Ep. 2911 Monday

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is it right here?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Combining a team of reporters, columnists and commentators.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Are you serious?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Jack Ebling has brought thought provoking discussion.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
What are you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
That's a good coaching, the same opinion.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Customers, the one who decides when the future gets here?
Oh no, check the report?

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Are you marry me?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
That game was fixed? And overall infotainment.

Speaker 5 (00:34):
I'll take Jim Irva.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
What is he's done?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Grease God to coming at you?

Speaker 6 (00:40):
Quiet please exactly fifteen seconds we'll be on the air.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Thanks, big fellow.

Speaker 7 (00:45):
Don't you ever come.

Speaker 8 (00:46):
Back here again?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
No arguments. Those are called asht.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
So buckle up.

Speaker 7 (00:50):
You're talking to me.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
It's time for the Drive with Jack Ebling.

Speaker 9 (00:55):
Yeah, for some reason or another, who signed a little tolla.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Great afternoon mid Michigan and beyond, and welcome to the
Drive with Jack the Spotlight a radio network, Jack Ubling
here with my producer Boston rob On. Another gorgeous Monday afternoon,
eighty two degrees and cloudy here in Greater Lancing, and
get used to this kind of temperature. Don't get too

(01:24):
used to it, because this is the last time you're
liable to see seventy five degrees in twenty twenty five,
at least here locally supposed to cool off a lot.
The next few days might poke over seventy, but not
by much. We have a ton to talk about and
some great guests to do it with. You're also going

(01:44):
to hear from Jonathan Smith, Michigan State head football coach
in just a couple of minutes. But Rob, what a
weekend between baseball Tigers splitting that series with the Mariners,
three other divisions going on to National League Series today.
While the American League teams use it as a travel day,

(02:07):
we had a full slate of National Football League action,
including the Lions and a big win in Cincinnati. We
had college football one of the great upsets my lifetime.
For the first time in forty years. Forty years, a
team that was winless in October beat a top five team,

(02:30):
a top ten team certainly in every pole, but a
team that a lot of people thought could win the
national championship. UCLA has already had a coaching change. They
were twenty four and a half point underdog, and they
didn't just beat the Nidney Allons, they controlled that game
from start to finish. Of course, UCLA will be here

(02:51):
this weekend coming to play Michigan State for the Spartans homecoming.
That is a noon game, and that means it is
a nine ams start for the Bruins on Pacific time,
So kind of the opposite of what Michigan State faced
when it went out to play USC, but a full
slate of college action as well. We had MSU Madness

(03:14):
the other night, the start of basketball season here, and
we had the first exhibition hockey game. Rob, I know
you would have loved that for nothing MSU win over
windsor Tom Izzo dropping the first puck, guys everywhere, and
we got the first look at Riker Lee. And if
you haven't seen him yet, get ready because you're gonna

(03:37):
have highlights and a lot of oohs and ahs whenever
he is on the ice. Rob, what stood out to
you about this weekend, either baseball or college or pro football?
What are you gonna remember?

Speaker 3 (03:48):
I'll just say this. I mean, I know, I know
a lot of people say it's the best time of
year with the March Madness and Super Bowl and things
of that nature, but with everything going on, as you
just put across the board there, I'd say this is
the best time a year. Let's not forget NBA basketball.
I expectations for the Pistons as well. I would imagine

(04:08):
coming into the year. So they're gonna be getting ready
soon here and then the exhibition games coming up here
with the next couple of days, I believe. So, I mean,
whatever sport you're into, it's Now's the time, right, get
a little bit of everything. And I think that's the
best part of it.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yes, Yes, college basketball, the NBA, NHL, college hockey. The
beauty of that, ROB is all those teams are undefeated,
and so they all have dreams. And then you see
the culmination of a lot of work, a year of

(04:44):
work for twelve Major League Baseball teams. Now we are
down to eight with the elimination of four of those teams,
and the Detroit Tigers still one of four standing in
the American League, tied one one after splitting those games
in Seattle, a pair of three and three to two decisions.

(05:04):
Now back for games tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday afternoon. Talking
about three o'clock and four o'clock. I will be at
Comerica Park tomorrow. You're going to have the drive with
Rob tomorrow afternoon. And then if those teams split games
three and four. If neither team wins both, then we

(05:26):
will have a game five on Friday back in Seattle.
So something to look forward to there. And it seems
like the Toronto Blue Jays have the Yankees' number. You
know what that was like, because Boston had it for
most of the season. Looked like they might sweep the

(05:47):
Yankees at one.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Point, well on their way. But yeah, I mean, Toronto's
looking like looking like world beaters, like they have been
for most of the year, certainly the second half of
the year as well. And it goes back to pitching.
And I know we talked a little bit before the show,
and the lack of pitching for depth of the New

(06:10):
York Yankees most certainly is most certainly rearing its ugly
head for Yankees fans. And as you pointed out on
the conversation, and they have said on this show numerous times,
the Toronto Blue Jays best bat to ball team or
ball to bat team, meaning they don't strike out, and
so that well, probably I would imagine that the statistics

(06:32):
they've got to be, if not number one in the
major leagues, right up there top three for sure. I
didn't look at that and before we went on the air,
but most certainly looking like all of the number one
seed that they most certainly rightfully deserved coming into the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah yeah, and they barely held off the Yankees in
the regular season. New York was really coming fast the
last couple of weeks after being bombed by the Tigers
in Yankee Stadium. So how do you see these two
American League divisional series? Let's start with the Tigers. Do

(07:08):
you think that we're liable to get a Game five
in Seattle with Derek Scuobel back on the.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Mountain, I would venture to say so. I picked Seattle
to win this series. I thought maybe Detroit would get
the get one. To be quite honest with you, just
when you look at the at the team's matching up
in the regular season, and I know, the playoffs are
a whole new season, YadA, YadA, YadA. Hear that all
the time. But when you look at it and how

(07:34):
they were able to handle Schooble, right, they beat schoobl
twice in the regular season.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
So Schooble did not get the lost.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
No, they didn't get the lost. He didn't get the lost.
Thanks to the Spencer torkleson the other last night. But uh,
but yeah, I could see this going five games. I
think for Detroit Tigers fans last night game sure was disappointing, right,
but when you're on the road and you're in a
limited you gotta take a row. You gotta take one.
So they got Technically they have home field advantage now

(08:06):
in Detroit. Now we'll see what they can do about
to do with it starting tomorrow. Hopefully the Jack hopefully
the Jack Eppling Jinks won't rear its ugly head tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
It won't affect Jack Flaherty. Well, I have seen start
three times this year ago zero and three and give
up nine home runs in those games at America.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
But I would dare I would say I'm more apt
to say that the Tigers Seattle Mariners games series would
go five games, more so than Toronto, New York. I
think Toronto's gonna take care of business in a quick
fashion with the Yankees. And this is just just not
me saying it because I'm a Boston Red Sox fan obviously,
but I just it's just it'll it'll be interesting to

(08:45):
see how and if the Yankees can bounce back. I
don't think they'll be able to but a five game
series with Detroit and Seattle, sure, I'd love to see it.
Number one, and I think I think we.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Might get the same result with Toronto and New York
that we have had with Toronto and Boston. Or would
the Red Sox have matched up.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
No, I think Toronto is I think they would be
able to hand. To be honest, I think they would
be able to handle Boston as well.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Okay, now we have the National League today and we
have a six o'clock game, Game two the Dodgers, who
won in Philadelphia Saturday, trying to get a road sweep
before heading back to Dodgers Stadium. That is the six
o'clock game. And then at nine o'clock we have the

(09:32):
Cubs in Milwaukee again, and Milwaukee showed, you know, no
one can identify any of their players, but they had
the winning this record in baseball just ahead of Philadelphia.
So we'll see what happens tonight in those games.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
And yeah, no one's even talking about Milwaukee. You notice that,
right that, despite what you just said, it just seems like,
ah Dodgers off, Philly's got a great chance against the Dodgers.
Whoever wins that series, you know, book them into the playoffs.
No one has really talked about the Brewers, and no
one's really talked about them all year unless you're a

(10:11):
die hard Bruins are Brewers fan, you know what I mean.
So I think they're using.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
That because they have deserved it, they have most wins
in base.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, yeah, And I think they're using that as a
I think they're using that. No one's talking about, no
one's giving their flowers, you know, on a on a
it seems like a national basis. Anyway. It's all about
the Dodgers, and it's.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
All about the Phillies, small market team, and.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, yeah, the figure though with the best record in baseball,
they'd be getting a little bit more love than in
what they seem to be getting. But I digress. But
they're definitely.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Using itself as a baseball fan, right, you're a yeah,
pretty strong baseball fan. Sure, can you name the Brewers
starting lineup?

Speaker 3 (10:53):
I cannot, not on your name. I cannot four of
their starters probably not, not off the top of my head.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
People might get Bryce Terrang and Jackson Churi all. Sure,
you know, there are a few that they might get,
maybe three or four.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
More power to them. I'm saying, use that, take it,
use it, and they are most certainly doing that. I
don't know if the networks. I don't know if the
networks would love to see a Toronto Blue Jays Milwaukee
Brewers World Series, but we most certainly could get that.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Well if the networks don't want it, that's another reason
why I do want it, because I want whatever makes
the networks unhappy. Most of the time. Yes, I hope
that we get a matchup which makes them say, oh my, yeah,
that's the last thing we wanted. What happened to the

(11:47):
Yankees and the Dodgers. Yeah, So I am just fine
with that. I want to talk to you a little
bit about college football, and we have Michigan out in
the LA Coliseum that should be a very interesting matchup
this week, and Michigan State hosting UCLA. So we had

(12:10):
the two Michigan schools against the big tends to California
schools and Michigan State getting UCLA at an interesting time.
We'll see if what the Bruins did against Penn State
has any staying power and if it travels. But from
what you heard from Jonathan Smith today, what do you

(12:33):
think his reaction was to a maddening loss in Lincoln, Nebraska,
when Spartans beat themselves as much as they were beaten by.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Yeah, and he mentioned that right away, right, I mean
he went right into it. You'll hear it here in
just a minute, and rightfully solely should go right into it.
A lot of concern and these self inflicted wounds. It
seemed like they took a step back, right. It seemed
like when I watched it from afar, it was the
team from last year self inflicted wounds. Right.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
The defense was pretty good.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Nebraska to less than three hundred yards.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
It seemed like it they took a step back instead
of taking a step forward offensively.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
And the special teams, which had been the strength I
would have said Michigan State special teams had ranked with
any in the country, they were abysmal on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
And I think it's because they're coming off a bye too.
That's really got some angs to some people.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Nebraska. What Nebraska was coming off a bye to it
didn't seem to be.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Well, right, But again it's si. I could understand people's frustration,
like I said, but they can right a lot of
wrongs with the win against a suddenly a white hot
UCLA team who thought we'd say that here coming into I.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Don't think they would, right many wrongs in people's minds.
I think people had already written this down as a win.
And if they lose, I think that it will really
be a problem for Jonathan Smith moving forward. If they win,
I don't think it'll be a big deal.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
I think, right, that's what I mean. If they lose,
there's gonna be a problem.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
It might get one more, but they look at what
would come after that, and they say, Okay, well you're
gonna have a five game losing streak coming up. So
Michigan State is gonna have to break through and beat
a team that you're not expecting. Let's listen to Jonathan
Smith today at Spartan Stadium and his weekly press conference.

Speaker 7 (14:27):
We'll start on special teams a lot that hurt us
in that game. To think about punt obviously, give them
a punt block for a touchdown can be tough to overcome.
And so you look at it, we've misidentification, really had
three guys, and so the three guys are miss identified
and starts with our preparations. Coaches stematically you'll look at

(14:48):
some things didn't pub emphasize on the road crowd boys
on the punt play when you got a lack of
communication that way, so that hurt. And then continued on
the punt side of in the covered gaspect And so
there's a couple of things to go with that. One
is when you get protected, now you can't gabe all
the placement and it's uh, we gotta pig at type
putt and he's got a big time leg in this

(15:10):
old adage and kind of out kicking your coverage. Well,
he kicks a deep and also the placement of it.
We gotta get closer to the sideline and use the
sideline his help in coverage. At the same time, wherever
he kicks the things, we gotta be able to cover
better and get out of the lane or two good
athlete returning it.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
But that that did not help us.

Speaker 7 (15:27):
You think about the field position throughout as a problem.
So we got to get better there, which had been
a strength for us, let's face the first four games,
but then it had been a strength was not last
Saturday kick off return we got to unfortun and one
the ball, you know, we got to be able to
field the ball, they'll kick it off to us. However,
the wind made it tough the communication, but he's creating

(15:47):
the two, got deep trust in the two that are
trying to field it. They got to communicate better. But
that was a huge momentum play for them in regards
to they you know, they came back, which took the league,
came back, the gains tired and they get the ball
up with an extra extra possession. So, especially teams wise,
it's a lot to clean up that we need to do,
especially if you play on the road. You got to
have better play out of the special teams units offensively.

(16:10):
I think it makes it after the game too. He
started his two or fourteen on third downs, all right,
So one, that's a terrible percentage. That's too many third
downs in general. Well, what's leading into that your first
and second down efficiencies, lack of the run game efficiency
really throughout, we got we gotta do it better. We
got to think about doing other other things too. Right

(16:30):
we sit here, well today, players got to execute the
bringing better. Well, we got to start a picture too,
honest on coaching side, stematics, those things in news indeed
conversations yesterday as you look into it past protection. I
felt during the game it showed it being worse than
it was on the field, and we got to get
a cleaner pocket for him again. Eleven minute football offensively

(16:54):
eyes win. Yeah, the factor at times. Maybe they made
a couple of more throws into the wind that we did.
I think that was a separat or two. But offensively
not good enough. Give those guys some credit when we
had to have it aggressive style and the fourth down thing.
We did actually give the third quarter to take the
lead with that, but not enough in the fourth. Defensively,

(17:17):
you know, you liked a couple of things about defensively
one just overall from the se game where we would
flat out one good enough defensively, come to this game.
Those guys responded. I thought they played with a response
aggressive mindset. You even look at what the situation the
defense was putting into the game's progressive field position. I
think they had five or six possessions started on their

(17:38):
own side of the fifty in the defense vote up
multiple times. I think Real Union holistically at halftime things
fourteen to seven. We're probably fortunate to be fourteen to
seven the way the first half it played. And then
you take the lead toward the end of the third quarter.
So I think the team continued to show some resilience.
But it's back to back weeks where we got to
finish in the fourth quarter better. Back to back games,

(18:00):
had opportunities to finish thing in the fourth quarter, and
we got outplayed, out coached in the fourth and so
we got another opportunity to do it better and do
it back at home. Excited about that homecoming and he's
us to get back around our home crowd, and I
know our guys will be rare they go this Saturday,

(18:21):
and we're gonna need to You talked about playing an
opponent UCLA, who had maybe the biggest win of college
football year this last Saturday, and they played that way.
They were galvanized. What they showed done that game against
Pennas City was impressive. I think the quarterback, you know,
highly talented, good player, five star, he played like this

(18:42):
last Saturday, and so they got a full attention that
way with what he can do. That offense is galvanized
and going to scort a bunch of points against a
really really good team, played some defense. They got a
bunch of respect for help getting a win like that.
This last weekend's question.

Speaker 10 (19:04):
That's when after there's a free time, he saw when
you struggled the season, really and what what did you
see on the film?

Speaker 11 (19:10):
And when there are the conversations you've had ever since
that he started, what transpired and consequences?

Speaker 7 (19:14):
Yeah, I think, uh, yeah, we we we need to
play better. Uh, he wanted to play better. Uh, he's competitive.
We need to continue to help him and think about
the factors of the protection, the lack of the run game,
some of the down the distances we did he did,
Uh come back and have a couple of plays in
that game that were reminded of some of them last year,
and gradually to doing too much movement within the pocket,

(19:36):
moving his eyes a couple of times where he needed
to trust that protection. And so in the end, he
needs to go back to work. We need to continue
to surround him. We gotta play better around him. But
there were some signs of of last week the yeah
that were that were frustrated.

Speaker 12 (19:52):
Your post game unificize of finding a way to win
and your experience. Uh, what foundational principles will remain this saying,
but what are some of the things maybe based on
personnel to them and what happened that you may be
open to quote unquote looking at changing week things, et cetera.

Speaker 7 (20:07):
I think we're always looking week to week on what
we learned from the previous game and want to do
it better or get it fixed, so we do it differently,
so that approach isn't totally different from just cause of
the outcome this last week versus call it week week one.
I do think, you know, looking at two games on
the road, the ability to finish in the fourth, we
gotta find a way to do it better because we've

(20:28):
done it on the at home. You know, call out
Boston College going to double over time. We found a
way to to finish there, so we've done it before.
I think that the the previous two being on the road,
we gotta.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Do it on the on the road.

Speaker 11 (20:40):
Trying to curious with the the maybe disor reaction the.

Speaker 7 (20:44):
Wins and losses these days, it seems like every winning
loss e cential microscore.

Speaker 11 (20:47):
Do you feel that as a coach.

Speaker 13 (20:49):
And man, so, how do you do with that in
today's game?

Speaker 7 (20:52):
But yeah, yeah, you feel that as a coach and
you try to actually a win, you win or a
glossy and over of things I think about our fun thing.
Right after four week we had to buy oh, this
is one of the strengths. This has been a weapon force.
All these kind of things we've got exposed uh in
in the fifth game, and so as op coach, I
think they're always urgent to find ways to improve, making

(21:12):
sure you don't got flaws that you don't recognize that
your opponent does, whether you're you win Ordians.

Speaker 12 (21:19):
And then with the fourth quarter kind of issues is
what do you in those moments learn or is that
something that players have to maybe get more experience facing,
whether you can get fled.

Speaker 11 (21:28):
Together or what are the pieces that are missing?

Speaker 7 (21:30):
Yeah, you know, I think you know we're experienced the
wrong side of it U for back to back games
here Again, I think they're always you've learned it from experience.
And again this doesn't mean all of a sudden I
gotta put on a Superman cave in the fourth and
do something dramatically different than the way you prepare.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (21:45):
It comes down to a team seizing the momentum keeping
it in the fourth and we know we haven't done
it in back to back weeks.

Speaker 9 (21:53):
Jonathan, you mentioned the stuss Us struggle kind of sassed
or what adjustment the snia as.

Speaker 7 (21:58):
You say, well, just think about specifically to the punt
side of it. When it starts with a protection communication, uh,
and make it We're we're making sound protection of getting
back thing kick. Once it's kick, we gotta place it
with some accuracy, right the the the placement of a
a punt, especially with the type of leg actually pats.
It's a big type of leg that that's an important part.

(22:19):
And then covers you staying in your lanes, getting off blocks,
standing in the lanes so that we can round up
oftentimes the best athlete on their team, get put backyard
as a plump returner. All those things played.

Speaker 10 (22:31):
Two second thinks you're first when you look at where
you cla is right now, how much does your wrap
for them in the off season and in the.

Speaker 11 (22:44):
Last couple of weeks, how much does that kind of
go off of You.

Speaker 10 (22:46):
Know, when you have that coach you used to do
things and rembles that it make money.

Speaker 7 (22:51):
Any tendencies that you have ste Yeah, you definitely decide
the last couple of weeks with the with the new coach,
and so what that tape looks like On the personnel side,
you know this is the same personnel, so you're going
all the way back in the background of what those
guys will look like for what is it, five games now,
even back in the off season, some of the transfers
the previous spots they've been at, So personnel wise, don't

(23:13):
think you a larger body and work the actual schematics
the last last couple of weeks.

Speaker 10 (23:18):
And the kind of going back some of they you
mentioned about the offensive line.

Speaker 11 (23:21):
You did much to take back? Or where did you
see data the leagues.

Speaker 10 (23:26):
Coming from and how do you kind of fix them
in the d how much did you did you talk
about that or the last year Steve?

Speaker 7 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, I mean in protection, I think returned that
some of the edges we played at, So the sweets
of the pocket, the edge of the thing wasn't wasn't
firm enough up front at times, the long wood, protection,
the launch boat and quarterback and needs continue to be consistent. Right,
So if I played a live anticipation of where this
guy's gonna be at, is that at seven and a

(23:55):
half directly on center nine. Those things we gotta be
exact to a quarterback.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
But we were on from the edge, uh.

Speaker 7 (24:01):
In protection and I I know you learned.

Speaker 11 (24:04):
About this probably a could the game on Saturday.

Speaker 12 (24:06):
Of what was your reaction when you learned of that
UCLA as they can give them knowing that they were
all in form of that sale was branded out.

Speaker 7 (24:15):
Yeah, before I watched the tape, it's like, you know,
I'd say, it's a new life to 'em. And then
you think about the long travel, if you think about
Penn State or a little bit going across having a
a big emotional game the week before, then you put
on the tape and watch this game. Uh, galan Knock's
new energy aggressive. I'm talking about UCLA now, Uh attacking
the really in all three phases U. They they come

(24:37):
out first, open, drive, coal, punch something in and then
kick off with they gamble steal the possession right there.
Of like they were were a brand new, brand new team. E.
That's Christmas a scam.

Speaker 12 (24:51):
Wonder do you don't see the differences to ucl like
a big or small between the first three or.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
River and then LA last week ry differents happened. You know,
I don't know if it's dramatically gift, but you look
at the quarterback and how he hurt them with his
legs the ability to run. I know he's you know,
he's one of the leading rushers, but that part stood out,
uh how he ran with the ball and really willingly
uh made some place for that. For that offense, they

(25:18):
were much uh efficient movement of the ball against a
really good defense. That that stood out maybe in comparison
to the week one and week two. You look at
the finish even it's a point call, right, the craziest
week in Northwestern versus how many points did they score
this last week? And when that jumps off the page.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
That's okay.

Speaker 7 (25:35):
So where where if your public is with the higher
the band, just start as in this set week, I'm
sorry say it again, with the higher than they really
yeah oh yeah yeah, but I think, uh, both those
guys have the potential uh for this this weekends finishing
a protocol with one of 'em. But by the end
of the week, we'll we'll know.

Speaker 11 (25:53):
So right now, uh day to days. Now, you didn't
she'd actually gave an offense. I didn't say you're there.

Speaker 9 (26:00):
In the fourth quarters time trolls the four gard We
look at those three possessions three out, three out, four
and out the third four down field in position like
a second down swoop.

Speaker 11 (26:09):
Passing on the neighborhood.

Speaker 7 (26:10):
Yeah, that was yeah.

Speaker 11 (26:11):
What what do you look when you compartmentalize those three,
three or four possessions?

Speaker 8 (26:16):
What did you see that?

Speaker 7 (26:17):
I think you think a little bit of the execution.
I said this term of coaches all the time, of
the execution in those moments where it was lacking. Uh,
you know, when the field decision wasn't great, thinking about
the possession on the nine yard line. Second down, we
throw a swing route almost we threw the string route
as if it was hot and the protection we actually
picked that up at the crowd noise, I don't think

(26:37):
we're on the same page. And where's a quarterback on line?
Online picks it up. Aiden thinks it's got to come
out in a little bit s uh sooner the swing
route almost throwing it like a screen. We're just covered
two by those guys that make the tap of the loss.
Like that's lack of the execution on of both fronts. Again,
they go back to those moments where it's still there's
no panic, the game is in the balance. Applying it
to uh, not staying staying away from the third and

(26:59):
one when we face the whole night, and that showed.

Speaker 11 (27:00):
It was in the fourth court and his eyes and right,
you see they your choices of those at the thirty
four and so.

Speaker 7 (27:08):
Forth, a couple of them we need love to have,
you know, have back again, it goes back to whether
they protect you. Well, the previous stat does not matter
to go back to this trust idea. And we hammered
the pinion this isn't specific to say the whole room
in regarding to trust each other just doing their job
so I could do my job and focus on exactly
what that individual needs to do. Quarterback, online, route runner,

(27:29):
defensive end, post safety, play caller, all of us trusting
others to do their job.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, got it.

Speaker 11 (27:39):
I think it was wild.

Speaker 9 (27:40):
Negative yard each plays possible the winning game at this
level when you have that other than a lot better.

Speaker 11 (27:49):
It seems like that was pretty much a complete team.

Speaker 7 (27:51):
You're talking about us offensive we we got in the
back or looking at it. Yeah, yeah, it's hard to
go backwards, and that's why it's not one ye, what
you're asking to play induce schematically, and also is there
a better answer of doing positive plays? You think about
the situation we could have and so whether that's play
calling movement, identification on the road executing, so we are

(28:12):
not fighting the sticks at as as much because the
sad thing has showed up and some negative runs that
that was that.

Speaker 9 (28:20):
Was problem, and TV focused on the goal with Aiden
and Nick on the sideline. Uh, is it as simple
as a team saying we're not in the least six
get the ball?

Speaker 11 (28:32):
And when that happens, if you've got a weapon like.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
That, how do you get doing that? Who?

Speaker 7 (28:37):
In regards to you know those the conversation those two
I'll describe it as during the game, I wasn't aware
of it, learned after. I do think you're talking about
a couple of guys that this means a lot to
them and are are pretty competitive. They're still get them
each other and and all of that. I do think,
you know, Nick's really good player finding ways to continue
to see if h rent count of touches goes up,
but he's not alone.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Then I look at.

Speaker 7 (28:58):
Marty Kelly being a really good player. Think target one
when and so that get the h was addressed discussed heavily, Uh, yesterday,
and we're opening it loose a little different on Saturday.

Speaker 11 (29:09):
So the your first Neon games, the coach year. Is
there a little the you know acts Pats on.

Speaker 7 (29:15):
The road, you a little sense of.

Speaker 9 (29:16):
Normalcy with the new game after the moment and how
you mentioned UCLA and saying that go out in the
got the one your way and play nine am based
their time?

Speaker 11 (29:24):
Now, how did that actors the way look at the game?

Speaker 7 (29:26):
I think we're definitely looking to the forward doing noon
kickoff back at home homecoming, uh, in front of arm
fan base. The passionate pan base that we have is
that we're excited about that.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
Again.

Speaker 7 (29:37):
I can't speak to the U SLA, but watching them
off tape on Saturday, I think they're gonna be excited
to play whatever time we play off. When you were
out West, did you ever play new and how uh
used to your reclfe? I don't nothing jumping right to me.
I'm staring back at DVD's been moving all the time.
I uh, I don't think so. Yeah, the w it

(30:00):
it seemed like there were a lot of asses deep
into difficult wavies. I said they or least down the field.
Is that like does a game player get adjusted when
you see the traditions like that.

Speaker 11 (30:11):
From what it might have been and when we've kind
of looked back at that and sort of the approach and.

Speaker 9 (30:15):
Something trying of trying to connect their h do you
wish they would be built more undereather just a different
different way off.

Speaker 7 (30:22):
I think we can't just completely say no, we're not
gonna d try it, cause we actually try it both
ways with the wind kind of a couple overthrows and
our splits weren't gray type space and this and that
vice versa. I think there was a couple of throws
that we're going into it that were affected and we
need to drive that more and all that, so it
it played a factor. But I was not gonna say

(30:43):
just completely zero, We're gonna try it. A couple of those.
I think it goes back to and you know, hindsight,
it's easy to do, but hide inside instead of handing
them all off or lost a neck of point, can
we throw a quick screen or something to that extent
to the thinking about the factor of of the wind.
High Side twenty twenty.

Speaker 12 (31:03):
Less his first real you know, sending game mens Obviously
Early's in Empire.

Speaker 11 (31:08):
There and he is serious, which come out of this.

Speaker 7 (31:11):
Yeah, there's just some silver linings all the time, you know,
you get some frustrations when you lose games. I did
think he stepped up in a big moment, especially early on.
It takes a pretty good hit and needs to come
off unless he comes in and executed. It was great
to see. We've had a lot of confidence in Alessio
and I was allowed for him because when he's had
some small amount of times in the game and I've

(31:31):
gone his way and then even not last drive, I
think that that that stuff's important. He goes in, he executes,
gets another touchdown, drives and we were released, uh for
for him, and he's been working really hard to have
that kind of success.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
That's Jonathan Smith today at Spartan Stadium. No easy answers,
just very difficult questions. We will be back with much
much more, starting with Bob Trippy, director of Research, talking Baseball,
pro football, college football, you name it. Coming up next
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Speaker 1 (35:59):
Welcome back. It is to drive a Jack Spotlight Radio network.
Jack Eblin here with my producer Boston Rob Rob waiting
very patiently. Bob Trippy, our director of research, Number one
numbers Cruncher, Captain Database Bob. A big weekend of sports
starting Friday and continuing through late last night and ended

(36:22):
with a Monday night game that surprised, a Sunday night
game that surprised a lot of people. And I thought
the Buffalo Bills were going to be the last undefeated team,
but I thought it might last longer than four weeks.

Speaker 5 (36:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (36:37):
They they they came out and they did not look
ready to play, you know, offensively, you know, when you
commit turnovers, kind of like what we saw in the
Michigan State game on Saturday. It's very difficult to win
the game, it really is. And give pride to New England.
I mean, they're an up and coming team. Drake May

(37:00):
as a quarterback, I think we're gonna be hearing a
lot of in the future. And then then of course
Stefan Diggs who used to play for the Bills. You know,
he signed signed the free agent contract in the off season,
and uh, I guess he made a statement back to them.
That'll be interesting to see when they have to go back,
you know, to New England. To have a rematch later

(37:22):
in the season and that to see how what the
you know, if there's any change or if if New
England is able to do anything with you know, having
having won yesterday, are they gonna be able to continue
the momentum going forward or was that just like let's
get up for national TV and show shows who we
are Grabel look the coach for for New England. He's

(37:43):
a good coach, Mike Grabel, and uh, you know we
remember him from his Ohio State days and all.

Speaker 5 (37:49):
That, and you know he did for a while and yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Important part of Bill Belichick's staff and and his lineup.

Speaker 8 (37:58):
Yeah, so you know it's gonna be interesting too. They
lost Antonio Gibson for the season today. He had a
torn acl So you know, all of a sudden, the
running game isn't you know, gonna be as good as
it was heading into yesterday's game. But Neil for the Bills,
maybe it's a wake up call that you know, you're
not the nineteen seventy two Miami Dolphins and you're gonna

(38:20):
go undefeated and all that. So hey, you just this
is there's still plenty of games left, you know, it's it's.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
Hopefully a question.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yeah, and it was another champagne celebration in South Florida.
The guys who are still with us, and that number
is shrinking rapidly. Those guys every year they pop a
bottle of the Bubbly when there are no more undefeated
teams the seventeen or no Miami Dolphins of nineteen seventy two.
And to think that it's now been fifty three seasons, Bob,

(38:56):
And we almost saw the Patriots do that with Tom Brady,
but they couldn't get that last one and lost to
the New York Giants on a couple of wild plays.
So very very difficult to be even ten and zero
in the National Football League? What was your take at
the Lions yesterday in Cincinnati? And it looked like they

(39:17):
were in complete control of the game and then took
their foot off the gas or they just made some
mistakes uncharacteristic play in the fourth quarter and a battered
secondary came back to bite him and made it a
closer game than it was for most of the afternoon.

Speaker 8 (39:32):
I think you captured it all in a nutshell there.
I think that's exactly what it was. And I know
that Dan Campbell was not extremely happy with the performance
when you give up that many points to a team
led by a backup quarterback that nobody thought would ever
play at all of this season except for the injury
to Joe Burrows, so you know, and then today they

(39:54):
announced that Terry and Arnold has a long term injury
and he's going to be out for quite some time.
And they did it was the season ending, and he said,
they can't tell right now, So you know, there's another
major injury to the Lions defense. But now, starting all
the way to side and everything like that, I think
the team to be And this is me saying this now,

(40:16):
remember mister Buffalo Bill's saying here. I think the Detroit
Lions are probably the best team in the National Football
League right now.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
You know.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
They have yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 8 (40:28):
Still think even their defense is pretty damn good, even
you know, minus Terry and Arnold. I think, you know,
when they play Kansas City, I think they will beat
Kansas City at Kansas City. And right now, I don't
think any team wants to play the Detroit Lions because
they are doing a job offensively, as we know. But

(40:50):
when you have Aiden Hutchinson playing the way he's doing
in that defense, you know, coming up with big players,
whether it's Kirby Joseph or whoever on there. I really
think that that's probably your top team right now.

Speaker 7 (41:03):
Now.

Speaker 8 (41:05):
I could be wrong in a couple of weeks, who knows, said.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Philadelphia, if the Eagles had taken care of business and
hadn't been stung yesterday at home by the Denver Broncos,
would you have made the case that the defending Super
Bowl champions are still number one?

Speaker 8 (41:24):
Probably?

Speaker 4 (41:25):
So?

Speaker 8 (41:26):
Probably? So, you know, I think they missed Kellen Moore
calling the plays over there, you know, because he's now
in New Orleans and there seems to be a little
bit of this grounment going on, you know, within the
offense of the play calling that's going on there between
A J. Brown and you know the others and all that.

(41:48):
So I think if they squared away, you know, maybe
maybe they pop back up to the top. But you know,
the way I see it right now is probably the Lines,
then the Eagles, then maybe Buffalo. We'll see on that.
They've got some things to figure out there. So if
I were a betting person right now, I'd probably say

(42:09):
the Lions are more so a favorite in the NFC
than the Eagles at this time. We've seen the ugly
warts that the Eagles have right now, and if they
can get rid of those warts, then I'd say put
them back at the top and that because they're still
got a damn good defense and if they get we saw.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
The ugly warts from the Lions in the opener, but
they did get by those. And now the offense is
just scoring at will. It's scoring so many times, and
they get the ball, they can hurt you rushing or
throwing it. So i think the Lions are in great
position and I'm really looking forward to this game. In

(42:46):
a couple of weeks. Bob, with Tampa Bay rolling in,
I had said that I thought the Lions would go
undefeated at home and I saw this gauntlet on the road.
But Lions have already blasted Baltimore when that game by eight,
and what they did to Cincinnati, and I just think
that this team is capable of beating anyone who plays,

(43:07):
including Kansas City on the on the road. But I'm
thinking they could have three or four losses at the
end of season, and that might be as good a
record as as in football.

Speaker 8 (43:17):
You know, And then and next pay that's the pretty
damn good record you know nowadays, and they're not going
to have the same number of wins that they had
last year. You know, I've I've thrown it out the window.
I've gone to that schedule a number of times. I
just don't see it. But you know, just in my mind,
they're the favorite to win the division again. Green Bay

(43:38):
is stumbled a little bit here recently, and you know,
we'll see if they get back on track, you know,
because they've got a pretty dark good defense, and offensively
they're you know, they're good, they're above average, but you know,
they they haven't put it all together yet like they
seem to have done in the first game against the Lions.
So that'll be a very interesting Thanksgiving Day game between

(44:00):
those two teams.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
You know, everything changes, Bob. Yeah, you think you have
an idea and then throw that one out and start over.
We haven't had a team yet be consistent every week.
And I don't think we have any great teams. I
think we have some great players and some great units,
but uh, in every area of play, I think every

(44:22):
team has its words. So I'm curious about go ahead.

Speaker 8 (44:26):
No, as I said, nobody has really like stepped up
and we were all saying, that's the team to beat
for the Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
You know.

Speaker 8 (44:36):
At the start of the year, you know, the talk
was the favorite was, you know, Buffalo, and on the
NFC side it was Philadelphia. I can't say that that's
the case anymore, you know, I think we.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Need Yesterday they were both upset at home. So when
that happens, It's one thing to lose a road game,
but when you lose at home to a team that
is supposedly inferior to you, that raises some serious questions.
What about the Major League Baseball Divisional Series? The American

(45:10):
League has played two games. National League going to have
the second game of those sets today. You have LA
at Philly at six o'clock and the Cubs against the
Brewers in Milwaukee at nine. But from what you saw
this weekend with Toronto blasting the Yankees twice and then

(45:31):
a pair of three to two games in Seattle, each
team winning one, what do you make of what you've
seen so far in the AL and NLDS.

Speaker 8 (45:42):
Well, Milwaukee has kind of surprised me in terms of
I did not think that they were going to put
together the performers they did in the first game, and
so maybe they are legit, but I somehow think that
the Cubs are going to come back and you know,
win the next game. I'm kind of leaning that way

(46:02):
now tonight, I think that Philly is going to try
to make a statement and probably win that game against
the Dodgers. That's the hell of a series the Dodgers
in the Phillies. So I'm kind of looking forward to
see what that's, you know, how that turns out. Now
in the Al Toronto, I don't.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Think you have you have Philly and Chicago winning.

Speaker 8 (46:25):
Winning, to winning tonight, winning tonight. Okay, it's part of yes, yes,
and you know I have I'm a believer in the Phillies.
I think that this is a year that you know,
they could end up going back, you know, to the
World Series out of the National League. But you know,

(46:47):
if they, if big get by the Dodgers, I think
they're the team to beat in the National League. I'm
not a true believer in the Brewers. I really am not.
And uh there's I know they had that big long
streak during the season and everything, but I don't know
if they're.

Speaker 5 (47:08):
Yeah, I know, I know, but you know, it's something else, Bob.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
A lot of teams, a lot of people would not
know that Milwaukee has been a fixture in the playoffs.
People say, well, Milwaukee, you know, they're just kind of
out of sight, out of mind. But they've always been
either in the wild card or winning the division, and
then they don't get any further than that. This might
be the year because as of winning a team in baseball,

(47:33):
they've done it over one hundred and sixty two games,
and there one went away. If they win tonight, there'd
be one went away from getting to the NLCS.

Speaker 8 (47:45):
Yeah, I mean, you probably could flip a coin on that.
I just think the Pubs have been playing so well
in all that that, you know, I think they're gonna
pull pull off in a set tonight. I really do.
But we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I know
the weather is not too too great over there, so

(48:06):
we'll see. And I think doesn't Milwaukee have one of
those roasted clothes and all that? I believe, so, you know,
I'm sure the game will get in and everything. So
if you look at the American League side, I don't
see how Toronto loses that series against the Yankees. I
mean they've they've controlled it, They've dominated that thing in
the first two games. I don't think the Yankees are

(48:27):
going to recover. So I think that they will be
probably eliminated tomorrow night, you know, when they play. I'd
be surprised otherwise. I think the interesting thing.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
With that series.

Speaker 8 (48:40):
And I don't know if you caught this, Max, Sure
there's not on the Alds roster for Toronto. He was
left off the roster and I thought, wow, you know,
that's the first time you know that I would call
him being in the playoffs and being left off a roster.
And so that's the trust. Now let's turn our attention
to Detroit and see. But you know it was there

(49:04):
for the taking. Yesterday. You had Schoogle pitching. After the surprising,
you know, victory in Game one. You know, everybody's like, well,
Schoogl's pitching, Detroit's going to come back to and oh
and it's like I told people during the day, I says,
School is a great pitcher. There's one problem. The Detroit
Tigers can't hit the damn ball. I said, you got

(49:26):
to score runs. I mean School. If School just lets
one run and you've got to score one or two runs.
You know this this team just is for whatever reason,
they just cannot hit the ball. They can't score, they
lead guys on base. I did some I'm covering the
games this week for Reuters, and I was looking for

(49:48):
some stats, and I really wasn't getting anything, any help
from Major League Baseball. So I started doing a little
crunching in that Detroit has They are there three for
seventeen with runners in scoring position in this series alone, okay,
two games, but three of seventeen. Okay. In the playoffs

(50:11):
they're seven of thirty five. I mean, thirty five guys
have been running run you know, run scoring position, and
they're not they're not bringing them home. They're only bringing
them home seven times. Then you look at left on base.
That's that's always a killer right there in the I'll
win a minute. Hang on, I'm reading this wrong. Okay,

(50:34):
runners in scoring position in the postseason so far, they're
ten for fifty two. Okay, for left on base, they've
left forty four guys on base in the entire postseason,
but in this in this series alone, they've already left
fifty on base. Uh, you know, and they're three for seventeen,

(50:56):
which is seventeen point six percent of the time they
actually end up bringing the guys home. So then I
started looking at the batting average just to see because
to me, what I've been watching is, you know, why
aren't they bringing these guys at home? Well, when you're
batting right now, they are, they're ten of seventy one.
They're betting one forty one as a team. I mean,

(51:19):
if you don't hit the ball, you'll, I'm sorry, you
probably not going to win the game. It's just like
that we're talking football about the turnover battle. You don't
win the turnover battle, you're you know, you're likely not
going to win the game.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
They've struck out twenty in the same situation. Each of
these teams has scored five runs. And the Mariners have
one of the most explosive offenses. You had Cal Raley
with sixty homers. Hey, you Henny Ossuarez with more than
fifty thirteen just after he got to the Mariners. And
then they have Randy a. Rose Arena, and they have

(51:55):
Julio Rodriguez, and you know, we've seen these guys what
they're capable of doing. And they're only averaging two and
a half runs as well. So it isn't just the Tigers.

Speaker 8 (52:08):
No, it isn't the Tigers because what you know, if
you look at you know, Raleigh, Rodriguez and Polaco, I
call them, you know, the you know, the Triple Terror,
and that they're batting eleven of twenty six. That's four
to twenty three. Okay, those three. If you look at
the rest of the team, they're three for forty four.

(52:30):
So you know that that sheds a little bit of light.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
There in terms of they're they're going through some struggles.

Speaker 8 (52:35):
They've actually got five guys, you know, Naylor, Suarez, Ken Zone,
Robels and Raleigh and ReBs. They haven't had a hit yet.
You know, these are guys that have played in the
first two games. They haven't had a hit. Now you
look at Detroit, you know you got Jones, Perez and

(52:57):
Dingler they don't have hits. So you know, Detroit only
has two guys that are above two fifty or better.
You got Torres at two fifty and then you got
Cold Teeth at three thirty three, and he's one for
three and Torres is two for eight. So where the
key number is is a strikeouts. They tried to struck

(53:18):
out twenty six times compared to eighteen for you know,
for Seattle. So you know, it's it's a struggle. You know,
I'm expecting them to break out at some point. I mean,
we've seen this team break out, maybe coming home. You
have to look at it this way. By the time
the Tigers play tomorrow at America Park, they will eventually

(53:39):
gone more than a month without a winning without winning
a game at home. They last one at home on
September sixth against the White Socks. They've walked seventh straight
at home since then. So you know, let's hopefully they
break that that thing. And you know the other thing too.
You got to watch here is this this Logan Gilbert
that's going for or Seattle. He's never allowed more than

(54:02):
two runs and pitched at least five innings in four
of five outings during September five September starts, and he's
even a tough cookie to crack, you know, in September.
But we're in October, and I really hope that in July.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Beat the Tigers and handle the Tigers. And the matchup
that day it was a Sunday before the All Star break,
and the matchup was Logan Gilbert versus Jack Flaherty exactly
what it's going to be tomorrow, and it was a blowout.

Speaker 8 (54:33):
Well yeah, if you call that series, Seattle ended up pinting.
I believe it was eleven home runs in that series
when they when they swept the Tigers right before All
Star breaks, so they got their you know, Tigers got
their work cutout for arm. I think these guys will
be happy to be home. The crowd will be pumped,
even though the conference rain. It's probably the start of

(54:54):
the game and.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
Everything like that.

Speaker 8 (54:56):
But you know, I mean, who knows what this weather,
the way it's been, but I think, you know, it's
a crowd anything like it was last year when the
Tigers finally hosted playoff games. You know, it gives a
lot of energy. You know, in my mind, if the
Tigers can end up winning these two games, you know,

(55:17):
then you don't have to worry about school, you know,
bailing you out in game number five on Friday night.
So I think the Tigers will win tomorrow. I'm not
willing to bet any money on it at this point
because you know, yes, I really do, I really do.

(55:39):
I I'd be surprised if it's not. I think that
Seattle will win one of these two games. If they
win any game, I think.

Speaker 15 (55:46):
It'll be tomorrow and then I think you've got Casey
Myce going on Wednesday, and then it will probably be
the game that you know, the Tigers win and you
know they'll be up well, it'll be tied to to
you know, heading back to Sidle and Scoogle you know
will be pitching.

Speaker 8 (56:03):
So yeah, it's quite a series. I mean, it's very even,
you know if you look at it, you know on
paper and stuff like that. As far as you know,
not a lot of runs scored, like you said, each
team's done fifteen uh, you know, fifteen runs. So but
I think the big thing has been you can't leave
that many guys on base, and you got it when

(56:25):
you get guys in scoring position. I mean last night
they had a guy on second with no outs and
they couldn't bring him home. And how many times have
we seen that in the playoffs, where you know, the
Tigers have gotten guys in scoring position, whether it be
second or third, with one out or no outs and
they come up empty. So it's not a good thing
to say the least, you.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Know, you can talk to people about this and Tigers fans,
of course right now, because because they just lost. If
they had had lost game one and one game two,
then people might look at it a little differently. But
right now they're looking at all the things that this
team isn't doing right. And I can tell you in Seattle,
they think that they should be ahead to nothing. The

(57:08):
game one went eleven innings, and those fans couldn't believe
Detroit won that game because I don't think Detroit is
as good a team as Seattle. Seattle won the season series,
won more games in the regular season, was much more
aggressive at the trade deadline, has more power, and has
a deeper rotation. The Mariners rotation is so deep that

(57:32):
Brian wu who I think would be the Tigers number
two starter, was left off the roster.

Speaker 8 (57:39):
Yeah, yeah, you know, here's an interesting thing. The Seattle bullpen.
Over more than ten ten innings of relief, they've only
allowed to earned runs. You know, they'll tell you a
little bit right there in terms of you know, yeah,
you can knock the starter out, but you're gonna have
to contend with their bullpen. Their pitching's pretty darn good,

(58:00):
you know. So it's gonna it's gonna be a challenge.
But you know, I'm a true believer in that. I
think this team coming home, I'll be I will be
shocked if the Mariners roll off three straight here and
win this series. I think Detroit will probably split a
pair at home, and then they go back to Seattle
for the deciding game on Friday night.

Speaker 16 (58:22):
And uh Plus, I think another funny thing about it is,
since I'm covering the games and all that, you're going
to try to get as much work out of me
as I possibly can before you know, I have to
switch back to football for Saturday against.

Speaker 8 (58:36):
U C l A. M M.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah, Bob Trippy wears a lot of different hats, and
I might be covering pro football one day, college football
the day before, and then dive back into baseball. So
you're going to be a busy guy. But we will
both be at Comerica Park tomorrow. Meanwhile, we will have
the Drive with Rob here on the Spotlight Radio Network

(59:01):
and no show for me tomorrow, but there still will
be a show here moving forward. So Bob, thanks so
much for joining us. Appreciate it. Hope I run into
you tomorrow. You'll be up in the press box. I
will be in the stands and and game like this.
I would much rather be in the stands than be

(59:22):
up in the press box, so it's going to work
out well for both of us. We'll be right back,
all right, Thanks Bob. We'll be right back, and we're
going to talk with Mike Pearson. I've got a couple
of mics coming up this hour, and both of them,
Rob were in Cincinnati yesterday checking out the Lions and

(59:46):
the Bengals. We'll be right back with historian and a
longtime athletic communications official book publisher, you name it, Mike Pearson.
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Jack Keblin here with my good friend Matt Sloan a
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That's right, Jack.

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Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Welcome back as a drive with Jack Spotlight Radio Network.
Jack Eblin here with my producer Boston Rob Rob. Two
of our guests in the next hour were there for
the Lions win over Cincinnati yesterday. I want to welcome
in Mike Pearson. Many of you know him from his

(01:03:20):
work here in East Lansing at Michigan State and then
on to the University of Illinois and to Miami, Ohio
and in the book publishing business. He's a regular historian
for us, a guy we go to and we've been
doing some lists. We're not going to do those today
ranking the best players. But Mike, I have to get

(01:03:42):
your take on this football game you saw yesterday and
what did you make of the Lions beating the Bengals.

Speaker 5 (01:03:49):
Well, let me first say that the stripe the jungle
promotion failed miserably in Cincinnati yesterday. You know, it was
supposed to be orange black, orange black, orange black all
the way around. Nope, it didn't work out that way.
It was it was major time Honolulu blue. In the stands.

(01:04:10):
I'm telling you, I would estimate and just to guess,
but I got to think of a crowd of close
to sixty there had to be fifteen to twenty thousand
Lions fans there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:25):
You could not you could not turn around.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
I was sitting in the midst in the upper deck,
section three one three, ironically the of the area code.
In the midst of there were there were hundreds within
reach point of me.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
But I think the.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
Combination of the bengals demise since Joe Burrow's injury and
the Lions continued rise. The sold a lot of tickets
on the internet this past week.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
And that's a pretty easy drive down, I said, it
is for those who want to get to Cincinnati, right, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:05:14):
Of course it's It's only I was his five and
a half or something like that. But that again, it's
a it's an easy drive. There's a seventy five is
terribly busy on a Sunday, But for me, I had
the pleasure of a forty five minute drive from Oxford, Ohio.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
There you go. What impressed you about the Lions and
the highest scoring offense in the National Football League off
to as good a start as any team has in
recent years.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
Offensively, Well, it wasn't.

Speaker 5 (01:05:48):
It wasn't all Ribbons, Jack Yesterday. I thought, I thought
at times, I got the Bengals played, and I regularly
watched the Bengals, and I thought they play. They bounced
back tremendously from kind of an embarrassing game a week ago,
and honestly with a with a clearly second string quarterback,

(01:06:12):
and yeah, a lot of Lions put on a lot
of pressure, but uh, and the score was was relatively
close though the Lions could have easily added a touchdown
there in the last minute, had they had they wanted to.
I thought, I thought Detroit looked good, not not as

(01:06:36):
great as I'd seen them golf. You know, got a
lot of pressure, but for you know, turnovers were a
big part of that uh victory yesterday. So I give
the Lions. I think they need to step up just
a hair because that's that wasn't overly impressive to me yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
What teams do impress you in the National Football League
right now? I never thought we would see the Baltimore
Ravens at one and four and Mike, they are on
poems to be the first National Football League team to
give up six hundred points.

Speaker 7 (01:07:18):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:07:20):
I thought that that was a that was a trophy win,
you know in you know back what was that two
weeks ago, three weeks ago, whatever it was. But you
know the boy again, injuries tell you a lot. And
then I would have said, oh, the Bills are the
team to beat.

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:07:39):
Well, after last night, I'm I'm not so sure you
can say that. As I look through the standings here.
You know, the Colts are decent in the in the
American Conference. I don't see any thing else. The Eagles, again,

(01:08:00):
they fall into that same category of being a big
disappointment yesterday. Forty nine Ers aren't all that good. The Buccaneers.
I think in my estimation in the NFC, I would
say the Lions and the Bucks are the two favorites

(01:08:21):
at this point now, a lot of games to be played,
But the Eagles, they just haven't impressed me all that much.
Forty nine ers are in a pretty weak West Division,
so I'm just going to go with Lions. I think
the Packers will We'll come back a little bit here
at some juncture, though, every loss or tie that they incur,

(01:08:47):
you know, drives them back in the standings a little bit.
But right now I go Bucks Lions as the two
teams to beat for the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Berth Mike, I want to switch gears for and talk
about the Big Ten and college football. We just talked
with Yogi Roth during the break from BTN. Does a
great job out there in California, and he's coming in
to do the game UCLA and Michigan State, and it's

(01:09:18):
hard to find it's hard to find an NFL team
that you think is great. I have a hard time
separating Ohio State and Oregon. And when I asked someone
which of those teams was more impressive, guys said, that's easy.
It's Indiana and the Hoosiers and Hoosiers in Texas Tech

(01:09:42):
are the only two teams in the country that are
top ten in offense and top ten in defense.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
Well, Illinois would tell you that Indiana is the team
to beat. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Sixty three to ten embarrassment, but then maybe even a
big embarrassment egg was laid Saturday late afternoon in Pasadena.
I was shocked, just absolutely shocked to see a coach

(01:10:14):
fired with and basically the new play caller on both
sides of the ball. And then you know, they jumped
all over penn State. The guy, in my opinion, who's
got the hottest seat is James Franklin right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
Now, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't know how
he explains that all the people in Pennsylvania who been
waiting so long, and he's, okay, this is fine. The
year got all these players paid them handsomely. Guys did
not go to the NFL, same as with Michigan two
years ago. In Ohio State last year, they were able

(01:10:52):
to retain their players at a high price and it
didn't seem to matter. Penn State, not ready to play UCLA,
was on them before they knew they were in a game,
and then on Penn State battle bat. They couldn't make
the play they needed.

Speaker 5 (01:11:08):
And Penn State's got they got some pretty difficult gates.
They're gonna end up with at least four losses, I think,
and maybe more if this, If that ship keeps going south,
you know they still have to play I believe. Let's see,
they played Ohio State. Do they play Indiana yet? I'm

(01:11:29):
trying to remember who they have left, But in my opinion,
the two teams that deserve the spot at the top. Well,
maybe I might sneak Indiana in there as well, but
I think Ohio State Morgan is the class. This will
be an interesting game in Champagne on Saturday. They've already

(01:11:51):
felt the sting of a blowout, and I honestly don't
see a blowout. I do see a Buckeye victim. But
Illinois has played Ohio State. Well, I'm just I was
writing an article for the Champagnews is that on games

(01:12:14):
between Illinois and Ohio State, and Ohio State has dominated in.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
The latter years.

Speaker 5 (01:12:22):
But you know, I just have a lot of confidence
in the Beilima system and I think they'll give this
Ohio State. They've beaten them twice before at number one.
It was a while. It was two thousand and seven
when Juice Williams, if you remember that game, that was

(01:12:45):
the game upset victory over top rated Ohio State and Columbus,
and Juice Williams threw four touchdown passes, but it was
that wasn't the highlight. It was his ability to control
the ball for the last eight minutes of the game
and never a lot, showing Ohio State the chance to
mount a final threat. That was the impression impressive part

(01:13:06):
of it. But I still think Ohio State is awfully good.
Those covering those two receivers is an almost impossible task,
But I'm going to stay with Ohio State, Oregon and
Indiana as the teams to be. How did the Spartans

(01:13:26):
what playing UCLA at this point?

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
Yeah, exactly. We'll get to that in just a minute.
But I wanted to ask you from a historical standpoint,
what about Ryan day now Saturday with a nice win
over Minnesota, pretty convincing after a big road win at Washington.
Ryan Day now is the all time winning best coach

(01:13:54):
in Division One. I guess you could say Walter Camp
if you want to go way back to the eighteen hundred,
but again that that's not considered to be the same
kind of football. But passed Newt Rockney for winning percentage.
And here's a guy, Mike who if they had lost
to Tennessee last year in the first game of the playoff,

(01:14:14):
I'm not sure he'd be the Ohio State coach.

Speaker 5 (01:14:17):
Isn't that something? I agree with that because you know,
Ryan Day was in deep doo doo in this state
from from that that lost to Michigan, and he still
has a lot to prove. But when I think how
many big ten games has he lost all together, I

(01:14:37):
don't think it's more than three or four all together.
So I give I give him a lot of credits.
They lost their defensive coordinator. You know when Jim Knowles
took off and signed a bigger contract to Penn State.
Well that's not quite right. That's that's working out that
well for the Nitney Lyons at this point, and and

(01:14:59):
Patricia's coming and then done a pretty good job because
I think Ohio State is only allowing somewhere around five
points a game.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
So I do not expect for the year.

Speaker 5 (01:15:12):
Yeah, I do not expect. I expect Illinois to score
I really do expect them to score three touchdowns. They're
averaging like thirty seven points a game this season, and
in Altmeyer is throwing at about of almost a seventy
five percent clip completion. So and I don't I expect

(01:15:39):
Illinois to score some points on Ohio State. I still
think it's a tall mountain to climb, though.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
Mike, do you have any idea of how Kurt Signetti
has done this? We know that he's had some very
favorable schedules, but coaches come in to major rebuilding situations,
and you know, it takes four or five years to
do something. He has not lost a Big Ten regular

(01:16:11):
season game other than Ohio State, and the teams he's
lost to since he got to Bloomington were the two
teams that played for the national championship last year, Notre
Dame and the buck Eysen, you know, both them on
the road.

Speaker 5 (01:16:29):
Yeah, that's right. I lost yet No, And I would
say that Michigan State going Indiana, that's not going to
be a pleasure trip in a couple of weeks. But
this game this Saturday will tell us a lot. Yeah, yes,

(01:16:53):
at Oregon and yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Yeah, And you know there are so many games like
it this week. I thought last week, other than Penn
State not showing up at the Rose Bowl, other than
the fans who are miserable sitting there, I think this
week tells us so much because you have Michigan at
USC in the coliseum. Even UCLA now does what they

(01:17:22):
did last week travel was it a one shot deal.
Now Michigan State's eyes are opened. And don't forget, this
is a noon start. So for all the people who
were complaining about Michigan State having to start at eleven o'clock,
this is a little different program. This is a nine

(01:17:44):
am start for the Ruins.

Speaker 5 (01:17:46):
Yeah, and USC two weeks ago played at Illinois in
a nine o'clock body start for them as well. It
is not easy, But I think Michigan State, which U
c l A team, is going to show up. That's
what's the question to have to ask about. I think

(01:18:08):
they're certainly on an emotional high right now, and their
confidence has to be brimming that that game is going
to be decided in the first half. I think you
know which which u c l A team, Which Michigan
State team?

Speaker 4 (01:18:23):
I on.

Speaker 5 (01:18:23):
Michigan State look pretty good, uh for much of the
for much of the game last week at Nebraska. But uh, again,
these are two teams that you're not sure who's going
to show up. Uh, you know, Penn State Northwestern of
Penn State. I'm not overly confident if I'm Penn State

(01:18:43):
at this point. Those kids have to be you know,
their their jaw has to be down on the floor
at this point. Nebraska Maryland is another very good game. Indiana, Oregon.
We've talked about Iowa Wisconsin is a is a regional battle,
you know that's Uh, I forget what that is. That

(01:19:04):
is that the acts is that the hog. I forget
what trophy that one is. And Michigan USC will be
an immensely interesting game as well.

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Yeah. I was looking at the preseason AP top twenty
five and the top six teams. Number one was Texas,
Number two was Penn State, Three was Ohio State, four
is Clemson, UH five was Georgia and six was Notre Dame.

(01:19:37):
These six teams have already lost ten games, and here
we are, we're, like, you know, barely a third of
the way through the season, and there were people would
have bet you that they wouldn't have ten loss as
total at the end of the tight That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:19:53):
Yeah, I think I think things are going to be
better for some of those means. But still the arch
Manning fandom, if it still exists, is certainly wondering what
is this program going to show us the rest of

(01:20:14):
the time. Penn State, we've already talked about that. Clemson. Wow,
you know, did you ever think that that guy was
going to be talked about in baited breath in terms
of losing his job? So strange things happen. Maybe maybe
this nil plan is leveling out the field. I'm not

(01:20:37):
exactly sure, but Ohio State is the only one Oregon,
of course, those two are the only been two steady
teams that I've seen.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
And Dan Lanning also, now you talk about Signetti and
he does have a conference loss, it was at Ohio
State last year. Dan Lanning doesn't have one yet. No, no,
And you know, since he's been at Oregon last year,
undefeated in the regular season, number one in the playoff,

(01:21:13):
and here they are again. I don't think anyone thought
that they were going to be number one. I didn't
hear anyone talking about Oregon repeating as national champion. They said, well,
you know, I was still and Gabriel and nobody knew
what Dante Moore could do. But I wouldn't want to
play the Ducks.

Speaker 5 (01:21:30):
Who's your pick in that game?

Speaker 8 (01:21:31):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:21:31):
Who's yours? Your ducks?

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
Uh? You know, I guess I'm going to take Oregon.
But nothing that Indiana does these days would surprise me.
And you know, I know that Michigan State has headed
to Bloomington next week, so yeah, it's going to be
it's going to be a load for anyone who tries

(01:21:55):
to go in now because the atmosphere of Mike. You know,
you've been to games have Bloomington where there were as
many visiting fans as home.

Speaker 5 (01:22:05):
That's right, No, no, no, not at all. Now, you know,
can they keep their quarterback healthy? That's another one that
you know is that Indiana has to worry about. But Signetti,
I'm I'm awfully impressed. I don't I don't like his attitude. Honestly,
He's a little too bit arrogant for me and his

(01:22:29):
smugness and and so on. So I'm not a Signetti
fan in a personal way, but as a coach, he's
a good guy to have it on your side.

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
Well, he said that this is his last job, he's
not going anywhere, and Indiana's determined to pay him.

Speaker 5 (01:22:49):
They think they certainly, yeah, they certainly seem to want him,
want to keep him, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
But you know, he's going to have an option. I'm
sure Florida State would.

Speaker 5 (01:23:00):
Look at him right now and say, wow, sure sure.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
So Mike, thanks so much for joining us to go ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:23:07):
No, I was just going to say, and who could
who could blame him for going back to South Uh?
You know, to think that they could keep him in
Indiana is far fetched, but as we know, stranger things
have happened. Nice to talk to you, Jack, Thanks for
chatting with me.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Mike Pearson, uh, sports historian. We'll be right back and
we're going to talk with Sparti Mike Sterner And uh,
he was not in Lincoln, Nebraska, serte, so you can't
blame him for that. But he was in Cincinnati for
the Lions game, and he will be at Comerica Park
tomorrow as Bob Trippy and I will for Game three

(01:23:49):
of the A l DS. We'll be right back with
that conversation next on the Drive with.

Speaker 6 (01:23:53):
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Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
Jack Keblin here with my good friend Matt Sloan a
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Speaker 3 (01:24:32):
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Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
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(01:26:50):
It is a drive with Jack a Spotlight a radio network.
Jack Eblin here with my producer Boston Rob. Rob. We
have our next guest on the line.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
Looks like we do, Yes, we do.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
I have a couple of texts from you, says got
Mike ready, Got Mike ready, So we can get one
more mic this hour and you can have the same
text three times. I want to welcome in SPARTI Mike Sterner,
just back from Cincinnati and uh headed thirty two Mike, say.

Speaker 4 (01:27:22):
That again, Jack, Sorry missed the last Just.

Speaker 1 (01:27:24):
Back from Cincinnati and you're also headed to Kansas City? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:27:29):
Yes, yes, I am. That will be Sunday morning, and
you're headed to LA later in the year, right.

Speaker 8 (01:27:38):
La, Philadelphia, Washington.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Yeah, Rob, Do you know anyone who sees as many
big sporting events in as many places and doesn't get
paid to do it. I know people it's their job
who don't want to travel as much as Sparti Mike Sterner,
But what was your take yesterday and what you saw

(01:28:02):
of the Lions? We just had Mike Pearson on and
he said he didn't think it was a Lion's best effort.

Speaker 4 (01:28:10):
Yeah, you know, I didn't think it was their best
game either. I thought their offense was lackluster at points
and left some things to be desired. But they're such
a good team that even when they're not at their best,
they're really good, and so I think that's a good
problem to have. I thought there were some good moments
for the defense. I'm coming away impressed by Jack Campbell

(01:28:34):
more and more every time he played. He's such a
great signal caller for that defense. I got a really
big laugh when Kirby Joseph essentially stole an interception away
from Perry on or yesterday.

Speaker 8 (01:28:49):
He just wants to catch the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
And so I think that this team is the ceilings. Obviously,
they can win the Super Bowl and it's a really
good team. Injuries are a little bit of a concern
with the cornerbacks now Terry on Arnold, it sounds like
it's going to be out for a while now.

Speaker 1 (01:29:09):
Yeah, maybe Kirby Joseph should have let him have that
interception because he's not going to get his hands on
one for quite a while now.

Speaker 4 (01:29:16):
It looks like unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (01:29:19):
Yeah. I thought Sam Laporta played a great game yesterday,
his best of the year. And I love the David
Montgomery treatment. You could tell that Dan Campbell knew it
was a homecoming. They knew about Montgomery's sister Kiki and
the accident and her getting there. It was Montgomery's first

(01:29:41):
time back there in ten years. I don't know if
you had a chance to see the piece yet from
Tom Ornaldy, but talked about growing up there in abject
poverty and really not having a place to stay. I
don't say they were vagrants, but they didn't have food frequently,

(01:30:02):
and they didn't have heat where they were, so to
take a bath or to cleanse themselves, they would take
turns boiling water on the stove and that was what
they did in terms of hygiene. So, David Montgomery, you
talk about grit, and if that is the motto for

(01:30:23):
this team, I don't know anyone whose life has had
more grit than David Montgomery to get where he is now.

Speaker 4 (01:30:30):
Yeah, Jack, it's truly incredible. And I think when you
hear stories like that, for me, it just reminds me
that these athletes are people too, and a lot of
them have overcome a ton to get to where they
are now. And so to hear something like that, you
already respect them as a football player, but you respect
them maybe more as a football player, but then even
more than you respect them as a football player as

(01:30:50):
a human being. And it's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:30:54):
Well, we know that you're going to be headed to
Kansas City, but before you've got some other things to see,
including the Detroit Tigers, and you'll be there tomorrow, right.

Speaker 4 (01:31:08):
I will not be there tomorrow because it's during the
work time. So I did just buy I did buy
tickets for the game three potential alcs for the Wednesday
of that week. So but that's my hope right now.
If I know that my one avenue to be able

(01:31:29):
to attend a game in the series will be I know,
if the Blue Jays sweep the Yankees, the word is
that they'll flex the Tigers Game four to the late
later window, and then I would probably go at that
point for the Game four. Now that we know that
there will for sure be a Game four in Detroit.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
Do you think this is going to go back to
a game five in Seattle?

Speaker 4 (01:31:56):
You know, I think it's heading that way. I hope
it doesn't because I think, you know, going back to
Seattle and a winner, take all is probably not good.
Even though scoobl will probably be pitching. For sure, He's
lost to the Seattle three times now this year. They've
kind of solved them a little bit, right.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
He didn't get the loss last night, but your point is, well,
take and he did give up the two home runs,
two solo homers, and yeah, I still pitched really well.
But you know, if your team's only going to score
two runs and we've had a pair of three to
two outcomes with different winners, what impresses you about Seattle, Mike?

Speaker 4 (01:32:37):
I think that they just hit the home run ball
so timely and so well, and I mean there's there's
they got. They got some really talented players on their team,
and it's it's, you know, not one of those huge
market teams that you usually do well. I mean, you
heard yesterday the broadcast, they talked multiple times this be

(01:32:58):
their first time watching a home player off win in
a quarter century. Like you kind of get almost like
Lions vibes from hearing stuff like that. So you can't
help but respect a fan base that's seen that, and
so it's cool to see a city like that. And
they made some big moves at the deadline, and you know,
I'm not rooting for them, obviously because I want the

(01:33:18):
Tigers to win, but you know, it's not like we're
playing the Yankees and I want nothing to do with
them seeing them go to a World Series.

Speaker 1 (01:33:26):
If it came to that, if the Mariners beat the Tigers,
would you be rooting for Seattle to go all the way?
Or because they beat Detroit, would you want them to lose.

Speaker 4 (01:33:39):
I don't I get bitter about teams beating my teams
when I already hate those teams in the first place.
Like I said, I don't really hate them. It's probably
be Seattle Toronto, which I mean I take Seattle Toronto
Alcs over a Yankees Red Sox. They'll see us any
day of the week. And I wouldn't really necessarily pick
one of those teams though the other. I wouldn't be

(01:34:00):
upset with either of those teams at that point. I'd
probably be rooting for that team to beat the Dodgers,
because I just don't like team repeat champions that are
not my favorite team.

Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
Mike, you know how many teams there are in Major
League Baseball?

Speaker 4 (01:34:14):
Thirty yep.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
And do you know how many of them have appeared
in a World Series?

Speaker 4 (01:34:25):
I don't know the answer to that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:27):
Actually the answer is twenty nine. Do you know which
team has never been to the World Series?

Speaker 4 (01:34:33):
Is it Seattle?

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
It is the Seattle Marriers, the only major League team
that has never been to a World Series. And they
had one hundred and sixteen win season. One hundred and
sixteen win season. That means that they won nineteen more
games than the Tigers did this year and did not
make it to the World Series. Pretty incredible.

Speaker 4 (01:34:57):
Yeah, it's crazy, especially with the franchise that sad Like
arguably the greatest titter of all time. If he would
have played his entire career in the MLB with like
each Hero.

Speaker 1 (01:35:07):
So, yeah, you look at some of the star power.
I mean, Ken Griffy, one of the best players in
baseball history. Each Hero is the all time hits king
if you count what he did in Japan, Randy Johnson.
I mean, they have had some tremendous players over there,

(01:35:31):
you know, Edgar Martinez, Hall of Fame guy. So it's
amazing that they have never gotten over the hump. But
I don't know, maybe maybe this is the year. I
think the Mariners fans if they got to a Game
five and they lost on a blue pit to the Tigers,

(01:35:52):
they couldn't get some of those fans out of the stadium.

Speaker 4 (01:35:55):
No, that would that would be very hard. That would
be very hard.

Speaker 1 (01:35:59):
Yeah. What about Michigan State? Will you be at Spartan
Stadium Saturday for homecoming?

Speaker 4 (01:36:06):
Oh? One hundred percent, I'll be at Spartan Stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:36:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:36:10):
I was encouraged a little bit by their performance against Nebraska.
I thought the defense got a lot of pressure, which
was as much improved, but I was also disappointed at
the same time. You and I talked offline, but the
special teams really let the team down, and as you said,
like they've been the strength of the team. So it's
a matter of like having all three units put the

(01:36:31):
put one game together at this point, and you got
to figure it out as a coaching staff. Like ultimately,
this is on the coaching staff to figure that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Out, Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
They talk about complementary football, and that usually means that
the offense picks up the defense or the special teams
comes through with the big play. In this case, the
last couple of weeks, they've had one unit that has
let the team down. And you know, it was the
defense out in the La Collis see him when we

(01:37:00):
were there. And this week it was the defense that
acquitted itself very well, holding Nebraska to less than three
hundred yards and this high powered passing game that everyone
was talking about with Dylan Royola, you know, as good
as any in the country, and they didn't get two
hundred yards passing and there were five sacks. Michigan State

(01:37:23):
had only had six sacks for the entire season and
they got five of them in Lincoln.

Speaker 4 (01:37:30):
Yeah, it was it was. I got to give Joe
Rossi a lot of credit for making some adjustments and
some guys making some big plays, but man, just really frustrating.
And I know the win played a factor and packing
the special teams, but Nebraska had to face that too,
and so to see, you know, really, if the special
team's wonders don't happen, I think MSU probably wins that game.

(01:37:52):
And that's gonna really eat at the eat at the
coaching staff, and it should and I hope it motivates them.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
So what do you make of this game?

Speaker 7 (01:38:01):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:38:02):
With UCLA coming in talk about giant killers. They were
twenty four and a half point underdogs and the first
team since nineteen eighty five to be winless at this
point of the year and beat a top ten team.
What do you think we're going to see? It's partn Stadium.

Speaker 4 (01:38:24):
It's going to be interesting. I think I always thought
UCLA was better than their record indicated. I mean, they
got a super talented athlete at quarterback. I think it'll
be super interesting. But Spartan should still win this game.
I mean, UCLA's got to travel across the country. I
still think that they're a better team. This reminds me

(01:38:47):
a lot of the twenty eighteen Perdue game, where MSU
was playing a Perdue team that just upset Ohio State
with Tyler Trent the cancer survivor the big story, and
where everyone kind of was wondering the same thing, Well,
ms you should win this game, is perdue going to
have the momentum. MSU did end up winning that game

(01:39:08):
with Rocky Lombardi at quarterback. But I think that this
is a very similar situation where I think that I
don't think that it's going to carry over to Spartan Stadium.
I think the better, more talented team's going to win
in Spartan Stadium. But I think it hope at least
wakes MSU up and says, if they were going to
be complaison at all, you got to take these guys seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:39:31):
Rob I would describe Mike as not a glass half
full guy, a glass way full guy, and optimistic. More
often than not, I would say, if you lose Mike Sterner,
you've really got problems. But talking to a lot of
fans right now, Mike who are becoming apathetic about Michigan

(01:39:56):
State football and this staff, and with every loss for
Boston College, that win loses some luster. They just don't
think this team can get out of its own way,
whether it's leadership, whether it's the talent level, and people
now are starting to look at, Hey, how long till

(01:40:16):
basketball starts, how long till hockey starts. It is not cheap,
It's not inexpensive to support a college football team and program.
How important isn't for Michigan State and Johnathan Smith to
get a win Saturday?

Speaker 4 (01:40:33):
I think it's of the utmost importance. Haven't lost the staff.
I believe they needed to get this entire year for
me to give them a fairy evaluation. But I think
I will will lose a little bit of patience if
they lose a game like this, because this is one
of the games that you look at on the schedule
and you just have to win, and so I can

(01:40:55):
see that more. But I also think at the same token,
if they find a way to get a big fans
are fickle, they'll come right back. If this coaching staff
finds a way to beat Michigan at the end of October,
fans will be buying into the staff pretty quickly. And
so I think that's what they gotta do. They gotta
find a way to get a couple of big wins
and string them together.

Speaker 1 (01:41:18):
Mike, I talked to a guy who I had had
this conversation with before the season, and I wasn't buying
what he said then, But he had Michigan State winning
the first three games, then losing the two road games,
and then beating UCLA to be four and two at
the midpoint and not winning another game the rest of

(01:41:42):
the way. Could you see that happening?

Speaker 4 (01:41:47):
I don't think that's gonna happen. I don't think. I
really don't think that's gonna happen. So now I can't
see it happening. I've heard that sentiment.

Speaker 1 (01:41:55):
Do you think there's going to be an underdog in
all six of those games?

Speaker 4 (01:41:59):
I think they end up being favored in at Ford Field.
I think Maryland's kind of got a little bit of
a buffer with how they handled Wisconsin, and I think
people are giving them a little bit more credit. But
then they had to collapse against Washington on Saturday, so
I think they're gonna end up being favored in that game.
I wouldn't be surprised if they end up being favored
against Minnesota. Minnesota is starting to lose favor pretty quickly

(01:42:23):
that loss at Cal and then they got destroyed by
Ohio State on Saturday, so I could see them being
favored in that game.

Speaker 1 (01:42:33):
Will you be at that game in Minnesota.

Speaker 4 (01:42:36):
That's what I'm playing in right now. I'm just working
on the travel right now. So the MSU plays at
Minnesota and then the Lions actually played the Vikings in
at Ford Field. So I'm mostly just looking at a
flight from dtw and back Saturday, then back in the Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:42:58):
So let me get this straight. You were at the Coliseum.
I know that because we watched some football there that afternoon.
You were not in Lincoln, so can't hold you responsible
for that. You will be at Indiana.

Speaker 4 (01:43:16):
I'm on the fence, but I'm thinking I want to
go there. Actually, part of my consision process has been
coming to partially like maybe the Tigers will be in
in Toronto for ALCS on the Sunday and the Lions
don't play until Monday night, and that would be like
Game six of the ALCS. So that's part of my

(01:43:39):
decision making. But I don't know yet. I'm not totally
sure I want to go to Indiana though, because it's
such an easy trip. So I'm thinking so it's more
of like getting somebody to go with me, because I
don't want to go on that one myself because it's
a drive.

Speaker 1 (01:43:55):
So how many combined Michigan State and Detroit Lions games
do you expect to see this year?

Speaker 4 (01:44:03):
Oh, you're making me actually calculated. So if we calculate
the Lions, that'll be all the home games plus all
the road games minus one because I didn't go to Baltimore.
That's sixteen games, and then MSU that's seven home sixteen
Lions games. And then MSU that's seven home games if
you include the ford Field game, and then I already

(01:44:26):
went to the Coliseum, and I'm thinking that probably two
more road games, So that's ten games there, So turn
twenty six. I guess if you do the math, plus
whatever number of playoff games the Lions go to, because
I will block my schedule for any playoff game they
play in.

Speaker 1 (01:44:45):
And in Michigan State did get the six wins and
made a bowl game, you'd probably find a way there, right.

Speaker 4 (01:44:52):
Yes, I have attended that every MSU Bowl game since
they've been in Rose Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:45:00):
Okay, so the Lions could play Let's say they play
three postseason games, they make a run throughout and go
the distance, and Michigan State makes a bowl game. That's
four more tack down to the twenty six. Hey, Rob,
Mike could see thirty thirty Michigan State and Detroit Lions

(01:45:23):
games this season.

Speaker 3 (01:45:25):
I believe that need them to see some hockey games.

Speaker 4 (01:45:30):
I Rob, I am not a huge hockey fan actually,
and so honestly, and I'll be honest with you, and
I'm not upset about it because if I was a
huge hockey fan, that I'd be running in a lot
of predicaments. One I'd have to figure out, like how
am I going to go to the hockey games too?
So it more comes down to like Spartan basketball, and
like I do have to sacrifice a couple of Spartan

(01:45:53):
basketball games. Actually, the one I'm probably going to sacrifice
this year that's notable is the home Arkansas game because
me and my fiancee is actually going on the trip
with me to Washington when the Lions played the Commander's
out there and the basketball schedule didn't come out and
we had booked like a four day trip, and it

(01:46:14):
went back and forth with them like should I toorten
this trip? And I'm like, now, like most of the
days of this trip, other than the Lions game, are
going to be for her and whatever she wants to do.

Speaker 1 (01:46:25):
Yeah, you know, the most amazing part of this crazy
life you lead, Rob When you think about Mike Sterner,
it isn't the twenty six Lions in Michigan State games
or possibility of thirty counting postseason. It's the fact that
he is engaged and he has found someone to share

(01:46:46):
this with him or at least tolerated. And not only
is he employed, he's a physician. I would be very
curious hospitals around the country if there are any doctors
who have anything similar to you. Do you know of
any who are that passionate?

Speaker 4 (01:47:09):
I don't, but I wouldn't be surprised because our type
of people are just crazy. You have to be to
go through medical school. You have to like just be
on a different level. So if they're not as crazy
as me in sports, there's definitely some out there that
are as crazy as me and other elements of life,

(01:47:30):
and so it's I think that's part of the why
I am the way I am is because I had
to be. So I don't know, it's almost like the
Gunner and me didn't gun for like being a surgeon,
and more gunned for everything in life. I mean, I
came out pretty well in medicine, but like I want
to go to a sporting events and stuff, and you

(01:47:51):
can't really be a surgeon and go to as many
sporting events as I do.

Speaker 1 (01:47:59):
Do you know the story of Giles Pellerin. Do you
know who that is?

Speaker 4 (01:48:03):
I do not.

Speaker 1 (01:48:06):
Giles Pelerin is the spartan Mike Sterner of the West Coast,
and I actually had him on my show back about
well it wasn't It wasn't when we were doing this show.
I should say I actually had him on while I
was guest hosting, going back several years, several decades, and

(01:48:27):
I did a couple stories on him. One when Michigan
State and USC played in the Rose Bowl January first,
nineteen eighty eight, and then I met him a couple
of years later out at the John Hancock Bowl in
El Paso, and Mikey went to seven hundred and ninety
seven consecutive USC football games. Now, to show you how

(01:48:51):
impressive that is, they were only playing ten and eleven
games a year, so this was over seventy four years.
He didn't miss a game until he died at age
ninety one. And the most amazing part of this was
he hated to fly and so if USC was playing,

(01:49:12):
say at Notre Dame, he would take the train or
a bus to these games across country. Streak began when
he was a USC student. He was a freshman back
in nineteen twenty five, and he attended USC games in
fifty different cities. I remember him telling me that, including

(01:49:36):
including the time that he checked himself out of the
hospital and went to this is a USC UCLA game
and then checked himself back into the hospital.

Speaker 4 (01:49:52):
Wow, that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:49:55):
Yeah, so you know when we were out at USC,
because there's a actually a plaque out there, we should
have gone to see that. And yeah, if you just
mentioned if you're out in California you mentioned the super fan,
they'll know exactly who you're talking about. And at age ninety,

(01:50:16):
you know, he's ninety one when he died. But the
season when he was ninety years old, he's traveling around
the country to every USC game. Nearly eight hundred. Didn't
quite make eight hundred inner row.

Speaker 4 (01:50:26):
So that's awesome. If I could live to ninety, first
of all, that'd be huge. But if I could be
doing that while on ninety, then that'd be something. But
I do think there's something about living a life like
I do. That might give me some longevity because I
think people that have this kind of drive and their
brain's constantly working to do stuff do a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (01:50:49):
Yeah, well, I was going to ask you about that
because as a physician you are at McLaren of Lancing, right, Yes, yeah,
So do you believe there's anything to that that? It's
use it or lose it. And if you don't stay active,
and if you don't keep your mind occupied, you're more

(01:51:10):
likely to check out earlier.

Speaker 4 (01:51:12):
I think there's one hundred percent a lot to that, Jack,
I think there's a lot to that drive, and I
mean there's a lot about the psychiatric and psychological help
that goes into it, and I think we're learning more
and more about how important that is for our overall health.
But that's why I think it helps. I mean, certainly

(01:51:32):
having a good diet and exercising well and those types
of things are going to add some years to your
life as well. But if your mental health isn't there,
it impacts your entire body. So I do think it
is something that's on my side for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:51:47):
And if you are a fan of a team that
never wins, does the angst and the agony that you
suffer take time away, Does it subtract year from your life?

Speaker 4 (01:51:59):
As somebody who's been through some pretty bad seasons, Jack,
those have been some of my more depressing years.

Speaker 15 (01:52:04):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:52:04):
I've had life happen in those years too, But I
definitely think there's probably something to it. But there's also
like I've learned to let go, Like I have like
a like an eight hour rule for losing games, Like
I dwell on it for eight hours and then my
positivity moves to We're gonna win the next game.

Speaker 1 (01:52:25):
So all right, the greatest win that you have seen
with your own eyes while you're there, and the most
depression you have ever had at a game.

Speaker 4 (01:52:40):
The greatest game is easily the twenty fourteen Rose Bowl
because I took a Greyhound bus to go to that
game with my friends, right, So that one will never
be matched. Biggest depression. Man, I'm gonna that's a hard question.

Speaker 5 (01:52:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:52:58):
There's been some hard ones.

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
Were you out at Levi Stadium when the Lions lost?

Speaker 4 (01:53:05):
I was, But I'm thinking about if I can think
of an MSU that one's definitely top three at minimum.
But yeah, I was at that game. They were playing,
they were playing, they had journey there, playing and singing
about born and raising South Detroit at halftime, and the
vibes were all there for the Lions fans, and then

(01:53:28):
we lost, and man, oh man, the only thing I
could think after that game is I knew the Lions.
The Lions were going to play in San Francisco the
next year because they both were the top in their
division in the NFC, And so my only thought, because
my brain doesn't work like I'm going to dwell on
the negativity, it was I will be in San Francisco

(01:53:49):
next year when the Lions went and it did happen,
thankfully that piece you had to go back to the
scene of the crime, right, yes, And I felt really
good about it. And so I'm trying to think of
msu Ones. I don't know that I think the I
think just the final four game that I've been to

(01:54:13):
have been hard as well. Twenty nineteen Final four was
really hard because I thought we were gonna win it all.
I mean, one of my bucket was things is to
see Tom Izzo win a national championship in person. I
was alive when he won his first national championship, but
I was five years old, so I don't remember much
about it, but that was really heart blaking twenty nineteen

(01:54:34):
Final four because I thought we were going to win
it all and we just didn't play well against Texas Tech,
and they played really well that day night.

Speaker 1 (01:54:43):
Mike, this is maybe not a fair question because some
people are of different means than others and they have
more resources at their disposal. But have you ever thought
of how much you would pay for a ticket to
watch Tom Izzo's team win the national champion.

Speaker 4 (01:55:03):
I have not directly thought about that, but it would
be probably thankfully less than what I would drop on
Alliance Super Bowl, just by the nature of what those
games are. So in terms of like the expectations of
what I would have to pay, I think that's what
you're more asking me, Like, I don't think there's really
a price you can put on it, because I would

(01:55:25):
do it. I would be more like, I'll figure it
out later, So I'll pay whatever place you're asking me
to pay, and then I'll figure it out later.

Speaker 1 (01:55:34):
Yeah. Yeah. I was talking to someone who said that
that's this ultimate bucket list item, and he's close to
eighty years old now, and he said, you know, the
Lions get to the super Bowl. He will be there.
And I said, well, you know what if you can't
get a hotel room, he said, he will be there.
He will find a way to get there. He will

(01:55:54):
find a way to get in the stadium. And it's
the last thing he ever does. He'll be there for that,
So it may be the last thing he ever does.

Speaker 4 (01:56:03):
Who knows, but Jackie, he needs to talk to me
because I have all the secrets about having a hotel.
I booked a hotel for at Santa Clara Levi Stadium
literally the day of the Super Bowl last year in
preparation for the Lions making an appearance there, because I
know I'm going to save a lot of money by
doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:56:22):
Wow, unbelievable. Mike, thanks so much. I hope to see
you this week. I know you'll probably be out at
One North on Wednesday, right.

Speaker 4 (01:56:34):
That's what my thought is right now, unless like something
changes with the Tiger's time. But that's where I'll be.

Speaker 1 (01:56:41):
Hey, Rob in the Jonathan Smith Show and the various
coaches shows out at One North. They have trivia questions
and you can make a bet how many times a
year someone other than Mike will have the answer to
the question, but he's usually right there at the mike.

(01:57:03):
Mike at the mike with the answer to that, Mike,
I'll let you get back. Are you off work now
or you have more patience?

Speaker 4 (01:57:11):
No, I'm done for the day. As Rob called me,
actually is when I was pulling in home, So perfect
timing sounds great.

Speaker 1 (01:57:18):
Spartan Mike Sterner, I want to thank all of our
guests today and Rob. I guess I have to start
with Jonathan Smith today and he had his Monday press
conference at Spartan Stadium. You've got a chance to hear
that and actually addressed question I asked about Nick Marsh

(01:57:40):
and Aidan Giles going at It at High Value on
the sideline in Lincoln and they said the shows are
both competitors. Also showed that Nick Marsh didn't think he
was getting the football now and he hasn't most of
this year. Also want to thank Bob Trippy, our director
of research and database covering pro football, college football, Major

(01:58:05):
League Baseball. He will also be there tomorrow at in
America Park. Mike Pearson, sports historian, longtime athletics communication official
now living in Southwest ohioan He was also at the
Lions win over the Bengals and Sparti. Mike Stirner, World
traveler following the teams. He loves see you tomorrow. Everyone,

(01:58:28):
have a great night.