Ep. 2913 Wednesday

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is it right here, combining a team of reporters, columnists,
and commentators.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Are you serious?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
Jack Ebling has brought thought provoking discussion.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
That's a day coaching the same opinion.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
Customers, the one who decides when the future gets here?
Oh no, just checking the forth.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Are you carrying me?

Speaker 5 (00:29):
That game was fixed and overall infotainment.

Speaker 6 (00:32):
I'll tak Jim Arma.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
What is he done? Graaseud comin quiet?

Speaker 7 (00:39):
Please exactly fifteen seconds we'll be on the air.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thanks, big fella.

Speaker 7 (00:43):
Don't you ever come back here again?

Speaker 4 (00:45):
No arguments. Those are called ashtans.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So buckle up.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
You're telling me it's time for the Drive with Jack Ebling.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah, for some reason or another, who signed a little
cola radio afternoon mid Michigan and beyond Jack Ebling here
with my producer Boston Rob. It is the Drive with
Jack the Spotlight Radio Network on a Wednesday afternoon, fifty
nine degrees and sunny in mid Michigan. Big cloud over

(01:17):
at Comerica Park right now. We'll get to that a
little bit later. And this might be the last time
we have probably seen our last seventy five degree day, Rob.
But this is a gorgeous fall afternoon midweek could be
the end of the Detroit Tiger season if they don't
put away the whiffleball bats that we have seen of late,

(01:40):
trailing the Seattle Mariners one zip after three innings. We'll
talk a lot more baseball later in the show, and
I'll tell you about my ordeal yesterday with a three
hour rain delay. But we want to start as we
do almost every Wednesday with Steven Brooks does a great
job covering Michigan State twenty four seven Sports Spartan Tailgate

(02:03):
premium site. Stephen, how was your trip to Nebraska?

Speaker 7 (02:09):
It was fine. It was quick in and out, didn't
do much, just handled the game, came home early the
next day and that was that. So No, it was
good though. It's a great stadium, definitely one folks should
go to if they haven't made that trip yet. You know,
sort of a there's more to Lincoln and then you
might picture like Nebraska Fields, corn all that like, it's

(02:30):
a pretty cool little urban environment around there. But the
stadium itself is, you know, one of the best few
in the Big ten for sure, top five. I'd say
it's always cool to be around that environment.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Did you ever see that many red balloons.

Speaker 7 (02:44):
Yeah, this is my second time there. I was out
in twenty thirteen as a student during that season. But
it's it doesn't get all gone to a place like that.
It's it's definitely one of the cooler venues. And like
I said, folks haven't made that trip yet. I know
you've had fifteen years or so to do that, but
if you haven't, circle the next one and try to
make your way out there, because it's one of those

(03:05):
places that really worked the trip.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
If you were there in twenty thirteen, steven, you saw
Michigan State's only win in Lincoln. Spartans do have some victories,
had won the previous two matchups with Nebraska, but it
was a strange day in really three games in one
Michigan State dominating the third quarter and rallying from a

(03:29):
two touchdown deficit to take a seven point lead. You
weren't blocked like any of the Michigan State punts, and
you didn't drop your computer in a wind gust.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Right, No, all good?

Speaker 4 (03:44):
What do you think happened there to swing the game?
Michigan State got off to such a bad start and
then came back. Alessio Milavoyevic actually came in and threw
a touchdown pass in the second quarter made it fourteen
to seven, and Michigan State probably fortunate only to be
down by a touchdown and then took over the third quarter.

(04:06):
The defense played a way that we hadn't seen and
didn't expect with five sacks, only had six in the
previous four games, and really seemed to frustrate Dylan Rayola.
But then once Nebraska got it going again, they didn't
stop and rolled to a lead. Michigan State had a

(04:31):
somewhat meaningless touchdown at the end of the game. What
changed and took it away from the Spartans.

Speaker 7 (04:39):
They you know, some of the things that got away
from them early, you know, I mean, like you just
laid out as a very disjointed effort throughout the sixty minutes,
disjointed in terms of placing it in a row with
the rest of the games this season too. I mean,
it was definitely the defense's best day of the year
by a good margin, I would say, and the offense
is worse than special teams worst day by a mile.

(05:01):
Worst day we've seen on that unit probably a couple
of years, maybe since that Rutgers game a couple of
years ago, twenty twenty three. But so yeah, you know,
things just the whole picture is not coming together for
this team, you know, I mean, so what changed. They
got some stops there early on, they were able to
get a little bit of pressure finally as a defense,
and they were around them a little bit. But they

(05:22):
also covered really well for having the number two ranked
passing offense. You know, statistically, I think I'd talked to
you about this. I didn't think they were that good,
Whereas you know, I think USC is pretty much as
good as their numbers say are close to it. I
didn't think Nebraska was. And so they just were really
good in coverage. They used a lot of guys Dontavia's
Nash plays for the first time, like East Carolina transfer

(05:44):
Aiden West is in there, Malcolm Bell's in there. They're
down two starters, so they're mixing the magic guys. But
they played really good coverage, and that's one of the
things Joe Rossie talked about today is that's what allowed
those sacks to happen. You know, for the most part,
I don't think you saw a lot of just like
clean wins off the edge or anything where it's just
like boom, you're in trouble right off the snap. But
they were covering really well in the back and that

(06:05):
allowed those guys to give them a little extra time
to get home and to defeat those blocks and whatnot
a way that we haven't seen this year. So that's
what was quick in there. I mean, the they just
found a rhythm. They were getting pressure, they were getting
stops getting off the field on third down, and then
all those things stopped happening. They didn't get as much pressure.
They get to spens, you know, get to kick off
snapoo late and give him a possession, you know, a

(06:28):
couple of yards away from the n zone, and I
think they only get a field goal out of that.
But I think it's just spiral. You get the one
play touchdown drive they're out of position to get the
guy down on the screen pass that that shouldn't have
gone for nearly as many yards as it did. Uh.
And then you get the one coverage bus where I
believe it's Josh Eaton Mixed loses track of his guy
on third down and they get a game of like
twenty seven or something late in the game and move

(06:50):
them you know, they were they were kind of cooked
at that point. You know, they weren't cooked, but Nebraska
was struggling.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Un mess.

Speaker 7 (06:55):
You were taking the lead, you get him into third
down and then they give up the huge pass and
they score there. So just not enough, you know, basically
in every aspect, even the good things. The defense did
not enough stops at the end, not enough of anything
from the offense basically all day other than you know,
one or two good drives, and nowhere near en us
on special teams. So just it didn't all come together

(07:17):
in the way things kind of have to if you're
going to win a game on the road like that.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
As you mentioned, Steven, I would have given Michigan State's
special teams, and as after the first four games, I
really thought it had excelled and not just a punting
game with Ryan Eckley. I thought Martin Connington had come
in and been a pleasant surprise. The return game had

(07:43):
been solid other than one fumble in the opener, and
to have the kind of misplays, not just missed opportunities,
but handing teams touchdowns. The first punt play, the overload
was not picked up, and the responsibility there goes so
many places first of all, Ecley has to be able

(08:05):
to see that and if he needs to call time out,
he can do that, if not take a penalty, get
that set. I mean it was shades of twenty fifteen
in an arbor, and to allow that to happen, and
even then they could have blocked it, but they had
two players run by their guys and rakeem Johnson just

(08:30):
almost shook hands with the guy who went on and
blocked the kick and then the kickoff and I know
it was gusty. Maybe you can tell our listeners what
that was like because it was so warm there too.
I guess I would say hot, hot, and windy, and
to have two guys try to make a play but

(08:53):
no communication. Maybe the noise there was the issue. But
you can't hand a team like Nebraska fourteen points.

Speaker 7 (09:03):
No, absolutely not. And like you said, I mean that's
an area that's probably been one of their strongest area
as a team. That's been the kicking game and all
sorts of special teams. But yeah, those things. I mean,
they get a delay on the snap before the punt
is blocked, so they could have got that one off,
you know, and theoretically, had that had a clean operation, there,
but they have the punt, the delay which forces it
again and then it gets blocked. I mean they gave

(09:26):
up a punt return to Nebraska that came off the
board with a penalty. But the coverage was terrible all day.
They had huge lanes once they fielded the ball, and
then you know obviously mentioned the kickoff thing too. Yeah,
the wind was was really gusty. You could see the
pants on the coaches like with and around down there,
the flags on the upright, So it was pretty bad
for sure. I think the noise definitely had something to

(09:48):
do with it. I think just the moment, you know,
you're not expecting the ball to sit up there and
die and things that. You know, the momentum was shifting
and I don't know if they didn't hear each other
or what, but you can't have it, no, yeah, you
just cannot have it. And then, like I said, this
is suppose to be an advantage for Michigan State and they
don't have a lot of us. Quite honestly, when you
look at the rest of the Big ten, so special
teams had to be an advantage and it was. It

(10:09):
wasn't even a neutral. It was a major, major negative.
So yeah, it's you know, you give up a block
punt touchdown. I don't know the stats, but you're pretty
much not going to win the game. I'm sure that
data represents that strongly. So the fact that they did
come back and take a lead, you know, at a
certain point there that was that was good. But you know,
you just come out of this game, like one thing

(10:30):
I wrote after is just like it's it's sim you know,
it's so much like the rest of these other sixteen
games that we've seen under John min Smith. It's just
that there's always a missing link somewhere and like the
performances aren't string together. I mean, nobody really saw this
offense collapsing like this the way that they played the
last few games, and even at USC they lose the game.
But I feel like you come out of that feeling

(10:51):
like that you have some good things going on offense
and you felt terrible about the defense, but then they
flipped totally and the defense has its best day at
the offense is close to an show.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
You know.

Speaker 7 (11:01):
I really thought they'd be able to run the ball
on a Nebraska team that hadn't defended the run well
at all, and that didn't show up, you know, and
then they're getting protection issues. Childs gets hit early. I
think he lost some confidence and his teammates and whatnot,
and this really sloppy day there. So it's just a weird.
It's a weird result to take, I think for people

(11:21):
because there was some definite positive stuff there, but they're
they're beyond the silver linings and the moral victories and
everything at this point and it just nothing strings together.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
You know.

Speaker 7 (11:30):
There's just so many, so many Saturdays through these seventeen
games now have just been grab bags. And it doesn't
it doesn't correlate to the game before or after. It's
just roll the dice and here's what it is today,
all right, put them back in the box, roll them again.
That's what you're going to get the next week. You
know that there's very very little connectivity and growth, you know,
the linear sort of connective tissue growing between performances, and

(11:54):
that's I think one of the more frustrating parts of
the result. Even if you can find little pieces that
you like, the big pickure is like, where's this all going?

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah? Yeah, I thought the defense with a couple of breakdowns,
a couple exceeded expectations, but the offense Stephen you mentioned
just kind of being out of sorts started on the
second play of the game and Elijah Tau Tolliver drops
a pass. Wasn't a touchdown pass, but it would have

(12:25):
been a gain, It would have been a positive play,
put him a little behind the chains. And then later
Jack Velling got alligator arms on a ball. Once Aiden
got hit, I don't think he was the same. And
it was to the point where we were asking the question,

(12:47):
this isn't a quarterback controversy. Okay, it isn't a matter
of who the number one guy is. That is clearly
established and name, image and likeness payments reflect that. But
is there a point where a guy maybe isn't quite right,
maybe he's nursing an injury, that you say, okay, this

(13:09):
isn't your day and you put the backup in. Maybe
if Michigan State hadn't taken it lead, they would have
gone that route, But not to say that Alessio would
have had a different outcome if he'd been the quarterback.
But it was pretty clear that Aiden was overthrowing on

(13:32):
anything with the wind at his back and coming up
short of some open receivers when he was throwing into
the wind. He did some great things with his legs again,
but it just looked like he regressed almost a year
after that hit.

Speaker 7 (13:54):
Yeah, yeah, I mean so watching it live and back, like,
I didn't think he was like, Oh, this guy's injured,
get him out of here. I understand, you know, he
did go get checked out and everything. That didn't strike
me the way that those type of things usually strike you, like, WHOA,
something's off here. To me, I just thought he had
a bad day for the first time this season. And yeah,
and it did look like last year in terms of

(14:15):
some of the misfires that you mentioned, or just the
way he was holding onto the ball in the pocket
and trying to do a little too much back there,
doing a little too much dancing and getting himself into
trouble that way. I just thought he played bad and
I thought he, like I said, I thought he lost
confidence in his supporting cast there. And I can't totally
blame him. I mean, the way he was getting pressure
from the edges, both tackles, had some rough moments. Right

(14:37):
side had a rough day that all happened early, you know,
So I think he just kind of got rattled and
that's what we saw a lot of last.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Year, right.

Speaker 7 (14:47):
I think that's why we saw some of those truggles
because I don't think he had complete faith in what
type of protection he was going to get in the
running backs again on Saturday let him down a couple
of times there. He can't really trust those guys, so
I think that just got them. He talked about trying
to too much when we interviewed him yesterday, and that
was something that I think showed up last year. So yeah,
a lot of last year tendencies that he'd moved on

(15:07):
from which were bummers. I mean that pick, the first pick,
like was so far off target, high and to the right,
like it was gonna go it was gonna be picked
off either way, and it was both, and it was
it was comically bad to the right or high whichever way,
and then it was both of those things. So I mean,
that was just that was just terrible. You know, the
first pick of the year, it gets tipped at the line,

(15:28):
You're like, okay, whatever, Otherwise he hasn't given it up
this year. That one was squarely on him. That was
just a bad throw. So yeah, it was a bad
day for him. It's a bad day to have a
bad day, he does still rescue them with his legs.
As you mentioned that one drive he has like forty
of their forty eight yards or something all on the
ground by him. And I think that's why you keep
a guy like that in the game, because of that
X factor and because he is your guy and whatnot.

(15:50):
He gave them a chance and a spark there to
sort of keep it going. But yeah, bad day overall,
and we can't not mention it was the second and
two for fourteen, I'm third down, Like you mentioned the
Tolliver drop, which was a weird decision to even have
him in there, I think that early and to have
that as part of stort of your script. But whatever,
he's known for his hands, he's got to catch that.
But two for fourteen on third down, you're not going

(16:12):
to beat almost anybody with a pulse. And that goes
back to the run game, which did not show up
at all, really the traditional run game, other than Child's
making stuff happen. And I really thought, if there was
one thing I thought I'd be able to predict about
this game, I thought him as you would rush it
at a pretty healthy clip. Then now in Nebraska has
great dbs. It's hard to throw on them. But I
thought they'd run it well enough to get the play

(16:33):
action game going and have a chance there. And they
did not run it well at all, put them behind
the sticks, and then they weren't executing un They're done.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, and the final margin eleven points, Maybe that's reflective.
Certainly not what you would have expected when Michigan State
I took that twenty one to fourteen lead and led
late in the third quarter. But what did you think
of the coach? You mentioned a strange decision here and there.

(17:05):
I thought it was one of the weirder coach games
I've seen by this staff.

Speaker 7 (17:12):
Yeah, I mean a couple. I think there's always a
I don't really come out of any game not thinking like,
there's a couple of things. I'm like, oh, that's a
little weird, Like like tas Oliver early in there to
catch that pass. I was like, that's kind of weird.
But whatever, I didn't love. There's a pitch that they
ran to Tullis that went nowhere, and like where you're
going with their slower back out in space run game
hasn't been click and you know, that was a weird one.

(17:33):
But there's going to be a handful. I think that
I don't always agree with per game. I'm a whole
I didn't think it was a weirdly called game. I
thought it was interesting that I thought, I don't have
any data on this, but anecdotally, it looked like they
were spreading the field a lot more Formationally, you didn't
see as much two tight ends, full back condensed looks.
They were spreading the field with three and four receivers

(17:56):
at times more often, I think. And I don't know
exactly if that was an opponent specific thing, or if
that's something that they came out of the bye week saying,
we can't keep bunching up the box here. We got
to spread things out, give ourselves some lane, whether that's
to throw a run the ball. Maybe maybe that's just
a one week thing, but that was something I noticed.
I mean, when you talk about coaching, the weirdest thing
about it all was I asked Tondan Smith after the game.

(18:19):
You know, you've you've a rotated offensive lineman a lot
this year, and and you said as much that you
liked what Russ and Young did out at USC. You know,
sort of my question was just doing why didn't you
rotate as much at tackle today? And what was going
on with those decisions? And he said after the game
he didn't see it as a glaring issue and you know,
my job pretty much hit the floor, and so you know,

(18:41):
you move on you which whatever is Those are his comments.
He clarified on Monday that it was not as it
was worse than he thought at field level, but that
was you know, when you talk about coaching and decisions
of this, and that that was the weird one for me,
is they were getting beat bad, you know, at the
tackle spots. And you have Connor Moore, who's been a
really good tackle for him and for whatever reason hasn't

(19:03):
been as good on the left side, even though that's
the position where he became a star of Montana trade.
But whatever reason, at this level he hasn't been as
good there, and so you know, it's a tough decision.
Do you keep one spot good if you move him
to left, you play rust and young as on the road,
red shirt freshman. So regardless though that when you talk
about coaching, that was the weird thing was him initially

(19:23):
saying he didn't see much issue with that. I'm surprised
that nobody was on the mic letting him know, like, hey,
we coach, you might want to take a look at
this tackle situation because it's not good. And it really wasn't.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Good all day.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
So he clearified it later he saw the film. But
you can't see everything at field level. I get it,
but that was the weirdest thing in that aspect of
that game to me.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah, I think you're right on it with the rust
and young question, because Jim Mahalchick has a reputation nationally
by people who know a lot more about offensive line
play than we do as one of the best teachers
of that position. Hasn't necessarily shown up yet, but that

(20:04):
is the way he is regarded, and we have seen
some things that have worked. But if he thought that
Ashton Leppo was a plus player in that game, then
he's watching a different sport than I am, because I
couldn't find anything he was doing right for most of
the game. And don't mean to mean him, but I'm

(20:26):
just saying that from start to finish there were serious
issues there. You mentioned the two for fourteen on third downs. Equally,
Quizzical was four for five on fourth down, so they
had twice as many conversions on fourth down as third

(20:47):
down in one third the attempts. That was strange, I thought,
And the inability to get the ball not just to
Nick Marsh but to any of the wide outs field
was pretty amazing. You look at the receptions and yeah,
Nick did have four catches for forty one yards long

(21:12):
of thirteen, but you know where was Omari Kelly? He
had one catch for nine yards, Kashan McCrae won for fourteen,
Kevin Boyd had a catch for fourteen yards. So the
rest of the completions and there were only fifteen of
them in the game ward the Frasier veiling and then

(21:35):
the one they went twenty four yards to tell us.
So when you look at that, I guess it's not
surprising that Nick marsh frustration boiled over on the sideline.
And I don't know what you saw live, but TV
made a big deal about this, and as they showed it,
you could see that this wasn't a one day thing

(21:57):
for Nick. I think he's been thinking, I've been opening
awful lot here and uh, you know, I don't enjoy
running these routes. Uh, just like I'm the only one
out here. So maybe they have that all patched up.
Sometimes this can turn into a good thing. Maybe it
makes people more aware. But yeah, it wasn't a good look.

Speaker 7 (22:22):
Yeah I didn't notice it live. I was I have
the TV broadcast going on my phone on the side,
and that's where I saw. I don't make a lot
of it. I think that stuff happens in sports if
you played sports and around sports, like you know, I
get his dramas. For TV it's it's conflict, it's engaging,
But I don't think it's a sign of anything major.
I asked Sating about it, but not not as much

(22:42):
of like what's going on there, you know, But just
like I was more curious about the reasoning. Who's who,
what was each guy's case, and what were they trying
to hash out exactly. I don't I didn't want to
put a spotlight on like, oh you know fy fy.
You know, it's not like it has right, but just
I was just curious sort of what each point was,
what they were trying to communicate to each other. But anyway,

(23:05):
you know, he he doesn't brush it off. Smith brushed off.
I don't think it's any kind of big deal, but
they do, you know, I think have to make more
of an emphasis of getting Marsh the ball, getting these
receivers at the ball. I mean, that is your strength.
We've seen the run game. Yeah, sputter at times, it's
clicked at times, but you can't count on it given
you know, on a given day or even a given game.
I mean, like USC, it shows up in the third

(23:25):
quarter and then that's all. It's the only time that
shows up. So when it's hot, you got to ride it.
But they I think they have to be a little
better to adjust to just say, all right, you know,
maybe not the rush, you know, the inside zone for
two yards on first down all the time. Maybe we
can throw a hitch to Marsh and see if he
can make break attack on Throw a little bubble screen
to McCrae. Now, I think more of that type of
stuff to shorten underneath the intermediate passing game. I think

(23:49):
folks want to see more of that because it does
feel like they're not utilizing their greatest strength enough. I
know they want to establish the run. I know that's
so central to their philosophy and their scheme and everything
that they want to do. But I do think that
they could do a better job of leaning into the
passing game. Strategically, Nebraska does have good dbs. Like I said,
I was really impressed with their corners. I didn't think

(24:09):
they got a ton of separation either. And Brian Lindgren
spoke to us yesterday. He mentioned that there was a
lot of stuff that he kind of was kicking himself
about and didn't get to on his call sheet coming
out of the bye week that they liked just because
of how often they were in third and long and
some of those drives were so short. So there was
more that they had that they wanted to do and
just didn't get to for this or that reason.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
But yeah, I.

Speaker 7 (24:33):
Don't you know, there's not a whole ton of appetite
to keep spinning the wheels on the on the run
game if it's not working when you have these receivers
that quite honestly, a lot of Big ten teams would
probably trade theirs for, you know, and and would would
do things to get So I think that's what folks
want to see a little more moving forward.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
I understand that you you want to have a running game,
you can't go without it, But I thought when they
tried to run were so many first and ten runs,
maybe you did something else and didn't see reverses. I
didn't see draw plays, I didn't see screen passes. And

(25:11):
when you have a defense that has twelve tackles for
losses in Michigan said had plenty, but Nebraska had twelve
stops for negative yardage. When you have that, you have
to have something and your call sheet that is going
to at least make them stop from charging so hard

(25:33):
into the backfield. And they had nothing like that.

Speaker 7 (25:37):
Yeah, so that's why I go back to, like when
we see him spreading the field more formationally with with
you know, trips out there, shotgun, just spreading the end
to end like everybody else does. Maybe that's the direction
they're going to start going a little more and getting
being a little more throw to set up the run
under the opposed device versa. I know they're not going
to totally ditch their identity and everything, still gonna have

(25:57):
a tight end on the field at all times. I'm
not asking him to the air raid. I just think
that you've got some real weapons out there, and I
don't think they're using them enough. And the deep shots
are great, they're awesome when they work, they're pretty they're
makes for great highlights, but I think there's a lot
more damage these guys can do near the line of
scrimmage if you just feed them the ball quick and
let them work. That can supplement your run game when

(26:18):
it's not always clicking.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
San Francisco forty nine ers under Bill Walsh instituted a
system and again we're talking about the West Coast offense
and popularizing what Sid Gilman and others had really devised.
But they came up what's called the long handoff and
it was a short pass and when you can get

(26:43):
the ball in the hands of your playmakers, and Aiden
is certainly a playmaker, but he was holding the ball
way too long. And maybe, as you say, Steven, the
Nebraska secondary was so much better than any Michigan State had.
I thought those defensive backs were outstanding, and you know,

(27:05):
there wasn't a lot of covers. There were a couple
of bus where guys were running open and Aiden didn't
find them. But for the most part, you know, there
wasn't a lot of room to throw the ball, and
I think Chiles maybe lost confidence a little bit that
he could get the ball in those windows. First time
I've seen that, and instead of trying to force anything

(27:27):
in there. You know, he waited, and he waited, and
you wait two extra counts with an offensive line that
can't protect you at a couple of positions, and you're
probably going to be sacked or running for your life.
So it was just a bad day. The question, Steven,
the most important question right now is what's the residue

(27:48):
of this? Does it carry over? Do they wipe the
slate clean? Do they learn from this? They're not going
to be playing the Nebraska defense when UCLA rolls in.
They are, however, going to be facing Indiana's defense, which
is top ten in the country in two weeks week
and a half now, So they thought Nebraska's defense was good,

(28:13):
way do they see this one? But what do you
think is gonna happen Saturday against UCLA defense that looked
horrible in the first four games and even against Penn
State with the UCLA offense almost scoring at Will Pence
Take got a lot of points in that game.

Speaker 7 (28:36):
Yeah, I think this is gonna be a good weekend
for MSU. I think that was the best thing to
happen for them, you know, because I thought UCLA probably
had one good day in them somewhere along the lines.

Speaker 6 (28:46):
Yeah, and I think they just blew it and you.

Speaker 7 (28:49):
Know, spent that token last week. Now you're gonna fly
all the way over here for a noon start, probably
still a little hungover from that success and all the
buzz and everything. At the end of the day, there's
still not a very good team.

Speaker 8 (29:00):
You know.

Speaker 7 (29:01):
I thought that we see these things happen every year
interim coach. You know, everybody rallies together for one day
and everything comes together and it just works. I don't
necessarily think they found anything, you know. I think they're
just kind of emptied the tank there, and I think
so for a MISI can say, I think this is
a great spot to get them, because you didn't want
that day happening to you obviously, where they're.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
Just fed up.

Speaker 7 (29:22):
They're backed into a corner and they say enough, so
not that happened. So I think they're in a great
spot for Mischigan say to get them. I do think offensively,
we'll see some emphasis. I'm getting these playmakers of the
ball and getting that passing game in rhythm, because it's
going to have to be like you said with Indiana,
Lumen and these other teams that it's for them.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
To have a chance.

Speaker 7 (29:40):
I mean, those are that is their strength. They can
be a serviceable running team, but they're not going to
become some dominant rushing outfit over the course of the season,
I don't believe. So getting that passing game in order
and building some confidence, I mean, they're a hungry team too.
They're an angry team too coming off these last two losses.
So I think things actually shape up pretty well for them,

(30:02):
as I'm sure you as UCLA is still reading some
plus press clippings and whatnot, still feeling good about that,
and I think that makes them a real prime, gettable
opponent from MESU this weekend. So I'm not worried about
that for them in that respect at all. And I
think it's clearly not a talent thing where they're going
to be overmats or anything. So I would expect them
to be a pretty you might be one of the

(30:22):
closer things we've seen to a complete game from this program,
So they have a chance to be. I guess we'll say.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
Michigan State an eight and a half point favorite in
this game. A lot of people after the UCLA win saying, oh,
maybe Michigan State has won its last game. Vegas doesn't
quite see it that way. But when you look at
where Michigan State is moving forward, this marks the midpoint

(30:54):
of the season. Michigan State is going to be four
and two or three and three. If the Spartans are
three and three, I'm hearing that there's going to be
considerable outcry, considerable for major changes in this program. If

(31:15):
Michigan State is four and two, it lives to play
another day and would have to win two games in
a very difficult second half. Although now Minnesota looks like
it's not the team that a lot of people thought
in September. If this team should stumble Steven, what happens

(31:36):
moving forward?

Speaker 7 (31:39):
Oh, if they lose this game this weekend, I think
that's probably what do they call it? An aviation, like
an irrecoverable position for this stat I think, I mean,
it would be the beginning of the end. I think.
I don't think you'd be able to come back from that,
quite honestly. I guess maybe run the table. You beat
Michigan Indiana Purdue in a Michigan Penn State and run

(32:02):
the table to close off the season, I guess, But
how would that ever?

Speaker 2 (32:05):
Have you know?

Speaker 4 (32:06):
So?

Speaker 7 (32:06):
Yeah, if they lose this game, I think that would
be the end in terms of most people jumping off
the ship. We've talked about how many people are sitting
on the fence already and still have yet to really
fully buy in to Smith and this staff. Then there's
there's a portion that's already out. So yeah, this it
sounds a little crazy to say must win eighteen games
into a coaching tenure. But and even with what Uguci

(32:30):
did last week, it's I said, I think it's gonna
be more of a one game blit. This would be
it's a must win for this whole thing to keep going.
Otherwise I think it would be the beginning of the end,
quite honestly. But if they win, you know, as much
as people have been through the emotional ringer with this
team already, they'd be exactly where I and I think
a lot of people thought they'd be at four and

(32:51):
two with two roads losses. And then you go into
the second half and see what you can make of it.
I mean, yeah, I think at Minnesota is very winnable.
I got to see Maryland actually, you know, compete through
October to believe that they're going to be a threat.
And I'm really not that impressed with Iowa either, So
I think those are three games that are absolutely still
in play for them moving forward. But four and two
would be exactly where most reasonable people thought they'd be.

(33:14):
Maybe one game off if you thought they'd split those
road games, but it wouldn't be far off track at all,
if if at all. But yeah, lose it, and I
think you're in a tail spin you can't come back
from quite honestly, as a staff, and just the ability
to get people, you know, to believe to buy in
on the outside, I think it would just sort of
start to came from there.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yeah, Michigan State would be four and two and having
covered the spread in the two losses, if that matters
to you. But I think a lot of people, as
you say, would have picked every outcome. If it's in
Michigan State went over UCLA, they would have been six

(33:56):
for six in their actual money line prediction, and right
maybe a few would have said, Okay, they'll they'll steal
one of these two back to back road games, and
some would have said, okay, well they might lose again
to Boston College. It turns out it's not a very
good Boston College team, and Michigan State needed over time,

(34:17):
et cetera, and a few other things that's going its
way to win forty to forty in that game, So
that win maybe has lost a little of whatever luster
it had. How do you think Jonathan Smith is holding
up here? He has his coaches show tonight, and it's
getting the point where these are interesting, not that it

(34:39):
isn't you know, always fun to go over and have
a great meal at One North and see some people
you know. But I always look at the attendance for
things like this, and I look at the reaction, and
you can tell talking to people when you know the
end is drawing near. And even people who like Jonathan Smith,

(35:02):
I really like him, like him personally, like what he
did at Oregon State, they don't have a lot of
defense for what's going on right now. If you say,
you know, how's in Michigan State going to get to
the next level, they don't have answers. The question is
does his coaching staff still have the answer to that?

Speaker 6 (35:22):
Steven, I mean I don't.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (35:27):
I mean I expect him to win this weekend. Like
I said, I think those three other games are all
on the table. I don't know, you know, John the
Smith's not an easy guy to read. I don't know
him super super well personally. You know, I don't have
a line to sort of get a pulse of where
he's thinking. He doesn't reveal him a lot like that.
You know, I'm sure he feels some urgency.

Speaker 8 (35:47):
He was.

Speaker 7 (35:48):
He was as animated if he watches press conference's video
out there, including on a little bit on my site,
like he was as animated and as frustrated as I've
seen him out in Lincoln after any game. I mean,
I think he thinks there close. I think he thinks
that they're better than they are. I think he feels that,
you know, they've you know, it's clear that they've came
back and they've made comebacks and they've made these things competitive.

(36:09):
So if you can do that on the road against
i think two quality teams and that's probably not playoff
teams with quality teams, then you do feel like there's
something there. You know, that's still a binary result at
the end of the day, but there's been some encouraging
stuff again, but you kind of have to piece it
together between two games and it doesn't really correlate with
one another. But there's little bits that you can take

(36:30):
out of each one and you say there's there's something here. Well, yeah,
you know, do they have the answer?

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Like, I don't know.

Speaker 7 (36:36):
I mean I picked them to go seven and five
this year. They can still do that. I think they
just lost a four star command. It looks like they're
probably gonna lose another highly rated kid with the linebacker
Braylen Hodge, who's taken a bunch of visits, including to Michigan.
So that piece has to come through. You know, they
kind of eased all those concerns over the summer, but
that that still has to get across the finish line.

(36:57):
And that's really gonna be the question, you know, if
you go five and seven and seven and five, where
are you at and a recruiting you know, realm to
upgrade the talent to do anything meaningful after that? That's
gonna be the question, you know. And if if they
do lose this game, you're probably not looking at a
bowl game, and then you're probably looking at what another
five and seven season? If that, if not worse, then
really where you at going into year three in terms

(37:19):
of momentum, in terms of talent acquisition and building towards
anything that's tangibly better in year three. I mean, you're
hoping to go seven and five again in year three.
That's not going to get many people excited either. So
in terms of the long term trajectory and whatnot, you know,
six and six, seven and five has to be in
the cards this year, and even then I think you
can sort of fairly question exactly how it's going to

(37:41):
play out from there. But that's at least the baseline
of where they have to get to, and that starts
with getting this one this weekend.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, I said that. I thought making a ball game
was the absolute drop that minimum for this team it
had to have. And now I don't think that's necessarily
going to be enough. I don't think a lot of
people will be happy with six and six and a
low tier Bowl what I used to call skanking into

(38:12):
a game. So I think they're going to have to
have a big second half and it's going to have
to involve an excellent performance against Michigan. That game will
be scrutinized in every conceivable way, and if you have
two of the top recruits leaving, as you mentioned, that's

(38:33):
not a good look. So for this staff to turn
it around. It starts now, starts Saturday homecoming. A lot
of players there and steven Michigan State and UCLA in
this series. Not that these series things matter much, but
they do to fans. They're three and three in Michigan

(38:57):
State hasn't won a game over Ucla in sixty years.
You have to go back to, yeah, the start of
the nineteen sixty five seasons, so you know, they haven't
played often, but they have lost three in a row
to the Bruins, and they need to They need to

(39:18):
do it, and they need to do it now. This
is really a precipice there standing.

Speaker 7 (39:23):
In Yeah, I was surprised at how few times they've
played over the last few decades. Yeah, I mean not
at all for several decades, but then even beyond that.
But yeah, I think what they really have to do
is whether it's six wins, seven wins, you know, like
the Nebraska game would have been one like sort of
punch up sometime, punch above your weight class, be the

(39:45):
team that you maybe should it technically or a situation.
You know, I think Nebraska is about even ish, maybe
a tick ahead like talent wise, but not massively. But
go on the road there, recover from an awful start
and punch back, punch up, and find a way to
get that win. That's the thing that really hasn't happened yet.
I get maybe Iowa last year, but that wasn't a
great Iowa team. You saw had to kick six field goals,

(40:07):
wasn't super satisfying. But that's what people are waiting on.
And if that six or seven wins include something like that,
I mean, if there's somehow able to stun Indiana or
Michigan at home, or even Penn State. If Penn State
totally knocked out of the playoffs as they've totally lost
their focus by mid November, they could be gettable in
a sense. But just that's the thing people really want
to see is don't just do what you're supposed to do.

(40:29):
Do something unexpected, you know, out coach somebody who just
rise up and do something that isn't formulaic and seen
on paper, you know. And I think that would go
a long way, even if it is seven to five
at the end of the year, six and six even,
but some sort of rallying moment, in some moment where
people can just say, Okay, I'm in because since November

(40:50):
twenty twenty three when this guy was hired. I think
a lot of people have been holding their breath trying
to decide if they're in or not, and so a
moment like that would do it. And there's a couple
opportunities to do it. But you know, Nebraska was another
one to do that and they didn't get it done.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Seven and a half million dollars a year. That's that's
a big number. Maybe it's not the top and the
coaching professions not certainly not the top into big ten,
but it's a lot of money, and to a lot
of people who are paying seat licenses, it's really a
big number. I don't have any problem with Jonathan Smith.

(41:29):
I get along with them fine. I think you do too.
He's been fine to me. I don't know him well.
I think you mentioned that you don't really know him personally,
and I don't know anyone in the media who does.
There are very few coaches, steven in the last six

(41:52):
decades that I have not had a personal relationship with,
for better or worse. I mean, some I haven't liked
and they haven't liked me, but at least I've known
them and I've known about that, and you know, it's
hard to make small talk with him. It's hard to
have the opportunity to make small talk with him or
to find out anything about him. And he stands up

(42:17):
at the press conference and he answers the questions. I
don't think he lies to us. I don't think he
is a manipulative person that way. But I don't see
I don't see anything that is endearing him to fans.

(42:38):
I don't think he has a lot of defenders. And
it's either people who have already made up their mind
they don't like him, or they don't know him, one
of the two.

Speaker 7 (42:49):
Yeah, And I was thinking about this the other day,
you know. Yeah, people are looking for a reason to
cling on, a reason to believe, a reason to buy in,
and he's their coach, you know. And I think a
lot of people want it to happen, but there is
there is some that are convinced that I just won't already.
And that kind of reminded me of Rich Rodriguez in Michigan,
where I think there's no debate. His career shows he

(43:09):
is a good coach, and Jonavan Smith has done good things.
I think he is a good coach too, But maybe
a weird fit, but the bigger thing is people not
giving him a chance, you know. And then Brady Hope
comes in with a lot of his players and I
think goes to the Sugar Bowl that first year or
very soon after. So I do think John the Smith
is a good enough coach to get Michigans say where
they want to go. But other things got to come

(43:30):
into play. They got to recruit better. But I think
folks got to give him a chance too, Like I
think if you arm him with a well funded roster,
which this is in some ways and isn't the most
in other ways, but if he's playing on equal footing
with the elite programs, I think he's a good enough
coach to do things that you want to do. But
there is a weird hesitance to give him any slack

(43:51):
or to buy in. And some of that is tied
to what we just talked about, where he doesn't have
this big personality and folks don't really feel like they
know him or can connect with him yet. But I
think all that's overrated too, and I think those are
things that people stretch for and reach for when you're
not winning games. I think if he was what sixteen
games seventeen games in if he was you know, twelve

(44:12):
and five at this point, you know, people wouldn't care
what he looks like on the sideline or how he
acts or whatever. But because those wins haven't come yet,
it's just something else that sort of sticks in their crop.
But I just think that I think that he's proven
enough to that he needs some time to get it right,
and people are sick of hearing that, and I get it.
And he's paying for twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty

(44:34):
and twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three things and
other staffs and other coaches did to this program. He's
paying for that, and I think that's unfair. But there's
just a weirdness too about embracing him, even if he's
not this magnetic personality, which is kind of a weird thing.
And I just you know, if you're misign state and
you want to hit the eject button, okay, you can
start over and do all that. And I'm not saying

(44:55):
he would get it right if he gives him ten years.
I don't know that, but you'd sure hate to lose
a guy and see him getting right somewhere else because
he didn't give him enough time or you were doing
the rich Rods. He's not one of us, you know,
from the beginning type of thing. So it's a weird
situation right now surrounding him. I'll say that.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
He is an outsider. Clearly he's not familiar with this area.
People don't really relate to him. And the Rich rod
comparison is an excellent one because I think rich Rodriguez
is a very good coach, but just was in an
impossible situation at Michigan and Jonathan maybe on that same path.

(45:38):
There's one other situation like this, Steven from history, and
it was at Michigan State, and it was Darryl Rogers
and Daryl stuck around four years and then he was
looking for the first opportunity to get to warm weather
and he went back left Michigan State, went to Tempe, Arizona.
It doesn't get much warmer than that, where he could

(46:01):
play golf all the time and he wasn't shivering eight
months a year. So I see a little bit the
same reaction to Darryl. A lot of people didn't know him.
Those who did liked him, but they didn't really relate
to him. The one thing they did love that they
didn't see they haven't seen here was an offense which

(46:26):
set a Big Ten scoring record, So that endeared Darryl
to a lot of people, even people who had never
spoken to him. They liked that part of it. They
didn't like the defense, they didn't like some other things.
But when you have Kurk Gibson and Ed Smith and
some other guys, you can do some things and you
can say, well, yeah, but if you have a high profile,

(46:49):
high budget quarterback like Aidan Giles and one of the
best receivers in terms of talent, Nick marsh, you should
be doing some of those things that Darryl Rogers did.
It's a tough one. Wanted to ask you very quickly.
But a couple of other Big ten games this week,

(47:10):
and does Michigan State have a better chance to beat
UCLA than Oregon has a beating Indiana? Do you think
the Hoosiers could stamp themselves now as a serious championship contender,
one of just two teams to be top ten in
the country in offense and top ten in defense, or

(47:35):
do they get shown the difference between where they are
and where they think they are out in Eugene, Oregon.

Speaker 7 (47:45):
I lean toward the ladder. I think Indiana's like playoff good.
I think Oregon's national title good and going out there,
you know that's the Indiana likes, rubbing everybody's face in
it until they find a bigger bully and then they
get their face rubbed in it. I think it'll be
more like that. I think Oregon to click ahead and
then going out there is tough. It will be the

(48:05):
best team they've seen by far. I think Oregon wins
that one by double digits.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
And what about Michigan at USC. These teams don't really
like each other, not just because the USC owned them
for so long in the Rose Bowl. But last year
I don't think it went over well the reaction when

(48:35):
USC came to ann Arbor and pretty much dominated the
game and managed to lose it. Miller Moss I think
just completed another pass in that game. And now you
have Seroan Moore talking about the crowd it's going to
be a sellout, which doesn't happen all that often, maybe

(48:57):
less than half the time in the Coliseum, and Michigan
is saying, well, it's only because we're there and everyone's
coming to watch us and USC is bristled at that.
So this is going to be a very interesting game.
How do you see it turning out?

Speaker 2 (49:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (49:17):
I don't have a strong feel either way. I know
I really want to watch it. I mean, the travel
and all that, like, it hasn't gone well for folks,
you know. I mean if Penn State plays that game
one times on a way, you know, instead of two,
or I'm sorry, instead of three, you know, does that
go differently? I don't know. They had their own thing
going on obviously after you know, let down at home,

(49:38):
But you have to factor that in these these the
data shows it's not easy to win when you're making
this cross country travel. You know, if USC gets a
two possession lead, can Michigan come come back from that?
That's the thing. The receivers and skill players have really
let Brice Underwood down. They're not catching anything. They do
have a great run game. Is that going to be
enough to sustain them? But we know USC can pop

(49:59):
off the of an eye and then boom you down
fourteen nothing or whatever. You're down fourteen points, he's going
to be fourteen nothing but two possessions and a heartbeat
out there yeah, I think they're proud, will be pretty
new stuff.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
I have a lot of good fans.

Speaker 7 (50:10):
Mission will have a good representation too. But in Michigan's
defense is good, you know, Will they give up the
same type of explosives and huge drives that we saw
for Michigan State. I don't know, So I don't have
a strong feel it's a great stylistic matchup. So I'm
really curious to see. But I guess I leaned towards
USC by a nose just because of the travel element,

(50:31):
because of the explosive element, that if they just if
you get a nose ahead, that might be enough. With
their offense and the way the Michigan is one handed offensively, we.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
Have seen USC give up yards on the ground and
Michigan State ran the ball effectively on them. So I
imagine right now Justice Haynes is salivating about this last
thing I promised where we let you go. I just
saw this. In fact, it just broke. We talked about

(51:06):
coaches and their security and used to be that you know,
you got a little bit longer. Well, everyone is on
a shorter leash now North Carolina today, North Carolina. Right,
they were a story of the off season, bringing in
Bill Belichick, putting a boatload of money into the football program.

(51:27):
Guess what they did this morning, Stephen.

Speaker 7 (51:31):
I don't know. The only thing I saw is that
they canceled their little documentary series. But no, shoot me.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
North Carolina Brass met preliminary conversations exit strategies for Bill Belichick,
and there is a chance, a chance that Bill Belichick
will be out before Friday's night's game against Cal. Can
you believe that? No?

Speaker 7 (52:00):
No, I can't. I mean, I'm surprised at how badly
it's gone. I didn't think it'd be smooth right out
of the gate, but man, for everybody to be pulling
the you know, the rip chord right now, that's kind
of stunning. You know, with all they invested into him,
the changes they made, and it's yeah, yeah, that's a
weird one. I mean, it was a weird thing to
go go for it, But then go for it might

(52:20):
have play out. Maybe there's maybe Bill's had enough. I
don't know. The whole thing has been very weird, but yeah,
to pull the plug this early seems a little short sighted.
I guess. I don't know if it's going to get better.
But with all that they've done. It just seems like
you should let it play out a little more. But
I don't know. Maybe it's just doomed. I mean, it's
been pretty bad, but that is surprising that it's all
crumbling this fast.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Steven, thanks so much, Really appreciate all your time. I'll
let you get back to all these baseball games.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
There are four of them today, including the Tigers and
the Mariners, and Detroit actually brought bats to the plate
in the bottom of the fifth, has scored three times
as a runner on third could take a four to
three lead. I think a lot of people said when
it got three to nothing, including some people we know
who had been messaging, they're out. They're gonna go do

(53:17):
yard work, whatever the case is. They couldn't watch it.
It was too painful and don't go too far. Tigers
have tied it up, and should they figure out a
way to win this game, as I predicted they would,
it would be two two. Going back to Seattle with
Tarrek Scoubel on the mound for Game five. He has
not done well against the Mariners, but but he's still

(53:39):
Trek's scuble. If you can get him into a Game
five situation. You have to like that as much as
anything else you could see on the road. We'll be
right back. We're gonna talk with Chase Michaelson about baseball
and college football out at Circa in Las Vegas. Up
next game day in East Lansing. Just got taste here.

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Speaker 4 (57:51):
Welcome back. It is a drive with Jack Spotlight Radio Network,
Jack Eblin here with my producer Boston rob rob By
the Way. Thank you yesterday for filling in and entertaining
the listeners while I was at co America Park for
three hour rain delay and then a game that was

(58:12):
extremely frustrating for most of the people there, not for
a collection of Mariners fans who surrounded the visitors, dugout
about the seventh inning and were very audible throughout the
rest of the game. I want to welcome in Chase
Michaelson from Circa in downtown Vegas from the Risk room there. Chase,

(58:36):
we talked late last night. I would have been late
last night for you or early this morning for me,
and said that wouldn't be surprised if both of these
American League series were two to two after tonight, if
you looked at the pitching matchups, if you looked where

(58:56):
the games were being played, and what could happen, looked
like the Tigers would have a slight edge today and
the Yankees would have an edge over the Blue Jays.
Didn't seem like that way at the first four and
a half innings when the Tigers were behind three nothing
and a lot of people were clicking their sets off

(59:18):
or muttering throwing things. But now Tigers have bounced back
to tie it up. What happens now?

Speaker 3 (59:27):
Yeah, obviously, you know we're coming live, and after a
pretty exciting attending for the Tigers, you know, finally stringers
amidst together getting into the bullpen, you know, just something
you just really haven't been able to do for most
of the series. And isolated plays or you know, Carpenter

(59:48):
home run in Game one or whatever, but not really
a lot.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Of sustained.

Speaker 8 (59:53):
After enough to hit. So that was that's a huge
get back in it.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
And then you know they went off as very slight
favorite in in this game, and I think probably that
was built on hoping that Casey Mace I go longer
than three innings. I guess Bryce smiliar. I think that
was a pitching matchup that most people thought favored the Tigers.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
So now you know where.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
He struck out? Yeah, I mean he struck out six batters.
He is a picture with the most wins you have,
and you have a probable two time Cy Young Award winner.
But Casey, myes, he was on a short leash. I
guess when you say all hands on deck, uh, some people,

(01:00:41):
that means you got to use them all.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
Yeah, And I think probably they're just gonna face be
facing to be facing Josh Naylor again, who had gotten
the big kid off of him earlier in the game.
And I'm guessing that's probably part of it. And also
the fact that I think from major interest perfect that
he saw the offensives having and you know, basically said

(01:01:04):
we got to push emergency buttons to keep it you know,
one or two, you know, as it as it happened,
it got to three. That's as have come back. And
now it's a bullpen game, which you know, I guess
it's sort of go either way.

Speaker 8 (01:01:15):
And I guess you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Feel comfortable using your bullpen today because you feel pretty
good if you can win today about your starter in
game five having some serious length and potentially not really
needing bullpen. So right, that's that's, you know, from sort
of a neutral perspective, how.

Speaker 8 (01:01:36):
I would look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
I was a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Surprised though, just because, like you said, I thought was
pretty pitching pretty well other than the mistake he made
to Naylor.

Speaker 4 (01:01:44):
So yeah, in play betting, in game betting, when you
think about the reaction and the swings we see during
games and uh ty, as you mentioned, the thought when
the first pitch was thrown, but it didn't take long

(01:02:05):
to look like it was more of the same, another
Seattle kind of game. And how much variance is there
in a game like this depending on when you decide
to make a bet.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
It's definitely important, you know, especially with baseball because you
can't score on defense.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
It's so.

Speaker 8 (01:02:26):
Dependent on who's hitting.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Wildly different prices, you know, three nothing in the top
of the fifth versus three nothing in the bottom of
the fifth can be two pretty.

Speaker 8 (01:02:36):
Different prices, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
So that's something that I think are more experienced in
gay betters, and we do have a contingent of customers
that really pretty much only engage in what we would
consider sharp in game betting and looking at prices compared

(01:03:02):
to what else is out there on the market. I'm
trying to find opportunities there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
So if we have a.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
Lower price on the underdog or a lower price on
the favorite, I should say, and somewhere else is a
higher price on the underdog. Then when we have on
the favorite, you'll see bet on the favorite with us
because they can get into a situation where they can
essentially not be gambling.

Speaker 8 (01:03:27):
And then you also see.

Speaker 3 (01:03:29):
People that look to bet based on the opportunities that
are there for the whoever's coming up to hit.

Speaker 8 (01:03:38):
You'll see that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
Sometimes you'll see people that look really looked at like, Okay,
you know, the media lineup's coming up for this team,
so it might be value on betting a team that's
down to runs, but they have their bestsetters coming up
and maybe they're an advantageous spot to come back. So
that's something that you know, algorithms and models can get

(01:03:59):
to some degree, but I think probably some people would
say that the in game model might not really account
for that enough, or maybe they say accounts for it
too much. You know what, I mean, so it's just
a less solid market than the pregame market. You know,
there's in the pregame market, there's millions of dollars worldwide

(01:04:19):
jumped into it, so you end up with a pretty
efficient number it closed, and the in game market is
very much the opposite of that. Obviously, the line's only
up for small amounts of time, so there's less information
that could be collected, and you're basically just going off
whatever the you know algorithm tells you, essentially, and then
people get into it and you go from there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
So the Tigers worked out of a jam two runs
on at the end of the top of the of
the sixth stting, So Tigers have four chances left here
and in a tie game, do you think that's going
to come down to one swing? Tigers haven't hit home

(01:05:06):
runs in this series, only one of the eight playoff teams,
they've hit the fewest. Blue Jays have hit the most,
but the Mariners pretty close behind. Do you think this
is a one swing game?

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
I mean, if it's a one swing game, then that's
advantaged Mariners for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
I mean they have the al home run leader, they
have Randi ros Arena as Lua Ronriguez, Josh Naylor for Polanco,
Avenio Suarez to a lot of guys that have pretty
serious power, and then they might be higher strikeout numbers,
you know, maybe even what the Tigers have. But yeah,
I think that's that's a concern. I think if the Tigers,

(01:05:50):
you're probably playing for one run in a different way.
Imagine you'll probably see a lot of trying to move
a runner over being aggressive. I know we saw if
it's any aggression on the based pass for the Tigers too.
I think you'll probably see that going forward when they
get guys on.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
For sure, I think the Tigers start playing this like
an extra ending game in the seventh.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
I mean, I see what you're saying. I mean, yeah,
kind of. I think so, because I think that they
I think probably the odds of putting together another crooked
number I think are probably pretty low.

Speaker 8 (01:06:26):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
You and I spoke last night and I said I
thought it was good, even though the runs by themselves
at the bottom that I didn't mean a time because
they weren't off the Mariners high leverage relievers necessarily they
got last night, they got Andres Munnos up and he
had to face more guys and when you're dealing with
a really dominant reliever like Munyo's, the more looks you

(01:06:47):
can get him, the better. And so I think that
that's positive for the Tigers. I think you saw that
a little.

Speaker 8 (01:06:54):
Bit with with Finnigan.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
And Holton guys, that it looks good earlier in the playoffs.
Earlier the series struggled in the middle endings of this game,
and I think there's a diminishing returns with going to
the same relievers against the same guys they after.

Speaker 8 (01:07:08):
Day in a playoff series.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
You know, it's not like a regular season three games set.
You may deface the guy place, you know, but in
a playoff series where you're into game four, Game five,
and game six, you're gonna be spacing the same relievers
time and time again. And I think you're I don't

(01:07:29):
know where you are and you're you're viewing of the.

Speaker 8 (01:07:32):
Game, Jack, but.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
I think you can see that there are times where,
like the Mariners, going to the same relievers over and
over can.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Can lead to some struggles.

Speaker 8 (01:07:45):
So you know, we're watching across the across.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
The pantries from each other right now, So I don't
know what you're seeing. If you're seeing what I'm seeing,
but probably the.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
Mariners are probably probably not gonna try Caleb Ferguson out again. Uh.
And I I thought what you said last night about
Andre's munos was was very interesting. I went back and
as I watched the game again, do you know how
many hitters he faced? I do not. Uh, well, you know,

(01:08:20):
he pitched one inning and came in and had a
run around base and he got it out and he
got a double play.

Speaker 8 (01:08:29):
But it's something, Yeah, it's something.

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
It's something. So uh, give me a guy who's going
to drive in the Oh, give me a guy who's
going to drive in the game winning run for Seattle
and someone who's going to do that for Detroit today?

Speaker 3 (01:08:47):
Did I say Riley Green for Detroit? Okay, it's conversations
changing in life, that's right as we speak. I think
for for Sea, I don't think you got to look
at Obvis top the lineup and and Kyle Rally, judges
and their stars, and I think that's.

Speaker 4 (01:09:07):
Imagine home run and Riley Green did more than he
hit a home run. He hit the ball four hundred
and fifty four feet.

Speaker 8 (01:09:14):
That was that was a no doubt or for sure,
even with the TV on mute.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
You could tell.

Speaker 8 (01:09:20):
That that one was gone for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
Interesting stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:09:24):
Yeah, conversation changing a lot. What was that mean about
saying that the Tigers disadvantage? Who just comes down to
a home run?

Speaker 4 (01:09:32):
Right? Well, it's only their second one in the series.
But sometimes timing is everything.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
So now was it?

Speaker 4 (01:09:42):
The Tiger's bullpen can hold on and send it back
to a game five? And some people I know who
bet the Tigers today suddenly smiling. So what about the
other American League series? We'll get to the National League
in a minute. What about the other American League series?
Now in Yankee Stadium and a lot of people there

(01:10:06):
were actually some booze audible last night when the Blue
Jays jumped off to that big early lead and then
the Yankees rallied. It wasn't six to one anymore. Six
two sixty three. Parent Judge hit one of the most
amazing home runs I have ever seen on a ball
that was I said foot maybe a little more than
that inside and a lot of batters, you know, would

(01:10:30):
have been totally tied up on that, and he managed
to hit it off the foul pole, fair pole, and
that tied it up. From that point on, it was
it was a Yankees game, scored the last eight runs
of the game. So what do you make of this
now moving forward? And would you be surprised if this

(01:10:52):
didn't go to a game five? In Toronto?

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
The Yankees are minus one seven each night plus one
fifty two, and that's because Frankly Seeks needed more. I
think you're going to see that in the pitching decisions.
Blue Jays, this is a bullpen game. Louis Varland, who
gave up that home run to Judge but has looked
pretty good other than that, is going to start the

(01:11:19):
game for Toronto, but I doubt he's long for it.
I think you're gonna see a few guys. Eric Lowerd
a lefty prop up, believe. I imagine the plan is
for him to get the most outs and then, you know,
depending upon the situation, if they're winning, they'll go to
their you know, a bullpen Sir Antony Demingos and Jeff
Hoffman to get the latest the last few ups. If not,

(01:11:39):
I think you'll probably see more of what you saw
last night, right, and then for the Yankees, it's Camp Schlitler.

Speaker 8 (01:11:46):
Who uh.

Speaker 6 (01:11:48):
You know as a rookie.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
Obviously you can't have a better first playoff start than
he did in a winner take all elimination game last
Thursday against Right Sucks. Eight shutout, twelve strikeouts. It's pretty impressive.
I guess I could say you can't, but I think
Trey Savage might have done better than the game two
just less less outs, but they didn't need them because

(01:12:14):
they were winning by ten thousand runs. But that's I
think that's the hole for the Yankee snighter slitly takes
the ball, looks really really good, overpowers the Blue Jays again.
He's capable of doing, although in his regular season started
against Tauno did not go well. He's knocked out in
the first ending last month at a game Yankee Stadium.

(01:12:34):
But if he can get the Yankee lengths and they
can go to the Yankee bullpen, which has been better.
Yesterday it was they ended up getting I think five
plus scoreless endings from the Bullpen's just pretty impressive. So
if they can do that, they'll have the advantage in
today's game. Now the problem lies in I think if

(01:12:58):
that happens, I think you'll have a situation where Toronto
has both Kevin Gosfin and Trey Savage lined up for
Game five, both on full rest, meaning.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
That if.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Like they could just put the game and they're very
similar pitchers that that throw splitters that really really really
dominated the lefties in the first two games in Toronto
that the Yankees have, and obviously most of the Yankee's
best centers besides Aren't Judge, are left handed, and they
just had no answer for the splitters from gospen Ory Savage.

(01:13:36):
I think that's the concern for the Yankees even it
gets through four. I think that Toronto would probably be
a slight favorite Game.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
Five, okay, And what about the game in Seattle? Who
would be favored with scoopball on the mound against the
team that he's had so much trouble beating.

Speaker 8 (01:13:54):
I think that Tigers will be favorite in that game.
Tiger okay, yeah, I think that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
He would.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
You be looking at Schooled against kirby'll be pretty close,
because I think Kirby's considered better than Luis Castillo at
this point in time. But the Tiger's closed a decent
sized favorite in that first game or Kate two School's
first start, I should say on Sunday, and look, Schoo
will pitch really well. I mean he gave up two

(01:14:23):
solo home runs over him Blanco, but he pitched seven
was it seven.

Speaker 6 (01:14:27):
Innings, two runs?

Speaker 8 (01:14:29):
I mean you'll take that. Yeah, that's that's ace pitching.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
I mean it's not it's not like famous stuff of legends,
but that's ace level pitching. If you can get seven,
if you can sign up for seven innings, two runs,
he'll take it. So it'll be incumbent on the Tigers
to school runs as they've been doing the last couple
of lendings of America Park.

Speaker 8 (01:14:53):
Can they do that in Seattle?

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
See, that's a tough place to hit, you know, it's
got one of the lowest park factors in so but
they're gonna go run one or another. And as it
looks increasingly as the conversation goes along, more likely that
that game will take place. And I think I don't

(01:15:15):
know this for a fact, I'm guessing that the pitchers
in Game five will be rooting for the Yankees tonight.
Because if the Yankees and Blue Jays are playing a
game five, and I think your Game five in Seattle
would be a day game similar to this, you'd have
the shadows, which would help the pitchers even more.

Speaker 4 (01:15:34):
Good point.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
So, whereas if if Ronna closes it out tonight, that'll
be the only.

Speaker 8 (01:15:40):
Game and that'll be it, you know, to night game.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
So all right, very quick the wills of TV executives.

Speaker 4 (01:15:47):
Yes, yes, that's right. All decisions come from network executives. Now,
what happens in the National League. Do the Dodgers put
the Phillies out of their misery tonight at Dodge Stadium?
And what about the game at Wrigley Field with the
Brewers trying to end that series?

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
Yeah, the Dodgers remindus one seventy four tonight Yo Shnoba
Yamamoto going against I guess a combination of Aaron Nola
and Rangers Flarez for Philly.

Speaker 8 (01:16:22):
But you know, the Dodgers, other than a brief hiccup
when they.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
Oddly chows to not bring in Roki Sasaki to start
the night ending in Game two, I've looked pretty.

Speaker 8 (01:16:36):
Good bitching wise.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
And Galamoto, you know, he struggled a little bit when
he first came over to to the States. He found
it last year and obviously got a great start in
Game two of the World Series last year, and he's
found it this year.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
For people, Look, there's so many great pitchers in today's
base in today's baseball, And he's not Paul Skins. He's
not there scuogl but you're simply have amotu Is. He
spent really, really good and and the Dodgers are a
considerable favorite in the game and a huge favorite I
think minus fifteen, fifteen and fifteen dollars in the series.

(01:17:15):
And that's what happens when you win the first two
games that were the coin flip games. You know, in Philly,
you wouldn't those two. Now you're in such an advantageous
position coming home with you know, probably your best pitcher
going tonight against kind of question mark from Philly. So yeah,
the Dodgers I think are considered, you know, obviously huge

(01:17:36):
favorites to move on. The Cubs can't get out of
a first ending without allowing runs to Milwaukee. You know,
I just saw a sack fly there for Milwaukee. They
are you have a one nothing lead the top of
the first at Wrigley. You know, our director of Risk
and lead Baseball odds maker Chris Bennett has spoken about

(01:17:58):
how it's tough to evaluate the Brewers because the Brewers
wins are not based around numbers and exit velocity and
things like that. It's based on vibes and friendship and
that's tougher to quantify, but it's working.

Speaker 8 (01:18:14):
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
I mean, you, of course will be rooting for the Brewers.
I imagine going forward, certainly in the National League. And yeah,
I think, I mean you dream of a Brewers against
Tigers or Mariners or Blue Jays World Series, right, So yes,
I do, Yes, Yeah, those TV executives we were bringing

(01:18:38):
up earlier, I don't think they'd be huge on that.

Speaker 4 (01:18:42):
All right, let me give you one other thing here
at Chase, and we talked about this last night too.
This is a rare year. I don't think I can
recall ever thinking that there should be two MVPs. I
know it's happened in the league in nineteen seventy nine.

(01:19:02):
Willie Stargel and Keith Hernandez shared it. It was a
dead tie. They even got the ballots. They were concerned
that there was some funny business. And I think, whoever
does not win the MVP Award in the American League,
I'm talking about Kyle Schwarber, But if you talk about
in the American League with Aaron Judge and Cal Raley,

(01:19:25):
is going to be probably as good a runner up
for an MVP Award as we have ever had. And
last night we saw two of the most amazing home runs.
I mentioned what Judge did, and I don't know how
he ever kept that ball fair and with the breeze
and everything else, it was just impossible that that ball

(01:19:48):
would stay on that line. But I also saw cal Rally,
who by the way, is now batting for sixty seven
in this series and walking a lot is on basement.
Yeah I know, I know, but if you want to
go there, I can give you those numbers too. But

(01:20:12):
I did see, uh, cal Raley hit a line drive
the opposite way with a twenty four degree launch angle.
They kept going and going and going, and then bounce
into the glove of a fan in row one in
left field who was wearing a dump here sixty one shirt.

(01:20:37):
And I don't you couldn't you know what are the
odds of that ball landing with that?

Speaker 8 (01:20:43):
I believe that fan is a resident of Las Vegas?

Speaker 4 (01:20:47):
Is that right? I didn't I read that?

Speaker 8 (01:20:49):
Yeah, Mariner fan in Las Vegas, Seattle in Las Vegas.

Speaker 4 (01:20:54):
And the funniest part to me was as soon as
that a bat was over and he had the ball
and he was done celebrating. He put on a dump
here sixty two shirt.

Speaker 8 (01:21:08):
You gotta come prepared, Yeah, I guess.

Speaker 4 (01:21:13):
So, you know, I'll I would say that if it
does wind up in a dead tie, I won't be upset.
How about that.

Speaker 8 (01:21:23):
Fair enough?

Speaker 3 (01:21:24):
Well, I think cal Rally's gonna have to, uh, cal Raley,
I should say, is going to have to focus on
his catching duties and preparing George Kirby for this Game
five start, because as the conversation goes along, it becomes
more and more likely that there will be a Game
five in Seattle and Tigers fans, I know, obviously the

(01:21:46):
people listening mostly Tigers fans. You know, think of the
Tigers is having a bit of a tortured playoff history,
and it has been, and I'm not discounting that, but
I'm gonna say right now, the Mariner fans in my
life are nervous.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
They have not had a lot of postseason success in
the fifty plus years of the franchise.

Speaker 8 (01:22:10):
They've only made the Alcs.

Speaker 3 (01:22:14):
Three times, and they're they're gonna be nervous, especially going
against Trek Scooble in a game five that, like I said,
looking more likely.

Speaker 8 (01:22:25):
So it's gonna have.

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
To bat down the hatches. I'm gonna have to well,
first of the have to separate you know, the Tigers
fans of my life from the Ardors fans of my life.
Have to be like a neutral to be Switzerland here,
that's right. But yeah, it's gonna be. That'll be an
exciting game for sure, looking forward to that if it happens,
if the Tigers can get nine outs, which as a

(01:22:49):
fan of baseball, I hope they do. I like more
exciting playoff games that my team is not in.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
Yes, yes, well you have a team that's in one night.
But for Seattle fans and those who'd made this trip,
when they're leading three to nothing after five and a
half and you know they need twelve excuse me, heading
into the bottom of the fifth, so they still needed

(01:23:17):
fifteen outs, but with the three run lead and what
would have been a clincher, and then to see the
Tigers score seven unanswered runs here in the next two innings,
it's just got to be one of the ultimate gut
punches and might make for a long flight back to
Seattle very quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:23:35):
Chase like we said hadn't done anything.

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
That's right, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:23:41):
I think of scoring as many runs here and these
two innings as they've scored the rest of the series.
Very quickly, can you give me your take on three
football games this week. Let's start with Michigan in the
Coliseum to face USC. And since Michigan has bring all

(01:24:02):
the fans for this, we're told that didn't seem to
go over very well with USC, which says, you know,
we're in this game too.

Speaker 3 (01:24:13):
Yeah, USC fans could be when it's rocking. It's rocking
in the coliseum. Certainly, when I was a young kid,
the Coliseum was, you know, one of the places that
I looked at as college football, you know, kind of
what college football was. USC's two and a half point
favorite in this game with some juice on that, so

(01:24:34):
as close to three as are going to get, which
I think indicates considered pretty even teams. USC obviously the favorite.
We've talked at lengths about the Big ten teams crossing
multiple time zones and how that's a real advantage for
the home team. We saw that last week when I
spent like ten minutes tracking UCLA football at the end

(01:24:57):
of our interview last I feel bad I did. First
of all, I didn't know Jerry neufeisl was gonna be
calm plays changes everything.

Speaker 4 (01:25:05):
Yeah, how about that?

Speaker 3 (01:25:05):
I mean the absolute mister Brewin so good for them,
amazing win for them. Jeva staatey loss for pet State,
but it's gonna be tough for that now being the
team crossing multiple time zones and nine point underdogs in
the Flanting you know, you never know. I mean he
kind of have to reevaluate things obviously because they fired

(01:25:26):
the coachman season whatever kind of feels like a classical
lighthound spot for UCLA.

Speaker 8 (01:25:33):
I mean, they had.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
Their moment in the sun literally last Saturday, and now
they got to travel across the country and go to Flanting.
That's gonna be a tough, tough one for UCLA, but
we'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:25:43):
Yeah, nine am start Michigan State. Yeah, exactly half point
favorite in that one. And what about the game in Eugene.
Kurt Signetti doesn't think that Indiana is capable of losing,
but that might be the ultimate challenge for the Hoosiers.
I think that would be a maybe a tougher game
for them than even going to Columbus right now with
the travel involved and everything else.

Speaker 3 (01:26:06):
Well, I'll say this, Yeah, the market loves Indiana.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
Again.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
There several games in a row now where our opening
number has been bet down. Think we open ten, are
down to seven and a half. You know, Chase makes
a dire you know, Chase thinks Oregans pretty significantly better
than Indiana and they're at home. Market doesn't agree, and
the market's usually right. So we'll see down to seven

(01:26:32):
and a half, which is pretty pretty amazing for a
program like Indiana to be considered, you know, basically a
few points worse on a neutral field than an Oregon
team that sort of looked the part this season. I
don't know how much of that is the shine of
Oregon's win at Happy Valley being wiped away a little

(01:26:53):
bit by what Penns they did the next week. You know,
college football, there's just so few data points. You have
to look at everything, and but it's look, it's a
big game. I mean it's it's for Indiana. It's as
big of a game as you can have. Yeah, you know,
we're in year two of Indiana being in big games
in my lifetime certainly, and I know it's like some

(01:27:15):
games in the late seventies or whatever that were important,
But basically it's been yea our late eighties. Second say,
I'm sorry, but it's been that long since Indiana's been
in these kind of games, and Oregon's in them, you know,
at this point kind of every years with what.

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
Sam Landon's built.

Speaker 3 (01:27:29):
So Oregon's favored. Oregon's not favored by as many as
I would expect. I would have expected them too. I
wonder if the public, as we get closer to kickoff,
will like the favorite in a game like this. Typically
that's the teams they trust, and Oregon has proved worthy
of people's trust.

Speaker 4 (01:27:50):
James Michaelson from Circa Results in downtown Las Vegas does
a great job in the risk room there, especially with
college football. Jase, enjoy the game as much as you
can tonight.

Speaker 8 (01:28:04):
I will not enjoy the game. I will hate every
second of him.

Speaker 4 (01:28:08):
We will be right back and we're gonna talk with
Richkin Caid. He is our Detroit correspondent, and we were
actually planning to go to rich and and to my
best friend Marty MacKinnon, who was with me yesterday from
one o'clock on for the Tigers Mariners Game three and

(01:28:31):
he is at Game four, I obviously am not, and
so we're going to let him try to bring the
Tigers home in the last two and a half inches.
But we're going to talk with Richkin Caid about the Tigers,
the Lions and more coming up on the Drive with Jack.
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Speaker 4 (01:31:28):
Jeweler, welcome back. It is a drive with Jack Spotlight
Radio Network. Jack Apple here with my producer Boston Rob.

(01:31:49):
Very happy to have Rich Kincaid with us. Here's some
great stuff on the Lions. We'll get to that in
just a couple of minutes. But Rich, what are you
mean of the Detroit Tigers today? Down three nothing on
the verge of a lot of tea times, and here

(01:32:10):
they are scoring seven runs riley e.

Speaker 6 (01:32:16):
Eight eight labor tauruses went yard.

Speaker 4 (01:32:20):
Oh my goodness, so they'd hit one home run in
the previous three games. Yeah, and here they go, and
then they're hitting them all over the place today. Riley
Green four hundred and fifty four foot shot. We see
Hobby by late.

Speaker 6 (01:32:39):
So he just see yeah, he had a two run shot,
and it's it's all there. The first four innings of
this thing was looking like the same old, same old,
and it was it was frustrating me because the place
is absolutely dead. And when you think about it, the Tigers,
they're not in the postseason every season, right, and here
everybody is giving up on them one in NY League game.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
I don't care who it is.

Speaker 6 (01:33:02):
You've got two relatively evenly matched teams, you're a odds
of winning are about fifty to fifty. It's always a
coin to us. We'll get out there and cheer well.
The first four innings Tigers rally consisted of turkles and
really catching one and driving it almost to the morning
track and ride. And then on the fourth the top
of the fourth inning, I believe they had the leadoff
man on and somebody managed to hit into an unassisted

(01:33:24):
double play three unassisted and you think that this is
just it's it was awful. And then all of a sudden,
the fifth inning, single single field of choice double scores.
Miss Ken McKinstry from first base on, you know, really
got the made it three to one, really got the
crowd going. A couple board doubles, won them by bias
tiest the game. And then they hit the home runs

(01:33:45):
came in the bottom.

Speaker 2 (01:33:47):
Of the sixth inning. They hit two of them.

Speaker 6 (01:33:48):
They left the field of leaving seven leading seven to three.
At at that point, it's eight to three now, and
it's a it's a whole new deal, ain't it.

Speaker 4 (01:33:57):
It is? And the idea of going back to Seattle's
It's funny how fast this changes. Rich As you were saying, yeah,
you know, when when the Tigers got that win in
Game one with Scooball on the mound, a lot of
people thought, well, that'll be two zip. They'll come back,

(01:34:17):
they'll they'll split at least if they don't sweep them,
they won't get back to Seattle. Tigers fans didn't want
to get back to Seattle. And then after the Mariners
win the next two games, they would have given anything
just to get back to Seattle. And now it looks

(01:34:38):
like that's exactly what's going to happen, and we're going
to get Scooball and Kirby again.

Speaker 6 (01:34:45):
Yes, the rebob. I harken back to my first year
covering Major League baseball, Jack and if you get tired
of me telling the story, you let me know. But
the Tigers are mired in a terrible hitting slump. They'd
lost seven eight games in row, couldn't get any We
all know what hing hitting slump is, which is what
the time have been in too much of the time
since mid July and especially here in the postseason up
until this very day. But I asked the veteran, the

(01:35:09):
late great Rusty Star about the slump, and he said
he said he was gonna swear, but I was just
a kid at the time. He said, Hey, we're gonna
bust out of this thing and somebody's gonna pay. Well,
that doesn't necessarily happen, you know, just because the new
game started. Sometimes it happens in the middle of the game.
That's what's happened to the Tigers today. They busted out
and somebody's paying, and that's somebody's seattle.

Speaker 4 (01:35:30):
Absolutely, So what do you think happens? Trek school Ball
has had really tough luck against the Mariners this year.
It's been a team that has kind of had his number.
Although he hasn't pitched terribly, he's pitched pretty well actually,
just hasn't gotten the decision. What do you think we're
going to see?

Speaker 6 (01:35:52):
I think you're going to see Trek shoved the ball
right up there, collectives, you know, is what I think
we're gonna see. I give it the Sawing Award winners.
This is the one man in baseball you want to
half pitched a must win game. I'm a pork.

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
I want to see it. I think that's what's going
to happen.

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
Well, how about that? Uh, proclamations quite like that one.
We get a lot of fans sitting and well, you
know this could happen. But if this happens, not from Rich.

Speaker 2 (01:36:23):
This bu this bulk club.

Speaker 6 (01:36:25):
Jack has in so many regards, giving us so many
great stories this year, some of them heroic and some.

Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
Of them tragic.

Speaker 6 (01:36:32):
All right, when was the last time we had a
summer with our baseball team? Was fifteen games in first place? Right,
ages You got to go back to sixty eight for
that kind of nonsense. And then the collapse, which was
operatic in nature. You know, Shakespeare couldn't write this tragedy.
They almost missed the playoffs and now for them to
hang in there. And I'm you know what, I'm I

(01:36:55):
know this game ain't over.

Speaker 2 (01:36:56):
I know it's eighty three, but it ain't over.

Speaker 6 (01:36:57):
And that's kind of the way I think. But you
have a chance to go back Seattle. I don't have
a chance to advance the America League Championships. Amazing in
amazing summer, and no matter what happens, it's just been well,
you don't want to see. It's been a lot of
fun covering to scene. We've been a lot of fun
being a fan of this team.

Speaker 4 (01:37:15):
Yeah, I mean, a lot of things can happen. This
season can be two days longer and that would be it,
or this incredible story could continue, and the Tigers right now,
rich assuming that we don't get the unfathom movel here
in the last couple of minutes exactly, the Tigers would

(01:37:39):
be nine wins away from one of the greatest stories in.

Speaker 7 (01:37:43):
Baseball history, absolutely right.

Speaker 6 (01:37:46):
Yeah, I start wondering for the rubbings of the playoffs.
I'm doing the pregame show, and I turned off the
playoffs by saying the rubbings are sixteen wins away from
Stanley Cup, you know, and then on Night twos, the
Rubbings are still sixteen wins away from Stanley Cup, right,
never got anywhere near the sixteen. So that's when I
stopped doing that. Yeah, yeah, you know it's the Yeah,
the it's much better. I think it's much better at

(01:38:09):
this time of year. It's so much more fun. Actually,
just said that Tigres are one winter or one day
away from having their season be over. You know what
really strikes me, it's how the athletes and the and
the coaches handled Game seven pressure. Yeah, I've had a chance.
I was covering the Red Wings in Toronto. It's a
number of years ago, but they were in a Game

(01:38:30):
seven on the road against the may Ple Leafs, and
I just remember the pregame meal early in the afternoon.
There was Brian Murray the way that the world should
have been crashing down on their shoulders. But to each
and every one of them, it just struck me, this
is just another game day, you know, And maybe we
when you were, when you reach that level as a professional,
that is how it is to you. But it was

(01:38:52):
just it's from everybody talks about nerves and YadA yadi,
but I've I've yet to see an athlete, you know,
like his knees knocking as he's going them through the
buffet lion on a game day. But you know, they
just they take it in stride. One One comedian, apparently
Toronto Maplei's tou coach, has has called on his team
to play every game like it's a game seven, prompting

(01:39:13):
a Canadian comedian to say, well, the Leafs are going
to go oh in eighty two because they can't win
a game seven.

Speaker 4 (01:39:23):
Guys, I get a ton of texts during this show,
and some of them are informative, some of them are humorous,
some of them are derogatory. But I just had one
of the most interesting ones. This is from the same
guy who texted me and said it's over. I'm done

(01:39:44):
with this Bowl right and now he texted me back
and he said, greatest day of twenty twenty five. Would
you rather play the Yankees or the Blue Jays?

Speaker 9 (01:40:00):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
Man, I'd rather play the Mariners on Friday night.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:40:03):
Yeah, let's let's enjoy that, you know. Yeah. I came
into this probably caring less about the Tiger's faith than
you do, Rich, but I have a soft spot for Seattle,
the only team in Major League Baseball that's never been
to a World Series. They've won one hundred and sixteen

(01:40:25):
games in the season, and they've had some of the
greatest players, but they have never been to a World Series.
And talking to some of their fans yesterday at co America,
you know, and I feel bad for them. If the
Tigers win, great. If the Tigers don't win this series,
I hope the Mariners go on and you know, go

(01:40:47):
a long way.

Speaker 2 (01:40:48):
Well you go, there, you go.

Speaker 6 (01:40:51):
But you know, Jack, how in this series they've been saying, well,
this is the Mariner's first playoff win since twenty oh one. Yeah, yeah,
there's a reason for that. Means since for twenty five
years they've been crummy. Okay, So I'm not ready to
be still a crown upon them until they actually earned
what It's been a while, it is, it has been
a while, and this is my you know, this is

(01:41:13):
my second This is my second favorite team from Seattle.
The Seattle Pilots are my all time favorite. Oh there'll be.

Speaker 4 (01:41:19):
I saw a lot of Seattle Pilots, yeah uniforms yesterday,
so yeah, those were bad. But I like the Teal Mariners,
and I'm not a I'm not a giant Teal guy.
I didn't think the Pistons belonged in Teal, but were
good with the Mariners. You know, maybe it's the c thing.

Speaker 6 (01:41:40):
I don't know, But you know, you're just Jack, You're
just a namor to this team. I'm really I'm start
worried about I'm start worried. I'm start worried about what's
going to happen Friday if the Tigers pulled this thing out.

Speaker 4 (01:41:53):
No, I'm I'm I'm I'm all about the Tigers winning.
That's great. Uh, it's time in the show. It's good
for absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:42:01):
You know, I did go out on a limb here
rich as you'll remember at the trade deadline, and I've
been saying the Mariners are the best team in the
American League. Doesn't mean they're going to win the series,
you know, going up against Trek scooboy in Game five,
they're going to be an underdog at home. But nonetheless,
I still think they're the best team in the American League.

(01:42:23):
Even if they if they lose this game by eight
runs and then.

Speaker 6 (01:42:28):
No, look it's you go up and down there. They
start with a rain of rosa whose name I apparently
can't pronounce now that I need to Arosaea.

Speaker 2 (01:42:38):
Thank you, Randy. He's one of the best.

Speaker 6 (01:42:41):
But he's one of the best lead up guys in
the game. Yeah, you know, I think, and then then
they just pound you two through five?

Speaker 2 (01:42:49):
Yeah, and in five?

Speaker 6 (01:42:50):
Is that Naylor a guy?

Speaker 2 (01:42:52):
Right? He just kills the Tigers. There may be there
may be more than one Naylor. I'm starting to learn
more about this. There may be more than one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:42:58):
There are.

Speaker 6 (01:42:58):
But just like they're everywhere and they killed the tech.
I would rather I'd rather face Nelson Cruise for crying.

Speaker 8 (01:43:04):
Allowed and he absolutely I believe.

Speaker 6 (01:43:07):
I think I've seen Nelson Cruise in person a fifty
home runs against.

Speaker 2 (01:43:12):
The tit in my lifetime.

Speaker 6 (01:43:14):
I mean, I'd still rather face him than one of
these one of these Nailer brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:43:20):
I'll say, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:43:23):
All right, let's talk for a minute about Yeah, the
Detroit Lions. Well, you go ahead, you have some interesting stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:43:32):
Well I'll tell you what. Courtesy once again, the Lions
outstanding public relations department. The Lions, they're doing things that
have not happened in my lifetime. They did a lot
of those things last year. But it makes me feel. See,
I'm not young, I'm I'm an official old person now, okay,
but things that have not happened in my lifetime. For example,

(01:43:53):
the Lions have scored now thirty points in their four
in four straight games, which ties to the second longest
streaking franchise history. Franchise history takes us back to the
nineteen thirties. Franchise records in points one hundred and seventy
four and touchdowns score twenty two through the first five
games of any season, un pressent never happened before.

Speaker 7 (01:44:14):
Let's get to some of the some of.

Speaker 6 (01:44:16):
The individual notes, Alex and help me out with the linebackers.

Speaker 2 (01:44:21):
Ael thanks and.

Speaker 4 (01:44:25):
Struggle with dames like this.

Speaker 6 (01:44:27):
No, gently, generally not, but nevertheless, twenty eight pass defense
as a line. That's the second most by a Lions
linebacker since nineteen ninety four. We mentioned that because now
you're going back over thirty years. For Jack Fox, the punter,
gets in the notes this week. He had four punts
inside the ten yard line last week, tied for the
most in a single game in franchise history.

Speaker 4 (01:44:50):
Right right, amazing.

Speaker 6 (01:44:53):
Jared Jared Goff, Let's get to him. He tied an
NFL record by producing his sixth straight World game with
a complete percentage of at least seventy percent, tied an
NFL record. He joins Peyton Manning Peyton Manning as the
only quarterbacks in NFL history to accumulate at least twelve
touchdown passes.

Speaker 2 (01:45:13):
You know, in the in the stitch times that we're
talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:45:17):
So as we go through these notes, you see Aiden Hutchinson,
he is.

Speaker 2 (01:45:21):
A Tider record.

Speaker 6 (01:45:21):
He's the only NFL player to produce more such He
had a sack attack for loss of a fourth fumble.

Speaker 2 (01:45:28):
All right.

Speaker 6 (01:45:28):
The only other player to produce more such games as
t J.

Speaker 2 (01:45:33):
Watt.

Speaker 6 (01:45:35):
So my point is when we when we're looking at
these guys, they're being compared to Peyton Manning at TJ. Watt,
and they're sitting franchise records, And i just think it's
remarkable and fun.

Speaker 2 (01:45:43):
But I'm worried about Sunday night.

Speaker 4 (01:45:47):
Yeah, what about all these injuries in the secondary and
what they're leable to run into at Arrowhead Stadium.

Speaker 6 (01:45:56):
Well, see, you got Ken Ciddy losing a heartbreaker last
night on the road, playing a short week. But they're
two and three now and it's the cornered animal that
fights the heartest.

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
That's the thing that worries me the most.

Speaker 6 (01:46:09):
Okay, injuries in the secondary sounds like the same record.
We began playing it about this time last year for
the Detroit Lions, and they were able to cope all
the way into the playoffs when they were not able to.

Speaker 2 (01:46:20):
So it's it's yeah, injuries.

Speaker 6 (01:46:23):
That's just a greater and known and apparently the number
one factory in handicapping any football game is knowing who's hurt.
And I don't know who's hurt this week, so it's difficult.
It's difficult to handicamp. I just think it's it's a remark.
It's a great opportunity for the Lives to go out
there and duplicate what they did in twenty twenty three,
go to Airhead and win, and it should be a
heck of ReSpectacle.

Speaker 2 (01:46:43):
It's really a good time to kick Kansas City when
they're down too.

Speaker 4 (01:46:47):
Right, right, Yeah, there was a point where nobody won
in Kansas City. And now you wonder what happened to
that Lion's team we saw in Green Bay? Where did
they go?

Speaker 2 (01:47:02):
Remember the.

Speaker 6 (01:47:05):
Mark Antonio got really mad at me after the Spartans
opened against Notre Dame at home one year, fifteen years ago, whatever,
and they got beat twenty one to nothing. And I
asked him if he thought this were an aberration?

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
Okay, and he got really mad at me. What do
you mean an aberration?

Speaker 4 (01:47:21):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:47:21):
I mean, well, I didn't want to define the word,
but you know, they were.

Speaker 6 (01:47:25):
They went into that game ranked I guess Notre Dame.
They came out getting clabbered by Notre Dame. And I
wonder if, wonder if that's not what has happened, what
happened in game one? In game one, it was just
an aberration.

Speaker 4 (01:47:38):
Yeah, yeah, I can see that. It doesn't look like
these teams now are the same. Certainly Green Bay played
this way and Lions haven't played anything like this. So
is there a better team in the National Football League
right now than the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 6 (01:47:57):
Oh geez, I forgot to look at my power rankings.
I'd play anybody this week if I were Detroit. I
think I'd answered the question that way.

Speaker 4 (01:48:09):
Yeah, yeah, Would you like the Lions chances on a
neutral field against the Philadelphia Eagles or the Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 2 (01:48:25):
That's a really good question.

Speaker 4 (01:48:29):
We saw Buffalo beating the Lions last year at Ford
Field exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:48:34):
That was what This was one of those forty yeah,
that was last year. It was one of those forty
one thirty eight games that's, you know, dependent on who
had the ball last kind.

Speaker 2 (01:48:41):
Of kind of situation.

Speaker 6 (01:48:42):
I think I'd take Buffalo.

Speaker 8 (01:48:44):
They do.

Speaker 6 (01:48:46):
They do match up well well against them, So yeah,
I would, I'd take Buffalo that scenario.

Speaker 4 (01:48:54):
Okay, you would have loved you would have loved seeing
what happened last Friday night rich at President Center. First
of all, it was the izone camp out, so they
had tents as far as the eye could see, and
they were body surfing players all over the place. They

(01:49:19):
had a drone show, which I've never seen anything like that.
They had a seven foot one and a half center
in there who was directing the crowd recruit. They had
Dan Campbell introducing Tom Izzo. They had Iszo hopping out
of a bass drum that had been pounded on. They

(01:49:44):
had Hooper from the Pistons, Rory from the Lions, Pause
from the Tigers, along with Sparty and then Izo. We
said that they had three masks. It's a Hooper and
a Yoper posing for pictures and it was the greatest

(01:50:06):
white out I have ever seen it in Michigan State.
The place was jammed. Uh, it was. It was a
night that I didn't know that they could create.

Speaker 2 (01:50:19):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (01:50:20):
And these are the same students that sometimes annoyed by
leaving football games early and leaving the stadium not looking
as full as it might as well I might otherwise be.
But I'll tell you what you You can't match the
kind of spirit that that you described and what happened
last Friday night. I remember being at Michigan State back
in the nineteen seventies and they had this thing, but

(01:50:40):
it wasn't exactly as big a deal as it is now.
You know, it's maybe maybe it's maybe you stagger over
from the library if you're you know, bleary eyed, you
know from your from your studies, you know, and and
here commotion near Jennison to go check it out. A boy,
they're they're camped out two three nights in advance, aren't they.

Speaker 4 (01:51:00):
No, they let them camp out, but they when they
start putting these tents out, I mean, they don't start
a week. It's not like Skrzyzewskiville. But it was very impressive.
I'll just say that, and more people on monthfield Friday
night and Saturday morning than there will ever be for
a football tailgate.

Speaker 2 (01:51:22):
Well, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:51:23):
So, by the way, am I going to see you
Saturday at for the UCLA game?

Speaker 2 (01:51:32):
Yeah? Absolutely?

Speaker 6 (01:51:34):
Now, how can safety at eight and a half point
favorite after UCLA does knock out fen State, explain that
to me?

Speaker 4 (01:51:39):
Okay, because some people actually saw UCLA get eviscerated by
New Mexico and loss, lose badly to u NLV and
lose to Northwestern. So the question is, what was that

(01:52:00):
last Saturday?

Speaker 2 (01:52:02):
Exactly?

Speaker 6 (01:52:02):
That's exactly what was that? Yeah, no, that's just that's
just yeah, no, go ahead, I said.

Speaker 4 (01:52:14):
The other thing that's really interesting about this, rich You
remember when Michigan State played USC, the crosstown rival of
the Bruins, and this was in the coliseum an eleven
PM start yester time, so that everyone was pitching about
body clocks. Well, this is a noon start here, which
means the Bruins are playing at nine am. Yes, I

(01:52:42):
think that matters.

Speaker 6 (01:52:44):
So you know it, man, and we never think about it.
You only think about the effects of traveling out west.

Speaker 2 (01:52:49):
Of starting games.

Speaker 6 (01:52:49):
As you know, in the middle of the night, as
you describe it. Yeah, that that you know what just
talking to your guests, listening to your guests earlier in
the show talking about college football, the matchups are just unbelievable.
I mean, you can say we want about the Big Ten,
that'll be in the Big twenty three, or how many
schools are in the conference, But do you get to
see you get to see Michigan USC. Yeah, you know,

(01:53:13):
you get a match up like Minnesota and Oregon State,
you know, and for that matter, u c l A
against Penn State.

Speaker 8 (01:53:21):
Yeah, you know, my big question for years and.

Speaker 4 (01:53:24):
The game of the week, that's game day and everything
else is.

Speaker 6 (01:53:27):
Going to be there for that and how and and
and I know it's it's been a year's long process,
but how exactly does Indiana get seventh in the nation
good at football? I mean that's a terrific story, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:53:42):
Yeah, And I have no answer to that because I
watched so many coaches crash and burn there and some
came in with the test of intentions. Oh sure, and
good records resumes, but yeah, I couldn't get it done there.

Speaker 6 (01:53:57):
Well, you talk about buying, that's what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:53:59):
Down there as near as I can tell, Yeah, speaking.

Speaker 4 (01:54:02):
A buy in or Bayez, if we're talking about amazing
stories or one day, you know, go figures. What do
you make of Hobby bay As the last couple of
weeks after as bad as a batter could look, swinging
at pitches in the other batter's box, right, and today

(01:54:24):
big hits again. I mean, he looks like a major
league hitter again.

Speaker 6 (01:54:30):
Yeah, I don't exactly know, because he had he had
the peak there at the All Star Game, you know,
comeback player of the year, everything else going on, and
then he came back and again he started biting on
at curveball that would force him to swing, and pitches
compel him to swing, and pitches that were in the
left hander's batter's box, and it's it's it's a bad look.

(01:54:50):
But I don't know, maybe pictures once again notices and
this is a canvass thing. They're not throwing pictures to
the left handed.

Speaker 2 (01:54:57):
Batter's box anymore from on the sky. I don't even
know why. Yeah, well they seem to be.

Speaker 6 (01:55:02):
They seem to want to challenge him, and I'm like why,
But I think that's what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:55:06):
Of course, he's he's up.

Speaker 6 (01:55:07):
Right now, by the way, and he doesn't have that
I'm not I'm not sure how much about the game
I'm allowed to divulge in real time for fear of
you know, biological the commissioner's rules, I mean, rebrought.

Speaker 4 (01:55:21):
If he's listening, we'll talk.

Speaker 2 (01:55:23):
But that sounds good. That's right now.

Speaker 4 (01:55:26):
The Tigers have runners on first and third, one out
in the bottom of the eighth and probably their last
at bat and might be their last at bat ever
at Comerica Park.

Speaker 2 (01:55:38):
Rich Well this year, Yeah, it might be.

Speaker 6 (01:55:41):
It's not the tree now, by the way, what do
you mean you have a bias for some of these guys.

Speaker 4 (01:55:47):
No, I'm talking about not just the individuals. But isn't
Comerica Park going by the wayside? Is that going to
be Fifth Third Park? Now? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:55:56):
I did not hear that. That's how much.

Speaker 6 (01:55:59):
That's how much attention I paid a corporate sports.

Speaker 4 (01:56:03):
This contract is up, and my understanding yesterday talking to
some people, you know that that's basically a done deal
that they are going to you know, I guess the
the mud Hens also played at Fifth third part right
in Toledo.

Speaker 2 (01:56:21):
Oh sure, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:56:23):
So they're going to have to rename that because fifth
Third is now going to be in Detroit. I see
this sometimes with stadiums. You won't see it with Ford Field,
that's never going to become you know, Chrysler Center, but
you are going to see a lot of these stadiums
change names. And that's why you don't get a tattoo

(01:56:46):
with a stadium name.

Speaker 6 (01:56:48):
I thought there was a fifth third Field in Cincinnati already,
but maybe maybe it previously wasn't now something else I can't, Frank,
I just can't.

Speaker 2 (01:56:57):
Keep up with it.

Speaker 6 (01:56:58):
Yeah, what what team plays at take Horse Stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:57:06):
In that the Bengals?

Speaker 4 (01:57:07):
Yeah? Maybe, yeah, maybe, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:57:10):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of the point. I mean,
I never I didn't sign up for this. You know,
Cincinnati Comma playing at Homecommon defeated you know Riverfront, right, Yeah,
that's yeah exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:57:21):
So now the Tigers have scored nine unanswered runs, Rich, Yes,
are you concerned at this point that for this game?
Their entire magazine today in No, No, you're not. No.

Speaker 6 (01:57:37):
I can never worry about carry exactly, there is no carryover.
I've decided a few years of watching that that's that's
one of the pointless thing point like he always be
run greedy, you never nervous. Could come up here and
you know, score three or four runs and make it
nervous again. You know, No, always be run greedy. You
worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, And as they always say, runs

(01:57:59):
scored yesterday won't win today's game.

Speaker 4 (01:58:02):
Yeah. Hey, we have seen the Yankees score what eight
unanswered runs yesterday. The Tiger's doing the same thing now
with nine unanswered runs today. The Cubs now have taken
the lead on the Brewers. Okay, I just got a

(01:58:24):
notice here from Fred Thompson. What is going on here?
Fifth Third is acquiring co America. So that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:58:31):
Oh, I see right, So I see merchant.

Speaker 4 (01:58:36):
Yeah, yeah, so that's it's it's really the same thing.
But right, but now we'll see how it all works out.
But it would be it would be odd if you know,
this is it. This is the end of that stadium
as we know. It seems like we just got it.
I'm still thinking about games, I know, but.

Speaker 6 (01:58:53):
It's twenty five years from It's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:58:56):
Yes, exactly, and some much for joining us. I really
appreciate it. You got a game Saturday night, right or
Friday night. Got a game Friday night?

Speaker 6 (01:59:05):
You got a game Friday night, y'ill have a Farmington
against I think it's with us Bloomfield. Be very great
story for farm the last week. By the way, their
number one running back left the game, he was shaken up,
came back, played a player too left the game. His
brother came in and scored two touchdowns. And I'm thinking,
how much, how nice much is it about to be
to be that coach that when your star player goes out,

(01:59:26):
you just summon up his brother and he'll go in there.
You know, you don't miss a beat.

Speaker 2 (01:59:29):
It was fun.

Speaker 4 (01:59:30):
Yeah, it must have been a happy mom and dad.

Speaker 2 (01:59:32):
You bet, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:59:35):
I want to thank all of our guests today on
this baseball Wednesday, and Tiger's making a lot of people
happy here. I just need three outs to go and
they have a six run lead and they will take
this back to Seattle. I want to thank Steven Brooks
twenty four or seven sports Spartan Tailgate premium site all

(01:59:57):
of his observations from last Saturday in Lincoln, Nebraska, looking
ahead to Saturday afternoon's homecoming game a noon start. Believe
it or not, UCLA coming to East Lansing and also
his take on Jonathan Smith and how important this game
is to his future at Michigan State. Appreciate Chase Michaelson

(02:00:22):
from Circa in downtown Las Vegas talking playoff baseball and
college football. And richkin caid, our Detroit correspondent, talking about
the Tigers and the Lions, a little bit about the
Spartans in a big game on Saturday. Enjoy the rest
of the baseball have a great night.