The following is a presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties.
Well a pleasant, good even to everyone. It is Thursday, November thirtieth,
twenty twenty three. Welcome to the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted by
Spartan Dogs. This is Sparta MSU. I'm your host, Jason Strayhorn,
along with my co host, the Boss Otis Wiley. Jayu is on assignment
today. But listen, we want to welcome to the show. If this
is your first time listening and watching us, we absolutely want to welcome you.
And if this is not, we really appreciate and thank you so much
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subscribe to all of our social media platforms at This as Sparta MSU. And
let's go to the live check because that's where the party's at. This honestly
is a recording because we've got a lot of stuff going on. We got
a lot of transfer portal news that we got to jump into. But Otis
we have to get into this and this is unfolding by the day about the
new hire Jonathan Smith, who has come over from Oregon State from Corvallis to
Michigan State and now he's already making his impact known. You miss Tuesday show.
Let's talk about your perspective on the new higher Yeah, you know it's
it's crazy because when is the last time I was on this. So it's
been like for like the holiday and all the Ford field and all the crazy
crossover from sports. It's been too long, man, we miss it.
It's been too long. It's all good. But y'all been doing a great
job, man, So I've been holding it down. At last showed on
Tuesday was phenomenal. So I basically I can fall in the background. You
know it's gonna be good. I can just sit there and sit back and
relax. But it took me. It took me a minute. I'm being
honest with you. It took me a minute to process because you know,
I've been through a coaching change. You've been through a coaching change you know
too as well. And it's business. I get. The business is the
business of collegiate athletics. Like it's not getting it done, it's you know,
on to the next one. You know what. For me personally,
it's like you gotta close chapters, uh before you go to the next chapter,
right, Like you can't just you know, skim and not complete something.
And I feel like there was some stuff that that that that that happened,
you know that you know, the previous staff or even like the coaches.
You know, Coach B you know, not say you get a fair
shake, but just you know, treating them with you know, the respect
that you know, this guy, Coach B took over just a programming shambles,
and you know, from a standpoint of just out of the respect,
you know, it's treating that with the most security, like like not security,
but clarity of just being transparent with with them on the on the situation.
Right. And so with Coach Smith coming in, everyone kind of knew,
like we do need a new leaf, We need a new chapter,
We need new you know, regime, we need new energy. Like it's
kind of getting rid of the old with the new. And uh, you
know, I've been impressed from how he's handled it. I mean it's been
a quick three to four days where it feels like it's already been a month
where he has been going on thousand dollars per hour. You know, you
got to do your due diligence and meeting the appropriate folks, the key stakeholders
here in Michigan State. You know who brought him, who got him here,
and so you know that guardlet of just getting to know absolutely everybody that
that is a that is a task at hand, like that is a huge,
tall task. I do believe he is coming with some new energy from
an offensive standpoint, right, Like you can already know if you look at
the stats that he's coming from and bringing. Uh, we have been really
dead in in the past. So for for that to kind of get an
uplift a resurrection, I think that's the element that you know, Spartan Nation
is looking to see. Like defensively, I think our DNA defensively is Spartans.
No matter who is the coach, we will always put out that that
defensive you know front, that defensive outstanding production, regardless of who the decordinator
is. You know, you still have defensive guys that can make plays.
That's been historic. But the offensively like defense can't be out there too long
as we've seen, right, So I'm excited to see that aspect of who
he's bringing in from a staff standpoint, But I only like my heart goes
out to all the guys because I've been through it, we all been through.
Is like the evaluation, the kind of the the sitting there waiting kind
of thing of like what's what's what's the what's the new staff? It's still
not complete. They're building it out, trying to expedite that, trying to
get it in time to go out on recruiting, and it's just all of
that where it's the same kind of noise that we had to deal with.
When Coach d came in. It was kind of like very quiet, you
know, hum and here are the top ten people and here he said,
she said, who's who's rumored this? Who's that? Now with the transfer
portal, that's we're gonna touch on. It adds another heightened sense of like,
man, what's going on? Uh So Coach Smith is I think he's
saying the right things. He's setting it up to where he's got to build
the foundation, and you know, I just want to spartanation give him a
chance, right, you know, you got to give them a chance because
it's not all overnight. It's not gonna get better overnight. It's gonna be
a break by brick restacking the foundation. You know, there's there's no question
about that. You know, it's it's not gonna be easy. He's been
very transparent about that. And you know, to your point, you brought
up you know, in with the new this out with the old regime.
But in doing so you felt it sounds like that that Harlan Barnett and the
staff maybe weren't kept the breast of how things were going to progress or if
they were going to get a fair shot, so to speak, at being
the head coach. But it looks like Courtney Hawkins and Harlan Barnett are both
negotiating at the present time. And again, this is Thursday afternoon. I
know this show is airing tonight. We don't know what may come up,
you know, between now and then. However, it seems that they're in
the negotiation phases and Coach Smith has talked about having to get people with big
ten and Midwest ties and roots on the staff and how important that is because
he doesn't have those, and that's one of the areas that he knows.
I mean, do you think that that's a good thing that he understands at
least that point, and you have an opportunity for people with the MSU that
Green DNA to be on this staff. Listen, we talk all the time
about this is that you have to win your neighboring states, like or not
win compete where you have kids in the state of Michigan going to Power five
schools and we're not even considering them. This is the pastors in past recruiting,
we weren't even considering or they weren't on hire on our board. But
clearly they have the talent to go play at the Rutgers of the world,
Airlands of the world. Like at this point, like we're we're not too
high mighty to go and take a chance on these guys. And some of
these guys that are in the neighboring states, they want to play for our
home team inside, you know, so it you know, from a family
decision standpoint, families could drive and Washington play. So for us, I
think that's a good opportunity for him to really put his feet down and say
we are going to get back to the roots. You know. The coach
d's of the world, like Ohio, they're like think about Michigan, Like
they got guys from Ohio that didn't get got pasted up by Ohio State and
they are balling and beaten Ohio State, And I think that's the element getting
back to the gritty of the grittiness of a blue collar neighboring states, the
Indiana, the Ohios and then obviously Michigan, and still you got guys in
Pennsylvania, Like, how can we make sure we're at least majority winning those
states and knowing that, you know, we still can get the South guy,
the guys from the South. But you can't just fully go one hundred
percent building the roster from the South, Like that's just not how it's going
to be built. These guys are It's a winter state, you know,
the weather, everything kind of under the sun. Like you can't just go
one hundred percent on Florida or you know, Atlanta and Georgia. Right,
you got to have some of those big time guys and get those guys,
but you've got to have some foundation, firm guys that are from here and
around this region so they understand the power of the Big ten, like this
is where it's really built. So I do believe he's standing on those firm
foundations. We're going to recruit in state, our neighboring states and get this
back to where it needed to be. Yeah, and we're not going to
forget Illinois too. That's a big state also is a neighboring state that you
know it's big because you talk about something you touched on it there. You
talked about almost the psychology behind college football in the regional geography and how that
ties into the spirit of the school, the alumni base, you know on
my parents went to that school, or you know, I've grown up watching
that school. I've been in those stadiums as a young child, you know,
watching that team because it was down the road from my you know,
my parents' home, you know, or where I grew up. That makes
a big difference. That's the separation between college football and the NFL. As
we know, if it's the NFL, you can't really choose if you're not
named Eli and Peyton Manning, the Mannings are you know, guys like that
that can tell people where they're going to go. You have to go do
it in college. You have an option, and if you don't, if
you completely ignore them, I agree with you, then it can build up
dissension. Like you can see people who don't like that if you don't offer
them. Look what we see as evidence. Just the other day here quarterback
Sam Levitt, who is an Oregon native. He was passed over by the
end state school, Oregon State, so much so that now he that in
Michigan State and that same staff comes right to where he's at, you know,
thousands of miles away, and he can't let it go right and whatever
vibe he got, whatever feeling he got, uh, he just he was
done right. And that's the thing about and the end this world that we
live in in college football. We know nil is a big deal and it
can make the world of universe a lot smaller than it used to be,
especially when you and I played the game and back when I play. I
mean, look, it is what it is, right, There is no
transfer about to do that right sitting out, man, just you know,
stick it out exactly. You know, I think that you know, he's
doing what I'm talking about, Coach Smith. Now he's doing a phenomenal job
of trying to get hit the ground running in the local area. But you're
gonna see, I can't imagine with all of his times out west that we're
not going to see an influx of players from the West Coast, be it
current players on the Oregon State roster or other high schools that he has connections
with out there, that he'll be able to relate with those players and describe
what it's like in these lands, sing to get them comfortable enough to come
out. And what NIL does in that case is make it easier. There's
sometimes a player that the parents or the family or you know friends. You
know, Yeah, if you grew up in Detroit, it's much easier to
come over to the East Lansing. But if you grew up in Eugene or
somewhere in Washington State or California, you're not driving to the game. However,
the new Big ten footprint, you have an opportunity to attract some of
that local talent as well, because you'll be traveling to those schools now on
more of a regular basis. But the NIL also allows the parents to be
able to get to the games a little easier. Is that what you see?
Oh yeah, I mean you took the words out of my mouth,
like you're with his powers and like who he is. You know, I
haven't got a chance to like talk with sit down with them, right,
But from his DNA of what he built at Oregon State and being Alum,
there, you know, you're gonna you're gonna start seeing some West Coast love
in our recruiting a lot more. Knowing that he knows and he knows that
area, he knows that region. It's gonna help us obviously knowing that we're
gonna be playing Oregon next year. Next season, you're gonna have U C
L a USC at one point in time, you're gonna have at least two
out of you know, every year going across you know, to play against
them, right, So that's an element where you can use as a recruiting
advantage. Hey, we're in the big ten where you know your family will
be able to see you play, you know, twice out of the year,
you know, or even more depending on the scheduling. But I think
that's to your point. It's like he has more resources. It's crazy to
understand that that the amount of resources he had at Oregon State and what he
did and now you put our resources behind it is like what this man can
do and his staff can do, it's gonna be interesting to see, Like
when we'll sit back and be watching and supporting of former players, but it's
gonna be interesting to see how he does it. Oh, yes, and
we know you and I both know those former players are anxiously awaiting being able
to connect with the new coaches. He has said that it's very it's vitally
important to the strength of the program to connect with the past, to get
those players integrated into the program so that they can help recruit and do a
lot of the things that you see top non programs doing. To your point,
otis you s brought up the resources and we have a graphic that we
can pull up here that talks about the resources, the difference between Oregon State
and Michigan State. Which is a better job. I think this is an
outstanding graphic here. Yeah, this is to whoever, whoever is this,
somebody that came to t I A. It's a TJ. Altimore. Aualtimore
got to give you some got to give you some nuggs. Look, I'm
all about graphics and and charts here. I let him breathe that, right.
But when you look at this, you just asked the question, what
is that? What is the better job? I mean from someone's career like
this is like you saying, hey, I'm trying to pick between you know,
going to in my career as a corporate partner or a corporate working in
corporate America is like, this is the stuff that you put to on the
on the board, like the advantages, disadvantages, the pros, the cons
and then right here it's all the pros and advantages is out weighing to the
green and white. So for him and his career, his family, and
even let's talk about the staff too. The staff getting the opportunity come into
the big ten and that opens up doors for them and their family as an
opportunity. So it's bigger than just obviously coach Smith, and I think he
understands that if you look at his staff very diverse as well, and you
see where he's bringing that same mantra when you you look at it, you
know, talk about mantras, right, like he already said one good thing
that I'm like, this is absolutely like that was. I don't know if
he was strategic with it or not, but like that one mantra, which
we will show from his press conference, Like that's what we need up.
Let's call it up. Yeah. I think from the start we're gonna you
know, low ego, high output, selfless. I think I think football
is the ultimate team game. Walking in. There's these roster sizes now getting
over one hundred and twenty some odd guys. There's eleven guys on the field.
Uh. I think it's an ultimate team game. No shot at coaches
all over here, but you play hook man. You put four guys over
here and let Lebron play one on one and that can take place schematically and
all of that. Football is a little different, and so it's the ultimate
team game on that of being selfless and being a great teammate mhm, low
ego, high output, yes, like, And I think that's the element
of like, you can never be bigger than the program. That's anywhere in
my opinion right, Like, you can never be bigger than a program.
Now, you got all stars, you got playmakers, but there's still an
element that this is a team game, and even on and off the field,
you gotta be about the program and for your your teammates and representing the
green and white. And I think I say we got away from that.
I don't think we did. But there were some things. There's a lot
of egos, a lot of things that you got to manage now because we're
making money, you know, we're making money now, So when we're come
making money. You know, there's there's an element that comes with that.
So I like that. He's like, Hey, you know, I know
you're gonna be a star player, but you still got to have a low
ego and you got to be high output. Like your ego is gonna come
with you know, making plays, right, your brand is going to be
coming with nil. When you make plays and you produce on the field,
you still got to produce. And so I just want to look to see
how he does his game management too, where I'm gonna start looking at the
old games that he had organ state how did he win these close ones and
how did he manage because that's where we were kind of losing or lacking.
Is the management of the game, the entire game of like playing chess,
making sure like we're halftime adjustments. How is he doing it and how is
he letting his staff lead it as well. I'm looking to come do some
investigating on that, and you know, next week or so as we start
to roll out and get to know Coach Smith as we go. I mean
a lot of great points you just brought up there, you know. Alan
Haller, the athletic director from Michigan State University. He brought up in the
press conference about you know, Jonathan Smith's style, like no flash, he
brought that up. And I know, uh, you know, there's been
a lot of players that talked about this, you know, but the way
the direction of the program up to this point was what was the identity of
Michigan State football. And when you think about Michigan State overall, you think
about grit, you think about determination, and you don't think about a lot
of laugh you know, you think about guys like Tom Izzo. He's all
determination and and grit. He's not like a me guy. He's you know,
us we are? Is that what you would say? Totally not that?
And then the mantra that he just said, low ego, high output
ego you know in the my thesaurus here and there's another word with it.
It's called pride, and we know the fall man. When he said that,
I was like, man, like, I know that's in the word,
but I'm like, why does he keep saying it? Why does coach
he keep saying it? And when it happens to you, like it happened
to me, like you know, preseason, like you start to be like,
oh, I'm making players. I'm out here getting it. I'm straight,
I'm good, but you will be humbled really quick, really fast.
And to your point, I feel like the fall came really quick because we
were after that eleven two season. I mean, you thought we want a
natty, you know, I think that's the element, right, So yeah,
I like, I like, he's coming with them, humbleness, He's
coming with them. We got to put our boots on. We gotta get
get our hands dirty. We got to build this back up, like the
house is falling, we got to put it back together. And so I
like that energy starting out very smooth when he was talking and like and dressing
the conversation, dressing the media, and uh, you know, I think
he probably need to hold off on that analogy of basketball. You know the
coach coach is that great? Like it is ultimate? Right, it is
it is. But you know he was like, you don't know man like
x's and oh is coming from. He's using football analogies in football scheme.
So he's more more than what he knows. So you got to go ahead
and get in the office one to war with him from a personal moment to
read one thing I can't stand about the game of basketball is the ticky tactus
man. Like you know, you can't breathe on a guy without a foul
being called. Right. But that's why I appreciate tim Is though when I
watched Michigan State basketball, because he's not tick attack at all, like he
teaches like relentless intensity and physical. You know those guys, I mean they're
on the floor going after rebounds and all those great things. I mean,
we were just in the beginning of the basketball season. We're going to cover
that at nauseum as we continue on in the basketball season. But tom Izzo
really embodies that that that grit, that determination. And you know, I
know coach Smith coming from Oregon State, everybody thinks, okay, he's an
offensive guy. He can scheme a lot. The world is watching right now
about who are the the who the defensive coaches that he's going to bring on
staff. That's still kind of up in the air right now. Obviously,
Harlan Barnett is a candidate out there that that he's talked with and he's going
to consider for a position there. I don't know who the defensive coordinator is
going to be. But when you look at Michigan State, defensively, You
being a former defensive player, what would you like to see? What kind
of style of play would you like to see this staff push for Michigan State
football. I would like to speak and like I feel like the secondary took
leaps and bounds of like improvement, right like you had the main you had
Mangam, you got my League Spencer, you got dal Tatum, and you
got a Rutger like you got a solid crew like that if they stay and
they you know, remain here like that is a great working group. Secondary
they have some lumps, they got some you know, got some great experience
on the field. If you dissect it, secondary is in a good spot
from a standpoint of like, you know, I do hate that we lost
so Gotto and congratulations on him landing back into the NFL, but like that
was a guy who came in and helped us get back to where it needed
to be. Uh. And then you know, for me, I'm looking
at how do we make sure that we're getting home to putting pressure on the
QB. And we are I mean, we're punching in the mouth, but
we're also elite, We're fast. I just want to linebackers to be able
to do more on the in the covers game for us too, Like that's
an element where countless of times and I've told you all this, I've sat
there and seen people run right past without getting no reroutes, Like there's an
element of like reroute to get to hook curl, reroute to get to flats.
Like I just want to see more of a well balanced mid level for
our defense because when you saw Nardoozia decoordinator, when you saw that where we
had guys going was they basically was animals on the run, animals in the
past, right, And I think that's the standpoint all three levels. We
need. A decordinator is going to keep you guessing, but it's also gonna
be able to make the adjustments and not wait to have time, right,
Like it's adjustments on the fly. And I think that's where you know Coach
Smith praying he's bringing a decordinator that has the track record of doing that,
like competing in game knowing that they've done the research, they've done the film
study, they've also are coaching and making our guys smarter players on the field
because we have talent. You know we have talent, but you've got to
be able to have be smart on the field and knowing what to see,
how to expect things, and just ball out. I think that's the element
is playing free and care free football. I think that's what I'm looking for
in a decordinator and UH and some of the defensive staff guys be able to
develop these guys to where they're going out there and they're making the adjustments or
they're coming out and saying, we need to change this, or we need
to run this, UH check to cover two or sometimes like if you get
beat Man and man, like we cannot play Man and Man if we don't
have the rush. I think there's elements you gotta go, you gotta go,
you gotta adjust. So I just want to coordinator to be able to
be adjust be an adjustable guy that can really give a us the three and
outs because we struggled to get three and outs like we struggled, and so
that's what I'm looking for. You know, I mean you said a lot
there and when you look at the players that are available. We got to
cover the portal update since Tuesday show, and you know, this is the
new era of modern college football where every it seems like every hour we getting
an update on someone who's hitting the portal. From just forty eight hours ago,
we had more people going into the portal. You look at Jeron Glover
wide receiver, Michael O'Shaughnessy, the punter, offensive lineman, another offensive lineman,
and Brandon Baldwin. And it hasn't been many defensive players. But Derek
Harmon, defensive tackle from Detroit Loyola right down the road, has decided to
hit the portal and he had ment. He has did nothing but continue to
improve on that interior. And I know, like me personally and I know
you as a defensive player in the former both of us, we really hope
that you know, there's a couple of those guys that Michigan State can get
back into the graces of coming back. I know that the testing the waters
is the thing right now, but when you look at the defensive side,
it can get worse. And again, this show has been taped, so
we don't know. It may at eight o'clock tonight we may have seen more
of these portal entries. But the defensive players that we've talked to that I've
talked to have said they are watching who the defensive staff is before they make
decisions whether or not to get into the portal or to stay with Michigan State.
What are your thoughts on that straight That's a great question for me as
a defensive guy. If if I'm a if I know I'm a player,
if I'm knowing like I'm a playmaker and I played a lot of snaps,
I will I will say this is a challenge for me as a player to
know that I got to learn a new system. You got have to learn
a new system anyway. If you hit the transfer portal, you get picked
up, then go somewhere else. So it's kind of like you've already established
a ground and framework here with the Green and white, and it's given them,
Like what are they gonna wait for? On? Like who that coordinator
is? Is that the scheme he runs? You know? Are we going
four to three? We're going three and five? Like what what are they
waiting for? Versus like you're going to play multiple fronts and multiple defensive schemes
in the league anyway, Right, So there's an element of am I gonna
look this, look at this as a challenge and be able to say,
hey, I went through and endure this coaching change and a new scheme,
new system. Now, granted, when Coach D took over that system,
it took me a minute. It took me a minute personally. I mean
others adapted very well, but it took me a minute to really understand the
whole defensive scheme, how I fit, how I'm supposed to play as a
safety, because the previous defensive scheme was safety's made. I mean all the
plays, right, not solid plays, but we were heavily involved. But
right, so when you come and got a guy that's defensive minded with cod
D, there's an element of expectations. Now, I guess that's maybe what
they're looking for, they're waiting for. I do hope that the core guys
that we know, you know, the the Jordan Halls of the world,
like Derek Harmon, like testing the waters. To me, is I get
it. It's been crazy the past two years here, Like I get it,
like a pure exhaustion is just just need a new, fresh, fresh
fit, right, And I get it, understand it. This is the
day and age you can do it. Then you're able to do it.
This is the rules now. But I would say is sticking with the program.
It's kind of like going to the like Lebron or Kobe playing for one
like Kobe playing for one team right, not not not getting traded here and
go play somewhere asking for trades. I feel like this is an element that
you know, and it's okay. You look at, you know, being
looked down upon about taste of tests in the water, but like is it
pure because of the nil opportunities or is it because you're not playing or is
it just truly you need a different, different fit For me, I'm like,
if I'm playing, I'm I'm I'm revelessly I'm like, I'm excited to
accept this challenge if I'm already playing with that last staff and this new staff
coming in where they're evaluating. Yeah, Like I remember Coachy coming in saying,
hey, everybody is a clean slate. You gotta work for your you
know your job. Basically for me, it was like, man, you
get nervous because you did do a lot of work before. But in the
flip side, it's a challenge. It's something that you rise, rise up
and accept. So I hope these guys look at the pros and the cons.
We already looked at that statistics, right, and people hit the portal.
It's not a guarantee you getting picked up. So why leave a situation
where you've been putting in some time on the field just to go somewhere and
you've got us restart that whole framework, you know what I mean, Like
it's an element. It's not. It's not. The grass ain't greener on
the other side. So it's just that. So so so there's as you
said, then there's man, you're just fitting jewels out here right now because
you know, getting to the point, because going back to the point where
Jonathan Smith comes in here and they're clearly gonna be some players who are going
to test the waters just to see what's out there. And then this was
his quote regarding those players. He says, we've had some conversations and again
I understand why players would enter, and we're not down on it. Smith
said, these guys have been through a lot. We have been We've only
been here for forty eight hours, but we're having conversations. So look,
obviously this team, you brought it up two years of you know, hey,
it's been rocky. Clearly this year after Week two at midnight, their
world was slipped upside down and you have a whole new you know, rearrangement
other I mean musical chairs in the coaching staff room, and you're trying to
find a way to get through I mean the portal. Here's the thing that
I would say to you, what's different for your time when you had a
coaching change in my time is we didn't have anybody slide into our dms.
You know, like you know, there's no such we didn't. There was
no such thing as that where player coaches are talking to these players and talking
about, man, we got the perfect scheme for you. We're gonna highlight
your skills set, we're gonna do, We're gonna make you, you know,
an NFL draft pick, and we're gonna pay you money. You know.
These are the things that today's player is hearing that's in their ear,
and it's hard to get away from it. If you're one of these players,
it's hard to fall to them. You see it right here. We're
having those conversations. And again I understand why this is why they will entertain
these things, because then they're gonna look and see what the staff is going
to be. Because if you see it all over, you see it where
if a coordinator comes in and he's, hey, man, look we're gonna
run. You know, just four defensive backs, you know, just a
basic four to three. Maybe a guy who's a a we call it the
nickel feels like man or maybe I don't have an opportunity to shine here,
whereas his school over here they play with five dvs in their normal base offense,
you know. Or if it's three down linemen versus the four down linemen.
Maybe you know certain body types, you know, three techniques are kind
of out of the water and the three down linemen a scenario, there's different
strokes for different folks that are out there. That that's why I can't fault
them. Yes, you want them to play, you know, like our
stars. The guys who are playing. You know, this isn't the guys
who If you're not playing, if you didn't play much at Michigan State,
I don't know why you're going to the port If you're just going into the
portal to go to a different school who will play you, which typically means
you're going to go down in division or down in a level of school.
That that that's fine, you know, other guys, let's stay and fight
through this, and like you said you felt like it took you a little
bit longer to get Coach D's defense when Pat and Ardusa came in versus what
it was for John El. But you were a guy who was on the
precipice of being a star, an All Conference performer and NFL player. Other
guys. Now, now Otis Wiley comes out in twenty twenty four, right,
this is you're going into twenty twenty four Otis Wiley. I mean,
man, you have big safety and he can feature you here. You know,
we had ten All Americans. We just had eight guys going to NFL
over the last six years. Over here in your position. Notice your position.
I'm a coach that coaches your position, and you're gonna yeah, I
bleed green. But like wait a minute, and they say they're gonna pay
me. You know, these are the reasons that we're gonna get into that
conversation a little bit more in a moment about what the portal looks like and
really the landscape of that regarding NIL because it's just totally different than what we
grew up in what we've seen. It's hard to fault the players today for
what they're going through because of those facts that are just named. But we're
going to talk about that and more after these messages from our friends over at
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handles the tickets to sports concerts and more so fans can fan huh dropping them
stacks in them tickets. You gotta love it. Look otis. We got
to get into this because you know there's there's a couple of topics. We
want to talk about, the transfer portal and how that relates to Michigan State
football. What's going on in the marketplace? Uh, there was an article
just released today from OutKick it looks like OutKick dot com that talked about preparing
for another round of free agency transfer portal open Sunday and donors are ready to
spend. It just came out last night, and you know it goes deep.
There was a quote from one of our big ten head coaches in Nebraska,
Matt Ruhle, who said a good quarterback in the portal costs a million,
million and a half to two million in nil. That's just what it
is. So he's set on the table right there saying that this is the
market that we're in, and you look at Michigan State's positions of need and
we can go through that in detail. Otis like, when you talk about
this from a head coach, and we've seen other head coaches talk about nil,
what is your opinion on how this state and how Michigan State can be
dominant and navigate through this in this current market. Yeah, that's a good
question. Straight. I honestly want to know, like what what is considered
a good quarterback? Because a good quarterback making one or two like that,
we're talking like that's crazy, right, but like we're talking about the great
quarterbacks, the ones that have proven and played and have success. And I
have entered, you know, the portal. You know, you think about
you know their market are their marketable, their full selling of what they may
like Clearly they're not going less than what they were making where they're leaving.
I think there's an element that here in Michigan State is we have a lot
of education. It's obviously we know what it has to do. We know,
we know, we know what has to be done. I think there's
an element of like we can no longer sit and say like, hey,
guys want to be here, they will be here, like because that's that's
definitely like not the case, because we've seen it. We have all three
of our quarterbacks are in the portal, and there's an element of like,
well, we got to bring we got to bring somebody in here. And
and it's crazy to think that this guy is gonna make more than a lot
of employees internally on his campus combined. But this is it, this is
how it's been built. So for us, I just want us to be
strategic. But clearly, you gotta you gotta open up the check book because
you've seen Dion coach Prime start like we're not an ATM, Like don't you're
not gonna come here and just try to make bank right, and then on
the flip side saying, hey, donors, we need we need more money.
And so there's a give and take, like you gotta be able to
compete, like and it's if you don't compete, you don't get the players.
It's a it's a it's gonna be a really big arms race to get
the right players in here to be able to win games. But I was
talking to someone with someone today and and you know, we brought up the
education piece, like this is no longer by education anymore, Like this is
no longer about your degree, Like it's sad academia. It's just sad that
we're not saying, hey, who has the best college program for me?
No, it's like, this is time to make all your money now so
you can this is generational wealth. Now we're talking with these kids who some
come from nothing, some come from good stock. But that's money that can
really help troject and put them in a good spot after football is done,
because clearly the percentage is low of going to the NFL. So why not
make your money now? I mean, you have you got you got quarterback
of USC's quarterback Williams. Right, he's like waiting on the last day deadline.
Shit, I come back because I'm making money, Like I'm making more
than anybody, like not anybody. He's making bigger than league minimum, So
why sit there and go to the league versus like I can see if I
can win a championship next year. So like there's the element of like people
are guys are now deciding that I will make more in the collegiate level than
I will make in the NFL right now, and that is mind blowing.
But that's what this, this this landscape is. So for us in Michigan
State, we gotta be we gotta be aggressive because we gotta we gotta do
what we were saying we want to do. We gotta go out and do
it. And it just is what it is that this is the football race
right now. Basketball Coacho has he has a product, he has a brand
that's consistently year in, year out. He has. That's coach Iso.
Though right now with these new coaches coming in, they can't they can't do
what that is because he's been here for so long. You gotta go out
and get the players, and you gotta mean what you say, and you
gotta you know, ow up to your commandment. We need you, all
right, this is our this is our price, or hey, this is
you gotta be Now's gotta be aggressive because if not, we are gonna be
without a k B if we can't get nobody in here. Apparently we're seeing
this right now from Oregon States, you know, rumors of him coming you
know, to Michigan State entered in the portal and it's basically you know,
we're talking about Aidan Charles right, oh Ayden, So yeah, let's get
specific on that. We're talking about different positions of me because you talked about
Deon Sanders kind of doing it about face a minute ago, saying hey,
we're not going to be an ATM for players, but then after he got
his butt kicked by Utah, he says, we definitely need giving. You
know what I mean. It's unfortunate to say this, but some kids cost
just can't sit here and talk about great coaching and great this and that and
that all we want, but it's going to be a credit card swipe with
all these guys going to these playoffs and I understand that. So what you're
saying it is a a talent acquisition business as pure as you know the driven
snow in America right now. It is about capitalization. And when you talk
about education academia, if you are a player who is Power five worthy,
who is being recruited by Power five school typically the power five schools, academics
are you know, on par, especially in the Big ten. You look
at sec pack well, the now defunct Pac twelve as my broadcast partner calls
it, but Big twelve, acc all the pack two. Let's listen to
two dollar bill too, dollar bill, y'all. You know, we appreciate
guys who sent the collect you know, we put that collection plate last week
a couple of days ago. That would be Steve Smith and Cal Ferret.
We appreciate that. Didn't want to miss that. But listen, Look,
it's a different it's a different world now, you know. And what do
you do Like academics are are are on par everywhere, But what's the difference,
Like do you want you know, I've seen a tweet the other day
earlier today we saw it in our chat that a three star player had an
offer of two twenty five from this school, two hundred from that school,
and one seventy five. These are hundreds of thousands of dollars right, Okay
from three different schools, and they named the schools. They wouldn't name the
player that is. So look, you know we hear this right. We
have guys and players and kids all over the country that talk about this and
this is where college football is right now. You said Aiden Childs, Okay,
there's a lot of rumors about him potentially coming to Michigan State. He's
the freshman quarterback that just played a season in court Vallas. I'm not sure
if he was able to keep the red shirt or not. I know that
he played. Also, you look at their starting quarterback dj Ui Angalalay dj
Yeah, you know, so you know that's the five star from Clemson goes
over to Oregon State, specifically for Jonathan Smith. His father, Dave is
a lightning ride of an individual. He's got a younger brother at ore again.
Okay, so that there Saint John Bosco kids, same school that produced
kyten Hauser. Okay, so yeah, so there we go, tony details
right there. He played in five games, so he did burn his red
shirt, so he only has three years of eligibility. Okay, yeah,
unless he petitions in some way. Hey, child's at this point. Again,
this is not eight pm for us. We did take this show a
little earlier. Today has not hit the portal. You saw DJ's father being
outspoken. He was upset about how coach Smith left. I haven't seen a
coach leave a school where the school that was Yeah, yeah, everybody picked
off. I remember, we're pissed off that Hal Saban left and we're crying
about that. And I know that, you know, with Perlis he was
fired. I know that John l was fired and Mel you know, was
fired for cause as well. These are different situations. But when a team
lures another school lures your coach away, seemingly for money and a better opportunity,
as we just described in the graphic earlier in the show, people are
upset. So you're you get this feeling like, okay, well, maybe
DJ is going to stay and stick it out in court of Allas, and
then boom, here we see Dj Ui Angla Lay's intent is to enter the
portal. You like that it's in the portal and he's also available. Now
what say you about that, like you have these opportunities to talk about what
is a good quarterback? You have a proven guy who's been at two schools
now right now, the pro scouts say that DJ is probably a fourth or
fifth round pick if he does decide, and that's what his decision process is
going to be, whether he's going to go to another school or go into
the NFL draft. Yeah, I think there is uh, you know,
do we have time to bring someone in fresh and and hope that they can
convert to this level like you're going after like a freshman uh in this next
class and then you know automatically beat you freshmen, or you go find someone
who's proven, who's shown that they can play in big games. I don't
know, it's it's it's a toss up because like, yes, we know
we're gonna be in a rebuilding year. But when you look at our schedule
straight you look at it where there's there is an opportunity depending on who all
comes back, who's in the locker room by the time we signed, and
they were like, we have an opportunity to go seven and five if you
look at the games, like there's four games that are like primetime power games
for US matchups, but if you look at the rest of the schedule,
those are winnable games. Those are games that, like this past year we
have we were in so this could be an opportunity to like, hey,
let's go and just find our guy starting from the ground up freshman class and
throw them out to the fire like other schools. Do you know Alabama will
started two freshman quickly, right, like find someone who has the mechanics and
you're able to groom them to what you need them to be, knowing that
year one we're going to have some trials like not saying that this freshman quarterback
could be better than what we had this past year and all three quarterbacks or
just know you had to come up with a pretty penny to go get a
top star quarterback in the portal and you got to commit to that. There's
a happy medium there. So that's I think there's an element where coach Smith
has to make that decision as she's out on the road recruiting. You got
to think about he's gonna recruit young young kids, seniors you know, coming
to the next class, but he also is going to recruit some maybe top
five to ten guys in the portal that can help truly jump start what they
are built at, what they're trying to get done here. Yeah, looking
at that, you see it around the country. You're seeing it from a
lot of well respected coaches, well respected programs. You know, they may
be a great, great at developing players. But you see that that quarterback
market, that secondary quarterback market, it's just like shoes nowadays, you know,
like people used to do trading cards, now they do Jordan's and all
kinds of different sneakers right the secondary market like Jordan's may retail at I don't
know, three hundred dollars, but secondary market they're going for fifteen hundred dollars,
okay, or more. It's the same way you have a recruit that
comes in as a quarterback out of high school, but and his value may
be x, but when you see him play as you've seen Aiden Child's play
or better yet, dj uyangali Le play, where you know, okay,
this guy is a plug and play guy. He knows this system. He's
played in huge games all over the country. You see them putting the premium.
There was a tweet a couple of days ago. I saw that there
was one quarterback. I believe the Washington State quarterback at well Zoo quarterback got
ten ten million offers. You know, yeah, yeah, and and you
know when you when we getting back to that point about a guy like Caleb
Williams, Caleb's like he's right there on the fence, like you did.
The number one pick. Everybody says he's a consensus number one pick in the
NFL draft. I don't think that's right. I don't think that's true though,
unless you trade up. Clearly somebody's gonna trade up. But as the
mayor's got the number one pick, like we can talk about that another situation.
Ever So, but the boy Marvin Harrison was a good But see the
value. Here's the problem with it because I and look, receivers are getting
there because the receivers value in the free agent market, they're that they're they're
above twenty five twenty five to thirty million dollars per year. Quarterbacks. I
mean you're talking close to sixty million dollars per year. So this is why
if you have a quarterback that is very good as a rookie and you can
get him on a rookie deal, and you're only say it's the number one
pick. You're you're paying him. It's the forty last year number one picks,
the forty one point two million dollar contract. That's a five year deal,
right, that's eight million dollars a year now, chump change in the
world of quarterbacks in the NFL on their second deal and beyond the free agency
market, but still much more per year than what he's even getting in commanding
at USC. I know it's you know, team is saying that, you
know, hey, we can hold that hold out and go back. I
think he's in that four million dollar range right now at USC. Still like
a message to those guys that from the Williams commercials, Man, he can't
come back. He ain't commercial bro Heisman commercials like real deal. Yeah,
not the local car company now, but guys like the dude down the road
number two, little boy, a little little corn blake running back decides to
come back, right he clearly I think he's in the two million dollar range
or something. At Michigan. He clearly is making more than he would in
the pross you know, and selling vacuums to door to door Stallion that what
are you doing, oh little guy hanging out with old Stallions. You know,
it's all I love, not really, but it is so look,
I mean it is mind boggley to see where this thing is, how it's
unfolding. But look, quarterbacks, we saw it happen two US a year
ago with Peyton Thorn. He goes into the portal and is a starter.
You know, it was up and down for him at Auburn, but he
was right there on the cusp of beaten Alabama and the Iron Bowl just a
week ago. You want guys who have been battle tested, and yeah,
those guys command a lot of money. As you put it there. You
know, I don't blame Keon because Keon is a different breed, right like
Keon had you had to get out of here, and you see this man's
All Conference, first Team All ACC and close to trying to get that bid
and playing the a SEC Championship, but also trying to get the bid to
you know, win the blending call with him compete with Marvin Harrison like that
would not I mean, he would probably put up some numbers, but the
numbers he put up in Florida State, So that's a that's a situation that's
different. I think these guys saw that too. Being here. It's like
man Keon got out and got to a system that fit him when like to
your point, highlighted his expertise, his skill set to get him to be
a first round draft pick. Now it's not like that for everybody, but
when you see it, you clearly got It's like, oh my god,
you got to take a chance. Like if you're feel it in your gut,
you gotta take a chance. You got to do the opportunity because this
rule the NIO allows you. It's afforded you the opportunity to do that.
But at all, it ain't like where you seem bad. You seem good,
you seem great, and you just don't want to be a guy who's
gonna get in that portal and you're so prideful that you're not gonna get picked
up and then you on the streets. And that's what I don't want to
happen to any of our guys, right, So you got to be strategic.
You gotta be strategic in this situation here where you know you got a
full ride scholarship and you can you can go to work in all season and
be able to have a ball out here this next season with a new coaching
staff resurgence. Think about that outcome versus I'm sitting here just hoping and praying
that somebody got a spot for me on the roster. That's a difference.
There's a huge difference. And look again, this show is taped, and
I know I can feel it in the group right now, there's somebody saying,
but had better stats in Michigan State than he did down there in Florisa.
I guarantee somebody, maybe Trevor somebody like that. It's probably saying that
right about now. The look, it's a lot about you know, trusting
the player and and you know Keon wants to be featured. And he went
down there and there was already a number one receiver that first game again to
LSU. You know how the NFL scouts looking nothing else that game. Right
there, I was solidifying care what conference I am? I'm the best dog
out here. That's the element like, yeah, you know he had stats
or less than one he was here, but not touchdowns. But also primetime
games is where he bought out to UH and you're in the a CC Championship
and you win and you're almost in that college football playoff. Depending on how
it plays out. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So for at
first, yeah, man, I would love for him to be in the
green and white. We know that guy to get out and be able to
say, hey, I got to proven quarterback. We talked about, I
got a proven quarterback who can get me the football, who give me that
skin? And Georgeown's giving him that. Yeah. Unfortunately, Jordan got hurt,
so he's he's not going to be playing in this. He got hurt
two weeks ago. But he look, he don't look bad. A little
slow, but you know, he got going. He got going. But
you look guys like ke Kean. Now, yes, he had big games
against Michigan and Ohio State. He because there was nobody that could stop him.
But for whatever reason, we went away from and like we may go
scratch our heads, say why why did they not go to him? He
was you know, but if you are that person and you do have options,
maybe you just think about it a little different, you know. So
you know, again to the nil discussion real quick, you know, we
we'll get out here in a minute. But there's a quote in the article
from The OutKick that said, here's a donor at a program a Power five
donor told Oalkick, I've got the university reaching out to me to help the
facilities, while at the same time NIL group is looking for cash. Because
of Nil, I'm being pulled in a different direction. Whereas in the past,
I would just donate to the athletic department. But we're in a different
world now. He goes on to say, we need the players to compete.
So I've changed how I support football. I want to see my team
winning on Saturday. So if that means donating to the collective to get a
star player, that's how I choose to help the program. Now what was
this? They just said Power five donor, one Power five donor. They
didn't say where. But it's the attitude. And I know, look,
we got a passionate fan base and we've got donors galore. But it's just
getting everybody on that same page and say, you know, whether whether they
want to say let's wait till we win to donate eight versus you gotta this
is the this is the mindset that we're competing against. That's all I'm gonna
to get across. That's all we want to do is give you the facts,
the ideology that we're competing against. Is that That's why you're seeing these
quarterbacks make these moves, and you're seeing players test the portals. They want
to test the waters because they're hearing that and they're getting that from other coaches
around the world. And we can get into the tampering discussion another day.
Look, I don't care. They just must not be able to force enforce
the tampering, you know, because I think the portal doesn't truly open until
December fourth, but man, we're seeing fireworks already. Yeah, that's that's
it's unfortunate that, like you're gonna have to hire people to go and make
sure that they're monitoring like in season tampering. Like it's just crazy, Like
it's crazy. It's crazy that it's almost like you got to report every transaction
in your DM, so every interaction just like complying like you're legit, Like
hey, if you get if you get an owreach to anyone, like you've
got to document it and you got to purport that. Or there's there's some
there's some violations, you know, like you cannot. I don't care if
it's your uncle, it's your analysts or whoever it is one of your high
school coaches in the coach contact your high school coach, heyd is in the
call straight see if you want to make the switch, make you can't like
you got to clean it up, man, because this happening every second of
every day. But see some of this. It reminds me of a quote
I've seen from a guy in one of the recruiting analysts who said that,
you know, there's been these coaches that are always complaining in the high school
level because it's happened in high school too. Just coaches poaching players left and
right. At these large high schools, you see a lot of movement.
Michigan is one of the most strict states in the nhs a A, but
other states it's very There's a lot of movement out there and people always complaining.
I mean, you hear fights between coaches, but when they broke it
down, they say, look, I ain't reaching out to your players.
Your players reaching out to me, and what you The same thing is happening,
and I everybody thinks tampering a lot of times. But there's what they
call back channeling. Back channeling. What that is is players that go to
their high school coach rather than the coach from a Power five going to the
high school coach. The player goes to the high school coach and says,
hey, I might be looking. You know. That's more accurate as to
how this unfolds until the player publicly announces what you've seen. This is basically
inviting coaches to slide in the d ms when they put that. You know,
we've been seeing a lot of these graphics, these nice ones with the
right you know, all the writing, you know, all glory be to
God. You know they got the h my gosh, there's a lot of
plag is the trend of like an ai a bot of like writing your stuff
like yo, you always got I gotta first think the Lord, my lord
saying with Jesus Christ. But I'm leaving, you know, like like I
always love you, my heart, I'm looking for that. It's not go
green, it's go cash, right, go green. And to me,
I just gotta as a as a young man knowing like you not you.
There's some guys that are buttoned up and they financially know what they're doing and
they're smart, but like it's got to be exhausted mentally, bro Like just
just the weight of like the uncertainty, the security and the future. Like
it's got to be exhausted man mentally that these guys, like there's so many
options, there's so many like just free will the versus like you know,
it is your, it is your the world's your oyster at this point,
like from every situation versus like, man, I'm just glad I got here
and I'm gonna stay here regardless, and like that mentality is long gone.
So it's it's it's sad, it's unfortunate. But it's got to be a
tough battle. These guys go through any student athlete. I bought the male,
the female, the women of the man. It is a tough battle
to understand, like sticking something out versus like hitting the exit button as soon
as one thing happened. You know. I think that's an element of like
it's tough. It is tough, but this is up there living in and
this is the opportunity for them to do what they feel and pleased to do.
But it's got to be exhausted mentally. And I pray for these guys
mentally mental state because you know, yeah, you want you don't want to
switch, but you've got opportunities to so like you'll be a fool to turn
down this money right like it's it's it's crazy. Money is the root of
all either but the love, the love, the love of money. There
the love of money we always love because you need money to about now.
So it's not everything my father says, but it works. You know,
you brought me to Chuck Brantley. You know how we had him on the
show when he was deciding to come back, and how scary it was for
him to go into the portal and what it's like being in there at that
time. I think as this continues to progress and evolve, players are getting
less and less apprehensive they're going in there. They know because they can put
your left foot in, put your right foot out. They can get in
and out pretty easily now if they so choosing. You know, I think
that there's a lot to be learned from this, and as we continue otis
I mean, look, man, we're going to break down more of this
and world follow this total trend. Obviously, this is where you get the
news. Like I said, this is the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted
by Spartan Dogs, so we're going to always bring you the real deal.
We're going to have recruiting analysts on We're gonna have people from Oregon State once
they are are so inclined to join us. After we can you know,
the dust settles a bit in Corvallis. We're gonna have current players and former
players to discuss this in more depth on Tuesday show. We've got to get
into the exces and up and find out like where what positions of need because
right now it's hard to see. We know quarterbacks, we absolutely need those
guys in offensive linemen. They've been pillaged for now. But we'll see how
this thing shakes out and get into more of those details as it unfolds,
as we always do. So until next time. For Otis Wiley, I'm
Jason Straehorn. This is part of MSU. Have a good night, God
bless you and go gree Go Whight. This is part of MSU is a
combined presentation of PLAYFLA Sports Properties and Michigan State Sports Properties. The show is
produced by Tony Le Barbara Tony Gastella and Process Driven Consulting. Additional supports provided
by Brendan Durabage. On location technical support provided by Good Fruit Video. Sure
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