* Connor Earegood, Detroit News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Zero percent. Can't get much lower than that.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's exactly right, Papacy.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Matt in the gang here on West Grand River, Okamiz.
They're making friends. Lee Connor, we're talking about what happened
last night in the world of college hockey, not just
on ice arena, but it happened to Western Michigan, it
happened to Penn State. Not a good night for the
Big Ten. Minnesota also lost to Boston College. No shame

(00:50):
in that. But the Big ten's top three teams all
went down at home. What's the lesson to be learned
from Michigan State and New Hampshire.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
One, Ah, The lesson is don't schedule games on Thursday.
No that's that's a joke, but only a partial one,
you know, it was it seemed like a week one
of those weird games quote unquote. Obviously it's a home opener,
there's a lot of emotion. I'm sure after winning four
to oh last weekend, they're probably feeling pretty good about themselves.

(01:20):
It's it's a young group. And I wrote this and
in sort of my preseason feature about the team, like
there's gonna be growing pains. There's gonna be issues with
having so many young players, regardless of talent, regardless of
where they were drafted. And you know, I think that
shows itself in moments like that. I ord you guys
talking about the black shots, you know, experience and an
age tend to have players throw themselves in front of

(01:42):
a buck like that. You don't usually see a star
player doing that. It's usually the teams that are real
gritty have a lot more older players that tend to
do that. And credit to New Hampshire, you know, may
made some key saves in there, had a real good
execution on that goal, sort of a NetFront kind of
not turnover, but NetFront scrambled there at the end after
the turnover that you know they're able to put a

(02:03):
past a pretty darn good goaltender who maybe was left
out to dry a little bit at times. But that's
what happens in preseason hockey. If you remember the first
game last year, they went to overtime against Lake State
and that wasn't a particularly good Lake State team either,
So you know it happens. It's one game this season.
I'm sure they're going to be firing on all cylinders tonight.
We'll see. But no overreactions in the sport of hockey.

(02:25):
Even if three top four teams went down in the
same night. I think that goes to show you anyone
can win on any even.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Thursday, let's talk college football, Connor and what we are
going to see for homecoming tomorrow at noon, a noon start.
Can you imagine that at Sporting Stadium and UCLA rolling
in now one and four? But what a one it
was last week at home against Penn State and maybe

(02:54):
the Netney Lyons were still reeling a little bit from
the double overtime lost or but UCLA got him right
on the jump and build a lead and then held
on made the plays that had to make. We saw
Nico Iamaliava do some amazing things, especially running the ball,

(03:15):
something that UCLA had not taken full advantage of previously.
How difficult a challenge is this going to be for
Michigan State? And is this the most likely win left
on the spartan schedule.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well, I'll answer the second question first. Yes, this is
the only I think guaranteeable If there's any guaranteed wins
at college football, this is the one that was circled
at the beginning of the year, like, all right, this
is the win at least in Big Ten play. Now
maybe not right. You know, UCLA's feeling pretty good about itself.
Belief is a hell of a drug, and I think
they're they're pretty high on it over at UCLA. A

(03:51):
top ten win like that, I mean, that's four teams
have done that in I believe since sixty three. Who
was the stad ESPN had last one was an eighty
seven UTEP upset. I forget they upset. I should know that,
I'll stop.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
It was nineteen eight, forty years Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Still, it shows the rarity, and you know, I think
that's something that there's two ways this could go. If
u c LA comes out hammers them, gets a couple
of touchdowns early or you know, it is up or
tied going in halftime. I think this is UCLA's ball game.
I think if they can keep that momentum, that that
belief going, you know, I think they could be improving

(04:32):
the two wins and Big Ten play pretty soon. I
think Michigan State's task here is you have to get
them off track. You have to make them not believe
in themselves, make them think last week was a fluke.
It's gonna be hard to do that. It's gonna be
hard to start early. I know Michigan State had scored
in the first four games on it's an opening drive,
last one not so much. But things like that, you know,
tend to happen. So we'll see how this goes. We'll

(04:55):
see how how UCLA responds. I think it's gonna be
a good game too. Mo quarterbacks having in issues with
both teams, which tends to make good football. I know
everyone's obsessed with like these elite teams, but the best
football you're going to see is between you know, the
sort of Big ten West type teams where they're good teams,
but they're in that sort of six and six to
ten and two range. And I think that's going to

(05:17):
be an entertaining battle for sure on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
We know how important this game is for the Bruins Connor.
They have to find out if last week was a
lightning strike or start of a positive trend. But I
think it might be even more important in a strange
way for Michigan State because the Bruins trajectory is pretty
well established. Michigan State. We don't know if this is

(05:42):
going to be a bowl team, if it could be
a six or seven win team, or if the drum
beat for a coaching change and some of the fan
apathy I am seeing now is going to be exacerbated
by tomorrow for homecoming.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, I think not just say there's a hot seat
or anything like that, but I think if you do
lose to UCLA, you know, I think the temperature is
going from from zero to one, right like a stove,
it's on simmer. So it's I think it's it's not
necessarily I don't believe in and must wins unless you're
like a team that's going to be in the College
Football Playoff. They can still get the six points if

(06:19):
they lose this game easily. There's a lot of winnable
games on the schedule. But as I said earlier in
the year, sort of in the fifty to fifty range.
You know, Penn State looks vulnerable. Indiana now I think
it's fraud watch quote unquote it's called off. But Indiana
looks like the toughest game on the schedule right now.
You know, there's there's a lot of games that they
could go either way, but this is one. I think
this is the If they were to lose this game,

(06:41):
it would be the first one to go off what
I would have expected at the beginning of the year.
You go to USC you know, three hour time change. Ever,
you know, that's a very losable game. He would in Nebraska.
It's the heck of a crowd right well as a
heck of a quarterback. They did a good job against him.
You kind of expect that that game might be one
that gets away from you. But you see at home,
your first noon game in what two seasons, homecoming, you're

(07:03):
going to have the crowd on you on your side.
If you're Michigan State, it's not a game you can
afford to lose. Just in terms of programmed vibes. And
obviously there's been some recruiting trail, lack of momentum, a
couple of decommits, quote unquote, and I'm sure Graham and
I would argue if they were commits. I know he
was tweeting about it too. I was as well that
if you're visiting, you're probably not a commit. But regardless,

(07:25):
you know, this is a pretty big game from Michigan
State in not the greatest ways you want big games
to be because you can prove something, because you can,
you know, take a step or approve people that you
belong in a certain conversation. This is sort of a
defensive big game. This is a don't let yourself slip
any further in the national conversation, don't lose momentum that
you're already sort of losing the handle on. So that's

(07:48):
sort of what I'm looking out for. But I think
it's a winnable game for Michigan State. I think if
they get decent enough aufmentsive line play. UCLA doesn't have
the greatest of you know, pass rushes from what I've seen,
I think have five sacks in the year, and I
think two of them came against UNLV, who you know,
is a decent team. But I wouldn't think of their
offensive line as elite, So you know, I think it's

(08:09):
it's a game where you should be able to see
some steps. And I think there's a smack in the
mouth nature as well, where you know, you lose two
straight and big ten plates three weeks sort of muddling
in it. I think you got to show who you
are here if you're Michigan State, and that's something I'm
new watching for.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I look at this as an opportunity game, Connor. And
if Michigan State can win, and it's more than a
touchdown favorite to do that, and should Michigan lose at
the Coliseum and it's a slight underdog there, you would
have Michigan State in Michigan with the same record. At

(08:45):
the midpoint, both teams would be four and two. Not
to say they're the same teams, not to say Michigan
wouldn't be a significant favorite when they meet in a
couple of weeks here, but they would both be four
and two. And what I don't understand, and I was
not in Lincoln, you were, is what happened to the

(09:05):
team that we had been watching. Because the offense Aidenschilds
clearly regressed. He threw some passes we hadn't seen since
early last season. Maybe it was the hits he took
or something else. There were twelve negative yardage plays. Hard
to ever win a game when that happens. The special teams,

(09:27):
which had been I would argue, as good as any
in the country between Martin Connington's and Merchants. Ryan Eckley's
constant performance is maybe the ray Guy Award favorite. The
return game, that was an effort, a failing effort from
the special teams. But then the defense, which had been

(09:47):
the big question. Everyone had been saying, well, this team,
you know, they just don't have a defense. They have to,
you know, have to do something here with Joe Rossi
because he's not getting it done. They got it done.
Held Nebraska under three hundred yards. They did I think
a great job in terms of Dylan Rayola, and they

(10:09):
got five sacks. They'd only had six the first four games.
So how does up become down and day become night?

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, I'll tell you why. I think the offense struggled.
You know, the coach speak answer is going to be execution,
But I think the real answers trust. If you look
at the way Aiden was in that pocket. He bailed
as soon as he needed to, as soon as there
was an ankling that he would be hitting the turf,
He's gone. And Ryan Lander talked about that on Tuesday.
I wasn't there, but I was in Western Michigan for

(10:38):
a different story. But playing through the audio, Lingern had
some pretty apt observations about you know, when you have
a mobile quarterback like Aiden, there is that sort of
fine line between being able to trust your seat and
kind of hanging in there and making your money on
third downs and long and hanging in there to take
a shot and getting to throw off. But I think

(10:58):
the trust is sort of lacking there. You know, his
offensive line is let him get sacked fourteen times. That's
not basically worse than last year. And this was supposed
to be an offensive line that was taking steps that
had some difference makers. I think a big problem with
that is just the injuries with Luka Vinciech, who is
probably going to be a starter, and sant Reveal being out.
You know, some pretty evident struggles there. But I also

(11:20):
think there's some mistrust me between him and receivers. You
look at Nick marsh arguing with them, on the sideline,
and I know their friends sitting next to each other
on the plane all that, but when you got guys
yelling at each other like that, that's never a good
sign for an offense. And you know, we can talk
about that in a million different ways, but I do
think that there's just maybe a bit of a lack
of trust right now, and that's hard to get back.

(11:42):
It's sort of a catch twenty two, right. You need
the trust to play better, but you also need to
play better to get the trust back. So I think
some steps there. It may go back to team building,
it may go back to just taking a deep breath
and realizing they're going to be okay. But it was
a very frustrating loss at Nebraska two back to back.
I feel like that because it was so close late,
there is that sort of frustration, and I think they

(12:03):
let it get the better of them, especially in that
fourth quarter when things sort of went awry.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, it's important to remember that despite everything that had
gone wrong, including the block punt for a touchdown, Michigan
State did lead that game twenty one to fourteen late
in the third quarter before the.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Sky fell, and they they had a chance to score
again after the tie and they must at kick again.
You talk about special teams like, yeah, it's a very
very enable game against it. Pretty decent, I won't say
great anymore, but a pretty decent Nebraska team. I was
really curious about that.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
There was a play too that I haven't really heard
discuss Connor, and it was right after Michigan State took
the lead and Dylan Royola threw a quick slant and
the ball was mishandled went up in the air and
Michigan State could not come up with it. If it
had intercepted that ball deep in Nebraska territory and gone
in for a two touchdown lead, I think we see

(13:02):
a totally different game.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, Jordan Hall talked about that he was the one
that probably could have made the play on that he
just had no way of seeing it. I mean, it's
through like three different bodies that bounces up. It's one
of those when you're in the skybox, it's like, oh, ball, ball, ball,
you pointed it. But in terms of tips and overthrows,
unless you drive that an hour every practice, I still
don't think you come down with that ball every time.
But the fact that we can have that conversation. You'll
show you how close that got toward the end. I

(13:26):
really think he comes down to the defense playing playing
its tailoff. Jordan Hall, I think had his best game
as a Spartan, no doubt. The way he was able
to sort of command the communication side, I think is
the key.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Right.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
We've seen him be a playmaker, make tackles, did it
against Boston College, did it times, be in a reserve,
but being able to communicate, get his guys in the
right page, have the pass rush, and the secondary behind
him working unison. That's all through him with the green dot,
and I know everyone's going to look toward the secondary
making steps and probably look toward those guys kind of
bowing up a little bit and taking some you know,

(14:00):
self respect and using that on the field. But I
think it also goes back to Jordan halbying a better
communicator and leader than he was. And I know no
one was saying he was a bad communicator, but there's
always layers to that, right, you know, a minus versus
B plus that sort of thing, and they clearly took
a step there. So that's something that I'll be looking
for in this game too. If you can keep those
steps going, and if the secondary and past rush can

(14:21):
work in concert like that, if he can maestro that,
that'll be a big thing for this Michigan State defense to,
you know, go from being the clear Achilles heel to
maybe his strength of this group.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
You mentioned the offensive line. Connor and I have a
lot of respect for Jim Mahalchick. I saw what he
did at Oregon State. I know he's put players into
the first round of the NFL Draft. I know that
that became a real strength in court Vallas and he
has a tremendous reputation nationally. But I didn't understand the

(14:58):
move and then the reaction to the move. It seemed
like rust and Young had done a really good job,
especially in past protection at USC, and then you wind
up moving Connor Moore, who had been a right tackle
this whole time Michigan State. Now he was certainly a

(15:18):
left tackle at Montana, but you move him back there
and you put Ashton lepo in, and let's just say
that was a disaster. So what happens now. I don't
know that Stanton Remeil is ready to go. So do
they go back to what they did at USC, or
do they just hope that Lepo's going to play better

(15:41):
and more, is going to be more comfortable.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
What do they do? Yeah, I'm a rust and young believer.
I thought he was very strong in that USC performance. Especially,
you don't think you're going to play that many of stamps, right,
you know, shows dedicated his preparation that he was able
to be ready for that. But I thought, looking at
the tape of the USC game afterward, there were some
run plays, I think that he maybe wasn't where he

(16:06):
needed to be, or maybe he was was sort of
a step behind. Maybe that was a reason why they'd
optedly go with Lepoho was a little more experienced obviously
was a starter for a vast a portion of last year.
I think maybe that was that sort of an experienced
winside thing. And we don't know what happened in practice too,
you know, maybe Young had some some pretty rough goes
in practice and preparation there. So you know, we don't

(16:27):
know that side of things. We'd have to ask Jim,
and we haven't talked to him in quite a while,
I think since yeah weeks that I'm trying to remember
in my internal calendar here, But we'd love to ask
him about that, but no, I think More is pretty
clearly a right tackle. I think we saw his issues
at left tackle earlier in the season. I'm thinking of
even the game against Western Michigan. I can't remember. I

(16:50):
think they put him there against against Youngstown State. I'm
trying to remember, but I remember seeing him get walked
a little bit at left tackle, and he clearly did
in the last game, but Lepo wasn't giving him any
help on the other side. And again that goes back
to the lack of trust, where if you're aiden and
you see that happening play after play, what else are
you going to do? You trust your feet to make

(17:10):
a play more than your offensive line. You're trying to
win a football game, You're going to go run it.
And I think that's the great issue. Is that catch
twenty two I mentioned earlier. But Leto's got to be
better if he plays. I counted eleven eleven snaps out
of I want to say he had fifty some in
the game where he either completely missed his guy, didn't
come up with someone got beat after contact that he

(17:32):
clearly did not win. And I even gave him the
ties and it was still a pretty rough go. You
know he's a dedicated athlete. Obviously he's been around, stuck around,
even when there's gonna be competition, it's hard to knock him.
But when a player doesn't have it, I feel like
as a coach, that's when it goes back to you
to make that decision where all right, my guys getting

(17:52):
meaned up. I got to pull him, change something up.
I think treating a player like that and God to say, like,
is that vishial lam or anything, but you know, just
throwing him into the wolves and let him get tore up,
I don't think was a wise move. And then you
think of his confidence and now he's feeling this week.
He sees everything he you know, I'm sure he sees
the tweets and whatnot. Unless he's a no phone kind

(18:14):
of guy, I'd have to ask him. But you know
that that's something that I think is a very real
problem in today's day and age. And I think back
in the day people picking up the newspaper, if they did,
was still a problem. It's just more magnified nowadays. So
you got a feel for a guy like that, who
you know, had a rough go of it. We've all
had bad days. But when you look at tackle play.
That's been an existant problem over two years, even going

(18:35):
further back. So we're just going to stick on the
two because it's this staff and they can't control history.
But I think they need to do some clear steps there,
and I think i'd go with the young guy, Rustling
young to at least get some experience if he's going
to be at a comparable level.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
All Right, before we let you go Connor four games
and the Big Ten tomorrow, I want you to rank
the four most likely winners of these games. We're talking
about Michigan State hosting UCLA, UCLA entertaining, Michigan, Oregon getting

(19:09):
a visit from Indiana, and Illinois at home against number
one Ohio State. The most likely of those eight teams to.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Win is USC. I think USC is gonna gonna take
Michigan to the woodshed. That offense is nasty, and I
know Michigan State, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan has a great
defense and has some pretty clear talent, but I think
running with that level of dog is going to be
a challenge. You know, Michigan's not used to seeing that

(19:40):
out of a team that's not Ohio State. In the
regular season, and I think we saw that last year
when they had to play Oregon, that these sorts of
big matchups when at the rivalry, Yeah, maybe they have
an edge, but in this sort of setting, I don't know, man.
I think this is going to be a pretty clear
USC victory against Michigan. Now that being said, I think
Michigan State being us A is probably the second and

(20:01):
it's it's probably coming down to a photo finish there.
But uh, you know, win play show wins going to
uh the USC beat in Michigan.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
All right, What about Ohio State at Illinois and Indiana
at Oregon?

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Pretty sure I picked Ohio State for our pickams for
for the News. Those are against the spread, so I'm
pretty sure I picked Ohio State either way, But I
don't know Illinois got a shot. I feel like it's
a good team. Altmyer's playing some some decent ball. The
defense has got to be better. I think you look
at the Indiana tape when they sort of just gave up.
Uh you know that that's that was a problem. They

(20:39):
can't do that against Ohio State, especially when it's it's
your home stadium. But stranger things has happened look, you know,
number one can go down at any time. We'll see
it in all sorts of sports. So I think it's
hard to team like Ohio State as a pretty I
think underrated defense. Even though they're they're nationally you know, recognized,
I still think a little underrated. They're hard hitting, they

(20:59):
make good plays. Is they find place to to turn
the tide. I think that's a skill. Uh. And the
offense has clearly not really missed the step commarded last year.
So uh, I'm pretty high on Ohio State. But I
think Illinois has got a shot. Was the other game,
it's uh Oregon. Well, we can't call it fraud watch

(21:19):
if they lose to Oregon because it's a pretty high
of a matchup. But honestly, the Ducks, uh we call
it Connor was wrong. Uh Indiana, I don't know. I'm
gonna give it to them just because you're on they're
on the road. Now they're on the road. Mendoza is
playing very well at quarterback, and I think if you're
a good enough playmaker, they beat beat Penn State because

(21:41):
Aler I don't think played a very good game in
order to play win against U C. L A. But
you know, if you can get him sort of rattled,
you can beat Penn State. I think if if Mendoza
can be calm, can stay the course against Oregon, they're
going to have a decent pass Russia. I think what's
his face, Utulele, that's the name. It was, escaping me.

(22:04):
Mateo is a pretty pretty decent d lineman. It's going
to give them some fits. You know. I still think
there's some some things for Indiana to prove to me,
even though they blew out Illinois. But I will say
just being on the road, having a decent enough team,
and Oregon's probably feeling good about itself after beating Penn State,
probably shouldn't after what we saw against U. C. L A.
But uh, you know, there's probably a high amount of

(22:26):
slagger I guess in that locker room, and that tends
to bit you in the rear. So I think Oregon
probably wins that game. But I do think Indiana, you know,
before the game, when you know it has sort of
the momentum, if you will, even playing on the road,
I think they're going to be an easily motivated squad,
and that's always the Injurius and a big matchup.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Like that, So in order of likelihood to win. You
have one USC two Michigan State, three Ohio State or
three Oregon.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Three Oregon for Ohio State for Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Wow, all I know is counter. If Indiana does pull
this upset and win at autsin Stadium, we could have
four and two Michigan State at undefeated and number one
ranked Indiana.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Yeah next week.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Whoever would have thought Indiana could be number one ranked
team in the country. That's beyond my comprehension. Look forward
to seeing her tomorrow in the press box. Thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, absolutely, thanks for having me.

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