Ep. 1080: Twitter Question Friday: An MSU football therapy session

We answered your questions — largely on Michigan State football, on what's gone wrong under Jonathan Smith, how the rest of the season might unfold, what's next and who's next, and more. Plus, MSU basketball, NFL conspiracies, Tarik Skubal, and a few stories worth telling.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Allo ah wow, Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
D What do you get when you cross a know

(01:26):
it all newspaper columnist with an awkward, unsophisticated every man.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, well, I'm just not sure about that right now.
Welcome to Couch and the Room. Welcome to Couch in
the Room. Our Friday show presented by our friends at

(01:56):
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(02:19):
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watch a game. In fact, I would say, the best

(02:41):
place in town to catch football, soccer, whatever it might be.
And if you're worried, you might you know, the Michigan
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one of the best reservation systems you will ever see. Jason,

(03:01):
how you doing, brother out there? Play hard?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Stick your cleathes so far up their ashes.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
That they've got to use the please to brush your
teeth with.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Not talking about this?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
No, no, hey man, what's going on? Hey?

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Are you gonna congratulate Kurt Signetti on his contract extension?
It's uh, this guy went from making four hundred grand
at James Madison. I mean he's gonna be breaking people
off now he's, you.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Know what, a legend. Do you know what? I feel
good for? Jonathan Smith? No, see Nettie's children. That is true,
they are going to Uh.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Although making four hundred k, I mean you're still getting
a decent inheritance.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
But now that doesn't last as much, especially how you.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Landing his demise. You're like man, I can't wait till
the old man kicks it. This is very different. Yeah,
you're just fuck you. Make sure he stops taking his
heart medicine, you know all that stuff. Push him off
a cliff like that one rich kid did do whatever
and your dad whatever you have to do.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, yeah, Signettie, look out, look out. Yeah anyway, happy
for him? Yeah, no doubt all that. Yeah, for a
while he'st It's pretty crazy, it is. It's very similar.
Are you gonna look through him? Like I use that
pick with you folding your arms when you were listening.
I forget what player.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
It's one of my favorite photos of you because it
actually makes you look kind of good, But it looks
like you're looking through the player.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Are you're gonna have that glare that that look at Signetti?
Because I know you don't like him. Really, I don't
have any problem with Signetti other than this scheduling. Oh
that's what I wan. You bring that up to him
right after the game. Good for the show. Good for
Spartan speaking this show. I don't know if I'll get
to talk to the way they do these post games.
At most of these road venues, the most venues is
the press conference are separate and simultaneous, which kind of sucks.

(04:35):
Very rarely do you get both coaches in football anymore,
and sometimes at MSU at least are right next to
each other. So if the timing works out, I'll jump
back and forth. But it's felt all of you.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
Feel a lot of Fred human you and Freddie. You're
going press conference to press conference.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Man. I wonder if Fred will make this trip. I
don't think Fred's making this trip. Actually, Oh, I can't imagine. Oh.
Stout does not make trips. That's not stuff. Doesn't make
trips to Spartan Stadium. He doesn't make trips certainly to Bloomington, Indiana,
although he did Dean he did have you know, a
son who went to Purdue and he used to make that.
So who knows. Maybe he's got connections and and and

(05:10):
he'll make the uh, he'll make the make the drive.
I don't know what's actually firing the whole way with
no windows down the Dean anyway, So we are we
are going to dig into your groovy done at Twitter
questions some it is it's gonna be an m SU football.
I don't want to know if it's called a therapy
session or a whatever, it's a session? Yeah wait yeah,

(05:31):
and some.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
Of these are the takes right for the show we missed,
or those no Twitter questions from last a.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Few yeah, a few people said they used mine from
last week, and and some but most were most most
use mine from last week. Thanks guys, you didn't he
did do it, so I apologize. Yeah, all right, before
we get to those like we do every week, what
we're betting this weekend? Presented by our friends of fire
Keepers and the fire Keepers Eye Casino and sportsbook app. Jason,

(05:58):
you betting anything this week?

Speaker 4 (05:59):
I'm going to bet a couple of But I have
to ask you. Is it the schedule in college football?
Or is it Michigan State's demise. I know I'm not
an alumnus, so it doesn't really like break my heart
as a lot of people. You know, I can understand
that I'm not invested in Michigan State football as much,
but I just feel less and less as week and
weeks go by in college football. I just don't care
about these games. Is it the schedule or because there's

(06:20):
not good games on? Or I just am losing interest
in college athletics right now?

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Well, I think a couple both. I think a couple things.
It's not a great it's not like a great, great week.
And then you know, and maybe there's something to the
idea that with the playoff at the end of the year,
there isn't These games aren't the end all be all,
which I actually prefer. I don't like, you know, games
in week four being like your whole season on the line.
I think that's kind of dumb. Or if you have
one quarterback injury, missus a week or whatever. But I

(06:48):
I do you know, I mean, first of all, I
don't think it's a good product, and I don't think
it's well packaged. So I've said that before. I mean
the way it's the way it's presented to us on television,
and the level of play in most games it's just
not high enough to warrant any of this. It is
an addiction. I mean, they are playing on an addiction
to us, and that's the way these TV contracts work.
We are addicted to football. We're I mean, think about you.

(07:09):
There must be athletes and other sports that like get
zero money, no nil, but play at a really high level,
and like, what what a bunch of morons in this country?
That love football. This isn't even like three incomplete passes.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
And these guys are like anymore more kind of watches
endless soccer balls, which is a hell of a lot
higher quality of the Premier league soccer versus college football.
So I don't know, but you know, one nil, yeah,
I understand. With that being said, I have two games
that I do like the Holy War Utah at BYU
BYU the home dog getting three and a half. I

(07:41):
think Utah still wins this game by one. I think, boy,
you can cover that at home. I also like USC
getting I got these on Monday, so I don't know
if the lines have changed because I'm trying to do
like on Monday morning, kind of gut feel tracking my
picks that way, and these are the two picks. I
like USC plus nine and a half at Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Love it. I love that USC game. I'm probably gonna
be hon it too. I think USC is better than
people think. I think. You know, look week to week,
you can have issues where they go to Illinois, they
don't have great week. Illinois had a great week rising
up after a bad loss. You know, shit happens. But
I think I think USC is as good as Notre Dame,
and I think nine and a half is too much
on the road. I don't, I don't. I don't get that.

(08:21):
I don't get that at all. I am not surprisingly
betting soccer this weekend, which is back for that ridiculous
international break, total waste of time. The couple games that
I really like. I think this is the very end
for Angipastacolia at Nottingham Forest and shall tell me Chelsea

(08:41):
on the road minus a half just has to win
minus one twenty. I like that. I think Chelsea gets
it done there. I also I think Arsenal's for real
and I think they take care of business. You can
get Arsenal minus one, which means if they just win
the game, get your money back. But they win by
more than one, you win the bet. And I think
they'll win the game at Fulham and that's minus one
twenty at minus one. Those those two games I like

(09:04):
an awful lot, and a little bit curious about aston
Villa at Tottenham at plus a half, so that you know,
even if they tied, you to win that at minus
one thirty. But those are the games I'm betting. This
is that a lean you just would call that Lalan. Yeah, Oklean, yeah,
not an official play.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
These are you getting out of that? If it doesn't
work out? Like, I didn't say you bet it. I
just said it was a lean.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Well, the best thing about a lean is if Aleen
works and you're like, well you should bet my leans.
I mean my leans worked. You know, it's it's a
great way of having a great lean guy. This guy
no account of bils. Yeah, there you go. That is
what we're betting this weekend, presented by our friends of
fire Keepers and the fire Keepers I casino and sports
book app.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
By the way, I bet the NFL. But it's a scam.
It's like the WWE, where everything's predicted.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Whole thing's rigged. We'll get into some of that here,
these groovy done it toittal questions? You ready? Yeah, Eric
Schultz up?

Speaker 4 (09:49):
First, of course, is the best case plausible scenario of
the following MSU gets killed first Indiana Michigan loses an
MSU fire smith to try to get the interim coach
bump against the Michigan program that suddenly has some pressure
on them.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Well, if you're saying if it's best case scenario, I
guess it's what you want it's what you decide you want.
I mean, that is one scenario that I believe could happen.
That if things go horribly non competitively for Michigan State
against Indiana, where it's just sort of embarrassing on the
field and it looks like they're done, that that'll be
the end. And then you know, you got an interim

(10:26):
coach against Michigan. So the expectations are low, but Michigan's
not good luck have fun with that, yeah, trying to
rally these guys around. So you know, best case scenario
depends what you want. But I think for people who
are out on Smith already entirely, then that that is
the absolute best case scenario.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Next one from Eric, can we stop with this? Smith
would have been fine in a different era? Nonsense? Of course,
the nature of the era didn't help him, but he's
been terrible, awful at everything. It's been an abject disaster
in this era, the last era. In every era, this
was simply a bad fit.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
I don't know that it's every era. I disagree. Yeah,
I'm with you on that because I think if this
was ten years ago, when when after eighteen games, you
might be like, yeah, this isn't great so far, but
it wouldn't be a question whether what thirty million dollar
buyout changes too ten years ago. Right, Well, but the
other thing is ten years we just wouldn't have a
question whether he was coming back for a third year,
whether he was gonna have more time, whether it's time

(11:25):
to build his own thing, and players wouldn't be able
to leave, and like he would have gotten to keep
probably Derek Harmon for example, coming in. You know he
would there would have been players. It was just put
have a different scenario in terms of how you recruited
a roster and then were able to develop. And his
track record there has been pretty good. I don't believe
the every era thing. This has not worked. It has
not been a fit to this point. He has not

(11:46):
been able to connect with MSHU fans. But I didn't
see it as a you know, you had the West
Coast thing where he's not from around here, and that
not understanding the Michigan rivalry. I think that hurt last year,
but it's been a and not being able to sort
of meet MSU fans with how they feel in the

(12:07):
moment I think has been a big problem about a lot.
You know that ability to communicate and connect. That's that's
a challenge if you're not winning, and so obviously they
have not won. There have been several games that have
been disasters, in the Michigan game, the Rutgers game in
the last two weeks, and I think that's that's how
you wind up here, but I don't.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
And the comment, the comment about the offensive line after
the UCLA game, I just gravitate back to that with Selari,
you know, in his postgame comments. I understand it, game
just happened, so you're coming off that, but still did
not know how bad your offensive line was as well.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I go back to a
conversation I had with Jonathan Smith right before the season,
and I asked them about the offensive line because it's
been a lot of talk about how much depth they had,
how much better they were, and it was and I
sort of asked, you know, was this is this really
that good? You know? Any He made it clear they're
not as good, anywhere near as good as his best

(13:02):
lines at Oregon State, but he thought they'd be improved,
like aw shucks level or no. I mean, it was
sort of it was sort of like, you know, I mean,
maybe people are thinking a little too much of this
line that said, I do think they believed if, like
if healthy they have, it would look different. The problem
I have, and this is this, D'Antonio made this mistake

(13:24):
years and years ago with the twenty twelve receivers, I
want to say, or maybe whatever, whenever they lost a
bunch of guys, and it was like Benny Fowler taking
over as the number one guy originally, and he wound
up being a good receiver eventually, but they were not
ready that year, and because of that, there was a
lot of hype put on them, and when they weren't ready,

(13:44):
it got kind of nasty. And the offensive line this
year there was a lot of talk about depth, and
now they were ten deep, seven to eight deep. He
can rotate all these guys. It turns out they just
they're not that deep or they're not that good, and
losing a couple of guys, the key guys, was too much.
You got to be careful as a staff to build
up guys, to build death that depth when something doesn't
potentially actually exist.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Last one from Eric Schultz, Graham admonished my pessimism a
few weeks ago. I gotta know, were you just playing
devil's advocate all the times you.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Were all, it might go badly, but it might.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Not, Or did you not see what most of us
clearly saw that this thing going poorly was by far
the most likely scenario. Are you at Michigan State Mouthpeace, Graham?
Is that what you're saying?

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Eric was on it. Eric was on it early, and
he wasn't alone being on early. There are other people
who've been out and did not did not think this
is gonna work. I thought we'd see more competency from
this staff, and I thought, you know, I thought for
a while the connection was an issue, but I wondered
what it would look like if they could overcome it
through competency. And they, you know, had some some a
little bit of recruiting momentum over the summer and things

(14:48):
like that, And so I wanted to see what happened
if if Smith and his staff got their got their
their fingers in their fingers that wrong word. I've got
a grip on a couple of good wins. A So
I put your fingers in there? Yeah, what a creep?
Did I admonish it? I don't, Eric, if I admonished
your pessim as my apologize how I tear you? And

(15:10):
Eric's not wrong? I mean Eric, Eric remembers this, you know,
he remembers more of the show than.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
I do, Dominic. How come Eveling called MSU fans delusional
in who they want for a new coach this week,
no less than twelve times. Then he has the audacity
to have Steve grenzell on, who recommends Pat Schrmer and
Pat and Ardoozy and Jack goes mute.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Never surrender your studio.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
Time again in all caps, he says, who's Steve grens
It sounds familiar?

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Can you refret? Steve Grenzel? He used to work for
Booth Newspapers, which is now m Live, but he was
gone before M Live really happened. Jesus. In fact, when
did that happen? I am live? Okay, Yeah, like two
five twelve Booth Newspapers. So when I was in Kalamazoo,
which was part of Booth Newspapers, he was the MSU worked. Yeah,
he was the MSU writer. In fact, when he retired No. Nine,

(15:57):
that was the first time I was offered the ms
U job for Booth and so that that was the storyline. Yeah,
it's almost the story we're telling presented by Midtown brewing companies.
But it's not that good. It's not that good a story,
So won't do that to midtime. You imagine this show
if Pat Shermer is announced as the head coach.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Of Michigan State. Incredible, oh man, incredible? I mean nardoozy,
I don't know, like a small percentage, but like Pat
she anyway, all right, dominic, is it physically possible for
you to not mention Bradley Beale? And tell me what
could is a do to allow us to take the
biggest fucking swing imaginable with m SU football?

Speaker 3 (16:31):
And who would you call? Well? I mean a couple
of things. I think while is incredibly important force and
MSU athletics still he often he's got his own things
going now too, and I think he does take a
lot of his cues from his oh so you know.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
How could he possibly have time to fit in m
SU athletics though? And this mortgage thing? You got the
sons and he was still kids.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Who what could anybody do to allow I'm assure to
take the biggest thing imaginable? It would be to write
a check and and frankly, the best, the best thing aos.
The best thing they could do is write a check
and get the f out of the way. That's not
what how much can you pick out from hayos people?
Five hundred k It's not what people write checks do.

(17:18):
But and rightfully so, frankly, if I'm giving a massive
amount of money, I believe it. I want. I want
to say, I want to, you know, I want to.
I want to, you know, And that's part of the
the way it goes. But you want Michigan State to have,
you know, if they make a change, the ability to
go after anybody you can dream about, and that takes
finances to do.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Dominic Graham, seven years into the pod. I take a
little joy in being correct for the four hundred and
third consecutive time. One of these days, one of your
Brandon Soward's Noah Kim j Johnson, Maddy Sissoko takes will
get me. I don't want your paycheck, but could you
be willing to give me a free lsj sub.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
This is not how this world works, even Jason, this
is soco. Jason pays for two. You know you can't
got anymore. I mean that was like a couple of
years ago. You guys, you were doing some promotion, can
you so? I for this though real quick, and.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Then I forgot about it and I was paying seventy
nine ninety nine a month.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Yeah, you know, that's how we get you Yeah, uh yeah, no,
the you know, but the room doesn't even get free,
So my mother doesn't. My mother pays like the most
of anybody because she's still got the seven day or
six day print delivery that we do. How much does
that cost? Nine grand? It's up there. It's about about
eight grand a month. Yeah, but she's got to support me,
and and so that's how we were able to do

(18:35):
this stuff. So you know, thank thank my mom, Yeah,
she thanks you. Really, this is soco thing I thought. Man,
I miss that dominic Graham who restricts free speech more
the FCC or you m what are you doing? Man?

Speaker 4 (18:51):
Where am I are you the FCC? Where am I
restricting free speech by not having a show? You're editing
the Dominic's questions? Oh well, you know, just coming up
with this out of like thin air. Cutting the use
of the word whore is not you know, preventing free speech.
It's true, you know, I mean, it's just a family
show here to some degrees, how.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Else do we say whore?

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Yeah right, Trollope, the dexter bucy of Southern main. Next,
am I crazy to think that Jonathan Smith should get
this year and next year to coach. Next season schedule
is tougher, and unless you get John summrawl and half
a two lane to coach, you're not replicating Indiana's success.
MSU would be the fifth best job this cycle. Not

(19:34):
going to get a plan a coach in twenty twenty five.
You don't need to win in twenty twenty five, first
of all. The next at some point MSU is going
to have to just embrace and lock into a coach
and say this is this is our guy. We're going
to give him time.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
We're going to be all in financially, resources wise, you've
got the administration. This will be a j bat higher
you know, if they make a move here. So that
will be different than what Jonathan Smith is dealt with.
Jonathan Smith is not had and frankly, some things aren't
his fault. He has not had the financial support you
need to win in college football to this point, and

(20:09):
so that is unfair to him. What is fair is
in the games where it's been fifty to fifty and
the games where you probably could win anyway, they have
not looked better. And then he is not connected with
MSU fans in a way that would buy him time
and understanding, which I think you could do. I think
you could have Jonathan Smith's I think you could have
all of Jonathan smith screw ups in games to this

(20:29):
point where you lose at Michigan after looking like you
have a chance, where you lose at Rutgers at the
end of the year, where it's like, oh god, where
you have the last two weeks and none of that
would be good and people would have doubts. But you
could have that and still not be in this situation
if you connected differently with people and with fan base
where they would be a little understanding, where you could
feel like there was still a way to momentum. Now,

(20:51):
it would help if those things also didn't exist. But
to actually be a winning program now, I think people
will understand if you don't have the Jimmy's and the
Joe's yet, I think people will have to learn to
understand that in the revshare era where even the you know,
the thing about the revshare is, yeah, you got to
figure out how to get more money beyond that and
what that's going to look like. And that's on Jay
Batt to do and MSU to do, and them to

(21:13):
coalesque donors, and that's on the next coach to help
with that and all that stuff, if you know. And
that's something Jonathan Smith. I don't think it's a strength
of his, but you also have to. I think people
will deal with. And this is the other thing about
the Lost train. I thought there for a second, which
I'm really bad at doing this. The other thing about
that is the produce of the world and other people

(21:34):
all have at least like fifteen million in revshare, so
it's harder to There aren't going to be as many
even crummy programs. There'll be a lot more parody. But
people will deal with not having the Jimmy's and the
Joe's and losing for a little while. They need the
other stuff. They need to feel like you're meeting them
where they are. They need to see competence in games

(21:55):
where you have a chance, and that's the stuff that's
been missing, and I think that's what bothers people.

Speaker 4 (21:59):
Jaed bar Net is thirty four NHL draft picks in
one college hockey game good.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, if you have a chance to watch it Friday
night and Saturday night frankly, but Friday night Michigan State
Boston University. It's on I think ESPN two. That's a
that's a hell of a college hockey game. Michigan State
on the road. It's yeah, hell of a series. Very
cool they scheduled this. I love when Michigan State plays
BC or b U early. I just think these are

(22:24):
that's fun early season college hockey, to get a sense
of who MSU really is. Money bag?

Speaker 4 (22:30):
Next, have we ever seen a team quit this much?
Did they really have to do an AI uniform reveal?
Because no player would spend fifteen minutes getting filmed for it.
They don't, money Bag.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
That's deep. Yeah, I am crushing some tape. Money Bag.
I have not heard that. Yeah, to see a team well,
first of all, quit is a strong word, and I'm
always careful to write it to say it, because I
do think they were demoralized last year. And you get
you know, Jalen Berger from UCLA if formerly played at MSU,

(23:02):
say Michigan State didn't want to, you know, play anymore.
And so there's some a little bit of confirmation of
what we were seeing on the field, and then you
get the coaches basically saying, you know, guys were in
wrong places, trying to do too much, and that's what
it looks. That's why it looked like that. I don't
know if that's why it looked like that. I didn't
get the sense that that was a team that was
flying around just in the wrong places. But it doesn't

(23:24):
mean all of them did. And it doesn't take you know,
it just takes a few guys who are spirits are
gone a little bit and thinks they're on their heels,
and it can look like worse than it is. And
we have seen worse, and we have seen teams more overwhelmed.
I mean, you go back to the post firing of
Mel Tucker and like that Penn State game at Ford Field,
where it was just I mean, they knew it and

(23:46):
they didn't even try to do things that were going
to put their players in bad spots. The Michigan, you know,
you go back to the forty nine to three Michigan
Bobby Williams game, like there have been more what's d'antonio's line,
It can always get worse. The UCLA game was brutal,
though it was not good. That's why we're here. It
doesn't beat the ones you mentioned, but it's definitely up there.

(24:06):
That's why in two weeks you went from some promising
thoughts after the USC game to what the hell was
that against Nebraska? That's not good. That's a problem to
the conversation we're having now and one week with a
guy who's only coached a year and a half. That's
how you get there, because that's how bad it was.
It was not good. Money bag?

Speaker 4 (24:26):
What's being done to light a fire under this team
before next week? Michigan is complete ass and there's no
reason we can't beat them. Smith going to the podium
saying the players didn't quit and we have good coaches
who are gonna keep improving isn't gonna wake anyone up.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Well, I mean, I think they're plenty motive. That's a
weird thing, Like, how do you motivate someone. I think
they're plenty motivated. You're motivated by getting your ass kicked,
You're motivated by embarrassment, you're motivated by your own pride,
you're motivated by your teammates and all the work. I
do think you know, I would be very surprised, and
most of these players aren't very much still invested in

(25:05):
this season.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Yeah, you can make money still transfer. I mean you
got to have to put good tape together. Yeah, it's
so the players, I mean definitely want to still play.
You don't want to go out there and quit and
have that on tape if you're trying to get the
hell out of there or you're trying to stay for
the next coach and if that.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Doesn't work, A box of Groovy Donuts can motivate anybody.
Like I'm gonna tell you right now, hung out with
Monica and Andrew last week. They brought over Groovy Donuts. It
was just brought even over some test ones they were
testing to see how good they were. They do not fail.
There's lots of great stuff. The raspberry hot Honey Fritter,
which is unbelievable, available in October only, the Dubai Chocolate

(25:44):
Old Fashion, some really great stuff. They've got chocolate monster bites,
if you want Halloween thing donuts, fall Donuts with pumpkin
spice cake donuts, just incredible offerings. Of course at Groovy Donuts.
Go to Groovy Donuts dot com and place your order today.
They're open seven am to one pm Thursday through Sunday.
Make them part of your college football weekend, getting a
bunch of people together, whatever it is. Or you just

(26:04):
think this MSU Indiana game may not go well, I
may need to console myself. Nothing does that better than
Groovy Donuts. Groovy donuts dot com. Sparti ben next.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
I wasn't out on Jonathan Smith and was disappointed with
all the people wanting him fired before this week, But
after the absolute piss poor performance he put on this week,
he needs to go. You don't get three to four
years anymore to turn stuff around. And this isn't about Signetti.
In the current climate, you have two years to turn
a program around and he hasn't shown he can.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Do that at all yet.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
And from rich steering one use, I used to firmly
believe you needed a coach a good four and five
years to see if he can build a good program
in the new era with nil and portal, Is this
even rational anymore?

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Not without progress, Like you cannot be sure of a
ceiling of a coach, but you need to see progress
that within that time, a little bit more linear progress.
Probably you cannot let it get embarrassing well, and you
need momentum. That's the difference. It used to be, you know,
it just without that when the transfer portal wasn't what
it was and NIL wasn't what it was, and so

(27:08):
players weren't jumping, and players didn't have the sort of
leverage they do and they were more invested in your program.
You could handle a bad year. It's just it's different now.
You have to have momentum to recruit, I believe, or
you have to have a lot of money now. To
be fair to Jonathan Smith, if MSU had it shipped
together financially NIL in ways that like Texas A and

(27:28):
M does or other people do, I think this would
look different. And so it's not all on him. This
is on all of it. And this goes I mean
Mel Tucker two weeks before he was fired, and this
was for different reasons. But I sat down with him
and one of his quote then that gets overshadowed beyond
then because I.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Don't we don't have enough time for all of that.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
That one, but he basically told me, like, people got
to start If people want this to be a major program,
they got to start behaving like it. They got to
start spending like like he under he knew they didn't
have it. Then Now the REVS share MSU is is
gonna be fine there, MSU was going to get is
going to be able to do it share the REV share.
The question is beyond that. And this was the last season.

(28:06):
Keep in mind where you had just unlimited spending, unchecked
spending before July first, before the house settlement, when when
in the in the place, and I believe there will
still be a lot of that out there, but this
was a different kind of year and MSU I don't
think could compete where a lot of the top teams
could in that realm. There was if Bryce Underwood wanted
to come to Michigan State, And I'm not saying that

(28:28):
that was a thing. I'm just saying I'm not sure
they could come up with the ten million or whatever
it was to do whereas other places had that. I'm
not you know, Texas, A and m Everybody's going Mike
Gelko is a genius. What I'm gonna tell you what
a lot of coaches would look like a genius with
the defensive line they purchased this offseason, and that is
that is something you have to keep it in mind
that said, we go back to what I talked about earlier.

(28:49):
The reason we are actually in this moment talking the
way we are, which feels bizarre, feels premature in some ways,
but because this guy was just hired when that long
ago we were talking about melt right is because of
a lack of ability to connect to sell and then
in the moments where you need all you need to
win is competence or you just need a program that

(29:13):
where it's fifty to fifty ms, she wasn't winning those
games where ms she has the opportunity to win or not.
And that's why you're.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
Here, Skyler verdenex How close were you guys at calling
it quits? I thought the conditions to do so were perfect.
Missing nearly a week straight and knowing you're coming back
to a show that's going to.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
Be nothing but negativity. I gotta say, I don't know.
I was excited. I was bummed that we missed the
show before we left. To be honest, we had a
good show last Friday or Thursday. I think we were
both excited to do it. Yeah, we weren't looking we
would like doing this or we wouldn't be doing this right.
That's the things we joke.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
And say that, but yeah, yeah, ah, Jeff Green, is
it possible the best of MSU football is behind us
and we can only hope for an occasional relevant season
every now and then. Is MSU even a desirable football
head coach position? If so, why take off the spartan
green glasses when answering Graham Rue tell it like it is?

Speaker 3 (30:09):
What am I telling us? The best of MSU football
behind it? I would hope not. I just don't know
what the next hire will.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
I mean, you know, you got to fire your coach first,
you know, but come on, let's be serious. After this
ass kicking against Indiana, it'll have to be over the
I mean it's from coach Courtney Hawkins. Certainly had you
had a moment where with not you had more than
a moment. You had a stretch, you had years, You
had a good part of a decade under Mark D'Antonio
where MSU got to play in a pond that you know,

(30:39):
it was hard to imagine, right, And the idea that
they could get back to that point and consistently do it,
I don't know. But but why can't we look at
the Signetti and Indiana thing and take from that and
go it's possible. I understand it's highly unlikely, but I
mean to get a guy from James Madison liked Signetti,
who was an older guy, overlooked guy. You have all
these searching committees. You know they're gonna pay these searching

(30:59):
committees millions of dollars for no reason. So you've got
to find that guy. I think it's possible in this
era to find a guy that can just hit lightning
in a bottle.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
That's what Signetti is. He says this is possible, and
he he you know your dream He gives credence to
your dreams. Because Indiana, I mean, I Indiana was a
miserable freaking place Indiana has had. I'm not talking about
it as a school. I think it's a great campus.
But they've been basketball. They've been to three NCAA tournaments
in the last ten years. Is Scott Scott zach Hocker.

(31:31):
Zach zach Oser pointed out during our midweek show. And
in football they had one nine win season before last year.
They had had one nine one season since like nineteen
sixty seven. Yeah, or so, when Lee Corso was young,
people still wanted it. It was not I mean oh damn,
Michigan State had ten since nineteen eighty seven, that beyond

(31:54):
the D'Antonio. So like, if it can happen in Indiana,
can happen anywhere now the odds are against you. It's
like ISO has gotten so many coaches fired over the years,
and he almost got fired himself because it did take
a little time for him to get it going different era,
of course, but because he took a middling program and
made them a power, right And that is the dream

(32:14):
of every place that isn't where Michigan State basketball is
to have what happened with is O happen. It makes
it possible. It's just very unlikely because everybody keeps trying
it and it's hard to do. But MSU is lucky
to be one place that when it's going should be
you know, it should be a top twenty five program
in terms of resources and interest and brand, and so

(32:36):
it has things going for it that allow for lightning
to catch again. But you know, it just they're gonna
have to get the right guy, and they're gonna have
to have everybody. Never more than now. Coaches used always
talk about you got everybody moving in the right direction.
Row the boat, BJ flex s, everybody's got to row
in the right direction, never more than now. You got
to have it. You gotta have it, and it's got

(32:56):
and that's never more than now. Is that also donor
based and sort of coalescing people with cash? David Jackson?

Speaker 4 (33:04):
Next, do you agree with this assertion after that UCLA
shit show and the beatdown will be getting from Indiana,
Smith will be fired if we do not beat Michigan,
which is actually not an impossible task. Yeah, but I see,
I agree with what you said on Wednesday, though there's
no way if they get hammered by Indiana you can
let Smith go into that Michigan game and then fire

(33:26):
him after that Michigan game.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
I think it's Yeah, I think it's more likely if
things go very poorly this Saturday that he would be
gone before the Michigan game if and I also think
if they don't go very poorly, So if they go
down there and and do something that's unexpected, and I'm
not saying win, but I'm just saying, you will know
it when we see it, because we knew it when
we saw it against UCLA. That's why we're having this conversation.

(33:48):
But if they go down there and there's legitimate fight,
and the game is relatively competitive, and they lose by
three scores, but it doesn't look like they're just outclassed
and don't want to be on dis interested or anything
like that. They're not gonna, you know, they're not going
to get rid of him this week, and I don't
know that they would do it after the Michigan game.

(34:08):
I don't think they want that to happen. I you know,
the other thing, the Michigan game is interesting too, because
if you win it, then it changes things. They really
got to do something this week to give them that
opportunity because Michigan's Michigan's better than Michigan State. They're better
at the line of scrimmage, they're better in certain areas.
But we've just watched Michigan play USC. We watched Michigan

(34:31):
play Wisconsin, who's awful. Michigan is not a great team
this year, and I don't think anybody would in Michigan State
has you know, risen up and beaten Michigan out of
nowhere before. And I don't even know if this would
be entirely out of nowhere given the state of Michigan
Michigan's program right now. But I think it's more likely
that it were to happen after this week than next week.

(34:52):
And the weird thing is, it's hard to know even
what's you know what to me If if you're all
out on him the first, you know, especially if this
week sort of shows it, If you're the athletic director,
you're you know, the powers that be at m s U,
then you just got to make the move because you're
just wasting time. Otherwise, if you if you're still hoping
that either this this can work to some degree or

(35:15):
it's just not ideal to be doing it now or
or this year. And I think if you think it's
going to happen at some point, again you're wasting time.
But then you'd like to see if they can pull
off something unexpected. If that they because here's the path
that's there, that's it's still a little interesting. And again,
I do not think this is going to happen. If

(35:46):
you're Jonathan Smith in that staff, if that program, if
you're anybody who still would like to see this work
for him. What you're hoping is it's it's moderately competitive
against Indiana to the point that it's clear they haven't
quit and and you're not going to make the move.
Then it doesn't seem like an obvious time. And then
they beat Michigan because now you've just got a coach
who beat Michigan and not a great Michigan team, but

(36:07):
it's still a win over Michigan. It's getting a foothold
in that rivalry in a way you haven't had in
a long time. And then what's left on the schedule.
An Minnesota team on the road, tough game, don't you know.
I don't think they're going to win that. But a
Penn State team without its quarterback that's fired James Franklin,
who knows where their heads will be. And then Maryland
at the end of the year at Ford Field, like
there's a path that six wins if they were to
beat Michigan, there's a path to both. And again, I

(36:30):
do not think this is going to happen. I'm just
saying if you're in that building, that's the hope that's
still there. There is more hope in that sense than
there would be, you know there for that sort of thing.
Then there would be in a lot of situations like this. Again,
I don't think that's gonna That was beautiful though, You're welcome.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Gave you some hope, though, David Jackson, will Pat Fitzgerald
or James Franklin ever be a head coach in the
Big ten again? And if so, will either ever coach
in East Lands?

Speaker 3 (36:56):
I don't know if they'll be head coaches in the
Big Ten. I do think they'll both be head coach
again because even though even if they want some time off,
and I think there's some there's been reporting that Franklin
has to at least look for a job in sports
are unemployment, Yeah, but to collect his buy out check
in with someone. I do think that both of those guys,
the way it ended, will want to have their legacy

(37:18):
end differently improve something. And so I think both those
and they're both young guys, so I think they'll both
the whole honey run, Yeah, Costa Rica and live. David.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
Can Graham explain and help us understand the private equity
funding proposal that's under consideration. What does schools get out
of it and what do they give up? Does Graham
like the plan?

Speaker 3 (37:39):
I don't like any any deal with private equity in
college sports. I don't think it's a good road you
want to go down, and who gives money and doesn't
want anything in return? Correct? And the big thing that
it depends if this is if what I've read is
that the media rights deal would then be extended till
deep into the twenty forties. You don't want that. You
don't want to get locked into anything and less and

(37:59):
less unless Tony Patiti is a little bit of a genius.
The only thing, the only reason to get locked into
a media rights steal that long is if you think no,
but if you think it's a genius, no, But if
you think this shit's going to crash at some point
and the money isn't going to be there. I think
live sports are the last of the Mohicans where the
advertising money is there and networks and streamers are going

(38:22):
to fight and pay for it for a little while.
But if you think at some point people are going
to realize, hey, there's forty seven to fifty five minutes
of commercials broadcast. This level of play isn't that good.
You know, there's a little whatever eyeballs are going to
go down, This isn't actually worth the money, that future
contracts won't be as big as they are now, Then

(38:42):
maybe that's the sneaky thing, getting the extended media rights steal.
But what the in terms of private equity, the deal
that I've read that they are looking at is a
deal with the perhaps the California Pension Fund. That would
basically the good part of it relative to the way
private equity usually works is I don't think they would
have a seat at the table. They would basically become

(39:03):
one an extra member of the Big ten, nineteenth or
twentieth school. However they want to do that the conference
becomes a school, I think they become so they get
like one share of everything. Again, I would stay the
hell clear of private equity. If you can't figure out
your finances without turning to private equity, you got big problems.
And maybe there are big problems in college football. But

(39:24):
then scale it back and you know, right now we're
look at the size of the buyouts and the coaching
and I know these schools can't help themselves, but maybe
everybody has to suck and go through hell for ten
years to figure out the finances of it.

Speaker 4 (39:36):
Because you ought to be ald it. You ought to
be able to be a Tigers fan. David Jackson. If
you're out to watch football near.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Campus on a Saturday.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
Where's the best place to be and where they actually
play the sound of the games? Remember the great setup
of at Damon's. Oh yeah, Damon's three monster big screens
and speakers on your table with a toggle switch so
you listen to the game you want. So the toggle
switch is nice. I like I remember David's. Oh yeah,
that was a great place to watch the game.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
It was good. It was a good place. Yeah, and
that's a good around here. I'm sure with the MSU
game people will have it on. The The problem is
when it's not clear what game when people want to
have on. Nobody's ever going to put the game on
because they don't know what. You know, there's too many games.
But I think a lot of people step that are sponsors.
Of course, you know we have games on for you. Yeah,
then they'll put that. They will put the games on

(40:24):
you some sports bars, everything automated. You go to Front
forty three and casting company, they'll put the actual game on.
I would I would be interested to you know, I
have not been there during an MSU game. Whether they
sometimes put the sound on for big games, especially on
a Front forty three side. You know, I know places
that have done that for Lions games over the years.
Back in the day when I used to go to Trippers,
they'd have the sound on, you know, back al r P.

(40:44):
So I don't I don't have an answer for you, David,
but I certainly understand why why you'd like that. G. E. Miller.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
If Jay bad is sure he's moving on, why not
get a jump on Fitzgerald, Meyer or Franklin asap? It
would be like getting a one year head start, evaluate talent, recruit,
get the right staff, develop and implement scheme.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
MSU is not going to find a better coach than
those three. Well, they still have a head coach today,
and so that's that's the thing, right, you know, Jonathan, Yeah, yeah,
I thought we were at the interim stage, so you
have to forgive us. But if they do make a move,
you know, and I don't know where ja Bat's head
is on that entirely in terms I'm talking about in

(41:25):
terms of the pace of it, you know, but or
in terms of who he's looking at the thing about
a guy like six and a half point dog. The
thing about James Franklin that I find interesting for for
any program is that he is under a huge buyout,
and so how much do you actually have to pay him?

(41:47):
Like could you could you have Penn State pretty much
pay his salary and sync that money into the rest
of the program. I think that's where there's interest in him.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
I mean, what did you see in the Penn State experience? Like, okay,
so then get into every year. Okay, we're in the
national they were in the national semifinals last year. I
mean she would kill for that right now. I mean,
you feel so far away from the best of James Franklin.
You deal with the downds of James Franklin later. Now
if you think he's a jerk or an ass or
you know, I saw Tom mcshay's post that he's, you know,
all about himself, and you know, maybe he is, you know,

(42:18):
but Kurtnatty's no.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Picnic to work with. Most coaches a lot of jackasses
out there. Now, you can be different, whether you're all
about yourself or you're just prickly. Those are two different things.
But I I but you can be those things when
you win. He could be prickly, you could be an ass.
James Franklin won won a ton, He took over a program,
that was in ship shape, but he won a.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
Ton A better coach would have won Natties though, Austin
Woolf Graham, please stop with the Fitzgerald pizzazz. There's no
way in this landscape you think he's going to satisfy
this fan base and get the job done. Pizzazz, don't
steal that. When I saw you use kick rocks last
night made me laugh. You got a ninety year old guy,

(43:01):
How would you get that from me? I'd be on
your walks with your mother.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
My mom does mean well, I didn't know where else
you would have got to kick rocks anyway. Yeah, sure,
I got it here on this show. Probably it's probably
most of get most of my vocabulary from the Twitter questions.
That's how I learned the word horror from dominic. Yeah,
the anyway, I I you know, I look, I'm a
pitch Pat Fitzgerald guy. I like him a lot of

(43:24):
we know, and so I'm not I'm not gonna apologize
for that.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Austin Wolf go and listen to all of Signetti videos
from this week. The guy puts faith to action, says
all the same things every other coach does, but there's
proof from the staff players and organization of winning culture, continuity,
walk the walk, be real, key players fresh. It's not
just that he has the results we want, but he
reminds me of izz Oh in a lot of ways.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
No, there are things about him that I think you
know people like. He seems like a guy who really
holds people accountable in a day and age where that's
harder and harder to do, and he does. He talks
about short practices data, I mean efficient, holds people accountable.
There's a lot to like about him. Right again, nobody's
dissing Signetti. I Signetti is incredible. Am I dissing? Other

(44:11):
than his scheduling, which is, I mean, well, technically, fuck schedule, somebody.
You're playing Division on football? Big ten football? Here?

Speaker 4 (44:17):
Man Munfield, keag is Kurt Signetti and staff just the
ultimate outlier. He brought both of his coordinators from James
Madison and they have done well and identified people out
of the portal. I know Rossie wasn't a Jonathan Smith guy,
but Lynn Gren was uh and both coordinators mel were bad.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
Is it too much for MSU to ask for one?
One great Coordinator's what you're looking for? It's one A
decent Yeah, you know, I you know I I think
Rossie's a decent coordinator. I do, and I'm not gonna
tell you he's not. I'm not gonna lie to you
what I think. I think you're a mouth for the universe.
I do not think he has the horses. And I

(44:56):
will remind this fan base, and we do this all
the time with pet with Nardooz, that there was a
time where people thought he was a crab coordinator.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
Jordan Villa Reale next, how can you say MSU should
expect to be middle of the road in the Big
Ten and in the next sentence say we've always been
a have. If MSU is a have, the middle of
the road is not an acceptable expectation.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
It's a fair point. Have I said they should expect
to be middle of the road in the Big Ten? Probably?
I don't. If I do, I apologize. I think it's
fair to expect them to compete in the upper half
of the Big Ten. I do now most of the
Big ten. If you look at a lot of the
haves in college football, that's a lot of the Big Ten.
But I think it's fair to expect and want and

(45:41):
reasonably want MSU to compete in the upper half of
the Big ten and have it to years where it
shines near the top. I think these are those are
reasonable expectations.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
Austin Wolf, Jason Tigers better get serious about Schooble two
hundred and fifty million dollar gap.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
That's embarrassing. Did you see that?

Speaker 4 (45:56):
Yeah, but it's from John Hayman. Though he's like a
Scott Boris, you're the mouthpiece in Michigan State. He's you know,
John Haymon, and who wrote the story for New York
Post dot Com, by the way, is a mouthpiece for
Scott Boris. So of course he's gonna say that.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
And by the way, if that's the gap, I mean
I don't. I don't believe that.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
But I mean it's the amount of years more than
it is the money to me, right, Like, I don't
know why we would have to give him. I mean,
I think it's a lot of the Mickey Cabrera situation,
where we know at the back end of the deal.
I mean, I want to have schoobl around, but if
all of a sudden, the Padres or the Dodgers or
somebody comes in with an unreal ten year, five hundred
million dollar deal for him, I mean, what are you

(46:33):
supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
To me when you see that? Do you see the
interview with UH with Schooble where he talks about pretty
much not having control over it? You know I did
see that clip, Yes, like I would sit down with
scooball on tear. You're not a grown fucking man and
every one of raw that was y Yeah, Boris Is,
I mean, come on, man, like, I'm sorry, you control
your future. And I appreciate clients that have kicked him

(46:55):
to the curb and UH and gone with somebody else
to sign and do what they want.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
I know, but you can't fight against Boris. He represents
ninety percent of Major League Baseball, So you you.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Know, I just I just I just hate that from school. Well,
it's a bad luck. You're not your own person. You
don't think for yourself, you don't want you. It wasn't
your auto commercials. That wasn't a bad luck. Well that's
a bad luck too. Everybody's on post hit him off
my TV? Isn't he a criminal? Like what's happening here?
Get Eric Boe off my TV. It's a fair point,
Pablo Chaconi. The people who say hire James Franklin should
eat shit. We should have some higher standards than that,

(47:26):
shouldn't we? Max Buller or nothing needs some juice. So
Max Buller may wind up being a fantastic head football
coach one day. He certainly has his great football acumen,
good pedigree. I think you know he has to coach
with and things and bullet played for people who yes, right,

(47:47):
but based on his level of experience, like there is
no like, if you hire Max bull as your head
coach right now, the leap that would be again, maybe
this is maybe you have that interview and this is
like a younger version of Signetti who hasn't yet proven,
Like this is what you have to do. You have
that interview and that's the guy. You're like, oh my god,
that is the guy, and get out on him before
anybody else does. But his resume is not ready to

(48:09):
be a head coach based on most standards for what
that takes at the Big ten level, it just isn't.
I mean, you're talking about major name recognition there because
he's Max freaking Bulla. But that's that's I mean, again,
this is nothing against Max Buller, it's against what it
usually takes to become a head coach and then to
do it at the Big ten level. I you know, yeah,

(48:32):
James Franklin's done a lot more proving that he can
run a program at the elite level than Max Bulla.
And that's all of the next Dan Campbell. Though again
I'm not I'm not knocking Max Buller. I'm not saying
he's not going to be a fantastic head coach at
some point. I'm saying he's a pretty young guy still
who has not been a coordinator at this point, right,
I mean that's that's the other thing. Like it it

(48:52):
get him been a coordinator anyway. I'm not saying it
can't happen. There's the PJ flex of the world, you know.
But even he was he did it at mid major first,
And is Flack a good coach? Are we like putting
him in some category? Well? He did it Western? What
just I didn't think could be done? To have that
undefeated season? How long ago? Twenty sixteen?

Speaker 4 (49:10):
Oh yeah, Joseph the Spartan, if we were to move
on from Smith, couldn't we hire a head coach and
mandate to hire Max Bulla as the DC? Did you
write this in it's an upward move and he could
be the head coach in waiting if the head coach
they hire is older, example, head coach Pat Fitzgerald DC
Max Bulla.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Thanks for the example, Joseph, I appreciate I did not
write I am not Joseph the Spartan. That would be
the worst if you came up with Joseph the Spartan,
as you burner, Joseph of an f Spartan. It's like
I used to call phill with three l's faucet liquor. Yeah,
you can't mandate a head coach to hire. It's not
gonna work if you start a person's tenure by telling

(49:52):
them who to hire on their staff.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
Yeah, it's a bad way to start. It's a different era, man, Okay,
you know what. That's what we just chalk everything up to. Now,
different era. Scotty Green's al Camino. I went to the
MSU game Saturday. We left it half to go eat
at Harrison Roadhouse. Couldn't take it anymore. One of the
worst performances I've seen live. Are there any other home
losses that you think match up to that abomination I witnessed?

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Oh? I mean, first of all, good for you, Scotti
Green Yeah, get the hell out of there, go eat
the uh first of all. Yes, I mean the Rutgers
game at the end of last year was was in
that that was that was level. Yeah, I mean there
have been other I mean the Penn State game the
end of mel Tucker different.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
Because UCLA did come off beating Penn State, albeit at home, right,
So they did come off that, so they were kind
of hot coming in here. But the way they dominated
was just unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Yeah. I don't think UCLA is a horrible team, and
I will see you how long they sustain this. I mean,
I think when you beat Penn State, no matter how
sort of unfocused Penn State was, and then you just
pound Michigan State at home the way they did pound
the bushes, I don't think you can say for sure
that Michigan State just lost to some trash. But I
do think MSU gave them an opening they didn't need

(51:06):
to give them when they were up early and they're up,
you know, they score that first touchdown, then it's still
seven to three, and then they have that play that
doesn't work from the thirty four yard line, and you
could just feel Michigan State to flight. You could hear
feel UCLA say thank you very much. We're in this.
We're going to take this game. The game just flipped.
They had a chance not to let UCLA become sort
of the team that they did in that game.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
Scotty Green, be honest, couch, no spin zone. Do you
think Smith is one hundred percent bought in here at MSU?

Speaker 3 (51:36):
I don't think you can. I'm sure there are days.
I'm sure there are days home with his wife where
he goes man. I shocks. We make the right choice here,
But the I don't think you can run one of
these without being all in. I just don't think you can.
I think you have too many people under you. You
have to fake it at least we no. But yeah,
the thing is you've got all these people to move,

(51:57):
to build a staff, to create a new community that
that has come east with you. It's like the opposite
of the great you know, migration West and the fifteen hundreds.
These guys came back wagon East. Sorry truly, I just
fix that in post. That's anyway, and you've got offeren
You're responsible for a lot of people whose lives are
going to be upended, not just players coaches like I
guarantee you he wants this thing to work.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
Dino Spimoni, What are the chances MSU doesn't play Childs
this week and just saves him for one last hurrah
against Michigan could be his last game as a Spartan.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Well, if he's not, if he's healthy enough to go,
le Ceo, he'll go, He'll go. I just don't you know,
You're you're coaching for you know, I think at this
point for your season, for jobs, for for a lot
of things, and you're you're playing for that too. But
I think with any young player, with any player, it
comes down to, frankly, are they healthy enough to play

(52:51):
and execute a high level? And if they are, you
play them. If not, you don't.

Speaker 4 (52:56):
Matt c next, why not? How why not can Ned Flowers?
Hold on?

Speaker 3 (53:02):
What is this? Does he mean Ned Flanders? Yeah? All right?

Speaker 4 (53:06):
Why not can Ned Flanders? After Indiana clubs US and
promote Courtney Hawkins. I still don't what that means. He's
the only coach who's shown competency here. Might give the
players some juice before the Michigan game. Is a former player,
you know it could happen again.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Let's let's and everybody and it's very clear everybody's out
on the Jonathan Smith here, I am somebody who does
not think it's gonna work. I don't see a path
where it does right now. I just don't. But I am,
you know, he Let's see what it looks like in
Indiana before that that final death Knell's put in there,
and I think that's that's only fair to somebody. It
just it seems to be. And again, this guy's making

(53:46):
a ton of money, and so you only feel so
so bad for somebody, but the players, the assistants, the
other people like it just feels like a lot of
grave stomping real quick. And I get that he is
not connected and he has not really earned the confidence
of anybody, but I, you know, I do want to
see what it looks like this week. I do want
to keep evaluating where they are relative to you know, Look,

(54:09):
if they go out and they get seventy to three
at Indiana, it's pretty clear that's it. And and I,
you know, I wrote what I wrote last week because
I don't see a path forward where this this works,
and I wrote that I'd love to be wrong, but
I don't. I just don't. I don't see it and
the game last week is one of those games. It was.
It was a big moment and it went the wrong way.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
MSU stand if MSU loses to Indiana, will fire Keepers
start taking bets on who replaces Jonathan Smith?

Speaker 3 (54:37):
We could come a new app. Yeah, they've got got
a lot of good prop bets. I don't know if
that will be on there, but they do sometimes do
that sort of stuff like most likely to be I
know in Premier League Soccer, next coach sacked is one
of the things that's always out there available exact download
the fire Keepers I because you know a sportsbook cap
today and you can peruse around there and find the
best bet for you Dan Mack next.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
If MSU he moves on from Smith, do you think
Jay Badt immediately targets the Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key.
Would he be a candidate for other high profile vacancies.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
I don't know what bach relationship is with Key, and
sometimes that's the obvious stuff. Isn't what happens and whether
they could lure Key away, whether Key would have interest.
I think MSU is going to have to prove to
the next coach that they have a real plan financially
and one of the things that I think is a challenge,
and like I don't One of the reasons I don't

(55:29):
believe in my heart of hearts that that even if
j Batt had his doubts about Jonathan Smith, that he
wanted this to happen this year is that you want
time to get your feet under you, to do some fundraising,
to touch grass and take donors out to dinner and
really get to know people and get the lay of
the land before you have to make a hire and

(55:50):
a decision that's ultimately going to start to define you.
If you're Jay Batt, this is early and I think
you know his heart of hearts, he would like not
to have had to do it this early. So you know, again,
I don't know where he'll go if what he's thinking
right now. I'm sure he's had a lot of time
to think and a lot of phone calls and conversations

(56:11):
and probably has a list at this point, but I
don't know what it is.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
Detroit Spartan, next, can he say something that will make
me happy about MSU football?

Speaker 3 (56:22):
And the season is going to be over soon, six
more games?

Speaker 4 (56:24):
Don't have to worry about it? Yeah, No, I'll put
it this basketball season's coming.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
I do think that they you know, if if I
put it this way, I either think you're going to
see them look pretty dang good against Indiana and Michigan
or you know, pretty soon you're going to have a
new coach. So if that's something that you can get behind,
then there you go. You're either going to probably get
a win over Michigan or Field. Okay, coming out of

(56:50):
that game where you're going to have a new coach, Right, Richard,
I'm just trying to get I know, no, I don't
know what. It's very hard. You know, it's very I'm
just I mean asked. I love it.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
You can't even spin shit anymore. That's why I was there.
The other person wrote it was like, you guys gonna
cancel the show. I'm like, no, because couch can't fucking
spin it now. Richard Kaine more likely to be MSU's
football coach on December first. Jonathan Smith or Thomas michael Izzo.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
It's the American way, except America has gotten soft.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Yeah Smith, Thomas michael Izzo, it is Smith? Should I
take it? Stevenizzo? Right, Richard Kaine. Scenario you win the
power Ball parlay that into fifty billion by making an
eighty five to one bet, perhaps against the Tigers after
your charitable giving, Which North American team would you buy?
Note someone else has already fully funded the lancing promise.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Nobody wants to hear about that. Richard had to put
that in because he knew exactly what you're gonna say.
All right, so you what team would you buy? You've
got to You're gonna buy a team and score tigerself. Absolutely, yeah, Yeah,
there's no salary cap.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
I can sit there like the dude from the Mets
that bought that, that Hedge fun guy Cohen, Steve Cohen,
and I'd just start spending.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
I'd spend like the old like Mike. Ilic'd be great. Yeah,
and he put in North American team. He doesn't let
me go to Tourkey United here, and yeah, he's got all
bases covers. The poor guy has to put all these
things in prevent these dumb answers. Yeah, I think I'm
with you. I think it would be I mean, I
want to say the Lions, but I mean, you know,

(58:23):
but they've they've right now have ownership that seems competents. Okay, well,
I'm just saying lucky here the past couple of years.
The greatest opportunity to be of rod Wood in the
organization that would actually I would buy the Lions and
fire rod Wood and sell it m I think the yeah,
in the NFL, there'd be lots of money, more money
to be made his owner. But but I think the
greatest area to be beloved in Michigan is to be

(58:46):
somebody who relative to feels very different relative to Chris
Hilch and I think owning the Tigers.

Speaker 4 (58:52):
And then he get the Red Wings too, and I
let my buddy Jordan he can run the Red Wings.
There you go, Chris Eastlick, if you were in Jonathan
Smith's she use this week, what would you do to
sell yourself to a fan base that wants you dead?
Would you go full truth serum and say the nil
strategy needs to be better if that's a big hurdle,
or just keep it classy and say that you've done
this before and are confident in the planet answer the question,

(59:15):
Graham before predictably telling me that you'd buy the entire
fan base Groovy Donuts. Though we love Andrew Monica.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
I would buy the fan base Groovy Donuts a great
way to soothe people over again for your tailgate it.
It does make you forget about things you know, Yes, yeah,
mix things better. Yeah. And if you screw something up
at work, I'm telling you, bring a box at Groovy
Donuts the next day. It is hard to hate somebody
that brings groovy donuts. It's hard to be mad at
somebody who brings groovy dunuts. If you've done something, if

(59:43):
you're a child and you're listening to the show, and
please don't if you're a child, but if you are
and you've got a bad report card, if you've done something,
you bring groovy Donuts to your parents, they will be
very hard to ground you or be angry with you.
Groovy Donuts is here to bring joy to your life
and the people around you. Go to Groovy Donuts dot
com seven am to one pm Thursday through Sunday. Two
locations l Like Lanting Road, Niese Slanting and also in Williamston.

(01:00:05):
Do your parents ground you still? I don't think that's
a thing, says the guy who ran away from every
pregnancy test, just one. They canna bring up bull shit
groovy donuts. Everything's fine, so to the question if you
were Jonathan Smith, what would you say to sell yourself
to a family. What would you do? Let's do let's

(01:00:26):
do a new voice, the Jonathan Smith's voice, And what
would you do to sell yourself to fans? Oh? Shucks?
You know these guys are we played great ball clubs.
You know these ball clubs. I don't know why. I
don't you act as if I have all of these
impressions like I'm what's that, dude?

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
But I don't have Yeah, I have like three voices
and I just switch them in and out. Okay, somewhere
close to Mike.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
What's that? And I just like run, what's that? Yeah?
That beautiful view over there? Ah shucks, And then I
just start running. If I were Jonathan Smith, like I would, Well,
at this point, people need to see something on the field.
It's just about I said, thirty mil and just move somewhere.
It's just there are certain times that ye word it
should be used, and it's I do think you're you're

(01:01:13):
at this point if the last ditch effort, if you're
Jonathan Smith, would first of all, they've been pretty good
at saying they haven't done well enough. They've been pretty
good at the accountability, but people don't. People want more
than that you're gonna need when they play Michigan next week.
The first person I asked about Michigan, you just need
Jonathans to say fuck that program. Jesus, Like, if you
start there and Joe Rossie was worth a shit, we'd
be better start throwing people. I just think you have

(01:01:37):
to start with something that really gets people to relate
to you in a way that's completely unexpected. That's what
I would do. I would just I would, I would
just yeah, I would. But well, I don't want to
think you want to be out a character because that
also Jesus well, at least rules. I mean, you want
them to do something you just want to when it
comes tooke a cigarette on the sideline, I mean, what
do you need to do. Start by meeting people where

(01:01:58):
they are with Michigan and then beats. Those are the
things I would.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Do, Chris Eastlick, The things that this staff did well
in Corvallis have not translated here. The quality control things
is that the most surprising thing with this. Maybe I'm
not looking hard enough, but Saturday didn't seem much different
than twenty twenty two or twenty three.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
That's what's been most surprising, is you know, and maybe
they would have done this over time, because they really
built a nice offensive line in a running game in Carvallis,
and you know, I think they were they built that
program up. Now they had better talent, and they didn't
win a ton at the very beginning, but it was
a different era. And that's why I said this might
have worked. So maybe this was an issue. It certainly

(01:02:39):
looks like an issue now and it's not one that
they have been able to and it's just happened repeatedly,
and that that's what I think. You know, you have
one bad game. People can forgive you have one game.
You know, they have just not been able to repeat
what we saw on the field against Iowa. And I'm
not just talking about just winning where they looked like
that looked like a together team coming off a buye
that was well coached and was just really dissip blend

(01:03:00):
and focused. And they have not been able to repeat
that enough. And that's again I didn't watch every Oregon
State game or follow that, but the things I read
there that this was some tape. It wasn't something that
came up. It wasn't like people said this is an
issue for them while he was there.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
John Noughty next, Do you get the sense that Jonathan
Smith a truly fight, is truly fighting for the job
in a way which shows that he both expects and
wants to keep it. Or do you get the sense
he's going through the motions waiting for his five hundred
thousand dollars a month over the next six years.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
Oh my god, I'd be dead.

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
Five hundred K hitting your bank account every month for
the next six years, I'd be dead.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
It's quite Yeah, but I have to look at the
math in the contract. Really.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
Yeah, crush that math, get back to us. Yeah, it's
going to be that. It's gonna be around that right, Yeah,
or more. It is an interesting contract to read. It's
when I went back and like look through all the
stuff and it's it's, Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
Can you imagine five hundred K a month?

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
Ye?

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
Would we still do this show if you're one on five hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
Dude, I would be like Charlie Sheen back in the
twenty tens banging seven grand rocks. Dude, you cannot give
me that much money. No, it would not be doing
a podcast. I might check in here and there we're.

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Gonna do it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
I feel like that McAfee guy, that software guy. You
ever see that documentary, that's exactly what I think.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
Okay, yeah, we'll do a weekly checking from you and
some beach. Oh my god, the I ked up. Look,
I do believe he's fighting for his job in the
way he knows how. He's trying to make this work.
He's trying to build a program and it sucks if
you're in their shoes to all of a sudden, be
like coaching for your job week in and week after.

Speaker 4 (01:04:38):
But is he fighting like he's going to get zero
dollars if he gets fired?

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
I don't think so. I think if you have that
thirty million dollar windfall, you just go. I think he's
a pretty good guy who has a sense of responsibility
for a lot of other lives being thrown up, you know,
thrown into it too.

Speaker 4 (01:04:53):
He's a realistic guy where he understands it. He still
has some money.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
To Yeah, again, I don't feel I mean, I feel
bad for the human element of Jonathan Smith because I
think he wanted to make this work and I think
there I don't I still and I think there are
a lot of people under there who aren't making what
he makes, right, But I I also when when that's
what the money is sort of for, right, I mean,
this is when you get hired. This is a lot
of these jobs. You get hired to be fired. This

(01:05:18):
may happen quicker than it usually does, but this is
why it's there. So he and his family will be set.
They will never have to work again. And you know
that sounds amazing. Yeah, yeah, Max?

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
What are the odds that the elevator operator from last
Saturday that you quoted?

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Don't give up? Hope, folks.

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):
There's always the Michigan School for the Blind or only
six point underdogs lost their job after it appeared in
the paper. Seems like you threw them under the bus,
doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
So I regret leading with that, to be honest with you,
and I didn't until you know, it's late at night,
I'm writing this, uh, finishing this piece, and I'm I
was more worried about making sure I was said what
I wanted to say about someone's job. About the Jonathan well, no, no,
I don't not learn from Dominic two things. One, I
do not think he should be fired and or or

(01:06:06):
get in trouble he made a he was trying to
lighten the mood with a full elevator of depressed ms
U fans. Did you get someone else in trouble? Dude,
I don't think. I don't know that he's been in trouble.
It wasn't until okay. So here's here's the thing that happened.
I write this lead leading into the Jonathan Smith column,
and then I'm not thinking anything about it. The dominic
thing was like like three weeks ago. I get a
text from Eblin the next day asking me like, do

(01:06:29):
you do you know anybody wants to be an elevator
operator in thirteen days? I bet? I bet they've got
an opening or something. See, that's when Ebling's good. Though.
I respect that Jack, and I'm like, I respect I'm like, Jack,
what are you kidding? And then I'm back and forth.
I'm asking him. I'm like, at first, I said, do
you think he's gonna get in trouble? And all right,
they've got it. Hold on out, let me get let

(01:06:49):
me pull up the let me pull up the whole
Holy shit. Okay, So here's what. Here's he wrote a
good Smith on the Smith situation. Uh, you know anyone
who wants a job as in stadium elevator operator starting
at thirteen days, and I wrote, appreciate you, Jack. I

(01:07:13):
hope they go easy on the guy. Oh my god,
wait what you hope they go you hope you did this?
And then I said and then he said I wouldn't
bet on it, and then I wrote back, that will
be another column then, And I will say this, if
this poor guy who was trying to lighten the mood
and saying what everybody in the world was thinking, and
maybe he's like basically an usher, he's a elevator operator,

(01:07:33):
if he just push him down the stairs if he
gets in trouble, that that will be a separate No,
I would not. I will not be happy. I'm sure
you know. It's total bullshit. And granted, had I to
do it over again, what I would have done is
just said. Somebody in the elevator said that I wouldn't
have identified. Sorry, but no, just because it just or
a you know, or a fan, which he clearly is.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
But get over yourself, Michigan. They better not fire this guy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
Bullshit. Yeah no, no, it was great. It was to me.
He was it was a lighthearted thing. He was trying
to do it as a one moment, and it was
and when I looked at it, lam, I'm thinking shit,
And by then it was too late, too late to
change it. And I feel bad. She didn't give out
their name. I feel bad. Nor was it a man
or a woman. I'm not saying anything. Okay, good, I
had to test you could have been a woman. Shit.
I cannot believe you got someone fight. I did not.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
And after the dominant thing I did, what did I
do with you? Accidentally gave out his job? He rates
in here about his horror X.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
What do you mean? What'd you do?

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
I mean, I'm sure he doesn't care if people know that,
but I mean, you start anyway.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
Not Graham Jesus.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
How much of this disappointing season can be blamed on
lack of NIL funding for the MSU football program.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Should MSU focus.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
On leveling the playing field in the terms of NIL
rather than finding a new coach.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
You do want to have your I mean, this is
again why I don't think this is timing's all that idea.
In certain ways, you want to have your stuff together,
and I don't you know, and maybe they do in
certain ways, but the other problem is this is gonna
be an interesting year in terms of beyond revenue sharing.
You're not going to have the same spending the same
way you could, I don't think entirely, But a lot
of programs are going to find ways to spend a

(01:09:03):
lot more. And you've got to figure out what the
system is and get good at it and be ready
for it. And it would help to have that in
place when a new coach came, but it also you
might need a new coach who can fundraise, who can
sell the program to people who can really ingratiate themselves
with the donor base, and that may be the only
way forward. So I think there are a couple of
different ways to look at it. You know, it's it's yeah,

(01:09:24):
going back to the elevator operator. By the way I
would should, I would not have no one's going to
talk to you anymore. Now, I'm yeah, I'm terrified for
the guy. But if if now it's a guy, if
or a woman, it was a cat, It was spot.
It was spot. Spot was operating the elevator. Spot. The
cat was operating the elevator, and it was just Spot.

(01:09:45):
And beyond that, like if yeah, no, it's a guy
if if he had just or she or it had
the cat. It just said that to me one on one.
There's no way I'd ever write that. It was like
yelled in a you know, in a packed elevator of
like fifteen people. And even then I didn't think it
was gonna get it till till eb that ebbling text

(01:10:06):
and went, son of a Now that's all I'm not
worried about. I mean, look, Jack Iris, Johnath the Smith
got thirty some million coming. This elevator operator is my concern,
and I will write another column if he gets in trouble.
I will not be happy because he was not trying
to be militious. He was trying to lighten the mood.
And was it a little off color? Who doesn't say, look,
this is a show of off color commentary right now.

(01:10:26):
Who doesn't say something once in a while that you
get them in a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
Of Jack, If you're smart, you have this elevator operator
as the first guest of your show. We'll get out
of here right now so you can record these things,
find them and interview them. Yeah, that would be now.
I will actually tune into your podcast. No, yeah, that
going for you?

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
Yeah, yeah, anyway or by the way, that is the
story we're telling, presented by Midtown Brewing Company at Downtown Lancing,
unbelievable place to watch a game or buy an elevator
operator a beer, whatever it might be. It is the
Americans favorite great show box an hour. Yeah, Midtome Brewin Company,
Downtown Lancing.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
Get him a Muskox flannel MCV. I'm gonna lum who's
spent one grand a grand on season tickets this year
plus more on game day. There are players on this
team demanding five, six, seven figure paydays. If they don't
want to try or give up a while on the field,
why should I or any fan or a lum give
a damn about this program or it's player.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
Well, so here's one of the other issues now is
fans know these guys are being paid, and some of
them quite well, and it is different. These guys have
to understand they are now professionals in terms of what
is expected of them every week in and week out.
And the problem is that doesn't really coincide very well,
doesn't marry well with the idea of being eighteen, nineteen,
twenty years old, because you're not usually a professional at
that age. You're usually a dumb ass, You're usually a jackass.

(01:11:45):
You're usually just figuring it out. The problem is you're
paid like a professional, so you are, and your effort
and your focus and all of it needs to reflect that.
And this is the downside of this era. This is
what comes with getting paid for your labor, which I
think they should. But you are now our professional and
so you're you're going to be more should and ought

(01:12:05):
to be expected of you, and you've got to deal
with that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:08):
Ralph E next. So many questions, so few characters. Jim
Comparoni posted this on Spartan mag. Maybe Michigan State can
finally put a football cafeteria and the tom Izzo football
building that was part of the initial plan, but it
seems fundraising didn't hit all the marks. Michigan State is
the only Big Ten team that doesn't have its own cafeteria.
Michigan State football also is behind other areas when it

(01:12:31):
comes to sauna's cold plunge, red light therapy, massage stations.
If you're a Michigan State player or a fan, you
have hope that these things get updated soon. This turned
my head. Fundraising fell short. If that's the case, why
are we proposing the non revenue sport area for one
hundred and fifty million and from Bleed Green. Have you

(01:12:52):
heard any updates on the new wrestling volleyball arena that
was announced last year?

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
I haven't, you know, I asked, uh, I believe it.
I asked Jabad about this journal roundtable with him in
August and he said he was just sort of you know,
I think still I don't right. I don't want to
misquote everything he said because I'm trying to remember. But
I did ask him about it, and it sounded like
it was something, you know, that he was still learning
about and all that stuff. So I don't know where
that's where that's going to go. And it's a fair

(01:13:18):
question about what priority should be If MSU is not
able to provide everything for football, which drives everything right,
and it's it's it's fair. And I had not heard
they had fallen short to the point that they were
behind other programs. If Comp says that though Comp is
well well versed and and I mean, yeah, Comp's not
an idiot, so he he's got his ear to the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:13:40):
DMB will a reputable journalist ever report directly on the
issues between the Boosters and Alan Haller. I'm paying like
thirty dollars a month for the LSJ and I'm stuck
with Spiro ritting my brain on this issue.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
What do you want to know? I mean, it did
not it. The Boosters, largely are a lot of the
donor base felt left out and of the coaching search.
And they hadn't connected with Haller perfectly before that, but
they felt like not only were they not listened to,
but they just weren't included, they weren't brought into things,
and and so they were sort of out on Haller

(01:14:15):
from that point. That coaching search was was the beginning
of the end for him. And I understand why Haller
wanted to do it. I mean, this is a school
and I'm not talking about just donors. I'm talking you know,
board of trustees, everybody. This is a school that is
known to screw things up with lots of leaks and
all sorts of stuff. Who knows, But so I understand it,

(01:14:36):
and and I and I thought he made what seemed
like a reasonably good hire. And but ultimately part of
the job of being a d is keeping boosters happy,
keeping donors happy, and not just keeping them happy. But
you know, it's not just about like tickling their stomachs.
You know, it's about like that's the wrong wordship, but
it was just fingering and touching God anyway. It's also

(01:15:02):
about like kick rocks, finding more ways for revenue, bringing
new ones into the fold, like really selling what you're
doing to them, making them more likely to donate, not
just keeping them happy enough. So and I think that's
where he fell short, and any other specifics I'm happy
to answer if you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:20):
Have the question, well, speaking of justin Spiro whoe next,
do you think the Spartan community is ready to accept
the failure of MSU's twenty twenty three coaching search. Can
we all finally admit the program needed to close the
deal with Urban Meyer, and by not doing so was
the fatal error.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
I don't think everybody will admit that Urban was the
guy they wanted, but it clearly hasn't worked with Jonathan Smith.
And so if ultimately this is a world based on results,
then the coaching search didn't work, and the way it
was going about didn't work if it turned people off,
so he didn't have the support necessary. Right again, I

(01:15:57):
thought he was I thought it was a reasonably good
higher At the time, I thought the way they went
about it, he went about it made some sense, but
it didn't make sense in how it turned out. And
so in hindsight it uh, it was it was a failure.
And and that's again categorizing everything as like success or failure.
This isn't. I mean, there's a lot of gray area

(01:16:20):
and things, and there's you know, I do you know?
But certainly so is it a bummer? Then? I mean,
what were you supposed to say? Yeah, I mean it's
a failure failure. It don't Yeah, it obviously it obviously
was not the it obviously didn't work, and so based
on results, it's it's a fail me he's still the coach, right,

(01:16:41):
it hasn't worked to this point, I should say Brendan best.

Speaker 4 (01:16:46):
Next, Haller mentioned he had two finalists for the head
coaching job before he decided to go with Smith, not
that it really matters now, but does anyone know who
the other finalist was?

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
I don't, And I if Haller would have been off record,
and I've forgotten it, so I don't think I would
have forgotten that. I don't. I don't, And I just
know how closed and careful he was with that whole stuff.
He did not want any risk of that stuff coming out. Well,
now that it's over, can you text him real quick
and see if he gets back. Yeah? See, I just
have him on right now, so the effort you're thinking, now,

(01:17:19):
h what's up? Man? You busy?

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
So anyway, all right, bulky Bartakas next. I don't always
have time to listen to the pod. Shocking, I'm sure,
but anytime I miss a week or so, I come
back in. The hot takes are referencing blumpkins, Graham pushing
gay guys down the stairs, or kidnapping a cat. Question,
what the hell happens on the back half of this show? Well, sir,

(01:17:42):
the Edibles kick in and we have fun. Kids like
to have fun and not talk about terrible football for hours.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
And again, it was just a couple of weeks ago
that I learned the blumpkin wasn't a groovy donut, So
you know now you're excited about them?

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
Mojo, Jojo, Jason, can you hold up the podcast proceedings
until Graham at least is the Blumpkin ad report? The
listeners deserve answers. Graham, don't cover this up like stairgate.
The Blumpkin add report. I don't know what does that mean?
Mojo has been going? I think the ads that popped up.
I said that there was ads that popped up, and

(01:18:16):
I called BS. There was an ad promoting blunker there
where to find a local blumpkin. But that why Spot
if your ass would be a problem, Hawaii Spot to
uh buy one get one free. That's that's where if
Michigan State needs more massages for the alright, sorry, don't
bring Michigan State into Hawaii Spot. You're already getting people fired.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
That's see, that's not happening to our our dear friend.
It's gonna be my new best friend. The elevator operator,
unnamed unnamed woman.

Speaker 4 (01:18:45):
Oh Jay Riemenschneider, Michigan is about done with this season
and MSU is completely out on football, so it's basketball season.
Can he now predict your top five order of finish
in Big Ten men's basketball saw some outlets having MSU
as lowest twelve.

Speaker 3 (01:19:00):
Give me one second half, please. I am the passenger.
I do hear your voice in my head when I
take the ship right, I ride through the cities. Backside,

(01:19:22):
I see the stars come out of the sky, Yeah,
the Bride and hollow Scy. You know it looks so
good to nice that's crazy. Come come, okay, here we go.
I was sorry I voted in like three of these things.

(01:19:42):
So go find one of my pulls I knew I had.
I had Michigan State fourth, I believe, and so I
had my top five was Purdue, Michigan, UCLA, Michigan State,
and I'm not sure I kept that one hundred percent
consistently because it's an interesting year at Michigan State, and
then Illinois and the in Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, Indiana, USC,
Ohio State, Washington, Maryland. I think you can go like

(01:20:06):
ten or more eleven. There are a lot of interesting
teams that you could tell me the shakes out a
lot of different ways. After Purdue. I think Purdue is
got a got a chance to have a real squad
this year. Michigan's got a lot of talent, but there's
still some questions and backcourt things that it would be
interesting to watch and does it all come together U CLA.
You know, I like UCLA's team, but as the Xavier
book of your starting center and what does that look like?

(01:20:28):
You know, Michigan State I think will be better than
people reborn. Yeah, Illinois got a lot of new Peace,
but I had Michigan State fourth. I had Michigan two
in the in Purdue one, Ucla three, only five.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
Jared, what's your hottest take on Michigan State State's men's
basketball and the men's Big Ten basketball season in general
this year?

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
I would say, if I had to come up with
a hot take on just it would be Xavior Booker
Player of the Year. There's a non zero percent chance
that Michigan State's big man and lead the team in
three point shooting, and there's a non zero percent chance
that that's not a horrible thing. That would be a
hot take. You're looking for a hot take, I'm just
saying that that that's save that for Monday. I'm sorry,

(01:21:11):
Alex Mayor.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
Who do you think will be the biggest surprise on
this year's basketball team?

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
You know, it depends because everybody's actually to have a
surprise constitutes a lack of expectations, right, And like, I
think cam Ward's probably gonna be pretty good player. But
I think a lot of people are thinking that. Now,
So what does that look like? Is it Trey Fort? Yeah?
But people are hoping he'll be good. I don't know
what I do think. I do think that Carson Cooper

(01:21:40):
will make more than twenty threes this basketball season, and
that will if you're talking about a surprise, even though
I've written that and it's been talked about based on
I talked to him again about it yesterday at the
MSU basketball media day. I mean, it's still tattoo bet
like it's a yeah tattoo on us get tattooed like
Mike tayst Tyson face tattoo Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:22:00):
Spartan Dog ninety seven reborn apparently next. Does Izzo's comments
at his presser today constitute the necessary vote of confidence
that's given before a coach is fired and from Sparti barb.
I am seeing a lot of social media about Izzo
calling for Spartan nation to support Jonathan Smith.

Speaker 3 (01:22:16):
Does Iso really believe he is the guy? What I
think is isoc used the human element of it and
feels bad for him personally and relates to having his
days there when he was trying to get things going
and could not, and I think it bothers him when
he sees that stuff. I think he wants the football

(01:22:38):
program to be good. I do not buy for a
second that Tom Izzo thinks long term things are headed
in the right direction with Jonathan Smith, and I just don't.
And frankly, I think if he did, he would have
I might have heard from him from now, like if
he was really ticked off, if he thought I was
off the mark with like the column I wrote last week,

(01:22:59):
or the direction of things, or I think I think
he would have said so differently right now, either you're
startering or I'm I'm not cucking it up because it's
a where what what? What? What? So? Scott you next?

Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
Are you and the other writers getting complacent with the
level of access that Iszo gives you only showing up
for the end of practice each week? Where are the
three quick takes from the practice?

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
Well, a couple of things said, where's the three quick take?
When Iso said that during his pressor during the media days.
Dang it is because a couple of things. One, it's
entire practice is not open. Okay, the practice, we get it.
We get a text like practice availability to be a
five oh five practice will open at four thirty or
four forty five. Sometimes it opens earlier, but like a

(01:23:46):
lot of times, what's actually open is the end of practice.
Maybe Izzo doesn't realize that, but he does not open
all the practice Number one. Number two, what we see
at practice is off the record, so it's it's not
off the record in basketball, And well, that's not off
the record entirely. You just got to ask, Like if
you see somebody with an injured foot, you see it,

(01:24:06):
you see it, but you got to ask. The idea
is you don't tweet about it without it. You know,
you ask is it? It's open? And and he's good
about that, Like if you ask him about things that
happened in the practice, he'll talk about them and they
become on the record at that point. But part of
the idea is it's for background, it's for understanding of
what's happening. It's it's and all that, and that's fair,
that's it's it's it's where. But the idea that and

(01:24:27):
and frankly, there are times where life is busy. You know,
you're trying to do a podcast and get you know,
seventy five thousand hot takes, trying to get people fired
from their elevator job. Yeah, and and you get the
over like five minutes before availability, and that's we should
get that we should be there as many of us
as possible, as much as we can see, because that
is you do learn things, and it is it is

(01:24:49):
awesome that it's open, because most places it's not. But
the idea that practices are usually open before the final
sec you know, for the final half hour, is just
not really what it is. Scot.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
You next, will Jabatt be able to galvanize the donors
to unite and more in the same direction with donations
and third party and il all the collectives are gone
and they want to help. We need every source at
our disposal otherwise does it matter who coaches?

Speaker 3 (01:25:18):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, this is the job he
was hired to do. It's to galvanize, it's to reach
out to new sources of revenue and create them, and
and it's to make it's to to bring Michigan State
to its full potential. Is a financial entity in athletics,
right and that that's the key right now, and then
it's good coaching hires and when to make a decision

(01:25:40):
to not have somebody there anymore like this is this
is what the job is. I mean. And if you
think everybody out there in the world is wrong, at
some point you have to say that too, And it's
why he gets paid a fair bit of money. And
that's why these are big jobs. And this is why
a guy like Alan Haller, who did well at certain
things wasn't kept like these are hard, big public jobs.
And so but that's what he's being paid to do,

(01:26:01):
is to galvinize people and make this a athletic department
that's humming along. Some dude.

Speaker 4 (01:26:05):
Next, Solari's free Press bio says he's a reporter. His
LinkedIn bio says he's a beat reporter. Couch says, dudes
are either beat writers or more distinguished columnist. Is Solari
a columnist or a beat writer, then what does that
make Couch seems you two fellows do the same shit
to me.

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
I will, I will, I will. There are elements of
what we do in twenty twenty five that overlap, no doubt,
but especially since I'm kind of a primarily covering one
team or school that's the main part of the job
these days. But he is a beat reporter, a reporter,

(01:26:47):
same to it, But he covers the Michigan state beat
for Detroit Free Press. And I am more of a
beat columnist and The idea is one is opinion, one
is reporting. One is dealing with all the minutia and bullshit.
That know, if every little story, every recruit that happens,
all that stuff, he's got to deal with it. I don't.
I'm I'm. My idea is I'm being paid for my thoughts.

(01:27:07):
He's being paid to report, And that stuff does marry
itself because reporting based columns are often the best columns.
I do a lot of features, which also beat writers
can do and things like that. So there are elements
of it, but they are different in what the role is.
One is paid for the reporting, the other has paid
for the opinion.

Speaker 4 (01:27:24):
You're welcome, Oh, Ben Kramer, best tailgating game? I think
it's stumps.

Speaker 3 (01:27:29):
I don't even know what stumps is. If you ever
played stumps stumps? Oh no, but I didn't know that's
what they meant.

Speaker 4 (01:27:37):
I thought he was asking what would be the best
out of the last remaining games from Michigan State, what
would be the best game to tailgate at? Well, let
me look this up. Oh well, it's not porn. Hopefully
it's in the blumpkin category.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
Okay, It's like the tail getting where players stand in
a circle around a tree stump and take turns using
a hammer to drive a nail into the wood. The
goal is to hammer your own nail into the stump,
but the game becomes competitive and social event players can
hit the nails. Awesome drunk people with hammers and nails.
I don't, I don't. Wow, Yeah, I would say, my

(01:28:10):
I mean, I'm a big cornhole guy and you are too.
You once nearly kill the guy at a cornhill event,
So I did. I did almost kill a guy. Yeah,
it was really embarrassing. But my wife is the better
out of the two of us, so it is a
cornhole player.

Speaker 4 (01:28:21):
Oh yeah, yeah, especially when she would drink she was unconscious.
We would have like demand she had a couple of
drinks before we played.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
Got to get in that zone. It's like a charity tournament. Yeah,
it was the charity tournament too, is where you got
almost I did.

Speaker 4 (01:28:34):
I did get pissed off of a guy because they skunk.
They beat us like twenty one to three, and then
he was like throwing under his leg and I was
still drinking at the time, so there was some jaeger
flowing and I just started walking towards him with six
bags I just was rifling at him. I just kept
rifling at him. Charity event for this guy that passed

(01:28:55):
away anyway, No, not the guy that I threw these at.
Oh the god he didn't see you in this Starewell
he lived, yeah, but anyway, Yeah, then he was yelling,
people were yelling, and I just walked directly from that.
I threw six of them at him, and then I
went right back to the place where were staying. I
took a Xanax, and then I went to the bed
I figured the relationship with because we were a boyfriend girlfriend,

(01:29:16):
my wife and I at the.

Speaker 3 (01:29:17):
Time, so I thought it was over.

Speaker 4 (01:29:19):
So I took a freaking xanax and then I sat
in bed and just waited for her to come yell
at me. But she was pretty understand. I don't know,
I guess thankfully. The guy was a dickhead and did
that every year, and so look, there were some people
that were kind of happy for me to do it
because I didn't touch him physically. I just threw six
bean bags at his head, and that does just go
fuck himself. And then I walked, grabbed his Xanax, and

(01:29:39):
then went to bed. That is a story that never
gets old. Presented by our friends at Midtown Brewing Company
in downtown Lansing. Don't think they have corn hole there,
but if they do and you run into Jason, run.

Speaker 3 (01:29:50):
Now it's different now five years sober? Yeah, great, great,
congrats only MG's thanks great but great food, an awesome
place to watch him postseason baseball a h or sit
and watch college football, or just have a date night.
It's not a sports bar. They do have a good,
nice TV set up at the bar and one big screen,
but it's like just a great place with great character

(01:30:12):
and great food for a good date night in downtown Lancing,
Midtown Brewing Company.

Speaker 4 (01:30:16):
Howard Bailey. Next, are the coaches or the players more
to blame? Coaches are responsible for recruitment, but players don't
know their assignments. Jordan Hall frantically telling the DBS where
to go is distressing. Do you think Smith's performance is
equivalent to a Philadelphia sidecar?

Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
What is that? Jeez? Please be poor. It sounds like
it's in the Blunkin family. I look through.

Speaker 4 (01:30:43):
I think you need two toilets though it's side by
side toilet.

Speaker 3 (01:30:48):
Okay, it's a it's a reference to a specific type
of classic cocktail variation or gub it's a cocktail the
local twist, classic drink made of urban and said additional,
I don't is that it It must there must be
something sexual to it. To that I missed her when
I just oh boy, it's oh, oh no, oh, what

(01:31:10):
is it? Is it something like Cleveland? Oh no, I
don't know. Let's let's move away. What's a Cleveland Steamers.
I'm not going to get into that, but we you
know I learned about those is really when when when
I was working at the Kalamazoo Gazette. When I worked
lived in Kalamazoo. By the way, we used to we
used to have to take the bowling scores. You know,
they ran in the agg at page, and people cared

(01:31:30):
about if you're a bowler in town. You know what
I'm talking about, Like, they wanted the bowling scores in
the in the paper. And so I'd be editing the
aggt page the end of the night to make sure,
you know, it's correct and everything scores and things looked okay.
And some of the bowlers they would try to get
the nastiest names in there. They'd be the team would
be called like the Cleveland steamers. I'm not not running
that guys. This is serious bowling. Yeah, can't be the

(01:31:52):
Philadelphia sidecars? Yeah? Is that it? Oh? What coaches? Are
players more to play? Look? I think it's all the
players have, not like you're you're a paid professional. You
have to you know, every every snap like that's that's
the deal. That's that's the way it is now. So,
but ultimately it falls on the guys making the most
money and the guy's putting the program together too. Bagger.

Speaker 4 (01:32:14):
Next, my apologies because I'm sure you already explained this,
But what article did you write that made ISO call
you and personally tell you to fuck off?

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
Well it's not singular, but the most the most recent
one was in March, right before the first NCAA tournament game.
I did a column on hold on one second, let
me find this.

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
That's crazy, really good.

Speaker 3 (01:32:46):
So I did a make sure I got this correct. Yeah.
I did a column on Garrick Norman and I asked
him and I'm not even sure O read the column.
I think he didn't. Again, that another bat I have
with him. Sometimes. I did a column on Garrick Norman
where I asked him and I put this at the end,
just about whether he thought he'd come back and his

(01:33:07):
experience there and the things he'd have to think about
in that decision. Fair, fair decision, right there'd been I mean,
it didn't look like it was going to work out
for him at MSU. He was not a guy who
was playing at that level at that point, had not
seen a lot of playing time, injuries. It hindered him.
But fair question, and that wasn't what the whole story
was about. But Izzo did not like that that was asked.
He thought that was sort of disruptive to what they

(01:33:28):
were trying to get done and moreover, won somebody else
and his staff who clearly read it and didn't like it.
So it became a little bit of a thing. And
that's that's how we started. The most recent time he's done.

Speaker 4 (01:33:39):
Wait till he hears about this elevator operator that that
one clause, that one will be earned if if something
happens to the elevator operator, I will I will agree
with him on that. Damn Jake Windsor next the Sire.
Is it crazy to say both Cheron Moore and Jonathan
Smith are in over their heads. I think Michigan loses
Bryce Underwood to an SEC school.

Speaker 3 (01:34:03):
Over their head sounds like the job is too big,
And I'm not sure I mean, based on Jonathan Smith's
pedigree that the job is I mean, the job hasn't
worked out, but in over his head. I don't know
if that's it. Maybe it is, Maybe that's a fair
thing to say. I don't And Charon Moore, I don't
know if. I mean he's in the year two as well.

(01:34:24):
I know people aren't happy and he's in a tough
spot because you're coming off a national championship and a
coach who did things at Michigan that hadn't been done
a long time. But I don't know if it's fair
to say that about either one in over their heads.
And I just don't know that about more So I'm
not going to say it because I don't I'm not
around it, don't cover the program, and I think that's
a I wouldn't say that Smith's in over his head.

(01:34:44):
He certainly elements of the job he has not gotten
right and not connected on, and maybe that's that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:51):
Spartan Johnny, if Sam Levitt would have been the chosen
quarterback instead of Aiden Childs, you think MSU football is
pretty much in the same place as today. Does lev
have a few more wins and the dynamic is slightly different.

Speaker 3 (01:35:04):
Well, I think levit's yeah, love, It's a better quarterback
than Nat and Child's right now. But I've been a
huge Sam Levitt guy for a long time. I do
think that. Yeah, I think I think they'd be I
think they would have won more Sam Levitt. I think
he's a really good quarterback. And I and one of
my sort of regrets in his one year on campus

(01:35:27):
that I didn't realize when he started it was going
to be his one year on campus. But it was
just not calling that out. I mean I talked about
it on the show and I wrote about it to
some degree, but not really calling out what I was seeing.
Because when I saw him play, I thought, man, that
guy has it, like there's something there, and I really
really liked his game even as a freshman. I just
thought he had the most upside. And I, when you're

(01:35:50):
a mouthpiece for the university, you can't say anything at
that time, well, yeah I'm different and be happy for everybody.
You just want to make sure other guys aren't it too.
But yeah, clearly I did not. Yeah, thanks Spartan.

Speaker 4 (01:36:02):
Johnny, why are you limiting yourself to just the treadmill
while you can watch the games? Come on couch, throw
some bench press and free weights into this routine. I'm
bored for.

Speaker 3 (01:36:11):
You, because the whole idea is to forget. I mean,
the idea of having something intense when you're on a
treadmill is to forget you're on the treadmill. It's like
what you're watching is so engrossing and engaging that it's like, man,
and all of a sudden, you've just done eight miles.
You like, that's fantastic. That's that's the idea behind having
you watch soccer on the treadmill, which but for me
is that riding. It makes you forget.

Speaker 4 (01:36:32):
Yeah, you watch a soccer game and forget where you're at,
like by following the Actually sometimes forget.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Sometimes sometimes I take myself there. I wish I'm there.
I mean, I love England. I was watching The Diplomat
last night, which is back on Netflix, by the way,
and I just some people just can cover the team
from there England. Yeah, yeah, cover from abroad. I yeah.
My wife thought we were gonna move there for a
while at one point, and I let her down. I
don't know if she would have married me.

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
Otherway, Spartan Johnny as Outsiders, How much longer do you
give Sean McDermott to work things out with Josh Allen?
He turns thirty next year and so far not much.

Speaker 3 (01:37:05):
To show for it. Well, you got to make the
Super Bowl this year at least, right, Yeah, it's a
good question. I mean, it depends on their relationship, but
it is a certain point you have to try somebody
else because Allen's a special quarterback and obviously he's run
into the Mahomes era and there have been lots of
other you know, but yeah, Allen's Yeah, I don't that's

(01:37:25):
a good question.

Speaker 4 (01:37:26):
That's a really good question, Spartan Jhi Matt Salisbury. Next,
is it me or does Aliso look like a better
passer with more touch?

Speaker 3 (01:37:36):
So again, this goes back to like the things with
Sam Levitt and trusting what you're seeing and other things,
and at the moment, like Alessio is. He certainly at
times brought Michigan State some better rhythm in the last
couple of weeks, but he cannot do physically what Chiles
can do with his legs and getting out of trouble
and creating there and with this offensive line, that maybe

(01:37:58):
something you need. On the flip side, he's been getting
rid of the ball quickly. Neither of them was all
that efficient last week, and I think like this week
would be real tough on him. Now if he was
good this week, if he had to start and he
played and did reasonably well, then then that conversation might
be there. I think the circumstances he's been in have
been a little different in terms of taking coming in

(01:38:19):
the games late and the way the defense played him.
That said that touchdown when he came in at Nebraska
in a spot where Child's got knocked out and they
needed to score a touchdown and he completed that third
down pass to Nick marsh and then he you know,
they get the touchdown like that that moment, Chelsie, a
guy has something, is he like if you ask me

(01:38:43):
right now got into my head, you have to win
the game in Indiana, who's your quarterback? I would be like,
I start aiding Childs, like I still believe right now
that's your better route. But I could be convinced otherwise.

Speaker 4 (01:38:56):
Matt, do you think Iszo closes out this class strong
with one of the last three possible recruits, mainly Jarvis
and the Big Center.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
I don't know, you know I do either way? Well, no,
I because I hear things about how they feel about
certain guys, But it's also hard to know with teenagers
and what happens late, So I just don't know. I
know they feel good about things, and I know they've
been feeling good about this class and just the direction
of recruiting lately. But yeah, I don't have a I

(01:39:31):
don't feel comfortable saying yes to that. PS.

Speaker 4 (01:39:36):
Next, would D'Antonio have made it through twenty sixteen if
college football had the same standards as it does today, Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:39:45):
Because twenty sixteen three and nine followed thirty six and five. Right,
Jonathan Smith? Could you know? I mean Jonathan Smith could
take a crap on the sidelines if you'd just gone
thirty six and five.

Speaker 4 (01:39:56):
Right, It's just like I think fans would take taking
a dump right now on the side as an anger?
Is it an anger dump on the side lines? Or
you said he could take a dump, right?

Speaker 3 (01:40:05):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:40:06):
Yeah, oh you didn't mean literal literally? Oh well maybe,
I don't know. I mean it would show that he cares.

Speaker 3 (01:40:13):
He squatted, I mean, and it would be an interesting
way to show it, and Antonio would have been fine.
And frankly, one thing MSU and every fan base and this.
I wrote this in the Signetti column then took it
out because it was just too winding. Because it's gonna
happen to Kurt Signetti if he sticks around for a while. Indiana,
you're gonna have a year where you get it wrong
with the transfer portal, where you get it wrong with culture,
where guys are less invested. It's just more year to

(01:40:34):
year instead of year over year in college football now.
And so every fan base, and I think fan bases
are struggling with US now at some places that are
more prominent programs recently, you're just not gonna be it's consistent.
You're gonna have years out of the blue that go
four and eight and you're like, what the hell was that.
You don't get the quarterback right, you don't get some
of the transfers right. And it's gonna happen at MSU,
even if they get a guy who takes them someplace big.

(01:40:56):
And the problem Jonathan Smith has is there's been no
sign of that yet. And so three and nine was
a stunning development when it happened to Mark D'Antonio. I
think it's more likely to happen to somebody in his
shoes today, given how hard it is to maintain things.
But the pedigree he had put out there, I mean,
and what he had done in the previous years, he
would have absolutely been okay.

Speaker 4 (01:41:18):
Peasy biggest impact for MSU Hoops McCullough, Jordan Scott or
Uga chuku.

Speaker 3 (01:41:25):
UGO's a good question. I think it's either Scott or McCullough.
And I haven't seen enough of Scott. He didn't play
it moneyball, you know. I've been a few practices and
watched and I guess two at this point. But I uh,

(01:41:45):
I think it's probably mculor be the answer. But I
don't know that could be dissing Scott, and I just
don't know what Michigan State has there and how ready
he is peasy yes or no? Should the Tigers bring
labor back or go after Bregman? What do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
I mean? The way it ended though with Glaber, I mean,
he showed glimpses throughout the season that he's especially defensively.
It depends, I think, you know, with the way the
season ended with Glaber, you get a discount with him.
I mean I think that you have to try to
go after Bregman again.

Speaker 3 (01:42:14):
Yeah right, I think it sort of depends where you.
I mean, if you had to offer in for him
before he signed with Boston, why not try it again?
And where do you anticipate people playing next year? Who
are coming up? Like? Where do you look at Colt Keith?
What does he you know? When you have a guy
got that ten year deal? I mean he's right, he's
second baseman though for you now? And is that no
Glabor then? I you know, I don't know. To me,

(01:42:35):
I'd want Glabor. I think he's a professional hitter. The
fact that he was hurt at the end maybe explains
why he didn't look as great I thought he was.

Speaker 4 (01:42:41):
I mean, you know that he played with a hernia
that Scott Harris. We couldn't talk about that either. Did
anybody ask him? I forgot about that. Why was he
playing with a hernia? Well you're still I know, but
these guys you sit there and you pull mys if
he farts wrong. But then Glaber's playing with a freaking
hernia and you're just letting him play. When we can't
get a hit, Like, why wouldn't pinch? I mean, I
don't know, take him out of the lineup. That's my

(01:43:02):
problem with Melton. Everybody's excited about Melton, but everybody knows
he has not had I don't believe Tommy John surgery yet.
So that's still next year of the year after. So
it's like twenty twenty nine. You can be excited about
him because everybody goes through it. It's just it's at
some point. I Glabor was one of those guys when
he was up at you know how, regardless of what
stats are, there are certain guys you watch and sometimes
they never get a hit in the big situation. Sometimes

(01:43:23):
you when they're up, you're like, this guy's probably got
a chance, Like he was the guy thought this will
go well most of the year, and so I I
would be inclined unless they really have another plan they
feel good about to make it go. It'd be Bregman, though, Yeah, awesome,
I don't change the mentality of the fan base. You
bring Bregman in, right.

Speaker 3 (01:43:41):
Yeah, they've got to get They've got to bring in
at least one more real season bat that you can
trust too.

Speaker 4 (01:43:50):
Nate Hamilton next what's with things spiraling out of control?
Each game, one thing goes wrong and the whole thing unravels.
Is this on the players or the coaches? You thinks
Smith's neutral presence would steady things. But have you ever
seen him talking to anyone on the sideline during games?

Speaker 3 (01:44:06):
I'm not on the sideline during game, So I don't.
I don't. Wouldn't be fair to say yes or no
on that. And but and when the camera cuts to him,
it doesn't seem to be what he's doing. Yeah, I
have not seen that. Yeah, No, the neutral thing, I
mean it's something he I mean, he thinks that's good
for his teams, the idea that he is not emotional,
and and but and so I and I don't know
that it's not I think his being too neutral with

(01:44:31):
his interactions with fans has hurt him. I don't know
if his lack of fire on the with his actual
team in terms of how he looks outwardly.

Speaker 4 (01:44:38):
Really, it just goes a long way if you take
the headset off and maybe choose somebody. I mean, you
don't know who it is or whatever until Graham tells
you who it is, and then they get fired. But
you know, I just feel like just ripping the headset off,
go what the fuck is going on here on the sidelines.
It goes a long way. I'm not saying you have
to do it every like all the time, right, just
but here and there. It just makes for team morale

(01:44:58):
for the fan base. I think makes me feel better,
is though for president Jonathan Smith said they are going
to simplify some things. What did they do all spring
and summer? Did we have players in advance physics when
they really belong in finger painting class? How is this
not identified sooner?

Speaker 3 (01:45:15):
In game? Adjustments have been trash this year, So yeah,
I mean it's a fair question because obviously you should
you should be able to tell if your team can
handle something and what it's going to look like. And
I know they've had some injuries and whatnot, but that's
that's every team, and you know that might have been
a miscalculation by them. It's I think they've been pretty

(01:45:37):
open about this stuff though. I Mean, the thing that's
interesting about this staff and how they've handled the last
week and is just how accountable and questioning and understanding
they are. I mean, I'm gonna tell you right now,
mil Tucker would have been defensive as shit, and maybe
that would have been the better way to go but
and people would have been pissed off about that. I
don't know if this is the right way to go

(01:45:58):
to but they've been very human and it's it's certainly
made it easier to cover. That said, I will say
Mark D'Antonio, the best he ever was in terms of
somebody to cover and best he was for the media
and all that stuff was the year they went three
and nine. It was incredible and he just got it
that things weren't going right and he wasn't shying from it,

(01:46:18):
and he wasn't, but he was also in a place
where he could afford a three and nine season. But
it's been it's been very interesting to watch. They certainly
haven't The worst thing they could have done has been really,
really defensive and jerkish, and that would have made it
easier to write them off a little bit. And the
fact that they've been so human, I think is is

(01:46:40):
I don't know, it's just been interesting to watch because
it's it speaks to their character. G Kwang. Next.

Speaker 4 (01:46:46):
While there is talk about replacement on the head coach
and quarterback, shouldn't the focus be on the lineman corps.
Replacing with Childs with less EO is like replacing Jefferson
with Williams for the Bears. A different QB doesn't help.
Same with defense, no pass rush, no presence, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:47:04):
The lineman is The line of scrimmage is the problem,
and you're going to see it in Indiana. I mean,
Indiana is winning right now at a level even greater
than last year because they are better at the line
of scrimmage than the last year. That is where they
are close to, if not elite, and it's allowed everything
around them to look elite and it's and so that's
that's been a problem. And the offensive line has I
would argue the defensive line has been a problem, but

(01:47:26):
the offensive line, more than anything, has set this season
back and set it in a spiral that they may
not be able to get out of josh Inwood next.
This whole system is broken.

Speaker 4 (01:47:37):
PSU is firing Franklin while closing regional campuses. MSU is
considering firing Smith while laying off academic staff. There's no
accountability for bad hiring decisions and no oversight. This is
not a sustainable way to run athletic program yeah. I mean,
here's the other issue with all of this. And I
understand that some of this is is just optics and

(01:47:59):
and some of it you have to give a deeper
explanation to people, Like if you fire a football coach
with a massive buyout and again you're not paying it
all up front. This idea that you have to have
thirty million sitting around isn't isn't true. But you're also
in a time where what is it, nine percent or
whatever it was of the MSU staff got laid off,
Like what your priorities are? I mean, and people say, well,

(01:48:20):
football pays for things, it pays for other things in athletics.
Football the athletic department is separate, and it's separate largely
because of football, and it needs to be healthy. And
in the long run, if you are not healthy in football,
you will not be in a good place financially. It's
but that's going to have to be explained because the
timing of this is shit. It just in the priorities
of all of this is shit. And the idea that

(01:48:40):
football in the college level, like I mean, football athletes
aren't better than athletes in any other sport, but somehow
they get to be special they get. I mean, it's
just it matters so much. It's like, I think college
basketball is shrinking a little bit. I think college basketball
is more likely not to be a niche ort even

(01:49:03):
further as time goes on to college football is held
on to this point, and it has grown to this
point partly because it's football and the TV and all
that stuff. I mean, I do have questions about it
long term, but you have to be healthy in football though,
to offer the athletics that Michigan State wants to offer,
and that is how they're gonna have to explain it.

Speaker 3 (01:49:21):
Couch on fire next. Signetti is a unicorn.

Speaker 4 (01:49:24):
But as a former Sabin protege, why wasn't he seriously
considered during the search? I thought Nick was helping the
university on these searches. What's the backstory and where's the
investigative reporting? What does that fall under the beat writer
or columnist or is investigative reporting completely separate?

Speaker 3 (01:49:42):
Yeah, we'd lay those guys off years ago, so.

Speaker 4 (01:49:45):
Matt mccareny would have to go do something. People didn't
read enough of that stuff. No, I'm not gonna put
it on readers.

Speaker 3 (01:49:50):
That's me smart. No, But to the to the question.
I do think first of all, Sabin recommended El Tucker,
who was a Saban protege to some degree. So there's
there's so I don't know if he's always right. And
and I don't think that Signetti and Saban I've read

(01:50:11):
don't see one hundred percent. I he was on Signette
staff as like a receiver's coach had not seen like
a didn't see a path forward to being a coordinator
or anything like that with those jobs that really leave
something big at Indiana. So he had a bet on
himself and he went to you know, coach division two
ranks and climb up from there. So I don't know
if Saban's the best the best guy for this. It
is fair though that uh, you know why he wasn't

(01:50:34):
considered by more people early. And I do think I
my sense and understanding, and I'm not I think he
Signetti can be a tough guy to work with, tough
guy to work correct the age too. Well. Yeah, and
so there's some of it. People just didn't believe him.
They missed. It happens. I mean, it happens, and people
get this stuff wrong all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:50:54):
But and did Indiana get lucky too, because I mean,
like you said, there's not many other Welles that were
throwing money around or trying to hire.

Speaker 3 (01:51:02):
Yeah, and Indiana, right, and this guy was available years
ago and they held on to Tom Allen. And frankly, India,
it's like when you draft Tom Brady right, and you
had six other times you could have drafted him that draft,
just because you're the team that drafted him in the
sixth round, that you don't get credit for that to
every degree. Now they did get him, so you deserve
some of that. And and look Jonathan Smith, though, if

(01:51:22):
you look at the pedigree and what have you done
at Oregon State, at a big program or at least
a PAC twelve program over time, and the way that
had been developed and looked like it could be sustained,
I mean, I get the appeal. If you had told me, though,
like Kurtz Sicknetty what he was doing at James Madison,
and I think people done a deeper dive. He probably
should have been a guy that everybody was going after.

(01:51:44):
But Jonathan Smith also made some sense and based on
what he had done, Couch on Fire, Odds on the wings,
making the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:51:54):
Quinnville he is time for he detriied the Red Wings
got billion day.

Speaker 3 (01:52:00):
God, I need dude. We have to bet in the
Wings this so I have to play this. Yeah, I've been.
I've been on the Wings. I took the Wings to
make the playoffs because I just I wanted. It was
like it was like two to one, you know, or
one to two or whatever. It was like plus plus
two hundred. Yeah, and I thought, why not it put
it invest me in the season a little more. And

(01:52:20):
and they've looked good since that first game. That first
game wasn't great, but then they've looked pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
Some of your Guardians winnings and yeah that's still by
the way, we uh today this weekend, really before Monday,
your last chance to if you want to win a
Muskox flannel courtesy of me you with my Cleveland Guardians winnings,
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(01:52:48):
best and a picture of you at your ugliest, because
it's for the the idea is the ugliest, but everything's relative,
you know, so and you can email me, you can
dmor that we're getting more in that way, because I
think people don't want to have the ugliest picture they've
ever taken on the internet, which I kind of wanted
to stand. Just do that by Monday and I will
give away. I mean, no one would use that, you know,
that picture. The picture just never right. You just never

(01:53:09):
never know. I think, look, they look better. They have
to make the playoffs this year. I think for EIER
it's been a good start and that's that's promising. So
I think it's it's I don't know what the actual
odds have changed to, but it does look promising. We
have many more of your Twitter questions and social media
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Speaker 4 (01:56:55):
Oh that was so great, Ryan Rockwell, did we read
that one? No, does any serious person want James Franklin
and MSU? Have these people not lost bets because of him?

Speaker 3 (01:57:04):
Yet? I'd rather have Nordoozy. I mean, I get the appeal.
I get why people don't want them, but I also
get the appeal like MSU is so far away from that.
Would you not take what MSU being what Penn State
is in football? I think most people would.

Speaker 4 (01:57:19):
That's paying a fifty million dollars buy out to a guy. Well,
I mean that stuff's going to be interesting went forward,
but maybe you don't. Maybe I'd rather go outside of
Franklin just because I don't I understand that would be
great to win ten games. I just know in big
games there's no chance. So give me someone else and
hopefully they can turn into signetti or something.

Speaker 3 (01:57:36):
I don't know. It's such a it's such a weird
show right now because like I mean, Michigan, say has
a football coach like this? This is the show you
do like after you know, when mel Tucker got fired
this we had these conversations which would made a lot
of sense. And again I'm not saying we shouldn't be
having the conversation, because I think this is what people
have lost hope in the actual season. So if you're
an MSU football fan and the passion that creates the

(01:57:56):
interest in the program and all that stuff, this is
where the conversation is naturally going to be. And I
don't begrudge people. Welcome to twenty twenty five college football.
Get a helmet. Ryan Rockwell, whatever happened to Chris Peterson?
I think he just retired. I mean, he made a
lot of money, you didn't want to do it anymore,
and he just retired and you knows fact. Yeah, I'm
going to live the rest of his life happy, John Johnson.

Speaker 4 (01:58:16):
MSU fans that pooh pooh James Franklin need a reality check.
One good run in their history and their best season
got boat raced by Bama shows how far they really
were away back then. Big ten as a whole was
light years from the SEC. D'Antonio is remembered more fondly
than he should. That's more of a hot take. Actually, yeah,

(01:58:38):
John D'Antonio is. I mean, look, the end of the
D'Antonio era definitely fed into what is happening now. There's
no question about that. Had he left earlier, would things
be different. It would have been a whole different trajectory.
And who knows, Yeah, probably, But the years that twenty
ten to twenty fifteen to six years stretch is it's
the best in MSU football history, and it's the most

(01:59:00):
opressive and MSU football history, And so I mean, I think,
you know, I think he should be remembered pretty fondly.
I am somebody who does not think what happened to
like I'm I get the people at Penn State.

Speaker 3 (01:59:10):
We're sick of Franklin and so the right to do
what they want to do. But from the outside perspective,
it's like, I don't. I would not have made that move.
Spartan guy. Is MSU still paying mel Tucker's salary? No?
Not right now. We don't have enough time for all
of that, unless unless something happens lawsuit wise that changes that.

Speaker 4 (01:59:30):
He is not Graham Carpenter, Jason, what's your favorite Kings
of Leon song?

Speaker 3 (01:59:36):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:59:36):
Wow, Well, their last album was really good. Are we
still having fun? Rainbow Balls one of my favorite on that,
But I mean they have so many bangers. It's like
you know, revelry walls.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
Stuff like that. So I don't know, there's so many
to pick from. Graham Carpenter.

Speaker 4 (01:59:54):
Sure, the couple of summer months in the South are
ass but now we get to continue to wear shorts
as you guys have to get ready for cold a
cold winner.

Speaker 3 (02:00:02):
Yeah, but we got Musco's flannels up here, and we
look good because you know, asked I look in shorts,
you know bad? I look with back sweat and that
little sweat I get.

Speaker 4 (02:00:08):
Right, but beneath my boobs or my god, don't point
out are you feeling yourself ribs.

Speaker 3 (02:00:14):
I'm I'm just pointing out where it is. I don't know.
YouTube audience, of course, Yeah, not great anyway. So yeah,
like I would take this. I like the changing seasons
and and I don't want the summer. I don't want
I don't want back sweat, I don't want body oder.
I'm going to tell you right now, if I was
a fleet here, I would, I would. I would recruit
against the South like nothing. Oh my god, I could,

(02:00:35):
Oh I got It'd be so much drink.

Speaker 4 (02:00:37):
Graham Carpenter, who would be your guy's choice for the
next m s U head coach? Once Smith is out
and it won't be Pat Fitzgerald.

Speaker 3 (02:00:46):
He says that with a question mark. So I don't
know if you as a statement or question that's a
good or did I have the question mark? I have
no idea in the editing that. What about this? Uh?

Speaker 4 (02:00:54):
What about the southern South Florida guy, the glesh right,
A lot of people like Sean Lewis San Diego State.

Speaker 3 (02:01:00):
I know it's Mountain West. They're like five and one. Yeah,
I'm gonna I'm gonna. I'm gonna hold out the West Ties.
I'm gonna hold out till the firing happens if it
haven'ts just too That's right, he's the coach. He's the
before I before I say who I am, because I
and I do need to think it through a little
more before I like got a crush tape. Well, I
mean I have some ideas of things I like.

Speaker 4 (02:01:18):
But you know, but when you look at the next guy,
are you going to watch their press conferences at all?
Are you going to see the personality side at all?
Because That's what I'm interested in. You need somebody who
fits Yep, no question, you know, Uh, Pierson next, put
yourself in j bats shoes. Rank these six potential candidates
from most likely to the least likely. Robert Salah, Salah Salah,

(02:01:40):
Adam Gasee, oh my god, gaze, Ronaldo Hill, Urban Meyer,
Max Bulla, and James.

Speaker 3 (02:01:46):
Franklin Holy smokes least likely to most likely. I imagine
trying to look through Adam Gaze. It won't be it
won't be able to, it won't be right back at you.
You know. Ronaldo Hill is obviously a lumb but it
hasn't had the success you know, he's been. He've been
an NFL coordinator, but I don't I don't think he
would be up for that. You know. Obviously, Meyer is

(02:02:09):
somebody whose name is you know, I don't know what
his interest level would be right now. Bulla, I again,
bullet just seems way too green for that. That doesn't
mean he wouldn't be good. I just man like. He
hasn't been a coordinator yet. He's very young guy. And Franklin, I,
you know, I don't know where his head is. Would
he want to? I mean, Franklin may want to come
to a Big ten rival and you know, be motivated

(02:02:30):
by that chip on his shoulder. But those are all
my guess is none of those guys are the next
head coach at Michigan State. Cassius's headband next.

Speaker 4 (02:02:38):
I've seen some mention selling the naming rights of the
stadium to help cover a Jonathan Smith buy out and
found the next head fund at the next coaching search. Honestly,
why wouldn't we do that? Does anyone actually care if
the stadium is named after a bank?

Speaker 3 (02:02:52):
Well, I think at this point the things you're gonna
be outraged about a change because the program needs the
infusion of cash or any other as. People still call
it Spartan Stanium. You can have it Spartan Stadium at
you know, co America Banker, Fifth Third Bank or whatever,
you know, Lake Trust, Credit Union, whatever it might be.
But yeah, so I don't think I think that I

(02:03:15):
think they're headed there. I think one of the things
Bat said about this, Jay Batt was just that it's
got to be the right partnership, and it's got to
be somebody who makes sense for the university, and it
can't just be anybody. Spartan stadium sponsored by DraftKings.

Speaker 4 (02:03:29):
Yeah, that's not going to happen. After the first deposit
five dollars get you a hundred am I right? You
have to say the whole thing every time. It's in
the lead of every story. B Crow, Next, did you
actually think Spartan fans, fresh off one of the worst
program losses, we're craving a heartwarming ted talk with the
Indiana Beat writer about how amazing their team and signetti
are days before we get boat raced by them. Please

(02:03:53):
tell me more about Indiana rise to glory.

Speaker 3 (02:03:56):
I've heard that a lot of people actually enjoyed that
interview and and uh, yeah, I know that's who they're plant.
It's a question and it's relative to Michigan State too,
because we weren't talking about the game as much as
like this is this is the comparable program that's not
far away and how it's happened and why it's happened
and I think it is.

Speaker 4 (02:04:13):
Yeah, and how it can happen to this program. I mean,
once you fire your head coach, if if you do Spartan, Frank,
what's the deal with billionaire alums who own pro teams
being able to donate? I understand that they can't pay nil.
How can Ishi a Gilbert et cetera contribute? Can they
buy out a coach?

Speaker 3 (02:04:30):
Yeah? I'm not sure on every specific rule, because some
of these guys are clearly still involved, and I think
Ishbia is clearly still involved. Now how you funnel that
and what it looks like. I think there are rules
to that, and frankly, I don't understand every specific rule
because I don't think they're exactly followed. It's it's it's
a it's a good question and something that should be
looked at with more detail. Maddy B.

Speaker 4 (02:04:49):
Graham, despite what you say on Revshare, MSU seems to
be in the minority by not seeking third party donations.
Are we just going to continue to handicap ourselves and
wonder why we never gain traction?

Speaker 3 (02:05:03):
Well, they're not in the minority. I mean you've heard
this at Arkansas, You've heard this in Nebraska already. The
places that are I mean it's they're not in the minority.
I don't think I think a lot of places of
close collectives like Michigan State, and now it doesn't mean
you don't have to find other ways for third party
in Michigan State's not against that. It's got to be
what they're looking for is something that's a little more legitimate. Now,

(02:05:25):
what is legitimate because I think that's the question. Legitimate
isn't you do this service so we'll pay you for it.
I mean there may be other ways through media partners
and to make something happen here, or shoe brands or
whatever it might be. And none of these guys are
probably actually worth although I guess the market dictates it.
But what they would get paid then, but it would
be a little more legitimate within basic rules. And I

(02:05:47):
think the question is how much you want to, you know,
follow the rules versus just sticking up your middle fingers
and saying we're doing whatever anyway. And I think that
is the great fight right now. What are the rules
and what is it going to look like? And are
people willing to call people out who aren't, Like, if
you're playing a team next year that is doing things
outside the rules and has fifteen more million dollars available
for a roster, are you willing to say that at

(02:06:09):
every press conference? You know, we're not really playing the
same long These guys are cheaters, And that's what people
aren't willing to do. People in this business so often
they're upset about cheaters, but they're too they're cowardly in
terms of calling it out, and people should start. If
people are doing it a way that you don't think
is right, make that part of the dialogue. Make that
stick to them. Look how it's stuck the Michigan here,
you know it. Make that stuff stick. Now that's you

(02:06:31):
know we're talking about with Michigan's a little different, different deal.
But yeah, I think that's something. But it will be
interesting to see where this all goes. And it's Jay
Bat's job to make sure Michigan State is on the
cutting edge of the point that it can absolutely absolutely compete.
To Spartan Frank's question about Eshba and Gilbert and all
these guys, they can still contribute to universities and athletic departments.

(02:06:52):
I believe it's just they can't fund a basketball team
if you're a basketball owner or whatever like that. So
you can work around that with all sorts of things.
And now that it's pay through paid for by the university,
you contribute to the university. The university is giving the
terms of rev share. There are lots of ways you
can you can still contribute. Maddy B.

Speaker 4 (02:07:08):
Why can't pop a tom Izzo get all these donors
in a room and tell them to get along for
the sake of the university. Nobody wastes their potential repeatedly
like MSU because asking for money sucks, all right, and
hate people hate it. And I know Izzo has had
moments where he's just like, you know, you got to
do it, and you got to try to keep his
own program up. You're asking people to was zero return

(02:07:29):
on investment, To just give money away being a donor
of a university for and a lot of it is
kind of a weird headspace to be in to begin with.
To give a lot of money, it at certain levels,
and if you're doing it when there's very little return
on investment, it doesn't. It's just it's kind of an
odd thing. You get interviewed by w I Alex, what
are we talking about? Hey, this was a stop. There's
perks if that's the perk. Get interviewed by Fred Human

(02:07:53):
really close, really like you feel all of Fred Human.

Speaker 3 (02:07:56):
Maddy B.

Speaker 4 (02:07:57):
I don't need to hear from Michigan Trustees College Sports
Integrity after they cheated their balls off.

Speaker 3 (02:08:02):
For three years. Well that's a fair comment. I mean,
I don't think, but I do think in this case,
Michigan is Michigan is against the private equity is doing
a solid in the sense that like Ohio State's not
speaking up because one of the things that could happen
down the road is that not everybody's going to get

(02:08:23):
the same amount, and Michigan is going to do better
if there's private if there's if there are tiered amounts
of money coming into the and so the fact that
they're against it all together, I think is helpful in
something Michigan State ought to to ride with. And also
to the Iszo point before too. With donors that I like,

(02:08:44):
I think they will listen to Izzo to a point,
and some of these guys will, but it there's more
to it than that. And you know, you got to
be if you're giving your money to a coach you
don't believe in, that's tough. You talk about not getting
a return on investment as is. It's one thing if
they're at least winning, if you're at least you feel
like you're giving to something that's working. But if you

(02:09:05):
feel like you're just throwing money away, that's that's I
can understand that too.

Speaker 4 (02:09:09):
Blow boner, what does this blow goo boner? Okay, do
you believe Jabatt realizes how close MSU is to the
brink of irrelevance, whether Smith is fired or not. If
real recourses in a vision for the program isn't found quick,
it will be left for dead. Four bad seasons might
as well be a death sentence in today's lands.

Speaker 3 (02:09:28):
Nothing's a death sentence. Look at Indiana. Indiana was dead.
They were absolutely dead. Michigan State in twenty twenty three
the final, second to last game of the season before
they lost forty zillion to nothing. The Penn State beat
Indiana two years ago. At Indiana, I believe that game
is Indiana anyway. Nothing is irrelevant and it's so much,
it's so there is Look, does it get easier? No?

(02:09:52):
Is it? Do you want to let yourself sink to irrelevant?
But it is not impossible. It revolves. Look what happened
with mel Tucker. A program that was struggling. You have
a moment went and the money and the energy and
everything's there now. They were unable to sustain it. They
didn't have the right guy, as it turned out, for
reasons even outside of football. But it was Yeah, they're
not on the brink of irrelevance because Indiana football, which

(02:10:13):
had won nine games since nineteen sixty seven, is now
entirely relevant in one of the best couple of programs
or teams in the country.

Speaker 4 (02:10:19):
Mister ben jen High from Argentina, I thought we hit
rock bottom when Hinch pulled school ball and then lost.
But then the UCLA happened. Then the Red Wings got
annihilated in the home opener, and the Lions lost the
game and Branch. Then Ivy's out for a month, Couch,
what's the real bottom gonna be?

Speaker 3 (02:10:37):
And win? We've already seen bottom with Detroit and Michigan Sports.
We were there for a long time with Detroit Sports
like this is nowhere near Schooble losing in the postseason.
The Red Wings have won like what three games since then?
The Lions have been to the playoffs the last two
years and the brink of the Super Bowl the Pistons.
Thing sucks, but at least on the right path. This

(02:10:58):
is not This is not bottom. This is nowhere. This
is nowhere near.

Speaker 4 (02:11:03):
Oh And after Michigan last year, we all wondered if
Jonathan Smith knew the pressure and true expectations of this job.
Do you think he is still surprised and in a
bit over his head here with all of the coach
speak and the complete lack of emotion.

Speaker 3 (02:11:16):
I think who he is is this is who he
is in terms of his personality. Do I think he's
knew the surprise and is he's surprised by the expectations
and knew exactly what he was getting into. I don't know.
I don't know that he did. I mean, he doesn't.
It doesn't seem like that. But I also think they
were not working with a full deck in terms of players.
I think he took over a program that was in

(02:11:37):
rough shape and did not have overwhelming UH resources to
fix it and to be to be frank, if he had,
if Michigan State had done things like not screw up
the Nebraska game, look, you know, beat UCLA, not completely
fall apart against Rutgers at the end of last year,

(02:11:58):
I'd be here saying, you know, give this guy time
if people don't want to support them making fuck the
hell off and let the program go. I mean, like,
ultimately he's doing what needs to be done with the
resources he has. But that hasn't happened, and that's why
we're here.

Speaker 4 (02:12:11):
Mojo, what's going on with the Indiana Student Paper? Looking
for a sincerely a fiery Graham rant about the importance
of the free press and journalism to take into the
weekend as I protest ice in Chicago.

Speaker 3 (02:12:25):
Yeah, it's not good. And Indiana, so what happened here
is I believe a professor was fired for printing something
or refusing not to print something in the paper. And
now they're not going to print the paper anymore. It
wasn't a daily it was. I don't think it was
printed daily anymore anyway. But Mark Cuban's pissed, right, Mark,
A lot of people are pissed. And what Indiana fails

(02:12:46):
to realize and every place of the journalism school should
realize for the most part, is the student paper is
almost more important than the journalism department. It's where you
really cut your teeth. It's where you work late, you
learn about deadlines, and you make your mistakes, cut your teeth.
It's a fun place to it. It's just the student
paper is an important, really important place in terms of

(02:13:06):
developing journalists. In fact, to the point, one of the
things the reasons I tell journalists not to put a
GPA on a on a resume, which you shouldn't do.
I mean, if it's a four point ZHO, I mean
you shouldn't because it says you weren't focused where you
So many good journalists I know nearly flunked out of
college because they they were pouring their energy and life
into the student paper. And that's where they cut their teeth,

(02:13:27):
and that's where they're good. That's where the energy should
have been. If you're if you were over a three
point now, I did so. I'm always I had a
decent I was scared of my parents, who can bring
me home if I didn't pay attention. But I'm telling you,
the student paper is so much more important than people
realize there and and they're hearing about it, and I
hope things get reverse.

Speaker 4 (02:13:44):
Course, Thomas, do you think college sports college sports media
is tiptoeing too much around the effective sports washing happening
at Indiana? When they discuss the whole Signetti phenomena, especially
with First Amendment rights on campus and pushing around student media.

Speaker 3 (02:14:02):
The sports washing that having are they are they tiptoeing?
And no, I don't. I think people are. I think
the Indiana's the people are going after it pretty well.
I'm not exactly sure where you're going with this question.
But when they discussed the Signetti phenomenon. I don't I
don't really know where where we're going with this original
dark Mantonio.

Speaker 4 (02:14:21):
If all teams were spending the same amount with revenue sharing,
why do you think MSU could benefit or would benefit.
There's been no signs of NFL development or winning culture
for years, and players could be could get playing time
at other equivalent teams and better climates. Arizona State, Oklahoma State,
NC State, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (02:14:39):
Arizona State is not a better climate. I've been there.
It sucks, man. It sucks. Like you hate anything over
sixty degree. You want to it's like one to talk.
It's like one oh three at kickoff at seven thirty pm.
For the first month, it's still light out. Sucks man,
It's it's just it's everybody smells bad, the stinking that
the king go outside. It's not good. Oklahoma State still

(02:15:00):
and these are not better places. The NZ state is
in the acies. These are not better places. But the
why do I think MSU will benefit? Because MSU is
shown that it doesn't have when it's just a free
for all, when there's no floor. MSU's shown that its
floor is pretty low. And that's that's the concerning thing.
I think this rev share at least brings the MSU

(02:15:22):
up to a point at fifteen million for football, fifteen
to sixty millions. What you're spending on football where it
allows you to compete at a certain level, it allows parody,
it allows you to have good players. That's where I
think it helps. Zach mckimstry.

Speaker 4 (02:15:35):
Next, how do we think Jay Batt feels about being
twenty seven and a half point dogs in Indiana?

Speaker 3 (02:15:40):
And does he lay the points?

Speaker 4 (02:15:43):
It's far more important what happens on the field. You
might as well win a little bit of money before
you fire a coach. Yeah, deal again, would you take
a gun to the head? Which side of that better?
I'm laying that, I'm laying the twenty seven in a hook. Yeah,
it's insanity, but I just don't I don't see it.
Zach mcimstry baked question, does the NFL currently have a villain?

(02:16:04):
Are they trying to create one with Branch? This NFL
film's piece got me thinking it's unbelievable. Did you see
the video? I did not just highlighting Branch and making
like I didn't hear the video. I just saw the
people reacting to it and saw a little bit of it,
but NFL film like they ended up deleting the tweet.

Speaker 3 (02:16:24):
I think, oh really, yeah, that's not good. That's not good, right, Tim?

Speaker 4 (02:16:27):
Tim next, with no hyperbole, What percentage of your brain
thinks the NFL might be rigged?

Speaker 3 (02:16:32):
One percent?

Speaker 4 (02:16:33):
The fact that they list their business as entertainment and
not sport suggests that they are at least influenced, They
least influence certain outcomes. Helpless feeling as a fan because
you want to believe it's all above board.

Speaker 3 (02:16:46):
What the reason I think it's not rigged is the
way you feel is a problem. Like everybody felt this
was the case, then the sport would be in trouble.
And they know this. I mean, this is why there
are such people are talking after what happened though they
are just us, but not just what I'm saying. It's
not just football like I think the Lions are. I
think what happened against the Chiefs is the best thing
ever to happen to the Lions because in the playoffs
they're gonna get calls of anything because they cannot have

(02:17:08):
this look of impropriety. Is this is why there are
such serious consequences for players gambling and sports and other
things like that. I mean, the Guardians have a pitcher
is probably never going to pitch in the major leagues again,
you know, you look at this. To them, they need
this stuff to be above board. The referee stuff they
take very seriously. Again, I'm curious what happened the idea

(02:17:29):
that the NFL stepped in when they weren't supposed to
on a play call. That's not cool and if they
did it, they should admit and just say why. If
you make a mistake, people can deal with a mistake.
The Lions screwed that game up in a lot of ways.
That's not you know, but you've got to have accountability
and if you get caught trying to this does not
help you. And if people start to think what you

(02:17:51):
have is not legit, that is not good for your sport.

Speaker 4 (02:17:54):
Tim Tim how could have verified NFL account post that
branch video? Then they doubled down on the terrible look
and delete the posts, basically admitting it was asked after
getting cooked in the comments. I try to pretend everything
is legit, but getting harder to turn a blind eye,
especially with Taylor Swift's money. I blame Taylor Swift Man
you know, you gotta blame somebody.

Speaker 3 (02:18:13):
It's Yeah, it's a bad look when it's the Chiefs
to it be one thing if the Jaguars got the advantage, you.

Speaker 4 (02:18:17):
Know, Lions reply guy, I'm praying we get Kansas City
in the Super Bowl. You see what we did to
Dallas the next time we played them after the Dan
Skipper bullshit, the NFL pulled. Give me the Lions with
a chip on their shoulder rematch in the Super Bowl
so we can put Mahomes in a grave.

Speaker 3 (02:18:33):
I don't hate the matchup for the Lions. That's the
one thing that came out of this this last game too,
is it was like the Lions didn't play well. They
didn't necessarily deserve to win, but they weren't. I didn't
think the Chiefs were the better team. I didn't leave
the game thinking that's a problem. Uh, can we skip
a couple. I gotta get out of here. Yeah, they
had to do this on the air, but I gotta
get out of here. Yeah, let's let's let's go down

(02:18:54):
to Let's go down to U to fart soup, fart soup.

Speaker 4 (02:18:59):
At any point during it's Larry explaining the concept of
complimentary football to you? Did you want to punch him
right in the bag? Is he explaining ball to you?
I never, I don't remember that. Sometimes I black out,
but I don't.

Speaker 3 (02:19:12):
I didn't. I don't remember feeling that all about Chris fartsup, Jason.

Speaker 4 (02:19:16):
Would you rather be punched in the bag three times
an hour, every hour of the day or have to
sit through rewatching this Tiger season knowing exactly how the
regular season ended and how the playoffs will likely end.
Just take my bag, like, punch my bag off before
I had to rewatch that shit again. Yeah, fartsoop.

Speaker 3 (02:19:33):
Have either of you ever been punched in the bag
or taking a swift blow to the bag by bag,
I mean your sack, ball sack. I think we knew me, Yeah, yeah,
of course everybody has.

Speaker 4 (02:19:41):
In middle school, I got absolutely a kid kicked me
square in the balls on the playground and I had
to be I think I've told this story before, and
I had to be carried off by a lunch lady.

Speaker 3 (02:19:51):
It was so embarrassing, like it took the absolutely like
he did a flying kick. It's all. I just remember
seventh grade.

Speaker 4 (02:19:58):
I forget the kid's name, but I just look over
and he just runs at me, lunges at me with
his foot sticking out and kicks me square in the
dick dick and bag little dick and bag back then
and I just crumble, going, oh, I'm like crying, And
all of a sudden it's the bell rings and the
lady comes out and scoops me up and carries me
into like the office where the medical stuff was.

Speaker 3 (02:20:21):
It was terrible. Another story we're telling present by a friend.
I know we have to get out of here, sorry,
Jake Hawkins.

Speaker 4 (02:20:26):
Don't you think Max Bulla becoming a head coach when
he hasn't even been a coordinator is a little too
much for him?

Speaker 3 (02:20:34):
Yes, but I don't know that for sure, because there
are guys who have done it well and Bulla maybe
ready to do it. Just it just seems a bit soon.
It's not that I'm not doubting Max. Bullet just seems
a bit early. Jake.

Speaker 4 (02:20:47):
What is it that makes Pat and ar Doozie not
want to come back to MSU? Seems like he's just
spinning his wheels at Pitt.

Speaker 3 (02:20:54):
Well, he wanted to come back to the MSU. I
think he's wanted the job at least once. Maybe twice.
So again, I don't know if he would be somebody
people be interested in now, but it's not. He has
been interested, whether he publicly says it or not.

Speaker 4 (02:21:08):
Jake, do you believe the recent Mike Vlenny rant that
the NFL has script writers controlling the narrative and the
outcome of games.

Speaker 3 (02:21:14):
I don't believe they do. I don't. I don't. Now
this is a bad situation, but I don't believe that's scripted.

Speaker 4 (02:21:19):
Yeah, Hans Jurgen, Pound for pound, Alex English or Ricky Pierce.

Speaker 3 (02:21:23):
Give me Alex English.

Speaker 4 (02:21:25):
He was tough Buck Rogers or Flash Jordan, Flash Gordon Jordan.
I don't know who you Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon.
I don't know who they are. It's the seventies, weren't
they h Buck Rogers, I don't know. Yeah, too young
Hoby Baker or Niall Kinnick. Give me Hobby Baker, Apple
or Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin and more? Scary Black Death or
Spanish flu.

Speaker 3 (02:21:44):
Oh neither please.

Speaker 4 (02:21:45):
Spiro Agnew or Herbert Humphrey give me Agnew or Justin Spirow,
Benjamin Pitchfork Tillman or bull Connor Bull Connor.

Speaker 3 (02:21:53):
Oh, yeah, it's gotta be bull, Hans Jurgen.

Speaker 4 (02:21:55):
I defy you to find a worse four year period
in MSU football history than these last four years.

Speaker 3 (02:22:01):
Well, you got the three years you know in the
early eighties, there have been a few, not great period
of time. The early nineties was ninety one to ninety
four pretty up there. But you could argue this is there.
You could argue this is right.

Speaker 4 (02:22:14):
There, Hans, did you ever go to Sensations back of
the day? Of course you lame, Oh, oh, do you
think we are Sensations? Wasn't really around when we were
there in our It sounds familiar. It's a strip club,
right was it? Or was a team club? I think
it was more of a oh it was a team club.

Speaker 3 (02:22:27):
I don't know. Yeah, I went to some back in Rochester.
But Hans Jergen, is Jonathan Smith a generous lover? It
seems like my shot, Yeah, I would I would think so. Yeah,
it was a great lady over.

Speaker 4 (02:22:37):
There upper dect jerk guy, What did you do with
the questions I posted when he didn't do the show?

Speaker 3 (02:22:41):
I saved him, framed him. They're above my toilet, jerk guy.
We know Graham has but has Jason ever killed a man?
Jerk Guy? Has Hondo proposed Izzo as the next football coach? Again?
Waiting for it? Jerk guy finally the jurk guy.

Speaker 4 (02:22:57):
Should the NFL have suspended branch Or would making him
take his mouthguard out of his helmet be punishment of
though it is a weird, a little set up.

Speaker 3 (02:23:05):
You tell them, yeah, well I know I'm good. I'm
good at that. Yeah, no, I look hopefully. It just
means you can't get hurt during this game. They gotta
win the game, though it's a big game. They gotta
beat Tampa. We appreciate all of you. I especially appreciate
Shep and ken Chew. The two only two week skipped,
but both of your questions are good enough that they
work any week, so I'll make sure they're they're up

(02:23:26):
high next week. We appreciate Groovy Donuts. If you're in
for a tough weekend or just want a great weekend,
make Groovy Donuts Party Weekend Groovy Donuts dot com, or
swing by either location Lake Lanty, grow Niese, Lancing, or
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We appreciate Midtown Brewing Company of course, our friends at
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(02:23:46):
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