The following is a presentation of play fly sports properties guys and trying to turn
to the goal line. What's the hands pass up up here? How's this
fighting down the side? Guy down? That is hot? We had a
couple of guys that cramped up in the game, which is unacceptable. Had
a you know, a couple of situations where we had guys with hands on
their hips, you know, in the game, which is makes no sense.
And uh, we have a standard of performance, you know, that's
uh, that's a high level. We weren't at that level consistently in the
game. We didn't play confimentary football consistently in the game. So welcome to
episode two of This is sparta I'm your host, Jason Strayhorn and my co
host here Otis Wiley and jay U Colprik. How you fellas doing it?
We're good Week one in the books. Ready for week two? Yeah you
ready? We talked spartan football as fartan anything. Last week was great,
man. It was that first trial where you know, we've been back of
all season, off season getting ready for this one. You know, all
the stuff and the pieces you probably felt it was coming together smooth, and
then we got the win. Which is always the top of the not strip
with our question. I mean, we just heard the words of head coach
Mel Tucker as he broke down the game, and he talked about the good,
the bad, the ugly, you know, things that had happened.
Obviously, the injuries was we're gonna get into later on in the show.
But overall, you know, Michigan State winners thirty five to thirteen over the
Western Michigan Broncos. It was a mere capacity crowd in the woodshed. Gentlemen,
how was that? How was that environment down there? Before we get
into it, let's stop and let's give Spartan Nation some credit here. Let's
give on some credit. Spartan Stadium. The woodshed was absolutely electric Friday night
and holiday. Yes, absolutely a lot like that on a Friday it was
in the keys. I mean, obviously you could tell capacity of our freshman
record breaking students that have been admitted, and then you got the sophomores.
But you've never seen an all white crowd. Kind of gave you that phiel
Pitt State right right, oh yeah, all the way to the top.
And I mean I think everyone's seen on the social media of the pictures of
the sea level on the stairs. Yeah, the deep sea level is pretty
dope. Yeah, you get down there, like all right, now we're
in the deep end, which is great, and so I love the buzz
and then the crazy rally tiles. Man, you saw that, and that
just electrified the whole entire night there. I mean, just a great atmosphere.
Spartan Nation really showed out and just I mean it really affect the ball
game. That's one thing that's so important about what you guys do in Spartan
Stadium, in that woodshed and especially in the deep end the student section,
is you affect the game. You make it tough for the opposing team,
the other opposing quarterbacks to get those calls out and defenses right. Yeah,
it's truly, it's truly an added advantage if you have a crowd that's live,
electric like it is, it's it's definitely placed into the home field advantage
because as a as a former running back, because often I remember being at
Penn State, you know, seven yards deep in the backfield and the quarterback
turned around and you have to read lips because you can't hear. So that's
the added advantage that the twelve man the deep end the Spartan Nation brings every
single time they come into Spartan Stadium, and that's how it should be.
Well, let's get into some of the excess and o's of this form of
this game that just passed, and we could go and do our MSU game
day stat breakdown presented by I Hop. The two by two breakfast combo equals
one delicious meal, Enjoy two pancakes, two eggs your way, and two
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this deal for a limited time, dying in only. Price and participation may
vary. Restrictions may apply. All right, guys, So a week ago,
you had Western Michigan, as we said, score thirteen points. Michigan
State was at thirty five, but in the fourth quarter was a much closer
game had it was an eight point game at one point in the fourth quarter,
which brought a lot of people from heartburn. Right, Oh yeah,
I mean you think about the touchdowns that we didn't capitalize on. And you
saw Peyton Thorn addressing in the media and the conference is that the press conference?
You know he overthrew you know, you read a couple of times where
you know the timing where you think, you know, we've had a good
relationship throughout this season. You threw a key overthrew key on Kobe and and
he addressed it where I think we're going to see and I hope we do
see more button up Peyton Thorn. I don't think he was nervous. I
think it's just a time of like, you just got to get the timing
of me and this part as staying with the pack field back in the atmosphere
there. Yeah, it's it's it's simple. You can you can work on
all the routes on air, you can work on it in practice against your
own guys, but when you get out there and you're playing a different opponent,
you see things happen differently. There's different types of movement that you might
not prepare for, but it's all going to come together. That chemistry between
Thorn and its receiver is going to grow larger, larger, and then grow
closer and closer, and they're gonna be in sync before we even hit big
ten play. You know a good point. I think there was some two
things that could have been at play with Peyton Thorn. Number One, he
was playing against his father's team on the other side, and it looked like
he had some early jitters with his footwork in the early parts of the game.
The first couple of series he was twelve to twenty four two hundred and
thirty three yards for four touchdowns. Now four touchdowns and a pick. Four
touchdowns. Now he's the fourth game for him at tyas Connor Cook for the
most four touchdown ball games in a career. Peyton Thorne is now at the
top of that. He wants to break that if he could against the akron
Zips a week from now. And the other thing that I thought was a
big factor in him was that he was not able to bail get himself bailed
out by one player in Kenneth Walker, the third. You know, you
had a running back by committee a little bit with Jalen Berger and also Jared
Brissard, the Killer Bees. The killer I like that. Here we go
Khiler Bees out there. Every running back to committee you have to have an
identity, you have to have some type of nickname and three to have it
right that Killer Bees, I mean one hundred and seventy four yards between the
two sixteen carries one hundred and twenty yards for Jaalen Berger fit with Tim carries
for fifty four yards for Bruzard. How do they do in your mind?
You know, I thought it was a very good one two punch Berger Obviously,
he's the more elusive one, the one that's gonna, you know,
have your long runs to speed and Brusard he's gonna be one of the he's
gonna be the pounder. He's going to be the one that you can give
the ball between the tackles and uh, he's gonna get you those tough yards.
But you know, I just feel like overall, they have to grow
confidence with their offensive line. They have to learn to play off their offensive
line. They have to learn Okay, my tackle likes to do this,
and I'm gonna read off that and that chemistry. Once that chemistry starts growing
throughout the season, that's when you're gonna see breakout games, especially from Berger.
Oh that's a great point. I mean, think about like we had
other receivers score and tight end scores like you gotta read. That clearly has
all the attention. But that gives Spartanation some confidence in our offense that we
have other guys. Now it's not just a one to two by committee with
Naylor and Reed. We have multiple guys and your boy, you know,
said Trey Moseley, Like, here's this guy right now. You you were
right. He was right, you know, and did score up Tuddy and
Kean Coleman man, like we just saw Like, I mean, this guy,
he's a freak freeze yeah, athletic guy. That's the first word that
comes to mind is just freak. Yeah. I mean he had a press
conference where he talked about, you know, the fifty to fifty balls in
his mind, a real one hundred percent ball, I said, wold swag
right there, that's a lot of that's not a lot of confidence. You
know. Now as a DV I'm like, no, that's not true.
But that's also yeah. But still that's like side that guy. I mean,
most defensive backs, I mean they don't match up to the six four,
two hundred and fifteen pound Keon Coleman. You no, man, yeah,
speed, I mean he has it all every level. But I love
that. You see those guys we talked about all levels they block so like
once our running game, which you know, starts to get that traction,
I mean, it's going to be a lethal offense. He talked about how
there were four different receivers that call touchdowns. Talk about the transfer Daniel Barker
in his first game in the Green and White, the tight end transfer from
Illinois catching a beautiful one handed grab as we're gonna show right now into the
deep end, deep end right by the student section. What do you think
about that play? We were on the sideline, I think we were taking
a picture at the time, and then we were paying at But I looked
and I thought it was really they caught the past because it was a one
hand It's so smooth and he comes running off. I was like, man,
that was our tight end. I mean, those guys like you can
tell. I mean he was a he's a gamer. We knew we were
getting when he transferred in. But I mean, to have another level of
threat in the tight end, which we talked about the mismatches he can create.
It's another element to our game. So I'm I'm excited, man.
Like that was even though we had mishaps and there was mess ups, but
positive in the offense. Man, that's the kind of splash you want to
make when you're when you come, when you transfer into a new team,
playing your first game at home in front of that kind of crowd. You
want to show out for Spartan nation to say accept me. This is why
I came to Michigan State to be great. But I got to get on
you guys for something. Oh what what what? You guys lie to me?
What I told you? I told you you can never ever trust a
kicker. We got to our kickers did okay? Okay, look compared Maringer,
he's so called a kicker slash punter. That's a defensive guy. That's
a defensive, defensive defense, best weapon. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
fifteen point five yards. Yeah. Oh, I'm all in on him.
Okay, yeah, so we're talking about Stone are we're talking just the kicker.
You guys said, if he goes anywhere on that field, you guys
coined him as a next Sebastian Jenakowski pretty much know we did. Anyway on
the field, he's gonna if it's over, he's gonna. He had the
leg and he was perfect on his p A T. S. Okay,
he said, this is his first games, true freshman. Give him some
grace, let him work into it. He will. I know he missed
one field goal, but that this kid has the leg and he's got the
boxy, So don't be so down on Stone not yet. Give him some
time. Jay, you no, when he hit that the yard er,
Yeah, you're gonna carry him off like you and your pictures there you go
get carried out here. That's awesome. Talk about young guys that are coming
along. Talk about Jeremy Bernard, how he caught his first touchdown pass in
Spartan Stadium as a true enough slash and all the way go like you can't
picture that like any perfect Like as a freshman coming in you obviously visualize making
plays, but your first touch and take it to the crib like I mean
to be honest, it's not saying like, hey, this is obviously I
don't got to do nothing else, but but yeah, you definitely care scripted
and you set yourself apart from like what you did in practice, which we
saw and everyone's heard. This guy's a dude. He goes right on Friday
night and the jitla me showcases that I'm not just no practice player. I
could do it in the game, didn't. We talk to coach Hockey in
the parking lot before he said, oh, he's gonna get some time.
Yeah, it's gonna get some time. Yeah, you know, and for
him, that's saying a whole lot. Coach Hawk is reserved, your spartan
dog, and he's played in the league. He understands how you know how
to water you know, the freshmen and grow them slowly, bring them along
slowly. But you can see a little twinkle in his eye about this one.
Yeah, that's even special. Definitely. So you got a couple of
special guys. And thank you Washington who you're about to go to play Exceptember
seventeenth, but oh yeah, shit, we appreciate appreciate that definitely. And
the offensive line showed some positive signs to me. They were opening up some
holes. You know, it's not like it was a year ago. Again
with again we talked about K nine being able to make plays may out of
nothing. These guys had were able to open holes for the Killer Bees and
get some positive yards on the ground, which was much needed, and they
were able to protect Peyton Thorne. We'll talk more about you guys because obviously,
as Xavier Henderson said, you're going to go as far as the offensive
line unit goes this year, as far as what the season totals will be
from Michigan State, but going to the defensive side of the ball got some
dogs out there, man. I mean, there's so much talk about here
in Unpacked, but when you talk about the first game for one of the
coaches, and that's the Brandon Jordan effect and his debut. You know,
he seems so calm and cool on the sideline, chewing that gun with that
tilover. He didn't bother him, man, And he comes out and his
guys the pass rush they total. I mean he had one guy with four
sacks, Jakobe Winlan, four sacks only three weeks two, three weeks into
the position and is the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the week. Did you
see his moves? Oh? How can you block that? That move?
When he that duck when he ducked under that offensive lineman one for that?
How can you how can you game plan for that? If you're if you're
a tackle, you're watching film. The real question, though, before you
go, the real question is are you coming off as a running back chipping
that though I'm cutting got moving right, I'm gonna cutting him carts one,
two, three, cartet the man, I am not gonna be made a
film real on look at this guy wind. You know how coaches have that
cowboy there rewind something and they don't talk either because and then you're just sitting
there like, no, I'm not gonna be made a statistic. I'm cutting
him if I'm a back. But I think the one thing you saw was
that every position on that line was hungry to get to the quarterback. Oh
yeah, Like it was a different like we talk a reckless abandon They're going
after it even if they don't get home, they're spreading back into the huddles,
getting back to the line, and it's coming every time, one,
two, three, every time. And I think that's we talk about the
Brandon Jordan Fair. Let's not forget about Kevin Vickerson and Spartan Dog too.
Yeah, absolutely that Marco, all three of those guys. And I think
that that's a tribute to the I call it the coach Tucker effect and that
transfer portal that you know the guy behind you is going to come in and
ball out as well. They just don't drop off. So when you're on
the field, you do everything to stay on the field. You're not going
to loaf, You're not gonna do anything to get off the field. Everyone's
going to run to the football. Eleven hats in the ball, hungry dogs
run faster. Breaking news speaking of that, the transfer portal just now this
just then, Michigan State officially lands former four star class of twenty twenty two
defensive end Ken Tally from Penn State. That's like, that's like the NFL
trade, like waiver wires. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they come in
and you do a couple of practices and go. But like, so that
just happened. Do you attribute that to what he saw on that defensive line
and he the who's coaching that defensive and being like, wow, you know
those guys are eating out. He has a benefits say, long enough to
even know what's going on there. So I just you know, you know
the first part of your freshman year where you get to get the blues and
then things are hard to get the poor knees. Right before, we didn't
have the opportunity to transfer like they do now, so it's easier, Yeah,
it's much easier. And then you have something enticing, like you know
what's going on over here? You see all the sack creations happening. Then
what's going on in East Landsy with Meltucker and his staff. Why not right?
And you know that in that place attribute to being, you know,
playing a Friday night game, the only game on the only the bright lights
are on East Lanson. You're sitting back if you're a college athlete, kicking
back, watching out what's going on here? Oh? Look at that?
Who's that transfer portal? I didn't play well last night, I didn't get
any Let me, let me give me that era and pdue. But it's
like adversity hits. I mean, we don't know the situation. We don't
know, so like one, obviously, welcome to Spartan nation. Obviously we
need more dogs, clearly that's what we're here for too. But you talk
about sacked by committee, there was some solo sacks obviously with Jacobe, but
there was some assists there to Yeah, like you talk about, it wasn't
just one man right and shot at all. Bobo, Yeah, big fellow
transfer from Florida. He got in anything he had to safety, safety coming
out saved like Biscuit Man likes. And that's I think every level you saw
it was just hungry, even though we we gave him some third downs,
which clearly we need to correct from last season, which we talked about.
But you know, no one's satisfied, and even Coach Tucker, if it
starts at the bottom, he's not satisfied. Trickle down effect. Everyone's like,
we can play better. We know we can play better. I think
Saturday you're gonna see a more buttoned up, fast paced and we're gonna hopefully
score how much you said, what was it? What was it? We're
gonna hang forty piece on the forty piece. We're talking about the forty point
win. We're gonna win by forty. Wow, that's a big statement right
here. Cho cho about it now with the way that Coach Tucker is,
the way that the mindset of these guys, and the way that they were
after the game. They weren't happy with their performance after the game. There
wasn't any he he ha ha in the locker room, no dancing, no
dance like Mac Brown North Carolina after video. Yeah yeah, yeah, none
of that. So so I think they're gonna come out ready to play and
you know, hopefully Spartan staying over the electric again. Yeah, but they're
definitely I'm Tonia, They're gonna hang a forty piece on Akron. Yeah,
man, you talk about the other production in the second level, the linebacker
level. You know, you said Aaron Brewle a he had a sack,
he got in there. But then you look at the production of Cal Holliday
and Ben fan Suomering those two guys. Oh my god. Yes, it
feels like it feels like you're playing a video game. And he got to
full out sprint, just holding down, lockdown everywhere. I mean, he's
sideline. I told you sideline to sideline literally literally, I mean, and
he's just you can hear him, you know, I'm sure Jay, you
just heard people like payting that he's on the neck. He's humming, he's
humming. Oh, speaking of that, I do remember play when the quarterback
from from Western was trying to roll out to the left side and Van Summer
was on him and you can hear you know, I can. I knew
we could hear him breathing. He just took the slide like we're not gonna
take any contact, not tonight. No no no, no, no,
no no no no. I'm gonna say that that ice bad, right right,
I want to play match in a few weeks here. Yeah, But
Cale Holliday was Cal Holliday once again. Ten tackles, two solos, eight
assists. Van Simmern eleven tackles in his debut as a Spartan to transfer from
University of Michigan actually out there with his younger brother who plays defensive tackle,
and they had an assist on a play, which was pretty neat to see
two brothers making a tackle. And as we continued, now, look,
the one dark spot on the evening was the injuries. The two injuries that
happened, both on the defensive side of the ball, one to Darius Snow,
who was a leader, an emotional leader on that defense. We talked
about our last show, Is that man? That was that It hurts.
Obviously, we're former players and we've had our injuries, and you know when
it's a season ending. I never had a season ending but for the first
game, like you've you've built up this this whole off season just for this
season, just to go out that way. Now, we know his heart,
we know who he is, we know that he's a team player,
and he'll be bigger and better coming out of that. But you know,
it's sad that we lost not one but two and you know X. I
know X would come back stronger and quicker as as soon as he's ready.
But it was sad to see that. But you also know that the next
man up too. And I think everyone knows that this is a committee.
We win by a committee, we fall by a committee. So we got
young guys that kind of had to step up. And I mean X is
a huge Both these guys are vocal communicator leaders on our team too, And
you talked about that like the safety being a person who's the quarterback of that
secondary right, So that's what you played. Yeah, now you're going to
see you know, X and Darius probably man, they might be on headset
just to help coaching these guys up right, and which is it's good to
be a cheerleader and be able to support your team when you know physically you
can't be the mentally you can always be there. So I will see those
guys. You know, you you met some players we played with players as
woe as me. You know it's all about me, and I shouldn't be
hard. I could be out there doing this, but you're not gonna see
that from those two guys. Those guys are gonna step up and coach.
Now you hear that a lot from Mel Tuckery talks about those guys being very
selfless players, and Jay, you you know, you've been a part of
a lot of teams and a lot of players. You've seen this. Though
in your opinion, does the loss of those two gentlemen hurt MSU championship chances?
I think at the at the very start from obviously from the fans perspective,
they see the production and the productivity those guys bring every Saturday. You
know, they don't see what goes on behind the scenes, and I think
that's why during the game it was really a kick in the gut for the
team, especially the defensive guys, the guys who lean on those guys on
the field to be their their quarterback of the defense. But they're still gonna
be in, like Otis said, they're still gonna be in helping these guys
south, you know, given they're gonna be watching film, They're gonna be
breaking film down. They might even be in game plan sessions with the coaches,
so they can be the coaches for the players, you know, behind
the scenes, because sometimes you can take away things differently from a teammate than
you can from a coach. So I don't think it's gonna hurt any chances
of the championship. You know, x hopefully, you know, they say
he's gonna come back this year, So hopefully he does, you know,
and come back at one hundred percent and can continue. But I don't think.
I think the intangibles that these guys bring to the table is something that's
not seen on field on Saturdays. Good point, you know, and you
think about what Mel Tucker says. He does not talk about injuries at all,
but he did, you know, he doesn't want players talking about injuries
or talking about anyone else on the team. That's what he'll handle. We
know that we have officially lost Darius Snow for the season, and Xavier Henderson
will come back at some point this year. What's next for Michigan State?
This week? Coming up a game in the Woodshed YEP against the ZIP