts she got into some wars. People are
getting into their dms saying hurtful things, talking about the program, talking about
mel Tucker, talking about locking people up and like it's way out of hand.
You know she's talking about never arguing. Then you go back to Mama
Tron. You know, this is another twenty class of twenty twenty four committed
recruit. You'll never hear the football program talk about these guys are their families
and they're not allowed to they're not allowed to address this, but we can.
And that's horseshit. Guys. You can't attack a kid and his mom
and start threatening them about what happened on a game that they're not even they're
not even in right, just a sheer fact that they committed to go to
this school and get an education and play football for here. You know.
Now, you know people are going out and attacking sixteen year old kids,
attacking their families because they want to you know, better themselves by go to
a university that they think is the best fit for them. You know,
that's unacceptable. You know when you when you go, that's that's crossing the
line as well. And I get you know fans, you know you say
you know fandom. You know you pay for your ticket, you can be
you can pay for your ticket getting in the stadium. You can boo all
you want I tell you know, if when I was playing Boomy Boomy,
yell at me, yell obscenities to me, but don't cross the line.
And I think some fans in this case, when they're reaching out to kids
that aren't even a part of the program yet all they are are given a
commitment to say yes, I'm going to come and play football at Michigan State
University, and then people are attacking their families and them. That's preposterous.
What is leadership? I think leadership is handling something in the crisis scenario quickly,
doing the best you can, getting the facts and making a quick decision.
And then on the other side, the people who feel wrong in this
scenario trying to find a common ground with the other side. Now I'm talking
about both head coaches here. Now there's a big difference. Now, Tucker
is doing the best that he can. He's being very transparent, and he's
coming forward and he's dealing with it no matter what the repercussions say is personally
on the team, what's gonna happen to the season? All that he's dealing
with it. And on the other side, you have a coach who is
standing back and fanning of flame, which is dangerous. This is I think
the reactions of the fan base are coming from what head coach Jim Harbaugh is
saying or not saying, and like, Hey, we're gonna press charge.
You're gonna do this is terrible. You don't need, Jim, You don't
need to do that right now. This is a rivalry that's going to be
there for a long time. When you're eighteen to thirty years old, you
knew how to mix it up just like the rest of them. It's no
excuse for it, none, no excuse. But don't continue to do this
because it causes harm. There are literally people that are getting death threats out
here right now. There are families that have police protection right now because of
this eighteen to twenty two year incident. Unacceptable incident that happened, didn't happen
to these people's family, But because of the fandom, you understand the power
that you have in the seat that you hold. That is that is my
lead to the leadership in both sides of this. Right. But hey,
guys, let's at the end of the day. With Michigan State has eight
players that are suspended. You know they won't be able to play but you
know what's happening. You know on Friday, the Spartans are going to get
them. Get on the bus, go to the Capital Regional Airport, fly
Champagnel, Illinois, and play a game. There's a game that's gonna be
played. Let's dive into that and talk about that a little bit. Huh.
There's a great segue to too. Let's talk football. That's talk over
as you can tell. Man, over it. Man, it's come after
my mama and we got problems. Son. I'm just telling us like it's
turn the page out. Throws trolls. Calm down, be quiet, man,
hide behind, Just calm down. All right, let's all on the
next one. Let's onto onto the next. Bill Belichick will say that summary.
Present it to you by I hop the two by two by two breakfast
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heili, he's got it rolling down here. He had a rich history in
Big ten coaching success his first year as the ALIGNI head coach and man has
he strug Gold with a nice transfer by the name of Chase Brown running that
rock. Yeah, yeah, he definitely did. This guy is a great
story for Chase Brown. He's a kid from London, Ontario, Canada.
You know, a big you know, big running back, not very big.
He's five eleven, two hundred five pounds, but he can scoot,
he can run, he can you know catch. You know, he has
the ability to make great, great cuts in the backfield and he can lower
his shoulder and get in there when he has to. As you see,
you know in this TOUCHDOWNE look at him on this shoot route here just out
of the backfield. You know, Christian McCaffrey like type of player, you
know, very very athletic. This kid, he did transfer from Western Michigan
and went to University of Illinois because his twin brother was at University of Illinois.
So that's why he wanted an opportunity to play with his twin brother there.
And you know what he's been doing since he's been there is he leads
the nation in Russian in Russian yards. He has twelve hundred and eight yards
on the ground with the five point four run per you know average, you
know, on on the ground. So this guy, this guy is going
to be a load. And if we want to be in this game and
contained, you know, we have to be able to bottle him up in
the backfield. He's not a very big back, so I think you know,
you get a couple, get get swarm to the football. Defensively,
we should be able to you know, take care of him if we do
those things. Oh is looking at a running back like this from a defensive
side of the ball, Like, what is it? What's the game stopping
a guy like Chase Brown? Yeah, I mean when you're when you're a
multi dimensional as a running back, and I mean, Jay, you can
can attest man. You you don't know what you're gonna get, especially when
it comes to like the offensive play playbook and calls you got a pre or
you know prep for you know you can get you in the past. He
got great hands and he reminds me of a guy who we had last year,
right like was a threat in the passing game and can pass, block
protection and also can run that thing, you know, North south and get
get you know, make make guys miss. And so it's tough for you
know, a defense to to truly, uh to bottle him up, because
if you do stack the box, all right, he's just gonna go outside
and and run a choice route or run a wheel route as you see here.
And so you know, it's gonna communications key, communications key, where
we're gonna have some new faces and some fresh legs on that defense due to
our our guys that have been dismissed from team, you know effectively. So
truly this week is all about, all right, how do we jail with
the pieces that are coming in to our existing defense. And you know,
the quarterback is though there's no small small guy either, Tommy DeVito, you
know from the Jersey, from the Jersey, the Garden State, they say,
New Jersey. This guy is is fearless. You know, you just
see him staying in the pocket until the last second, which is uh,
you know, kind of wordsome because we haven't we're having trouble to getting to
the quarterback quick quick. And so if you bottle that up, he's staying
there and you know, taking the hit. And so you know, with
him being a Syracuse transfer, he's been in some big games, you know,
or scenes and witness some big games as he lost out on that starting
job in the ACC. So okay, let me go take my talents to
the big ten. And these guys are ranked number fifteen or seventeen last week?
Now what yeah fourteen on fourteen? Yeah, so yeah, I mean
we talk about passing, you know, when it comes to him like fifteen
ninety four yards passing twelve TVs. Two interceptions, And as you know,
our secondary is what it's last right now, it's struggling, and so in
order to win the game, we gotta win the air. And it's clearly
they're balanced attack. So we'll see how this goes on Saturday. Yeah.
So with with this this quarterback to Veto here, you know, a guy
transferred from Syracuse, you know, coming. He's not a guy. He's
not, by no means is he a sexy player. He's not a sexy
quarterback that's going to come and make those splash plays. He's a he's a
field general. He's a guy that's going to come in and not lose the
game for you. And I got a question for you, otis being a
defensive player and you and you're in there in the you know, a film
room, and you're game planning for a team like Illinois. It's a very
balanced team. You got a quarterback throwing over fifteen hundred yards for the season,
you got a running back with over twelve hundred yards for the season.
You know, first question is how do you gain plan for that balance?
And then the second thing is as a defensive player. Let's go back to
talking about Chase Brown the running back. This guy's every down back. You
know, in today's day in age, with the you know, rotating backs
and stuff like that, some backs come in. You know, hey,
this guy's gonna run the ball, or this guy's gonna be in for pass
protection. This guy now he can run our pass. So what's your mindset
if you're back there as a safety and this guy's every downback, what do
you think about? Like, you know, how do you there's no way
you can cheat? Well, if your team you're not prosperous son, that'sn't
anything right but straight eye control. As you know, you're gonna get everything
from the play action to you know, shotgun you know, straight motion from
from him. But they're gonna put him in every situation to win that game.
And as you know, he's the focal point. And so you know,
you got some other role players that are gonna step up. But as
a as a sat, as a safety, you know, in my mind,
I'm I'm thinking about how many hits can we get to him when he
touches the ball that you got to just wear and tear and knock the tree
down, chop by chop, right, And so he is not a big,
big guy, but five to eleven as a running back, I mean
that's decent size and speed for any any running back. And so and everyone's
not like teacher, You're out here Jerome Bettison got the rules and got the
physicality. But it's really gonna start up front with the front seven and truly
understanding gap control is that on your gap and don't get single handedly blocked by
one offensive guy, which you kind of saw in our highlights loud on the
on the recap of Michigan game, is that we can't lose the blocking defender
battle where we're gonna get some pools and guards, we're gonna get aggressiveness when
it comes to fire off the ball. All right, let's get gap control
and let's keep him in the space of the tackle box because as we know,
he's going north south, but when he bounces, he has the speed
to beat you. And then you can't get a load of sleep if they're
gonna go pounding, pounding, pounding, and then they go to the air
where you gotta have someone accounting for him when he comes out into running you
know, a pass out the back floor, half back screens. You know,
it reminds me of a you know, we had to go there and
play them with Ron Zuck was the head coach and he had Juice Williams.
You had with shan Minhall. You had these guys, uh that had a
one to two punch where you had to you have to worry about two guys
that could run that ball and uh, at least you know Tommy DeVito's not
as mobile, but let's let's not Lord of Sleep where this guy's smart enough
to get out the pocket and run and get you know, positive yards.
And to your point, Jayu, it's truly going to be communication over everything
because we got some new guys who may not be fully embedded into the playbook,
but we'll have to play because of the guys we have that are no
longer there, and so we still have Xavier, we still have you know,
Jacob Slade, we still have Holiday, We still have guys that are
nucleus guys that bring everyone together. And this is that that I think the
model for this weekend is, this is a redemption. This is an opportunity
to turn the tide of bringing in some sunshine on a cloudy, dark day
right now. So I'm interested to see how we're prepping right now because we've
been so bogged down with all this news. Is that, Okay, let's
go to Champagne and let's let's let's play some spartan football. Yeah. By
the way, Blake korn If for those of you at home that are checking
five eight and nine pounds, so to Oldis's point, this is a pretty
decent size running back to you, right, Yeah, he's a decent sized
guy. Final the limit to ten and he absolutely can run it. But
look looking at the stats, you know, for this particular game, this
matchup, Illinois comes in the number two ranked team in the nation for time
of possession. Do you believe that thirty five minutes and twenty two seconds Michigan
State one hundred and thirtieth twenty four minutes and twenty four seconds. So Illinois
wont pride hisself on holding that rock and churning it, eating up the clock
with Chase Brown and just moving those chains methodically. And they back it up
with one heck of a defense. If you look at the scoring defense number
one in the nation, total defense number one in the nation, guards per
allowed, oh two, number two in the nation, and rushing defense and
passing defense both number two. You're talking about a team with Brett Beelman here,
guys that has really committed to running the ball, to having ball control
and playing stingy defense when you talk about those guarding numbers coming out of the
Big Ten, Yeah, absolutely stingy defense. And what Brett Bilham was doing
is he's taking that recipe that he used in Wisconsin all the time he had
success in the early part when he was at Arkansas. He's bringing that to
Illinois and he's going out as well, and he's utilizing the transfer portal to
get guys that he can, you know, plug in right now and play
the type of football that he wants to play. So it's gonna be a
big test test for Michigan State this weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing
who on the Spartan specific on the defensive side is gonna step up? All
right, you know, we have eight guys out next man up mentality,
who's gonna step up and make a name for themselves? Who's gonna be that
one that said, Okay, I'm gonna do this for our team, us
we our mentality. We have some guys that are down right now. There's
a great cloud hanging over our program. Right now. Let's go out on
Saturday and play like we know how to play. Let's go out on Saturday
and make Spartanation proud. Let's go out on Saturday and give Spartanation something to
smile about, because the past few weeks and especially this week, there has
not been much to smile about. So that challenge is on the Michigan State's
defense. Who's gonna be that person to step up? And more so,
now you talked about the time of possession that Illinois you know, you know
controls there. Michigan State's offense has to come to the party. They have
to come to the party. They have to score thirty points. Thirty points
wins this game. Whoever scores thirty points is gonna win this game. So
they have to do that. They have to get the ball in the playmaker's
hands. They have to establish the run game. The offensive line have to
be have that downhill mentality and ready to go. So Spartan players give the
fans something to smile about. Yeah, I mean, I mean definitely that
was that. I'm about to close. And then he goes into the to
the to the Book of Hymns and starts to start singing the gospel, Gospel
ritual. You know, you think you know I was asked earlier? Is
like you know, with these controversies that happened or you know, a suspension
or something that is you know, the talk of the town or talk of
the nation is what do you do internally? And this is where you're gonna
see us jeling together and more so is rallying the troops and locking arms.
And are you you my brother's keeper? Is that opportunity to say, are
you my brother's keeper? Are we going to go out here? And you
know, one of my one of my best friends and also a roommate,
Ross Weaver, would always say who rides and we would always respond, we
ride, Yeah, we ride, and so how can we do that?
It's truly, like we're blocking that noise out and you will see, uh,
depending on what we come out Saturday. You can you can immediately tell
when you're warming up that all right, these guys have have answered the call
and ringing the bell that you know, yes we had a mishap, but
we're still going to push through and we're still going to persevere and we're gonna
show up. And that's all we ask is to show up and just play
spartan relentless football and uh and let at the end of the game we're satisfied.
We're also you know, we're not leaving the field with regrets. And
so I'm looking forward to it, and I know our staff is building our
guys up emotionally, but also it's gonna start within from the player led standpoint
of listen, let's get this going. Let's turn and turn the tie.
We still have something to play for. Is let's get to the bow eligible
to start winning in the win column. And yeah, to bring it up,
I had to bring it up. So yeah, let's let's let's do
that. Let's do that, and let's focus on objective of small wins and
like we still can reach an objective for this season and we're not throwing in
the towel, and I think we got we can show that that we're stronger
together when these situations arise. Well, thank you, gentlemen. You know
we remiss if we didn't mention the passing of some great Spartans in their own
right, longtime video man. Everyone knows Tom Shepherd. Shep lost his wife
barb Let's past weekend, and you know, our thoughts prayers are with him
and also with the Perlis family, as longtime head coach and athletic director George
Prost's wife Sally, also passed away recently. I thought some our prayers are
with both families during this difficult time. Well, Jason, real quick there,
let me just jump in with that, you know, quick story about
Shep. You know, people don't realize how intricol of a part these guys
play. The video guys there the ones film and practice film, you know,
breaking down clips and everything. I remember my sophomore year going when I
was there at Michigan State. You know, we're talking about being a big
back and how to run like a big back. And I went into the
video room and asked Shep. I was like, hey, can you put
together clips of Jerome Bettis for me and he came in and he you know,
the next day, you know, he had this. It was back
in the day of DVDs. He had a DVD of you know, thirty
minute DVD of all of Jerome Betta's best runs, his footwork, lowering the
shoulder and everything, and you know that's just you know, interting. You
know, he's not getting the shine on the field, you know, for
winds and everything like that. But behind the scenes, you know, you
know, great dude, great part of the program that these video guys do.
And you know shep you know, great dude, and you know,
really sorry, uh for his loss, Absolutely absolutely. I always want to
know too, what did you take from that, uh that that highlight film
of the bus the bus Obviously he was a train he was too cheer at
that moment, but like, what did you take from that? Well,
that taught me, you know as a big back. You know, I
think we talked about this earlier. You you get in there and you try
to not be yourself. You see all these little scat backs out there.
You see the Barry Sanders, you want to do all the different moves.
What watching him? It taught me to work on my footwork, and it
taught me to be true to myself. If I'm a big back, be
a big back. Don't be a dancing bear. You know that's a big
thing. You know, these big bats want to be dancing around and everything.
And that's what Ron Dayne got away from when he went to the NFL
and danced himself out of the league. So I told myself, you know,
be true to yourself. If you're a big back, be a big
back. Lower your shoulder, use your footwork, and that you don't have
to be the fastest guy. You don't have to run four three forty.
If you have quick feet that can get you. Yeah. I thought you
was gonna say when you said that dancing bear. I just thought about the
charming and commercials of the Bears. You totally until Also, hey listen,
yes, you know what time of year it is. Everybody, it's time
to get out the vote. Don't forget that plan to go out and cast
your ballot. Here's a way to do it, or to plan my ballot
dot com o. Yeah, I think you know straight. I mean,
we talk about the importance, right is not just showing up. It's educating
yourselves and me and myself I'm taking into get obviously my own values of practicing
is like knowing your ballot so when you show up, you're not just like
in testing where you're just oh, I'm hoping, wish something happens, and
I'm just scantron just feeling out so I can get it out and do my
duty. I think we all have a civic duty to truly know who we
have either both sides. It doesn't like it doesn't matter what you're voting which
side. It's truly knowing who is best for the jurisdiction or even the state
you're in, but more so for the state of Michigan. Is very important
that you get out and vote. And so obviously this is not just hey,
how you do it. It shows your locations as well, so you
know, look at where your nearest location to your residence is so that you
can go, or where you're registered at. And so it's very important.
And it's November eighth is when we obviously go to vote, So be be
ready next Tuesday to go out and show up, show up, and show
up. My dad he was always saying, is his his his sermons?
God shows up and shows out. So everyone needs to show up and show
out in the voting. I love it perfeally in with that, that's a
nice bed addiction pasted a while. Now, let's ready for communion. Lit'st
uh really good loved all right. That's that's even. We're gathering here,
all right for Otis and Wiley and Jauch colcord On, Jason Straighthorn. This
is part to have a good night, God bless and go white fur