Ep. 2916 Monday

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is it right here?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Combining a team of reporters, columnists and commentators.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Are you serious?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Jack Ebling has brought thought provoking discussion.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
That's a coaching the same opinion.

Speaker 5 (00:18):
Customer, the one who decides when the future gets here?

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Oh no, check the report?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 6 (00:28):
That game is next?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
And overall infotainment.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'll think Kim Marva, who is he done?

Speaker 5 (00:33):
Grease God to comin at.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Quiet please and exactly fifteen seconds we'll be on the air.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thanks, big fella.

Speaker 7 (00:42):
Don't you ever come back here again?

Speaker 4 (00:44):
No arguments. Those are called ashtans.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
So buckle up.

Speaker 8 (00:47):
You talking to me?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's time for the Drive with Jack Ebling.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Yeah, for some reason or another, who signed a little
Cola radio. Great afternoon in mid Michigan and beyond, and
welcome to the Drive with Jack the Spotlight Radio Network. Rob,
you know how much I love great weather in September
and October. In my glory this week seventy one degrees, today,

(01:17):
tomorrow seventy one, then it gets down into the sixties.
But back on Friday and Saturday sixty nine and seventy
two again. I just wish I could bottle these temperatures
in these conditions, because you know, I'm not in a
very good mood in January. So lots and lots to
talk about the Detroit Tigers. An epic, instant classic matchup,

(01:44):
fifteen innings in Game five of an Alds Friday night
and Saturday morning in Seattle, losing three to two to
the Mariners, and Seattle after their celebration and they're plane
ride to Toronto. One win last night. Don't know exactly
how they did that. Cal Rally had another home run,

(02:05):
but Seattle doesn'tseem fhased by this, and who knows, they
might wind up in the World Series for the first
time in franchise history. They're the only Major League franchise
not to make it. And lots and lots of questions
rob about the Tigers, what they should do, what they
did wrong? Aj Hinch, Did he pull Trek' scoulbol too soon?

(02:26):
Trek seem fine with it. Pitched through ninety nine pitches,
but he struck out thirteen batters and that is a
Major League Baseball record for an elimination game, and in
that situation, he was about as good as it gets.
He did give up a run, and sometimes one is

(02:47):
all it took, but Kerry Carpenter hit a two run
homer for the Tigers. Hobby byas played great, Dylan Dangler
made one of the most amazing throws, matching cal Rally's
throw to retire runner second base. It was just so
much from that game, pitching out of jams, double plays, strikeouts,
Dan Dickerson said, swinging a miss thirteen times with Derek

(03:12):
Scooble on the mound in his six innings, but through
ninety nine pitches in six innings, and last night the
Mariners only threw one hundred pitches in nine innings, and
that was after throwing twenty seven in the first inning,
so pretty amazing. They only threw seventy three pitches in

(03:32):
the last eight innings. We'll talk more about baseball. We
have two games today, rob We have the Mariners and
the Blue Jays going at it again in Toronto this afternoon,
and then the Dodgers and the Montreal excuse me, the
Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee Brewers and the Dodgers going at it tonight.

(03:54):
And we're getting close to the end. Some team's going
to win eight more games orange case, seven more games,
and they're going to have a parade. Also, we're going
to talk about the Detroit Lions and pro football and
the Lions couldn't get it done last night Kansas City.

(04:14):
Patrick Mahomes knew what to do and what to exploit
with this Lions secondary and who knows if the Lions
secondary is going to be even weaker. Now Rob with
Brian Branch for the eighth time, has gotten in trouble.
This wasn't during the game, this was after the game,

(04:36):
causing altercation, wrestling match. Brian Branch has anger issues. Someone
said he was the Draymond Green of the NFL. But
with the Lions secondary in a position it's in Kirby
Joseph hobbled corners are out, Brian Branch really has to

(04:59):
think a little bit more what he does pretty irresponsible stuff.
And the Lions with a loss. So now they are
four and two, still leading in the NFC North, but
now you know they play an next rop. You're Tampa
Bay Bucks.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Five and one.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
How about that? And I would have to.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Talk about the Baker Mayfield early MVP.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Absolutely absolutely I heard that about Dak Prescott, But for
my money, I think Baker Mayfield is doing more to
help his team win, right, now. And remember Mike Evans,
he's had the receiver issues, so he is really putting
this team on his back and carrying this piano around

(05:45):
the league. So congratulations to him playing the way that
people thought he would when he was the number one
overall draft pick. We have lots to talk about with
college football, Michigan State and Michigan both losing two teams
from the LA area. Michigan State a very disgusting effort.

(06:10):
I thought in a thirty eight thirteen no show against UCLA.
They were there for the first possession of the game,
went downscored a touchdown, and then I don't know they
went to the bar or what, but they disappeared and
completely outclassed for the last three and a half quarters.
Michigan not a whole lot better. They talked about how

(06:32):
they were going to fill the stadium and it was
going to be Michigan West, and I didn't see a
lot of blue and maize in the stands. That was
a tremendous turnout for the Trojans of Southern California, and
you know they wind up with a third string tailback
killing Michigan. Makay Lemon was brilliant again Jade Mayava. They

(06:54):
were the better team start to finish, and now Michigan
has some suitarious questions. And I don't know that Michigan
is going to have this automatic w against Washington this
week that a lot of people had kind of put
down in dark pencil, if not an ink. So we'll
see how that works out this weekend. And certainly Jonathan

(07:16):
Smith on the hot seat. He's not to the James
Franklin level yet, but last night I figured out rob
the Big Ten could have seven seven coaching changes. That
might be a record. It would be a record for
me lately.

Speaker 6 (07:33):
And right now there is a lot of frustration in
East Lansing that is oh yeah, maybe that might be
the understatement.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Of this show.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Yeah, yeah, no question, let's question. Let's hear from Jonathan Smith.
This was the press conference that we attended today and
it took a lot of questions about the state of
the Spartans and about the next challenge against Indiana. He
was asked about Indiana before Fred said, no one's talking

(08:03):
about Indiana, but he had already answered that question a
couple of times. Here is Jonathan Smith today at Spartan Stadium.

Speaker 9 (08:13):
Well, we got back in the building yesterday and took
a deep, deep guide on things and really can talk
a lot about this the halfway point.

Speaker 7 (08:22):
Let's face it, six games in UH three and three
and then.

Speaker 9 (08:26):
Coming off a loss that was not good enough obviously,
and then you lent on the leadership of the team
discussion to what we want this thing to look like.

Speaker 7 (08:36):
Moving forward, any potential issues we might have, and it was.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
It was great.

Speaker 9 (08:40):
A lot of accountability amongst the team responsibility coaches included.

Speaker 7 (08:45):
I thought it was a really healthy day in regards.

Speaker 9 (08:48):
To taking the deep looking ed where so called black
of the execution at times, and some of the guys
try to do too much wanted and too much want
to make a play for the team type thing and
getting outside of response to and we got exposed multiple times.
And through that, so guys kind of owning up talking
about it, tweet a little bit, how we do tech
the video and offensively they've watched it all as a.

Speaker 7 (09:10):
Unit, not just breaking down into your individual positions.

Speaker 9 (09:13):
I thought that was healthy in regards to like guys
taking accountability. I could do this Betters on the line
and seeing the route run and vice versa.

Speaker 7 (09:20):
And then they went back to work but a little
bit shorter.

Speaker 8 (09:22):
But going back on the.

Speaker 9 (09:23):
Field and address and we're gonna trying to make some
corrections that way because we.

Speaker 7 (09:29):
Do we gotta we gotta play better, and you know,
think about.

Speaker 8 (09:32):
Us as coaches.

Speaker 9 (09:33):
I sell at the start, we gotta get this team
playing to their potential. And that was well short on Saturday,
and so we would big reason why that takes place,
and then think about considerations and changes schematically, how you
approach it, practice, personnel, the whole thing. So I thought
it was a really good Sunday and we got to
be able to transition because we know what we're headed

(09:55):
to work on maybe the best team, one of the
best teams in the country, playing really really good football
at their place.

Speaker 8 (10:02):
That that'll be a serious series.

Speaker 7 (10:03):
Challenge that we gotta get ourselves prepare for.

Speaker 9 (10:06):
And and then it's an opportunity to start the back
half of our season on the road. Again's a really
good team to continue to find ways to do it
do it better. Injury frid you know, we have two
guys throughout throughout the game. Not a huge amount of
updates here, but both.

Speaker 8 (10:20):
Were really all aid.

Speaker 9 (10:21):
Might you have seen this and dually all of them
we'll kind of see by the end of the week
what those guys kind of look like. Optimistic, but we'll
find out at the end of the week. And the
Kyle Martine has been Robert Stalen Thompson. Obviously all three
of those hits did not go on Saturday, but uh,
I'll always tell you a longer, longer term injury and
all three of those guys have a potential for this
weekend and we'll see by see by the end of

(10:42):
the week. Questions try in the event that Aid can't play,
he shut down to the league.

Speaker 8 (10:48):
He coping into the lecos.

Speaker 9 (10:50):
Is ready for the tested any interest I think Unlessio's
gotten into the game and it showed some good signs,
uh where you have confidence and one is his capability
is his preparation with that kind of thing.

Speaker 8 (11:00):
So yeah, and then I you know, obviously cause.

Speaker 10 (11:04):
It was a a tough immediate safe obviously after what
happened after the last game, now or they were offifass
things like that. But it's a coaching as a person
when you see that, I guess how do you handle
that sort of.

Speaker 9 (11:14):
Bas system as as a person whom not to take
your shot at?

Speaker 7 (11:19):
You guys, are I don't follow inside of it.

Speaker 8 (11:21):
I be honest, I definitely uh uh.

Speaker 9 (11:23):
Having a greater awareness than things are out there, whether
they're talking to me particularly, or or the things around
the around the program.

Speaker 8 (11:30):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (11:30):
We do take some the deep pride and in our
approach and how we're going about it.

Speaker 7 (11:34):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (11:34):
We wanna be in.

Speaker 9 (11:35):
A place out of place, great energy, passion, compete at
the highest level. Part of that, you know you wanna
do that comes with on the other side of things
when it doesn't go right. So it's not at a
big biggest price to me.

Speaker 7 (11:47):
I'll go back to the confidence and really stead fasts
and people in that building.

Speaker 8 (11:51):
A then got uh that we can write the trigger. Okay,
after we gain you move to s one.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
Is your real yesterday about or one or whatever performance
more somewhere or.

Speaker 8 (12:02):
Are you confident of passion and fire once that would
you shoot a hole in your mind?

Speaker 9 (12:07):
I I do think the execution and energy or hand
in hands and did so.

Speaker 7 (12:11):
I do think there was something like I mentioned earlier,
there was a a a good amount of want to and.

Speaker 9 (12:15):
Almost too much to give myself out of my responsibility.

Speaker 7 (12:19):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (12:20):
You give an.

Speaker 7 (12:21):
Example like some of the you can want it as
much the one you fly around.

Speaker 9 (12:24):
If you were supposed to be in the be gap
and you're not in the be gap, that's not gonna
help our energy.

Speaker 7 (12:28):
But it's another fifteen yard game. We had some of that.

Speaker 9 (12:30):
Going on, thinking about kickoff return kicker for them hanging
up there pretty good, Well, I wanna go make.

Speaker 7 (12:35):
A place one returnd this thing.

Speaker 9 (12:36):
We got the faith of the the twelve yard line,
so we had some of that go that did not
help us.

Speaker 7 (12:41):
Some of the in energy, cause execution goes goes hand
in hand.

Speaker 9 (12:46):
I will say, you know, off of our first two
road games in this conference, I did think there was
a deep response in this team that did not show
up on on Saturday, and.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
That was, uh not good enough?

Speaker 9 (12:57):
Is there are well, at least a little bit execution,
like I'm saying, it leads to uh, the ability to
stay within, say within the scheme.

Speaker 7 (13:06):
Was a couple of things stood out.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, John the followed her up on it had the
body language at times Saturday was struggling people who larked
about that and jalen Berger after the games admissions they
didn't wanna play anymore. Uh as a coach, how problematic
is at what do you do with that?

Speaker 9 (13:26):
I don't know if necessarily actor in gards of not
wanting to play, especially just speaking off of the conversations
we had yesterday in regards to leadership, standing up guy's
pointings and things out. The gaining body language is tough
in regards to when.

Speaker 7 (13:37):
It's going really side. We especially think about late in
that game.

Speaker 9 (13:40):
But we got a EVD, a way to bounce back,
create some energy by some execution, and that's why we
talked a lot about the back half of the sis,
what we got from got to in front of us.

Speaker 8 (13:50):
You talked about yesterday being a big day. What's the
single biggest decision to PAS right now as the head coach.

Speaker 7 (13:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (13:57):
It's decisions.

Speaker 9 (14:00):
I think a lot of you know, a lot of
things are really really important, and I think it was
just down to to call it one person. If it's
it's that simpol of this one person, that change this there,
it could solve everything.

Speaker 7 (14:12):
I don't think it. I it's that simple.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's reality, right.

Speaker 9 (14:15):
It's about the left guard, it's about the quarterback, it's
about our offensive staff, defensive.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
Staff, it's myself a lot of things.

Speaker 9 (14:21):
I think it's really important going back to this idea,
stay together, finding ways to fix and improve on it
and get into the program.

Speaker 7 (14:29):
The players to think playing at their uh highest attention,
did Johnson?

Speaker 11 (14:34):
As adults, you all have uh some type of pressure
to perform in our jobs.

Speaker 7 (14:38):
Can you talk about them?

Speaker 11 (14:39):
It's such a public expectation from you and the guys
can talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 7 (14:45):
Yeah, you know, I think about yet call it public
and all of that. That's why I I do found
some deep.

Speaker 9 (14:52):
Belief in it within the building, right those so that
you surround yourself with. And that's not just particularly to me.

Speaker 7 (14:58):
I think about our own players to dealing with it
of uh, you know, being in a public.

Speaker 9 (15:03):
Sport what they chose to do, and there's some beauty
that comes with with that, and there's some part times
that come that.

Speaker 7 (15:09):
And then so when you come across the.

Speaker 8 (15:10):
University leaning into those that are.

Speaker 7 (15:12):
Supposed to do and in those things. And that's why
I like are our building and.

Speaker 9 (15:16):
The people that are in the building, jatin Uh how
much different is the stands gap right now?

Speaker 4 (15:22):
As far as the pressure you stalk of that you men,
now you go back to the when you like for
shotting organ say it's what year four before winning record
and there's it.

Speaker 8 (15:30):
Feels in the clock, it's just set up backtly. Do
you feel that change? And even since you got a
negotiating especially if the adotia.

Speaker 7 (15:36):
You know what I feel like if you think that's some.

Speaker 9 (15:38):
Reality uh the you know there is some more immediate
gratification that needs to play in place.

Speaker 7 (15:43):
You think about the investments getting made and in this
environment up there and speaking.

Speaker 9 (15:47):
To the group broadly, you college athletics, I think there's
some realities.

Speaker 7 (15:51):
To you know, with the pushion and the want and
base center uh the.

Speaker 8 (15:55):
Later uh puh of a middle after the three Shay losses,
or you're going to use things fur the season around. Oh,
I think it changes.

Speaker 9 (16:04):
You're always looking at sematically right best positions and the
things and tendencies you put out.

Speaker 7 (16:08):
On the take.

Speaker 9 (16:09):
So on the sigematic side, I think we're adjusted and
adapting each week.

Speaker 7 (16:13):
Try to do it one.

Speaker 9 (16:14):
We're emphasize our traits and minimize, you know, not exposing
weaknesses those type of things. And it's easy said and
done when you know they got good coaches on the
other side, and good scenes and good players and all that.
I go back to, uh finding ways that we can
be these guys have played with their potential when they're
gonna play their potentials, when they're playing with certainty, So
removing some uncertainty, whether that's over schematics, things like that,

(16:37):
simple and uh, similar downs and things, whether you're often
or not, whether all especially teams offense and defense.

Speaker 12 (16:46):
Trying to mention about the beatings on Sunda, when you
guys watched back with particularly the the the points after
the fourth bounce either the fourth quarter. Uh, we're were
it's sad you don't like you guys would quit.

Speaker 13 (17:01):
What did you see on that tap uh from your guys, Uh,
not necessarily just smade, but the kind of jackson h
how they look when you how the way they played.

Speaker 8 (17:14):
In that period the game over.

Speaker 9 (17:17):
You know, yeah, we watch every step of the called
coaches copy right, so get a white copy goes type
that looks very similar to a football game where guys
were gonna try to do.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
Too much or not the the the responsibility. I think
I mentioned it. Uh Saturday night, we some one on
ones were lost.

Speaker 8 (17:32):
Uh that really was outweighed.

Speaker 9 (17:34):
Whether we're talking one on one in coverage, one on
one on the three technique that that repeated and then
then and especially.

Speaker 7 (17:41):
On the run defense did not fit some of the
the poll scheme very well. And that took into the
large creases. And so though those things lack of Colline execution,
being in the spot.

Speaker 8 (17:51):
Winning the one on one that showed him.

Speaker 7 (17:53):
On the take.

Speaker 11 (17:55):
And Japan there you know too, the no changes in
incident coaching, parents on one you future on that same
moved from the chief strength and obviously or he saved them,
moved out from Trent Ray, someone you've obviously worked with
other than a Moost.

Speaker 8 (18:07):
Your reactions of both of those piece of the news similar.

Speaker 9 (18:11):
Uh this landscape, Uh, where it's at, deep respect for
both those those two guys and and things with this
landscape and you should situations are are different, but I
know I get deep respect for both dents.

Speaker 8 (18:23):
That's generally if you're going back to be like forst
who's aiden. A couple of years ago he looked.

Speaker 7 (18:28):
Like who's really the Senate?

Speaker 8 (18:29):
And that does not al the case.

Speaker 11 (18:31):
If you've been able to figure out and set going
through doing what's happening, how much it is the off
the line protection or loss of confidence or.

Speaker 8 (18:38):
Where where he is today obviously.

Speaker 12 (18:40):
He's he's banged out.

Speaker 11 (18:41):
But where he is today in terms of his confidence
and then from where he was several weeks ago and.

Speaker 7 (18:46):
How that's how that strengths are.

Speaker 9 (18:47):
Yeah, I think there's been a shot to his confidents
and he mentioned a little not this offensive line, and
think about the ten other guys play it's playing at
a high level, and think about it schematically too.

Speaker 7 (18:57):
That's basically the opponents in the environment we have not
you know, stepped up to death. So yeah, whether it's confidents,
but in the last two weeks have looked.

Speaker 9 (19:06):
Different than to call it the first three three four games.
Our job to kind of get him back to that
place so that.

Speaker 7 (19:13):
It again to go back to like this idea is simplifying.

Speaker 9 (19:16):
Against schematical offense and defense hand and find ways to
keep it, keep it simple so his talent can can
take over.

Speaker 8 (19:23):
Oh about an earlier question.

Speaker 12 (19:25):
I know you're knowing about the yearnet and now social
media a lot of clocks as you can.

Speaker 8 (19:30):
Imagine a lot of your future, a lot of time.

Speaker 14 (19:33):
I know.

Speaker 8 (19:34):
The question to you is is it disappointing to you
less than two years in the eighteen games and years
young or that evening's is.

Speaker 7 (19:44):
I again, I I don't even call it disappointment. I
do feel like I live in some realities of of
the things.

Speaker 9 (19:50):
And so when you go, you know, with t couple
of tough losses, when you come in at all homecoming
and you you get be like.

Speaker 7 (19:57):
That, I you know, I think it comes with the
ten territory. And that's what we'd signed up signed up for.
Uh did get.

Speaker 9 (20:04):
Caulfing it steadfast in our approach, in the people in
the in the building. And that's not like, oh this
this stubber, We're gonna dig our heels in. We're not
gonna tweak anything. We can be strong but fluid and
and think about adjustments and finding different ways to keep Uh,
these guys getting getting to their potential.

Speaker 10 (20:23):
When we talk about the sort of hard times, I
guess so through game losing streak and how do you
feel right now?

Speaker 8 (20:28):
What is the sort of picture for what things look
like in the future. The quote able good times that
you'd see in in the future.

Speaker 5 (20:33):
Why is that big?

Speaker 9 (20:34):
Well, it's actually the picture that we're heading towards the
back half of our seats. Again, we're talking about six
teams in We've got to guaranteed six left halftime halftime adjustments.

Speaker 7 (20:42):
We wanna be a team that plays our best in
full quarter bat best in the year. And so we
still got a lot of in front of us.

Speaker 9 (20:48):
You know, Yeah, are we disappointed? We gotta clean some
things up a hundred percent. We gotta get better the
all of that that that is there. But we still
got a lot of a lot.

Speaker 8 (20:56):
Of football left. O.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Yeah, what happen for alumni who would come back once
a year for homecoming or maybe someone who's considering giving
money to the school and getting involved in the program.

Speaker 8 (21:15):
What would you tell them after Saturday to make them
think that they should be hollering?

Speaker 9 (21:20):
Well, if I think you'd tell 'em that they Saturday
side didn't know. But we're very aware of a pro
pot called the programs side.

Speaker 7 (21:25):
If there are things to to fix and anything, we're
gonna continue to work to to get better.

Speaker 9 (21:30):
Take me proud of the place in the atmosphere, and
we are working to get the same to a better
spot of and that's where where our mindest is.

Speaker 15 (21:39):
See hm, God, yeah, whennay you guys saw again the
last year, I'll see what that Genly they play out too?

Speaker 8 (21:46):
Uh, where what do you see the differences in the
program when you're one of the year two for them
and a specific cornerback too. Where do you thinking about
my nosing? You see some good ones. Where does he
sort of fit into to.

Speaker 9 (21:56):
The Yeah, he's playing at a really high level quick
for lease, good decision maker, willing to.

Speaker 16 (22:01):
To run the ball, I think on an offense, and
they've got both teams on the gidia and run if
they can throw it fiscal up front, a good receiver
play and that helps uh Minosa and he's competitive gidd
to flip it on the other side of these because
are going on the defense now, UH starts up the front.

Speaker 7 (22:16):
Why school My backers can tackle and they play with
the scheme and so they're a challenge on both sides.

Speaker 9 (22:22):
See some sort of big picture of both difference to
see your one years, I think stematically in some similarities.

Speaker 7 (22:27):
I think they got some similarities and their attributes of
uh how physical they are. And then UH the quarterback
play with some balance on offenses similar to the last
year Jo and Jonathan.

Speaker 9 (22:38):
You mentioned that there were UH situation which UH players
on defense we're trying to eat too munch of guys
again and so forth when the players.

Speaker 8 (22:46):
Themselves and went over team.

Speaker 12 (22:47):
Were there all some situations which players was themselves and
maybe didn't see enough effort?

Speaker 8 (22:52):
Did you?

Speaker 7 (22:52):
When did that come up at all?

Speaker 8 (22:53):
Where they were selling chi where as you generally.

Speaker 9 (22:56):
Warn I, and there aren't much of that I I
in regards to like, oh, he should have been running
to the ball. We didn't up the guys just shouldn't
be shutting it down anything like like that. We had
some guys to just cut guys loose. Hey, we're playing
man coverage and not covering our man. And we had
some of that that got called out, Uh, pretty good.
And then you know, some of the basic stuff and
trying to do too much my eyes that would be

(23:17):
thrown into this guy a couple of times, and we don't,
you know, continue to our responsibility covering.

Speaker 7 (23:21):
The back out of the backfield.

Speaker 8 (23:22):
Some of that got called up.

Speaker 12 (23:26):
You mentioned about the beating, say emotion as it were,
guys hurt, angry, w what is their emotional response both
you can immediate after me after the game and when
they got there yesterday to just spid forward to what

(23:46):
how they want to approach emotionally the final six games.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yeah, they didn't this.

Speaker 7 (23:51):
A lot in this thing and so tall it hurt
a grave.

Speaker 9 (23:56):
But at the same time we're about people around there,
and so the approach Ben goes in.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
We got to foster.

Speaker 9 (24:03):
Right where the views, you know, take that energy of disappointment, anger,
frustration getting communicated.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
But then we're gonna move forward and how are we
gonna do that? We got back to this back happit
back after the season almost what you.

Speaker 12 (24:24):
Said, nobody's asked you about the Swiss Gama, what about Indiana?

Speaker 8 (24:28):
What they've done you? What do you make sure when
they've done there grow a short time.

Speaker 7 (24:34):
Yeah, it's been impressive.

Speaker 9 (24:36):
You know, there's just at this season in regards to
how competitive to backpack road wins for them, a tough
places complete in regards to the offense, can beat a defense,
could beat a challenging and.

Speaker 7 (24:46):
On punch looking at a pressuring punts and so they've
done a really nice job. Uh, they're one of the
best seams in the country.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
That is Jonathan Smith today and listening to these answers again, Rob,
if you had to define Jonathan Smith in one word,
what would you say?

Speaker 6 (25:10):
Oh boy, Uh, describe him just all together or just
what we heard today?

Speaker 17 (25:20):
Or no.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
I think in general, I mean.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Pretty vanilla type of guy.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
Yeah yeah, I mean does that make sense? Yeah yeah.
The word I was going to use, and it's not
too far from what you just said, is predictable. I
think that his answers are predictable. We know when we
get to the press conference, what question we ask, we
can pretty much answer them before he does. And I

(25:50):
think the same is true with his team and with
his sideline demeanor. You know, when Mark Dantonio came in,
and I hate to compare everything to D'Antonio because he
did one of the three best jobs I guess now
you'd have to say one of the four best jobs
ever in Big Ten history. But you never knew what

(26:11):
you were going to get. Opponents didn't know what they
were going to get when they were going to say,
we're not going to kick a field goal to send
this game into overtime. We're going to try a high
risk pass with our holder. All of the trick plays,
all of the things he did, all of the reactions

(26:31):
he had, whether it was a reaction to Michigan and
the stake.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Or any type of question, you didn't know.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
You never knew, You never knew whether it was the
reaction to app State after his first game beating Michigan,
and he had the classic lines, should we have a
moment of silence? We know what his tirade was like
when Dave Dye asked him about Mike Hart's little brother comment,
and it's not over, It'll never be over, it's just starting.

(27:03):
And that was a mantra for a Michigan State fans,
something that they grabbed onto, and that was oxygen for them.
There's no oxygen.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
There's nothing really to grab onto right now. No, And
hearing from that press conference, there really isn't anything still
to hang on to you, right I mean, that didn't
make me feel any better if I'm a Spartan fan
hearing that.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
So a long time media personality in this town, broadcaster
came up to me after the press conference today and
I'm not going to identify him. He can do that
if he wants, but he said he's dead man walking.
Do you agree with that?

Speaker 1 (27:53):
I wouldn't say that.

Speaker 6 (27:56):
Obviously the hots they seek definitely has gotten hotter. It
seems like, I mean, I'm not going to question his
football acumen. I think he's a very good football coach.
Whether the it fits here or not? That is the question, right,
personality thrown aside. If he wins the next six games,

(28:16):
let's say, or how many games he has left, a
lot of things will be forgotten.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Right.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
But if you don't have the personality to lead a
team and to get them to play harder, yes, then
their talent might indicate they should then.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Wasn't famous?

Speaker 6 (28:32):
Wasn't there a famous question several years ago about a
Michigan State head football coach about losing their team?

Speaker 4 (28:39):
That's right. It was from Mickey York after the Michigan
game in two thousand and two. Yes, And he said,
have you lost your team?

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (28:48):
And Bobby paused for a minute and said, I don't know.
And that was the last question of any significance that
he answered as Michigan State's coach, because Ron and fired
him the next day. So you know that led to
Morris Watts finishing out the season, and then four years

(29:09):
with John L. Smith and then finally they found a
path out of the darkness. And I think got a
little lucky actually to land Mark D'Antonio.

Speaker 6 (29:21):
Well, and I think too, Jack, And this is no
fault to Jonathan Smith, and it's it's it's it's the
peer pressure that the coaches are in and you talk.
It was mentioned in this press conference. Time is not
on his side. No, time is not on any of
these coaches sides. And that's unfair or not. That's just
the world, and coach said it, that's just the world

(29:42):
we live in. But the days of well, we got
a four to five year plan and the patients the
p word patients, those are that's unfortunately, I think long gone.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
He didn't win until year four. Yeah, carballis Oregon, and
no one cared right right now. If you have three
straight losing seasons at a Big ten school, you're probably
not gonna be around.

Speaker 6 (30:06):
Well, Dan, if you have a three game losing streak, yeah,
just as coach Franklin three game losing streak.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
But the numbers and we're gonna hear a lot more
about this in just a minute from Bob Trippy. Do
not suggest that things are likely to change. We will
be right back with that interview and much much more
coming up. We'll talk with Ryan or Saban about the
Lions and college football as well, and we have a
baseball playoff game American League Championship Series game starting Now'll

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Speaker 4 (34:35):
Welcome back. It is a drive with Jack Spotlight Radio Network,
Jack Ebling here with my producer Boston Rob Rob. Let's
go right out to our guest line. Very happy to
welcome in our director of research, longtime State of Michigan
sports writer Bob Trippy. Bob thought you might be covering

(34:56):
more baseball this week, but not to. We got a
lot of football to talk about too, But let's start
with the Tigers and what happened Friday night, fifteen innings
at Team Mobile. Is that as good a baseball game
as you've seen?

Speaker 5 (35:18):
How you define as good a baseball game as you've seen?
I mean, it surely had a lot of drama because
there were times there where you thought the Tigers were
gonna pull it out when they get guys on base.
But when your for your core hitters go er for
thirty three, you kind of, you know, lose confidence the

(35:38):
Tigers are going to win this game and they.

Speaker 4 (35:41):
Have that game if you were writing on deadline, you
could have written eight different stories. And as bad as
the hitting was, and it was pretty bad for Seattle too,
I mean both teams finished with eight hits in fifteen innings.
I thought it was some trem men just pitching, clutch pitching,

(36:05):
and some big time fielding plays in that game, you know,
double plays, working out a jam. So if you're a
fan of offensive baseball, you probably didn't enjoy it very much.
But if you're a baseball curist, there was some great baseball.

Speaker 8 (36:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:22):
I mean you look at both sides and all that. Obviously,
each team want to win the game, and they were
doing whatever they possibly could. I mean, when you start
digging into you know, your starters, you know, coming into
the game in the late innings to you know, potentially
save you know, in case you get a lead or whatever,

(36:43):
or stop the other team from scoring. It just was
one of those games where you're just sitting on the
edge of your seat saying, Okay, who's gonna be the
one here it's gonna end up scoring to run and
you know, go on to play Toronto. And then, you know,
my line of thinking was, and you know, as this
game's going on, I'm thinking, whoever wins, it's probably gonna

(37:03):
be a huge underdog going to Toronto because you're playing
so darn late. Then he's gonna fly at Foss Country
to Toronto celebration.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (37:14):
And then what happens last night, Seattle goes and wins
the first game. I mean, it's just so, you know,
counter to what everything I was thinking that, you know,
I thought the team would be exhausted from the travel
and you know, the time change and all that, but
that was not the case last night, as we saw
with Seattle winning three to one. And yeah, you know

(37:36):
it was it was a very interesting season for the
for the Tigers, and this afternoon we had Scott Harris, uh,
you know, kind of wrap things up with a J.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
Hinch.

Speaker 5 (37:46):
You know, the big news was was that they've signed
a J. Hinch to a contract extension, which you know,
they did a couple of weeks ago, so going forward,
he's he's the guy still. But one of the interesting
things that came out of it all today was the
fact that you know, he was asked point blank, you know,

(38:07):
are you considering trading Trek's school? Now obviously he's not
going to say whether he's doing it or not, But
it was just what was just kind of funny in
his response was the fact that he didn't he didn't say,
we really hope that, you know, Trek is going to
be with this team, you know, for a number of
years and all that. His response was just basically, we

(38:29):
don't talk about people we're going to trade or pending
free agents or anything like that. So I'm just going
to leave it at that. So he didn't exactly give
a glowing, uh, you know, bit of hope for Tiger
fans who are wanting with School we're going to be here.
But you know, interestingly enough, you know, the talk around
town isn't so much is School going to be signed.

(38:52):
It's like a lot of people want him traded so
they could get value back before he does leave, because
he wants four hundred million dollars supposedly him and Scott Boris,
his agent, you know, have been hinting that that is
the going rate, and the Tigers we're not going to
pay that, right right, So, you know, if you if

(39:14):
you can find a team that you know has a
nice bunch of prospects or you know, willing to give
up a hitter or whatever.

Speaker 14 (39:24):
You know.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
Look look at Milwaukee. They give up Colbyn Burns to
Baltimore and they got I think they got three players
out of it. Uh, well, no, they got two players
plus a draft pick in twenty twenty four, and uh,
look where they are. I mean, they were able to
survive without him, and they had I believe they had
the best record in baseball, didn't they if and I'm

(39:46):
mistaken they did.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
We know that Tigers gave up a lot of young
talent for Miguel Cabrera, and Dave Dombrowski told me when
I did the book, tells you Troy Tiger's get the
best player in the trade.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
You know, here's the thing.

Speaker 5 (40:08):
You never know what's gonna happen with trades, but what
would happened with the Tigers and uh and Justin Verlander.
Out of the three players they got back, only one
is still in in the majors, and that's Jake Rogers
and Jacbs the last month of the year exactly, and
a lot of people wanted him to be on Detroit's
team because he probably would have helped him. I mean,

(40:30):
you look at who they got, Charlie Morton, and uh,
you know Paddock, I mean who would have helped more?
Probably Erlander would have helped more the way he ended
the season. So you know, there's there's there's a lot
of question marks in terms of, you know, what's gonna
happen uh in the off season, and that was kind

(40:50):
of brought out today, uh in the press conference in
terms of you know, well, you know, where where do
you sit, where are you heading?

Speaker 3 (40:58):
And all that.

Speaker 5 (40:58):
There's gonna have to be a lot of discussions. There's
you know, the other thing too is you got a
lot of free agents that you're going to have to
figure out, you know, who do you want to bring back?
Who do you want to let go? And that's you know,
you're gonna sort that all out. I mean, if if
you look at some of the names, you know, do

(41:19):
you bring back Finnigan? I don't know if you do.
You know, he's really they're really caught in a situation
where they you know, have to figure out who still
fits in with this ball club and that I mean
the starters are going to have to go out and
get another starter, you know, because right now you're not
You're not going to have Jackson Joel all of next

(41:40):
year and then you know, is Jack Claarity gonna end up,
you know, doing the player's option or not.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
So I'm told that he wants to stay. So if
they want him, they would have him. I'm not Jack
flairity guy, but they would have Flarity, they'd have my
They're going to have Resulson back. Still need another starter,
but I'm curious if Scott Harris has realized now that

(42:08):
there are windows. You know, he denied that before. He
didn't believe in windows. To me, that's what it's all about.
It's about this opportunity. And that's the only reason you
would ever trade Tarrence Skooble is because you don't think
you can fit through the window. And you know, if
you're just going to sit there and watch through the

(42:29):
window as your best prospect, you know, gets in a
cab and goes to another team, then you're really going
to be out of luck. But I would expect Detroit
to try to do something in the off season, and
probably probably some moves like Labor Torres. I don't think
they're necessarily going to go after a second basement, but

(42:49):
that kind of a deal. Tigers are never going to
be into Wan Soto sweepstakes. They can't even pay to
keep their own stars, or they can, but they won't.
Let's say that.

Speaker 5 (43:01):
Well, I think the thing that they need to really
take a look at is they need some veteran players
in one play or another. They need veteran players. This
is still a very young team and you know, you
need to play discipline of going up there and knowing
how to hit, you know, one one to swing and
all that, and Scott Harris kind of hinted it that

(43:22):
today is you know, that was one of the takeaways
is the fact that you know, they need to look
at you know, why why did we see this drop
off after having the best record between August the twenty
twenty four in August of twenty twenty five. What changed? Why?
You know what happened there? And what can they do

(43:43):
to you know, maybe ease that going into into the future,
because again, there are a lot of young guys and
you know what, there's a lot of young guys that
are sitting in the minors right now. You know, it's
Kevin McDonell, who you know, everybody is excited and everybody
thought he would be he have been called up. But
you know, it's like I told people he's an eerie.
He's not even gone to Triple A baseball. You're expecting

(44:05):
to come up to the majors and make an impact.
I mean, that's that's quite a jump, you know. So
I think it's going to be an off season we're
all going to be keeping a close eye on see
how much money they're willing to pay. You know, does
Bragman end up exercising the player option and you know,
leaving Boston and you know, is he may be a
fill in at third base? I mean, he would be

(44:27):
an outstanding.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Addition to leaving Boston. Robert, what you doing that? I
don't think he's leaving here.

Speaker 6 (44:36):
He wouldn't leave the way he succeeds in that ballpark offensively.
I mean, there has beens that he could, but I
mean I would I'd be I'd say probably they had
to guess seventy thirty.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Of him staying, of him saying.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Reason why he would leave? Yeah, yeah, unless he's doesn't
like fish.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
Or or it could be the money too. It could
be could be yeah, I mean.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
What you say, all the money?

Speaker 6 (45:12):
Yeah, Now, Boston gave him a nice paycheck, but someone
else might be willing to do that, give him a
little bit more, and they did give him the opt
out option after one year.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
So maybe Boston match it. Yeah, maybe Boston has to
appreciate what he has done. Maybe he exceeded expectations to
some degree. He didn't miss a significant stretchy not getting
any younger. But I would think that Bregman is going
to be part of that team for a long time.
And he already said no did Detroit once. I don't
think Detroit's going to come back and double its offer.

(45:44):
So I want to talk to you about football, Bob,
and uh, let's start with the National Football League. We
have lots of college football to talk about, but let's
start with the National Football League. And what did you
make of one the Lion's performance at Kansas City and
two the continued immaturity. Now this is eight times. Okay,

(46:05):
I get it. Some players play on the edge. It's
what makes them great. But Brian Branch needs some help here.
This is eight times now that he's been in trouble
and last night was a he said, you know he
was wrong. Dan Campbell used another term today called inexcusable.

(46:25):
But I would like to see Dan Campbell do something
that he's not going to do. And I have a
lot of respect for Dan Campbell, I really do. It's
one of my favorite coaches. I would like him to
suspend Brian Branch before the NFL does.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
Yeah, you know that's a that's a great point there,
And I wouldn't be surprised if that does occur. And
I'll tell you why because the owner of the team
is very in tune with having players that are ReSpectacle
on the field and off the field, and that's a

(47:03):
very big thing with Sheila hemp Ford and uh and
you know the mother and all that, Sheila Ford, and
so I would not I would not be surprised if
that happens, because you know, they don't want to bring
a bad look to the Detroit Lions.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
So what you will and will not tolerate. And then
it's up to Brian Branch to respond.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
Yeah, and you know what, Uh, will it be one game?
Will it be two games? One game? It might work
out okay, because you know Tampa Bay coming in Monday
night is gonna be missing some of their key receivers
and all that. You might be able to get away
with that, but the way Tampa Bay has been playing,
it doesn't really matter. They look pretty darn good at
this point. That's gonna be a very good game last night.

(47:56):
Overall the game, I kind of figured that Kansas City
was going to win that game because Detroit went and
they're banged up with their secondary. I thought that, you know,
Patrick Mahomes was going to basically tear them apart one
way or another, and the offense kind of did what
they wanted to do. I thought, offensively, for the Lions,

(48:18):
they weren't able to get going like we've seen in
previous weeks where they score over thirty points a game,
So I was not shocked at the outcome. I was
kind of surprised with just how they played. I expected
a lot more of them playing better. I thought they'd
get more pressure on Mahomes and cast some issues there.

(48:38):
And I thought, offensively, is that you know Jamier Gibbs
and Amon Ross, Saint Brown and Laporte and all those
guys that they I kind of figured this would be
one of those games where you and I'd be talking about, well,
what did you think of the fireworks last night? Thirty
five thirty four or something like that.

Speaker 14 (48:56):
I didn't expect it to be.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
You know, the way it ended is Kansas City back.
I'm not willing to say Kansas City's back yet, but
you know, I think the next couple of weeks we're
going to find out because you're going to play Denver,
they play the Raiders, and then they go to Buffalo,
And I think that's what we're really going to find
out over these next three weeks. You know, are they
back or is You know, they're getting received rice back

(49:20):
so that that should help them with the passing game.
But we'll see, we'll see.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Of doing he was, he was a dominant figure on
the field last night. But I'm not even worried about
winning or losing a game, and wouldn't be if I
were at Alliance. That's what I'm thinking about this. Okay,
one game in October, it's not that consequential. Even if
you lose back to back games for the first time

(49:46):
in three years. Lions. It's amazing they have not lost
back to back games since October twentieth of twenty twenty two.
But if that happens, so be it. To me. It's
all about what you stand for as an organization. And
if you're saying, Okay, well, we're gonna just let this
go and it's not like it. We haven't had problems before.

(50:10):
Last night, the Lions were not the team they can be.
Aiden Hutchinson had a very costly penalty. You saw what
happened at the end of the game. And if you
want to have your franchise have a certain character, a
certain personality, and you want to make that very clear.
If I'm Dan Campbell again, I'm calling Brian Branch into

(50:33):
the office to say, you know what, you're a great
football player. I love you like a son, and I
want what's going to be best for you in this franchise.
And right now you have some work to do and
we're gonna let you do it from street clothes because
you cannot be selfish, and that's what you were last night.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
Well yeah, I mean really, I think they're going to
become the bad boys a football and all that. I mean,
I mean, it doesn't work in the NFL like it
does in the NBA or used to work in the NBA.
And uh, you know, the NFL will not end up
putting up with it, you know, they they just won't.
I think that we're probably gonna hear from the NFL

(51:14):
NFL here very soon. I mean, the guy's been fined
enough times this year and now on national TV for
everybody to see, Uh, you don't. You don't go taking
a swing at somebody like that and causing what you
did at the end of the game.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
So that's another reason to do what I just said, Bob,
Because if the NFL is likely to do it anyway,
do you want it coming from the league or do
you want to be the one who sets the rules?

Speaker 5 (51:39):
Well, I think to me, I would think that Campbell
would do that because you want to let other players
know who's who's in charge of what the expectation is.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Uh, you know, with.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
How many times have we heard them say the standard
is this? Is that the standard for the Lions?

Speaker 5 (51:59):
Well, the standard should be you know, you go out there,
you represent this team in a good way, and you
know regardless you walk away, things may not go your
way and you don't start taking the swing at somebody and.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
All that I know got estimated. I get it. The
cornerbacks are out, Kirby Joseph is hobbling around. You know,
they could wind up with none of their defensive projected
starters in the back end playing against a guy who
could be the NFL MVP. I really don't care. I

(52:35):
think back to a college situation. It was very close
to this, and you might remember this game. I don't
think Rob is old enough to remember it. But Lou
Holtz was coaching Arkansas. He was going up against Oklahoma
in the Orange Bowl, and Arkansas was an underdog in

(52:56):
that game, big underdog, and he had some players who
were doing what they were supposed to do. They got
in trouble and they were made they were key players
for Arkansas, and he sent them home, read them the
Riot Act, and sent him home. Now the line went
out of it. I mean it was a you know,
I said, oh my god, Arkansas, why are they even
bothering to show up? And Arkansas won the game. And

(53:21):
I don't care if the Lions win or lose this
game against Tampa Bay. I think there's something, there's a
point that needs to be made here, and if the
NFL is going to make it for you, you might
as well get out in front of it.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
Oh absolutely, I've in totally agreement with it.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
You know.

Speaker 5 (53:36):
So it's my team leaving to fit his buffalo, and
you know, one of the players crossed the line, so
to speak. I'm sorry. I would I would support suspending
the person because you know what, once that stuff starts, uh,
then you thinks he can get away with this over
and over and over, and then then it did kind
of as like the snowball going down the hill where

(53:57):
it gets worse and worse as you go on.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
And we don't need that.

Speaker 5 (54:00):
You don't need that in pro football. Is this is
enough craziness on the field and all that.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
And you know Tua Taoloa today in Miami to.

Speaker 5 (54:10):
Hear what he said, you know, I conscious the end
of it and everything, and it sounds like he's going
to be benched for the next game.

Speaker 4 (54:19):
Well, he called out his entire team, and I don't
know if he's gonna be welcome back in the locker
room or not. But he said this can't continue. He said,
we got guys who are late for meetings. We got
guys who don't show up. We got guys who are
so they don't put their team first. All this stuff,
and you know, these are high priced brands now is

(54:42):
in front of these lockers. They don't want to be criticized.
Half of them have never been criticized. And so I
imagine as a leader, he's either going to make some
fundamental change with the Miami Dolphins or he's not going
to be a Miami Dolphin very long.

Speaker 5 (54:57):
Well, the interesting things McDaniel, the head coach, Mike McDaniel,
came out and said that was the wrong form for
him to be going to and spouting off everything, and
uh so, yeah, I wonder what the fallout is going
to be from that whole thing. I I have a
funny feeling we're gonna hear somebody else leading the team
next Sunday, because right right now the Dolphins are in

(55:19):
a free fall.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
So yeah, you might see someone else leading the Dolphins
next year too.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
I want to talk to you about college football and
especially especially Michigan State and Jonathan Smith. We played his
press conference today. I wish you could have been there
to hear it. But he was asked some pointed questions
and he gave the predictable answers. You know, he didn't lie,

(55:50):
didn't put the blame on anyone else. He said, you know,
we have to do better. Well, no kidding, you know
that happens. You know, at least say yeah, we're really
satisfied with our effort. You know, we didn't say that,
but you have some amazing numbers about the Jonathan Smith
era and where we are with it, and do you

(56:13):
want to share what we've seen the last two years
at Michigan State.

Speaker 5 (56:18):
Well, if you look at a just conference play, you know,
since Jonathan Smith has taken over the three and nine
in conference play and have been outscored in those games
four hundred and one to two hundred and twenty eight.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
Yeah, yeah, seventy three points, one hundred and seventy three points. Yeah,
So you know you figure it out. I mean with wins.
With the three wins, that means you're going to be
at least one point to the good. So one hundred
and seventy two make it one hundred and seventy five.

(56:54):
In the nine losses, that means they've lost these games
by nearly twenty points per game.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
We oh, yeah, absolutely absolutely, And you know you look
at it this way. Here's an interesting thing.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
I went out and I was.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
Looking at the NCAA stats. I wanted to see just
where they sit and Jack, I'm sure you probably looked
at him too. Scoring defense, there are one hundred and
twenty first out of one hundred and thirty four teams
they allow thirty one point eight points per game. And
you know, but then you look at the offense when
the offense is scoring only twenty nine point five. I

(57:32):
mean the offense to me, you know, I accepted a
lot more. And obviously there's been some things going on
with Aiden Childs. The last couple of games, they're ninety
seventh and passing offense ninety seventh and rushing offense. And
overall for offense, there one hundred and tenth out of
one hundred and thirty four teams, So there's you know,

(57:53):
there's only twenty four teams that are worse than college
football than Michigan State, and that shouldn't happen.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
It's not up.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Balance, you know, every coach I was just we want
to have a balanced attack. If you're ninety seventh in
the nation in rushing and ninety seventh in the nation
in passing, how much more balance can you be?

Speaker 5 (58:11):
Well, you know, and Jack I sent to you that
other the stat earlier that in the last two MSU games,
Michigan State has had ninety six yards of offense in
the first half of each game. I mean, they're really
getting clobbered in that first half. You know, especially especially
like what happened this past week. They give up two
hundred and fifty four yards to UCLA in the first half.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
And you're in a hole.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
You're truly in a hole.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Three hundred and fifty five in the first half to
USC three five five, and this ninety six yards in
the first half. Bob, we were sitting there watching them
go the length of the field on the first drive
and after that, how many yards did they have? Thirty?

Speaker 14 (58:56):
What?

Speaker 5 (58:58):
Yeah, it wasn't very much. I mean you and I
were kind of chatting about that, and then then I,
you know, I was saying, how you know they were
getting into a hole, and then you know, I did
some crunching of the numbers. And in those twelve games,
let's let's include the UCLA game and the twelve games
we just talked about with Smith as the coach, they

(59:19):
have been outscored in every single well, they have not
outscored an opponent in the second half in any of
the games, the big ten games that Jonathan Smith has
been the coach in. So you know, out of the
twelve games, they have gone twelve games where they've not
outscored the opponent in the second half.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
So that's.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Yes, yeah, there are a few of those.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
But they won the second half yet in twelve games.

Speaker 5 (59:49):
No, no, no, big ten games. So you know, and
now look where you're going. You're going to Indiana, which
could put potentially be the best team eve into big Town.
We don't know yet, but you know we're gonna find
out here in a few weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
Going there.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
Then you come home to Michigan and you know, Michigan
isn't exactly great this year. I mean, they're going through
their struggles too. But you know, we talked about in
the press box the fact that Michigan State is probably
not going to be favored in any game the remainder
of the season, which begs the question of, well, if
they're not favored, and if that's the case, are we

(01:00:28):
looking at a three and nine season? And you know,
where do you go from here? As you know, as
an athletic department, I mean, do you do you just
accept that and say, okay, well we'll give them the
third year. I'm of the opinion to give it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Who's going to donate to this program? I mean you
need money now, you need money for name, image and likeness.
You know, they don't have a money Tree sitting out
in front of Jennison. They need alumni boosters, friends of
the university to come forward and write big checks. How
are you going to get that money?

Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
Well, maybe take out a loan from Nike or something
like that, you know, I mean, if you look at this,
you know, with James Franklin getting fired yesterday, just before
we went on the air, I was telling Rob that
I went through all the college coaches that have been
let go so far this year this season, in the season,
there's seven of them. And if you total it all up,

(01:01:31):
roughly ninety three point three million dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
In buyouts so far.

Speaker 5 (01:01:35):
And the expectation is is they're going to be close
to six, No, two hundred million could potentially be buyouts
now here. It is you got all these schools that
are crying that they don't have enough money, but yet
you got enough money to spend forty nine point seven
million to buy out James Franklin and fifteen for Mike

(01:01:55):
Gundy at Oklahoma State. And what if what if Clemson
gets rid of d Sweeney? You know, uh, he's old
sixty million dollars, yeah, well you know, yeah, yeah, championships there.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
He's got a longer shelf life. You know, people are
unhappy because they got spoiled. They expected to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:15):
This is cool nowadays. Nowadays it's all about the money,
you know, and you know they, like you said, they
want the nil money, the TV contracts and everything like that.
And uh, you know, if if you're winning, everybody's happy.
As soon as you start losing, you know, all of
a sudden, the seat gets very hot. And then James

(01:02:37):
Franklin's case, he had a lot going against him. You know,
when you can't end up beating uh, Northwestern, you know,
at home, and you you're considered a national title contender
before the season even starts. I mean, it puts a
hell of a burden on you. You better perform and
you can't anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
That's one thing. And you can say James Franklin is
a disappointed because he hasn't been Ryan Day. But I
can tell you that he had as many eleven win
seasons in twelve years as Mark D'Antonio did in thirteen
and last year he was one play away from the
national championship game. They lost that semi final to Notre Dame.

(01:03:17):
And one play goes differently, and there were several that
could have and drew Allers through that horrible interception. One
of those plays comes out different. You've got Ohio State
Penn State for the national title. It didn't happen. Yeah,
But I'm wondering now, Bob, how many coaching changes we're
going to have in the Big Ten. We know we're

(01:03:38):
going to have one at UCLA, we know we're going
to have one at Penn State. Do you think Jonathan
Smith or Luke Fickele are going to be back next year.

Speaker 5 (01:03:49):
I don't think Luke Fickle will be. I'll be surprised
at that one. I you know, the question I have
is this, if you end up, you know, with Jonathan Smith.
I believe it's about thirty three million dollars to buy
him out, and I don't know if if that's the case,
and I don't know, well, I do know this that
I don't believe that Jonson Smith is.

Speaker 4 (01:04:12):
You know, the.

Speaker 5 (01:04:15):
I don't want to put this. I gotta be careful
how I say this. I don't know if he's the
choice of the current athletic administration, you know, if if
he's their guy, And that's what we don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:29):
And I know that that his guy. It isn't the personality.
It's not that he likes the way Brett Key uh
parts you know, parts of air or anything is. It's
he likes someone.

Speaker 5 (01:04:40):
Who's winning, right and right now they're not winning and winning.

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
So that makes a decision for you. It's like Tom
Izzo says, you know, I don't bench you. You benched yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:04:53):
Yeah, so you know that.

Speaker 4 (01:04:54):
That's kind of like what it is. Coaches don't get
fired most of the time. Most of the time they
themselves through lack of performance. But if you can say
that Fickle and Smith certainly more likely to be gone
than to be back, that's four. And then you look
around the league and you can see other guys. You know, PJ. Fleck,

(01:05:16):
people are getting tired of his act. At Minnesota. I
don't know that he has a lot to work with,
doesn't have the name, image and likeness money that a
lot of other schools have, but you know they've seen
this before. They're tired of it. You can look at
Sharon Moore and I had a Michigan fan last night,
very unhappy saying that you know this guy now, he
was eight and five last year, he's two and two.

(01:05:38):
This year in the games he was there. And so
you're talking about ten and seven, and there's a good
chance that Michigan's going to lose again before they play
Ohio State. They could lose this week to Washington.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Yes, yeah, I agree. If they lose a.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
Bowl game and they wind up with five losses, again,
say that to go eight and five, eight and five
at eight and five will get you fired at Michigan.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
Yeah, especially especially nowadays with the playoffs and all that.
It's all about getting to the playoffs, you know, And
you know you have all these these top recruits and
ani well why aren't why aren't they developing? Why aren't
they performing like like you wanted?

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
Maybe you got the.

Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Wrong people in charge. So yeah, I think the next
three to four weeks are going to tell a lot
about the direction that we're going to see in terms
of you know, this, this football program and other ones
in the Big ten. I really do.

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
I'm gonna go out on the limb hear, okay, and
you reel me back in if you think that I'm
walking drunk here. Okay. I think the loser of the
Michigan Michigan State game, that coach is gone.

Speaker 5 (01:06:53):
Yeah, yeah, I would be willing to agree with that,
because at that point, it's it's not gonna be nice.
It's not gonna be pretty, you know, any which way
you look at it. Because if Michigan loses, I think
that might be the nail and the coffin for for
Sharon Moore. If Jonathan Smith loses, well, guess what that's

(01:07:17):
lost number five on the season. And uh, it could
be ugly. It could really be ugly. And you know,
you got to start turning a corner because these other
schools are firing coaches, they're starting to line up, get
their list ready of Okay, here's what I want to interview.
Here's what I want is my coach, you know, going forward,
and that you know, basically the head start you know,

(01:07:40):
in terms of lining up your candidate. So I don't
disagree with that, Jack, I don't at all. I think
that that is a very possible scenario happening.

Speaker 4 (01:07:52):
Bob, thanks so much for joining us. I always appreciate it.
Great work, and you got a little more free time
this week than I thought you were going to have.

Speaker 14 (01:08:00):
Thank god.

Speaker 4 (01:08:02):
All Right, Bob Trippy, our director of research, we're going
to be right back and waiting very patiently Reiner Saban
of the Detroit Free Press. We're going to talk about
the Lions and college football. He covered it for a
long time. Be right back on the drive. A check

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Speaker 8 (01:11:01):
Why do you.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
Copyh Welcome back? It is a drive a Jack Spotlight
Radio Network. Jack Ebling here with my producer Boston Rob. Rob.
We do have our next guest on the line, correct, yes,
we do. Just notice here that Michigan State setting another record.

(01:11:30):
They are a twenty seven and a half point underdog
to Indiana. Let me say that again. Michigan State is
a twenty seven and a half point underdog to Indiana.
That has never happened before in the history of the
two programs. And Michigan State's had some down years, but
Indiana has more and.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
More news real quick.

Speaker 6 (01:11:53):
Adam Jeffer is reporting that Brian branch he has been
suspended one game without pay.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
Yeah to his Shenanigans after last night's game.

Speaker 4 (01:12:04):
Yes, yes, saw that and also saw that there's another
coaching change in the National Football League. Titans fired Callahan today,
so he did make it one game longer, one day
longer than James Franklin. All right, we want to go
back to our guest line and welcome in Rhiner Saban

(01:12:25):
from the Detroit Free Press. Reiner, what happened to the
Lions last night? I don't think anyone thought that would
be easy going into Arrowhead, but Kansas City made more
big plays and looked like the more composed team.

Speaker 14 (01:12:44):
Yeah, I agree, and I mean again, a lot of
it has to do with what's going on with the secondary.
I mean, they're down there, two starting corners DJ Reid
and Arry and Arnold you know, both both Buying Branch
who obviously is now suspended, but and Kirby Joseph were
also battling lingering injuries there too, so the whole you know,

(01:13:11):
it was banged up and that kind of put an
additional strain on the linebackers. And you know, Kelvin Shepherd
has made some changes schematically to account for what's going
on in the secondary. Play a lot more zone and
also not listing as much, and so I think that

(01:13:32):
kind of factored into they're not playing the style of
football that they typically play, and I think that's having
a negative effect on the entire defense.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
Yeah, and now with Baker Mayfield coming in, sure, you
got to think that he is pretty excited about this.
He's got a chance to really bolster his MVP case.
And you're talking about a team that's five and one.

(01:14:05):
I said I didn't think the Lions would lose a
home game this year. I might be backtracking on that one.

Speaker 14 (01:14:12):
Yeah, I mean it's not looking great. I mean I
wonder what they're going to do as far as you know,
how they how they handle some of these injuries. You know,
they had the bye week coming up right after it,
and they might want to get some of these guys
right too. So I mean there's there's some cost benefit,
you know, that they have to weigh as far as

(01:14:33):
you know, how much they want to give these guys
a go, and really if that, you know, it is
something that they want to do given the long term
implications there. I mean, I was talking to Taylor Decker,
you know, and that's part of the reason why he's
been held out the last couple of weeks, they're they're
playing more towards the end of the season. I think
that was the mistake that they that's kind of in

(01:14:56):
the back of their minds of what happened last year
was that they were kind of playing for the regular season,
and by the end of the regular season they didn't
have anybody else on defense, and the injuries they accumulated
to such a degree that they were kind of a
shelf and for themselves by the time they played in
the playoffs, and you saw what happens in that NMC

(01:15:19):
Divisional round game against Washington. So I think they're starting
to think more big picture, long term, and that's what
they're doing with Taylor Decker right now. And so I
wonder if that's also going to factor into whether they
want to play Kirby Joseph in a game that they're
already they have some of the people down in their secondary.
I mean, is it better to hold him out and

(01:15:39):
play for a game that you might actually have a
better chance of winning down the road and also, you know,
again preserving your health over the long term.

Speaker 4 (01:15:49):
And they do have a byeweight coming right after this, right.

Speaker 14 (01:15:52):
Right right exactly, and that's that's the whole thing I want.
I do wonder you know what the calculus is there
and how they're weighing every thing just to get to
the bye week and get past that and hopefully have
everybody a little bit healthier and ready for a stretch run,
you know. I mean again, I mean, the bye week

(01:16:12):
comes at a good time. It's you know, it's a
later bye week and it's kind of smack dab in
the middle. So that's pretty good, and so you can't
really complain about that. I mean, you know, they had
a very early bye week I think last year. So
sometimes the bye week is really important, just the timing
of it so and how it has an effect on

(01:16:33):
the rest of the season for a lot of these teams,
because obviously the best ability in the NFL is availability.

Speaker 4 (01:16:40):
Right right exactly. Yeah, you would think that that would
mean a big day for Tampa Bay, and you know,
so that could be Tampa Bay could win this game
if the Lions had everyone healthy. But sometimes in the
National Football League, in an all pro sports really we
see just when we leave expect something to happen. A

(01:17:02):
team comes together. I thought Denver was playing really well
and then they should have lost to the Jets yesterday.
I'm looking at Seattle here in this American League Championship series,
and writer, they play a fifteen inning marathon with the Tigers.

(01:17:24):
Then they have all the celebration and champagne and interviews
and pictures, and finally they scrape these guys onto a
plane fly him across the country. They rallied last night
with three runs, and they're already up three nothing today

(01:17:44):
after half an inning at Toronto.

Speaker 3 (01:17:47):
So you know, what do we know?

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
Just when we think we know something, we don't know it.
As you look at this Lion's team right now, how
concerned are you that they're going to be in a
dogfight for the division title with Green Band? How much
does that really matter?

Speaker 14 (01:18:07):
I mean, I do think it matters obviously, you know,
if you end up in the wild card you uh,
I mean, there's a good chance to point on the
road to open and obviously your road to the super
Bowl is much tougher, uh, you know, given the fact
that you're going to be playing some road games, uh,
and having to play all all three weeks you know,

(01:18:28):
to to get to the super Bowl. So yeah, I
do think it does have a huge uh a big,
big effect on your chance system to get to the
super Bowl once you once you make the playoffs. You know,
and I do think that that that matchup is is
difficult for for the lines just because of the style

(01:18:50):
of defense that they play. You know, specifically they try
to keep everything underneath and you know, the make make
the Lions, you know, go the distance, and that was
a very effective strategy in that game. And plus they
have enough tools and if you know, Jadan Reid gets
back healthy, I mean for that matchup, I mean that's

(01:19:11):
going to be a factor too. I mean, like, I mean,
he was definitely dangerous and then a week one game
and so yeah, I think given just the kind of
the way that that team is composed, I think they're
a tough matchup for the Lions.

Speaker 4 (01:19:32):
All Right, I want to talk a little bit about
college football, something you know very well and from the
SEC and up to the Big Ten and all the
work you did here covering Michigan and Michigan State. I
said during the interview with Bob Trippy our last segment

(01:19:53):
that I think the loser of the game on October
twenty fifth and Spartan State, it's going to have a
new head coach next year, and maybe they both will,
but I don't think the loser of that game is
going to be back.

Speaker 14 (01:20:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, to vitchy case
can be made. You know, it proves you're right.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
I mean that.

Speaker 14 (01:20:24):
I mean obviously more so for I think Smith than
Charone at this point, just because I don't think Ward
Manual wants to admit that mistake in year two. But
if you lose to Michigan State, given where they were,
you know, obviously a couple of years ago coming up
national Championship, to where they would be after a loss

(01:20:47):
like that, I think it would be devastating. And I
don't even think an Ohio State win for a second
year in a row and probably save him in that case,
because I don't think people would accept it because they wouldn't.
They would see what happened last year that you know,
the Ohio State win was probably a flop and in
the long run, you can't really put much stock in that.

(01:21:10):
So the bigger picture is the fact that Sharon has
been underwhelming to say the least, and you know, from
a fundamental standpoint, and I don't think you know, again
he shows up at a press conference today in that
blue collar jacket, which is again just an example of
how he really has no identity. It's just, you know,

(01:21:32):
a kind of a weaker, more diluted version of Jim Harbaugh.
And so and then you have Jonathan Smith. You again,
his big miss was that Rutgers game last November. And
you know, if he wins that game and they go
to a bowl game, there's some momentum and some tangible

(01:21:52):
sign of progress. And he didn't get that done. And
ever since then, it's just kind of its faded even
war and the fan interest has gone down. And the
fact is, you know, as you've seen time and time
again in the press conference, he shows no enthusiasm. And
I don't also get the sense that he really has

(01:22:15):
settled in here comfortably. He seems like a fish out
of water, get you know, from the West Coast, And
I don't know, it is weird. I mean sometimes people
you know, again it's a wrong fit, and I just
get the sense that for whatever reason, it's wrong. But now,
I thought I was very encouraged by the higher when
they made it. I mean I thought he was one
of the better candidates out here. I mean, he looked

(01:22:38):
like he was very confident and a program builder. But
in this day and age, you have to accelerate that
at a much faster pace than what he did at
Oregon State right now, you know, six years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:22:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
Yeah, And it's interesting Ryder that fans alums think that
their school should never lose and that they can get
someone who's going to come in and pull a signetti.
The reason that that's so amazing is that you know,
it's never happened before at Indiana and had that before

(01:23:14):
many other places. You know, that's that's one in five
hundred that you're going to have that kind of success,
and sometimes you know it can be worse, although you
would have a hard time convincing a lot of Michigan
State fans right now that it could be that much worse.
Whenever you have a former player come back into your
stadium score three touchdowns and say that your team quit.

(01:23:38):
You didn't actually say they quit, they said they didn't
want to keep playing, which is roughly the same thing,
then that's a real.

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:23:47):
Then Juan Smith says it's not fully accurate. I mean,
you should have just said it was not accurate. I mean,
did say that means that there's some part of it
that was accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:23:56):
Yeah, and it is fully quit. They just sort of quit. Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:24:00):
Yeah, that's that's concerning. Like I don't I mean, maybe
maybe just misspoke or or what. But I mean, if
if you're being an armchair psychologist, you would have thought
that was a little bit of a slip there. That
may have been an admission of that. And it did
look like, you know, again, this team is kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:24:21):
I don't know what go of the rope, so to speak.

Speaker 4 (01:24:25):
Yeah, I I came a chance to answer a question today.
I said, you know, what would you tell fans who
come back one game a year for homecoming and sat
through that, or or boosters friends of the program who
have money and they're trying to decide whether they're all

(01:24:48):
in or not. And he didn't say anything that moved me,
that motivated me.

Speaker 5 (01:24:55):
To eat.

Speaker 4 (01:24:55):
If I were a potential season ticket older to say, man,
and I got to get on here before this team
really gets going, or you know, I want to give
some money because you know there are a couple of
players away. Michigan State as always two players away from
being two players away.

Speaker 14 (01:25:15):
Yeah, I mean it's it's it's a little bit alarm
you know. So, I mean the fact that they've had
some de commitments in the last week and yeah, some
of the more high profile players, and that that was
an area that he's been struggled with. He struggled with
the whole time he's been here recruiting out of the
high school right now. I mean again, he was known
as a talent developer. He you know, he's got some

(01:25:37):
fringe recruits at Oregon State, I mean two and three
star guys and made them into NFL type players. But again,
in this Dayna, it's much harder to you know, have
patients and developed guys.

Speaker 4 (01:25:52):
He didn't win there until year four. Well he ain't
going to get a year four here if he has
three losing seasons.

Speaker 5 (01:26:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:26:01):
And the other thing is that he may develop those guys,
but then they might end up leaving for more than
I l go to in Alabama. I mean, look look
at Gena Vanda Bark and you know, uh, you know
those types that uh you know, did spend time and
looked like they were going to be there, Derek Harmon
for instance. I mean you know again that I mean,
it's an uncomfortable position for Michigan State to be in

(01:26:23):
we're they're a feeder program for some of the you know,
the top brands, and and I don't think they want
to be there. But that's the risk you run when
you have to hire a talent developer like you need
almost somebody like you know that that that brings in
you know, a person who you know, or it can
bring in people that are ready made who definitely want

(01:26:45):
to spend the year or two at Michigan State.

Speaker 8 (01:26:50):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (01:26:50):
And that to me, you know, it's looked at as
a destination program. It's it's gonna be hard to get
Michigan State though at that at that I mean based
on what's happened over the last three or four years.
And I think that's the problem he's also fighting against,
is that what's the image of Michigan State at the
moment and what it looked like by everybody, including potential

(01:27:15):
coaching candidates and also players themselves in the high school
and even in the college ranks right now. Do they
want to go to Michigan State and think that that's
the place that they could be successful right now?

Speaker 4 (01:27:30):
They probably don't if they have other options, If they
have other opportunities. I don't know many players who are
going to say, yeah, you know, I can't decide between
Michigan State and Ohio State, but yeah, I think there's
more at Michigan State. I haven't met that person yet.
The other thing that's interesting with this ryder is the

(01:27:51):
specter of Signetti and the memories of D'Antonio. All people
tell me in the last week, you know, don't tell
me it can't be done. D'Antonio did it well. It
was a very different universe in those days, and half
of the three star players that Mark found and developed
would have left in this day and age. Also, you

(01:28:16):
have to remember, and I'm not criticizing Mark D'Antonio any way,
shape or form. I think what he did was one
of the three most miraculous coaching performances we've seen in
this conference. But he did that when Michigan was going
through its free fall from Lloyd Carr to Rich Rodriguez

(01:28:36):
and then on to Brady Oak and even Jim Arbaugh
before things got out of control. And if you look
at Ohio State, they had the worst season in school history,
the losing this season, they'd never lost seven games before.
When Jim Tressel was forced out and Luke Fickel took over.

(01:29:00):
That was as bad as Ohio State football has ever been.
And then pet State had the Jerry Sandusky saga which
led to Joe Paterno's ouster Saint Joe Jennison and also Ryer.
This was before Oregon, it was before USC and Washington

(01:29:25):
played for a national title two years ago. So don't
sleep on the Husky. So those are three teams that
come in and automatically, I know fans here don't want
to hear this. They have more to offer than Michigan
State does.

Speaker 14 (01:29:40):
True, I mean, and I mean again, another other program
that benefited from that down period was Wisconsin, you know,
I mean Wisconsin is now yes, and so uh yeah,
I mean, the big content has changed a lot since D'Antoni. Now,
I think, obviously I agree with you, D'Antoni did have
been you know, again, like you said, BOROWI miraculous job.

(01:30:04):
What the consistent winning and getting that program up to
that level, which again was rather unprecedented in the modern
modern era. But the you know, it's just interesting to
me though that, you know, Signetti is such a again,
like I think it's an outlier because he was able

(01:30:26):
to pull whatever the players the amount of players that
he pulled from James Madison, they ended up being the right.

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
Kind of guys.

Speaker 14 (01:30:33):
I mean, look, Jonathan Smith brought people from from you know,
Oregon State, Childs and doing. I don't think they've had
the impact that some of the guys. Then, strangely enough,
Signetty brought from James Madison, which is a lower, lower program,
have had at Indiana. I mean, the Sarrat kid and Kamara,
those guys have been really like top level players in

(01:30:53):
college football for the last couple of years, you know.
And it's just it's just a bizarre situation that I
don't think, I mean again, could be replicated anywhere, and
I don't think is going to be replicated anywhere. I
think this is kind of a unicorn situation.

Speaker 4 (01:31:11):
And fans, I mean, you love him, They're the reason
we do this show, but so many of them are
frankly delusional. And I've heard people say the following in
the last League, Okay, why doesn't Michigan State just have
Ishbia and everybody else throw so much money at Signetti

(01:31:34):
that he leaves Indiana. First of all, he's not going
to leave Indiana, Okay. Sixty four years old, and he's
the king right now and he's not going to try
to have another rebuild. Plus, Indiana is paying him more
than Michigan State is paying Jonathan Smith, by the way.
And then people said, well, you know what they need
to do, They just need to get Saban to come

(01:31:57):
out of retirement. You know that one really me laughing
or or you know urban Meyer now you know he's
probably getting itchy. Uh you know, urban Meyer is smart enough. Okay,
you can talk about his character or lack thereof, but
he's smart enough to know he is not going to
go into a job where there's no talent and it's

(01:32:18):
going to be a massive rebuild. If he takes a job,
it's going to be at a place where he thinks
he can win and win immediately.

Speaker 14 (01:32:26):
So look at Belichick. I mean it's the same thing.
I mean, Belichick is the place that frankly, the roster
wasn't great, but he might have made it worse with
the It was the talent confusion that he brought in
there too. But I mean that's a that's a perfect
example of again, go into a situation where it's not

(01:32:48):
ideal and then and it's you know, already looking pretty
pretty rough there for him, and he's he's a guy's
won six Super Bowls, so it's uh, it's a little
bit uh, you know again, situational based, and a lot
of these guys are a lot a lot more judicious

(01:33:08):
in how they show go about choosing job opportunities. And
I agree with yes, I don't think Erin Meyer is
doing that, and I stain I don't think Nick Shayan's
going to be doing that. I mean, he's got his
nice home in Florida and seems to like the warm weather,
so you know, I think don't think he's racing to
come back to East Lands. And you know, as much

(01:33:30):
as that would be a you know, a fascinating story,
but yeah, it's just it's it's a tough it's a
tough time I think at MSU and I think, you know,
it is a tough time and some of these other
programs again you know, I Wisconsin, uh you know, and
it's going to only probably get tougher, especially if you know,

(01:33:55):
the college football continues to get remade into where there's
like much more to have and have not system, because
you know, you're going to see a lot of programs
that you know are used to nine, ten eleven win
seasons going to drop into it, you know, eight seven
win tier, especially if it if it gets more consolidated.

Speaker 4 (01:34:18):
Yeah, and Michigan State take out those years with D'Antonio,
those six years, and it's basically a five hundred program
for the last six decades.

Speaker 7 (01:34:30):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:32):
Right.

Speaker 14 (01:34:32):
I mean, and that goes to you know, show you
how remarkable twenty twenty one was.

Speaker 4 (01:34:38):
Yes, yes, yeah, a bottle and you know, I don't
know what he had, but he knew enough that it
led to a ten year, ninety five million dollar contract, right, so.

Speaker 14 (01:34:50):
That it was a confluence the things because he had
I mean when you think of that, I mean, Paydon
Thorne was a five average big ten quarterback. Then you
had obviously Kenneth Walker, who was you know, at the
elite Heisman Trophy level. But then you had two really
good receivers. I mean, like again Jane Reid and John Naylor.
I mean, you know, are both you know, high level
NFL players. So I mean like there was a lot

(01:35:12):
offense firepower on that team. The people don't and that's
how they were able to get away with it. I
mean a really not so great defense. I mean the
defense was very poorish. It was giving up. And look,
you know again that's the one thing that they haven't
resolved right since D'Antoni is the defense. I mean, that's
really been the been the big issue. I think one

(01:35:34):
of those.

Speaker 4 (01:35:35):
Things about that team in particular, and Ryner, you remember
it well for a guy who wasn't here every day.
You were covering two teams at the time. But but
you nailed it. Number one was they had almost no
injuries that year. Yeah, they went all the way into November.
I don't think they had to starter miss a game,

(01:35:58):
and they won every close game. You remember the Michigan game,
despite Walker's five touchdowns, that took an interception by Charles
Brantley ice when it looked like Michigan might come back
and win again. You can look at the the Resca game, yeah,
with that crazy punt return. You can look at the

(01:36:20):
Bowl game and Cal Halliday. You know, Indiana you had another.
You know, it's amazing all the things that go right
when you have a season like that, But you can't
expect that it's always going to be that way.

Speaker 14 (01:36:35):
Yeah, I mean it's true again, they you're right. I mean,
the injuries also have been a huge factor and why
you know, this team has been hasn't been able to
sustain the success from that year. But I mean there's
three factors up Intive line play has been poor, yes,
defense has been bad. And the injury factor. They have

(01:36:59):
been a ton of injuries year of the year, and
it's it's at a few of effect. But I meant
the fact is is that I really do feel this
program would have the would be a much better I
guess mood and feel about it if he had, if
you know, they would just beat Rutgers in that final game.

(01:37:20):
And I wrote about it, it was like, this game
is a huge game for Michigan State because last year
leading into the game and you know, I just think
it was a huge missed opportunity. I mean, I just
you know, again I thought, I thought that that Mel
Tucker that you know, twenty twenty two when they lost
at Penn State, that was that was a huge had

(01:37:47):
a huge effect on the rest of his tenure. I
think it had totally changed the complexion of everything. Them
losing that Penn State that year was was pretty devastating
I think for the over the long term.

Speaker 4 (01:37:58):
And you know, I believe in some people disagree on this.
But I don't think it's just a matter of w's
and l's. I think it's how you win and lose
and how the games look. And if you are blown
out at home in a game that you know, they
weren't close in that game, they were obliterated on their
own field. And in these games that Jonathan has lost

(01:38:22):
at Michigan State, not Jonathan, but his teams have lost
here in you know, they're three and nine in the
Big Ten under Jonathan, and in these nine losses, they've
been outscored by one hundred and seventy two points, so
that's almost twenty points per loss. You know, you add

(01:38:43):
three more points because they had to win by at
least one, So they've been outscored by twenty points a game.
And some of these have been but ugly, and none
of them may be any uglier than Saturday at a homecoming.
And you know, when you get everyone back on campus
and then at the end of the day, you know,
and nobody wants to be there, that's that good.

Speaker 14 (01:39:06):
Yeah, Well, it's you know, it's particularly scary to given
what happened last year in the same you know program,
I mean seven and ten at home and then but
you know, again, there are a couple of games and
again I think you know, changed everything for Smith. I
mean the Michigan lost last year and the Rutgers lost

(01:39:27):
last year. I think we're the two biggest ones to
me because like they should have, they had a real
good opportunity to beat Michigan coming off that Iowa game. Yeah,
they were you know, they had you know, scored a
touchdown on that opening drive, and they had.

Speaker 4 (01:39:45):
Almost seventeen minutes longer. They had more rushing yards, more
passing yards, more first downs. They also had more penalties.
Michigan played that entire game and was not whistled for
a penalty, so you know, in Michigan State, they couldn't
get out their own way. That wasn't a game that
Michigan won. It was a game that Michigan States squandered.

Speaker 14 (01:40:06):
Yes, absolutely, and so I think that was that was
a big, big, uh you know, turning point for that program.
And also uh a place where they lost lost their footing.
And then again you know, the not taking care of
business on that final home game, uh this season finale

(01:40:27):
and against Rutgers, I mean it just yeah, I mean
that's how that's how you get to this point. I mean,
you can't carry over any momentum from the previous season,
and it's just kind of you're you're stuck in kind
of this uh uh static kind of state where there's
nothing really progressing and you're not really making too many

(01:40:48):
inroads on the recruiting front to also generate much buzz
during the off season. So you know, a lot of
a lot of these fans go into the season just
kind of uh, ambivalent about where where you know, the
program's going, and then they lose total interest when things
absolutely go south. You know, and obviously that Boston College,

(01:41:10):
given what happened to Boston College, you know the last
couple of weeks that that win doesn't look as great
either anymore. But that's college football. I mean again, it's
like teams that you think are going to be you know,
good or like it looks like a big win at
the time and that not being the case. And I mean,
I mean look at Penn State. I mean the Penn

(01:41:30):
State Oregon game. I mean, and now now Penn State's
you know, hit the skids, and so they went from
a number number two team to not ranked and having
a fire coach. So yeah, college football is crazy, but yeah,
it's not.

Speaker 4 (01:41:45):
A Umber two team in their state. They're behind Pitt,
I know.

Speaker 3 (01:41:49):
I know.

Speaker 4 (01:41:50):
And yeah, that's the name that I'm starting to hear again.
I don't know that that's doable, but hearing a lot
about that. And somebody said to me today and I'll
let you go right or said, yeah, would you rather
have James Franklin or Pat Fitzgerald.

Speaker 14 (01:42:12):
I mean, I mean, to me, I would, I would
take Franklin. I mean, like again, like let's not forget
this guy's won eleven games, you know, you know, four
or five different seasons, and I mean yeah, yeah, and
so like and he won a Vanderbilt Now granted the
SEC East wasn't so great and so he kind of
took advantage of that back then. But I mean, James

(01:42:35):
Franklin's a winner. I mean, he just he can't MISSISSI.
He's not an elite coach, I don't think again, his
in game decisions in big games have been really questionable,
but overall, I mean, that's the guy a winner. And
like if Michigan State had a shot at him, I mean,
like you know, just like turn him away just because
of you know, he can't win the big one. I mean,

(01:42:57):
at least he can get you close enough, and that's
that's that's good and who knows, in the given year,
maybe you can finally get up.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
I was gonna stay right now. Needs to win the
small ones in the medium ones. Worry about the big Yes,
exactly a Reiner. Thanks so much for joining us, really
appreciate it. Uh, maybe I'll see you Sunday. I think
I'm or Monday, Redd, It's Monday night, right, get Tim Bain.
I'll see you Monday night at fort Field.

Speaker 14 (01:43:26):
Okay, sounds great, sounds great.

Speaker 4 (01:43:27):
Thanks for having me, Jack, Yeah, Ryiner Saban, we will
be right back. And uh, we're gonna talk with doctor
John Braccio Regional Psychological Services. Now I'm gonna try to
keep him on topic, which I've never been able to
do rob, But I'm going to try to talk to
him about fan frustration and the angst for Tigers fans

(01:43:52):
who still dealing with the blow of Friday Night Lions
fans after last night Michigan, Michigan State. Whoever thought we
would have a week a weekend where the only success
stories were the Detroit Red Wings?

Speaker 6 (01:44:08):
Say, what's everybody complaining about the Red Wings win two
in a row. They get a last second win here
earlier today, three to two over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
What's everybody's every.

Speaker 4 (01:44:19):
State volleyball with a how about bag upset straight?

Speaker 1 (01:44:24):
That's been us.

Speaker 4 (01:44:25):
Over twenty ranked Indiana.

Speaker 6 (01:44:26):
Go figure, Yeah, that's been quite the secret, and the
secret's coming out now doing some real spectacular stuff on
the volleyball court for Michigan State. Great story this season
so far.

Speaker 4 (01:44:38):
Well, we're going to have Kristin Kelsey on this show
on Wednesday and the Spartans host number one Nebraska, and
this may be as good a college volleyball team as
we have ever seen in this country, certainly as good
as we've seen into Big ten and you know Big
Tennis had lots of national champions.

Speaker 1 (01:45:00):
That's an bold statement but maybe true.

Speaker 4 (01:45:03):
And Nebraska just beat the defending national champions in straight sets.
And you know they have Olympians on this team. They're
coming into Breslon Center Friday night. I know, hockey's on
the road with number one rank bu this is number
three versus number one. Football is on the road, So
you know, there are a lot worse places to be

(01:45:25):
than over at Breslon Center. Just to see how Michigan
State can do. Can they be competitive? Can they keep
it from being the kind of blitz that we've seen
with Nebraska.

Speaker 1 (01:45:37):
Volleyball so often it is the measuring stick.

Speaker 4 (01:45:40):
Well, you know they did put ninety two thousand people,
ninety two thousand people into Nebraska Memorial Stadium or a volleyball.

Speaker 6 (01:45:50):
Man, yes, last year. And you're saying this team could
be better than that team last year.

Speaker 4 (01:45:55):
Yeah, yeah, saying that. Yeah. We will be back in
just a minute with doctor John b coming up on
the drive with Jack.

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You can't get much lower than that. That's exactly right,
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Collide Go Green, Welcome back. It is Drive with Jack

(01:49:00):
the Spotlight Radio Network. Jack Evlin here with my producer
of Boston, Rob rob Our. Next guest guy who I
have the utmost respect for. I used to have on
a lot. Now we save him for special occasions. He's
a very busy guy. He's here part of the year.
He is in the Miami area part of the year
and joining us on his birthday, Doctor John Braccio, are

(01:49:25):
you fifty seven or fifty eight?

Speaker 3 (01:49:27):
Actually thirty nine, like Jack, Bennyjack, you're making me way
too old.

Speaker 4 (01:49:33):
It's great to talk with you again. And I figured
this would be a perfect time with all the despair,
all the despondency between Tigers fans who stayed up for
all fifteen innings and haven't slept since. For Lions fans
with anngs now that maybe this isn't the year that

(01:49:55):
they're going to win a championship for the first time
since nineteen fifty seven. How about Michigan State and Michigan
fans and now they're wondering if they're even headed in
the right direction? John, what do you tell fans who
are beside themselves and they're so despondent today at you know,
I worry about them going off the bridge.

Speaker 3 (01:50:18):
Well, you know, I'm a little different than that. I mean,
let's take them one at a time. I think the Tigers,
you know, they were heroes and incredible the talk of
the country has to season a little more. Then they
utterly fell apart, but they really came together against the
Guardians and that I think that series of Seattle was
wonderful and the last game was a Titanic struggle. Horrible

(01:50:41):
to lose, but on the other hand, memorable, unforgettable. You know,
there's some games and even that I think it was
what two thousand and four, the game in ann Arbor
that seemed to go on and on, A Michigan, Michigan
game that went on and on and up. Yes, that's
one of those games you hate, but that's when I
will watch every now and then because it's such an

(01:51:01):
exciting thing. So I think, what the Tigers a lot
of things, maybe to feel bad about, but overall positive.
Maybe not quite like Dan Dickerson in the open Mic.
But on the other hand, I think that I think
that the Tigers I'm happy. I feel bad in many ways,
but I feel positive on them. Biens. I'm not really

(01:51:24):
too worried. I mean, I think Kansas City was desperate,
and you know, I really kind of like Mahones and
I really fight Kelsey. I mean, I'm not rooting for them,
don't hear me wrong. But on the other hand, hey,
you know you can't win them. All I think the
team's going to do is going to do fine. And
I think Kansas City was desperate and they played that way,

(01:51:47):
and it just that's kind of how that worked. As
far as Michigan State and even Michigan, I think that
Michigan State, I think it's really a very difficult time, Jack.
I mean, it's it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
And I've done a lot of thinking, and I was
I look back, and I look back at Biggie, I
look at Duffy, I look at Peerless, I look at Saban,

(01:52:10):
I look at D'Antonio. They all were so aggressive. Okay,
what I mean is verbally they it's kind of like
you know when you're in a you're in a psychological
jungle of the In football, You've got you've got Notre Dame,
You've got Michigan, You've got Michigan, You've got Michigan, Ohio State,
Penn State, even though a little wounded. But those are

(01:52:32):
predators and they're and they're like Loveland last year after
the Michigan game, he was bragging, he was right out
there about how Michigan State lost that game. Believe or not,
I don't have a problem. If you win the game,
you get to do that. However, when you lose, you
got to be tough, You've got to be willing to
really fight come forward. I just think that that that personality,
that type thing is what really works in East Landsing now,

(01:52:55):
I wish you, say.

Speaker 4 (01:52:57):
John to the fans right now who say it's been
forty one years in baseball, and even the Red Sox,
who couldn't get out of their own way have all
these championships. Sorry, Rob, You look at football and you
know we are closing in on seventy years without a championship.

(01:53:17):
Not many of us were around the last time the
Lions won it all. You look at Michigan State, it's
been close to sixty years, and as you say, you
don't see real progress. Michigan seems to be going in
the wrong direction. Why tell fans to help them cope?

Speaker 3 (01:53:35):
You know, Jack, I just kind of think you have to.
You can only deal with the now and look to
the future, Okay, meaning yeah, you know, you know you
and I remember those Lion championships, Okay, long time, nobody
a long time. I saw them on TV, so I
remember them, you know, one with Bobby Lane, Tobin Road.
You know, I remember those games. But I think I

(01:53:56):
think with the Lions, I guess I've been so excited
the past two years after the horrible things that happened
to them. Personally, I think you just go with them,
you kind of and the fact that we can play
with anybody. We may lose, but you know, I think
that's you've got to be positive. Tigers, you know, I
like to think assuming they keep the players they have

(01:54:17):
and get some more players in, I think that that's
a team that has a lot of potential, a lot
of excitement this year. I'm not sure quite what happened
to them as the year went on, and maybe nobody
really is, but I think with the Tigers or something
Michigan oddly, you know that the mission that I've been
hearing that too, just happened to talk to a Michigan

(01:54:37):
person this morning who really feels that, you know, they
kind of feel entitled. They ought to win ten eleven
games a year. They kind of realize even their murky history.
They will they'll talk about the cheating, how they did help,
maybe with with Harba, but overall, I think they're unhappy
even though they won some big games. And I think
with Michigan State, I think is the difficult, most difficult

(01:55:00):
them all, Jack, because they seem to be going backwards.
You remember, for history, do you remember when Saban was
enraged after a game with Nebraska. Do you remember a
game when he just went nutsy cuckoo afterwards? I really
think I already think this, this UCLA game with the
place that a Saban or a Purlish or somebody would

(01:55:22):
already been enraged. Okay, I'm not saying what what what
what Smith ought to do? But I think that that's
kind of you know, We've always had a chip on
her shoulder ready to fight with anybody, you know, that
type thing, you know, like a boy called shoe, And
I think that that that's something people are looking for.

Speaker 4 (01:55:41):
And the Lions that last night John at the game, well.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
I sure, I surely did. I just you know, I disapproved,
but you know, it seems so funny with this tameness.
And then you've got the the old Michigan State players
saying we didn't like we wanted to play in the
third quarter. You know, I just think that I think
there's a lot of rumblings. I mean, I eve'n heard
I heard how I was talking to somebody. This has

(01:56:09):
been my day to be just too chatting with people
the things that they ought to wake a financial deal
and have Smith go back to Oregon State. Now, I
certainly nowhere to that point. I want. I want him
to be very, very, very successful. But I think people
in Michigan State, you know, you can go back to
Young's book on the Michigan Michigan State battle, are used
to having a chip on their shoulder, fighting coming out,

(01:56:33):
you know, maybe not winning every fight, but being ready
to you know, just fight, fight, fight, And I think
that's what people people what he wanted. One of the.

Speaker 4 (01:56:45):
Personality doesn't seem to be what fans are looking for
right now. They want someone who portrays a stronger image
even when the team isn't. You remember John when George
got here and didn't have much and he's talking about
pack of lunch and bring a flashlight and you know
we're going to do this, and you know, he talked

(01:57:06):
a big game. It took five years for his team
to be able to back it up, but at least
they had something like that going for him. I think
a lot of people looked at the body language.

Speaker 3 (01:57:18):
Well remember the eighty four game. Though beating Michigan was
a big deal. If you remember that game, I think
in beating Notre Dame. I mean he definitely even in
the midst of Termino. I remember he even told Bowie
was mocking them, like we recruited better than you did,
and bow went out and really referred about putting us
in a trash can. But the point being Purlos was

(01:57:39):
a fighter, wasn't he eighty seven? I mean, you know,
just a different nineteen ninety just a different kind. I
think in saman too, So I think that's kind of
what's being looked at. And I think it's the direction too.
And I will say this, I'm not one of the
people on Signetti. I think he's just a phenomenon. I

(01:58:00):
don't know how you describe him in Indiana. But when
I saw this one guy say this is why I
came to Indiana, I'm thinking, oh my goodness, what planet
am I living on? You know that Indiana now. But
it also shows doesn't matter if you're a trendy, doesn't matter.
There are certain people that have an ability to forge

(01:58:20):
forth and whatever is going.

Speaker 4 (01:58:22):
On that any school in the country could have had
him for a song. He couldn't get out.

Speaker 3 (01:58:29):
I know that I'm listen. I'm just telling you, but
I think it's not fair to compare any coaches. I
think he's just a phenomenon. We'll see how long if
he's if he know what he does. But overall, I
think the Michigan State one is the hardest one to
deal with now. And there's also this nil It's there
are just a lot of the things going on and
so But on the other hand, I'm patient I did

(01:58:52):
do something inexplicable to me anyway, John, myself and I
and my nephew in the game. Do you know what
happened at the end? Jacket's astonishing. The game ended and
we didn't know it. We were just too chatting and
all of a sudden the game. I know it sounds
hard to do, because you know, I'm pretty intensive games,
but I think that everybody was and nobody was mad.
Everybody just seemed to be chuckling and drinking and talking.

(01:59:15):
So I pass that epathy anger is good. But on
the other hand, I just I hope things work out,
and I'm assuming that people are going to make some
good decisions, whatever those are, and I'm going to be
a fan. You know, I've always been to.

Speaker 4 (01:59:33):
Ask you about the changing patience level. And maybe it's
in society. We are a microwave society, country, whatever now
and then everyone wants everything immediately or sooner. And you
see now coaches who used to have five years quarterbacks
who would sit and learn. Now, if you haven't done

(01:59:54):
it in two years, you're in deep trouble. And we
saw James Franklin, who has had five to eleven win seasons.
Last year he was one play from the National Championship game,
but he had lost the fan base. They weren't happy
with him, looking for a reason to get rid of him,
and he gave them one. The last two weeks he's gone.

(02:00:15):
You see other coaches who in the middle of the
season are gone. Used to be you know, at least
away till the end of the year. It's not like
that now. Do you think that we are expecting too
much too soon? Do you think this is a way
it should be? And what is it about our patients
level now that we expect perfection and if we don't

(02:00:38):
get it, we're onto the next candidate.

Speaker 3 (02:00:41):
Well, I'm going to surprise you, Jack. I don't think
there's any problem with this impatience at all. I think
in the age of it, it's more like pros And
I think, Franklin, I mean, if I can believe, you know,
you know more than I would. But this guy's loaded
with talent. You were talking about a guy, so for him,
those games like this, I think, and he's lost. He's

(02:01:03):
never been able to really consistently win big, big games,
So maybe it is time for him to leave. Okay,
as far as that goes now, but I do believe
with Nil, you bring in your you can bring in
a quarterback, you can bring in runners. And one of
the things Sidnetti said after the game, he made the
comment he says, you know, when you win, you can
bring people in the portal, you can break people, and

(02:01:23):
you know you can. And I think that's I think
that's really I think that's true. So I think in
this current almost pro like days of college football, if
you have the money, and certainly MSU had money, people,
if you can work with them, you can't alienate them,
then I think, you know, you can do a lot
of things. I mean, you know, you and I talked
a couple of years ago when I was when I

(02:01:45):
was thinking I would like to have gone after Irban Meyer.
At the time, okay, and whether that was a possibility
or not, I think, you know, you can. I think
in college football now certain places certainly issues one of them.
If you can get into the portal, if you can
get into the nil, if you can bring in player
that way, I think you can have some instant winning.

(02:02:07):
So I think that probably this is a time that
probably for twenty thirty schools in the country that you
do expect, well, you don't expect to win every game,
but you know, winning seven, eight nine games is particularly
if you can control the first three games, it's maybe
not that unreasonable. You're going to and I think you're
going to hear people, particularly now with MSU and maybe

(02:02:29):
with Michigan, say well, you know, you just have to
be keep being patient. I'm saying, well, you know, I
don't know if you're going to keep overthrowing players, you're
going to have a quarterback getting beat up all game.
And then you know, I mean, you know, we could
call it three or five stages of a game. You know,
this game last week, how different was that from the
Nebraska game, even though Nebraska scored more points. But this

(02:02:51):
is you know, this is this is one of the
bad teams. You know statistically in the country and to
get railroaded, overwhelmed, bully.

Speaker 20 (02:03:00):
Led Nebraska late in the third quarter. They Yes, that's
why I'm not talking about I'm not even talking but Jack,
I'm going way back. I'm going back to the Saban
Nebraska game. I think I think in this Nebraska game
that I mean, we lost that game, we had every

(02:03:20):
chance to win it, but that I think this game
was more of a watershed game. And and to me,
now you're you're you may totally.

Speaker 3 (02:03:28):
Disagree to me. There are two events, two events that
when this is looked back, assuming everything doesn't turn around,
one was the giving away of the Michigan game last
year and almost like Gully, I don't know it was
that big of a game. Then I think this fourth down,
you know early in the game that in the way,
you know, running like like you have Lorenzo White out

(02:03:50):
there and Manderidge out there. But what I mean is
it was I think those two two I think people
will let alone the love of them last year, the
silence after he was in TV criticizing ms laughing at
MSU after that game. So I do remember all these
things yet, But on the other hand, hey, I wish
Smith all the luck in the world. I'm never in

(02:04:11):
somebody who doesn't risk, you know, with someone good. But
on your point, no, I do think with the way
the portals set up, the way you can bring players
in with an IL, if you can manage that, that's
the key. There are going to be a few people
that there.

Speaker 4 (02:04:27):
Are a lot of schools trying to do it. John,
there are one hundred and one hundred and thirty some
schools in the country who are trying to do the
same thing, and we see it off. I'm only interested, failing.

Speaker 3 (02:04:37):
I'm only interested. I don't care about now. I'm only
interested in MSU and maybe I'll like Texas Texas year.

Speaker 4 (02:04:45):
But on the other side, you're interested in South Florida
that now is right there at the This could be
just like two thousand and two with Ohio State and Miami. Again.

Speaker 3 (02:04:55):
Well listen, I of course I love Miami and think
we're going to go to a Miami game here, and
I might within a few weeks the same there. Crystobal
has to show he's been a little like Franklin, you know,
he's kind of lost some crazy games himself. So we'll
see that. I certainly wish him all the luck. And
of course I've got a ton of friends that are
Miami sains and our Banns, and I've been in the

(02:05:16):
mini game. Clay John went to school down there, my son,
so we over the years we've already have become we're
obviously Michigan State, but certainly Miami fans also. So life
has said, Jack, never let a game ruin. You kind
of luxuriate and love winning. But when the team is losing,
you're not out in the field doing it. You wish

(02:05:37):
him well, you wait for them to come back. Okay,
does that make sense?

Speaker 4 (02:05:42):
Yes, that's right. When there's an injury on the field,
you're not the one who winds up in the hospital.
So that's important thing for fans to remember. And you know,
there's another game next week, and there's another season, and
you don't want to get too philosophical. It takes all
the fun out of it. But for fans who think
that their life is coming to an end, none of

(02:06:02):
them have as much invested, even if it's cash. They
don't have as much invested in the blood, sweat and
tears of the players and coaches who are.

Speaker 3 (02:06:10):
I love the player.

Speaker 4 (02:06:11):
They can sometimes they're not doing a good job at it,
but they're they're working at it.

Speaker 3 (02:06:17):
Jackie, I got to give one more a little. This
is going to be a low blow, but you know,
when you make seven million a year, you really have
to work with owners and the coaches, the players. You've
got to. You've got you know, Napoleon said that leaders
really are really dealers in hope, and that's really what
a football code. A lot of people live in little
worlds and football is a big deal for them. You know,

(02:06:38):
you've got to You've got to have them feel I
don't want to overstate it, but it's a it's a
it's a relaxation. It's something people really, you know, get into.

Speaker 4 (02:06:47):
So you have to.

Speaker 3 (02:06:49):
You've got to deal in hope, like you're getting back
on Purlis. Yes, Purlis always he made you think like
he was going to go out there next week and
he was going to just run a everybody. Remember you
always said it's x's and oh you know, he puts
on their pants the same way.

Speaker 4 (02:07:02):
So I think that you all as in the world.

Speaker 3 (02:07:05):
Yeah, a dealer, a dealer in hope. If you can't
deal with the Hope, then I think, you know, that
that's really not that's you're missing a major aspect. But again, hey,
I'm an.

Speaker 4 (02:07:16):
Optimist communicating and inspire others.

Speaker 3 (02:07:20):
Yes, yeah, yes, and I'm an optimist. I wishmirthday.

Speaker 4 (02:07:27):
Everyone knows that you've been around here forever, and you
go back to the Bobby Lane days with the Lions
and Biggie Munn and Duffy Dougherty. Certainly it seems like
it was a century ago and the better part of
a century. But I just hope that while we're above ground,
we get to see another Lions championship. How's that? Well?

Speaker 3 (02:07:49):
I will. Can I give you one complaint. I'm only
eighty two, and my daughter told a neighbor I was
eighty three, and I said, Sarah Queensaggerie, don't make me old, Okay,
come on, do that. So, just so i'd let you
know that little story about my daughter.

Speaker 4 (02:08:06):
Listen, Jack, we will talk to you again soon. I
hope we get to see you before you head back
to Florida.

Speaker 3 (02:08:14):
Well, listen, go Lions, go, Tigers, go Michigan State, and
Michigan keeps struggling, even though I never want any way
to get hurt. How does that sound?

Speaker 4 (02:08:24):
Sounds great? Doctor job Racchio, Regional Psychological Services. Rob, we've
had some rambling conversations before and it's only appropriate we
would do that again today. I want to thank all
of our guests started the show listening to Jonathan Smith
and his press conference today. Rob and I were both

(02:08:45):
there at Spartan Stadium, and you know, there are no
easy answers, and right now there are no right answers.
The only right answers are going to be on the
scoreboard whether he is there to see him or not,
and a lot of people think the answer is probably not.
I think he has a lot of work to do
starting this Saturday at Indiana. Good luck with that one.

(02:09:08):
Bob Trippy, our director of research, Captain database talking baseball,
pro football, college football, you name it. How about Reiner
Saban of the Detroit Free Press covering the Detroit Lions
for a long time, covering college football in this state
and a very busy guy on weekends now, and we

(02:09:31):
appreciate you being with us today. We'll talk to you
again tomorrow. Have a great night, everyone,