Ep. 2885 Friday (from Spartan Stadium)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is it right here?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Combining a team of reporters, columnists and commentators.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Are you serious?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Jack Ebling has brought thought provoking discussion.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
That's a day in coaching?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
The same opinion customer.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
The one who decides when the future gets here?

Speaker 5 (00:28):
Oh no, check the report?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Are you carrying me?

Speaker 6 (00:35):
Jack?

Speaker 5 (00:35):
Gameless, fixt and overall infotainment. I'll tay Kim Marva, what
is done?

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Graase go to coming at you.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Quiet? Please exactly fifteen seconds We'll be on the air.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
Thanks, big fella.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Don't you ever come back here again? No arguments. Those
are called ashtans.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
So buckle up. You're talking to me.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's time for the Drive with Jack Ebling. For some
reason or another, who signed a little Cola radio. Great
afternoon in Michigan and beyond, and welcome to the Drive
with Jack the Spotlight Radio Network, Jack Evelin here at
Spartan Stadium just outside it, and Rob Bennett back at

(01:19):
our Spotlight studio. Rob I'll be seeing you at seven
o'clock for Western Michigan at Michigan State as we start
the twenty twenty five season. Meanwhile, we have a lot
of special guests for you in our pregame pre season show, Rob.
When you think about all the players that I have

(01:40):
watched at Michigan State since nineteen sixty eight, obviously you
have some favorites, but number one among the Michigan State receivers,
and that's thing a lot. When you think about Kirk
Gibson and Belitnikoff Award winner Charles Rogers, one of the
great number ones in dig ten history joins us Andre Risan.

(02:01):
The pride of Flint one of time is those favorite
MSU football players, and part of that is because he
also was there when Andre played basketball for Judd Heathcote
and also competed in track and everything else that goes
with it.

Speaker 5 (02:17):
Drey, how are you.

Speaker 7 (02:19):
Hey? All I want to say is that was the
greatest intro of.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Her long time.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
I do it well.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
I don't know if that intro measured up to your
catch in the Rose Bowl, or the phenomenal catch and
run where you drag guys and broke tackles and got
into the end zone for that tie in nineteen eighty
eight against Iowa, or or the day that you and
Bobby McAllister had at the Gator Bowl when George finally

(02:49):
turned you loose and said, instead of pitching the ball backwards,
we're going to let Bobby throw it forwards. And you
guys said all kinds of ball records that day.

Speaker 7 (02:59):
I'll tell you, you know, I'm just fortunate and thankful.
Then I had the opportunity to go to you know
and play for a coach like George Uh, and then
played for Michigan State, following up all the great receivers
that played prior to me, and Kirk Gibson and the
Geene Washington, all the Hall of Famers and Big Ten,
all Big ten players, and so uh the great Darryl Turner.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, there were they.

Speaker 7 (03:24):
Were already you know, guys before me that I looked
up to and idolized. But then also that was that
was as a student athlete, as a player. But then
from the coach standpoint, coaching standpoint, I had you know, Judd,
he coached Tom the great time of Judd he caught
and Tom Izzo had them. And then I had coach

(03:46):
Bids in track and gave me opportunity to continue what
I did in high school and loved to do, which
was run track. And I ended up making all Big
ten into All Big ten one year and twice about it. Yeah,
I thought twice about it, and I was like, you
know what, Papa George said, I can't do no more sports.
So Ron Mason wanted me to play hockey, said, I.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Don't know how to skate.

Speaker 7 (04:11):
I don't know how to skate, but I would I
would have tried, you know, anything to bring a championship
back to East Lanson. Uh, bring back to our manor
our my monitor, you know, our college, uh, our institution
that we love uh dearly. It's just about bringing those
championships back, you know, back to the campus. And you
know about it just as much as well and even

(04:32):
more than I did, you know, covering irving them coming
up and living in Flint and basketball, you know, basketball
city like ours. Uh. You know, I watched you as
a kid covering Mattick Johnson at Michigan State and always
wanted to play basketball at Michigan State. And you know,
I wanted two state championship, two state championships in basketball

(04:53):
and Class A. And you know, my best friend was
Glenn Rice and uh you know, yeah, unfortunately he went
to he went to the other schools. But right right, right, well,
but we right right, and so you know, I just
I'm so thankful for Michigan State giving me the opportunity
to be me, and I was blessed.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Dre, you have always held Michigan State close, even when
sometimes maybe you haven't gotten all the recognition you deserve.
But Rob, I got to tell you when I was
at the State Journal in my after my second year
of covering the program full time, I was sitting in
George Purlis office and we're talking about top recruits and

(05:40):
George would tell me anything. He had no secrets, no filters,
and he said, how come you don't do it best
of the Midwest or a blue chip list? And I said, well,
you know, I don't know that we could do it.
I don't think that we have the input, the connections
that of Mick mckabe or someone else would have. He said, well,
I'll help you, so he gave me his whole recruiting list.

(06:01):
And then I said, well, you know, maybe we can
do this somewhere else. So we got coaches we knew
at Eastern, Western and Central to help us and said, well,
Michigan State's going to do it. But we had a
hard time with Michigan. They wouldn't cooperate, and finally we
found a mole there who had access to this stuff.
I won't tell you what we did to get them
to give it to us, but finally we had the

(06:21):
recruiting list for all five schools, put it together, and
we had our first catch twenty two and talk about
turning the prism completely around. Rob the number one and
number two players in that class, and several more in
the top ten. But John Miller and Andre Risen came
to Michigan State and they were mammoth figures in Michigan

(06:45):
State going to the Rose Bowl in nineteen eighty seven,
and I think about the high school exploit you talk
about at Flint Northwestern Drey. I got into an argument
with someone about the greatest high school team in Michigan
and basketball history, and I said, don't forget about that
Flint Northwestern team. And you have Grayer on that team

(07:07):
and Anthony Pendleton, and you had enough guys on that
team or you could have played anybody, even.

Speaker 7 (07:13):
Though yeah, I don't know how we all ended up
geographically in the same place, but it was, it was,
It was it was like a fantasy, you know, to
be out there in high school coming up and down
the court with future NBA All Stars, you know, and

(07:37):
one of the greatest shooters arguing in the game of basketball.
And Glyn Rice World champ you know, won the championship
with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neill. Right, you know, things
like things like that you never forget. You know, Glynn
Rice and my mom are still best friends to this day.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
You have tremendous career marks and not what they could
have been had you been playing in football today with
an emphasis on the path instead of the pitch out
and coach who wanted to put the ball in the
air as much as possible and not jam it down
an opponent's throats. But I look back at your career
and you really blew up your sophomore year. Can you

(08:21):
talk about Nick Marsh and what he did last year
starting as a seventeen year old and performances that he had.

Speaker 7 (08:30):
I'm a Nick Marsh fan. I've been a fan of
Nick since high school. Got a chance to meet him
early before he graduated. Actually he was playing when I
met him. He was involved in a high school basketball
tournament and they had just pulled a big upset over
a team that you know, people thought they couldn't beat
and not talk to him the night before, and I

(08:52):
just knew he was a special athlete. And he's a
good person too. He's a good person and his story
is yet to be told.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
You know.

Speaker 7 (09:00):
I think he's he's just starting.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
To make it.

Speaker 7 (09:04):
He makes plays. He's smart, of course, you know, you
can see his body of work, and you can see
his body is built, so he's built to play on Sundays.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
You know.

Speaker 7 (09:14):
I'm just hoping that to give him opportunity this season
to make big plays when we needed an integral moments
where they can become game winning plays. And I think
that'll catapult him into uh you know, the bulletin cough talks,
because if not, he's one of the best receivers in
the country, you know. And I watched him every since
high school all the way you know, to college, and

(09:35):
now he's playing for the Green and White. And I
was really really glad when I know at one time
everybody thought he might go to another college and we
were able to.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Get him back.

Speaker 7 (09:45):
He has great, great coach in Courtney Hawkins. Uh you know,
Coach Hawkins and I have played together at Michigan State
Rose Bowl champs all this stuff, and so uh, he
he's a great developer, you know of wide out. So
and so Nick can't get nothing but better.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Well, when you think that Nick marsh did what he
did and now he's an old guy, he's eighteen, But
think about all that you have seen and going from
the Green and White to the National Football League, all
your great years with the Atlanta Falcons and other teams
and then Green Bay and the Green and Gold, not

(10:23):
the Green and White, but catching that pass for the
first score in the Super Bowl triumph. If you had
words of advice or a young receiver, then there's a
four star, five star. He's a guy as heralded as
you were coming into Michigan State. What's the most important
thing they need to know?

Speaker 7 (10:41):
I believe to remain humble and let the situation come
to them, continue to strive in school and make that
number one. And put what you want first. As oppose
of you know who wants me? It should be you
know where I want to go and and and who

(11:05):
wants me? You know, because you have the portal and
you know you have nil deals and sometimes the overall destiny,
the value in the journey, it could get lost and
before you know it, you'd be a sophomore and you
be jumping from portal to portal. And so when you're

(11:25):
highly touted and a lot of people are pulling at you,
even once you pick your school, now it's it's still
free for all other schools can can come after you
because you can go to their school the preceding year
and and and also play and and not be ineligible.
So you have to re recruit your guys. And so
if you're their kid, you have to make sure you've

(11:46):
got a position coach UH that you really combined with
and UH and you can trust that you know he's
going to help you develop to the player you want
to become.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Gray when you think about the things you did when
you were recruited and you came and mark Ingram was
already here, he was ahead of you. And then we
had Darryl Turner even before that. So you could have
a pretty good Michigan State collection of wide outs that

(12:18):
would match up with any and they're all from Flint.
So that says a lot. But how did Michigan State
recruit you? I know, Charlie Baggett and Nick Saban And
it wasn't just George, But what was the pits and
why did you make the decision you did?

Speaker 7 (12:38):
Nick Shaban recruited me genuinely. He knew my grandparents, my
step grandparents down in West Virginia. His parents and my
grandparents had a great relationship. They were best of friends.
And then he found out that I was related and
I was up in the Michigan area, and I just
happened to be on the Michigan State board and the

(13:00):
recruit and you know, it was it was really a
done deal after that, especially after I met Nick, Because
if anybody knows Saving Saving is one of those guys,
he's not gonna say something that he doesn't mean too much,
you know, too often. So I trusted that Charlie did.
Charlie did a great job. Aggie did a great, great job.

(13:22):
And who suld a deal ultimately, was you know big Papa,
Big Papa George, you know, uh, knowing that he had coached,
knowing knowing he had coached at Pittsburgh with the Steelers,
knowing he had been a ryant champion and just a
father figure in the in the confidence that hit I'll
be safe, I could be safe with him. Could he

(13:44):
tell you were gonna be his whn swan every day.
It never threw me the ball.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah, line said the same thing. He said. Man, all
that Chuck Noel ever did was give it to Franco.

Speaker 7 (14:00):
You know, but you Lorenzo, that's the great Lorenzo White.
That's his name, Franco Franco. And so I don't know
who told more lies that I was going to get
the ball, Uh coach, coach George Purls or Lorenzo Franco White.
It's coming, man, it's coming. They are right whatever. You know,

(14:22):
you're talking about blocker those jack Uh you did?

Speaker 3 (14:26):
You did?

Speaker 5 (14:27):
You did?

Speaker 1 (14:27):
You're a very good blocker when you think about UH
players coming to school for a reason and then a
lot of times assistant coaches have a ton to do
with that. Nick told me a story about drinking beer
with your grandmother after midnight and apparently, uh he loved

(14:49):
your grandmother.

Speaker 7 (14:51):
Oh yeah, Like I said, the Savings, the Savings family
were very close to our family, and you know, to
deal today, Nick and I are close. You know, we
went in our own professions and became what we became.
You know, I think we put our stamp on the game,
and I think, you know, originated all the way from
leve Lanston, from George Purlus and giving us the opportunities

(15:14):
to be great and become great at what we did
and what we do.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
I mentioned some of the highlights of your Michigan State career,
Dray and talking about the Rose Bowl, the amazing top
ten all times play catch against Iowa, and what you
and Bobby did in the Gator Ball. But there are
a couple other moments that I want to reflect on,

(15:41):
and one of them was after the eighty seventh season,
I had a chance to do a book called Spartan Champions,
and I still have a picture of the two of
us with that book. The day that it was released
before the start of the eighty eight season, it was

(16:02):
media day picture day, and You're on your uniform and
I'm sitting there holding a book up in front of it.
And then I remember at the two games against Florida
State and Dion Sanders and Steve Grenzel from Food Newspapers,
and I used to say that that was the most
fun we ever had because Dion would say something and

(16:24):
then you would top him, and then we get word
back to Dion and he'd have something. I mean, you
guys set the NCAA record for trash talk those weeks.

Speaker 7 (16:35):
I think he carried over to the pros.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, and then you wind up playing with him.

Speaker 7 (16:41):
Right, Yeah, becoming best of friends and brothers. And we
both love each other dearly to this day and both
and we both coach. He got me any coaching fourteen
years ago. And you know, he's made his mark on
coaching in Stanton. He's done a great job. And he
caused me to talk all the time, and he tells

(17:02):
me my time is coming, you know. And I'm just
working hard at it. And when I get that call,
I'll be prepared to take the next jump.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
I would see I'm doing physically. I don't know when
the last time is that you talk to him, Dre,
but uh, he went through Halasius ordeal.

Speaker 7 (17:19):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Is it gonna be okay?

Speaker 7 (17:22):
Yeah, he's uh. Uh, he's in great spirit. You can
see it in his interviews. It's not you know, made up,
it's not Hollywood.

Speaker 8 (17:30):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (17:30):
He has a great support cast. I've been out there.
I've seen it.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (17:35):
I know his belief and faith in God, and you know,
the dude is real. You know, it's not a gimmick.
He is who he is. You know, it's funny how
you had your Muhammad Ali's. You know, you had your
Muhammad Ali's, you had just Babe Roofs, you had just
Sugar Ray Robinson's, you had just you know, different super
iconic athletes, and they all had their own personality.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, it's interesting when we talk about you guys going
against each other for two years and you both had
your moments in those games. Florida State was a little
bit better team. But then you play with each other
and your major weapons forces on offense and defense, and
Dion also on special teams. But then you both wind

(18:26):
up with the Super Bowl. I'm back to back years
and you had to go somewhere else to get it.
It didn't happen in Atlanta. He had to go to
San Francisco and Dallas, and then you got yours with
Green Bay and now here here you are both in coaching.
If I had told both of you in nineteen eighty

(18:46):
seven or nineteen eighty eight that you were both going
to be coaches, was that part of the plan.

Speaker 7 (18:53):
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Guys like us have our
dreams and goals in place. You know, life, life, life
has this Uh, obstacles. Uh, But our guys like us
have goals and dreams in place. And we always talked
about when we were finished playing that we were going
to coach at a high level, and and we knew

(19:15):
we could do it. We were students at a game. Uh.
We were humble to our teammates. I watched him so
many years as a teammate. You rarely hear teammates talking
the negative well about us, and that that gives you
that that floor and opportunity to go coach. Uh. You know,
if somebody uh gives us an opportunity, you'll find out

(19:37):
what our wealth is and what our worth is to
the game. We we have so much knowledge, we have
so much talent, but yet we were approachable and that's
what allowed us to learn the game at the highest level.

Speaker 5 (19:47):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (19:47):
Now, everybody that played the game can't coach the game,
that's for sure. But I'm thankful for uh, you know,
him giving me the opportunity years ago. He was on
an NFL network and he couldn't do it, and so
he told the guys that the largest football camp in
the country, which was Football University at the time. A
lot of these kids that I coached during those years.

(20:09):
They're playing in our football league now to speak. And
so that's how I jumped into coaching. I did, I
did camps across the country, and then when I got gun,
I didn't want to stop, and I wanted to continue
to coach because some of the coaches were coaches at
high school colleges and some and pros, and so I
never stopped. I never stopped, and I never stopped and
always dreamt being the head coach one day at my

(20:32):
alma maters. I've knocked one down and now, uh, you know,
I'll just say I'm knocked one down so far and
turned the America Champions and so you know here here's
so now.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Well, you have a ton to offer young players, and
I'm curious how many of them know about the legend.
And by the way, we are talking to Andre Rising,
the one and the old man and uh Michigan State receivers.
You can get into a pretty spirited debate about four
or five guys, but uh, don't sleep on what Andre

(21:09):
Rising did here in four seasons at Michigan State. What
do you tell your players about those days? Do they
know about all of your accomplishments and is there a
message that you want to translate to them at Growth
Point University Ligot. They do.

Speaker 7 (21:25):
You know, we live in a different time now with
media and the Internet and all these social media platforms.
By me coaching, I have to beat you know, up
up on it, you know, until I'm pretty much him.
And so they can go watch highlights and a lot
of them do.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
But they had.

Speaker 7 (21:44):
The cool part about it is they look at me
and they look at my size, and then they go
watch the highlights and they're like, you know, they think
I was supposed to be Calvin Johnson's size Megatron or right,
And I'm like nah, and I'm like, no, this is
six foot one ninety guy. You know, is your knowledge
in your heart and your passion, uh that you give forth.

(22:05):
And so when they see it and they see you
come back and see me, they know they can do it.
They believe they can do it. He's like, he's no
bigger than me.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Well, if you have any players who are skeptical or
they're saying, you know, how good was he?

Speaker 5 (22:21):
Really?

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Fill me a favor? I haven't give me a call.
I'll tell him.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
I sure will, I sure will. It's it's hard, it's
hard to get you to break.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
You know, we talked about your coaching now and you
are at a Division seven school, but you're playing up.
You're playing much much bigger schools. And last year you
made it to the district final. This year, I see
signs that your team could be better than that. Certainly,
the program is on solid footing, and h Universe see

(23:00):
look at has not fan a football power by any
stretch of the imagination. So you've done that part of it.
You've got the program established. Can you talk about that?
And what's the most fun part for you of coaching
a high school football team?

Speaker 5 (23:14):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (23:14):
Seeing the joy, Seeing the joy on the kids after
they make a play, touchdown, fumble, recovery, tackle, The camaraderie,
the brotherhood, uh that they get to share for the
rest of their lives. You know, football is a great game.
Of course, we know it's violent and all that good
stuff and you know physical, Uh, but it's a great game.

(23:36):
It's so many life learning lessons, you know, within the game,
and just to see them evolved and developed as men,
young student athletes. I think that's what that's what I
get out of it out of it the most because
I know what it takes bus some and so to
be able to be that shepherd down here, Uh, to
be able to give them that platform. I think that's

(23:56):
the most inviting presidents in happiness that I get enjoyed
because I get from it.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Ray. I was looking at all the scores from last night,
and there's one thing that made me sad. And there
wasn't an individual outcome of any game. But as I
was going through the list of scores across the state,
and it used to be there were so many great
players from Flint and Saginaw Valley Conference, and I'm looking

(24:26):
around and I can't even find out Flint's school. How
sad is it for you to see what has happened
with that? And how much do you miss those glory days?

Speaker 7 (24:40):
You know, the sad part is over. More so the
disappointment stages are over as well. It's more than now
on what do you guys do?

Speaker 1 (24:54):
I came.

Speaker 7 (24:55):
I coached at my alma mater for two years. We
had ten thousand people at our first game both years,
you know, two three for those kids that ended up
getting in college. Uh. But when I picked it up
and scooped it up, it was on his way out
and so the whole whole post bang with high school athletics.

(25:18):
UH got caught up in this this this this budget frenzy,
and high school athletics got caught up in it.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
And then you had crime.

Speaker 7 (25:27):
You had you had high crime, you had high high
crime and death at that young teenager. You know, violence
at these teenage ages, and it's and it's it's violence
on top of violence. And then the schools are shut down.
We're running, we're running out of leaders, and we're running
out of places for the kids to go. And so

(25:47):
now it's like there's no time to feel sad. The
only time for revamp. And I talked to our mirror.
It's funny. I talked to the mirror Flint last night.
And he's building them the more uh and also a museum,
UH in honor of our high school coach, the great
Glenn Kelly. And so you know that's to start right there.

(26:09):
And UH, you better come down and they'll go inside
and you'll be able to see. And they're also building
a new football field and and things like that that helps.
You know, we got young kids. We got about four
guys five guys in the NBA right now, UH from
Flint Uh, that's doing well. And then maybe several years ago,

(26:30):
we had at one time we had three NFL running
backs in the NFL from Flint. Yeah, you know, Brandon Brandon,
Brandon Carr did a great job at carrying that torch
mark Ingram Junior came along, brought a heisman back to
the Flint, Michigan Brandon carb Super Bowl Brandon Carver or
Super bowls. Uh, Monte Morris brought NBA championships, you know.

(26:54):
And so they're still life there, you know. And and
as leaders and leaders of our community, we had to
make sure we still provide those opportunities. So I hear,
I hear the great Eric Turner and the great coach
Stan Gouch, Coach Stan Guchin, the great t Greens are
their alma mater is about to reopen Flint Central. So

(27:14):
that's a good sign.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
That is a good sign. We always end the show
with Jay Green abroud Flint Central alum and a great
football player in his own right. And starting with a
Flint Northwestern guy today seems appropriate. Rob, But Dre, I
just saw a list, I think two weeks ago, and
it had the schools the college is ranked by touchdown

(27:41):
catches in the NFL from their alum so wide wide receivers.
And this is in the Super Bowl eras, Ohio State
was number one, but no other Big ten school could
match Michigan State. And Michigan State was number six in
the country. And of course you led that, you had
nearly one hundred touchdown catches in the NFL. But if

(28:03):
you look at the wide receiver tradition at Michigan State,
how do you account for that.

Speaker 7 (28:12):
We're wide receiving. You we've been, We've been, we've been
wide receiver you you know, excuse me. There are people,
you know, talk rankings and and talk this and talk that,
and I just hit him with the facts. I said,
just go look and just go look and see what

(28:33):
receiver came out of college and dominated for their organization,
or or led the team in receptors that year, or
was the focal point of the offense of that organization.
I said, you can go down the line. Plexico bears
the same Muhammad Dice, Yeah, yeah, I can. I can
keep going. You know, I haven't even got you know,

(28:55):
to my likings to myself. Uh, that's enough in itself alone. Charlie,
little Charlie winn and won the bullet mccaff he brought
the blitt mancoff you know homes courteeny Hawk Tray, Courty
Hawkins had a solid you know NFL career. Uh that
a lot of guys they go to these quote unquote
where I receiver used, they disappear when it comes when

(29:19):
it comes to Sunday. And so that's a tribute to
Michigan State and the development uh that you you know
that we offer the receivers, they come to us.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
It is what it is, is that is one of
the best stray a guy who's in the same discussion
with you and and shock Kurt Gibson. He didn't even
play pro football. He chose to play baseball and instead
of catching Super Bowl touchdowns to hit World Series home runs.
But if you think about you and uh you talk

(29:51):
about Mussin catching Super Bowl touchdowns for two different teams
and plaques catching that game winning touchdown for the Giant
and all the other guys, You're right. It is Uh,
it is a storied history. I look forward to seeing
you again soon. I hope we can get you up
here for some games. And who knows, maybe I'll get
a chance to see University Leggett play you get into

(30:14):
the postseason. And I know Tom Izzo the other night
I wanted your phone number, and he's a big Andre
Rising fan. So I hope you guys can can keep contact.

Speaker 7 (30:25):
Well, tell you what, me and me and me and
mc goodfather, we looked up and I'm on my way.
That's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
You go, I love it. I love it. Andre Rises
number one, pride of Flint and still got flint coursing
through his veins. But you know what, there's a lot
of green blood there too. We'll be right back and
we're going to talk with Mike Griffth. He is representing

(30:56):
Dog Nation, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and the Southeastern Conference.
No one knows the SEC better than Mike, not even
Paul Finebaum, and we'll talk with him about the SEC,
the national landscape, probably Michigan State. And if I know Mike,
he's going to find a way to mention Bob every
and Tom Izzo in this discussion as well. We'll be

(31:19):
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Speaker 8 (35:01):
Russell, Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
It is a drive with Jack Spotlight Radio Network, Jack
Kebling here at Spartan Stadium or just outside it, I
should say tailgates everywhere you look. I park outside of
Reslin and walking across Monthfield. Very different from what we
remember the past several years, and a little different game

(35:42):
day environments too. So looking forward to a very impressive
first night of football here with ideal weather, and maybe
the Michigan State football performance will match that. Do we
have our next guest on the line? Rob? You most
certainly do, all right one, Welcome in the Mayor of

(36:05):
Mason and the Bulldogs did win last night without him
being an attendant, although he did fly in the day
after the Iron Bowl to watch Mason play in a
state championship game and report for us from the sideline.
Talking about Mike Griffin, he has covered more different SEC
programs than anyone I know now, focusing on the Georgia

(36:30):
Bulldogs and the SEC and college football for Dog Nation
and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Mike, how are you doing great?

Speaker 7 (36:40):
Jax?

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Sounds like you got a picture perfect night for football
on the Lancing ideal. Yes, absolutely, supposed to be close
to seventy degrees, maybe a little under that, but sun
poking out now, and supposed to be that way for
most of the early part of the game, say the
first half or so, until we get some sunset here.

(37:03):
But people very excited about it, as they are all
over the country, and you know that as well as
anyone being in Georgia. Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 11 (37:12):
Great Friday night, well, great Thursday night of high school
football for Mason four in a row Overholds as you mentioned.
And now, yeah, a picture of perfect night in Spartan Stadium.
I just think it's such an underrated venue because the
campus is so beautiful and I really like to lay
out of that stadium. I think it's a really nice
stadium for sightlines. It's clean, it's fresh, and you know, now,

(37:33):
the Spartans just need to take care of business to
night against Western and give a little momentum for Boston College.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
There you go, and so many big games all over
the country this weekend. Right tomorrow, we have number one
ranked Texas in Columbus to face the defending national champion
Buckeyes and this is the first time ever that a
preseason number one team has been an underdog and it's opener.

Speaker 11 (38:02):
Yeah, first time ever that Texas has been a preseason
number one them. You're gonna look at those buck guy
uniforms to see if they look a little bit more Crimson.
They got yet yet another former Alabama player, Julian Sayan,
is going to be starting at quarterback. We know that
they bought the best defensive player in the SEC last
year and their center was an Alabama guy. I mean,
my goodness. You know how State doing what they have

(38:25):
to do. But you know, Texas isn't a program that
lacks money either. I mean, these guys literally park Wayneborghini's
out sidelines.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
For the recruits.

Speaker 11 (38:33):
So this is an interesting game.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Jack.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
You're talking about the biggest spenders in college football, and
no one takes a back seat to Texas at any level,
even the high school football. Well, you know what it's like.
They're in Georgia, but you've got Texas high school coaches
like making six figures just to coach football. Yeah that's
the assistant coach. No, they they do.

Speaker 11 (38:58):
They take their football seat and as they do in
Georgia and Florida, and you know, I mean, you know what, though,
look at Metro Detroit. When you want to take a
look at the number of players that are in the
NFL these days, take a look at how many guys
come from Metro Detroit in the level of play there.
And you know what, Curtis Blackwell's done with sound mind,
sound body. So I think Michigan high school football is

(39:19):
pretty strong too, and you're gonna see a lot of
those key guys popping up all over the country. Oregon,
for example, I believe they have a former Martin Luther
King quarterback they played in the state championship game, is
going to be starting for the Oregon Ducks this.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Year, Dante More And he was at UCLA and then
transfer to Oregon and sat behind Dylan Gabriel last year.
A lot of guys would not have done that. He
was well compensated to do it. But Rob, I told
you that we had Mike on we were going to
talk a lot of football, and he would find a
way in this segment. So somehow mention Bob every and

(39:55):
Tom Izzo, and I should have realized that he would
also find a way to mention Curtis and to talk
about all the cars I have. But in terms of
that opener on Fox tomorrow at noon, who went that game?

Speaker 11 (40:12):
You know, I like Texas because and honestly, I don't
have a real you know, it's an opening game, but
there's a couple of things working in texas favor. One
last game they played was against Ohio State. We always
talk about the revenge factor, and I do think that
that factors in in terms of a team having an
entire offseason, you know, to think about that last game

(40:32):
and things they could have done differently to beat the
Buck guys. But ultimately, to me, it's Arts Manny. I mean,
I think this guy is the real deal. I think
he's worth the price of admission. I think he's football royalty.
I'm excited to see Arts play. He's a very likable guy.
He's got a great awareness. And what a spectacular opening

(40:53):
game to play in Columbus, Ohio against the Buck guys.
I mean, not that you've got to be a great team.
I mean Michigan, you know, man could be in there too.
But I think this is big for Texas, you know,
to come out of the gates fast and really start
arch Manning's legacy in earnest.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
What do you make of all the height with Arch?
It's really when I think of Arch Manning, I still
think of his grandfather and what a great quarterback he was.
For old myths, I guess I haven't seen many Heisman
Trophy favorites who have actually done less on a field.
But there's a reason for that. His name is quinn Ewers,

(41:31):
and Arch waited his turn, got in and played well
when he could last year. But do you think he's
a Heidsman Trophy favorite at this point? Well, for sure.

Speaker 11 (41:42):
I mean, we know that the Heisman is sort of
a popularity contest. We also know your team has to
be contending for a championship, and I do expect Texas to,
you know, be among the top two or three SEC
teams this year.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
They've got a.

Speaker 11 (41:54):
Date with Georgia in November. It's a Georgia, but the
SEC office managed to find a way to get Texas
a bye week to week leaguing in so I think
that kind of negates the home field advantage for Georgia.
We'll find out about Alabama as well. Alabama's going down.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
To Florist State.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
You had another one of.

Speaker 11 (42:10):
Those compelling games, and we have Finton and LSU. When
you want to talk about desperation, you know.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
These are top ten.

Speaker 11 (42:17):
Teams, Jack, But you know Clempton lost their last home
game against South Carolina. That didn't sit well. Can't imagine
them losing two in a row. Memorial statemum and Brian
Kelly's had trouble coming out of the gates and they
got the number one transfer class. Can elis you put
it together fast enough against the Clemson teams got three
or four first round picks. I mean to me, that's

(42:37):
to me, that's probably the most intense game. I think
the glitz and the glamour blancs to Ohio State in Texas.
But when you talk about the desperation game among elite programs,
LSU at Clemson Saturday night is really.

Speaker 7 (42:49):
What's the upetite?

Speaker 1 (42:53):
So what about that LSU Clemson game. You've got a
battle of the dust valleys, little trash stock going back
and forth. There. You've got Tigers versus Tigers, even have
variations of the same fight song with the Tiger rag.
You got two very interesting coaches there. You're a big
Brian Kelly guy, even though he's never won his first

(43:15):
game of the year at LSU. And you have Dabosweeney,
who I think is on a mission, and Tom Izzo
is a big Dabo Sweeney backer. They talk several times.
So who wins that game in Clemson South Carolina.

Speaker 5 (43:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (43:33):
I like Debo too. I got to know Dabbo when
I was covering Alabama, and I can't understand why Tom
likes him. I mean, they're a lot of like I mean,
these guys are programmed guys and they like the kids
that stick around. And you know, yeah, they every now
and then, you got to take a transfer in to
plug a hole and stay competitive. But you know, these
guys believe in developing talent within the program. You know,

(43:53):
they're both very grounded. They're incredible representatives of their schools.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
You know.

Speaker 11 (43:57):
I do like Brian Kelly. I respect what he did
at Grand Valley State and Cincinnati as well as in
order to still Notre Dames when he head coach. Those
were different, different circumstances. He was recruiting to with the Irish,
and he's come into the SEC at a time when
you know, Alabama and Georgia are fantastic in Texas is
coming in the league. So I'm I think b K
and Dabble were both Hall of Fame first ballot Hall

(44:19):
of Fame kind of guys. You know, I like Clemson
a little bit. I think by the end of the year,
LSU is going to be roaring. But to play on
the road in Death Valley against a Clemson team that
has so much talent and really has to win this game.
So I like Clemson in a close game. It's a
coin toss game to me. It's gonna be exciting, it's

(44:40):
gonna be a lot of color, it's gonna be a
great environment, and I can't wait to see it.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yeah, And when you think about quarterbacks in that game,
I'm talking about Arch Manning, but two of the top
quarterbacks returning are playing for LSU and Clemson. And if
one of those guys a big first game, they could
jump into at the top of the Heisman discussion. Both

(45:08):
of them are on a mission. They had great years
last year. How do you evaluate that match up?

Speaker 11 (45:17):
You know it's gonna be and I think both these teams.
MLS use defense is much improved. I know Clemson has
a tremendous front seven. I think they're really going to
put a lot of pressure on us. My I don't
know how much mobility has I know we had a
little PCL issue. They're going to have to really work
hard to try to get their runs down. I think
it's going to be very hard for LSU to establish
the run. I think this is going to be a

(45:39):
lower scoring game. That's why I like Clemson a little bit.
I think club Nick is uh, you know, I don't
think either one of these quarterbacks, to be clear, have
the ceiling arts Manning does. They're both very much more
experienced than Art at this stage of the game. But
when you watch Arch play, you're you'll hear the music
play when the ball goes through the air. So I
do think I'll tell you another quarterback I'm eager to

(45:59):
see play, and that's Carson back against Notre Dame and Miami.
You know, that's all the great matchups, and you know
Marcus Freeman is a spectacular coach. Irish with a new
quarterback though, and don't really come out of the gate fast.
I kind of like Miami to win that game. But
I think that's going to be another intriguing game with
Carson Beck to Georgia transfer and great offensive line, but

(46:23):
lost the top six receivers, so we'll find out if
Miami can throw the ball adequately enough to beat it'll
be another really good Marcus Freeman defense. That's another one
of those intriguing matchups. They could play a role in
the playoffs ultimately Playoffs selection committee.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
You know, Mike go'jon with Mike Griffith from Dog Nash
right up, Mason Michigan. When you think about the way
the game has evolved changed in some people's minds, how
it's disintegrated, but certainly different and one way I think
it's definitely better. We just had Andre Risen on the show,

(47:00):
and thinking back to for a long time in the fifties, sixties, seventies,
well into the eighties, college football was strictly a Saturday game.
Now we had four Big ten teams in action last night,
two more tonight Saturday. You mentioned Notre Dame at Miami

(47:21):
Catholics versus Convicts two. This is going to be a
Sunday game. And it was nineteen eighty seven Mite when
they finally broke away, and everyone said, what are you doing?
But it was Labor Day night and the first weekend
of college football, and they didn't have NFL games yet,
so they'd had Monday Night football, and someone got the

(47:43):
bright idea, why don't we warm up for Monday night
football by putting a college game on Monday night and
let our team kind of go through the motions and
get the logistics down. I think they did it more
for that than anything else. They took USC at Michigan
State and made it's the Great American Football celebration. It

(48:07):
was a tribute to labor. Whe Greenwood came in with
that flag that covered the field and it's the record
ratings and from that point on they were off and running.
And if you don't like football other days and Saturday,
you can blame that one.

Speaker 11 (48:22):
Well, yeah, we were all proud to be an American
there with Leagueree Greenwood. I just still finished up some
time in the military. So you know, college football to me,
I love it, obviously, you and I both have made
our careers out of that. And you know, I think
it's seven days a week. I'm a little sensitive to
high school football on Friday nights. But you know, they
were able to adjust around State's game. I understand that,

(48:44):
and why Michigan State's doing what they're doing. You want
to get Jonathan Johnathan Smith and Aiden Chiles. You want
them to get a little spotlight and a little attention,
and this is an opportunity for the Spartans to showcase
themselves tonight and for the fans to enjoy a night game.
I think that's going to be a lot of fun
in East Lancy.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yeah, and some fans. There were so many night games
last year, Mike, they never got a noon game that
some people said, wait a minute, now, you know what
are we doing here. But it's interesting that the MHSAA,
which is under constant criticism, was able to adjust to
this now and the opening week high school games are

(49:23):
not on Friday. They're all on Thursday. So part of
the reason for that was it's Labor Day weekend and
a lot of family want to go up north. They
want to go to the cottage or whatever for their
last big summer together, last summer weekend, and so they
played the high schools on Thursday. Michigan State now is

(49:43):
coming to this ritual on Friday night. Michigan plays on Saturday,
and a week from now we'll have the Lions, and
you know what, the excitement about them is in the
state of Michigan now. So it's a big year for
football here.

Speaker 11 (49:56):
Now always a big year, and I got to mention
you mentioned that Iszo a second ago. I gotta tell you,
I'm really excited about that home and home with John
cal Perry in Arkansas. I don't know if you've ever
been to blud Walton Arena down there in said so
I know it's going to be in East Lancing first,
but that's a that's going to be a really neat
trip for Spartan fans, not this year but next year.
And Cal's gonna have a good Arkansas team come into Breslan.

(50:18):
So I think that's really cool that you're getting an
SEC team there in Breslyn Arena. And cal Perry is
just such as showman, and you know him and Izzo
played in so many of those classic games when Cal
was at Kentucky, So of course you know Tom's basketball
schedule is always amazing and full of incredible teams. Jacky
Duke's coming in there in North Carolina.

Speaker 5 (50:37):
So wow.

Speaker 11 (50:38):
How blessed are you in mid Michigan right now with
Tom Izzo and the Detroit Lions. I know everybody like
myself to have Jamier Gibbs on their fantasy football team
are pretty excited to get this started. You know, the
Lions are so much fun, so good times there in
the East, Lancy. You know what, you probably ought to
go out and get another car from graftschev Le to
celebrate Jack.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Yeah. When you think about the start of a season,
Mike and what we're up against and what the storylines
are this year, is there one that jumps out to
you that fans are going to be following all year long?

Speaker 11 (51:17):
Well, I mean, I think the action on the field
speaks for itself. I mean, you know, you have ten
SEC teams that are in the topenty five in the preseason,
I believe six from the Big Ten. And you know,
these two conferences have kind of separated a bit, both
financially and with their decision making power with the college
football playoff. Now that the SEC has gone to a
nine game schedule, I think this opens the door for

(51:38):
the playoffs to be expanded in twenty twenty six. We're
not sure what model yet. Could it be sixteen teams
seems more than likely, But we have heard the idea
of a twenty four twenty eighteen playoff out there, and
if there's more money involved, then the decision makers are
going to try to push that. I'm exacutly sure how
I feel about that at this moment, but the playoffs
are going to be in the background. Certainly we're gonna

(52:00):
se jet model is going to come out of this,
but we're going to continue to see how the Big
ten and SEC separate, and we're gonna find out that
the ACC and the Big twelve can can compete. And
to me, that's that's gonna be a challenge because they
don't have the budgets, and of course budgets don't just
count for coaches, and now you've got to pay players
and get nil deals and how are these deals going

(52:22):
to be done? You know, can a program like Michigan
State Jack continue to compete in the Big ten when
we see the resources that Michigan and Ohio State have
UFC with the money they have to spend Oregon with
their Nike contract. You've got a great coach there. You know,
he's won before was left at Oregon State. But the

(52:43):
second year is going to be big. A lot of
people are going to be watching Aid and Childs to
see what coach Smith can do with him. And it
could have a lot to do with who you get
in with year what kind of success he has a
year two.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yeah, and hey, we got to change too. We know
the power of the SEA and the Big Ten. Big
Ten now saying that Penn State can win the national championship.
All of three different Big Ten teams win the National
Championship back to back to back and not have to
see an SEC team in the championship game, and any

(53:15):
of them if it's Penn State and Clemson, say, but
the SEC now is going to have a nine game
conference season coming up, and that means we won't have
these late November games against Southeast Guam Junior College. Yeah.

Speaker 11 (53:34):
Well, but you do have ten teams in the top
twenty five. That's two thirds of your league, whereas the
Big Ten only has twenty five percent of their league
excuse me, thirty three percent of their league. So twice
as many top twenty five teams per capita in the SEC.
So that conference schedule when you don't have Purdue or Northwestern,
and I did see Minnesota was able to pull out

(53:55):
a win last night. That was real impressive. Nebraska certainly
didn't looked very dynamic to me, so so well, that's true.
You know, one of the things the SEC says though,
is that not only do you got to play nine
power teams, but you've also got to play yet another
team from a power forward conference, So ten power Foard
games and the Georgia's case eleven. So eleven of the

(54:17):
twelve games are going to be against not just FBS,
the Power four, and you know that's going to be
intriguing to see how they hold up. You know, there's
been a lot of attrition in past years. I guess
I must have missed the news that Penn State hired
a new head coach. Did you say somebody thought they
were going to win a national title? Is James Wait a.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Minute, Franklin. The choice was James Franklin or Ben Franklin,
and they chose James.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
But when you think about the SEC Big ten debate,
and I don't want to go on with this ad nauseam,
which I'm sure would, but I do think about Michigan
and last year one of the worst Michigan teams I
can remember beating Alabama back to back years, and that
was a BAMA team which also went into Norman, Oklahoma

(55:04):
and lost to a pretty rancid Oklahoma team. So, you know,
the Big Tennis kind of got a chef puffed out here.

Speaker 11 (55:13):
Yeah, well, you know, I think there was some Alabama
guys out, and I think this was the first four
lost Alabama team that I think we've seen since Navin's
first year in two thousand and six. So it wasn't
vintage Baman, you know, Jack, Really, I hate to say it,
but the Bowl games, now, if it's not a playoff game,
it's really lost a lot of luster. And it's interesting, Dorris,

(55:36):
how do we get that back? You know, when Kirby
I asked Kirby about this twenty four and twenty eight,
you know team playoff model that the Big Ten trotted
out there, and of course my initial reaction was not positive.
But when I asked Kirby about it, he said, if
it was done the right way, and he mentioned the
Bowl games, and I think maybe Kurt, and I don't

(55:56):
want to put words in his mouth, but if he's
leading the horse to the water here, maybe you incorporate
the Bowl games. Is sites for the expanded playoffs. We
already know the New Year six Bowls are involved.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
The Orange, the Sugar, the Peach.

Speaker 11 (56:11):
The Fiesta, the Cotton, the Rose, but maybe some sits
in Nashville Orlando, Houston, San Diego. Some of these other
Bowl games can be saved if these become the sites.
I don't know about you, but I don't think that
the playoff games on campus really came across real well.
I think the logistics were challenging, and I don't think

(56:32):
the idea of playing in cold weather as much as
we all at one point thought that could be cool,
no pun intended, I don't think in practice that it
worked out real well. So that is one way you
could keep those Bowl games relevant and by doing so,
keep a lot of the top players playing, because a
lot of these kids opped out if it's not a
playoff game and you don't get a true representation of

(56:53):
the program.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Yeah, that's a good point. Flake, Thanks so much for
joining us. I appreciate it. Have a great time this
season with the Georgia Bulldogs the rest of the SEC,
and Mason's got a big game next week at de Witt,
and boy the Bulldogs can get it done, then they'll
be off and running again.

Speaker 11 (57:13):
Jack, I got to ask you, how many Michigan State
openers is this for you?

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Now? First one was nineteen sixty nine, so we are
talking about fifty seven in a row, and yeah, it
means I'm really old.

Speaker 11 (57:33):
Well, really experienced in Michigan. State's lucky to have you there, Jack.
I love hearing your show.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Hey, thanks, thanks so much. Mike. By the way, Mike
Griffith is going to be on Presspass Sunday night. He's
going to be on with Bluebelly Tom. So we're really
looking forward to that matchup, and so is Tom. He's
going to have his armor ready because we know Mike
will get some shots in on the Wolverines as he
always does. We're going to say, right here, Rob and

(58:00):
welcome in my buddy Jim Keaton Jr. He was a
one of the best athletes, let's say, ever from mid Michigan.
Uh three and put one one? Well you know number
one or one? You said no, your sister was better, right, Okay, okay,

(58:25):
one of one of the best. I'm we're not going
to say that you're you're necessarily better than Urban. Uh
you know, We're we're putting you up on the top rung.
How's that? Okay, we define best athlete.

Speaker 7 (58:39):
I guess yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
That's true. Well, we're going to have a race right now,
one hundred meters and see how you do. We talk
about yeah, uh you okay, that's good to know. Uh.
We talked about Jim's college accomplishments and by ball and
football stand out at Arizona State, much to Muddy Water's

(59:06):
dismayed but he played for Darryl Rogers in Tempee and
then on to the National Football League and now doing
some very important work here in mid Michigan. Jim, when
you think about the college football season in game one,
how do you describe that feeling for a player. They've
gone through all the offseason preparation, they've gone through all

(59:28):
the preseason training. I don't have the same two days,
and these guys aren't climbing Mount Arizona the way you were.
But in terms of the excitement of getting ready for
an opener, how would you explain that to someone who's
never put on a helmet?

Speaker 5 (59:46):
I would explain it like the anticipation of Christmas morning.
It is ah, you know it's coming. You don't know
what you're going to get, necessarily all the time, but
you can't wait. You you go to sleep thinking that

(01:00:06):
you're not going to go to sleep, You're going to
stay up and wait until it's time to run. Out
of the tunnel and and hear the band and hear
the scream of the crowd, and uh, it's just very anticipatory.
So as a result of that, you're you're you put

(01:00:26):
in all the work, all the stuff put in the can.
Now you just raid open up and bring that that
whoopee out there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
But Jay Green just walked up. There's another multi sports standout,
but from Flint, not from Lancing. And we're not going
to get into a discussion about Flint Central and Lancing.
Eastern basketball will never be done by kickoff. But I
have to ask you about not having a chance to
play at Spartan and the Shadow where you grew up.

(01:01:02):
Certainly you had Green blood, but your brother did play
here and was the key part of a team on
a Bowl win. But you nearly came back here to play.
Not that you would have played twenty four to twenty
eight times as you could have if you'd gone here,
but you just missed Arizona State's visit back here in

(01:01:25):
nineteen eighty five. And if you had been able to
wait a year, red shirt or whatever and be eligible
for that game, then maybe Arizona State wouldn't have lost.

Speaker 5 (01:01:38):
Well, I'm not sure about the outcome, but I can
tell you that the atmosphere would have been electric. Yeah,
I did a lot of things when I was at
school because the NCAA they had just started. Because when
I was a freshman, you couldn't red shirt. It was
against the rules at that time because back then the

(01:01:59):
Brands and Oklahoma were just loading up teams each year
and they were trying to make it more competitively balanced.
So then my sophomore year, in between my freshman and
sophomore year, the NCAA changed the rule that if a
player had played in less than so many games as

(01:02:21):
a freshman, similar to what they have now, they let
you play four. Then they wouldn't count that as a
year of eligibility against you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
And they was red shirt and guys and and freshmen
were eligible to play the first time in nineteen seventy two.
But you're saying that you couldn't actually have the red
shirt year and still have four to play, right right.

Speaker 5 (01:02:46):
They wouldn't give you a year of five years to
do four.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Essence, Okay, good, So.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
Then they changed the rule, but changed the rule after
we had played the season in which you know, I
played in every game almost and I think I played
in eight of the eleven and so so for me,
it was unfortunate because I didn't have the option of

(01:03:17):
making or trying to make a decision. You know, uh,
when I when I started Arizona State, I mean I
played behind two guys that were drafted in the first
two rounds of the NFL draft. So I would get
in games, but I wasn't a starter until my junior
year because we just we had talent going to the league. Obviously,

(01:03:41):
I still got to play quite a bit, but certainly
not as much as I would have had I been
able to red shirt a year, knowing that that was
coming back, and then you know, had I been able
to get back to start, and saying him, it would
have been such an electric time to have family in
the house and then all so have my little brothers
playing at Michigan State. That would have been a tremendous moment,

(01:04:06):
not only from personally but from my family.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
So what do you remember, Jim, about your first game
with the Sun Devils, The first time you were the
Maroon Angel.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
We came out of the tunnel. We played University of
Houston my freshman year.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
And they had.

Speaker 5 (01:04:29):
They were loaded offensively that year and they ran de
vere was it Bill Yeoman? Yeah, and they were really
good and they had a quarterback who was I think
his name was Terry Elston and he was about six
four and two thirty five two forty He was just

(01:04:50):
a huge individual. But as we were preparing for the game,
coaches let me know that I was going to get
some runs. So I was excited because I was going
to be able to play and at that time, I
was playing tight end and so I'm all excited because

(01:05:11):
this is my first college game. And I come out
of the tunnel and there's like forty five fifty rabid
fans that are just telling me Sun double, this, Sun
double that, you know. And then when we came out
for the game, there was seventy five thousand people out
there chanting masu. It was. It was a feeling that

(01:05:34):
I'll never forget. But the best part of it was
getting in the game, and yeah, and being a part
of a win, of beating the team that you know
was I think they were ranked seventeenth or something at
the time, and our defense just totally destroyed him. In fact,
Vernon Maxwell had the game of his life. Was running

(01:05:57):
down guys from on the sideline. But it was it
was just like I said, it was like that Christmas
corny feeling. You got all your toys and you're playing,
and then once you settled into the game, it was
like picking the biggest box that you could hang in
and just get in there and go for a couple
of hours.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
We're talking with Jim Keaton junior and right now talking
college football. Jim, when you had your first real collision
in college football, how long did it take you to realize, Okay,
we're not playing second?

Speaker 5 (01:06:37):
Well, it happened at Camptazona. It was our first day
in pads and the first person I got to block
was Vernon Maxwell. He was a freshman All American in
the year before he ended up being the AFC Rookie
of the Year, played in the league for about ten
years and just's he is. He is one of the

(01:07:00):
best athletic football players that I've ever been around. He
was a freaking nature And I came off the ball
and I hit him, and he hit me, and we're
getting done and at the end he pushed me, and
then of course I had to let him know he

(01:07:22):
couldn't push me. And then as he came back to
get me. I used Keith Poacher and Jim Walker's best
duplex and put him on his back and introduced my
fist to his face. Pask a couple of times, and
not only was it my staple moment as a Sun Devil,

(01:07:43):
but as a as a fighter with the team and
a freshman, I garnered quite a bit of mojo, if
you will, after that. So that was my first experience,
and it was you know, you really you just find
out it's still football, but but the level is amps

(01:08:06):
up one hundred times for sure. And then when you
get to the league. You know, we talk about in
high school, you might play against one person all season
that can athletically match up with you. If you're a
D one player, Yeah, two if you're lucky. You know,
when you get to college, you might play against three

(01:08:27):
or four guys that are, you know, really top notch
potential NFL players. But then when you get to the league,
there's there's no there's no days or plays off everybody
to get to that level. Ultimately that plays they can
they can handle themselves and handle you as well. And

(01:08:50):
when you're you know, throwing enter and fifty pound men
around like rag dolls. You know, there's there's something special
about that person that you're playing again.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
So when you let that guy know who was boss
in that first confrontation, is that where Jim Crochey got
the motivation for you don't mess around with Jim.

Speaker 5 (01:09:12):
Huh, Well, that that motivation came a little bit sooner
than be getting out there to hit mags. But it
is okay. It is one of those things that uh,
all of us named Jim certainly will call on or
it's a nice analogy, uh that you use, but didn't

(01:09:37):
necessarily play into my hands on that day and past
in Arizona.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Well, I want to talk about a couple of things
that we are doing, and you are working with us
now on press path from a business standpoint, certainly you've
had some appearances on the panel, but we have a
new sponsor this week in our Cool and Smooth segment.

(01:10:04):
You want to talk a little bit about course Light.

Speaker 5 (01:10:07):
Well, it's kind of like, you know, having the opportunity
to play in Denver and obviously loving the chill of
things in the air right now. We're fortunate enough to
partner with Stan Henry Distributing and who distributes course Light

(01:10:30):
in the area and work with the folks at Cores
to come up with a very very very nice package,
I think for them as well as for us at
the show. And since they are the official beer of
Michigan State Athletics, it was just a natural connection to
be able, you know, to try to put everybody in

(01:10:52):
the same room and get them working together. So we're
really looking forward to introducing not only the show to course,
but we want to engage the students to let them
know it's very good that we got the tailgate uh

(01:11:13):
phenomena back open at month uh and I know they're
going to have a beer ten out there, They're gonna
have some some lots of Myers. Myers is gonna have
some stuff going on as well. But just excited about
the opportunity. It's like, you know, when you have good
things and you put good things together at a package.

(01:11:34):
You know, we got a great show, we got a
great beer. It's it ends the show with our cool
and smooth segment. And nothing better than taking a course
like chilling and popping one open with a few friends.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Well something tough me. We might choose chill. Tomorrow at noon,
we're getting together to watch some football. And where am
I meeting you.

Speaker 5 (01:12:02):
We're gonna be meeting at the sidecar uh bar downtown
Lancing right in, Yeah, and I'm gonna be in in
in enjoying the Ohio they win over Texas. Just letting
that be known, and uh let to enjoy some sliders

(01:12:25):
and as well as uh a little chill perhaps on
the on the court and watch some great football for
a few hours and then figure out where the next
spot is going to be to enjoy some more football
for the rest of the night.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
Well, we were just at a Tiger's astro's game and
you help break my losing streak there. Tigers are on
another one, so they may not they may need us
back there at co America Park, but you are with
Tom Crawford that day and he got his eyes opened
a little bit to the way you operate. But Mike

(01:13:06):
Griffith was on and you know he's got some pretty
strong feelings about Texas beating Ohio State. And Graham Couch
in his preseason picks game by game, that's Michigan State
beating Arizona State in the bowl game. Sun Devil's rank
eleventh and pre season and Michigan State not ranked but

(01:13:31):
we know what Graham thinks about that. I'm going to
see Graham in a couple of minutes. Anything you want
me to tell him.

Speaker 5 (01:13:38):
Yeah, Jack, I just you know, it's like I told
you earlier. I wanted you to upgrade the people that
you have around you and listen to what they say.
I mean, you got Mike Griffith, who's you know, stuck
on a bulldog, had to leave here from from Mason
to go down to Georgia. And then you got Graham,

(01:13:59):
who you know, went to a school that they can't
figure out what to call themselves as a mashot uh yeah, yeah.
And so I just wanted you to be able to
know that when you hang with a Quaker and a
sun devil and just a lancing guy, that that you're

(01:14:20):
going to be you're gonna be surrounded by truth, knowledge, Yeah,
and uh an inspiration and sometimes that inspiration is cool,
sometimes it's smooth, but you know that the brother is
always chill that. Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
I like the way you work that in. I don't
know that's Robbie saying about modesty when he was talking
about all that, But when you're talking about it, ain't bragging. Jack.
If you back it up. Yeah, yeah, I got it.
I got it. So one more thing for you mentioned
Lansing Eastern and Crawford also is a Quaker, and you

(01:15:00):
both have ties to East Lansing with sons and with
your involvement with the program there at different levels. Have
we ever seen on opening night of high school football
where Eastern has one by ten and He's Lancing's lost
by forty five.

Speaker 5 (01:15:22):
Well, I don't think those are in the books. I
think that was one for the records. I do think
that He's Lancing is not a forty five point lost
team to forty Central. I think with any first game,
you learn a lot about your shelves and sometimes they

(01:15:44):
got a lot of new young kids that are stepping
on that field for the first time that maybe did
react as well to that first smack in the mouth.
But I'm power.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
And say it's all because there's a coach a Keaton
on the coaching staff.

Speaker 7 (01:16:00):
Zach.

Speaker 5 (01:16:01):
We know all we do is encourage, you know, okay,
we we will do everything we can to help them,
but ultimately we know we can't play for them. And
young people, as you know, sometimes they listen to what
you say, but they don't believe what you say until
after they have it done to them. And I think

(01:16:22):
that that's what happened to these lasting I think that
next week you'll see a completely different team. I think
you know, those young kids will respond. Coach Rocco will
get them ready, and as far as decent goals, I'm
just going to continue to pray that they stay healthy
and they get prepared to play next week, that they

(01:16:43):
come out with another performer that we can all be
proud of, because we haven't had a lot of those
in recent that's.

Speaker 1 (01:16:54):
Jim, thanks so much for joining us. I will see
you tomorrow at noon at Sidecar and if any of
our listeners want a great place to watch multiple games
and stop by and say hi as well. I just
see Nate Carter walking by now with the falcon and
he's back here with the bye week. But he was

(01:17:16):
a free agent who got a chance to show what
he could do and did exactly that and now he
has made the team so undrafted UFA and here he is,
he's going to be playing in the National Football League.
Really proud of Nate. We'll be back in just a
minute and we're going to talk to the fabulous flying
Ness from Boise, Idaho up next on our game Day

(01:17:39):
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Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
Matter why jewelers. Welcome back to the Drive with Jack
the Spotlight Radio Network. It is opening night for the

(01:20:44):
twenty twenty five Michigan State football season. Four Big ten
teams already have a game in the books. Big ten
is four and oh but but oh and four against
the spread. I am here underneath the big spartan at
the south end of the stadium as you can get
to it without scaling the wall, and I'm joined by

(01:21:04):
two of the greatest Michigan State fans. I'm talking about
super fans and Rob you know who. I'm talking about
people who have traveled. How many miles do you have,
Brian Ness.

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
Well, it's two thousand from Boise, Idaho to here. Yeah,
I'm pushing four million right now. Jackie's about three and
a half.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
Million, three and a half minutes. So between the two
of you, you're talking about seven and a half million
million Delta miles going back and forth from Boise two,
Michigan two East Lansing four games and following the Spartans
across the globe. Brian, You're gonna be watching the game
from a pretty nice location tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:21:46):
Yes, we'll be sitting in the uh the Credit Union box,
probably about the forty yard line. So yes, that should
be a nice vandage point, Jackie.

Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
Did you arrange that? Did you pull the strings to
make that happen?

Speaker 12 (01:21:59):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:21:59):
Of course who wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:22:02):
And this is a beautiful day night for football. I
saw the weather. I said, this is going to be
a little colder than people are used to but it
is almost perfect right now, and it's Sun's supposed to
come out for most of the game before we get sunset.
So looking forward to that, Jackie, what do you make
of this team? How excited are you?

Speaker 13 (01:22:24):
I'm very excited. I've just got my fingers crossed that
our boy from Idaho is going to be a kicker tonight.
Maybe not tonight, but soon. I'm hoping that Martin will
kick soon.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Talking about Martin Connington, friend of the nessus the Connington family.
But how odd is it, Brian, that two kickers battling
for the job, they would both get injured and they
may be winding up tonight. I'm guessing the place kicking
is going to be done by a transfer from Davenport College,

(01:22:56):
Blake Sislow.

Speaker 4 (01:22:57):
I don't understand how they can both get hurt the
same injury like that. It's almost like when the basketball
team with Snake bit a few years ago and everybody
had a foot injury. Is this strange circumstances and hopefully
they get healed and we get beyond that and we
don't have to worry about that in the future.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Yeah, So, Jackie, what is it about this team that
has you excited?

Speaker 13 (01:23:21):
It's the coaches, not his initial year. So he's into it.
He knows the players, he knows that we are not
Michigan fans, he knows the rivalry, so he's digging in
and so I think he's ready for the year. So
I think we're ready to go.

Speaker 1 (01:23:39):
How much improvement do you expect from a second year
starting quarterback, a guy who was not eighteen years old
and not making his first starts in the Big Ten.

Speaker 13 (01:23:51):
He knows the system, he knows the field, he knows
his receivers.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
I think he's ready to go.

Speaker 13 (01:23:57):
I was amazed at how well he did last year
being a young He's ready. I'm happy for him.

Speaker 4 (01:24:05):
He's ready to go.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
Brian Aiden Childs made a lot of big plays. He
also made enough bad ones to get Michigan State beat
in a couple of games. And there you have the
difference between five and seven and a chance to be
eight and five. Michigan was seven and five and then
locked into a bowl win. So Michigan State could have
done the exact same thing and actually could have beaten
Michigan and that would have knocked the Wolverines down to

(01:24:27):
six and six in the regular season. Odd to think of,
Michigan State could have had a better regular season record
with two plays going differently in the whole season. But
that's where we are. And when you think about the
start of college football season, do you have a favorite
Michigan State season opening moment. We're going to talk with
Cedric Irvin probably next week, but I remember in nineteen

(01:24:52):
ninety six he came out and he made his collegiate
debut here against Purdue. It was an odd Big Ten
opener to start the see and all he did was
score four touchdowns. But there're meant some great opening night performances.

Speaker 14 (01:25:05):
Yeah, and there's probably the Oregon game where I can't
remember then a Camble Campbell, Yeah, with the broken neck
the year before and then came back. That's probably my
favorite opening memory because most of the time we're playing
directional schools in the opening game.

Speaker 12 (01:25:21):
So there's not that much to look forward to other
than that your team is starting to play. But I
can remember back in the George Perlis days where we
might have Miami of Florida and Florida StatET Notre Dame
and teams like that in the pre Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Yeah, yeah, you're right, and that Amp Campbell performance is
one of my favorites. You think that people said, oh,
he'll never play football again. The question is Willie walk?
And then he comes out and gets approval of the play,
and I said to Saban, are you sure you want
to go down this road? He said, hey, the doctor
say he can do it, so you know we're gonna

(01:25:56):
be careful with him. And all he does is recover
a fumble go eighty five yards for the winning touchdown
against Oregon Ducks. But I have one other that you'll remember.
I think it was Mark d'antonio's first game in two
thousand and seven, and it was a blowout win for
Michigan State. And after the game, Will Tieman is doing
the postgame interview with D'Antonio and Will gets word and

(01:26:21):
there's a buzz around the concourse of the stadium. People
had stayed that Michigan had indeed lost to Apple Aachian State,
and Will says, Mark, excuse me, do you know what
just happened today in ann Arbor? And Mark didn't know,
and he said, no, what happened? And he said, Michigan
lost to app State And D'Antonio had one of the

(01:26:42):
classic lines and it helped fuel the rivalry and made
Mike Hart and everyone start looking at their watches. He said,
should we have a moment of silence?

Speaker 4 (01:26:51):
I remember that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:52):
Yeah, that was a highlight of the opener. But Michigan
State has opened against Western Michigan before, and Jackie, sometimes
these games are a little scary. Michigan State has had
three very good teams struggle to beat Western Michigan. Nebroncos
haven't beaten the Spartan since nineteen twenty one. But there
have been some really close games seven to three games

(01:27:14):
that Rose Bowl teams had to pull out in the
fourth quarter. All that so for Michigan State going up
against a team of guys who were overlooked by Michigan State.
Michigan State didn't recruit any of these Western Michigan players.
How much incentive or motivation is that this is not
the biggest game on Michigan State schedule, probably is on

(01:27:34):
westerns it is.

Speaker 13 (01:27:36):
And hopefully Jonathan Smith has instilled that in the guys
that they have to come out and perform. They have
to come out and perform. It's the beginning of the
season and we have got to make it work. I'm
hoping that that's what he does, gets it going, gets
the season going.

Speaker 1 (01:27:56):
So, Brian, what are your expectations for this season? First
of all, what do you think this team is going
to do? I know you have it worked out game
by game, and what would make the fans satisfied, reasonably satisfied,
if not deliriously happy.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
Deliriously happy, It would be beat Michigan and it doesn't
matter what we do against the other teams. Oh, however,
I will say that right now I have them at
seven and five and going to a minor bowl game,
and maybe not so minor and winning that wing up
with the eight and five.

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
I don't even know they're going to win a bowl game.
You don't know who they're going to play.

Speaker 4 (01:28:36):
It's fifty to fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
And a half ladies and gentlemen. But you have them
winning some big games, right. I have them winning on
the road a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
I have them splitting with USC and Nebraska. I don't
know which one will be the win. I'm guessing USC.
I don't know why Minnesota and Iowa have a split,
probably Minnesota because I was going to be out for blood.
I have us beating UCLA, and I have us going
undefeated in the pre Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
And losing to Michigan and Penn State here.

Speaker 4 (01:29:09):
Michigan, Yeah, will be one and three at home, and wash.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
Your mouth out with soap. How dare you? I'll take
care of that, Jackie. You're gonna be sure that he
loses that thought immediately.

Speaker 13 (01:29:18):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:29:19):
I hope I'm wrong.

Speaker 13 (01:29:21):
I I they're gonna beat Michigan. I don't care. That's
just the way I think.

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
Bryan says, he hopes he's wrong. Has that ever happened before,
all the time, all the time, spoken like a wife.
I have no comment, no comment. Yeah, yeah, you have
to be very careful with your worst She's she's standing
right here. You can't say anything like that, Jackie. What
do you think? What do you see this season?

Speaker 4 (01:29:42):
Six and six?

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
Six?

Speaker 4 (01:29:44):
Six and six?

Speaker 1 (01:29:46):
I said seven and six. So I'm thinking that either
there'll be six and six and play in a low
tier bowl game and win, or be seven and five
and play a better opponent and lose. So in any case,
I'm thinking seven wins and I think that's that might
be the floor to make people at least say, Okay,

(01:30:06):
well there's progress. If they managed with a losing record,
I don't think very many people are gonna be happy.

Speaker 4 (01:30:12):
I would agree, but it depends how they show improvement.
It could depend on how injuries go. If we get
a bunch of key players heard, I think the fans
will cut them a little more slack. I'm not sure
the new athletic director would, but the fans certainly would.

Speaker 1 (01:30:28):
A lot going on tonight, we talk about the Montelgate
coming back. Tom Izzo still doing cartwheels about that. We
saw it coming in.

Speaker 4 (01:30:39):
Jackie's going over there to get passed by the crowd.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that would be good. Can we get
video of that? I'd like to run that on the
television show, Jackie getting past along the crowd. Looking forward
to that. And they have the five to one seven
beer garden. And they have some different things in the
stadium too, including these advanced scoreboards now that are much better, clearer,

(01:31:03):
more reliable, gives them more functional capability of what to
put on them than they had in the past, the
ribbon board and the three primary boards. And did you
bring earplugs?

Speaker 4 (01:31:14):
We did not, you.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
Might need them. I understand that there're gonna be fireworks tonight.
Ooh nice. Yes, So I don't know exactly how that's
gonna be. When they're gonna come. They're gonna come a
certain point in the game, or they're gonna come when
Michigan State scores. So we'll get more than just George
saying touchdown MSU.

Speaker 4 (01:31:32):
You'll get that all of that, right, fantastic?

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
Yeah? All right? Favorite player on this team. I know
you haven't seen them yet, but is there someone you
really like or you really can't wait to see?

Speaker 3 (01:31:42):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:31:42):
It's interesting, is football it's hard to have a favorite
player because there's so many positions and so many so
much depth in how they rotate them. But I do
have a favorite player, and that would be Darius Snow.
Darius Snow he stuck with the team all these years
through the injury. I think he's on his third coach
and so he's someone who will stick it out. I

(01:32:06):
think he's working towards his second master's degree, and somebody
like that is someone who will be a favorite of
mine that sticks with the program, gets their degree and
you know, works through some adversity.

Speaker 1 (01:32:21):
Jackie a favorite player who is not a placekicker, Nope.

Speaker 13 (01:32:25):
That's my favorite player. But I have to give a
shout out to Rakeem Johnson too. Is also from Yes, Idaho. Yeah,
so Rakeem Johnson that's a favorite also.

Speaker 1 (01:32:33):
And while we haven't seen much from Martin Connington and
no one knows if he will kick in a game
or not, what his future is. I was gonna say
he'd have a great shot to be a Michigan Saf's placekicker,
but the injury set him way back. I can tell
you that Rakeem Johnson has been very impressive again in
camp and they're using him all over the place, so

(01:32:54):
I would expect he's going to see some action tonight,
maybe as a backup center, maybe el Swear on the
offensive line. But he is definitely part of their plans
and he has four years of eligibility left.

Speaker 13 (01:33:05):
Yep, so we're rooting for another Idaho boy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
All right, last thing for you. Something else you're gonna
notice when you walk into the stadium is the beautiful
artwork on the center of the field with the spartan
that was painted by Boosters. Do you know any of
the Boosters who got to do that, Brian?

Speaker 4 (01:33:23):
I think I know a couple of us.

Speaker 1 (01:33:25):
Yeah, I think I'm talking to him.

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
Yes, absolutely. I tried to go outside the line so
I could point everybody which spot I painted, but they're
pretty strict with me.

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
That's an old ESPN television show Outside the Lines.

Speaker 4 (01:33:36):
Yes it is.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
So can you critique Jackie's painting.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
Much better than mine?

Speaker 5 (01:33:43):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
Answer? Were you prohibited to the people they are standing
there with cattle pride if you started to venture wide
on this design?

Speaker 4 (01:33:52):
Not really, But somehow they knew me from years. Oh, yes,
I have a reputation there.

Speaker 1 (01:33:57):
Yes, yeah, they had six attack dogs get you.

Speaker 4 (01:34:01):
Yes, that right, Yeah, and then she had my phone
taking pictures, so if I screwed up too bad, I
wouldn't get my phone back.

Speaker 1 (01:34:07):
So they were holding that Okay. I thought they'd be
able to identify exactly who did it. Oh, they do, Yeah,
they knew.

Speaker 4 (01:34:14):
They had pictures.

Speaker 5 (01:34:15):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
Jackie was that fun?

Speaker 4 (01:34:17):
It was fun. That's always fun.

Speaker 1 (01:34:19):
Well, I hope the whole season is big fun for you.
You're going to be back in for so many games, right.

Speaker 4 (01:34:24):
We'll catch every home game and we're going to be
at Nebraska.

Speaker 1 (01:34:27):
Be at Nebraska. That's the one road game I won't
be at. So okay, between the two of us will
have all the road game represent you.

Speaker 5 (01:34:33):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
I appreciate it. Brian and Jackie ness Spartan super fans
from Boise, Idaho. It wouldn't be the start of a
season without him. We'll be right back on the drive with.

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Speaker 8 (01:37:42):
Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
It is the Drive with Jack the Spotlight Radio Network.
Jack Eblin here outside Spartan Stadium, my producer Boston Rob
Back at the Spotlight Studio. It is official, Rob. The
stadium gates have just opened and fans entering for the
first time in twenty twenty five. You should see the

(01:38:04):
student line as far as the eye can see, and
many of them wearing their Student Section Raise your Shield
T shirts. I'm gonna see those everywhere you look at
the stripe the stadium night, and we're gonna have some
fireworks on and off the field. Ideally, want to go

(01:38:25):
back to our guest line and very happy to have
with us as we do every Friday, particularly happy tonight.
He's got a little extra pep and his step talking
about Jay Green, Foul Flint Stone, Spartan Dogs for Life. Yeah,
are you ready versus football?

Speaker 3 (01:38:46):
Yes, Deck our om but they got me on. I'm
all like far different missions. So I'm walking around as
I talk to you. I'm actually in a stadium right
now on the field walk fare of warm up. So yeah, nice,
I'm definitely ready.

Speaker 1 (01:39:02):
Anyone there wearing a cast that we would not otherwise know.
It look like it's a pretty healthy football team to you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:10):
Oh look look very healthy. Look very healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:39:13):
We look good.

Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
You definitely look good. So I'm excited. We've been waiting
for this, you know, you always had a countdown and
now we're here.

Speaker 1 (01:39:21):
So I'm excited. Who four boards when store bors look nice? Yeah?
If you know what it's like for the first kickoff
of a season, and for some players, the first of
their career, how would you explain that? And if you
were to tell them one thing about what they're going

(01:39:41):
to experience tonight, what would you say?

Speaker 3 (01:39:45):
Electricity? Electricity is always a big villado for the first
game because everybody was so ready for football to get back.
So I would tell them to expect electricity because that's
what we don't see. As I'm standing here talking to you.
The teams Bacon already had fool and they continue to be.
So it's good. Me excited, Yeah, definitely excited.

Speaker 1 (01:40:08):
And Jay, all of the newcomers, with maybe one or
two exceptions, someone who may have been at Auburn or
somewhere in the SEC, this is going to be the
biggest crowd that they will ever have played in front of.

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
I don't when many of them couldn't stay alone.

Speaker 1 (01:40:27):
See Jay Green's autograph.

Speaker 7 (01:40:31):
Oh okay, okay, great, we're out here.

Speaker 1 (01:40:36):
I got you. Would be a Michigan State game without
Ken Manny. But in terms of players who are here
and have never seen anything like this, maybe they played
a high school game with ten thousand people, are state
championship game with twenty five thousand people. Or maybe they
transferred from another college and they played in front of
thirty thousand people. A little bit different when you run

(01:41:00):
the tunnel, when you make that first hit, when you
can't hear the signals, the crowd is yelling so loud,
how do you prepare for that? Jay, Yes, I'm here.
Maybe I would you know what? There are so many

(01:41:21):
cell phones here that are probably cutting out the signals.

Speaker 3 (01:41:25):
So what I'll explain to you is the thing that
I always remember, the coming off the warm up in
the stands to be half empty, and even when you
went back in for that last time, it was half empty.

Speaker 7 (01:41:36):
So when you came off for the actual game.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
It was pecked and it was a whole different atmosphere.
That's what I always remember, and that's says the same
and everything goes.

Speaker 1 (01:41:48):
What do you expect to see tonight and what would
be a good performance, not a perfect performance. Jonathan Smith
made sure to tell everyone don't expect perfection, not a
game of perfection, but what would satisfy most of the
crowd and what would make you think, Okay, this is
a team I thought.

Speaker 7 (01:42:07):
We were going to see.

Speaker 3 (01:42:08):
I think if we can see our defense, definitely need
to get some sacks, some prontovers will be good. But
I think people want to see sex more than anything.
And I think being able.

Speaker 1 (01:42:19):
To move the ball and score points on offense.

Speaker 3 (01:42:21):
I don't think that we got to score a lot
of points, but we just got to show that we
are capable of doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:42:28):
Yeah, And I think being able to run the ball
consistently and not get your backshit behind the line of scrimmage,
being able to convert on fourth and one. May be
going for it more on fourth and one day. Blake
Sislow transfer from Davenport, who didn't expect to be doing
the place kicking tonight, looks like he will be. I

(01:42:49):
don't know if Kerek I'm at Basic is warming up.
I doubt it. I heard he maybe had a little
returns of a problem so being held out. But if
that is the case to be a guy kicking off
for Michigan State who's never played at anything above the
Davenport level. So that's going to be an adjustment, and

(01:43:11):
for a lot of these guys, their eyes are gonna
be wide open.

Speaker 3 (01:43:17):
No, I'll agree, it's a different level, like you said,
for some of these guys, whether it be you coming
from high school or coming forth from a smaller university.
But tonight will be very eye opening. But I'll think
as a player, this is what excites me for I
expect the guys with being fighters about this atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
So day, we had four Big ten games last night,
not Big ten games, but games with Big ten teams.
Two more tonight and then twelve tomorrow. And in the
four last night, the Big ten went four or zero.
As everyone expected. It was a pretty close spread on
the Cincinnati game with Nebraska in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium,

(01:44:02):
but the Big ten four zero on the scoreboard and
h and four against the point spread. So none of
the Big ten teams won by as much as predicted.
And now Michigan State a twenty one and a half
point favorite in Las Vegas. Does that sound about right
to you?

Speaker 3 (01:44:20):
No, I'll think that the teams that didn't win by
what people think they will think will take the win.
I'll think that, especially for a first game, because it's
a lot that.

Speaker 7 (01:44:31):
Could go wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:44:32):
The fact that you walk out with a w I
think anything would say to see it.

Speaker 1 (01:44:37):
Thank you. But we had a chance. At the beginning
of the show today, you need to talk with Spartan
great Andre Risen, and we were talking about the city
of Flint and what great athletes were produced and how
many of them wound up at Michigan State. Just look
at the receivers alone from Flint, and of course you

(01:45:01):
have Andre and and Darryl Turner and mark Ingram, Courtney Hawkins,
and the list goes on and on and on. I
don't know that any city that size has ever produced
more touchdowns, more yards in receptions for one Big Ten
schools as those four did in that period of time.

(01:45:25):
But it's a little different now. I was looking at
the store around the state last night, Jay and I
could barely find a Flint team that played.

Speaker 3 (01:45:35):
So there's only one Flint team left. And a little
full fact for you, Darryl Turner will be up the game.

Speaker 1 (01:45:41):
So how about that? All right? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
So it'll be good to see him. But yeah, if
only so, all of the Flint schools are represented by
IF Davidson Graham Blank schools like that. So that's why
you don't really see Flint. So there are IF Flint representations.
You just don't see foot in front of the name.
That's so that's that's how it goes.

Speaker 5 (01:46:05):
Okay, I got.

Speaker 1 (01:46:08):
Is there another game this week? Guy? From the one
you're the one you're at tonight that you will not
messed that you must see TV and you're going to
be watching.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
I'm looking forward to the for the new game tomorrow
one one?

Speaker 1 (01:46:23):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (01:46:24):
One versus three? Yeah, I'm looking forward to that game.

Speaker 5 (01:46:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:46:27):
I think that's gonna be huge and it's a big
way to start off the season. So that's what I'm
excarted to see. And and I'll just be sitting in
front of the TV all day watching college football.

Speaker 1 (01:46:35):
So well, we haven't had a number one ranked team
in the AP preseason Top twenty five ever ever be
an underdog and its opener. But that is the case,
and it's not that people think Ohio State is better
than Texas. If that were the case, then Texas would
be ranked number one, but the fact that that game

(01:46:57):
is going to be played in the Horseshoe and we know,
oh what Ohio State does at home the defending national champions.
So that's gonna be something that a lot of fans
around the country will be watching, and it might be
the most watched opening week game in NCAA history.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
No, I agree. And the fact that this at noon,
I think helps the talls. You know, it's strange because
it used to be the eight o'clock games with a
big games and all the same that now noon games
are the big games. So I think the fact that
is noon to make the ratings even higher.

Speaker 1 (01:47:32):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well thanks so much for joining us.
I know you've got a ton of stuff to do.
You're on the field as we speak.

Speaker 3 (01:47:42):
Yeah, yes, right, Jack, I might be doing for one play.

Speaker 1 (01:47:51):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. There you go. I am
moving in that direction, heading towards the media entrance. Rob.
We're going to wrap up a little bit early, and
we're going to do that for a couple of reasons.
One is so that you can get your transportation and
get here before kicking. We don't want you to miss that.

(01:48:11):
And we want to thank all of our listeners, many
of you who are on your way to Spartan Stadium
or like the tens of thousands who were here this
afternoon the tailgate and to enjoy what they have seen
and what they will see looking forward to that. Want
to thank all of our special guests. Number one, Andre

(01:48:33):
Risen is good receiver at Michigan State has ever produced,
and that's saying something. Mike Griffith from Dog Nation weighing
in on the SEC and much much more in college football.
Jim Keaton Jr. Proud Lansing Eyed Hall of Famer, and
Arizona State Sun Devil, appreciate them the fabulous flying nessas

(01:48:53):
from Boise, Idaho they are here. Wouldn't be an opener
without them. And Jay Green proudly stone Spartan Dog for life.
We'll see you Sunday night on Presspath. Have a great weekend.