The following is a presentation of play Fly Sports properties. Wow, the world
is buzzing because this is Rivalry Week. We are here live in the Jolly
Pumpkin, East Lancy, right on Albert Street. I'm your host, Jason
Strayhorn, along with my co hosts Oldest Wiley and jay U Chu Chu Colchrit.
This is Sparta and we've got some special guests. One special guest,
major special guest for you today and those of you who know that are around
the Detroit area and you listen to ninety seven point one the Ticket two to
six pm every weekday. You have Mike Valinni, who you love to hate.
This counterpart, the one and only Rico Beer joins us live. Yeah
love, what's up? We goo goo Rico save. Let's get into the
origin of the name Rico of that name. Yeah yeah, okay, here's
the real truth. This was you can't do this nowadays. I came home
with no name. I was baby John Doe and my father was watching the
movie Little Caesars. Well, originally he wanted to name me guy, and
my mother was like, absolutely not. Try again. So he's watching the
movie Little Caesar and the main gangster, the main character was named Little Rico,
so that became my name and the gangster you are names have media.
Yeah, that's outstanding. Now, Rico, you know, we wanted to
talk to you because you are the resident expert on Michigan State when it comes
to the Detroit marketing around the country because of your background at Michigan State.
Now, this being Rivalry week, I know that you guys have been talking
about a lot of different things and trying to dissect this game and looking at
the seasons that each team has had. You know, you look at what's
happening ann Arbor versus what's happening in east Land Sea. Just give us your
first overall thought processing view of what's been going on so far. I mean,
starting in Arbor. I mean I'm kind of I'm shocked because I thought
Michigan's gonna fall off a little bit. They lost you know, Aiden Hudson
and Jabo Daxon Hill. You know, you lost the the other running back,
I forgot his name, but you know, they lost a lot of
people. So I thought maybe they would take a step he Hassen sn Haskets
and then we had the quarterback controversy where they actually benched the guy that wanted
them the big den for the young up and coming guy. But the thing
is, as much as I hate to say it, they they haven't missed
the beat. They keep this thing going. They embarrassed Penn State and they're
walking in seven and oh it's like last year into this game from Michigan State.
I mean you fellas no. I mean, last week was if there
was ever a must win game for Mail Tucker, it was last week because
LOWERD knows you don't want to be two and five with two weeks off going
into the bye week. They got the victory in overtime, double overtime,
and now you got some intrigue. Now there's some interest. You saw all
the injured players starting to file back in except for Darien Snow. You saw
a different defense. You saw players stepping up, making plays, and now
you know it went from fire everybody to wait a minute, wait a minute,
maybe you got a chance here. Yes, you talked about the injured
players coming back in. How big of an impact do you think Henderson coming
back and Jacob Slade coming back had on the Michigan State defense. I think
both. I mean I think Henderson from the leadersh standpoint of calling the plays
back there from the safety position. You know, as Otis knows, I
mean, you're like the quarterback on defense. But Slade, I think slave
playing on the D line. It freed up a lot of things. And
getting a lot of other guys back on the D line would allow Jacobe Winman
and Aaron Brulay to go back to playing linebackers. Fot And now what you
saw was speed and athleticism back at linebackers from Michigan State. Toby gets one
of the picks. You know you saw brula I mean he might as well
have been in the huddle the way he was chasing after Graham Merch all day
long. You saw things differently where flet's face. The guys the last couple
of quarterbacks who played Michigan State ended up being the Big Ten offensive player of
the week. It wasn't that way last week. They were able to get
the pressure, they were able to stop the run in crucial times, they
were able to get the third down and get off the field. That's what
those guys bring. It's been there before, and you allow players to go
back and play their position. And now the guys who were playing, God
blessed them, But now they can go back to being the depth for Michigan
State instead of being forced to be the starters. Yeah, Rico, you've
you've been part of the game for this game. When you were talking about
broadcasts and like media for a while, I mean when we played, you
were a part of it. And we're talking about the old teams back in
the day and as part as this part in the hist football history, and
then like this team right now, have you even thought about like what team
relates to this team and what we went through in the season. Have you
ever seen this how we've got a battle. We had a eleven two season,
then we kind of flip flopped the next season. Can you tell us
those those about like seasons that kind of compare to this one right now?
Honestly, I think this season reminds me a lot of the two thousand and
twelve year. Did you had just come off of winning the things were looking
great and you saw all the promise, and then all of a sudden the
bottom kind of fell out and then you went from oh I expect them to
be, you know, a ten win team and now you're making deals with
the devil. Okay, can we at least be a nine win team,
can com what if I go to Church? Can can we get to seven?
And you know they had to win the final game I think against Minnesota
or somebody just to become Bowl eligible. And I think that's where you're at
this year. Now, let's hope that it takes a way, it goes
the same way, because in twenty thirteen is when everything changed from Mark D'Antonio
in Michigan State and that was probably the three best years I've ever seen at
MSU, where not only were you expected to win, but you were a
part of the elite. You want the big boys, you said that,
the head of the table. But yeah, you struggled in that twenty twelve
year. You had players, but you just kept scratching your head because there
were a lot of games you thought you were gonna win, but they just
came up by the other side and they were losing. Yeah, you know
you talked about the twenty twelve You're talking about the Andrew Maxwell team led team
that didn't in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Had you saw Connor Cook come
in the ball game and come from behind to win that game out there in
tipe Arizona, which was a precursor for the twenty thirteen season, where we
know that Connor Cook goes on Big Ten Championship onto the Rose Bowl and there's
a Rose Bowl Championship and it's a change in of the guard, if you
will. Michigan sate done then propels itself into a different position, into the
elite spotlight now right now, there's been a lot of focus during the four
game slide on position, coaches, coordinators, people calling for heads, also
looking at the players out of the portal versus building a culture. Mel Tucker
a guy who has a resume that's Christine. He's coached under some of the
best coaches in the world ten years in the NFL, brings an NFL mindset
to East Lancy and brings in a lot of transfers. Last year we know
he hit the jackpot with Kenneth Walker. This year he finds Brule and then
Jacoby WindMan, did you talk about the decision to go with the portal more
so than just trying to build through the recruiting and what do you think that
he will have a job that he's doing so far in East Lands. I
mean, I look at it and when you go through the portal, The
portal is the quick fix. It's the band aid now. And I think
a lot of people have really taken this, and I hate to say it,
but my fellow brethren in the media, they're lazy. They don't really
want to put it in work. When it comes to Michigan State, they
just come up. One person says it, and everybody else just acts like
a parrot and repeats it and repeats and repeats it. When it comes to
other teams, they actually do their homework. The portal is the quick band
aid. The portal helps you right now. Long term, you got to
develop your own players, and that's through recruiting. But if you want to
be real about it, yeah, Tucker has to use the portal because he
had so like over fifty players leaving the program and you got to replace them
quickly because you can't bring in another fifty freshmen and expect to win. So
that's why you see the brulets and the women's and the players like that.
But deep down he wants to use his own players that he kind of grooms
and cultivates. But if you really think about this, in twenty twenty,
he was stuck with that class. He had zero to do. I think
he convinced Jordan Simmons to stick with his commitment and come back. Okay,
So that was d'antonio's class. In the twenty twenty one class, he had
to recruit guys he did not. He wasn't able to bring the campus.
He wasn't able to go to their school to watch and play football because some
of them had their season canceled. There were no camps in the summer where
you could watch them, so you had to go on to Doom and kind
of bring in people who you had to. It was almost like a blind
date. You really didn't know what you were getting. You were stuck with
the twenty twenty two class, with the first class, he was actually able
to do go and see exactly what he wants. You know what that those
guys are freshmen this year, so that just kind of tells you where he's
at as far as his program goes. So he's gonna need a little bit
more time, So that's why he goes to the portal, and the portal
guys is as I like to equate it, it's like shaping at the Goodwill
or the Salvation Army. You may find something that you absolutely have to have.
And sometimes you see the stories when somebody throws away a Picasso and you
realize what it is and you're like, wow, look at this, or
it's something in there and nobody knows what it is but you. That was
Kenneth Walker. But most of the things at the at the Goodwill store are
just things that other people disregarded and said, I don't need them. If
you can use them, go ahead and use them. So when people think,
oh, you just going to portal if you're really good, you know
CJ. Stroud and Bryce Young don't go into the portal because they're good and
they're playing. The portal is more so guys who need a second chance need
to go someplace else and get a fresh start. Most of the time,
it's not gonna work the way that people think that it's gonna work. You're
gonna end up with your cavarious crouches of the world. But every now and
then you do get the the Kobe Women's or the Kenneth Walkers, and they
really help out the team. Yeah, I totally agree with you one hundred
percent on that portal because my thought on the portal is there's a reason why
players are in the portal. So with that, do you think you can
say it's gonna start tapering off jumping in the portal as much as they are
because coach Suppers is getting his foot in and recruiting and starting to bring his
guys in. Yeah, Jay Bruy, I think that this next year,
I think they're still gonna dip into the portal, but after that it's gonna
be for select players where I think the way college football goes, you're always
gonna take two or three players out of the portal because sometimes there's gonna be
a guy who is homesick or a grad transfer type of thing that you can
just instantly add. I mean, okay, you know what, we need
a kicker. Let's go get the best kicker out of the portal. We
need a punter, We need something that we can use next year right away
while we're still grooming this other player. But I think after next season,
yeah, you're gonna see them taper it down because now that twenty twenty one
class is gonna be red shirt and sophomores, and the class and this year
are gonna be sophomores, you're gonna have your freshman, so that means he's
gonna have three full classes in there, and he won't need to go to
the portal as much. I do think that some positions you're gonna constantly always
look into the portal. If it were me. Look, I'm not Mel
Tucker, but I gotta be honest with you. If I'm a head coach
in college, I don't know how much I would recruit a quarterback. I
would just look, and I would look at somebody at another school in the
MAC or in a smaller conference who's lighting it up. And you know what,
kind of like Jaydon Reed, Okay, you could have been the man
at Western, or you can come and play with the big boys and really
be the man in Michigan State. So there are a few posit that's just
me. I would look because it takes a lot to groom a quarterback.
And as you know, in college football, if you have that quarterback,
that quarterback can win you a couple of games. Just look at what happened,
you know with Washington, you know, and and them going out and
getting a QB and how much better they look than last year's team. See.
I kind of disagree with you a little bit on that, because if
you get a quarterback in, you get to teach him what you know and
his system. If you bring a transfer quarterback in, you now you got
to break his bad habits that you didn't like about him, and then you
know, teach him. So don't you think that's gonna take too much time?
And you know, especially in a win now industry that we're in for
college football, that I don't think that's prelates. Well no, but see
that's why I say, you want to go down and you want to get
somebody who's been lighting it up in a smaller conference. Somebody I mean,
you know, case in point. You look at a guy like the Bailey
ZAPPI now he's in the NFL doing that, but he was at Western I
mean Western Kentucky and we all saw him hands on, like this kid can
throw the ball. Imagine if he had the types of receivers at him as
you had rather than the Western Kentucky. So I get what you're saying,
Jay, You Yes, you know you do want to groom a quarterback,
but I'm talking about a guy who is just on fire, but he's just
in a smaller conference that type of quarterback, not just somebody else's second or
third string guy who hasn't played. You have to show me. I'm looking
at the table how you threw four thousand yards last year in a smaller conference.
Yeah, I'll bring you in and then I'll let you compete with the
guy that I already have and let's see best man wins. You know,
I think that that's a great point you brought up Zafi. He was actually
a transfer to Western Kentucky from a smaller Division two three type school before the
Western Kentucky staff brought him in where he lit it up. We saw front
and he threw for about three four hundred yards against the Spartans, which was
kind of customary a year ago. But he's still doing it now today for
the New England Patriots. Now, Rico, I want to ask you.
We asked a lot of people about the new nil era that we're in and
how does that play in to the transfer portal and how you may be able
to find some hid jewels in that. You know, the rum and sale.
As you're talking about Salvation Army, there's gonna be some kids that are
gonna be promised a lot of money. You know what, here's the thing.
Maybe they don't live up to it. Maybe the coaches are the the
alumni who are in these collectives so to speak, Renig, and you may
find some talent in that said person that goes into the transfer portal because of
NIL. What do you think about that? NIL is a slippery slope?
And first of all, you know, I'm off for athletes getting paid for
I wish you guys could have got paid because I mean you're here, right,
I mean you went out there and you played, and you know,
coaches went out there and made a ton of money off of your backs.
Enough stuff that you guys did. Now, that was just the day and
age that we live in. But here's the slippery slope when you do that.
I'm more so you pay somebody in the ni L money when they achieved
something, not off of promises. Because if you promise, you know,
all of a sudden there's Otis and I want to bring him in, and
I promise him, Otis, here's fifty five hundred thousand dollars if you come
in and play safety for us. But he comes in and he ends up
getting benched, I still gotta pay him. And the next time I see
somebody else, they're gonna want money because they're gonna say, well, you
paid Otis, so you're gonna pay me, And now I go to whatever
sponsor or booster nigga be like, well what about Otis. I'm still paying
that bum Otis, not that you're a bum Otis. You know speech,
I'm still paying this guy. So I'm not saying another guy another half million
for him to come here and not do anything, so you lose credibility.
I'm I'm not one of the ones who do that. Texas saying them they
paid a lot of recruits to come to Texas A and M it had the
number one class and you look at Texas A and M now they can't do
the same thing because a lot of the boosters are saying, well, what
do we pay these last guys for. They're not even on the field.
We just lost the app state, We stink. So no, I'm not
paying these guys. So that's the difference. Yet, Jason, it sounds
good to do that, but once you go down that road, you can't
ever go backwards. Like Miami I think is going to run into that problem.
How they're paying a lot of recruits to come there and a lot of
transfers. If you don't win right away. That money will drive up so
quickly, and now your players who are already they are gonna say, well,
where's my money? How come I'm not getting this. I'd rather do
it the way that Ohio State does it, where the stars once you do
something, Yeah, CJ. Stroud is tooling around in arranged rover or something
like he's got some fancy car. You know what, He's earned it,
and I'm cool with that. But yeah, if you're a guy that hasn't
played for the team yet, I wouldn't do it if I was a coach.
And honestly, I don't think that that's male Cutter's strategy either. Rico.
You like we talk about what is it going to take to get the
confidence back fully one hundred percent for Mission State football. We had Jamon on
on our last episode and we talked about it all starts in the trenches,
and we had Hey nine who was all world who made it look easy,
made it look good where they made us overlook some of the gaps and holes
that we had. That was evident. But then it's coming to fruition right
now in this season. But like, what do we need to do to
solidify upfront? An offensive line and defensive line to get more consistently out of
them, so we can at least turn the tide, at least get more
eligible. I think, man, you nailed it. I mean, in
order to win, and you need NFL players on your offensive and defensive line.
You need guys that are going to the next level. Ay nine,
I mean it was fool's goal. Can I had more Barry Sanders in him
than what we really start. And for those who watched Barry, they knew
that very Barry had a good offensive line, but he really didn't need an
offensive line. He did it pretty much all on his own. And that
was Kenneth Walker. People are like, oh, look at this, but
now it really wasn't there. People were more afraid of Kenneth now than they
were anything else. On the offense, They're not afraid of anybody right now
because they know they can get to Peyton Thorn whenever they want to get to
Payton. They know that they could stop the running backs. Well, at
least lately, Elijah Collins looks like he's that fall forward running back. But
it's still not the same. But yet, you need NFL players and you
need bigger guys on the offensive line, and they brought in taller guys,
a lot of guys you know, six five, six, six, six
seven. I think they even got one recruit at six safety. Now you
got to bulk them up and pray to God that they have some blocking technique
in them. Now, you got to get them some experience. On the
defensive line. You need payfall, you need speed, and you need size.
You need some run stoppers, you need some guys that come off that
edge. And when you look at the years twenty thirteen to twenty fifteen,
MSU had a lot of NFL players on both the offensive and defensive line.
And I think that's why you saw such a great success because if you can
open up the whole, you know, they were able to make You know,
Jeremy Lanfer comes in there and replaces Le'Veon Bell and doesn't miss the beat.
Why because the offensive line opened up holes for him. On the defensive
line, you had you had Chalik cal Home, you had the Marcus Rushers
of the world. You even had Malik McDonald before Malik went full Malika.
You had got the Lawrence Thomas. You had players that all ended up in
the NFL. That's when you start winning and I think they have the core
of that, but I think a lot of these guys are just really young.
That's why I keep telling people, you know what, just it hurts
because you saw eleven and two and you thought that it was going to continue
that way if you let Meil Tucker continue his process. I do believe that
man, in about two years, he'll be back to winning a lot of
games, and the Spartan fans will feel good. But you know, Spartan
fans, you know, you know what, I'm not gonna get into this
spoiled No, I'm not going to get you gotta get into it. We
gotta get into it. No, because the dude, some Spartan fans are
the most superficial and insecure fans ever like this, assuming that when everything is
great, yeah, Tuck, come in, chop chop, and as soon
as you do couple games is oh my god, what are we paying this
man? And we're losing and fire them all and we sucking. When's basketball
season starting, It's like, guys, stick with it. You're not going
to win all the time. And I constantly have to tell people like this
man really has two classes. That's his in this program, this is his
second year. I mean, yeah, twenty twenty was great because they beat
Michigan. But let's be real, twenty twenty was fool gayzy. It really
didn't exist. I mean, think about it. It was about ball.
Indiana was one of the top four teams in the nation. Let that sink
in Indiana. The Big Ten had to pull the okie dough so that Ohio
State could go to the playoffs and leave Indiana out of it because Michael Pennix
and Indiana was actually the better team. Yeah, so you're talking about giving
coach Tucker a chance and let him get a couple of years in. So
we go two years, and where do you see this program going? D
you see a predominantly year in and year out ten win team every you know,
every year? Or are the abs and flows? Now when do you
see the production of the team? I think that I look, I'm watching
like what he did this summer with the hole, with the cars and recruiting,
and you know, and that's the one thing that the stuff that you
do that people love, like the coming and the cars and the cigar smoking
and the Jordans, those are the same things that people make fun of you
when you lose but I watch what he did this summer. With that he
was able to get in the ear of a lot of the top recruits in
the nation. He didn't get everybody, but news flash, Alabama doesn't get
everybody, but he did toure a lot of people, a lot of top
talent. The car has committed to Michigan State, and you still got a
couple other guys that are going to flip from other schools and commit to Michigan
State if you can keep that up. Because when you look at Ohio State,
Ohio State is the is the cream of the Big Ten because they stacked
players, They stacked classes. The fact that you know, when you had
Chris Olave, Jackson Smith and the jig but was even better than him,
and now all of a sudden, the Jigba goes down and Marvin Harrison comes
in. You stack players. The fact that you know, one of the
Boaster Brothers goes down, but Chase Young just fills in that spot. Because
you keep bringing in these players. And I think Milk Tucker's geared up that
way because he knows in order to get to the Big Ten title and win
it, you gotta beat the buck guys and that's something that a lot of
a lot of coaches get stuck on Michigan. Beating Michigan is not that big
of a deal. Antonio showed you we could beat Michigan consistently, and that's
not you have to beat the Buck guys. The road to the Big Ten
title, the road to Indianapolis always goes through Columbus. The years that Michigan
State has beaten the Buck guys, guess what, they won the Big Ten
plas So on that rinko, you look at the two contrasting styles between the
two coaches, understanding that this is a new era in the nil But when
you look at the recruiting that Mark D'Antonio did, he recruited a ton in
the state of Ohio. He wanted to get guys that came out of there
and had a chip on their shoulder because they may have been passed over by
the Buck Eyes. Because he knew the same thing that the road to the
Big Ten championship goes through Columbus. He coached there as a defensive coordinator when
they won the national title. His grad assistant at that time was Mel Tucker
as a defensive back secondary. You know, actually, no, he was
an actual secondary coach. He was grad assistant here at Michigan State. Well,
Melt doesn't recruit Ohio exclusively. He recruits the entire nation. So when
you look at the different styles, because I've heard other former players say we
need to recruit more Midwest guys because we need to win our backyard in order
to be able to compete with Michigan Ohio State, what do you think is
the correct philosophy moving forward and recruiting. Well, they said, here's how
I look at it. Ohio State doesn't really recruit the state of Ohio.
You want to beat Ohio State, you look at where Ohio State's players come
from. They come from Texas, they come from California, they come from
Florida. Yeah, they'll take the cream of the crop from Ohio, but
they don't they Urban Meyer taught Ryan Day, don't stick in the Midwest.
If you want to beat the SEC teams, go down to where the SEC
draws their players, and you try to get their players. And I think,
I like how mel Tucker is doing that, because yeah, once you
beat Ohio State, now you're going to end up playing Georgia and Alabama and
the USC's of the world. I think down the road, you're going to
need those players who can mess them speed for speed. So that's why I
like when I see Tuck going down into Georgia and THENTO Florida and bringing in
kids from Texas. I know it doesn't sound it doesn't feel good because it
feels like you're overlooking the Midwest kids. But guys, I mean seriously,
when you look at this, especially with like the charter schools and like that,
a lot of the Midwest kids are leaving the Midwest and going to play
other places. So if you want to beat the big boys, yeah,
you need to go and shut up at the same grocery store that they shot
at. And and they don't come to Michigan, they don't come to Ohio.
They're in Texas, they're in Florida, they're in California, they're in
Georgia. So if you want to be like them, you got you gotta
recruit like them. Rico, we need, we need the t on the
streets. Like, what what are they talking about right now? As we're
both team down the road? This is rivalry, this is hay week.
What are they talking right now about us? Here in Mississi State? Obviously
we're both on by week and next week we obviously are playing them down there
seven thirty at night, and we can talk about the kickoff time later on
after this we answer this question, But like, what's what's happening right now
that we're not hearing from that camp down the road? You know what you're
not hearing is anything, because I don't think butlers. I think em books
on Ohio State right now in Michigan State. Michigan State's speed bum. Michigan
State is let's just not trip over them, let's not lose to them.
But they are more focused on the final game this season. I think it's
what November twenty ninth or something and Saturday in Columbus at noon. That's where
they are because they feel like there's no other team in this conference that can
match up with them. So you're it's almost like, yeah, they're not
gonna call you little brother, but it's okay, we have to play them,
and yeah they're gonna treat this like their super Bowl. But if we
just go out and play our game, you know, no big deal.
So there's not a ton of buzz this year because they don't like last year
it was too seven and seven and them teams undefeated playing each other this year,
it's to them, I mean what, it's a step above playing for
dude, step above playing Rutgers. Like they was more buzzed for Penn State
than there is for Michigan State. Now give it some time, because you
know former players always step up and say something stupid. I thought Taylor Lawan
is annual feet and it was like, okay, I really felt like I
really felt like quote tweeting him saying, is somebody gonna tell him because he's
going on they're gonna play in that dog crap city? And I'm thinking to
myself with Taylor, They're gonna play in ann Arbor, so you know what,
You're correct, they are gonna play. He's going on and on.
I'm like, this idiot doesn't even realize where there's where they're playing. But
even in his rant, did you notice he's talking about Ohio State. They're
more focused on the buck Eyes than they are on Michigan State. And I
can understand that Michigan State's coming in three and four. I mean, the
defense still kind of it looks as bad as last year. You got embarrassed
by Minnesota. So they're thinking, well, in Minnesota and Tanner Morgan can
do this. Lowerd knows that JJ Mcjesus can come in here and get this
thing done. Jesus. So I have a question about JJ McCarthy, J
man Jesus. But I don't think he's been in a big He's never He
hasn't been in a game like this before. The last time last year when
he came into the game, I think he cast them the game. He
had a couple of costly fumbles to cast them. Peyton Thorne has been in
a game like this. Mccausey has not been tested from the start of the
whistle to the end of the whistle. So how do you think the pressure
on him or do you think there is no pressure on him? No?
I think right now he doesn't know that there's pressure on him because he hasn't
experienced that. But you're right, No, he did cost him the game
last year. Michigan fans won't admit it, but he ended two drives.
It was one drive that I swear up to God that the ball had bounced
the right way. Ronald Williams takes that back for a scooping score and MSU
gets it. But then he left it on the carpet at the fifty and
said, yeah, I don't really want this ball, and Michigan State grafting
it and that turned the game right there. So again in the fourth quarter
he did cost him. I think the moment was too big. But he
hasn't felt any pressure, so it's almost as if he doesn't know that he
should be waiting for that. He hasn't been hit. He really hasn't been
put in a position to fight and come back and win. He's always had
the leader. It's been close, and you know, life has been good
for him. I mean, you know, you know, his food's being
cut up for him and fed to him. He doesn't have to go out
there and go hunting and kill it and drag it in and skin it and
do all of that stuff. He's sitting in a great position. But no,
he hasn't. Now, if you're Michigan State, this is where I
tell people, because you know, people like, what do you think about
this game? And I'm like, look, I'm never gonna say who's gonna
win, because I don't think people they underestimate the value of hate, and
I think mil Tucker has adapted that hate from mark Antonio and instilled it in
his players, and even the guys who come in from the portal will quickly
find out, Yeah, this is a different game, and we're gonna play
this differently. If MS you can get in there and hit him and make
him uncomfortable, then we're gonna see what he has to do. But right
now, man, it's all sunshine and rainbows for him because he's got a
great offensive line blocking for him. He's got two really great running backs back
there that he's yet to feel the pressure of what college football is. They
played a cupcake schedule to start the season off with, so this could be
the first time that Yeah, you're gonna get that that that that hit that
comes in. It's a little harder than Hawaii hits you. Yeah, well,
question, do you think, I'm sorry, sure, do you think
because the fact that he no, but you know, you're talking about the
pressure of the McCarthy you know, hasn't felt this year. Do you think
possibly that's an advantage for him or do you think it's it's a disadvantage that
he hasn't felt that kind of pressure in his career. I do think it's
it's a little bit of a disadvantage because that's I mean, let's face it,
you guys know, it's former athletes. That's when you find out who
you really are. Everybody feels good and is great when things are easy,
when you're playing in some scrimmages, and when you're playing you know, Division
three teams, everybody looks good. But what do you do? How do
you handle yourself when adversity hits? And it hasn't and that's not his fault.
He plays on a really, really good team and he's very fortunate that
he hasn't. He beat out the incumbent quarterback. And now, like I
said, wife is just great for him. He doesn't have to go out
there and throw the ball, you know, thirty times because he can turn
around and hand it off to Blake Form or Donovan Edwards. But yeah,
you do want to see, Like last week's game, Peyton Thorn showed me
exactly what he was about, because that was a game that Michigan State had
to have. That was a game that Michigan State wasn't leading until the fourth
quarter and then it got tied up and it goes to overtime. And the
way he kept that team together, Peyton Thorn had one of his better games.
He may not have lit up the statistics sheep, but it was the
leadership that he showed, the way he kept the team together, the way
they fought. It's something about that when you've gone through the war, when
you've gone through the battle, and yeah, for a guy like JJ,
this could be it. Now. Here's the thing. Michigan State has to
live up to that, and that defense has to make him uncomfortable. And
you got to make him look the way Graham merks, look where you're chasing
him around where he doesn't have all day to just sit back there and find
an open receiver or do the little play action and the read option and then
taking running for thirty some yards. If he takes off and run, you
got to punish him so that he thinks about it the next time. You
know what, No, not doing that again. I'm gonna hand it off
to you running backs. That's your job. I'm not taking the punishment.
You have to make that man uncomfortable because if you don't let JJ feel the
pressure and the hits, he'll tell you apart. Absolutely, who do any
need on both sides of the ball us to show up, show out to
win the game down there. I'm getting right to the point because like I
need, we need to win. Like this is that season where that only
game we mark on the calendar is like we can lose everyone, but we
beat that team down a row. You know it's successful. Obviously you want
to get a Bowl game. But what do we need to do? Which
players need to step up and show out? You know, Actually otis is
sad because you're right this year. For years it was great that you know
what, whether you won the Michigan game or not, that wasn't the focus
this year. Yeah, it'll make smart and fans feel a lot better.
I'm sure the team will feel a lot better. I mean I look at
a lot of it on defense. I mean you need to play Jacobs play
to come in there and be that force. You need somebody coming off the
edge. You know, this is a good game that that you know,
Brandon Wright can just show up, use that speed, Jakobe Winman lay,
you know, looking at x in the secondary, you know a guy that
he's I thought I expected more out of a guy like a mere speed and
I haven't really gotten anything like that offensively. And you need Peyton Thorn to
be Peyton Thorn. You need him to go out there and find his receivers.
And you know what I like how when you hit guys, when you
got one on one coverage, use that. Go have to use Kank Covid
use uh, you know, Jay Reid, use those guys. Hey,
if nobody, if you want to cover Malik Carr one on one. You
saw what happened last week. When Malik catches the ball, it now becomes
a business decision. And there was a whole lot of badge that said,
nope, I don't want to of this. That's the truth. Now,
Yeah, he got came off the ball, he was wing open man.
They said, both linebackers said go ahead, you go ahead. And you
know, here's here's the other person. I don't even know because I know
in a game like this, here's what Michigan does have the advantage. And
Jake Moody is in money, Well he lies up. You know that.
That's three points for Michigan State. I mean, when was the last time
they made a field goal? I mean every time it's just like you're sitting
there and you're praying and hoping to God. I mean, in the last
week, it's just like Okay, can you kick this? Okay, this
little giants know this was just a bad nap okay, but over time,
I mean two different snappers, right, and two different kickers. You know,
this is Jayu's favorite topic right here, because he thinks the kickers aren't
even people. And so Michigan State right now struggling a little bit in the
in the specialist department, we are struggling. And I remember specifically, there
was some point at the start of the fourth quarter in between that TV timeout
from the end of the third two for and I saw our snappers snapping out
there on the field, and I said, we're in trouble. Yeah,
I mean, here's the thing. It's not all bad. Here's how bad
your season is that Bryce Behingers is probably the MVP of the team. Yes,
yeah, yeah, I mean you here. I mean, here's the
thing. If you're Tucker, you know what, embraced the fact we I
don't trust my kickers, which means I'm gonna go for it, and I'm
gonna go for two a lot because I'm gonna leave my best players out there
on the field. That's where it gets risky, because yeah, Michigan's able
to line up a guy who'll probably be Yeah that probably Moody will be kicking
on Sundays. I mean, if I'm the Lions, i would draft him
with the sixth round because he's that good. But yeah, the kicking situation,
I mean, you got the freshman in and you got the transfer and
neither. I mean, kickers are all about confidence, and you can see
when they go out there, they're not expecting the ball to go through the
rights. They're hoping it goes up in there. And when you see hope,
you know you're in trouble. Right. Uh. You bring up a
great point about coach Tucker going for it on fourth down. In order to
do that, you're gonna have to open up your playbook offensively. I think
Michigan State needs to open up the playbook offensively. And in order to open
up your playbook, I think we have to make a commitment and establish the
run game. And I'm very very curious and interested. There's your thoughts running
back? Yes, that's easy, No, but seriously, if you want
to do those flea flicker plays, those reverse passes, I think the main
reason that we got away with those plays this past game against Wisconsin is because
we were able to run the ball. We had ninety nine yards Russian offense
of this past season this past game. So what are your thoughts on the
running back and the running back by committee? And why is Elijah Collins not
getting the carries he deserves? You know, it's funny I can answer that
one. First. Somebody asked me that today, and I wonder if it's
there are some players and this is that that that exceed and they do better
coming off the bench. And we see this a lot more in basketball,
where they're players that you know, when you start them they're okay, but
for some reason, when they come off the bench, they're able to do
a lot better. I mean, like last like Malik Hall last year in
basketball, when he started he was scoring three four points. Well, he
came off the benches when he was scored nineteen and twenty points. And I
wonder if that's the same with Elijah Collins where he starts and he's okay,
but if he comes in there as the game progresses, he's he's able to
just do his thing. Now. Either that or or maybe they're they know
what they're getting out of Collins and they want to see what can we get
out of brassar. What can we get out of Burger? Because I know
Elijah's going to bring what he's going to bring, So let's see if the
other two can do something and we can pair them up with Elijah. But
that's the question that a lot of people want to know, because you see
what I see. Elijah Collins should be getting a lot more runs. He's
the best running back as of Now. I understand the Burger thing because I
guess you know it was your old team, so you out of spite,
you want to go out there and beat your old team. But yeah,
you want to play Collins. Now, as far as the trick plays in
all you have to be able to really establish the run and the other thing
you have to be able to do. And I'm sorry, but Jared Horse's
I mean, he's a walking fifteen yard penalty. He will do something every
time Michigan State looks like they take five steps forward, flag holding this and
you already know who's going to be on number. It's in that number.
It's also Tony Manager's number, you know, so you're the defense rests exactly,
wasn't it was not a fifteen yard family. There's a walking ass kicker
if you ask anybody else that played again. Okay, okay, but I'm
gonna ask Riko the question that I know he's just been debating all week about
the seven thirty kickoff. You know you you're for that time, right?
Oh yeah? I mean here, I love seven thirty games because it's a
primetime game. Now, I don't think this year's game should be because Michigan
State didn't live up to that Billy last year. Man, that was a
weak. That game should have been at seven thirty. Imagine all the drama,
all the twisting turns of that game, and then imagine it under the
lights and how it would have been so much more special if it was there.
But you know you're letting the Fox people tell you, oh, no
big noon kickoff. Here's a news flash for you, Joel and Gusts.
No one cares. No one watches doing the game unless you're trying to get
to the early bird supper at Denny's. Okay, that's people. I like
the numbers. Numbers. Last year it was the most watched game. It
was. You've got a viewers, viewers impressions, which is important. Okay,
but here's the thing. Yes, people watched it, but once again,
if you're in the desert and you haven't had water in two and a
half days, and I give you dirty water, you're gonna drink it because
you're thirsty. It ain't what you're it's what you got. And they they
basically did take this dirty, grease field water and guzzle it down and you
can bring a new and you got no say. So, I'm hoping that
I like the night game because I do think it just feel special. There's
so much more playing under the lights than you know, you guys are athletes.
It just seems like even get a little more apped up knowing this is
special because there's not a lot of teams playing right now, so we got
a lot more eyeballs on them. Let's face it, that game last year
could have been played at eight o'clock in the morning, it still would have
been a number one game. True. So the question for you guys is,
because Rico hit on this, being former athletes that played at this level,
did you like playing the night games? There's no question about it.
We love playing at night. We always used to say the dogs come out,
and you know, the freaks come out of night. The dogs come
out at night. On yourself. I'm just saying, you know, hey,
look your wife's under the lights. Eight o'clock kicks, seven thirty kick.
Wife knows all about this, uh three at half time. Yeah,
what I'm saying, you know, so these are the things that happened.
Okay, that's otis. Did you like playing? It's indifferent depending on how
your body is feeling. I mean, it also depends like notre to day.
Absolutely, it's the game, right, Michigan absolutely brings you that Friday
night like night lights esque typefield Northwestern Northwestern absolutely not new geting, get the
job done is get home. I feel the exact same way I think in
college football right now, there are too many night games. Spartan say,
it used to be super special when you played under the lights. Now that's
the water down. There's too many night games. Me let me play one
a noon game and let me go have dinner with my family. This is
the old man. This the old man talking. This is the old man
talking about going home and having dinner with his family. This is what we
talked about. That's twitter supper, not they saw supper and pee soup.
Right, where's the restaurant, bill man, I'll put it out there.
I won't put it out there. You guys always give me grief about this.
Okay, I go have dinner with my family. I can still be
at Rix or the land Shark. Jay. You're trying to hit up the
beef carver here. Here's what I gotta stay though. But think about this.
I think, especially as the days get shorter, the three point thirty
game is the perfect compromise because you start off in the day and you finished
that night. So I think everybody's happy because okay, think about this,
what would the twenty fifteen game look like with with with Jalen watched Jackson's scoring,
but it was in the day. It was something about the night that
made that even better. That to seeing the Michigan fans in their and the
darkness around them as they all wore their yellow. It was it was the
night that made it feel that much better. Yeah, I mean the game
day. Think about how sweet it would have been when you see a guy
like Kane, I a skor that win touchdown last year. But it would
have been night time with those dark unis a man that would have been.
I mean it was dark to the fans. But don't come me wrong.
I am not against night games. I just think there are too many night
games in college football right now, and it takes away the mestique, the
special lists of it. And I agree with you that game last year at
night beautiful. You know another game that night perfect, noter Dame at night
purple. Like Michigan State has not played a noon game this year, you
know in the Coulcher household, we got to get them home earlier, I
mean, please earlier. I think that's some new. Some games do screen
now, okay, like Michigan State Rockers screams noon. That doesn't say nighttime,
nothing about it, whereas Oda said, you're playing Northwestern that says noon.
But yeah, there are certain games you play at night. But here's
the thing. Tell you, with all the billion dollars being thrown the TV
networks, it doesn't matter anymore the nighttime. They're looking for the ratings,
they're looking for the money. And and noon game. You know what a
noon game is. It's the appetizer of Saturday. The noon game is what
you have on the background as you're cleaning your house, or the noon game
is something that you as you're driving in your car going to the home depot
or the lows going through back crowd noise. You're not really paying a head
it to noon games because it's normally, again, a really good team versus
a really bad team, and occasionally you pop in to try to see what
the score is, but it's on, but you're not watching it. You
don't really sit down to watch football till the three thirty games come on,
because that's normally the more marquee games, whereas noon. Yeah, I mean,
look, Fox went out and they sold their soul to Michigan and said
we're gonna cover them for an entire month. You know, it almost is
like Michiganese get a restraining word out on them because they literally followed this team
for an entire month. They turned Michigan Indiana into the big noon game.
No, that's not a big neon game, that's just a btn type of
game. But that's what they did. But did you really care about the
Michigan Indiana game? No? I didn't. I mean I listened down the
radio as I was driving up to Spartan Stadium the Michigan State's game. Noon
games, Yeah, they're they're the appetizer of the day. They're not,
they're the less important games. I mean hand not to mention that half the
country is still sleeping. It's like nine am for most of the country,
you know. So you know there's a huge segment of the country, huge
out west for six months, segment of the country that is watching that game
at nine to ten or eleven am. I lived out west, right,
So you know a lot of the people, a lot of the people said,
I love waking up and Jay, here we go again. Undusted,
it's the geriatric ward. We're not talking about. There's more to life if
you put a disclaimer on it. But they you you know, we're talking
about like the kids that are playing the game. How about that? Okay,
Okay, let's look at when Michigan State went to Arizona and that game
was ten pm Pacific time Pacific. That happened there was still it was Yeah,
it was HoTT. Well yeah, but here's the reason for that is
what you said it was hot. You do realize if you played that game
at noon in Phoenix, people would into the Turk literally from Africa. I
want the heat. Okay, let me put it like this. He's from
the you're from the coast. Okay, breezes. You know who wasn't from
Africa, Brian LAWORKI don't let the last name, but he was not from
Africa and he's from there, and it would have still been so I understand.
Yeah, the Arizona State game was that was that was gamesmanship because they
said, Okay, we're gonna make sure you play when you're nice and tired.
So I didn't even fault them for that because I said, if I
was MSU, I play at noon and make them play in the morning.
I think they did that, and it still didn't work because they found a
way to let quarterback fourth and twenty seven when god knows everybody knew he couldn't
know what never mind, let me right that before we let you go,
Rico. What does Michigan State have to do to win? They got to
put pressure on JJ McCarthy. They have to they have to score touchdowns,
and they got to score touchdowns early because Michigan mo is once they got you,
once they have you down, they don't let you back up off the
mat. You have to be able to go out and score first. And
the weirdest stat was, up until the fourth quarter of the game against Wisconsin,
Michigan State hadn't had a lead in a game since September tenth. They
had been behind in every game that they lost. They never they were tied.
A couple times, they were tied against Oho State, they were tied
against Maryland. They didn't have to lead. You need to go out punch
Michigan in the mouth because I think if you do that, they're entire It's
like the old Mike Tyson thing. Everybody has a plan until they get punched
in the mouth. Michigan already assumes that you're going to be very easy,
and by the fourth quarter we're gonna be playing you know, they're back up
quarterback Orgy and he'll be out there. But you got to punch them in
the mouth. You gotta jump ahead. You gotta have them days to confuse.
You have to score touchdowns. You can't have stupid penalties and set yourself
back. Now you know, I still don't understand what happened on the punt
return from Jay Reed. The referees is gonna have to explain that one to
me because I thought I knew the rules, but apparently I didn't. But
you can't have penalties on game changing plays like that. You have to be
able to score and you gotta score early. You gotta often, you gotta
hit JJ. You got to make JJ think like there's fifteen people out there
and make that man uncomfortable because right now he has mastered the art of playing
quarterback in Michigan because there has been no pressure on that man. No,
man, I appreciate that man. Love the energy that you bring to the
every every on air segment that you go to or you're a part of Rico.
Man, that was awesome right there. You guys would agree, right,
absolutely, absolutely absolutely, that was that was first old as I see
he's not as yeah, he's as a young time right, yea, it's
way fast time. You do you do? You walk around with like a
nightcap and a candle in your hand when you walk through the I do have
my I have my night slippers and I got to watch my stories, right
the story it's a real you say, slippers? Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Thanks Rico. You catch at the game all right, man? Awesome?
That was definitely fun. And the Rico knows Jay us real age.
You know, they have the your your birth age and then you have your
real age. We didn't know. Now we all do. James one hundred
and seventy two years old. And then Joe Louis, I guess you know
this has been fun here at the Johnny Pumpkin. You know a lot of
a lot of a lot of energy here, great guests. I'm gonna put
a ball on this, but like we got more energy coming up for rivalry
week as continue next week. Final thoughts for today, JAYU, good shout
out to Jolly Pumpkin. They did a great job hosting us. Excellent food,
excellent service, great people. Really appreciate it. If you have the
opportunity to come down here, great food of the man, you can't.
Whatever you choose, it's not gonna be a bad meal. Yeah, it's
to add to it. Finishing up, wrap it up. Thank you Tony
Grant for the partnership obviously Jolly Pumpkin, but great hospitality. Like Jay you
said, we're excited to roll out some stuff for next week. It's hate
week. We'll be protecting the Sparty statue. Don't come near campus. We'll
get it right, We'll get it tight. That was life. Gotta love
it. Nothing else needs to be saying. And from Jay you called great
old as Wally, I'm Jason and Sparta. Have a good night. God
bless and go green, go white, Go light.