Ep. 1096: Hot Take Monday: An MSU basketball, football and College Football Playoff bonanza

We dug into our takes and yours — on Michigan State basketball after its loss to Duke and concerns and lack of concern going forward, on MSU football and Pat Fitzgerald's staff, on the College Football Playoff mess and how to fix it, on MSU hockey, how to spend $401 million and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
We ah ah ah ah boh oh ah oh.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
What do you get when you cross a know it
all newspaper columnist with an awkward, unse sophisticated everymat.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, well, I'm just not sure about that right now.
Welcome to Couch and the Room.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Welcome to Couch in the Room, our Monday afternoon show
presented by our friends at Muskox Quality Flannels. It is
the holiday season and you're probably looking for a gift
for people you care about. I'm telling you nothing says
I care about how you feel, how you look, the comfort,
the quality more than a Muskox flannel for the guy
in your life, but a go Muskox dot com and

(02:43):
where couching the Rub. Listeners can use the promo code
peacock for fifteen dollars off their flannel purchase. I am
looking at the dust blue Grand flannel right now. I
think this is what I am going to ask for
for Christmas, because I don't know. I think my eyes
will pop when I wear it, so uh, your eyes
can pop too. You can lose at least two chins.

(03:03):
It's just I'm telling you. You feel good, you look good.
If you've I had to, I had to go snowblow
this weekend and then come back in and didn't want
to be all sweaty and gross and everything, you know,
just the whole thing in a great Muskox flannel go
Muscox dot com chase Now you don't, brother.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Hey, so like, you should totally hit that like button
and subscribe to Couch and the Roob on YouTube. Seriously though,
if you don't, Santa is literally gonna skip my house
this year. And Graham Couch, Yeah, he's threatening to catnap
my precious kiddy. So come on help a girl out, Hey.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Buddy, happy holidays fantasy to uh YouTube like and subscribe
promo for the month of December. Here, we'll appreciate it
is well done. Yeah, yeah, it's uh, you guys could
do that like and subscribe to this uh lovely.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
YouTube thing with quite a thread. I will steal your cat.
So that's uh, that's something there's evidence of that. I
cannot I cannot deny it.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Stuf ai from doing stuff. They just know me and
know that you steal cats. And you know. Yeah, and
by the way, can I mention something else off the
top here? What makes you the best? What absolutely made
my weekend and drove my wife nuts because I couldn't
stop repeating it. And it's a little personal because it
is our private conversation our text group. That's okay with Andrew.

(04:21):
Andrew and Monica were out eating yesterday from Groovy Donuts,
our friends, and they were out at a Mexican restaurant
in the East Lansing area and they and Andrew texted
Graham and I and said, Greg and Dawn are at
a table over from us at a Mexican restaurant East Lancing,
and Couch responded with, that's amazing. That's so chill. I'd

(04:43):
like to do a profile on them. Fucking dude. I
love you man, you are the best. I could not
I just everything was that's so chill. Anything T said
that's so chill. You were the whitest man alive. Dude.
Why is that chill? Because people that are worth a
billion dollars just like to have Mexican food, Like, where

(05:05):
would you go if you were dragging? Yeah? Yeah, well no,
but you know they're from Lanesburg. They're normal people.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
But I'm saying, even if you're like rich, though, right, well,
what is you're not out at like dusties and okamists?
You know, no offense to duskies. I love dusties, but
I'm just saying is nice. Yeah, I mean, it's no,
it's an upscale for me. There's no casting company Front
forty three in the town brewing Company. But it's it.
It's you know, That's what I mean. That's sort of
the hoity toity. But I'm asking, like for Mexican food.
I like Mexican food, and if I was worth a

(05:32):
billion dollars, I think I would go to the same
spot that treated me well and they were not in
the place that you consider authentic Mexican food. That's what
I loved about it. It's just this idea that these
two people who you know, these this Langsburg couple you know,
is out of Yeah, anyway, that's so chill. Yeah, well,
my voice makes it worse. It's the problem is I

(05:52):
could not not do it in the voice, and every
time t would just be like, okay, get it. I
would like to do a profile on them. I'm trying
trying to make and I just thought it was fascinating.
I love it because there's I know anyway.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
I enjoy that.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I enjoy when when people who seem like they're in
another stratosphere. Behave like real people but outside of your
you know, your douchiness. I was actually thinking about it
because I was like, man, if you are rich, like
I don't even know, Like where's the rich people Mexican
food at? Like where would you go in a restaurant
in the Lansing East Land like around us? Like what
is the is there like a canteena joint I don't
know about. That's like one hundred bucks of plate, Like

(06:26):
I don't understand well. And part of the thing with
great Mexican food is it's not usually expensive. It's not
usually ritzy. Like if if the neighborhood you're in isn't
it all sketchy, there's a chance it's not good Mexican food,
right like like and and like I tell people, like
people go to the East Lanting Ls and and I
love the East Lanting Ls, but the west side is
where it's at.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Man, the chips they kind of knock out your dental work,
but they love the chips.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
But the west sides where it's at. Like if ei,
there's the real ls and then there's the East Lanting Ls,
and you do.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
It, do what you want.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
But like if they were on the west side of
the state. You really would have west side of Lanting,
west side of Lancey, excuse me, would have really lost
your mind. If Gregan, oh John totally different, I might
have cost that.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah I might. I'm gonna go up and welcome. I
just would like to ask them, like, why do you
guys ever leave your house? Like your house must be amazing.
I wouldn't see any reason. I guess you just want
to get out and see some people, or yeah, that's
so chill. Anyway, all right, man, good to see you.
Happy Monday and all that same sayah duke blows, all right,
that sucked to that.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
I think this is gonna be a good show. And
what's interesting about this show is I was going through
the takes. I think that back half, the last the
last few minutes of the show are actually gonna be
pretty good too. I think there's some really good takes
so that we get to it deep into the show.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
We will.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
We started early enough today we should be good and uh.
But the back half of the show I really liked.
And sometimes they just come together that way and you're
putting them together. I didn't have a Neil Keepke interview.
He's got to get too.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
He might want to if we said with somebody, please
guard somebody. Do you want to start? No, go ahead,
I don't really have money. I mean to be honest
with you. Okay, okay, I want to hear about I'm
not disappointed in this Duke loss. But go ahead, like
I'm not disappointed. I'm bummed, but I'm not you know, yeah,
I feel like Michigan State beat themselves in this thing.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
What I wrote was it was I think from Michigan
State disappointing, not discouraging. And we have seen discouraging losses
from Michigan State basketball over the years. You've seen games
in the Champions Classic and other times against top tier
opponents where you just went, ah, they're just not as
good as them. That's a problem that creates a ceiling.
And that's the worst kind of loss when you know
your team's ceiling early in a season like that team
cannot beat that team.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Especially with only five turnovers. I would have bet a
lot amount of money if I would have known, if
you would have said, dude, they're only going to have
five turnovers against Duke, and I would have just hammered
State money line.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
The big difference between this Michigan State team and last
year's and you could argue that last years would beat
this year, but I'm just saying, this is the difference
that gives them a chance, and to have a higher
ceiling is like athletically in terms of length on the
perimeter and defense in the interior, they're just better. And

(08:56):
so I go back to that Auburn game at the
lead eight and I was sitting outside uh the arena
and in Atlanta before that game, and there were a
few of us who cover the team. There were two
of us, Sean Winds and I who know ball, and
then there was everybody else, and we were all talking
about our picks for that game, and everybody was picking

(09:17):
Michigan State for whatever reason, I don't know, but we
had watched enough of Auburn. We had seen them, you know,
warm up, we'd seen the games, Sean and I just
knew it was like, it's not that Michigan State can't
beat them on a certain day. I guess you need
a miracle, but yeah, just the size, the length that
just that was going to be a tough matchup for them,
and Michigan State last year had a lot of skill

(09:38):
on the perimeter, had better ball handling on the perimeter
than they do now. This year's team really has Jeremy
Fears Junior, and then Noel Devine off the bench, Noel Divine, Divine,
Hu gochuco? Who's Noel Divine? I don't know, hold on,
that's a player, don't know, gotcha? No, no, no, he's

(10:01):
a running back, running back.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
I forgot.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
He was a running back at West Virginia. Like back
in the day with like this is like mid two thousands,
back in the day with the uh it was the
coach at West Virginia went to Michigan. You know what's
what's Larry Station? God damn it, rich D, thank you.
Noel Devine was like the freshman running back on that
great team, Divine, who go chuku? But so they don't

(10:24):
have as much ball handling and that could become an
issue and all that, And I'm not saying there aren't
elements of last year's team that we were better. And
certainly Jace Richardson gave them something in terms of a
bucket getting guard that they don't have now. But what
they do have now is and if they lean into
this identity, they have I think the chance to be

(10:44):
and they already are a lot an elite defensive team
that's pretty good offensively as long as Jeremy Fears is
playing well. And this is why I think Jordan Scott
becomes your primary and closing guard and we're seeing that
because that's leading into that idea. They don't have another
two guard who does other things well enough in terms

(11:04):
of getting buckets and making shots at least yet that
we've seen to supplant the idea that you go all
in with Jordan Scott and if he can get him
to make enough shots, and I think that will improve
as the season goes along. I don't know to what
degree that a six six to six eight whatever he is,
he listed at six eighties somewhere in between there, but
a guy with that kind of length, with that kind

(11:24):
of grit, guy is aggressive like that on the perimeter.
What he does and what he adds I think feeds
in everything you are as a team and have been
early on. And I'm not saying you start him necessarily,
and I think this is we'll get into this and
the takes. This is a little bit of a misnomer
and that I would still I think start Kerteng to
be honest with you, because I think he's a guy

(11:45):
who some days will hit shots and other days won't,
and he hasn't shown it consistently enough to be But
you can bail on that pretty quick, you know. It's
like they've had this with big men before, where you
can tell real quick. You saw it last year with
I'm forgeting everybody's name was a guy last year on
Oh my God, I'll give me some Hoffer.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
So this is the worst show ever. Some would say, yeah,
be accurate.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Oh Zappolla z Apola, I just you forget about He
was like the last player from last year's team I
saw over the summer briefly. It was just, uh, just
like Greg and Don Williams was at an establishment having
having a drink with his with his fiance and just
you know, chatted for a little bit.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
That's so chill. They're just like us.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
But you could see games that weren't for him last
year and then games where he could be really helpful.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
I think there with with Kirtang, you can, but with Kirtang,
how can you get some rhythm? Though?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
If you're him, if you know there's there's a short
somewhat leash on there. Well, that's helpful to him. He's
just gonna have to be good enough to figure that
out because you don't have time to just this. This
isn't a kirktang. Let's bring him along. He's the only answer.
Guy Jordan Scott has earned those minutes. He just makes
him a better player. And they've had a better team.
And they've had two games this year that came down
to the wire.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Two games down to the wire, Arkansas and Duke, And
those are the two games that he played twenty five
and twenty six minutes and sixteen and fifteen minutes in
the second half and plays to the end. Like it
is clear now when the coaching staff is sort of
pressed to put its best lineup on the floor light
in games that he's part of it. So I still
think he's part of your closing lineup. But we saw

(13:33):
against Kentucky. We've seen moments where kerk Tank can be
a shot maker and if he starts like that, make
him a bigger part of that game. If it starts well,
that's fine. I still think from a confident standpoint for him,
for who he can be, I still would start him.
And then if it's just not working. I'd bail on it.
But I like, I didn't think that game was Like,
do you think they couldn't beat Duke on any given day?

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Now? I think they can beat Duke a lot of
given days. Now.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
That was a home game. If it's in you know,
if it was a true road game or neutral site,
it would be a little different game. But it gave
you reassurance that you can play with the big boys.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Now. Like you said, you were mentioned the Auburn game
and you knew that you had no shot. I didn't
think that. But what scares me is I'm just looking
for that score in crunch time. I thought they did
well against cam Boozer got him into foul trouble, should
have gotten filed out with that hook late in the
second half there, but you know, and then he ended
up getting his into the stat line. But I thought
in the first half and then in someone in the

(14:27):
second half, they started the second half, they did well
on him, and then he just did whatever he kind
of wanted to do. And then then Michigan State couldn't
get a bucket. And that goes on Cohen Car. I
love Cohen Car, He's my guy. But I got to
say we needed a better performance out of him, for sure. Well,
that's that is there. But it just chaps your ass
to lose the Duke. It just it just you beat
yourself and those losses like hurt worse than anything else

(14:50):
other than a twenty point loss at home like that.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
But man, yeah, I mean I think that's it. It's
chaps your asses. Yeah, they played well, that's a well
in a lot of ways. And it was interesting. I
was talking to Jackson Cohler after the game in the
locker room and because he had had four threes, you know,
and hit four or five in the first half.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
But then in the.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Second half Duke changed his defense. I mean John Shire,
their head coach, that it kind of you know, kind
of stunned them, kind of shocked them or they knew
they had to adjust to Cohler and that's good. The
problem is then you've got to be able to take
advantage of that. And the zone again was something that
bothered MSU. They did work on it practice on Thursday.
I mean they were working with Cohler top of the

(15:38):
high post. They were working on It's not like they
don't work on this stuff. I do think one thing
that hurts MSU against the zone is they never play
it and so they don't practice against it daily unless
it's like the upcoming team. It's not something they see
all the time. But I think this used to be
the case with Syracuse and the ACC in the Big East.
Before that, the Syracuse would have these NCA tournam runs
because they play all these teams that just hadn't seen them.

(16:00):
Teams that play them all the time had no problem
with them. But one thing that Jackson Cohler talked about
was he's got to get better at finishing inside. He's
got to work in the gym. He's got to continue
to because that outside shot, while I think it's tremendous,
and I think it's something that really helps an MSU
team that you know, we don't know one hundred percent
and they're shooting from the two guards. Jimmy Fears isn't

(16:22):
the purest shooter, although he's been okay shooting three. He's
had a bad game obviously here. But when you have
a guy who can stretch a defense like a Jackson Cohler,
and that's becoming more and more consistent and with more
and more volume, that's really important. But they need him
to score those buckets inside. They need him to do that.
They need Cohen car to be consistent. There are elements

(16:42):
of his game that are never not He's not somebody
who can just you know, put it on the deck,
cross you over and get to the rim. That's not
his game yet. But they got to find ways to
use him. He's got to be aggressive at the glass.
He's got to hit his free throws. I think they're fine.
They are not a perfect team, and so they just
need to make sure that their deficiencies don't bite them.

(17:05):
And to me, to avoid that, you lean into what
makes you great, Like if you want to be truly
elite at something, Jordan Scott's on the floor with you,
because that makes you potentially a truly elite defensive backcourt
and defensive team. I also, they could have won this
game if they got a few calls differently. And I
think also if cam Ward had been healthy. I think
he makes a big different in this game. Difference in

(17:25):
this game, and they need to make sure that risk
injury isn't something that's lingering. You've got Penn State on
the road, who I think they can beat without cam Ward.
You've got Toledo at home, you've got Oakland, like, I'm
not playing in those games if he's healthy and ready
to go, and then you got a nine game break.
But if there's at any point he just needs to
sit for a little bit to make sure that thing's
one hundred percent, this is the absolute time to do.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
So what is your first thing? The American way? Except
America has gotten soft? Were you sick of all the
after the they announced the college football playoff? How quickly
I saw that you were tweeting, But I just I
just know, but I mean, you were saying things that
I agreed with. But I'm just sick of like I
can't believe and like I always say, like I feel

(18:10):
like everybody should kind of know what I know because
I'm such a dumb guy. I feel like people know
what I know. But it feels it just shocked me
yesterday to notice all the people that covered college football
were shocked that this system is broken and it didn't work.
When we knew before the season, or when the nil
and all of this stuff and all the money grabbing
was going to take place with no system in place,
that it was going to be an absolute shit show

(18:31):
by December or January. And why are we all up
in arms and going crazy and Notre Dame not playing
a bowl game? And these guys that you know, and
I heard and Drew Lane show and Mark he's a
Michigan fan, that's on that podcast, but he was talking
about how Notre Dame should play in the bowl game
because of the practices. I'm so sick of that shit.
It cares about. Nobody cares about having practices anymore. Stop

(18:52):
with the pure college football feelings and all that. All
that that shit has gone and out the window. Now
these guys can't wait to line their fontucking pockets. No
one has any answers. The NCAA is broken, So why
are they angry at Notre Dame not getting in? I
get that North Texas and having Twu Lane in there.
Get them the fuck out. I don't understand Joey Galloway's

(19:12):
telling me they have no shot, but then they should
be in the college football Playoff. If they have no
shot whatsoever, why should they be in the College football Player.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
They have to be in the college football Player. And
I'm gonna tell you why because and this is, this is,
this is it's gonna change and they'll fix it. And
you know, right, they've done it before. Like for a while,
it looks like there was no common sense forever. They
had this fourteen playoff with five major conferences. That's like,
you know, having five children and feeding four. It just
was dumb, right, There are lots of dumb things with
this school. I went on and then all of a

(19:41):
sudden it was fixed. Really well, this twelve team playoff.
Common sense I think will prevail at some point because
there are a number of things that have to happen
or could happen to help it. But number you cannot
eliminate the little guy because and this is for the
sake of the big guy, this is the sake for
Michigan State, for Michigan, for Ohio State, for Alabama, because
the those eyeballs matter. If you kill the dream on

(20:02):
those smaller schools, and I've said this before, then those
eyeballs get more and more turned off, and collectively you
need the whole country watching this. This is where the
television contracts come from. You know, you get Dan Wetzel
out here saying, you know, everybody's still watching the bowl games.
Maybe the ratings are being juiced. I even watched a
Bowl game in several years I don't get because.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
What Bowl games?

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Dan tell me which one, And he's saying because of
the gambling, you can't gamble on these games because there's
so many opt outs. These aren't the same teams. Like
you know, you'd have to be staying a bet on this.
Somebody's Harry Gagnan bets on it. Doesn't mean everybody's betting us.
Somebody's juicing. The ratings of these ratings are still high.
These are not real ratings. But but beyond beyond that,
you need those. You need the general population of the

(20:42):
sport and the fan bases of all the little guys
it goes for college basketball and football feeling engaged because
then they take part because they can live the dream.
They'll watch James Madison because they think that's their team someday.
Even if and you earn the right and it's a
fun story and it doesn't have to be all bohemous,
somebody's getting left in the back end. And what's harder
to in this than I think college basketball is some

(21:04):
of these back end teams might have a legitimate chance
at winning it or isn't college basketball It's not usually
usually the case. But what ultimately made this so bad.
It is a couple things. One notre names not in
a conference, so they you know, people are there seems
to be this spite against them for that, but they

(21:24):
also for a long time we're ahead of Miami and
then without playing they flip, you know that sort of
This goes back to Missisippi State Michigan State in twenty
fourteen and the final playoff selection committee rankings all of
a sudden flipping like right back then. Should have been
nipped in the butt. Not doing that bullshit. There's no
new data points. The rankings are what the rankings are.
The problem is that committee's not very good at explaining themselves.

(21:46):
Number one, Number two. You know, it's supposed to be
hard to get in the playoff right now, So what
if there's only ten spots or eleven spots beyond the
beyond the power five schools that should be plenty. We
went with four forever and people were almost less up
in arms than they are right now. There's a lot

(22:06):
to fix. Number one, They've got to get college football
the calendar earlier. By the time the national championship games happened.
I'm so done with it. I watched the game. I'm
not saying I want to watch the game, but I'm
not watching the lead up. There's like this nine to
ten day break after a semi final. There's so few
teams left. I'm on the NFL playoffs, I'm on the
college hoops, I'm watching Premier League, I'm watching college hockey.

(22:27):
I just don't give two shits about college football other
than watching the game that night. And it's just too late.
Got to end it by January first, that's got to happen.
The other thing that they could do to make this
better is there was a day and age where you
could go seven and four back when they had eleven
teams and miss a bowl game. So even the secondary
bowls had a little more, a little more cachet. It

(22:51):
was like you made a bowl game. That was kind
of cool. There are too many bowls, and for a
long time that was fun. Now it doesn't work. And
to me, if you could go seven and five and
still probably not make a bowl game or you know,
beyond the edge, that would make just making a bowl
game as a secondary thing to the playoff a little
more special. That would be one way to do it.

(23:11):
But ultimately, you got to start the season earlier. You
got to fix the calendar. There's lots of stuff with
recruiting and all that, and then you probably do have
to go to a sixteen team playoff, but ultimately you
can't leave out the little guy, and Notre Dame needs to.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Even though they have no shot to win. You still
want teams like that in to face the one seed
under blown out. Yes, thank you for coming, even though
we worry about player safety because boring blah blah shit
worried about the players because Michigan State games, Michigan State, Michigan,
Ohio State. They won't have twenty years from now, they
will not have a television contract like they do now

(23:45):
that can pay for what they do. If they don't
have the collective eyeballs of the country on them, they
will lose eyeballs if they do not. The college football
Playoff will not be worth as much if you can't
just make it a really selective group that can get
in and not be so when people don't watch and
people don't care, you need those people to care. That's
my opinion. At least done it.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
That was sort of one of my I got one more.
It's a college hockey take, and I think I'm gonna
write this as part of a column. The Big Ten
needs to add another team badly, and they've got to
work on the college hockey calendar. Michigan States home schedule

(24:27):
is just about done for the year already. It's the
beginning of December. Hockey is a winter sport. How much
you has six more home games, that's it. If you've
got season tickets. If you're thinking, ah, Michigan, say it
looks good, January's come. I'm gonna get into hockey. They
don't play again at home till January twenty third. They
play an exhibition early in the year season, so you
and then because the Big Ten has an odd number

(24:47):
of teams, you get these really inconvenient buys just as
the season's ramping up. So in the middle of February,
Michigan State has a weekend off. Like the middle of February.
When you get to the postseason and there's one you know,
there's just all this time. The momentum is just killed
from all of it. And they've got to add a team. Anybody.

(25:09):
You already add a Notre dame. So anybody is happy
to come in. Western Michigan would be happy to come in.
Pick the team. Somebody is happy to come into the
Big Ten. You can make it a bigger power than
that in hockey. But Western Michigan just won a national
title and they're just down the road from several Big
Ten teams. Would be an easy, easy commute and they
would be thrilled to come in. So do that first
of all, takes care of the buy, and then they

(25:31):
need to I get they take this break for these
you know, international competitions a little bit and they take
They need to fix that. You start October first. You
don't need to start that early. And then you take
this massive break. And the fact that mon Ice Arena,
other than an exhibition game is going to go from
like the first week in December to January twenty third
without a home game is ridiculous. That should never be

(25:52):
the case. You got to fix that. I don't know,
it's just dumb.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
When you say they like, is there like someone out there?
What are they doing right now on a Monday morning cracking? No, Seriously,
they're having a conversation of how poorly there their sport.
I don't run.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
I don't think they realize it because they still have
single elimination in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Really, so,
I think you got the wrong people running this thing.
That's that's my take. But I am going to find
out a little bit more on like how this comes
to be and why, because it's just it's not it's
not good for the sport. It's it just sucks for
college hockey. The best of college hockey is kind of
done until the postseason.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
At this point. We need a commission of common sense
for college football and college hockey. I would like you.
I would like you to be on that mission. I
think I can just give my point of view and
you can either take it or just go ah.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Was he know?

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah? You know, com sense guy, I like I like
where you're. I like where you're Let's go green and
go God. By the way, you sent a picture out
that I enjoyed over the weekend. I did.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
It was with Rico Beard peering. I texted you that, Yeah,
texting me peering over Matt Eshbia and or Greg Williams.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
Right, Was that what it was? Yeah? There was like
a little scrum on the court prior to the Duke
game and Michigan State basketball or someone posted it on Twitter. Okay,
and I just happened to see. I think Dominic did
something with it too, but I saw it maybe off
one of theirs. And Rico is like you just you
see his head hovering over and he's looking over at

(27:21):
Greg Williams in Ishbia, trying to like lean into the conversation.
I don't even know if he's supposed to be on
the court. Just go where he go on to go exactly?
Isn't it telling me can't be there? No, nobody's gonna
do it right right? Racist kick him off the court?
And nobody brought racing. I don't when do you come
with racist? There was an incident way back in the day. Okay,

(27:42):
we're at a live We did a lot. This is
when I was working with Shooling and we all the
state as a station. We did a live remote from
uh It was a restaurant, right, and it was a
restaurant where you would go up and order yourself, so
there was no waiter, waitress or anyone. So Rico of
course shows up late to do his show and sits

(28:04):
down to order something to eat, right because his show's
coming up after our show. So so Rico doesn't see
anybody coming over to wait on him. So all of
a sudden, he gets up and leaves, and everybody's like,
where did Rico go? So I'm back here in the
booth ready, you know we're doing the show. I got
to run the board here. I also do did ricos
show after that? So he comes in like what are

(28:26):
you doing here? He's like, man, they're racist down there.
They wouldn't even take my order. And I'm like, dude,
there's no waiter or waitress. You go up to the
counter and order. And the look on his face he
was just like you could tell he was making a decision,
like shit, do I go back now? I look like
a complete ass. And he ended up doing the show here.
All everyone else did the show there, and then Rico

(28:48):
is in the studio. So that is tremendous. That's why
I'm sorry. I forget that. People don't know what I
know in my stupid brain. So I tell that. Now
I have to tell a story.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
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(29:37):
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Speaker 3 (29:45):
All right, Eric Schultz up first number one. Graham's first
take on Saturday was dead on this MSU lost to
Duke was disappointing, not discouraging, and too I don't love
bringing back Joe Rossi. Oh yeah, that was not your
first take. Michigan State's defense is back, so I Rossi

(30:05):
coming back?

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, I mean, obviously they were gonna own a fair
bit of money. Rossie's been a big ten guy for
a while. And I think Fitzgerald probably has a you know,
a track record of that. I think things went well, uh.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
Late, It's not because of the money or the payout
that is.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
I don't I do not think if Pat Fitzgerald wanted
somebody else for his defensive coordinator, had somebody in mind
that he really wanted, I'm pretty sure that Jay Batt
would not say, no, this is your guy. I think
Joe Rossie is a pretty respected defensive coordinator. But I understand,
like if you go back to the early part of
the season, you know, the defense just looked so bad

(30:39):
and he hadn't seemed to have an answer. And now
I think a lot of that was personnel. But I
really thought, before we were having conversations about the end
of Jonathan Smith's tenure coming so quickly, I was writing
that for MSU fans to recognize the program they fell
in love with, they needed to fix the defense, like
that had to become a priority. There were areas of

(31:00):
improvement last year, but a lot of that's gonna be personnel.
I would like to see Joe ROSSI like, I think
he's a decent coordinator, maybe a really good coordinator, And
I would like to see him with better personnel on
what that looks like, and and you can make that
call then a year from now if it doesn't work out.
But I don't mind it.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
By the way, I don't mind it as well, But
I want to know what level of loyalty does Fitzgerald have,
Like I don't mind it if you can make a
move if it's not working, like in season, what are
you going to do? Are you going to be loyal
to a guy keep him around too long? Because I
don't mind if you want to try to make moves,
it's just how loyal are you going to be?

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Well, Rossi's not a Fitzgerald, it's not like he's part
of Fitzgerald's tree. And he's also you know, Fitzgerald's a
defensive guy too, so that that would be interesting.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
But yeah, no, I didn't.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
And I also like this movie where I like this
move as much as because I think there are probably
a lot of good coordinators out there, and I think
Rossie is one of them. But in terms of keeping
this roster together and keeping guys on that defense that
you maybe you know, the Jordan Halls of the world
or any young players you think you know, Rossie had
a relationship with those guys. They responded to him. And

(32:10):
if you're trying to keep a roster together to have
a chance next year, I think, and you like the
coordinator well enough. I think it's a decent move.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Dominic next number one gram, I think Fitz is a
good hire. I don't need you quoting counter Stallion's opinion
to validate it. That clown a slimy, cheating penis and
I will not hear him referenced as any type of authority.
And two packers are such bitches. Man really thought the
fighting teacups dot Org We're gonna pull out another one
out between Brady's leather scarf and Matt Lafleur's haircut. I

(32:43):
had this strange urge to make a spinach and artichoke
artichoke bred bowl and download grinder three MSU calling Little
to Know set for Jacks down the Stretch was a
bit of a dick kick. He was like Goran Sutan
and aj Grangers Love Child in that first half. Feed
the Boy and Bonus couching in the Rube needs to

(33:04):
get in an endorsement with a local Mexican Mexican restaurant
that would be so chill man, appreciate you, Domic, that
would be so chill. So he was in on it.
Apparently I did have to tell him, Yes, I was
very excited and Nix. You know, te and Dominant got
the uh yeah, yeah, the first announcement of excellent.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Next the whitest person alive the uh you know, I
although they know that. I think with with with Coler,
anytime you have a guy makes four threes and a half,
you got to make sure he gets some shots in
the second and you've got to do some things to
make him get like they were taking that away and
he was not getting those same looks he passed up.
I thought maybe one and you know, I don't know
if he's quite in the heat check mode yet, but

(33:45):
you know, you gotta be feeling it though you've got threes,
like you've got to.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Yeah, you've got to. You've got to make sure you
know ball, you play ball. You gotta make sure he
gets another one. That high hand going. Does anybody not
passing you? If you hit four threes and you're innermural right,
I'd be yelling at his exactly. I'd my hand on
his throat the rock, give me the ball. I might
not shoot a three, but it's going in somewhere on
this court. It'd be reverse Bobby Knight with that. Yeah. Anyway,

(34:09):
if we said with somebody please guard somebody, can you?
James Madison is in the college football playoffs and the
losing his program in the history of college football is
the number one overall seed. Anything is possible. All you
need is four hundred and one. Mili, what's your boy, Siggy.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
He's got James Madison in his old team and his
new team is number one.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
That was here. Gonna show some respect now I have respect,
some respect on his name.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think he is in two years done, maybe the
greatest coaching job in college football history. WHOA right, I mean,
all right, there's one eighty, it's up there. I'm just
I just don't love the scheduling at the beginning the year.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
That's all it is.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
And frankly, now that teams are being you could argue
punished for losing games early in the year. Do other
top teams and they're losing other games. Let's let's not
act like Texas was a perfect team all year. But
I do worry that that's going to be the route more.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
But when you get hired. You get on you know,
the microphone at the basketball game in Bloomington and say
Michigan sucks. Ohio State sucks, and then two years later
you do it. Yeah, well fuck man, Yeah, I guess
you're right. That might be the greatest coaching thing of all.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Like, it's incredible, it's incredible, and because it's not just
you know, we've seen teams before have like quick turnarounds
with great offensive minds and a good quarterback and some
wide outs and all of a sudden they can put
up points and they're interesting, but they're not winning. They
were beating Ohio State the line of scrimmage. That's what's
amazing about it. Defensively, they held Ohio State to ten points,

(35:33):
Like that's incredible. And then that third down call, that
pass at the end of the game when it's what
third and six and you're trying to you know, end
the game. You've got the ball and you're up three,
and they throw that perfect I mean Mendoza won the
Heisman right there, and uh no, it was it was.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
That was incredible. The past two years at Michigan State,
if Ryan Day was the coach and not Jonathan Smith,
how many wins how many wins does it ad Ryan Day?
That's a good question. I mean, weird to shit on
a guy that wins that many games, one to Natty
and then you just look at him, you go, I
don't trust this dude.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Ever, I'm not shitting on Ryan Day. I think I'll
shit out him. I mean, come on, man, he loses
some interesting and interesting I think they lost to maybe
the best team in the country. I don't have a
problem with that. I think Indiana and Ohio State legitimately
might be the best two teams in the country. What
about losing to Michigan last year?

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Though? Come on, man, can't chew no Spartan eighteen seven
to seven zero. Number one, the only way for the
lesser Bulls to survive is to align themselves with the
college Football Playoff, which means get ready for thirty two
plus teams in the playoffs in the near future. And two,
with Indiana winning Saturday, there is no longer a honeymoon
period for coaches when now or get fired.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
So a couple things here. One, the Bulls will just
go away, will I don't think they'll get to thirty
two teams, but they would go away before that because teams,
the travel component of this, and for fan bases, like
if you got a thirty two team playoff, and again,
I don't think we're going there because you're talking five rounds.
Think about that, the champions playing five more games after
the regular season. I think I'm not saying we can't

(37:05):
get to twenty four in some era where there are
a lot of buyes, and some teams in the beginning have,
but I think twenty four, even in an insane world
where people don't do common sense things. And I'm not
advocating for twenty four, I wouldn't go that big. I'm
just saying twenty four is the biggest I could ever
see it getting to where you know, the top sixteen

(37:26):
had buys and then they're not sixteen whatever you right now,
no top eight had buys and then you had you know,
that would be insane. But given what we're watching and
just the lack of logic and anyway, and the second
part of this, Signetti is the good news for other

(37:48):
coaches is Signetti has now done something that's so hard
and rare and ridiculous that I think we're all recognizing that.
So the expectation for a while I was like, look
how good Indiana's gotten. Now It's like, Okay, that's not
like you can't expect that, Like they've just done something
at a level. So he's almost won himself out of
the level where but it makes other teams believe that
you can do it.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Though. I think it's good for college football obviously.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
I think Izzo got a lot of college basketball coaches
fired because he took over a middling program, you know,
and he didn't do it right away, but then won
a national title in five years and then sustained a program.
And everybody out there, if you're the Iowa States of
the world or wherever you are, you're thinking, boy, that
could be us. That's what happens. That that could be
us syndrome is happening.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
And isn't that bigger than having a James Madison into
Lane in and seeing a guy like Signetti turning a
program like Indiana around. That makes me want to watch
him relieve more than Oh, let's watch Tulane and James
Madison and all these other schools that have no shot.
The college experts. They're telling me that they have no shot.
Let's keep watching them to give me hope about a
national championship, or I'll watch a guy like Signette. He
was a sixty year old nerd. You know, say that

(38:51):
he's getting on a microphone saying he's gonna kick everybody's ass.
They suck.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
He's a great story, but that great story isn't always there.
But you're right, that is the only team. I was
booking travel for the Michigan State's game against Nebraska on
like January two, the other day, and all I cared
about was yesterday because all the brackets were out. And
the reason I'd waited was I wanted to know when
certain teams are going to play in the playoff because
that my travel back day or one of the days

(39:19):
I'm forgetting. Now travel to day, the day I travel
to there, whenever you come back. No, yeah, it's the
day off. The day I travel there could be potentially
a college football playoff day, and so I wanted I
want to see Indiana play, And one of the flights
was potentially going to be during the Indiana game. And
unless Delta is going to promise me a television I'm

(39:39):
going to book a different flight. And so that because yeah,
that's what they've become to me. They're the interesting team
that I want to see, and almost nobody else in
the playoff. I watch the playoff as it goes on,
but nobody else.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
To me is a point You don't You're admitting that
you don't care about the two lanes and.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
I'm not saying I care. But the smaller guys you
should have them. You need to have to build. It's
not my eyeball, it's everybody else.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Is nobody care? If you don't care, then why would
anyone you? No?

Speaker 2 (40:03):
No, because we live in this big school. Look, I
used to be this guy. And one of the reasons
I am a good voice on this is I grew
up here. I remember watching Michigan State play Central Michigan
in the nineties and thinking, yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
But your glory days are over, old man football.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
On what I'm saying is I grew up in a
area where I thought of the MAC and the small schools,
is I could play there? Maybe you know, like I
just just delusion. We have the sense of like that's
a totally different level, that those fan bases don't matter,
and then then when you go and cover them and
you live in their communities for a while, you realize
how different that is, how important those eyeballs are I'm
not I'm just saying you can't completely Half of college

(40:43):
football is non powerful. You cannot rule them out entirely,
or you're going to lose eyeballs on the whole thing,
and that's going to hurt financially. It is better to
not have financially long term, it is better to have
Notre Dame missed one playoff than to have all the
small school believe they can never get there.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
What about the sports betting burnout too? I think a
lot of people are, you know, in the next five
years are gonna where it's legal, You're gonna get burned
out by the gambling stuff. Well that because they're making
it to where you can't even bet on some especially
the NFL or you know some of these college games
you can't even bet on it. What do you mean
you can't bet on it the way they just the number,
like Vegas is too good. They're squeezing you. There's too

(41:22):
much juice. You can't win. I mean, how many How
are people for five years straight just going to keep
dumping money off. I mean, sure, there's going to be
a certain amount people are gonna get well, but I
mean there's gonna be people like me that are gonna
be like, well, I don't want to keep just dumping
money away this. I'm gonna wait till golf and then
dump money then, and not during college football. No, I'll
be honest.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I mean, the Australian Open is going on during the
college football playoff, and I can win more doing that.
I'm probably going to do that.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
The DMB next. The best quarterbacks in college football are
the ones that aren't pressured. Julian saying turned into a
pumpkin in real time makes you wonder what Childs could
do with a real offensive line and how Meliovivijevich e
dog What was it without one million? I love it

(42:07):
million Jevich bonus. The Big Ten stinks. Os U and
Indiana deserve their rankings, but worry of lack of competition
all year will leave them unprepared to win it all.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Well, playing each other is a pretty good competition, and
I think they both saw as a team as good
as anybody they're gonna face. And so I I don't
I don't think that. I do agree the Big ten's
not not not great, but that's and I think there's
a there is an issue with Yeah, the Big ten
is not great. It's it's you gotta you know, unless

(42:40):
you're Iowa, which seems to be happy with where they are,
which is which is weird. It's not it's not amazing
to the to the quarterbacks part, this is this is
a very true thing about a lot of quarterbacks. It's
one of the reasons that I'm curious about Milo Voyevich
is I am because he hung in the so well

(43:00):
and took hits and made throws late. I don't know
if he's going to be a great quarterback, but I
do want to see a what he looks like when
he's not under pressure all the time. But also if
that winds up being a superpower for him like it
was for Connor Cook for a while, Like where what?
Because that can really be a separator and it You're right,

(43:22):
there are a lot of quarterbacks who get a lot
of praise who have great offensive lines, especially in the
college game, and they're not any better than quarterbacks who
are getting beat up with bad offensive lines. I do
think saying is better than Chiles, men Doz is better
than Chiles. But we saw some moments from Chiles this
year when he had time and I think if Chiles

(43:43):
was at a you know, Georgia, for example, he would
be in the Heisman conversation and he wouldn't be any different.
He would have more confidence, he'd be an athletic player,
and voters are also stupid, so that combination would would
would would make it. He's not like he's a devoid
of talent. He just lost his confidence and he has
some deficiencies in terms of bringing his eyes down and

(44:04):
not going through his reads. But if you have a
great offensive line, that stuff doesn't matter as much.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
The Billy Mack of Southern Maine. Next, if I had
Greg and Don Williams family money, I'd pay to build
a University of Southern Maine a football program, and I'd
give Aiden Childs five million to play quarterback. Best take,
I'd pay to have a Groovy Donuts built in Southern Maine.
I've never been, but I know there's superior to the
potato donuts people love out here. Groovy Donuts expanding the

(44:31):
Southern main I think they granchise. Yeah, they do really
well in Maine. They do well anywhere. They put other
donut chops out of out of business pretty quick. It
would be interesting if somebody with like we haven't seen
this yet. We saw it with Penn State and hockey.
But if somebody of that filk, like you had four
hundred million you wanted to do and there are people
have our billionaires who could do it if they really

(44:53):
had a love for an alma mater or something that
decided they wanted to start a football program somewhere. Because
it costs a lot, and you have to put it
enough to be able to sustain it over time and
make it make sense and make sure you have a
fan base. But sounds like a Hallmark movie during Christmas.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I don't think it's a Hallmark movie. I don't think
the football Hallmark movies never do well.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
No, they're not good. No kid, the Chiefs won, sucked
last year, the Bills this year. They audience doesn't translate, translate.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
From football to well. Just their storytelling movies just not one.
We watched a great Hallmark movie on Saturday and what's
the name hold On. I'll give it to you, hold On,
hold On a Newport Christmas. Really good, really good Hallmark movie.
Recommend it nine out of ten for a Hallmark movie,

(45:44):
which makes seven out of ten for a regular movie,
which is still pretty good. Yeah, oh that's it, Chap.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Next, listen up f all this long term planning. With
a four hundred and one million dollar donation, Here's what
we do. One hundred MILLI to Fits for the next
three years next year's roster, fifty mil to Izzo for
next year's roster, twenty five mil to Nightingale for next
year's roster. Rube gets one hundred k cash in a
Duffel bag. One hundred k to pay teacups dot Org

(46:10):
Vietnamese sweatshop child employees for a few years. Couch gets
a real TV set up. Elizabeth gets a new vacuum.
The rest to the Lancy Promise renamed Each Ship Magic Promise,
Love and first school ever to win Natty's in football, basketball,
and hockey the same academic year. Who's with Me? Merry Christmas?

(46:33):
Love this ship so green? Oh God, the eat Ship.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Magic Johnson Promise, Each Hip Magic Promise? Can we give
Lats like twenty five k? Yeah, we throw that in there.
I think that would be I think that would be
absolutely amazing.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
Andrew Gotier next number one, Jose Feliciano's version of Police
Navidad is superior to Hoff Come at me bros. To.
Seeing Greg and Don Williams at a local text mex
joint made me appreciate them even more so chill, as
Graham would say, excluding the specific location so they don't
get bothered. Man, do you think many people would bother them?

(47:09):
I mean other than I would bother them? Yeah? But
would I would just say hi? Would you? Really? Yeah?
Why not?

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Well?

Speaker 2 (47:16):
They know who I mean, it's not like they don't
know who I am. I would say hi. It would
be awkward for me not to say hi. Oh, so
they I forget they know who you are, right right?

Speaker 3 (47:23):
Right? Yeah? I mean I ran into Greg and the
stairwell the other day at Breslin. You didn't push them,
did you? No? I did not push him down the
rest of the way, But you just tend to do
that when you're in stairwells and other people are in there.
We just said hello to each other. Yeah, that's all
so chill. You guys are here. Would you say that?
I would not. I don't think I'll ever say it again.

(47:46):
It's the best. I love it. I think T's gonna
make a mug with your just your like your head
like the circle head and just so chill. Jeff Malay next. Uh,
only time will tell if Fitzgerald is a higher But
kudos did Jay Battford staying quiet and having a plan.
He worked it like a professional. And from Alan Pearlstein

(48:07):
jay batt runs a tight ship and took care of
business last week And bonus from Jeff Malay last week
Graham's poo poo's my comment that Jordan Scott should start
or play starter minutes this week he writes a damn
column about it. Well play couch. At least I didn't
pay for a subscription, so.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
I don't know if I pooh pooed like. I still
don't think I would start him, And maybe that's what
I but yeah, it clearly it's becoming more and more
obvious that he fits their identity and I deft to
chef the tape, so to speak, which I'm not going
to do. But you have a change of opinion, Yes,
but I didn't. I wasn't down on him or anything.
I just I still think I wouldn't start him because

(48:47):
to me, starting it just like was Apollo last year.
It was just like was the Soco before that. There
you can tell certain games at work for guys, and
you can get more out of it and you can
pivot quickly and it's a way to in some minutes
for them. Like to me, I would, I would start
Kurt Tanng there unless things really go south for him
shooting wise. But and he hasn't done enough to prove
in that you know, he can be the guy. I mean,

(49:09):
that's he's going to just have to do that. And
it could still happen in his career. I mean, he's
a sophomore and he's we've seen him have you know,
you know, will he ever become a knockdown shooter and
big moment?

Speaker 3 (49:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I mean, you don't want to give up on the guy,
but I would. I would still start Kirtanng, but I
would just count on in competitive games playing Jordan Scott
twenty five minutes a night.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Jeff Peterson, next Jonathan Smith will be more highly thought
of than Alan Haller in five to ten years, despite
Haller's non revenue coaching hires, and despite Smith's lousy record
over two years sad but necessary firings. That's a good
A good question here by it, Jeff, Do you don't
believe it? Do you think? Okay?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Ten years from now? Yeah, We're at Breslin Center, two
different games, not sitting next to each other. The jumbo
tron shows the sitting there watching the game, and a
week later shows Jonathan Smith sitting there, just back in
town watching the game. Who what's the response.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
I don't think any I think people will be dead
inside and happy it's over with the Jonathan Smith. I
don't know. Yeah, I don't think anybody will have any
emotion for Smith. They'll be like, oh, yeah, there's that guy.
But Haller has an opportunity with the coaches that are
still coaching that he hired, Freylick Nightingale and others, that
if they do good things, he'll be remembered. Not you know,

(50:29):
we'll still talk about the football program. But if Nightingale
goes on a run, wins a Natty, maybe wins two,
maybe Freylik does a run into the you know, I
don't know. I could see Haller being looked at as like, well,
at least he got a couple things right while he
was here. Jonathan Smith, There'll be no way people were
so happy when to stop talking about him.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
I think if it comes out, and it's already come
out a little bit that like Jonathan Smith and his
staff have been helpful in retaining this recruiting class, helpful
in the transition. Here are those boxes for you man,
sort of like you remember, a lot of people's opinions
of like George W. Bush changed when all the stuff
came out about how helpful they were to the Obama

(51:10):
administration and what was a time of you know, tumultuous
financial stuff in the country, but like there was a
lot of work.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
They gotta do is help out Obama apparently.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Again I'm just saying in terms of like putting something
above yourself is what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Iraq war help a couple of boxes at the way
out right, this guy? Okay.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
The point I think, if, if, if there's not a
bitterness in terms of how you behave in terms of
how you recruit, I think Jonathan Smith will not be
looked at as somebody who people think awful of. They
thought he was a good guy who didn't get a
great shake, who wasn't a great fit, but did his
best and and tried to make the transition decent. I

(51:53):
think people I think, I think it's a small golf
clap pallor you're right, has a chance because I do
think some of those other hires, and I think he
you know, he's a Michigan State guy. A small golf
clip for Jonathan. Why is he going to beat? Why
has he been introduced again ten years from now, Jonathan,
He's just.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Had a game.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
He's not being introduced. They're just showing him sitting there
on the JumboTron during a game. I don't think he's
ever coming to east Landcy ever.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Again maybe not.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
I think Haller more than Smith and both would have this.
If if Haller would just sit down and do like
an interview about his time and be really forthcoming on
areas where he fell short and things like that, I
think people would have a good sense of forgiveness for
things that are angry.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
About Bulky Bartacamas. Next, if cam Ward was healthy, Spartans
beat Duke Jordan Scott is the best option at two
guard with Divine next up. I'm sure kurtang is a
very nice guy, but he's not him.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
So Hugo too cool, not Noel Divine, not the Hugo
West Virginia running back. But he is an essential part
of this though, because what Michigan State does not have
is a guy who's a great second, they don't have
a lot of ball handling. They don't have like you
look at last year's roster, which didn't have great length
and the Gardens wings, but you know it was Jeremy Fears,

(53:10):
Jace Richardson, Trey Holloman and Jay Nakens. You have four
guys who could handle the ball and create like that
was a lot. That was a plethora, and that was
the strength of that team in a lot of ways.
This team just has Fears, who's good at that, and
then they have Auguchuku and so that is to me,
it makes his role important. I think, like you've seen

(53:31):
in the rotation in the first half, especially he comes
in for Fears. I think he's done a pretty good
job there recently. And then Fears comes back and he
stays on the court and plays the two. You don't
see that as much in the second half. I think
we'll see that more and more in certain matchups because
he is another guy in creating those two together out there. Again,
I don't think he's a great defender. I think he's okay.

(53:54):
I think there are elements of certainly Jordan Scott that
are better. I think Kurtang is a better you know
better shooter by trait, although we haven't necessarily seen it.
I think Trey Ford's gonna be the interesting one here
because he sort of is what he is and you
have moments like he had that great uh dunk in
the first half. You know, he'll get hot in a
game or two. But but I think we sort of

(54:16):
see what he is. And the question for him will
be and if he's going to earn a role on
this team that's subsitive and big moments, he's gonna have
to He's got the athletic ability to do it. He's
gonna have to become a really good defender. And if
he becomes a guy that like, boy, that guy on
the court is is a defender, you know, allows some
of the stuff that you know he's inconsistent with offensively

(54:37):
for him to be out there, I think that's the
key for him having a bigger role Right now.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
I just don't see it. Matt's the next number one
is O got out coached again by Duke for some reason.
Whenever is O's he's a zone, he turns into Monty Williams.
Fears also picked a bad game to go zero for ten,
still a Final Four caliber team and I'd love another
crack at Duke down the line, and to the College
Football Playoff put into G five teams is gross. The

(55:02):
first round is unwatchable now, thanks committee, replace James Madison
in Tulane with Bama and Texas and the first round
would be electric for you, it would be, but for
half the country it might not. And I get it.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
But if this is the problem, if this is the problems,
go to fourteen. But then there'll be two other teams
that feel the same way. Like you're gonna have years
where people get left out. That's supposed that's part of
the meaning of the regular season. The regular season is
supposed to matter. The problem is because you have these
stupid ass big leagues of eighteen teams, and you don't
have good tie breakers in leagues, and you've got an
independent Notre Dame and all this shit the system from

(55:37):
which you pick like you ought to be able to
qualify and say, well, there are ten teams that get
in or eleven teams that get in plus a mid major,
and that should be enough. But you know, the terms
are clear. The problem is the terms aren't really clear.
This is where Tony Battiti and some other people who
like the idea of leagues having a certain amount of

(55:57):
bids and you have to play into that. You know,
the Big Ten would it would almost have playoffs for
its bids or certain amount of spots in the Big Ten.
This is where some of that makes sense. So the
terms are clear for you for Notre Dame, like, look,
they're capable of not being in a conference because their
brand and all this stuff. But every once in a while,
if they're not in a conference, they're gonna have to

(56:18):
deal with some shit and people are naturally gonna be
resentful of them, and they're just gonna have to deal
with that.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
It just it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
You know, BYU got a task in a conference like
it at some point, man, like you're in the Big
Ten for hockey, the a SEC takes care of you
and basketball and everything else. Like you know, pick a league,
go find a league, contribute to that league, and and
some of this stuff won't happen.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
Robert next, it's too obvious now that the power for
college football fans don't want group of six teams crashing
their party. Since over five dozen teams have no honest
shot at a national championship, it's probably way past time
to reassess Group of Six involvement in the FBS.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
My question for you, Robert, you're a Western fan, would
be if you were in the FBA or in the FCS,
if you're in the next division down and could and
maybe it works because you know, Southern Illinois, the North
Dakota is like those schools over time have embraced their
level of football. They have big fan bases. I don't
know if a lot of schools moving down would find

(57:19):
joy in that and and and you know, maybe they would,
maybe as long as they could still play, you know,
the Michigan States of the world, the Michigan's of the
world and non conference games here and there, and then
that be a playoff that was more of their tier.
Maybe it would be fine. And maybe that's that is
a way, but it is clear and part of it's
you know, having covered Western, having covered the MAC. The

(57:40):
snobbery pisses me off. I mean, just I want to
tell people to kick rocks, you know, which, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
That's you know, don't get too violent, kick rocks. Suck
on a tailpipe. Kurt was new Ski number one. The
College Football Playoff Committee's message to Notre Dame was loud
and clear, join a conference and to MSU basketball compete
with any team anywhere. But isn't Notre Dame just going

(58:05):
to complain and there's going to be sixteen team playoff
next year.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
When they're automatically I think the way the language is written,
if they're in the top twelve, they get in next year,
I mean, they'll be fine. This is one year they'll
be fine. It's it's not you know, they lost. I
do want to encourage teams to play, and what I
don't like is Notre Dame does not play Division one
Double A games. They had some teams that wound up
sucking on their schedule this year, but I don't think
their intent in scheduling was poor. I don't like that

(58:30):
people think like head to head has to matter the
challenge in college football as teams evolve from September to November,
and you can be the better team, you have to
be able to watch more than the game that two
teams played against each other.

Speaker 3 (58:42):
So only games at the end of the season.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Well, that's the problem. This is this means something You've
got to be able to win your way in. And
this doesn't matter when you play it. It has to
mean something head to head.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
The terms, the terms have to be clear, and we've
got to figure out a way to to get there
for that, Tim Tim Next, college football has the worst
elements of other sports. Leagues is becoming regional like Major
League Baseball in the sense that big games in other
leagues don't really matter until the college football playoff now,
and the top of the rankings feel set in stone

(59:13):
like the NBA where you can pencil in certain teams preseason.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Yeah, I mean, college football has a lot wrong with it,
and a lot of it has to do with the
fact that it's tied to school, right, I mean the
first part of things. Let's let's all acknowledge you that
college football shouldn't exist. We now have pretty definitive evidence
of long term head trauma be our first hot take, right,
and yet we tie it to higher education, like right there,

(59:41):
let's so right away, we're starting with absurdity when we
when we have college football.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
Okay we're not. That's a four year degree though, man,
come on, that's valuable, right, And you know I've been
told that my whole life.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
You don't even need to like, you know, pay into uh,
you shouldn't even have to pay into Social securitycause you're
probably not gonna be around for any of so you know,
it should it should be anyway, screw it. But I
do understand what you're saying here, and I think one
of the challenges is, and we've talked about this, it
like the NBA, like we pay attention like baseball, we

(01:00:14):
pay attention to the postseason. We pay attention to the
Tigers in the postseason, we pay attention to the Pistons
in the postseason, and but we mostly pay attention to
the postseason. And it used to be I would pay
more attention to the regular season than I do now.
And I still think that can be fixed and have
an expanded playoff, but the terms have to be clear
so people understand what matters in the regular season. Obviously,
Michigan Ohio state that game is going to matter in

(01:00:36):
the regular season. There are going to be moments that
matter in the regular season. But I think also not
making teams not want to play power you know power
other power conference teams and the non league, and uh,
you know, having ways to make that beneficial, because there
is an argument what Indiana did, for example, does help
you that you don't get hurt, you don't get beat
up as much, and then so maybe you shouldn't play

(01:00:58):
those games, but then the season sucks for a while. Anyway,
I think there's a lot to fix in college football.
I think the key starting point though, is the calendar.
I think it's starting a little earlier. It's ending by
January one, and they've got to start there, and you
start but we saw this coming.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
Why wouldn't you work on the calendar?

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Because there are too many factions too. That's the other
problem with college football, and like some other things, you
don't have a commissioner. You've got so many different people,
and people have different ideas, and people have different interests
that they're all out to protect.

Speaker 3 (01:01:26):
Yeah, so wouldn't you start with that. Let's get a commissioner,
Let's get form some sort of well functioning board that doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Everything's in transition. Eventually you're gonna have contracts and collective
bargaining with the athletes, which you got to get to.
You got to get to that point too. I mean,
there's a lot that needs to change in the next
you know, five six years.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
Is there any coming back from some of these things
for college football?

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I don't know, because it's still football people love and
they still love their alma maters like you can't. I
think college football still got a shot. It just they
need to be careful because you can twenty years from now,
you could be less relevant to the sports landscape today
if you do things wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Chris Eastlick next Notre Dame being left out just showed
the obvious that we already knew. The playoff ranking show
is meaningless filler and isn't worth watching. Yes, that's something
to take away from this whole process watching that show.
I mean, if you sat there through the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
But think about like Love Island and stuff that people watch.
There's a lot of meaningless.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Trash TV that's meaningless filler that makes you forget about
life for a while and or hate something like like
I get that kind of thing. But just old fuddy
Duddy Graham, couch white guys staring at shitty TVs with
their you know, they got their laptops out like they're
typing some shit. You know, it's like I don't need
to see you know whatever. It's just but you can
say that for all the pregame shows for the NFL

(01:02:44):
and college football anyway, you don't. Yeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
But filler bullshit for the reality shows. I get that
people like to just get away for a while and
watch trash TV. If you have a Notre Dame fan
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Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
Izzo for pres next Glad we have the College Playoff
mess to cleanse my timeline from Duke fans. Why don't
you write something? Why don't you write so? Why don't
you write?

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
So?

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
It was yeah, it was quite I missed some of that.
I wasn't paying a ton of attention.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
But there was Duke fans on Twitter. Yeah they were
pretty well, yeah sufferable, Yeah shocker. Yeah, you know, Duke
cat fans.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
I didn't know either. I mean, I know they have,
you know, like Drake and shit like that. But money
bag number one. It's been amusing to see how many
of the Duke fans and my mentions are also Yankees
or Dodger fans. I hope the teams they cling to
make up for the other holes in their life. And
two way too early. But if we spend money in
the portal, seven to eight wins next year is extremely doable.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
It'll be interesting to see how the roster is constructed
and we'll be able to see how much money is
being sent by spent, by who they get, who stays,
all that, all that stuff. I don't know if there's
anything more obnoxious than a Yankees, Dodgers and Duke fan.
You know, I get there, unless you're from New York,
where most Duke fans are from I guess that's not so.

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
Yeah, but where does it? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Oh, you mean not liking all of them at once? Well,
you can't like any of these and the Dodgers, but
if you like the Yankees and Duke.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Oh, there's people with a couple baseball teams.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
I mean, I guess it's just funny. I mean, was
it Christian Latner turned you on? I don't really understand.
I don't Ladner was amazing though he was a great
college player. You want to use that, I guess when
you were younger, Cherokee Parks and Bobby Hurley.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
Yeah, no, it's neither. White guys.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
It's a really good point. That's really cool. But let's
take a really quick break. When we come back, we'll
dig into many more of your hot takes. Some of
the best are are still to come. That's not just
a teeth. That's not just a teeth. Olus, Here comes
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Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
Hey, so like you should totally hit that like button
and subscribe to Couch and the Roof on YouTube. Seriously though,
if you don't, Santa is literally going to skip my
house this year. And Graham Couch, Yeah, he's threatening to
katnap my precious kiddie. So come on help a girl out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Couch in the Rube our Monday afternoon show presented by
our friends at Muscots Quality flannels. Go Muskox dot com,
Go Muskox dot com, and then Peacock for fifteen dollars
off your flannel purchase. Our friend Matt Drolette, just speaking
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(01:08:35):
the Rube. Oh it's it's the Rube. Well, it's actually
me telling the story of the Rube before Christmas. Christmas Rube,
which is a story we will tell in our finals
show before Christmas, as we always do.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
Can you tell it? Do you want me to tell
it this year? Yeah, you tell it this year. I
don't know, it wouldn't be as good. I was thinking
about it's like, we should do it a different way.
I just you know, we'll find a different way. Okay.
I feel like a comedian that has to tell this
same like he's got a great like one one day
made him famous or something. And then it's like, I
don't mind. I just feel like I don't know anyway. Well,
maybe maybe we do. We will find a different way
to tell it. I would be getting I'll just tell

(01:09:08):
it's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
So this is the like the fifteenth call today I've
gotten from the Scelary, No from the Heisman Trust, because
I haven't filled up my by ballot yet. I've got
un til five pm today. It's just annoying. It's like, guys,
I'm gonna do it like you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Got how many times? Are you being serious? They called
you that anytime now. But it's like the third It's like, guys,
I picked up twice and said it's coming. I'm sure
they have somebody else say hey, it's just not in yet. Yeah,
they really give a shit that much that for your vote.
They want that vote it's Mendoza. Guys, It's Mendoza. There
you go. So why didn't you just send it to him?
I just haven't had time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
I'm not gonna delay the show so I can do
my ballot right. You couldn't have voted yesterday. I probably
could have. Well, there was a Hallmark show on. I
was on that treadmillon lots of things going on.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
Truth comes out Spartan Dog ninety seven, next number one.
Nick Saban, the best coach the sport has seen this century,
hated losing so much he completely flipped his team's offensive
philosophy and reaped massive benefits because of it, and too
Fitzgerald would be wise to follow his example by hiring
an offensive coordinator on the cutting edge of college offense.

(01:10:10):
It'll be interesting to see who he hires as an OC.
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
One of the things that you know, he talked about
his rolodex and that podcast he did with with Rhees
Davis and Pete Sammil in early November, and how you know,
I'm curious to see where he goes with this and
who's willing to leave and who wants to, you know,
be at Michigan State with him and I'm sure the
money will be decent. So yeah, I'm very curious to

(01:10:36):
see where he goes. And you know, I'm at some point,
I'm gonna guarantee you this though. At some point Michigan
State Vans will not be happy with the new offensive coordinator.
It doesn't matter if it was Jesus of Nazrus himself,
you know, like it does, doesn't matter like the offensive coordinator.
The offense at some point is gonna look like shit,
and it's gonna be the coordinator's fault. That is a

(01:10:57):
don't have an offense that looks like shit at times.
I mean, it's impossible everybody's offense will click.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
I don't know. G E. Miller Rossi retention is strike
one for fits. Resources are not fifteenth in the Big Ten,
and points per game allowed fourteenth in yards per game
is awful, and even worse against every team that had
a quarterback with a pulse, and even some without. He
came down from the press box, big whoop, no quarterback pressure,

(01:11:23):
no picks. Retaining a defensive coordinator from a bad defense
importantly also misses the opportunity to hire a good defensive
coordinator that can bring players over with him any Rossi
recruits are already signed. There was no upside in retaining Rossie.
That's a good job, Ge Miller. I think he got
me flipped on this Rossi thing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
No, I disagree in this well, I disagree in this sense.
It makes some good points. The stats alone at aren't.
I mean, I think there were good coaches on melt
Tucker's staff, not all of them, but I think there
were some. I think there were some really good coaches
on Jonathan Smith's staff. I think Maha Check the offensive
line coach, he is a good coach, and they'll bring
in another offensive line coach. We'll try and do it,
and nobody's been able to do at Michigan State in

(01:12:05):
a decade. But I don't know that he'll be better
than Mahulchik and and I think Rossi's you know, I
would like to see what Rossie does when he has
the horses.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
To do it, because those guys did fight for him,
they did, And we'll stretch the Rossi that is.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
And here would be a promising counterpoint what we saw
when they had talent that was superior or at least equal,
when they played not great teams, when they played mid
major teams, we would see this, you know, sort of
we'd see the pressure coming waves. I like the way,
I like the approach. I like the defense against mid
major teams. Now, unfortunately for Michigan State they play in
the Big Ten, not in the MAC and so's that's

(01:12:40):
not enough. But a lot of the reasons it wasn't
enough is because their talent wasn't enough. I would like
to see what he can do. And you know, the
thing that'll be interesting to the offensive coordinator point too,
is like some of the most interesting hires that have
happened over time are when a co which will know

(01:13:00):
a coordinator that gave them fit. So you're an offensive
coach and you just know this was a defensive guy
that was a problem for me, or you're a defensive coach,
you're like that guy's offense I always hated facing. Those
are the type of people people part of those trees
or on those staffs. Those are the people I think
you want to bring in not necessarily familiarity with you,
but it's people who are always just a thorn in

(01:13:21):
your side and you really respect what they do.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
Matt Salisbury next number one. I don't mind Rossy Stain
get him a pass rush. Two MSU was good enough
to beat Duke Scott needs to start. And three Jesus
excuse me as a male man, a male man in
North Carolina. Thank you guys for helping me stay sane
and laugh, especially during the hot months and now during peak.

(01:13:45):
Appreciate you, Matt shout outs man. Yeah, I love the
post office people. Man, that's a tough gig, especially during
this month. We have a male man in our neighborhood
who listens and I run into my mother on walk sometimes.
Very much. Appreciate you, Matt. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
No, I don't know our male lady. I mean she's
also the mayor of OVID. Whoa your male lady is
the mayor of OVID. Yeah, Teresa loves telling people that.
That's incredible, what a what a combo?

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
Is the mayor? Mayor of Ovid's not a full time gig, though,
I'm guessing, well, she treats it like well, I don't know.
I think she does both. I don't think she sleeps ever. OVID.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
You know, so a lot going on, but think about that.
It's the easiest way to campaign door to door.

Speaker 3 (01:14:22):
Is like, believe me, we heard all the laws and
rules about that about how yeah that federal laws and
it's just like, forget it. Just don't even talk to
me about it. Sherry is her name. She's great. So
is she breaking the law out what you're saying? No,
But there's she follows the law to a t. I mean,
she's very on the straight narrow me. I could give
a ship right like, I'm just like, let's talk about it.

(01:14:43):
You're gonna run for mayor and wow, you know she
can't talk about while she's on the route right right,
there's all those rules. So I'm saying no, she follows
the rule to a te Okay. I just was like,
come on, give me a sign. I want to put
a sign out front of the yard here. That is
That is the story, the story we're telling a male lady.
Of course, I'm going to vote for you. I don't
know anybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Thrown here, presented by our friends at Midtown Brewing Company.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
Again, I don't think Scott needs to start. I just
think he needs to be your closing and primary guard
to guard in this situation. Unless there's a day where
Kirk Tang is just hidden and we saw that against Kentucky.
Right if that day happens, you ride with that. If
he winds up being the difference maker, I just think,
more often than not, who they are identity wise, it's
gonna be Scott Trick.

Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Next. What are the biggest factors in retaining Smith's staff
at MSU? Number one, they're competencies. They're competencies. So what
it says too keeping players and recruits? And three their buyouts. Yeah,
I mean, I think I think all of these things are.
Competency is obviously very important. I think player attention when

(01:15:43):
there are people you see Blue Adams staying, you know,
I think I think there are guys who you feel
like connect with the players or you feel are really
good coaches. You know, even the worst teams in college
football have some really good people on their coaching staff.
And I'm pretty sure the fan base of those schools
don't really understand which ones are which. And that's not
a knock on a fan base. That's not I don't

(01:16:05):
always understand which is which. I get a sense of
it from talking to them, but I'm not at practice.
I don't understand from a player development standpoint. I hear
from people who like Mahulcheck, I heard a lot of
great things from previous stop in this stop in terms
of how he develops, you know, and so that leads
you to believe that may be true. But I'm not
out there with him. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:24):
I don't, you know, And then you hear from other
coaches like but like here. One of the great things
that Jonathan Smith had going for him is every person
I talked to who was not at Michigan State who
had any inkling about him. A lot of people didn't
know him that well, but they thought he was a
good coach, and coming in like that when the hire happened,
they thought that guy's a good ball coach. And he

(01:16:45):
had some other areas that didn't work on and it
clearly didn't work at Michigan State. But sometimes the coach, yeah,
I don't know, so bulling a China closet.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
Ball coach Ralph E. Number one. Graham's last column Sunday
was the best of a good run of them. Yeah, man,
you've been on fire. I know we bust your balls here,
but man, a good job. This passed a couple of
weeks here. I appreciate you. Good for you, man. Two
Spartan Ventures received one hundred million seed money from the
generous donation. It also has a subsidiary, Spartan Athletics Foundation,

(01:17:15):
and three they announced that this would be kicked off
in six to eight months. Do you know or can
you predict what all this will look like? Will it
include nil sponsorships and Spartan Fund. I know it's a
working process, but these seem to be huge changes. It's
very interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
I think the Spartan Fund will be separate from Spartan Ventures.
The Spartan Ventures is a but Spartan Ventures will obviously
be the revenue part of Spartan Athletics. This is something
that it was interesting because Jay Batten knows that people
don't quite understand this, and I had somebody who works
with them reach out to me and asking about, like

(01:17:54):
would it make sense for him to do a piece
or an interview just explaining this. And at the time
my point was, you know, this is when Jonathan Smith's
still the coach, and that was the answer, And there
were a lot of questions and a lot of things.
I said, you know, for him to do an interview
right now, he's going to have to be able to
answer a lot of stuff, like he's going to have
to talk about the coaching situation, he's gonna have to
talk about what other things are going on. Yes, this

(01:18:14):
is interesting, and I do think now were to point
where one of the things to talk to him about
is what this all looks like, how it unfolds. You know,
it's the old Explain it to me like a five
year old, because I want to be able to explain
it to everybody else like they're a five year old.
And I think that's really important. I think it's something
that will happen in the short term.

Speaker 3 (01:18:30):
Explain it like you're talking to the roupe. There you go,
that's what I need. I'm on center next number one.
Christmas is popular in the US because it's the only
time of year we treat work like it doesn't run
our lives. Work to live, not live to work, and
too Graham, I will subscribe to the LSJ if you
write a serious article on which Christmas cookie Each Big
ten coach would be.

Speaker 2 (01:18:52):
More likely to do it with a groovy don't it?
But I think you'd rather just pay for your subscription. Yeah,
just to be a free one. Yeah, I don't. I
don't know if I could pull that off. I don't
know if I have the talent humor. I'm the guy
who just just said, you know so, I don't really,
I don't know if I have the ability to to
do it. It's it could be a fun column if

(01:19:12):
I could, if I could pull it off. If you
give me some suggestions, give me, give me started down.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
The right path. I will give you some mgs. I will.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
Yeah, it might be one of the right fire with
a few mgs. I do think Christmas has some elements
of this there are you know. It is an area
of time where we do put our personal lives ahead
of our work lives, and we don't do enough of
that in this country.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
Uh neurotic pants. Number one, Graham should absolutely no dry
humping around. Tell us what he knew before all the
big announcements as a member of the Lancing power elite.
He definitely knew something. Some guy on a park bench
told me about Graham's knowledge and power. And two two
Jason should discuss the re retainment of ROSSI. We did,

(01:19:54):
I mean, we talked about it already. Yeah, you're you're
okay with it? Well, I'm being turned here by everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
Some people are make good points about not bringing ROSSI
back and not having a guy, you know, to bring
guys in. I do like that for some reason, when
you know a guy is showing up with some dudes.
So I do you know, But I don't mind if
Fitzgerald's gonna try this. I just want to see if
Rossi doesn't end up working out next year, can he
make a move to get rid of him, Because that's
what I want from my head coach, a guy that

(01:20:20):
can make cutthroat decisions and not worry about it, not
worry about someone's feelings or that their family or their
kids go to school here. Like I get that we
worry about all that stuff on the on the forefront
as a human being, but as a football coach, you
just have to make a move. These guys understand that.
I mean, look at college football the way it is.
I think everybody understands now. You don't produce your asses
out of here, so don't so tell your kids not

(01:20:41):
to get too comfortable. I think they get it by now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
And I think for Rossie, this is a good move.
You know, I thought Rossie would be a defensive coordinator
somewhere next year. I thought he'd done enough. He has
his reputations decent enough there'd be a place that would
hire him. But if you're Joe Rossi and you're in
your mid forties and you're hoping at some point, I'm
sure to be a head coach. And I think when
he came over with Jonathan Smith and left Fleck, he
thought he'd kind of done what he could at Minnesota,
and Fleck took a lot of the oxygen to the

(01:21:05):
room there, and like do you come to Michigan State,
it gets turned around. The defense winds up being elite
at a place known for defense, and like a nardoozie,
you get an opportunity, right. I think the fact that
his reputation was sort of revived late last season gets
a new coach new opportunity, and you know, if things
go well for a couple of years, he is a

(01:21:26):
guy who might because I think people do like him,
they like engaging with him. He's a guy who has
a lot of head coach qualities in certain ways, and
he's getting that that perfect age for it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:37):
In terms of what I knew.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
When I mean I knew, I knew a lot of
the specifics of the donation, not entirely all of them,
but that's so true. Yeah, I mean sometimes I didn't
have it from anybody who where I could share it,
But that way I would have shared it. I'm not
somebody is out to just keep information from people. If
I have it from a source that's allowing me to

(01:22:00):
you know, sometimes I don't want to know things for
that reason. Like one of my least favorite things is
being told something I can't share because then I feel
like i'm But.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
If someone tells you that, like, don't share this with someone,
doesn't I lock in when someone I always tell people
if you don't want me to tell someone else, please
tell me. Don't tell it. Not everybody's telling me shit.
But you know what I mean, if you had something
important you don't want me because I just feel like okay,
then I know it gets locked in my dumb brain
of like, don't tell people, but you feel like you
have to keep Well, if someone's like Graham, could you
not well, yeah, if somebody tells me something, if some

(01:22:31):
there are different ways, if there's something that's off the
or that's told and confidence off the record.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
But izzo, you have no idea. What's Iszzo is a
whole different thing. That's a different skill. Covering Izzo is
like weaving in and out and you kind of learn
it over time. I'm surprised he hasn't really been burned,
because there are enough like students and young people who
come through that it would just take like one hungry
person's like, wait, Iszo said that Jesus peace and and
it would burn him?

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
And but Jesus, what's he telling these people? Not bad?
But he used to do and he doesn't do it
as much anymore. Theories, I mean, like what what could
possibly get out to where it was like holy shows
he on the Epstein fucking list. What I mean you
say these things? I'm sorry, I have to think take
the no no no.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
But Iso used to do and there are still things
he's told me that that you know, you're like, I
wish I could share that. I mean, what the hell
man like or or or I think of ways can
I get back at him to talk about something a
little more publicly on this. But he used to do
a lot more roundtables. He used to do on Mondays.
He would do like a half hour press conference and
then he'd do like an hour round table that was
in and you know, on and off the record and

(01:23:35):
some of the stuff. And sometimes it was he was
weaving in and out there. That was the place he
weaved in and out the most, and you'd have all
these people standing around, some that didn't have great experience
with him, and he would say things that you know
about how he felt about an opposing coach or imposing
player or something like that that you knew he was
speaking off the record, and he would change in tone
or sometimes he would say it, which was smart, but

(01:23:56):
sometimes he wouldn't. You just you knew, because the whole
thing was on and off and you can and it
would have taken one person once to like say is
oh hates this guy, and that would have been it.
There would have been no more of that, and he
would have clamped up on that stuff. And he's I
think he's been lucky to a degree that most people
have understood it around there, or young people haven't had
the balls to print it.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Jarrett next. Graham's take that the Lions and Chiefs have
the best outlook for an NFL franchise at the beginning
of the season is looking worse every week. Sounds out
of contact. I mean, like you're capable of saying some
shit like.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
That, but I felt like there was some context what
I mean, here is I think before this season started,
or at the very beginning, I was saying, if I
had to be any two franchises in football right now,
I'd want to be the Lions or Chiefs, just because
I thought the Lions for the next couple of years
had as good a chance as anybody, if not better,
at winning the Super Bowl heading into the season. And

(01:24:50):
the Chiefs have Mahomes and you know, and you certainly
right now, the Mahomes thing is interesting because right they're
gonna he's like thirty right now, They're going to have
another run with him, and they might have to retool
the roster to some degree, but they have him.

Speaker 3 (01:25:07):
It was all Travis Kelsey's fault last night. He's thinking
about his wedding next year.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
And it was Andy Reid in that fourth down call
that was pretty ridiculous. I mean, you're did you I
heard cousin Sal talking about this, how it's hard for
me to listen to the Simons Sal podcast ever since
they stopped.

Speaker 3 (01:25:26):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:25:26):
Now I have issues post Harry Harry's guys, you know,
but apparently it was ten to ten at that moment
going to that fourth down, and Kansas City was minus
three hundred something to win because because their defense was dominating. No,
the defense was dominated. They just punted the ball. It
didn't look like Texas was going to get anything. That
was a huge, huge air. But yeah, no it's not.

(01:25:49):
I still think the Lions are going to retool and
be in better shape next year. I think the Chiefs
will do the same. I still think those two franchises are,
you know, among the top you know, five or six
franchises you'd want to be for the next year or so.

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
I just just protect golf. Yeah, Jesus age, you know
watch it. I know not saying Daniel Daniel Jones is
on Goff's level. I'm just saying the injury and seeing
something like that, of like, your season's done and you
went from having playoffs somewhat hopes if you're the Colts
to all of a sudden after one play you can
see what Hiley Leonard and what an achilles your next
season's kind of done to. That's the hard party, I know,

(01:26:23):
CW number one, I'm tired of the twelve team playoff.
Go back to four teams. Two. This is the best
I've felt after an MSU loss. But how the hell
do is o coach team still struggle struggle with the
zone three? What a weird word to get wrong. Struggle
three Bears verse Packers was an unusual watch experience. I

(01:26:43):
caught myself rooting for whatever defense was on the field.
That's when you know you hate both teams. I hated
that game. Yeah, game's stunk just because it's hard to Yeah,
because you're rooting against both, right, is that why? Well? Absolutely,
I hate both of them. But I thought it was passion.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
I thought it was clear from a Lions standpoint that
you want the Bears to lose that game because you
want the Bears. You want that game on January fourth
to be the Lions win it. They're in and so
that lost by the Bears we're going to, by the way,
if it means something, are you really Yeah? Oh that's fun,
I know, Oh my god, that's cool. Yeah, only if
it means something. If we get out of the playoffs,
we're not going to that shit. Well, like if it'll

(01:27:19):
be like Notre Dame, get out of here. If you
look at the rest of the Bears schedule, I mean,
the Bear schedule is brutal. I don't know why people
the Lions I'm not saying the Lions don't have some
tough games, and obviously the Rams are tough, but the Bears,
obviously they host the Browns, which are no picnic to
play against, even though they're not that good. Then they
host the Packers, and then they have the forty nine
ers on the road before the Lions. Like, the Bears

(01:27:40):
are gonna lose games, Like I think that game is
going to mean something, I really do. What will be
interesting enough have to look at the Bears could lose
enough that like that, the Lions could lose that game
and still get in potentially, how you're talking, that's what
we want, Like this is the couch I love to hear.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
By the way, the Browns aren't winning. I don't know,
they're not beating the Bears. As long as you have stuff,
I mean that he's yeah, he's fucking terrible. The Browns
are helpless. MCV number one. If Indiana or Texas Tech
win the National Championship, it will trigger the largest structural
overhaul in college football history. The powers that be won't
allow those brands to have that level of success without

(01:28:18):
consequences and bonus bowl eligible team sitting out a bowl
season is the beginning of the end on any concept
that fans matter in this sport. Enjoy those multi million
dollar donations because they will be a thing of the
past once the older fans pass away.

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
I mean, the Ishbie is just the world are still there.
There's I think in terms of that, there's still a
generation of people who are going to have wealth that
are going to care greatly the struggle for college football.
And this is where a lot of the national folks
and a lot of people in the sport don't think
enough about it. Is what happens. You know, people who
are you know, sixteen to twenty four right now, who

(01:28:56):
have sort of been in this or even younger like
that next generation, do they care the way that we
care about this? Do people graduate from these schools later care?
Do they feel as connected that that's gonna be a
big deal. I don't think Indiana or Texas text would
would trigger a structural overhaul. I think other things might
trigger a structural overhaul. I don't think people are the

(01:29:17):
Indiana story is so big. Nobody views Indiana as like
this threat that nobody wants that to happen.

Speaker 3 (01:29:23):
It just yeah, I think, I mean, is there money
flying at Indiana when Signetti was getting these majority of
them being his former players at James maddis.

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
Well, that was just the first year. A lot of
these guys are not the second year is what was
impressive to me. The first year was like, okay, I
kind of get it. He had a team that won
like eleven games, and he brought like eleven starters and okay,
I kind of see it. Now, what was impressive about
that first year? And he's picked a good quarterback each year,
better one this year even, what's impressive about that? And
then some of that quarterback identifying the right quarterback and

(01:29:54):
you can say Jonathan Smith. That's where he partly failed.
But I think the the fact that the mid major
guys he had were so good and could play up
tells you about their development. And you don't always see that, right,
I mean, look at Michigan, say basketball at Trey Fort
right now, solid okay player, role player on a good
Big Ten team. But like if that was if you

(01:30:15):
brought in eleven of those guys on a football team, like,
you're not winning the Big Ten the next year, You're
not getting to the playoff. And the fact that his
guys at James Madison where the catalyst for that was
was pretty much.

Speaker 3 (01:30:24):
Did you hear Mendoza go full Tony D after the
game in his interview? I heard it was not great?

Speaker 1 (01:30:29):
What we tell you?

Speaker 3 (01:30:31):
What did we tell you?

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
What? Did we come here and take it?

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
Ah?

Speaker 4 (01:30:41):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:30:43):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:30:43):
Wait? That was Tony D was But yeah, it sounded
something like that couch on fire. How do you go
into the portal and pull two quarterback rabbits out of
your hat like signetti? He was sold, He sold his
has he sold his soul to the devil on this
stupefying Indiana success and bonus your Saturday's performance seems Fears
might be more Eric Snow than any other comparison. Many

(01:31:05):
of those shots were ugly.

Speaker 2 (01:31:07):
Now, I think Fears is more Cleaves. Still, I think
he's hit some big shots. It was a bad game,
it was, and I know what you mean by Snow,
but Snow is Snow was a good player in a
different era and and he did some things really well,
and he could defend like crazy, but he didn't have
this sort of swagger to Fears is more Cleaves than
that in that in that sense that, yeah, you're right,

(01:31:28):
the signettes and some of this is with these quarterbacks,
you've really got to pick and choose who you want
to go after. It's interesting a guy like Sam Levitt's
back in the portal by the way, and Sam Levitt
seems like a guy who's a bit of a headache.
You know, you've got a pretty good situation Arizona State,
but you're you know now, you're leaving it now. I
understand they have a bit of a roster overall there,

(01:31:50):
but uh, I you got to you got to pick
these guys right, and that's a big part of the job.
You get the quarterback wrong and you don't you know.
I mean, it's we've seen it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:01):
David Jackson. Yes, some were shot clock beating prayer attempts,
but Fears in car need to understand that when they're
missing every non dunk that they attempt, it's time to
stop fearlessly firing away. As Clint Eastwood says, to end
Magnum Force, a man's got to know his limitate.

Speaker 2 (01:32:20):
Fears though, it's always good to know that Fears has
hit a lot of shots. Fears had an off day
and he's missed him and he does need to do
I think Iso wants him to do the pull up
more than the floater because he feels that's a better
shot for him, and shot he makes more often. Yeah,
I mean, Carl, they both had off days shooting the ball,
and car has some limitations. And yeah, I mean that's

(01:32:40):
one of the challenges this MSU team has, and it's
one of one of my questions about them, is like,
when things aren't working and you need a bucket, do
you have a guy and go get your buckets? Because
you can't just always completely stop everybody. And that's one
of the areas that I think could be an achilles heel.

Speaker 3 (01:32:56):
Mister ben Jen that Duke loss will pay off more
benefits this MSU ban basketball season than a win would have.
And from Karen, it sucks to lose to Duke especially,
but it would be better for a team success down
the road.

Speaker 2 (01:33:10):
Yeah, I don't know how beneficial losing. I mean, I
do understand the point of a loss. You learn from
Like sometimes they were talking about a couple cutouts, missed
on free throws and other things like that, and when
those actually cost you a game, as they might have,
and you're able to point to that and you know
and you learn, and that's the sweat equity right, and
some of the older players in the locker room talked
about some of the young guys not yet quite and

(01:33:32):
it takes a minute, right, they don't understand every possession
can kill you if you don't get it right. Every
possession matters, and so there is growth in that and
you can use these as tools, I guess, but still sucks.

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
It'll still help you have mentally with a loss, saying
you know, down the road this will mean more.

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
But I think they would have been okay losing. I
think they are winning. Sorry, I think they would have
been fine as a team. Now what would have been
interesting is I have seen seasons with teams where you're
unbeaten for a long time and then that a thing
like you play tight at some point or the streak
becomes bigger than I don't think that would have mattered
because at some point you know you're going to lose
in the big ten. But it might have gotten, you know,

(01:34:10):
well into January.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
Spartan Sunshine number one. Boozer has a stupid looking face,
but was really good to both James Madison and Tulane
should not make the playoffs. Both will lose by double
digits three three Indiana loses in the first game. Ohio
State wins back to back national championships. I'll be surprised.
I think this Indiana team is pretty good, and I
think they're healthy enough. I was worried when Mendoza took

(01:34:33):
that hit right at the beginning of the game, and
I was like, that's like, is that it everything you
hope for goes? You know? But by the way, I
didn't know his brother was on the team until that moment.
Is the backup? Oh he does what his brother's Battle
of Bros? Yeah? Yeah, wow. Alex mayor number one Trey
Ford not being a middle of the road Big ten
player could be the downfall of this team eventually, unless

(01:34:55):
Scott doesn't hit the freshman wall and to hot take.
I love that they donate to his school I root for,
but no single person should have four hundred and one
million to donate and three Bowl games are officially dead
just to expand the playoffs and get rid of any
mid to lower tier Bowl games.

Speaker 2 (01:35:11):
It's not what I would have spent form one hundred
million dollars on, but I mean, GAMASU fans are grateful
for it, and.

Speaker 3 (01:35:18):
And I think when you have eleventy billion dollars. I
mean four hundred and one mill eleventy billion, that's the number.
That's the Mexican food.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
You know, they could have used, they needed trade. They
could use more from trey Fort than they're getting. And
I thought they would get more. And that's just based
on like the summer runs. And I'm not talking moneyball,
like you hear stuff from people about who he was
in summer workouts, the summer runs with the team, and
and and I can see how like trey Fort's going
to make a really good living overseas because he's what

(01:35:47):
a lot of European leagues don't have, like that sort
of athleticism and stuff like. He will be a I'm
not saying he's a top tier player over there, but
he's going to make a really good living living and
be somebody that.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
Like Frankie Fiddler. I saw what Selary retweeted something about
Frankie Fider dropping twenty four in some Turkish league.

Speaker 2 (01:36:02):
Or you just saw Malik Hall and Cassius Winston played
against each other the other day. I mean those guys now,
but trey Ford has a specific skill set in terms
of being an athletic dude. But not an NBA player.
That's gonna it's gonna work. It's gonna work overseas.

Speaker 3 (01:36:18):
For Cubs, ninety want hot. The zone wasn't that great
on Saturday, and they need to get more creative with cheers.
You can taunt people without hurling expletives and bonus. If
this rumor about getting Notre Dame getting an auto bid
with a certain ranking is true, teams needs to need to.

Speaker 2 (01:36:35):
Stop schedulings so everybody, just a Michigan state actually plays
them next year. Right, So yeah, teams just stop playing
Notre Dame like screw them until they join a conference
shun them. Yeah, the zone interesting point. I didn't think
they were I thought they were fine. I thought they
were you know, I thought the sound early on was
as good as I'd heard in a while, so interesting that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:54):
You place was rocking. But I think he's talking about
the fuck Cam boozer thing or Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:36:58):
Mean, you ought to be more creative. You don't need
you don't need the f wort. You really don't. I
mean we use it here occasionally on this show once
in a while, but you don't because we're normal people.

Speaker 3 (01:37:06):
But yeah, we're not like in a public setting to
where because I got to say even my my inner
old guy was this guy like, oh, come on, guys.
You know I would never say it out loud in
front of people, but in my brain I just was like,
and it's just not that creative.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
It feels good and sometimes there are moments to say it,
but you want to reserve that moment for when a
guy is a true douchebag. Right, You don't do it
just because a guy is good and he's got a
stupid looking face, you know, like, that doesn't that can't
be the reason.

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
There's you know, the Internet and everything. You could find
out stuff about people and get creative right.

Speaker 2 (01:37:37):
Without Yeah, I agree, Let's let's take one last break.
When we come back, We've got some really good stuff.
As I promised, I like the end of this show,
some some really good takes. Couching the Roof are Monday
Show presented by our friends at Muskox Quality Flannels.

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Speaker 4 (01:39:17):
So like, you should totally hit that like button and
subscribe to couch in the Roob on YouTube. Seriously though,
if you don't, Santa is literally going to skip my
house this year. And Graham Couch Yeah, he's threatening to
katnap my precious kiddie. So come on help a girl out.

Speaker 2 (01:39:43):
Couching the rub Our Monday Show presented by our friends
at Muskox Quality Flannels. Go to go Muskox dot com
where you can use the promo code peacock for fifteen
dollars off your flannel purchase. Make a great Christmas gift
this year with a Muscox flannel. You'll be appreciated and
you'll show the people in your life that you appreciate them.
Just just got a I saw a tweet that Andrews

(01:40:05):
shared somebody put out there and it was a thing
that said I am this old and it was a
it's a picture of Castle Grayskull, which was the great
Christmas gift I had of my early early years. And
what is that Castle Grayscall.

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
From he Man?

Speaker 1 (01:40:21):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:40:21):
Okay, yeah, so when I was when I was really young,
I I wanted Castle Grayskull, and my parents thought it
was probably too violent for me. I must be like
four years old, but it was the only thing I
asked for. And I had asked Santa, like one of
those places where they take you at the mall or
a friend or wherever it was. I sat on Santa's
lap and I asked for Castle Grayscale. So on Christmas

(01:40:43):
Eve they went out and got it for me, and
I learned from that day forward that you always ask
Santa for what you really want and you own, and
you keep your asking to a limit and your parents
had to get you it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:55):
Like that was very early on. I didn't know he
Man was so violent. I know he had a giant sword. Yeah,
I don't know. I was. I was pretty young, like four, Like,
I don't know if they thought us. I know, it's
just weird to have parents that actually carried it. My
parents were just like all right, it shuts them up,
like give them to the he Man thing. I mean
they were in their early twenties.

Speaker 2 (01:41:11):
So that is a story almost we're telling, but told anyway,
presented by our friends at Midtown Brewing Company in downtown Lancing.
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Speaker 3 (01:41:31):
Zubruqua Spartan. Next, here is my humble proposal for what
should happen to a school that declines a bull bit
the next season. They should be hit with an automatic
one spot deduction by the College Football Playoff Committee in
their next rankings. That would shut these Prima Donna programs
down real fast. And bonus, if this reporting that Notre
Dame gets an automatic bid if they finished the season

(01:41:52):
in the top twelve starting next season is accurate, we
need to riot. That's absolutely absurd. It just emphasizes to
everyone that this system is rigged. Join a conference or
piss off. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42:04):
I think people are gonna get more and more anti
Notre Dame with this stuff, and it's not a great
look now, but I will say this, every fan base
would be doing this if Michigan State got snubbed like this,
everybody would be upset. And I don't mind. Like I
wouldn't want to if I were a team, I wouldn't
want to go to a bowl game that wasn't in
the playoff. If you thought you were a playoff team,
there's no point in that.

Speaker 3 (01:42:21):
I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
I wouldn't play either, So I would do what Notre
Dame's doing. But I also understand why why they're annoying.

Speaker 3 (01:42:27):
I mean, I'm laughing at their suffering, but I'm also
like on their side, I get why you would complain
about I think you can be both. I guess, uh not.
Thomas next took a bit of a hiatus from listening
during the Jonathan Smith tenure. What we get we get
punished because of him? Uh fair, it's Michael Bolton syndrome.
There is this same thing back just in time to

(01:42:48):
catch Couch's take the Kohler should hurt himself soon to
catch a red shirt. There's no hotter take, but I'll
try with this. Uh Smith would still be the coach
if he hadn't brought Childs.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
It were right, I mean, if he had brought like
if he had had Sam Levitt, or if he had
had a quarterback who could win a couple more of
those close games.

Speaker 3 (01:43:09):
You're right.

Speaker 2 (01:43:09):
I mean if Jonathan Smith had won six games this year.
I Jonathan Smith at the end of this year had
beaten and I didn't think this necessarily at the time,
but I do now. I think if he had beaten Minnesota,
Iowa and Maryland and gotten a six wins with three
wins there at the end of the year in November,
I think he's still the coach. I'm pretty sure of it.
Sounds awful.

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
Scottie Green's al Camino. I'm guessing Jay Batt knows. Buster Faulkner,
the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, read an article that
he drives defensive coordinators crazy. Seems highly regarded. Maybe leverage
the relationship and throw two million a year at him
and Bonus Couch. I just went to New York City
for a long weekend to get the full Christmas experience,

(01:43:51):
even went to see the Rockats. I told my wife,
you know who would love this, Graham Couch, and she said,
is he the one that stole the Cat's killing a
gay guy? I mean, that's their first thing.

Speaker 2 (01:44:04):
That's what I'm thinking though, this is how I had
to get rid of the gay guy thing. I mean,
I don't want to be known as the guy that.
I don't want to be known as the guy who
actually didn't push a gay guy down the stairs. But
I don't to be known for that. I'd rather be
known for explain it though.

Speaker 3 (01:44:22):
I think that's my favorite part is you have to
tell people like you go for a while and you're like,
all right, I should probably tell people I really didn't
kill a gay guy. Yeah I should say that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:30):
Yes, I mean, we all know, all right, Okay, you know,
it's just funny that you have to you feel like
you knows lungs.

Speaker 3 (01:44:35):
We're clear on this.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
To your first point, I do think this speaks to
the idea of right hiring people who who have given
you problems before, you know, whether it be Buster Faulkner
or somebody that you faced, or somebody in their tree
or you know, you call and you just, you know,
coordinators from people you've talked to, who at even smaller
levels like who's a I'll give you an example of

(01:44:56):
this when I when I covered Western Michigan and lived
in Kalamazoo. No kid, Yeah yeah, Bill Cubitt his first coordinator.
Higher there was Scott Schaeffer, who was an excellent defensive coordinator,
didn't wind up having a good run as a head
coach and got railroaded at Michigan by rich Rod.

Speaker 3 (01:45:11):
But he was.

Speaker 2 (01:45:14):
He was the guy who was on Harbaugh's staff at
Stanford when they upset USC without a whole lot of talent.
And but before that, he was at Western Michigan for
two years, and he had been at Northern Illinois previously,
and Cubett had faced him as an offensive coordinator and
even at Western before and things like that, and he
just remembered, like, that guy's defenses give me problems. It

(01:45:34):
drives me nuts. And so when he got a head
coaching job, he hired him. And that's the stuff when
you've been around and you have a Rolodex and you
have memories of games and offenses that you think, Kurt,
you are unique. When you were studying, keep in mind,
these guys scout opposing offenses all the time, and there's
got to be ones where you go, boy, I really
like what this guy does, or I really like this
guy's mind or how that worked. And so I'm very

(01:45:55):
curious to see who he hires Thomas.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
I love that the MSU hockey team is so ready
to play an intense, chippy rivalry game. But they need
to keep their heads and play more disciplined if they
want to live up to their billing this year, because
Friday was pretty rough. Yeah, I miss Friday's game as
it's a Slarry's Holiday party. But it still happened.

Speaker 2 (01:46:16):
It still happened. Yeah, it still happened. It's a good,
it was good party. It's good to see some people.
But I will, yeah, it's some audio from it.

Speaker 3 (01:46:27):
I will the top of the Big ten hot fun
is really good.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
Unfortunately, there's only like six home games left and four
games left for the for the playoffs. Somehow the most
of januine February ages you know, not anywhere near Eastlantic.

Speaker 3 (01:46:38):
Stupid sparty barb number one. It sucked being rinkside at
Month on Friday, watching the cheaters from down the road
completely punk your team by out hustling them and controlling
the puck. But congrats to Nightingale for a tremendous job
getting the team to refocus for the bounce back win
at Yost. What a rollercoaster of a take care too.
The loss to Duke was a gut punch, but adversity

(01:47:01):
creates champions and three. MSU basketball should continue home and
home series with high level out of conference programs every year.
Creates a great experience for players and high level games
for fans.

Speaker 2 (01:47:14):
I totally agree, and I think, you know, if some
of these things are going to go away a little bit,
like the the Maui Invitation, which is three games, you
know over Thanksgiving, and you're doing more two and one
game deals, there's more opportunity for that now. Duke was
just a return game for the Champions Classic being in
Durham during the COVID year, But you should do more

(01:47:34):
of these in Arkansas is a true home and home
and I love that. I mean, the Michigan State will
play down there next year. And I think every year,
you know, this year you wound up having these two
great games, but if every year you've got one on
the road and one at home, and I know scheduling
is tricky, but that should be the goal. Like every
year there's at least one of these games at home
against a marquee opponent or a really good program that

(01:47:55):
people appreciate, and every year you know you're on the
road for one, and what's a really difficult learning experience?
I think those are those are valuable things.

Speaker 3 (01:48:04):
Chris next number one, A close loss, even at home
to the Dookies, is better than a big ten loss.
And two MSU hockey show grit bouncing back from nearly
fiveless scoreless periods to split with scum. And three the
committee stays contradicting themselves. BAMA gets blown out and stays in,
but BYU Notre Dame both drop. Either Bama or BYU

(01:48:24):
both make it or neither should.

Speaker 2 (01:48:26):
The conference championship games are tricky, right, The idea you
get this new data point, but other teams don't have
to play, so they don't get punished, and you do,
the problem is, if you play like shit, you should
get punished. And BYU got hammered. Right, I am sort
of the conference games done.

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
I think eventually. I think they're eventually, I mean next year,
we're done with them. Right?

Speaker 2 (01:48:43):
Well there, I mean, I don't know what the TV
contracts say in terms of television is the reason they exist,
so television will decide when they're done. I guess I
would certainly the more that the playoff expands, the less
likely there to be around. I think it's a really
easy way to get control of the calendar to go.
You start everything a week earlier in college football, and

(01:49:05):
so the week before Thanksgiving you're done with the regular season.
And then if if you know, depending where you're at,
you're either starting with playing games the following week or
you're you know, that's what I would like to see
more of, if you're gonna do if the following week,
if you could make it so that game was not
just a conference championship game, but there was some sort
of uh more what Petiti said. The problem with what

(01:49:29):
Petiti wants in terms of the Big Ten as a
certain amount of auto qualifiers and to the playoff, and
that what is years like this where the Big Ten
doesn't deserve four teams, they deserve three and they get
three and you know, in Premier League soccer, and I
understand that's the model, like in European soccer, you have
you know, four or five teams automatically getting the Champions League.
And what you'd have to do, though, is you'd have

(01:49:52):
to make it based on the previous year or whatnot,
where that changes. You don't always you know, this year
you're getting four, but you sucked last year, so you
only get three next year and another league gets the extra.
You'd have to do something like that. I'm not saying
there's not a way to do it, but I don't
think the Big Ten automatically getting four and the Big
twelve getting two is fair. I think not knowing what

(01:50:13):
those leagues are going to be ahead of the season,
you can't predetermine more deserving teams in the Big Ten
because you get years like this where they don't exist.

Speaker 3 (01:50:20):
Bepe plumb next number one. I like MSU Hockey. Two,
I like when Fitz said it's a rebirth. And three
I want to like coach Sig, but he looks like
a wart growing on bo Ryan's left half of it.
Scrolled him. Jesus Rough, you should be the Michigan coach.
What a piece of standardized test this guy is. And
four I like this MSU hoops team boy a wart

(01:50:43):
growing on the left half of a scrotum. If you
call me that in middle school, I would have cried,
p sure soft, No, do you ever ever get you? Ever?
Did anybody ever pick on you? I did not picked on.
I got kicked in the balls, like on the playground
and that's when of the lunch lady had to carry
me off. I was I don't think I told yeah,

(01:51:04):
it was recently. Really Yeah, we got kicked in the nuts.
Yeah yeah, but not be it. No, I was made
fun of it. I didn't cry un till I got home.
When you got home, you cried because it was embarrassing.
Because of course, when you get ripped on a goofedan
as a kid, got a weird ear and a lazy eye,
and you go to middle school and kids can be
absolutely brutal, you know, and you know, but you don't
show them. This is why social media can't exist for

(01:51:27):
middle schoolers, because at least you get to get away
from it and go home and you get some refuge.
The fact that middle schoolers today go home and now
it's on social media, I couldn't imagine that.

Speaker 2 (01:51:34):
I yeah, And I'm telling you I'm not advocating cocaine
for children, but I will say that if we don't
allow cocaine, we shouldn't be allowing social media for children.
I think they're just as bad.

Speaker 3 (01:51:43):
Like let's let's you know now that should have been
your first take. Sorry, Yeah, Steve, cocaine for children, Steve
Waite Number one, it's year three. There should be a
solid strength program in place that ms that has MSU
women's basketball consistently scoring through contact, finishing at the rim,
and defending the rim. But alas it's still a huge

(01:52:04):
and obvious issue. Until MSU can will its way to
points in the paint, it will not challenge for a
Big Ten title or get out of the first weekend
of the NCAA tournament. And to Pat Fitzgerald appears to
be retaining assistance from Jonathan Smith's staff out of necessity
to get his program in place quickly, but it isn't
instilling confidence that the win loss ledger will change much

(01:52:27):
in twenty twenty six. Continuity can be an asset, but didn't.
Coach fit suggests during the game Day podcast that he
had multiple resumes, presumably from quality coaches anxious to join them,
waiting to learn of those hires.

Speaker 2 (01:52:41):
Yeah, I mean, I think it can be a mix.
I don't think, you know, we're talking at this point
maybe three coaches staying on, So we'll see what it
looks like when it's May four, I think actually four
probably you know, that's you know, a third of his
staff so to speak. So in terms of coaching staff
and let's let's let's see what it looks like and

(01:53:03):
one of the things. I think it could take a moment,
But right now he's probably working on it more than
he was last week. When you're trying to get that
recruiting class in place. He did say, in an ideal world,
if this has happened a few weeks earlier, you get
the staff in place. But the way the signing day
is now in the player procurement part, like that, the
real focus for him is players and retaining. And now

(01:53:27):
the question is some of those players probably want to
know who's going to be your offensive coordinator and what
that's going to look like. And so I think you've
got to be able to do two things at once.

Speaker 3 (01:53:34):
Here pasy more like notre lame? Am I right? Imagine
thinking you're too good for the pop Tart Bowl and
bonus free mo Sala? Do you know who Mosala is?

Speaker 2 (01:53:45):
He's a soccer players that blew me away that you
knew that.

Speaker 3 (01:53:49):
You know, I'm not going to act like I don't
know people like I know soccer is. Believe me, I've
been inundated with this ship or people want you to watch,
or he's in my Twitter timeline. I'm not gonna like
I'm bigger than soccer or something. I don't know certain
guys that are, or maybe you've talked about it or something.
I just don't prefer not to waste my time watching it.

Speaker 2 (01:54:07):
You know, most of are you guys most solid comments
after their latest game where he did not play where
you know, I don't know, he acting like he's too
big for the dressing room a little bit. I think
I he has not played well and he does not
play defense.

Speaker 3 (01:54:20):
I did not play. Call it soccer. They call the
locker room the dressing room. I call it the dressing room.
Just now, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what the
soccer people call it. I think. So, I don't know,
I just now, I really really hate it dressing room,
Skyler Verden Graham. You can't complain about FIFA if you
give them money for the World Cup. You're not the
only one who I see doing this. But if them

(01:54:40):
taking advantage of fans and charging insane ticket prices pisses
you off, then don't buy tickets or otherwise I don't
want to hear you complain. Yeah, we're not going to
complain it is a turn off. It's been a conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:54:50):
So my buddy Scott and I are going to go
to the World Cup this summer and we're excited about it.
And we've had a joint checking account, saving his account
for like several years, putting twenty five dollars a paycheck
you and we have like we have like four grand
because we knew this was gonna happen. We knew it
was gonna be expensive, and so we we know if
we just looked at the price overall and didn't have
anything saved, like, well, we're not spending that. That's ridiculous.

(01:55:13):
What we've struggled with is the way FIFA gouges and
what these prices are going to talk. And I think
we're gonna do this despite how we feel, and we
don't feel great about that, just because we want this
experience and we're gonna spend probably fifteen hundred each of that,
so like we're gonna spotter, We're gonna spend three thousands
of the four thousand total just on a couple of
tickets to get good seats at games. And we're gonna

(01:55:36):
hate ourselves for it, but it's something we want to
get gouged everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:55:40):
I mean the line games.

Speaker 2 (01:55:42):
I mean, FIFA isn't especially egregious, awful bunch of fucks.

Speaker 3 (01:55:47):
It just it is.

Speaker 2 (01:55:48):
Don't get me wrong. I will probably just pee on
a FIFA sign at some point, or you know, something
FIFA related.

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
I will try to urinate Scott Powers to get some
video of that or at least a picture. Yeah, it's
an arrested, all right, Dave Lincoln. No love lost here
for Notre Dame not making the playoffs week schedule. If
they played MSU schedule, they would have had at least
one more loss. I said many years ago that if
they didn't join a conference, the Big Ten should have

(01:56:14):
stopped playing them entirely. And from Munfield keg so glad
Notre Dame was left out of the playoff. Their arrogance
is declining a bull bit is also hilarious. I get
that bulls and bowl season are pretty much a joke now,
but it is still arrogant as hell to decline a
good one. I just wish they could somehow get fined
for it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:32):
There is an anti notedd and I understand the anti
Notre Dame sentiment because they've always we got our own
TV network.

Speaker 3 (01:56:38):
We can live above it.

Speaker 2 (01:56:39):
Well, you know, somehow we got all these other Catholics
to fall for this, even though they didn't go here
and everybody loves their school.

Speaker 3 (01:56:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:56:45):
I mean, it's not it's I don't even understand the
I shouldn't say that they have the great golden helmet
to the Golden Dome. I get that they have the
great fight song, which is also I've got the story wrong.
I was singing it was the same fight song as
is Soko my dad's hold High School and Maine, which
only only our friend from Southern May would understand. I
think that might have been the Navy fight song. Anyway,

(01:57:05):
fix that in post no chance. Yeah, no, I understand
why Notre Dame's doing what they're doing, but I also
understand why nobody likes it.

Speaker 3 (01:57:15):
You're the best, dude, Kevin from Rochester Hills. Number one.
Notre Dame would have made the playoffs if Rudy was
there and two MSU was out coach in the second
half against Duke, and three Fears would be a great
player if he could score.

Speaker 2 (01:57:28):
Fears had a bad scoring game, but the man saw
a thirteen assists in one turnover and he scored plenty
of other games. You know, this was not a good experience.
I think he is a great player. I think he's
a great point guard. I think he's an okay scorer,
and I think we'll see that as as the year
goes on. I do think MSG was out coached in
the second half. I think they weren't great at adapt

(01:57:48):
to the zone. But I also think a couple of things.
You know that file is called when Carson Cooper drives.
If there's you know, there's a couple There was another
file that that was called that led to a duke
three pointer, like or a travel that was wasn't called.
It led to a duke three pointers. From getting that right,
there were some things that really really messed that up.

Speaker 3 (01:58:07):
By the way.

Speaker 2 (01:58:07):
Also, uh, my dad went to high school in Westbrook, Maine.
Just because I know our friend from southern Maine is
going to look that up and now I was going
to ask. I didn't want to get that incorrect. Now,
Sokko's where we vacation.

Speaker 3 (01:58:18):
Jay Riemenschneider, Michigan Basketball will leave Breslin on January thirtieth undefeated,
and we'll finish the regular season with only two losses.
I'm not talking about Michigan Mark Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:32):
I mean, look, they're phenomenal. They are, and I'm curious
to see them now. Some of the analysis after they
played Rutgers, which has a you know, Ken Palm rating
like the lowest Rutgers awful this year. But they they
are built to blow people out and I want to
see them get challenged. They were great against Zaga, They've
been I look that it's a great team. It's a

(01:58:54):
great team. I'm looking forward to seeing them night at
a night out of the Big ten. What it looks
like we missed s Bartholomew M.

Speaker 3 (01:59:01):
Sparkdolling you there you are, guys, sorry. Texas Tech is
exactly who MSU needs to model after non traditional program.
That's a sleeping giant that got serious and bought a
nasty D line, all while having a no name coach
like Jerry Maguire or whatever his name is.

Speaker 2 (01:59:18):
I don't know his name is, actually I can't remember.
There are lots of things. The big thing is the
D line. That's where in the line of scrimmage. It's
just really simple, right, you gotta win on the offensive
line of defensive line. I think the offensive line should
become what MSU is known for, and they should do
everything they can for that. The d line to some
degree too. And when you're gonna spend resources in the
portal and if you don't have the defensive line or

(01:59:40):
offensive line in place, you gotta do it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:43):
Mark Osterman next number one. This MSU basketball team could
end up being a tougher out in the tourney versus
last year. If Scott finds his shot some more car
finding it would help too. The length in athleticism they
have makes them a good matchup for most teams. Izo
still hasn't figured out how to be a zone, by
the way, and two. Having said that, I think Jase

(02:00:03):
was a bit short sighted on going pro. Could have
built a lasting legacy and been one of the only
father son duos to win a national championship, much less
at the same school. I would get it if he
couldn't have gotten a bag and staying in college, or
if his family needed the money. And from Jimbo Jones,
MSU basketball is a sophomore season Jase Richardson away from

(02:00:23):
a national championship, but Jordan Scott lifts them to a
final four.

Speaker 2 (02:00:27):
Yeah, I mean Jace would have been perfect. And you know,
if ISO's gonna win a second national title, not only
need some luck on your side, but part of it
is you need all that to sort of come together.

Speaker 3 (02:00:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:00:38):
It's if you get that year where Jaron Jackson comes
back and he nearly did and now he's on that
twenty nineteen Final fourteen with Casius Winston, with Jaron Jackson
and Xavier Tillman, like okay that or you get a
year where Jace Richardson happens to come back like that,
that can make the difference. And when you look at

(02:00:58):
what he's doing in the NBA's playing a little bit.
He played sixteen minutes, you know, twenty one minutes, ten
minutes and six and four. He's getting a little bit
of time. I'm not sure what he think like, I
think he'll be fine in the NBA. I'm sure there
are some lonely nights though, where he wishes he was
still playing for Michigan State.

Speaker 3 (02:01:17):
Sam the man next. MSU is in Duke's tier in
terms of overall team quality, but they just didn't execute
down the stretch. Car had a rough outing. The outside
shooting was woeful, and he missed some important free throws.
Fears Nugachuku really need to add a pull up jumper
and a floater slash runner to the repertoire. I genuinely
believe Jace Richardson would have put up twenty plus against

(02:01:38):
that Duke team, And this was the first game where
I really felt they missed Holloman.

Speaker 2 (02:01:43):
Holloman would have been interesting on this team because he
would have started, He would have gotten to play, you know,
he would have played about twelve minutes a game at
point guard and sixteen minutes a game at two guard
and could have been a really good player. I also think, though,
like I'm curious to see what happens with Jordan Scott,
Like I want to see what his ceiling is this year,

(02:02:03):
there is something to having that sort of length. Now
he's you can argue he's better at the three because
of some of the you know, ball handling. He's not
great great there and he moves it. But I really
like the lineup with the kind of the core four
in him, and defensively I think as a chance to
be more elite than it would be with Holloman. But
I agree if they had hollomany they'd be better off

(02:02:25):
it's got you.

Speaker 3 (02:02:26):
The Caleb Glenn injury was felt in that game for
the first time this season. Shows the thin margins which
MSU has and its depth without him on top top
of the cam Ward injury. Without Glenn, you lose the
ability to effectively absorb the Ward injury against top teams.
You see the domino effect of car and Kohler and
Cooper all the way down stream effects of increased minutes

(02:02:47):
here and there that decreases the sharpness and attention to detail.

Speaker 2 (02:02:51):
Yeah, having both those like they're different players. And I
think it's interesting to listen to ISO talk about Caleb
Glenn because Caleb Glenn will be on the scout team
by the end of this year. Like he's already like
dunking in practice. But they're not going to waste a
year of eligibility for sort of a playing a little
bit bit role. And you know, he's got two years
left and they're going to maximize it. And you know,

(02:03:12):
I think MSU is hoping, though, they get those two
years out of him. And I'd be very surprised if
you know a guy who rehabbed his whole year at MSU,
who's already transferred twice if he doesn't doesn't stay. But
you never know these guys. And the cam mort injury
was big because Cam r we've just seen how effective
he can be, even in that first game. He heard
himself against the North Carolina how effective he was. And

(02:03:33):
so they need him to be healthy, and I would
do you know they made this mistake with Keith Appling
years ago, and Keith Appling is a more important position,
which made it harder. But do not let a risk
injurjury League Linger, and right now before Big ten play,
if you need to just let him sit till Christmas,
then let him sit till Christmas. Get that one hundred
percent right, John.

Speaker 3 (02:03:54):
Noddy Number one. Graham looked really, really hungry during the
MSU game, but he refused free food I was willing
to buy. Defiant, he said, the only groovy donuts. That
only groovy donuts would do. And the Bresla needs to
sell groovy donuts for Graham's sake. Columnists need to eat too.
And two, I'm not the smart kid in class or anything,
but maybe it would be a good idea for MSU

(02:04:15):
athletics to make a lot of money renting out the
concession areas in Breslin to five guys Buddi's Pizza or whatever.
So they could have like a food full time food,
full time court during the week and during games. Surely
the rent would be they would get from big companies
would be more than whatever they make selling pretzels fifteen

(02:04:37):
times a year during home games.

Speaker 2 (02:04:38):
So like you could walk into the bread. It would
be kind of cool. I think about it, because the
Brezlan concourse is nice and it's the doors are usually
locked once you're in there. You could see how it
would be a nice food court for students, you know,
sort of like they have the International Center and other
things like that. You could have places that were just
open all the time. That would be a cool thing. John,
You're onto something original.

Speaker 3 (02:04:59):
Dark Mantonio bad Michigan football doesn't have a coach with
the likes of Brandon Narrato and Dusty may. I just
think Sharon ain't it and puzzling take how could one
player be so good yet simultaneously so bad in the
same game. Looking at you, Jeremy Fear A lot of
cis first point guards. I've seen it before. Yeah, it's uh.

Speaker 2 (02:05:18):
If you're Michigan State, you want your own more to
last you want, because I don't think anybody fears him.
It's not that they can't recruit with him, it's not.
I think people just feel like his ceiling is beneath
making another run at the title and developing great quarterbacks.
So that's just that's the sense. Now he may prove
people wrong, but if you're Michigan State, you do not
want things to the spiral to where they get rid
of him.

Speaker 3 (02:05:37):
Maddy Bee, maybe it'll work workout, but Ford is another
example of settling and not doing everything you can be
to get a number two good player. But this will
be a big miss in another almost good enough year
if Scott doesn't develop enough.

Speaker 2 (02:05:51):
Yeah, getting the most out of Scott means a ton
or tang. You know, kirteng could still be a guy
that becomes a really good shooter for you a defense.
I think he's got some things that just aren't there,
but now it I can't argue with you.

Speaker 3 (02:06:06):
Josh Rhodes, who wins a one on one game to
twenty one.

Speaker 2 (02:06:09):
Couch of the room and what sport I'm assuming is
there another twenty one you can playing football? Ping pong
ping pong?

Speaker 3 (02:06:17):
Twenty one? That's who would win in ping pong. I
don't know. I haven't played ping pong than I would
win the last time I was at my father in laws.
I mean, he's got a ping pong thing on there.
But yeah, I haven't played a hoop in a while either.
So in college, get me. Yeah, in college, I was
the best, the best of the non Asians and Mexicans
in my dorms. Dude, you can't do that to me.

(02:06:47):
You can't do that, all right, we're doing this live here.
Oh my god, I'm just saying. I mean, everybody knows
what I'm saying. I mean, it's well, I was in
the in the in the dorm tournament my roommate, now
you know what, I'm semi finals and we ran into, uh,
the cities that you just can't beat in that sport.
It's fine, it's no problem, all right. You can't do that, though,

(02:07:08):
fart soup number one. In ten years time, couch reverse
white flight platform will become more controversial than the Epstein
list or World War Two. In intermittent camps two not
a hot take, whatever, Yeah, I got you. Sorry, I
still have tears too. Not on tournament two. Not a
hot take, but this question can't wait. During his press

(02:07:30):
conference is a refer to some members of the media
that only sit up there on Twitter and that they
only the real media come to practice. Who is he
referring to Harns comp or Rico Beer.

Speaker 2 (02:07:42):
So at the practices in the practice gym's at Breslin,
there is this little area where there's a couple of
rows of like with areas you can set up a
laptop almost desks overlooking the just right above the practice court,
and there are people are doing work. I mean, our
schedule can't completely be uh, you know, sometimes you have

(02:08:03):
stuff you gotta do, but most people are Is this
an answer, Yeah, most people are having you know, there's
some conversations up but you know, I watched the basketball.
Other people are watching practice. ISO does look up there
from time to time, and I'm sure you see some
heads buried in computers, and that's what he thinks is
happening to people are just tweeting away, but that's not
always always what's happening. But he doesn't not look. Practices
are open. He gives you almost an hour of a practice,

(02:08:24):
you know, before every game, and it's important to you
watch those things because you do learn like even though
a lot of that's off the record, you can ask
about it. You see things that you're able to, you
do learn stuff from there, and it is something you
don't get at many other programs, and it's valuable.

Speaker 3 (02:08:39):
Sparty Party ninety four. There needs to be a full
reset on sports announcers, and Gus Johnson needs to be
launched to the moon. Dude went silent once Ohio State
pulled away in the game, and Saturday, during the Big
Ten Championship football game, he and Joel somehow managed to
slip in how great Michigan basketball is this year hashtag
fuck the blue Wall.

Speaker 2 (02:09:00):
Yeah, I'm not I'm not a welcome to the blue Wall.
I think Gus has lost it. And Gus used to
be okay, but Gus has lost it, and I think
a lot of people it was it a Big Ten
Championship game Michigan satet Iowa or whatever it was where
Gus just had zero energy or what. So it's been
ten years now. I think Gus has lost it for
a while. I'm just not a clatt does not bother me.
I think he's sort of in his prime. I understand
he does a lot of Michigan games, so people don't

(02:09:21):
don't love him, but Gus gust to be his lost
Why I love himself though? You know who doesn't love himself?

Speaker 3 (02:09:26):
I mean Clatt. No, I think Klatt's good at his job.
But I've met the guy before. Have you could tell? Yeah,
with the big ten media dates I was going around,
I met him and talked to him. You just tell
that he's just very into himself, and it's just you know,
if you're a normal guy like me, you're like that,
fuck this guy, but nothing personal. Richard Kine submitted for
consideration as the most big, most important hire, or most

(02:09:47):
important person ever at MSU John Hannah. If he had
not raised MSU's national profile, maybe none of the athletic
glory of Biggie Duffy, Mason, Judd, perlos Izzo D'Antonio ever happened. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:09:59):
No, there's a good point, you know, And this is
one of the things when Jay Batt talks about like
the most important thing ever in the school and you've
been there six months and you're from North Carolina, you
know that not a lot of uh.

Speaker 3 (02:10:09):
It's just comforting, comforting words, yes, yes, but you feel good.
Not exactly accurate. Yeah, Hans Jerget number one, encouraging loss.
I was hoping for an undefeated season and sub planning
the seventy six Hoosiers as the last undefeated team. And two,
I'm devastated an undefeated season will not happen in my lifetime.
I have nothing to live for except shitting on Graham

(02:10:32):
three Notre Dame, You arrogant fox. You think you're too
special to join a conference. Well you're especially left out
of the playoffs. Bonus another loss due to a zone defense.
Maybe we should develop one. It's not like we used
his own defense in the most famous game in NCAA
history or anything.

Speaker 2 (02:10:50):
That's the Magic Kelcer, the Magic Bird game in seventy nine. Yeah,
were you born then?

Speaker 3 (02:10:56):
Was no? Fuck? No, I was not. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:11:00):
Still in my mother there? Yeah, yeah, same, I was. Well,
I didn't even know if I was conceived. I don't
want to think about that. Yeah, still in my dad's
ball bag. Want to go back, Ye McDonald's park lot,
almost ready to get fired out.

Speaker 3 (02:11:15):
What you need? Answer you need? Oh? Good, that's awful. Yeah,
that's true. That's what happened. Jake Hawkins number one, great
hard fought game Saturday. I know it was gonna be
tough against Duke, but damn it, we had him. Don't
understand why our key shooters like Kohler didn't attempt to
three in the second half or put them in position too.
And of course we had to battle the damn Zebras

(02:11:36):
and to Notre Dame declined the bowl invitation because of
being left out of the college football Playoff. Here's two ideas.
A join a conference or b stay independent. But eight
regular season games are against Power four conference teams. That's
two teams each from ACC, the Big Ten, Big twelve,
and SEC and three GRAM. While it is true that

(02:11:57):
most kids are stupid, every time you say that, I
think back to Home Alone when Marv said he's a kid,
kids are stupid. It's a great line and Hawk ended
it with a bunch of h a's ha ha haaa.
Home Alone is a great rewatch this time of year.
It's only the only time to like rewatch it.

Speaker 2 (02:12:14):
Yeah yeah, but it never when it comes on, I'm like,
I want to see that in the certain scenes you
can come in and out of it.

Speaker 3 (02:12:20):
Which one's trumpet is he in the second one? He's
in the second one in New York? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:12:24):
Yeah, And to the one problem with the and I
don't mind the idea of playing two teams each from
the AEC Big ten, Big twelve, STEC, but they have
this constraction deal with the AEC and the a SEC
not being very good, and playing those teams against those
games against those teams doesn't help them either.

Speaker 3 (02:12:39):
Hawk for College Football Commissioner, Absolutely Hawk your guy to
end this thing here, Thank god number one. The Duke
loss will give Iszzo the ammunition to get this team
rolling in Big Ten play and to the Big Ten
really needs a new name now that they have eighteen
fricking teams.

Speaker 2 (02:12:54):
Yeah, it's the branding right. Other teams have changed their
name as their league's grown. I don't know that you
can never do that with a Big ten. But the
Big eighteen and plus you get the Big eighteen, it'll
be the Big twenty soon. Just that's why they changed
their logo to that just big or whatever it is.
That's ridiculous that it's yeah, it'll never, it'll never happen.

Speaker 3 (02:13:11):
They're the Big ten.

Speaker 2 (02:13:13):
Be funny if they lost like twelve teams and we're
like six and then yeah, that's so true. I don't
know what are you gonna play the final music. Here
are we just going to say amount of stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:13:22):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:13:27):
We appreciate all of you. Thank you for producing our show.
I told you the end of the show.

Speaker 3 (02:13:30):
We deliver.

Speaker 2 (02:13:32):
And we appreciate of course Muscock's quality flannels. Go Muscox
dot com Peacock for fifteen dollars off your flannel purchase.
Think about it. For holiday gifts, just get yourself one.
It's a great time of year for that. Also appreciate
Midtown Brewing Company and Downtown Lancing. We will be back
on Wednesday and look forward to it. Good show man,
Yeh Couching the group