Speaker 1: Michigan State opens their college football campaign tonight against Florida
Speaker 1: Atlantic at Spartan Stadium. It's a night game. It should
Speaker 1: be thrilling, it should be exciting. I hope people are
Speaker 1: fired up. I know Jay who Colcrik is. He's the
Speaker 1: MSU sidelines talent, former Big Ten All freshman team member,
Speaker 1: played for the Jets and the Bucks and the Niners
Speaker 1: and the Bills as well, and he joins us here
Speaker 1: on exues and Bros. Jay with thanks for your time.
Speaker 1: How are you today? I hope you and your family
Speaker 1: are well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone's good. Thanks for having me on. Real excited
Speaker 2: it's game to hear at East Lanson.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited too. I think everybody should be excited.
Speaker 1: The Jonathan Smith era will break in. I know he
Speaker 1: doesn't want it to be about himself, but what have
Speaker 1: you noticed in talking with him and talking members of
Speaker 1: his coaching staff. What's the vibe as a former player
Speaker 1: you get from him and his staff?
Speaker 2: You know, I was in the in the football building
Speaker 2: yesterday for about two and a half hours, and the vibe, guy,
Speaker 2: it was kind of like it was relaxed. You know,
Speaker 2: it was like Antonio was when I used to go
Speaker 2: back to the building there. So that's something that I'm
Speaker 2: really excited about. Had the opportunity to, you know, talk
Speaker 2: to Coach Smith, talk to a bunch of the guys
Speaker 2: on his staff, and uh, you know, they're they're they're ready,
Speaker 2: They're in the right place. East Asad is a destination
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 1: Do you think it can be a dangerous thing that
Speaker 1: he will be? It's a it's a great honor what
Speaker 1: Mark D'Antonio did in his lansing with the Spartan football program,
Speaker 1: just like it is with what Tom Izzo did in basketball,
Speaker 1: Ron Mason did in hockey, for example. But is it
Speaker 1: dangerous to constantly use D'Antonio as the bar for a
Speaker 1: guy who's just getting here and trying to get his
Speaker 1: feet wet?
Speaker 2: You know, I yes, and no, you know it's that
Speaker 2: that's because that's those a big shoes to fill D'Antonio
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, I don't you know Spartan fans,
Speaker 2: there's I want Spartan fans to trust the process, trust
Speaker 2: that this coach has to plan in place, and uh,
Speaker 2: just a similar to D'Antonio, what's an instant a instant
Speaker 2: success right off the bat, there was you know, the
Speaker 2: first couple of years of you know, taking those steps
Speaker 2: to become you know, a playoff team, to become a
Speaker 2: rose ball team. So that's what I want spart in Fancy,
Speaker 2: you know, trust the process that coach Smift and his
Speaker 2: staff has has a plan in place to win and
Speaker 2: to win here in East Lanson.
Speaker 1: Jay Colcrik joins us here on Exues and Bros. You
Speaker 1: can follow him on Twitter on x at Jahu. Colcrik
Speaker 1: does a great job on the sideline sixty one new faces,
Speaker 1: though for this team, including quarterback Aid and Chiles, you've
Speaker 1: got a couple of returning key guys like Cal Holliday
Speaker 1: for example, Nick Carter as well. How challenging is it
Speaker 1: to get adjusted to sixty one new faces for a
Speaker 1: program in general while at the same time understanding a
Speaker 1: new playbook, understanding a new philosophy offensively and defensively. Of
Speaker 1: the challenges there for student athletes, Well, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I think that's a new that's going to be
Speaker 2: the new normal. Now every year you're going to see
Speaker 2: turnover like that. It might not be as high as
Speaker 2: sixty sixty something guys, but you know you're going to
Speaker 2: see pointies. You're gonna see thirties because college football has
Speaker 2: for real transactional. But those guys are they're football players.
Speaker 2: It's coming in, it's understanding a different scheme. Everyone's in
Speaker 2: football ever reads out the same book. You know. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it's just a little different language that you speak. It's
Speaker 2: just that adjustment of getting to know, hey, you know
Speaker 2: this is called you know this uh here as opposed
Speaker 2: to what I'm used to. But these guys are football players.
Speaker 2: They'll come in, they'll learn this game, they'll walk through
Speaker 2: and they'll practice it. They'll have lots of time to
Speaker 2: get adjusted to it. But so far, this is the
Speaker 2: new norm for college football. College football has become very transactional,
Speaker 2: and you're going to see that going forward.
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer that teams like Michigan State, teams
Speaker 1: in the Big Ten should start their season by getting
Speaker 1: their feet wet with a team that isn't necessarily going
Speaker 1: to challenge.
Speaker 3: For a national championship. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1: What's your philosophy on if you're the athletic director and
Speaker 1: you're the head coach and you're trying to schedule a
Speaker 1: football season, how do you believe it should shake out
Speaker 1: for a team like Michigan State in the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm similar. I have similar beliefs like you. It's
Speaker 2: uh because in college football ended, but you don't have
Speaker 2: preseason games. So having a team that comes in that
Speaker 2: you know on paper that you have better talent than
Speaker 2: and you should with So I like that and it's
Speaker 2: coming together, you know, putting everything in place, getting ready
Speaker 2: to gear up forward the Big Ten season, because the
Speaker 2: Big Ten season is a regular season because it's your
Speaker 2: body's going to be beat up throughout the season. So
Speaker 2: that's why it's important to have those games like a
Speaker 2: SAU game that can really you know, get your he
Speaker 2: said right, get you tuned, and get all players on
Speaker 2: the same page.
Speaker 1: When he left Michigan State University, he was top ten
Speaker 1: in career attempts, top ten in yards gained in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. At the time, his twenty one touchdowns
Speaker 1: were a single season record in MSU football history. He
Speaker 1: is jau Colcrik. He joins us here on x'es and broth.
Speaker 1: What's the biggest challenge you think Jonathan Smith faces.
Speaker 2: Well, the biggest thing it's a new conference. You know,
Speaker 2: it's the recruited in the Midwest it's different than recruited
Speaker 2: out west. You know. That's the challenge that he's gonna
Speaker 2: have to face. He's gonna have to win in his state,
Speaker 2: you know, which He's got to get Michigan guys. He's
Speaker 2: got to get guys from Ohio and that fifty to
Speaker 2: you know, that three three and a half hour radius
Speaker 2: from East Laves and he's going to have to win that.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of competition there. There's you know,
Speaker 2: the school down the road, there's Ohio State, you know,
Speaker 2: so he's gonna have to win those battles, you know,
Speaker 2: keep a talent in the state. So that's one of
Speaker 2: the biggest challenges that he's going to face.
Speaker 1: Really, what's the sales pitch do you think he makes
Speaker 1: to recruits about MSU football.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful campus, you can get a great education,
Speaker 2: and you play good football. You know, a week in,
Speaker 2: a week out, you're going to be on national TV.
Speaker 2: MSU football is a brand, and if you want to
Speaker 2: be part of something, if you want to be part
Speaker 2: of a brand, the tradition is that you go anywhere
Speaker 2: in the country and you say go great, someone's going
Speaker 2: to say go white back to you. It doesn't get
Speaker 2: it better than that.
Speaker 1: You know what this is like because you did it
Speaker 1: for four years here, you did in the NFL as well.
Speaker 1: You practice, and then they always talk about hitting somebody
Speaker 1: who's not on your team and how different it is.
Speaker 1: Can you describe the difference between hitting guys and finding
Speaker 1: the whole and running a practice compared to playing in
Speaker 1: front of a sold out stadium and a regular season
Speaker 1: game for the season opener.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Practice, You know, you try to get the best
Speaker 2: game like similation in practice, but it's not that because
Speaker 2: and practice is it's scripted. You know, you tell the
Speaker 2: scout team you go here, you go here, do this,
Speaker 2: do that, and when it comes game time, those pieces
Speaker 2: move a little differently. You know, a guy might see
Speaker 2: something different and fire in a different hole, those types
Speaker 2: of things. But it's just a crowd noise you're not
Speaker 2: used to, you know, seventy thousand people, you know, screaming
Speaker 2: when they should what they should, and all those things coming,
Speaker 2: and then your emotions take over, your adrenaline takes over.
Speaker 2: It's a lot different experience played on game day tha
Speaker 2: and is a practice. Practice is very controlled environments to
Speaker 2: how you think it's going to go but when it's
Speaker 2: game time, those things change.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to know from you how long it takes
Speaker 1: a player to adjust to a new playbook. If dare
Speaker 1: I say, a new style. You're used to doing things
Speaker 1: one way. A coach comes in and things are done differently, practice,
Speaker 1: maybe run differently. There may be different hours in which
Speaker 1: you're expected to do certain things. How do you adjust
Speaker 1: to that, especially a new playbook. How do you as
Speaker 1: a player recognize and are are able to adapt to
Speaker 1: a new playbook? How long does it take you?
Speaker 2: You know, it depends for the guy, But you know,
Speaker 2: for me, it was something that I love the game
Speaker 2: of football and I love you know, the ex's and
Speaker 2: those side of things. So it's just spend you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of extra hours a night looking at the
Speaker 2: playbook trying to figure out a way too to make
Speaker 2: it something that you remember, something that you can relate to.
Speaker 2: So for these guys, it's not going to take too
Speaker 2: longs Like football's football, you just got to you just
Speaker 2: got to adjust to it. And the more time that
Speaker 2: you put into it than the faster you're going to
Speaker 2: make that adjustment to adjusting to a new college playbook, Do.
Speaker 1: You remember the fab play you had and what the
Speaker 1: name of it was?
Speaker 3: Can you can you recite it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Jack right, Zebra thirty two. It's just an inside
Speaker 2: zone play. The full back takes out the end man
Speaker 2: online of scrimmage that left guard pools for the mic backer.
Speaker 2: The guard tackle have a deuce block from the defensive
Speaker 2: tackle backside to the linebacker's open cossover for the running back,
Speaker 2: and act right through the two holes.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: Hey, I have always said this about football. I love it. Okay,
Speaker 1: and I played in high school that was a long
Speaker 1: time ago, okay, and I've covered football for a long time,
Speaker 1: calling TV and radio pro in college. But it's the
Speaker 1: one sport I think everybody thinks they know, but they
Speaker 1: truly don't. How am I right or wrong about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You're absolutely right. You know, there's the whole stereotype
Speaker 2: football players for dumb jocks. But I challenge anybody to
Speaker 2: h put up a playbook and how how to block them,
Speaker 2: how to block a scheme a play simple, It's just
Speaker 2: what I just call. That's a bread and butter play
Speaker 2: that you know anyone can do, but like figuring it
Speaker 2: out how to block this? How the moving pieces Football
Speaker 2: is the most team sports ever that it takes because
Speaker 2: because what it is is it takes eleven guys to
Speaker 2: come together and for a five seconds do everything right,
Speaker 2: and if you gain one yard that's considered a success.
Speaker 2: You know, there's no other like that. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's it's a different game. And I challenge people
Speaker 2: to just, you know, take a step and dive into
Speaker 2: you know, look up, look up plays on large, you know,
Speaker 2: look at a playbook and see, you know, can you
Speaker 2: dis sect can you make different changes, different adjustments? You
Speaker 2: know that play? What happens now if the if the
Speaker 2: if the safety walks down in the box and it
Speaker 2: creates eight man box, Now what do you do? What
Speaker 2: different adjustments do you do? That's the game of football.
Speaker 2: Those excess to those those moving pieces to have, that's
Speaker 2: the excited part about football.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really easy from the stands or the press
Speaker 1: box to say you should have ran on this hole,
Speaker 1: or you should have thrown it to this guy. You're
Speaker 1: not looking at from a bird's eye view. You got
Speaker 1: that big nasties coming at you with bad breath, trying
Speaker 1: to break you in half. It's a little bit easier
Speaker 1: said than done. We're joined by Jay Kolchra, outstanding Michigan
Speaker 1: State sidelines talent here on Exus and Bros. For just
Speaker 1: a few more minutes. You are a really successful high
Speaker 1: school football coach as well. What's the biggest message you
Speaker 1: tried to convey to high school athletes, especially in today's landscape.
Speaker 1: I remember when I coached, I thought my job.
Speaker 3: Was to do two things.
Speaker 1: A make sure the players enjoy it and B make
Speaker 1: sure when they get to the next level the coaches
Speaker 1: say you were well coached. What do you think was
Speaker 1: the most important message you had for high schoolers when
Speaker 1: you coach them.
Speaker 2: You know, that's a really good question and a great point,
Speaker 2: and I, you know, simple to me what you said,
Speaker 2: that's exactly what I was. I was going for as well,
Speaker 2: because I went to such a small school back in
Speaker 2: New York. You know, my graduating class is twenty six kids.
Speaker 2: And I was bigger, stronger, faster. So I just you know,
Speaker 2: have the mindset, get the ball, run and you know
Speaker 2: you're you're gonna be bigger, You're gonna be faster than
Speaker 2: the guy is trying to tackle you. I didn't learn
Speaker 2: the game of football until I came to college. True story.
Speaker 2: Matt I was in the when else in college, sitting
Speaker 2: in the running backs room, They're like, hey, you know
Speaker 2: we're watching film. They're like, hey, identify where's the money couse,
Speaker 2: Like Mike's in the other room, you know, like, no,
Speaker 2: the Mike Backer. You know those things. And that's why
Speaker 2: I took with me from when I was in when
Speaker 2: I was coaching at high schools, like I don't want
Speaker 2: kids that I coached to go to college and that's
Speaker 2: their dream and be you know that naive like that,
Speaker 2: Like I want him to go in and Blake. You said,
Speaker 2: to be like this guy as well, coach, you understand
Speaker 2: the game of football, you know want that's who love
Speaker 2: the game of football, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it's a game.
Speaker 1: It's Beautty said, we were talking earlier before you joined
Speaker 1: us that Brad Holmes, the general manager of the Lions,
Speaker 1: who's done an outstanding job putting that team together, wasn't
Speaker 1: afraid to come out and say our expectations are to
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. I love that. I think players
Speaker 1: overall embrace that too. What are the expectations from Michigan
Speaker 1: State this year?
Speaker 3: Do you think.
Speaker 2: I think you know similar to like Brad Hopes say,
Speaker 2: everybody goes into the season with the expectation of reaching
Speaker 2: the college football playoffs and win the national championship. You know,
Speaker 2: you got to think about that. Why not us? You know,
Speaker 2: the schedule's there, it's in front of you. So Michigan
Speaker 2: staytion going with the expectation. They're a power for school.
Speaker 2: They attract good talent. They you know, they have the
Speaker 2: resources year and the year out. The expectation is to
Speaker 2: win the Big Ten. That's the first step. Make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: You know. Back when I played, the goal was, you know,
Speaker 2: make play the Rose Bowl. But now it's win a
Speaker 2: national title. You know, that's the expectation. You're recruiting guys
Speaker 2: that that you know could go anywhere else. You you
Speaker 2: beat out, you know, different schools to get these players. Now,
Speaker 2: put the pieces together and let's roll. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's that's a pretty interesting take. Those are lofty goals,
Speaker 1: especially for a first year head coach in this program.
Speaker 1: He was really successful of course at Oregon State. Final thought,
Speaker 1: are you still good friends with Ryan Miller? I know
Speaker 1: you were here.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, I'm good friends with Melsey. Ryan and
Speaker 2: his brother Drew. You know played some golf with Drew
Speaker 2: this summer. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: That's pretty cool. I think right.
Speaker 1: I used to call some of Ryan Miller's college hockey games.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I called the Cold War
Speaker 1: when he started the goalie in that outdoor game at
Speaker 1: Spartan Stadium. I think he's the best college hockey player
Speaker 1: I have ever seen. Did you recognize as a friend
Speaker 1: how good he was, perhaps along with John van Beisbrook,
Speaker 1: maybe the guy like Richter, maybe the greatest American born
Speaker 1: goalie in the history of the sport.
Speaker 2: The time that I recognized it was you know that Olympic,
Speaker 2: that Wich Olympics, when he was the goalie want MVP there.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is on the biggest stage of
Speaker 2: it all and you know, the greatest from all over
Speaker 2: the world that are playing in here, and he had
Speaker 2: so much success in that. That's when I recognized how,
Speaker 2: you know, special of a talent that he is.
Speaker 1: I think it's awesome that he can appreciate your talents
Speaker 1: as a football player, you can appreciate his as a
Speaker 1: high key player. You're both bleeding Green and White and
Speaker 1: your friends to this day, we appreciate the time, We
Speaker 1: appreciate the stories and the knowledge you do a great
Speaker 1: job on the sidelines with the Michigan State football enjoyed
Speaker 1: all season long, while we'll enjoy what listening to you
Speaker 1: and George and Jason. Thanks for the time today, Jehu.
Speaker 2: Thanks Matt. Really appreciate you having me on he