The following is a presentation of play Fly Sports properties this so you know this
is a special group. We might not realize it now for what weve been
able to do and what you might have done on a year to get to
this point and stay together, this phenomenal. We know exactly what we gotta
do our best. Sim It's not gonna be about those guys over there.
It's gonna be about our executions. We gotta dam get moving, like how
we go about our business? How hard are we playing? That's what it's
gonna be about. Like how bad do we wanna get? What you aren't
farm? I want this game for y'all, Like we should understand about now.
This is a team game. You're playing for each other. It's gone
taking games alive and well, we got a lot of football enough to play
getting better. Okay, we're gonna we're gonna play our bust football here in
November. Now about how we started, how we fened that nobody's going down
cholpas beg you don't welcome to East Lansing at the Graduate Hotel rooftop Rock Bar.
This is Sparta, I mean host Jason Strayhorn along with my co host
Otis Wiley and say you cho doing it, Culprink and we're all celebrating victory.
Coffees all around, presented you by High Hot by the way, no
cigars today, but it's all good, right. Spartan's win over the Scarlet
Knights of Rutgers guys this past Saturday twenty seven to twenty one, and a
very all around dominated performance by the sparking, especially on the offensive side of
the ball. Yeah, absolutely, And the most important thing about it,
like you said, Spartan's win, you know, dominant performance by the offense,
and the I can think about it, it was a balance game offensively,
rushing and receiving. You know, I think that Jay Johnson came up
with a very good game plan, got established a run game early. And
I always say, if you can establish the run game, you're gonna be
able to do a lot more things offensively, throwing the ball at different things.
We even saw a flea flicker. It didn't work, but you can
do those things. Yeah. And then on the opposite side, defensive sideball's
it was a great balanced attack from us. You know when I say us,
because we always got offense coming off fresh, but defensive wise, those
guys are playing with their tails on fire, like we talked about, flying
around and joined the game with that nothing to lose mentality. When you think
about on the defensive side, great things happen when you get to the quarterback.
Even better things happen when he gets to the ground. And so when
we're putting pressure on a young quarterback like we did last weekend, it's able
to get a lot of different opportunities to get third and long and then getting
to you know, getting to the putt situation where we can get the ball
to Jayden Reed he didn't have any returns, but getting the ball back for
our offensive and like you said, Jayu peyton Thorn had a well balanced attack.
I felt like that game was not even out of his his reach because
he was under control the entire game. Although the score really doesn't reflect reflect
that we were. I feel like we were beat them by three scores.
But you know the last touchdown, which was the saving grace, you know
it should have been still twenty seven, Uh you know with the fourteen there.
Yeah, the last touchdowns. If you're into that kind of thing,
you know, spread you're into that kind of little upset, understand, Hey,
I throw a couple of shucks around here. You gotta love the circle
hell Caesars, by the way, we love Yeah, there we go.
We love circles too. But O, there's something that you mentioned, you
know, getting pressure defensively. I'm gonna give defensive love here. I love
the adjustment that Jay Johnson made in the second half. You know, at
the beginning of the game, I did not see a lot of pressure on
the in the backfield for at Rutgers. You know, I didn't see you
know, mixing things up defensive line from stunts, I think, see a
lot of blitzing. But the second half we saw more of that. We
saw a lot of the guys getting home. We saw d n s you
know scrape you know, playing lateral and the linebackers scrape around and getting you
know, having those TFLs. So what do you think about the adjustments that
Scotty Hazelton made a halftime Yeah, I mean post game, when you guys
had the interview opportunity with Breule, you know, he talked about, you
know, coach Hazelton making the proper adjustments for these guys to truly play faster
and put more pressure on the quarterback. Now, let's let's call us fade.
And also, we still gave up how much how many yards to one
running back, which is kind of a deficit from last weekend, and it's
a negative, but I still feel like we didn't let one guy beat us,
right, And so I think from a standpoint, our guys control the
air secondary knowing that it could be easily paid play action. But I feel
like our linebackers have more control than they've had in the past. With Cale
Holiday, with nineteen tackles. I mean, I'm looking here, No,
no, no, don't take that. Don't take that one. Don't oh
no, news twenty nineteen solo one assist. Now, look, we don't
we gonna give a one assists because for AnyWho, he was all over the
board, which we saw Cal Holiday, our guy, we saw him from
last year. He was all over the place and we saw him be that
dude that he always can be. And when you have a linebacker, middle
linebacker that's supposed to get all those tackles, we don't have safeties getting twenty
plus that is a solid defensive standout from last weekend. Yeah, you talk
about production, do get me better than twenty tackles in a game for anybody,
let alone cal Holiday, the guy who is the leader, the guy
the straw that stirs the drink. Another defense. The two by two by
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last last weekend. We also had them at our corporate hospitality tent at the
Playflight tent and the pancakes was hot, hot off of the griddle, man
like he came with it with that bacon, the eggs. He had some
cheese potatoes. Everybody was like breakfast when new kick happens. If you need
any tailgating needs from your hospitality, please absolutely book. I hop it will
get you all right, get you tight. And I loved it. We
got him next weekend, another new kid, Yes, sir. Getting back
to what that offense looked like for Michigan State, you talked about what Jay
Johnson was able to do, how he dialed up a lot of balanced game
plan for Michigan State. The Killer Bees made a return to prominence. Both
jalen Berger and Brossard had about one hundred and sixty five yards tod between the
two of them. Yeah. Absolutely, those guys in the past three weeks,
we've seen that they're running the ball with a different style. Now they're
running, making one cut, sticking the foot in the ground and getting north
to south. And if you do that, there's a lot of times when
you get tackled, you're gonna get tackled for you'll fall forward, you get
an extra yard or two. Michigan State's offense had twenty five first downs,
and eleven of those twenty fives were picked up on the ground by the running
backs. That is an impressive statute. Yeah, and it also allowed our
tight ends to finally get open, like those streak routes, you know,
with that first testdown Daniel Barker. Wide open, wide open, because right
here a little bit look at this. Look. You know, obviously we've
been running and running, running, pounding, pounding, and then all of
a sudden you do a quick little play action and all of a sudden it
wides open. It just opens up like the red I said, the red
seater, but more so like the red scene, but Dale Barker, Yeah,
he gets not touched. Usually you get a linebacker that's going to put
a little you know, reroute on them, but comes Scott Free catches it
clean catch into the end zone. And I like what he said postgame,
which he's like, you know, he's I think he said, I'm always
used to getting into the end zone, but it's been a while, right,
Yeah, he said, I'm a magnet to the end zone. Yeah,
but what do you think from a standpoint of those tight ends finally being
able to, uh be be a part of the game. Well, I
love it. I love the fact that you know, when you have the
running game, it opens up everything for everybody else, and it for me.
It started up front. You look at again the play of the offensive
line. We could go. You've seen how good Michigan State played against the
Elion n I and that pretty that boved the deep and protecting Peyton Thorn,
opening up holes for the running backs. And they improve on that performance against
the Scarlet Knights. He still saw Baldwin having his sec third start now at
left tackle. He looked great out there, and the rest of the offensive
line did a phenomenal job keeping Peyton Thorn clean, opening up holes one hundred
and ninety seven yards. I believe it was on the ground, right,
Jay, Absolutely one hundred ninety seven yards on the ground. Anytime mischis State
gets there. I mean, mel Tucker's record when he's over one hundred yards
is phenomenal. I think it's thirteen and two somewhere in that neighborhood just getting
over the hundred yard mark. So Ryan at the two hundred yard mark,
it's unbelievable. That's all he really needs. I mean, they do a
phenomenal job of getting players into good positions. Every good thing's happened when you
can protect that quarterback and open up holes for the running back. Yeah,
Peyton Thorn, he's a guy. Earlier in the season, he got a
lot of flak, a lot of grief. People are saying he's not the
guy for us. But the past three games he's put together a great sample
size of what he is and how he can be. He had total control
of the offense out there, and it looked like he was having a lot
of fun controlling that offense. There was never a time in this game that
I felt you know, I don't think we can do this because it was
always you know, the score was an indicative like Otis said, but it
was always I think the Spartans were in control. And that's because the offense
was in control. Peyton Thorne was in control of that offense, and again
coach j Johnson had a really good game plan coming together. They targeted the
Titans a lot early on in this game because the run game made them do
that. Yeah. I mean when I was on the sideline in that second
half, I was, man, I'm not gonna lie. I was getting
a little bit nervous because they start to run, like move that ball.
Quarterbacks started. I mean Rutgers quarterback. You know, you got to give
kudos to a young quarterback who when he made the throws which was the deep
deep ball throws to the out routes like it was wide open. It was.
It was consistent, and so that started to kind of get me scared
because it was like where our secondary started to kind of get a little complacent,
a little bit started to kind of chill. It's like, you know,
we have this under control, and then finally you see those guys kind
of lock in and finally start to get more pressure on him. Because I
feel like when you don't get pressure, he was sitting back there and was
able to pick us apart. And so I think Scotty Hazelton, like you
said, redoal that up where we got to put some more pressure, send
a linebacker out there, and then we finally got I think we got a
turnover. It was a fourth and long. I think it was the turnover
downs, Yeah, turnover down turn downs, Yeah, fourth down, turnover
and downs. With the young quarterback, Gavin wimsaid, you know, he's
a guy who was the future for Ruggers. He's a young quarterback, a
guy who you talked about. He was a guy that was in high school
and did a reclass up. So yeah, he was in high school on
Thursday. It was on college campus Friday. Very strange world we live in
in college football now. But he's the guy that Greg Fiano really believes it.
He feels like this is the guy that they want to get the experience
right now. But you can see the inaccuracy of his throws when he was
flushed out of the pocket. He's a pretty athletic player, pretty big six
three two d and twenty plus pounds freshman, but did not hit those throws.
But like with Otis Sam when he's sitting back there protected and he had
time, he was throwing dimes out all So it made it really tough on
the secondary. But Michigan State was able to get back with the pressures,
getting cal Halliday and Brulet in on the action and forcing some errant throws and
then getting the ball back for the offense. According to my sources, your
according some pull it's jauch Q Kolker. According to my sources. When they
let go of that office of cordiator Rutgers office coordinator, you know, they
were they were battling with a bunch of different quarterbacks. They were saying who's
going to be the one, Who's gonna be the one? And as soon
as the Chiana let go, he gave that that starting position tag to him,
said right, So you know, everyone was like, why isn't this
guy I play? We brought him from high school to reclassify. He should
be right then and there. Let's just let the chick fall what they made,
let him play, let him make mistakes, let him get the experience
in game. And then next year, man, they got they got some
nice solid pieces for next year. Yeah, absolutely, and once you get
that confidence that the coach believes in you, that you're the guy, you're
gonna start playing better. But one thing I want to go to. We
talked about the offensive side, we talked about defense. Let's go special teams
your favorite, you know, But I never thought in a million years that
you go, he'll start talking about special teams. Coachio is a master in
special teams. He prides himself in special teams. But on Saturday, Michigan
State special team unit out coached his and outplayed his with the blockfield goal,
you know, and barringer. How many footballs did be punt down inside the
five? You know? He got that. Let's let's if we could play
the clip where he got roughed. Well, he got roughed and he still
got it to the four yard line right like a lot of time. A
lot of times team will do a rekick on that because they get the extra
five yards. But we got plenty that's gonna knock it in the four,
inside the five to the four, and he did that. And also to
let's give our boy Patton, Ben Patton, Yes, sir, his dude,
I'm first one. He's the first one to put his foot in because
he's a person today. Yeah, he today, I can say his name
Ben Patten. Last week, the week at Illinois, I called him the
kicker. Today he's Ben Patton. He made a forty eight yard banger in
the cold. You know that right there says a lot. I will say
his name today. I give I love this. I might even purchase him
a libation. And if he's twenty one, Ben pat Ben Patton, I'll
say his name all right. Hey man, that was a big kick that
he made. I think that we talked to him. We had a prost
game interview with him. He talked about superstitions. That's something we can go
to. Well, listen to this interview here from Jayu. This question from
Jayu and Ben Patton had a lot of fun today at Ben Patton, the
kicker, The kicker had a lot of fun. He's in the locker room
with Will Teemon. Yes, well, it's always fun to be in the
locker room with me. What's wrong with you? Nothing but fun? Well,
Ben is making his network debut today, guys, and it's interesting.
And before we talk about the field goals and the kicking game re emerging a
little bit, you know, Ben was at Auburn and kind of a late
addition to the roster. So can you explain to me how you got from
someplace it's kind of warm to someplace not quite so warm, and just what
led you from Alburn to Hear. Yeahmy, I've had quite the experience getting
to college football. You know, I'm originally from Michigan, down in Rochester,
Detroit area, and uh, you know, kind of kicking recruiting,
you know, with snappers, punters, kickers, is a little different than
you know, your normal football recruiting. So I was going to a school,
kind of dropped it late, they had a coaching change, didn't really
like it. So found myself down at Auburn and I showed up there the
day before fall camp. Was blessed down there, spent three years, made
a lot of friends, had a good time, and you know, I
saw the field a little bit last year due to some injuries, and you
know, I really enjoyed it, and I wanted to see the field again,
and it just wasn't gonna happen down there. So I wrote out fall
camp a little bit down there and kind of saw, you know, how
everything was setting up. I said, look, I'm not gonna play here.
I know that Michigan State graduated uh Kyglin last year and that you know,
they they're having some new kickers come in. And I had a relationship
with Bryce, the punter, who I got to know through during COVID.
We'd go out and kick all the time. So I in the transfer portal,
I said, hey, Bryce, like, what's your situation up at
Michigan State. He said, look, man, like, I'll see what
I could do, and got got in contact with them. I think it
was five days from when I entered the portal to when I showed up here
at Michigan State. You know, rented a little U haul, drove it
up down up from Alabama, a little thirteen hour car trip, got back
to my home in Rochester, decompressed for a couple hours, and then was
up to Michigan State. Found a place to move into, and you know,
just have been extremely blessed to be here, and just how everything's unfolded
so far, you know, through the ups and downs is just you know,
we're just getting through it. Well, bet it's the kicking game has
been You mentioned Coglin, and during his run as the league kicker, a
lot of the backs to the points, a lot of field goals, a
lot of things coming from that side of the special teams, and then this
year has been a struggle wing two field goals the entire year until today,
and you were the guy they kick both of them. The first one was
from thirty four yards, which you know for a college kickers kind of in
a wheelhouse. But then when you start flirting with this fifty yard mark,
things a little more dicey, especially this time of year. So you were
able to put one through it from forty eight yards out. And by the
way, just as you guys know, that is not as long as he
had a forty nine yarder at Auburn, Yes, sir, and so didn't
you have a big win against Alabama? I did. It was that forty
nine yarder. It was we were unranked. I believe Alabama was number three
in the country and we were trying to unseat them from the SEC championship in
the playoffs. In second overtime, we got backed up, lost a couple
of yards. I believe, we took a sack and set up a forty
nine yarder for me, went out there, nailed it. Unfortunately, they
hit they matched the field goal and then won it in the fourth overtime.
They do that, yeah, sometimes, but okay, let's talk about now.
This thing is late when you go out there. We got the lead
in this game twenty four to fourteen. That was about three minutes and change
left. So when they said you, hey, we're gonna we're gonna go
for this forty eight yar ard or what were you thinking? Yeah, I
mean I was. I was just locked in. I got my kicks into
the net. My special team's analysts came up and said, hey, you
know, just be aware if we get to the thirty, I believe,
Yeah, the thirty, we're gonna kick you. And so I mean that
was heading up for forty seven. So obviously it might have been a little
bit out of the range where they said you're gonna be going. But you
know, we sat there. I thought that maybe they were gonna take a
delay a game and punt it and try and pin them back and have them
drive the field. But you know, the coaches had faith in me.
I appreciate that greatly. Sent me out there. You know, we had
the time out, so I gotta take a couple of deep breaths, visualize
it a little more and line it up and just put it through. Well
you hear what it sounded like. Sure, there it goes. They will
try a field goal. The ball will be placed deven about the thirty eight
yard line of Rutgers, so forty eight yard field goal. Try. Good
snap kick is on the way. It's good. The kicking games alive and
well. In East Lansing, Ben Patton hits one from way downtown. That
was pretty good. Huh oh yeah. So what's it feel like when you
hit one of those things? I mean, right now, not the best
because of the weather. You know, it's it's a little cold, so
the ball's a little harder, you know, for the golf people out there,
you know, playing in cold weather, you know you might you might
feel good, or it might sting a little bit, so you know,
the balls aren't as reactive, you know, as kind of a softer ball
in warm weather. But I mean it felt great off my foot. You
know, maybe I didn't get all of it and kind of snuck it through,
didn't get as much as much power on it as I was kind of
hoping for, But I mean it felt great off my foot. You know.
It was a great snap from Donnie in a great hold from Bryce and
the line did their job, and you know, I'm just extremely blessed to
have all those ten other guys on the field with me and allow me to
just do my job and make it easy. Forty. It's a long way.
And you know, Jason, if the kicking game emerges itself as they're
coming down the home stretch, but the running game now rediscovering itself, we
could be a tough out. I think so. And it's clearing not my
question to you, it's you know, not how the foot feel kicking the
ball, but how did you feel when the crowd. I mean, this
wasn't the game winner at the end of the ball game, but the crowd.
Did you hear or feel the crowd reception of that? Yeah, I
mean it was It was great to receive that from the crowd. You know,
obviously with the struggles in the kicking game so far this season, you
know, just being able to go out there and you know, I've proved
it to my teammates this week in practice that you know, I can go
out and make my kicks, and it was just great to go out there
and prove it to the fans that they could have faith in me and kind
of trust when they send the field goal team out there. Pen Is Jay,
congratulations on the win. Congratulates just on that kick. My question for
you kickers, I know are finicky people, and I'm one of the most
critical on kickers. Just talk us on a day you want to tell him
what you sent it back? Kickers, I'm not gonna tell them what I
said. Okay, check you find out. So you know you came out
there. Either the weather isn't conducive to you know, for a kicker.
But I see you guys on the side of you know, of the sideline.
They're kicking into the net all the time. You never know when your
number is gonna be called. What's going like? How isolated do kickers feel
during the game. I mean it's it's a pretty isolating position. I mean,
you go out there and you know it's all on you. You know,
I was talking to some people about this earlier this season, and you
know that that's your stat line. So you pull up the website and it
says, you know, a made field goal or a miss field goal,
and you know what weather, you know, an errant snap and you know
the guy doesn't the holder doesn't get the laces around, or someone doesn't block
their guy and you know, come off the and the kick gets blocked like
they did for Rutgers Day, Like that's still on the kicker. So you
know there's a lot of stuff that could kind of come into play with that.
But you know, just be being able to you know, ride the
highs and lows and kind of just stay in the middle and not kind of
get too into yourself. You know, you all celebrate the makes and kind
of push away the misses, but you kind of just want to say,
even keel and just stay locked in. I mean, you know, I
know you talked about Finnicky and you know, okay, I believe kickers are
extremely superstitious when it comes to you know, getting their kicks into the net
or you know, this has got to be perfect, kind of like baseball
players. But yeah, I mean just just getting out there and taking a
couple of deep breaths and just watching it go through the uprights. What is
your superstition before a kick? Yeah, that's a great question. I mean
I tried not to be. I'm quite a superstitious person, so I try
to limit my superstitions so I don't you know, kind of overwhelm myself.
But you know, I just get out there and when I take my three
steps back, I just make sure to line my foot up, line it
up, and just take a deep breath and just be like relax, man,
you got this. You've been doing this this whole time. Over to
the side. Make sure you're in a balance stance, and you know,
give the holder, give Bryce a little heading on, say we're good to
go, and then it's just all practice from that point out. Well,
so easy, so easy. Anyway before we lay go man by what congratulations?
So I appreciate it because anybody who's played anything, or even in normal
life, it's it's hard sometimes to get back on the track because it's self
doubt always creeps in when things are going right. But as you look down
and we got two games to go, anything you want to add to our
conversation because everybody's feeling good right now, Yeah, I mean, just keep
back in the spot. Martins and Spartans are you know, we're we're pushing
through. We're hoping to get that six win next week against Indiana and then
onto Penn State the week after. So go Green and God bless there.
He goes Ben, It's really good to meet you. Yes, Ben Patten
two field goals today. Back to you guys. He stole your line good
night. He didn't say good night though it was close. Man, I
felt like I said I'm a little Ricky Bobby five with him. Did you
get that? Yeah? Yeah, he's look. Thanks for Ben and Will.
Before we get to our interview with Kyle Farah with I hop let's talk
a little bit about the Carrier Classic game that you were able to attend.
Notice this past weekend in San Diego, beautiful, San die beautiful. It
was beautiful. The weather was perfect. Man, Like you, I can
I can live in with this weather all here, and I mean you live
there right right now. So you know you also was there in that event
which you know, shout out to Sarah Skilling who is obviously events director events
with the Donors and Stewardship, and she planned a extravagant event on that Thursday
where we were out on the boat doing a you know, a tour on
the water, eating good food connected with a bunch of Spartan the lungs.
We have some grapes out there. Yeah, you had Steve Smith to us
we have out there, Jude Nigel, Paul Davis. Uh, we saw
Eric Snows there. He wasn't he wasn't there. Sorry, Mark, Mark,
I got I gotta say it because he's I've been telling him. Uh,
we get there. We land real quick. We land. We're all
walking off the off the plane to get to the buses. I see this
big black wallet sitting in the seat. I pick it up. I open
it up and it's Missus d'antonio's picture inserted into the wallet. And I knew
for immediately that that was Coaching de Antonio's wallet. And I was waiting on
the perfect time to deliver his wallet and say, hey, I'm still saving
saving you in the back end here man. I hand it to him and
he's like, oh, thank you on this, appreciate you. And I
said, drinks on you all weekend, coach. But no, the Carrier
Classic is a bucket list, man. It is something that you know,
obviously, you know what we while we're there is to celebrate our our military
service service service members and also our veterans. And so when you're going out
on that that that Carrier Classic, man, it's obviously all the check ins
going on the base. There is a bridge that goes over the water man,
and you can't really see the water because it's so narrow, and it's
like the Macano Bridge to get over to Coronado. And uh, it was
almost felt like he was in the movie Speed because like Chip over Man,
it's it's it's good written. Oh yeah, it's good. We got video
of that too. Actually we can show yeah here I got it. Good
riding. But then if you look at you get there. Man. We
had an opportunity to choose to one of a nuclear war officer who has Spartan
ties with one of our guys. Ar there we go, who's everywhere art
all around our all around ours worldwide West and then all around our absolutely claim
the fan. But no. She had a great story of where she was
born, she was adopted. She's from Middleton, New Jersey. She's been
in the service for three years and she she gave me a full breakdown of
what the carrier classic. What how many people are on there? I mean
five thousand servicemen on there at one time, which is crazy. Hey,
Spartan fans, otis Wiley here your co host. So this is part of
m SU podcast. I'm here with Lieutenant Junior grade, Laura Fagan. It's
funny because I've been practicing that, so she's laughing right now. But I
wanted to tell you know, did you guys tell her what she does for
the Navy and where she's from. Laura, Hi, Bie, thank you
for coming on on the cour is no worries. So yeah, I am
on the USS Abraham Lincoln uh SEVN seventy two, which is what you see
right here in the background. I've been in the Navy for about three and
a half years now, and like Otis said, I'm a lieutenant in your
grade, which is the second ish level of officer ranks. So still pretty
new to the Navy, but and really new to the ship too. But
you know, getting my bearings, still figuring out where everything is. It's
a huge ship. So how big? How big is the ship? So
the crew normally uh without all of the aircraft on board, is about three
thousand ish people, and then when you get all of the aircrew on board
with the pilots and all the people that help them out, it's about five
thousand, five thousand strong man. So we're talking about going up top,
sitting down on the basketball court. Can you imagine playing basketball on that court
where you work every day. No, it's crazy. I went up and
saw the court on the bleachers earlier and it's very weird safe to see.
Well, thank you so much. We appreciate it with your service and what
you do for our country. And you know she is from Merchantville, New
Jersey, so South Jersey stand up and she had some strong spartan times with
one of our lumps, who we're gonna bring on right after this. Thank
you, Go green and go white. The best part, which I have
a video and we'll play it, is they have this jet elevator so it
goes fifty at a time. When people walk on there and the guys are
sitting there, it's like, all right, we're about to go up.
And it's this big sound just like goes up real fast, like three seconds
and then you're up on the top and you walk to your stands or your
seats. Oh snu oh oh. It's beautiful. And I was able to
connect with an old high school teammate of mind Command Master Chief Seal Navy Seal,
a real American hero you ever Dereck Dickerson guy. Last time I seen
him was nineteen ninety four. That we were playing high school football. We
just graduated and come Cralins right, North Central's finest. Yeah for sure.
And last next time I see him, he was actually in the movie American
Sniper, not in the movie, but in the real footage of that funeral
when Chris Kyle was tragically killed. In that movie, he's one of the
steals and I was like, wait a minute, that's my friend from high
school. Now twenty eight years later, I got a chance to eat him.
You met him at the Team hotel. It was a phenomenal thing.
I mean, this is somebody who has seen a lot and done a lot,
you know, in his day, and I was great to catch up
with him. And thank all of the men the women veterans in the United
States Armed Forces for your service and continued service. It means everything to us
and everybody all over the country, but obviously us here. This is Sparta
speaking of coming through in the clutch. We're going to talk about what keeps
a smile on all of our faces with the owner operator himself, Cal Farah,
I hop let's do it. Welcome, Welcome guys, Well, thank
you for the Joe by the way, and thank you for being a partner.
You know this SPARTA and Michigan State University. Yeah, I know,
when we let's go back to when we first sat down and have breakfast at
I Hop in Brighton location, right. You know these two have been friends
since what hello ninety five? Way back what way? He wasn't even born,
he wasn't dude. No. We talked about, you know, what,
what could we do to bring the brand into the family of corporate corporate
parties and family. And you were already embedded in supplying breakfast to the football
team. I mean, let's talk about that and and how that got set
up and how frequent are you feeding the guys breakfast? It was. It
was a weird flu. I mean I met Jason at practice one day.
I called him up and said, what are you doing? He said,
come on out to practice, come out there, and then we ended up
meeting with Darien. He introduced me to Darien. We were talking a little
nil and after practice we ran into Coach Tucker and he said, the guys
loved I Hop in Jacksonville when he was down there, and he said,
I'd love to get you guys connected over here and get these guys some breakfast.
I said, I'd love to sponsor breakfast for you guys. So Darien
then got me connected with Amber over at the Dietary Apartment, and uh,
it's been it's been about a year now. So every week, every Thursday,
come out bright and early in the morning, five thirty in the morning,
North End Zone, drive off man, Yeah, piping, hot pipe.
Let's talk about which players are there earliest, which position groups? Do
you notice? Is there a trend? I know you had you said last
year's team and this year's team. Do you see any trend? And who
shows up? So you got summertime was different than now summertime and you had
like the Peyton and you had read and you had these guys getting in there
bright and early. Now the only person I run into is coach Teddy walking
out after being there. I don't even know what time in the morning he
gets there. Yeah, he's there early, but I get there before most
of the players get there. Oh you do, drop it off and I'm
out and back on the road. So talk about that. Like your time
at Michigan State, you're a spartan. Absolutely the When did you go to
Michigan State two thousand and two thousand and two, okay, transferred up shortly
after we opened up our first location. I had to stick around and help
out a little bit, went to a competitor, and then I finally came
to Census and came up here. Did you have any football in your background?
Played in high school? Came up here two thousand and decided to try
to walk on Yeah, and as a linebacker. And unfortunately, as time
goes, it didn't work out so well. But at least it got me
involved. Now I'm involved in the athletic department one way or another. Yeah,
So at least it got me in the door. Absolutely. I mean
you talk about you know, you talked about family business. Your family's been
in this for a while, right, and like you talked about how they
were bagging you come into the business, coming into the businesses. Now why
you going to school? Now? Just come in like talk about that,
that conversation with your dad and your family. He's always had that little niche
where he comes and gets me and he's like, hey, you know,
I'm up at school over here. I'm studying human physiology, trying to get
into medical school. And he's like, listen, if you don't want to
do this, don't want it every weekend, I'd come down, don't want
to do this. You can always take over for me. You don't have
to finish. Sure enough, I finished. You know, got my bachelor's
degree here, you got my master's at Wayne State and Medical Sciences and then
opted out and took over the only business and open up two more locations.
So wow, So you were going to be a doctor. Yeah, and
then he said, you know what, I'm gonna be a doctor. Love
doctor love, Like you know the hours are these are much better hours than
the doctors hours, are they? No? And you know my focus was
going to be emergency rooms. So every every day, every scenario is always
different. You're always meeting people, don't know what to expect when you walk
in the door. Same thing in the restaurant business, right, No,
I mean talk about like we all went through COVID and how you know COVID
was very harsh on the restaurant business. I mean talk about in during COVID,
how you how you managed and obviously are you are we outside of it
now or you feel like you're getting back to where it was back before pre
COVID, Like talk about the struggles from the restaurant business, owner. Well,
I remember, you know when when they first started doing the reporting,
I think it was first week of March. I mean, we had to
start scrambling. We start to see sales declining, less guests were coming in.
We had to continue to wipe down door handles, wipe down menus,
wipe this, wipe that, and then sure enough two days later, decided
to shut us down. And you just you have to figure out what to
do. And I decaided, you know, we got it. We have
to do carry out. We have to be opened one way or another,
because everyone's still knocking on your door wanting payment regardless of what's going on,
whether you're open or not. And you know, we just did a complete
one eighty. We just went all straight carry out, which I hoop is
not designed for, by the way, and we made it happen. I
mean, we just kept grinding every single day, just like these guys doing
the football field. You got to grind every single day. Stuff says,
keep chopping, Yeah, you know, get it going. And that's that's
what it was. Now the only thing that we have to combat is,
you know, commodity prices going up, so our costs are going up.
And I can't keep charging you more money because I'm going my minds are going
up. And then staffing just getting people in the door. Yeah, I
think that's a struggle everywhere. Man, it really is a struggle. You
talk about the ability to adapt and overcome. I mean, that's what Spartan's
pride themselves on, being able to adapt to overcomes the different circumstances. And
it sounds like you guys were able to do that in the midst of a
global pandemic. Right, that's a that's a tough thing. And you look
at where things are now. How has football in any way helped You've helped
football obviously by feeding the guys, giving them me energized on the field,
because I remember, I remember that conversation where coach Metil Tucker was like,
the guys need some grease, ye yeah for you. Yeah. So it's
it's a little it's a cute. It's a different partnership to be able to
help one another, help them on the field, and help you and your
business financially and grow and spread the word about eye How to the rest of
the Spartan nation. Yeah, I mean it's been a great partnership. I
mean, sales locally. I mean, even though I don't own it,
the local store has been going up. The name brand recognition is getting out
there. I mean, of course you get the haters from the school down
the road, but it is what it is. At the end of the
day, I said, I'm a Spartan at heart, and that's what That's
what's gonna happen. So I'm going to put my time and effort into the
school that I love, into the athletics that I love, and then go
from there and see how it flourishes. Which locations do you own? I
Brighton, Ippslanny and Lavonia are my three locations. Ninety six a midle belt.
The Ipslanty location is that Carpenter and Ellsworth, and then Brighton is right
off ninety six and uh Grand River here. That's Spartans. That means that's
the places you gotta go if you want to sit down and get one of
those two battoos. Whatever you want from the owner, the man, the
mint, the ledger right here Kyle Pharah from ihop well man. I mean,
it's a joy to have you with us at all times. We can
have you back and forth here whenever you like, and please next time bring
the pancakes and James, I'll bring you more in the pank I'll get him
the French toast and that's what he wants, always wants the friends t bow
steak. But you heard it here. You want the t bows. We
get the all the fictions. And by the way, you also have some
holidays stuff going on there. Right. Yeah, we got this ginger snap
French toast right now, so you know, nice thick, fluffy French toast.
We also got it in a milkshake. We got it in the hot
chocolate. Oh, then let's talk about that milkshake. Now, that milkshake.
Look before we uh, you see the platform and the quality of our
podcast of what it is today. What you don't understand is we started one
inside of his location kind of as a trial run, and it was bootleg,
say the least, but it worked. But it worked. You know.
We started to float off each other and realized, all right, we
have we have some synergy, we have some chemistry. But what we did
get was we got a strawberry milkshake and we were I mean, it was
great. It was great, man. It was definitely not on the diet
list. Definitely media water after and just dilute, dilute your body absolutely appreciate.
Yeah, Hey, Kyle, you mentioned when you met with mel Tucker
and he talked about, Hey, when you own the business, you got
the breakfast to feed these guys, you had to meet with the nutritionus and
talk about when you met with her, what did she walk you through and
what you need to do to feed these guys properly. Wyamber actually just kind
of reached out and she said, Hey, this is what I'm looking for.
I need heavy protein, I need fats, and I need my carbs
because they're going straight to workouts right after this, so they need to bulk
up, come to find out first in the morning. These guys don't like
to eat too much, so we had to make adjustments as we as we
kept going out throughout the year, you know, adding things, taking things
off. This is Namba Einstein you're talking about, correct, Yes, yeah,
so she definitely she feeds all the guys. It is definitely complete.
When you played and from what me and Jay you played, it was,
yeah, it's sucking good food to your to your point like, what is
the switch? What did you switch from a food food menu standpoint? When
you said they loading up the food. It was kind of too fatty for
pre workout. What are they changing? Well, we were, you know,
at first it was pancakes, French toast, both the pork sausage,
turkey sausage, bacon, eggs and eggs with cheese and potatoes. So we
went we cut out the French toast, so the guys just went straight pancakes.
Car load up with the potatoes, turkey sausage. They're not a lot
of guys were getting the pork, so we got the turkey sausage, the
pork, bacon, scramble cheddar eggs, and then scramble regular eggs. So
that's big size, full sized pans for these guys. Load them up and
get them going. Wow, we need to be on that list on Thursdays.
Yeah, we'll be there. Join, we can join right now.
Hey, I'm right there. I'm right there. That's awesome, man.
I appreciate your time and your partnership obviously with us. Keep it up,
come back anytime, man, glad to have you here on this love being
here guys. I appreciate the end, like, oh, no problem,
thanks man, I appreciate you. Cal Farah, I hop don't forget those
three locations that he named Ipsilanti, Lavonia, right and bright close to you.
They say you eat with your eyes first. So here's a good look
at our new pick and fluffy French toes artistsan Halla dipped in vanilla cinnamon Battle
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I Hop download the app and earned free food with every purchase. Great speaking
with Cal Farah if I Hop guys, you know, Michigan State now improves
to five and five on the season, one more win to become Bowl eligible.
Had a great They're on two game winning streak headed into the Indiana game
that we're going to cover in the next show. But what were your final
thoughts, ju of what has happened so far from Michigan State. Well,
first, before you have a final thoughts, shout out at Cal. You
know great, dude, you know great restaurants. I'm definitely in there for
the pancakes and the t bone steak and eggs and well just grape juice bones.
I sound like a little Biggie refer exactly, but uh, you know,
the Spartan's got to continue the momentum. They got to continue that wave
of what they're doing offensive. They got to continue what they're doing defensively and
also too with these Spartan nations to show up and show out on Saturday.
Yeah, you know, flashback to when we were going out to dude and
one of our coaches kept saying, let's go get this bowl game and then
produce back to us. And so I think from a standpoint of mentality is
it's one game. It's one game at a time, and we're favorite,
and we were favored last weekend, but we're favorite this game, and it's
really taking care of business if you see. Yeah, all right, if
you're But look, we talked about it's senior night, it's senior day meaning
and this is the last time these guys will be able to strap up on
the green and white, and so let's make them proud, show up strong,
green and white and support. You know, it's gonna be a co
win, So bundle up. But I think that we would we will be
able to attack it. We'll touch on this on the preview. Yep,
last time they're gonna walk over to the Spartans stadium suit up for the green
and white in the woodshed. So it's a very emotional time for those seniors
that are going to be entering the game next week against Indiana the Hoosiers.
The game time is twelve noon. That's the kickoff pregame show with You Chuo
and all those guys ten thirty am on Saturday morning. Look forward to seeing
everybody there until next time, Have a good night, God bless and go
Green, go ahe