The following is a presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties. Well a pleasant, good even to everyone. It is Thursday, November thirtieth, twenty twenty three. Welcome to the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted by Spartan Dogs. This is Sparta MSU. I'm your host, Jason Strayhorn, along with my co host, the Boss Otis Wiley. Jayu is on assignment
today. But listen, we want to welcome to the show. If this is your first time listening and watching us, we absolutely want to welcome you. And if this is not, we really appreciate and thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support. Please don't forget to subscribe to all of our social media platforms at This as Sparta MSU. And let's go to the live check because that's where the party's at. This honestly is a recording because we've got a lot of stuff going on. We got
a lot of transfer portal news that we got to jump into. But Otis we have to get into this and this is unfolding by the day about the new hire Jonathan Smith, who has come over from Oregon State from Corvallis to Michigan State and now he's already making his impact known. You miss Tuesday show. Let's talk about your perspective on the new higher Yeah, you know it's
it's crazy because when is the last time I was on this. So it's been like for like the holiday and all the Ford field and all the crazy crossover from sports. It's been too long, man, we miss it. It's been too long. It's all good. But y'all been doing a great job, man, So I've been holding it down. At last showed on Tuesday was phenomenal. So I basically I can fall in the background. You know it's gonna be good. I can just sit there and sit back and
relax. But it took me. It took me a minute. I'm being honest with you. It took me a minute to process because you know, I've been through a coaching change. You've been through a coaching change you know too as well. And it's business. I get. The business is the business of collegiate athletics. Like it's not getting it done, it's you know,
on to the next one. You know what. For me personally, it's like you gotta close chapters, uh before you go to the next chapter, right, Like you can't just you know, skim and not complete something. And I feel like there was some stuff that that that that that happened, you know that you know, the previous staff or even like the coaches.
You know, Coach B you know, not say you get a fair shake, but just you know, treating them with you know, the respect that you know, this guy, Coach B took over just a programming shambles, and you know, from a standpoint of just out of the respect, you know, it's treating that with the most security, like like not security, but clarity of just being transparent with with them on the on the situation.
Right. And so with Coach Smith coming in, everyone kind of knew, like we do need a new leaf, We need a new chapter, We need new you know, regime, we need new energy. Like it's kind of getting rid of the old with the new. And uh, you know, I've been impressed from how he's handled it. I mean it's been a quick three to four days where it feels like it's already been a month
where he has been going on thousand dollars per hour. You know, you got to do your due diligence and meeting the appropriate folks, the key stakeholders here in Michigan State. You know who brought him, who got him here, and so you know that guardlet of just getting to know absolutely everybody that that is a that is a task at hand, like that is a huge, tall task. I do believe he is coming with some new energy from an offensive standpoint, right, Like you can already know if you look at
the stats that he's coming from and bringing. Uh, we have been really dead in in the past. So for for that to kind of get an uplift a resurrection, I think that's the element that you know, Spartan Nation is looking to see. Like defensively, I think our DNA defensively is Spartans. No matter who is the coach, we will always put out that that defensive you know front, that defensive outstanding production, regardless of who the decordinator
is. You know, you still have defensive guys that can make plays. That's been historic. But the offensively like defense can't be out there too long as we've seen, right, So I'm excited to see that aspect of who he's bringing in from a staff standpoint, But I only like my heart goes out to all the guys because I've been through it, we all been through. Is like the evaluation, the kind of the the sitting there waiting kind of thing of like what's what's what's the what's the new staff? It's still
not complete. They're building it out, trying to expedite that, trying to get it in time to go out on recruiting, and it's just all of that where it's the same kind of noise that we had to deal with. When Coach d came in. It was kind of like very quiet, you know, hum and here are the top ten people and here he said, she said, who's who's rumored this? Who's that? Now with the transfer portal, that's we're gonna touch on. It adds another heightened sense of like,
man, what's going on? Uh So Coach Smith is I think he's saying the right things. He's setting it up to where he's got to build the foundation, and you know, I just want to spartanation give him a chance, right, you know, you got to give them a chance because it's not all overnight. It's not gonna get better overnight. It's gonna be a break by brick restacking the foundation. You know, there's there's no question about that. You know, it's it's not gonna be easy. He's been
very transparent about that. And you know, to your point, you brought up you know, in with the new this out with the old regime. But in doing so you felt it sounds like that that Harlan Barnett and the staff maybe weren't kept the breast of how things were going to progress or if they were going to get a fair shot, so to speak, at being the head coach. But it looks like Courtney Hawkins and Harlan Barnett are both negotiating at the present time. And again, this is Thursday afternoon. I
know this show is airing tonight. We don't know what may come up, you know, between now and then. However, it seems that they're in the negotiation phases and Coach Smith has talked about having to get people with big ten and Midwest ties and roots on the staff and how important that is because he doesn't have those, and that's one of the areas that he knows.
I mean, do you think that that's a good thing that he understands at least that point, and you have an opportunity for people with the MSU that Green DNA to be on this staff. Listen, we talk all the time about this is that you have to win your neighboring states, like or not win compete where you have kids in the state of Michigan going to Power five schools and we're not even considering them. This is the pastors in past recruiting,
we weren't even considering or they weren't on hire on our board. But clearly they have the talent to go play at the Rutgers of the world, Airlands of the world. Like at this point, like we're we're not too high mighty to go and take a chance on these guys. And some of these guys that are in the neighboring states, they want to play for our home team inside, you know, so it you know, from a family
decision standpoint, families could drive and Washington play. So for us, I think that's a good opportunity for him to really put his feet down and say
we are going to get back to the roots. You know. The coach d's of the world, like Ohio, they're like think about Michigan, Like they got guys from Ohio that didn't get got pasted up by Ohio State and they are balling and beaten Ohio State, And I think that's the element getting back to the gritty of the grittiness of a blue collar neighboring states, the Indiana, the Ohios and then obviously Michigan, and still you got guys in
Pennsylvania, Like, how can we make sure we're at least majority winning those states and knowing that, you know, we still can get the South guy, the guys from the South. But you can't just fully go one hundred percent building the roster from the South, Like that's just not how it's going to be built. These guys are It's a winter state, you know, the weather, everything kind of under the sun. Like you can't just go
one hundred percent on Florida or you know, Atlanta and Georgia. Right, you got to have some of those big time guys and get those guys, but you've got to have some foundation, firm guys that are from here and around this region so they understand the power of the Big ten, like this is where it's really built. So I do believe he's standing on those firm foundations. We're going to recruit in state, our neighboring states and get this back to where it needed to be. Yeah, and we're not going to
forget Illinois too. That's a big state also is a neighboring state that you know it's big because you talk about something you touched on it there. You talked about almost the psychology behind college football in the regional geography and how that ties into the spirit of the school, the alumni base, you know on my parents went to that school, or you know, I've grown up watching
that school. I've been in those stadiums as a young child, you know, watching that team because it was down the road from my you know, my parents' home, you know, or where I grew up. That makes a big difference. That's the separation between college football and the NFL. As we know, if it's the NFL, you can't really choose if you're not named Eli and Peyton Manning, the Mannings are you know, guys like that that can tell people where they're going to go. You have to go do
it in college. You have an option, and if you don't, if you completely ignore them, I agree with you, then it can build up dissension. Like you can see people who don't like that if you don't offer them. Look what we see as evidence. Just the other day here quarterback
Sam Levitt, who is an Oregon native. He was passed over by the end state school, Oregon State, so much so that now he that in Michigan State and that same staff comes right to where he's at, you know, thousands of miles away, and he can't let it go right and whatever vibe he got, whatever feeling he got, uh, he just he was done right. And that's the thing about and the end this world that we
live in in college football. We know nil is a big deal and it can make the world of universe a lot smaller than it used to be, especially when you and I played the game and back when I play. I mean, look, it is what it is, right, There is no transfer about to do that right sitting out, man, just you know, stick it out exactly. You know, I think that you know, he's doing what I'm talking about, Coach Smith. Now he's doing a phenomenal job
of trying to get hit the ground running in the local area. But you're gonna see, I can't imagine with all of his times out west that we're not going to see an influx of players from the West Coast, be it current players on the Oregon State roster or other high schools that he has connections with out there, that he'll be able to relate with those players and describe what it's like in these lands, sing to get them comfortable enough to come
out. And what NIL does in that case is make it easier. There's sometimes a player that the parents or the family or you know friends. You know, Yeah, if you grew up in Detroit, it's much easier to come over to the East Lansing. But if you grew up in Eugene or somewhere in Washington State or California, you're not driving to the game. However, the new Big ten footprint, you have an opportunity to attract some of that local talent as well, because you'll be traveling to those schools now on
more of a regular basis. But the NIL also allows the parents to be able to get to the games a little easier. Is that what you see? Oh yeah, I mean you took the words out of my mouth, like you're with his powers and like who he is. You know, I haven't got a chance to like talk with sit down with them, right, But from his DNA of what he built at Oregon State and being Alum, there, you know, you're gonna you're gonna start seeing some West Coast love
in our recruiting a lot more. Knowing that he knows and he knows that area, he knows that region. It's gonna help us obviously knowing that we're gonna be playing Oregon next year. Next season, you're gonna have U C L a USC at one point in time, you're gonna have at least two out of you know, every year going across you know, to play against them, right, So that's an element where you can use as a recruiting
advantage. Hey, we're in the big ten where you know your family will be able to see you play, you know, twice out of the year, you know, or even more depending on the scheduling. But I think
that's to your point. It's like he has more resources. It's crazy to understand that that the amount of resources he had at Oregon State and what he did and now you put our resources behind it is like what this man can do and his staff can do, it's gonna be interesting to see, Like when we'll sit back and be watching and supporting of former players, but it's
gonna be interesting to see how he does it. Oh, yes, and we know you and I both know those former players are anxiously awaiting being able to connect with the new coaches. He has said that it's very it's vitally important to the strength of the program to connect with the past, to get those players integrated into the program so that they can help recruit and do a
lot of the things that you see top non programs doing. To your point, otis you s brought up the resources and we have a graphic that we can pull up here that talks about the resources, the difference between Oregon State and Michigan State. Which is a better job. I think this is an outstanding graphic here. Yeah, this is to whoever, whoever is this, somebody that came to t I A. It's a TJ. Altimore. Aualtimore got to give you some got to give you some nuggs. Look, I'm
all about graphics and and charts here. I let him breathe that, right. But when you look at this, you just asked the question, what
is that? What is the better job? I mean from someone's career like this is like you saying, hey, I'm trying to pick between you know, going to in my career as a corporate partner or a corporate working in corporate America is like, this is the stuff that you put to on the on the board, like the advantages, disadvantages, the pros, the cons and then right here it's all the pros and advantages is out weighing to the green and white. So for him and his career, his family, and
even let's talk about the staff too. The staff getting the opportunity come into the big ten and that opens up doors for them and their family as an opportunity. So it's bigger than just obviously coach Smith, and I think he understands that if you look at his staff very diverse as well, and you see where he's bringing that same mantra when you you look at it, you know, talk about mantras, right, like he already said one good thing
that I'm like, this is absolutely like that was. I don't know if he was strategic with it or not, but like that one mantra, which we will show from his press conference, Like that's what we need up. Let's call it up. Yeah. I think from the start we're gonna you know, low ego, high output, selfless. I think I think football is the ultimate team game. Walking in. There's these roster sizes now getting over one hundred and twenty some odd guys. There's eleven guys on the field.
Uh. I think it's an ultimate team game. No shot at coaches all over here, but you play hook man. You put four guys over here and let Lebron play one on one and that can take place schematically and all of that. Football is a little different, and so it's the ultimate team game on that of being selfless and being a great teammate mhm, low ego, high output, yes, like, And I think that's the element
of like, you can never be bigger than the program. That's anywhere in my opinion right, Like, you can never be bigger than a program. Now, you got all stars, you got playmakers, but there's still an element that this is a team game, and even on and off the field, you gotta be about the program and for your your teammates and representing the green and white. And I think I say we got away from that.
I don't think we did. But there were some things. There's a lot of egos, a lot of things that you got to manage now because we're making money, you know, we're making money now, So when we're come making money. You know, there's there's an element that comes with that. So I like that. He's like, Hey, you know, I know you're gonna be a star player, but you still got to have a low
ego and you got to be high output. Like your ego is gonna come with you know, making plays, right, your brand is going to be coming with nil. When you make plays and you produce on the field, you still got to produce. And so I just want to look to see how he does his game management too, where I'm gonna start looking at the old games that he had organ state how did he win these close ones and how did he manage because that's where we were kind of losing or lacking.
Is the management of the game, the entire game of like playing chess, making sure like we're halftime adjustments. How is he doing it and how is he letting his staff lead it as well. I'm looking to come do some investigating on that, and you know, next week or so as we start to roll out and get to know Coach Smith as we go. I mean a lot of great points you just brought up there, you know. Alan
Haller, the athletic director from Michigan State University. He brought up in the press conference about you know, Jonathan Smith's style, like no flash, he brought that up. And I know, uh, you know, there's been a lot of players that talked about this, you know, but the way the direction of the program up to this point was what was the identity of
Michigan State football. And when you think about Michigan State overall, you think about grit, you think about determination, and you don't think about a lot of laugh you know, you think about guys like Tom Izzo. He's all determination and and grit. He's not like a me guy. He's you know, us we are? Is that what you would say? Totally not that? And then the mantra that he just said, low ego, high output ego you know in the my thesaurus here and there's another word with it.
It's called pride, and we know the fall man. When he said that, I was like, man, like, I know that's in the word, but I'm like, why does he keep saying it? Why does coach he keep saying it? And when it happens to you, like it happened to me, like you know, preseason, like you start to be like, oh, I'm making players. I'm out here getting it. I'm straight, I'm good, but you will be humbled really quick, really fast. And to your point, I feel like the fall came really quick because we
were after that eleven two season. I mean, you thought we want a natty, you know, I think that's the element, right, So yeah, I like, I like, he's coming with them, humbleness, He's coming with them. We got to put our boots on. We gotta get get our hands dirty. We got to build this back up, like the
house is falling, we got to put it back together. And so I like that energy starting out very smooth when he was talking and like and dressing the conversation, dressing the media, and uh, you know, I think he probably need to hold off on that analogy of basketball. You know the coach coach is that great? Like it is ultimate? Right, it is it is. But you know he was like, you don't know man like x's and oh is coming from. He's using football analogies in football scheme.
So he's more more than what he knows. So you got to go ahead and get in the office one to war with him from a personal moment to read one thing I can't stand about the game of basketball is the ticky tactus man. Like you know, you can't breathe on a guy without a foul being called. Right. But that's why I appreciate tim Is though when I watched Michigan State basketball, because he's not tick attack at all, like he
teaches like relentless intensity and physical. You know those guys, I mean they're on the floor going after rebounds and all those great things. I mean, we were just in the beginning of the basketball season. We're going to cover that at nauseum as we continue on in the basketball season. But tom Izzo really embodies that that that grit, that determination. And you know, I know coach Smith coming from Oregon State, everybody thinks, okay, he's an
offensive guy. He can scheme a lot. The world is watching right now about who are the the who the defensive coaches that he's going to bring on staff. That's still kind of up in the air right now. Obviously, Harlan Barnett is a candidate out there that that he's talked with and he's going to consider for a position there. I don't know who the defensive coordinator is going to be. But when you look at Michigan State, defensively, You
being a former defensive player, what would you like to see? What kind of style of play would you like to see this staff push for Michigan State football. I would like to speak and like I feel like the secondary took leaps and bounds of like improvement, right like you had the main you had Mangam, you got my League Spencer, you got dal Tatum, and you got a Rutger like you got a solid crew like that if they stay and
they you know, remain here like that is a great working group. Secondary they have some lumps, they got some you know, got some great experience on the field. If you dissect it, secondary is in a good spot from a standpoint of like, you know, I do hate that we lost so Gotto and congratulations on him landing back into the NFL, but like that was a guy who came in and helped us get back to where it needed
to be. Uh. And then you know, for me, I'm looking at how do we make sure that we're getting home to putting pressure on the QB. And we are I mean, we're punching in the mouth, but
we're also elite, We're fast. I just want to linebackers to be able to do more on the in the covers game for us too, Like that's an element where countless of times and I've told you all this, I've sat there and seen people run right past without getting no reroutes, Like there's an element of like reroute to get to hook curl, reroute to get to flats.
Like I just want to see more of a well balanced mid level for our defense because when you saw Nardoozia decoordinator, when you saw that where we had guys going was they basically was animals on the run, animals in the past, right, And I think that's the standpoint all three levels. We need. A decordinator is going to keep you guessing, but it's also gonna be able to make the adjustments and not wait to have time, right,
Like it's adjustments on the fly. And I think that's where you know Coach Smith praying he's bringing a decordinator that has the track record of doing that, like competing in game knowing that they've done the research, they've done the film study, they've also are coaching and making our guys smarter players on the field because we have talent. You know we have talent, but you've got to be able to have be smart on the field and knowing what to see,
how to expect things, and just ball out. I think that's the element is playing free and care free football. I think that's what I'm looking for in a decordinator and UH and some of the defensive staff guys be able to develop these guys to where they're going out there and they're making the adjustments or they're coming out and saying, we need to change this, or we need to run this, UH check to cover two or sometimes like if you get beat Man and man, like we cannot play Man and Man if we don't
have the rush. I think there's elements you gotta go, you gotta go, you gotta adjust. So I just want to coordinator to be able to be adjust be an adjustable guy that can really give a us the three and outs because we struggled to get three and outs like we struggled, and so that's what I'm looking for. You know, I mean you said a lot
there and when you look at the players that are available. We got to cover the portal update since Tuesday show, and you know, this is the new era of modern college football where every it seems like every hour we getting an update on someone who's hitting the portal. From just forty eight hours ago, we had more people going into the portal. You look at Jeron Glover wide receiver, Michael O'Shaughnessy, the punter, offensive lineman, another offensive lineman,
and Brandon Baldwin. And it hasn't been many defensive players. But Derek Harmon, defensive tackle from Detroit Loyola right down the road, has decided to hit the portal and he had ment. He has did nothing but continue to improve on that interior. And I know, like me personally and I know you as a defensive player in the former both of us, we really hope that you know, there's a couple of those guys that Michigan State can get
back into the graces of coming back. I know that the testing the waters is the thing right now, but when you look at the defensive side, it can get worse. And again, this show has been taped, so we don't know. It may at eight o'clock tonight we may have seen more
of these portal entries. But the defensive players that we've talked to that I've talked to have said they are watching who the defensive staff is before they make decisions whether or not to get into the portal or to stay with Michigan State. What are your thoughts on that straight That's a great question for me as a defensive guy. If if I'm a if I know I'm a player, if I'm knowing like I'm a playmaker and I played a lot of snaps, I will I will say this is a challenge for me as a player to
know that I got to learn a new system. You got have to learn a new system anyway. If you hit the transfer portal, you get picked up, then go somewhere else. So it's kind of like you've already established a ground and framework here with the Green and white, and it's given them, Like what are they gonna wait for? On? Like who that coordinator is? Is that the scheme he runs? You know? Are we going four to three? We're going three and five? Like what what are they
waiting for? Versus like you're going to play multiple fronts and multiple defensive schemes in the league anyway, Right, So there's an element of am I gonna look this, look at this as a challenge and be able to say, hey, I went through and endure this coaching change and a new scheme, new system. Now, granted, when Coach D took over that system,
it took me a minute. It took me a minute personally. I mean others adapted very well, but it took me a minute to really understand the whole defensive scheme, how I fit, how I'm supposed to play as a safety, because the previous defensive scheme was safety's made. I mean all the plays, right, not solid plays, but we were heavily involved. But right, so when you come and got a guy that's defensive minded with cod D, there's an element of expectations. Now, I guess that's maybe what
they're looking for, they're waiting for. I do hope that the core guys that we know, you know, the the Jordan Halls of the world, like Derek Harmon, like testing the waters. To me, is I get it. It's been crazy the past two years here, Like I get it, like a pure exhaustion is just just need a new, fresh, fresh fit, right, And I get it, understand it. This is the day and age you can do it. Then you're able to do it. This is the rules now. But I would say is sticking with the program.
It's kind of like going to the like Lebron or Kobe playing for one like Kobe playing for one team right, not not not getting traded here and go play somewhere asking for trades. I feel like this is an element that
you know, and it's okay. You look at, you know, being looked down upon about taste of tests in the water, but like is it pure because of the nil opportunities or is it because you're not playing or is it just truly you need a different, different fit For me, I'm like, if I'm playing, I'm I'm I'm revelessly I'm like, I'm excited to accept this challenge if I'm already playing with that last staff and this new staff coming in where they're evaluating. Yeah, Like I remember Coachy coming in saying,
hey, everybody is a clean slate. You gotta work for your you know your job. Basically for me, it was like, man, you get nervous because you did do a lot of work before. But in the flip side, it's a challenge. It's something that you rise, rise up and accept. So I hope these guys look at the pros and the cons. We already looked at that statistics, right, and people hit the portal.
It's not a guarantee you getting picked up. So why leave a situation where you've been putting in some time on the field just to go somewhere and you've got us restart that whole framework, you know what I mean, Like it's an element. It's not. It's not. The grass ain't greener on
the other side. So it's just that. So so so there's as you said, then there's man, you're just fitting jewels out here right now because you know, getting to the point, because going back to the point where Jonathan Smith comes in here and they're clearly gonna be some players who are going to test the waters just to see what's out there. And then this was his quote regarding those players. He says, we've had some conversations and again
I understand why players would enter, and we're not down on it. Smith said, these guys have been through a lot. We have been We've only been here for forty eight hours, but we're having conversations. So look, obviously this team, you brought it up two years of you know, hey,
it's been rocky. Clearly this year after Week two at midnight, their world was slipped upside down and you have a whole new you know, rearrangement other I mean musical chairs in the coaching staff room, and you're trying to find a way to get through I mean the portal. Here's the thing that I would say to you, what's different for your time when you had a coaching change in my time is we didn't have anybody slide into our dms.
You know, like you know, there's no such we didn't. There was no such thing as that where player coaches are talking to these players and talking about, man, we got the perfect scheme for you. We're gonna highlight your skills set, we're gonna do, We're gonna make you, you know, an NFL draft pick, and we're gonna pay you money. You know. These are the things that today's player is hearing that's in their ear, and it's hard to get away from it. If you're one of these players,
it's hard to fall to them. You see it right here. We're having those conversations. And again I understand why this is why they will entertain these things, because then they're gonna look and see what the staff is going to be. Because if you see it all over, you see it where if a coordinator comes in and he's, hey, man, look we're gonna run. You know, just four defensive backs, you know, just a
basic four to three. Maybe a guy who's a a we call it the nickel feels like man or maybe I don't have an opportunity to shine here, whereas his school over here they play with five dvs in their normal base offense, you know. Or if it's three down linemen versus the four down linemen. Maybe you know certain body types, you know, three techniques are kind of out of the water and the three down linemen a scenario, there's different
strokes for different folks that are out there. That that's why I can't fault them. Yes, you want them to play, you know, like our stars. The guys who are playing. You know, this isn't the guys who If you're not playing, if you didn't play much at Michigan State, I don't know why you're going to the port If you're just going into the portal to go to a different school who will play you, which typically means you're going to go down in division or down in a level of school.
That that that's fine, you know, other guys, let's stay and fight through this, and like you said you felt like it took you a little bit longer to get Coach D's defense when Pat and Ardusa came in versus what it was for John El. But you were a guy who was on the precipice of being a star, an All Conference performer and NFL player. Other guys. Now, now Otis Wiley comes out in twenty twenty four, right, this is you're going into twenty twenty four Otis Wiley. I mean,
man, you have big safety and he can feature you here. You know, we had ten All Americans. We just had eight guys going to NFL over the last six years. Over here in your position. Notice your position. I'm a coach that coaches your position, and you're gonna yeah, I bleed green. But like wait a minute, and they say they're gonna pay
me. You know, these are the reasons that we're gonna get into that conversation a little bit more in a moment about what the portal looks like and really the landscape of that regarding NIL because it's just totally different than what we grew up in what we've seen. It's hard to fault the players today for
what they're going through because of those facts that are just named. But we're going to talk about that and more after these messages from our friends over at I Hop and seat Geek introducing I Hop's new menu with perfectly crispy yet fluffy waffles, warm flaky buttermilk. This gets juicy, satisfying, stake burgers, decaded eggs, Benedict's, and war It's time to find your new favorite. Don't worry, we won't tell the pancakes only at I Hop. Let's put
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stacks in them tickets. You gotta love it. Look otis. We got to get into this because you know there's there's a couple of topics. We want to talk about, the transfer portal and how that relates to Michigan State football. What's going on in the marketplace? Uh, there was an article just released today from OutKick it looks like OutKick dot com that talked about preparing for another round of free agency transfer portal open Sunday and donors are ready to
spend. It just came out last night, and you know it goes deep. There was a quote from one of our big ten head coaches in Nebraska, Matt Ruhle, who said a good quarterback in the portal costs a million, million and a half to two million in nil. That's just what it is. So he's set on the table right there saying that this is the market that we're in, and you look at Michigan State's positions of need and
we can go through that in detail. Otis like, when you talk about this from a head coach, and we've seen other head coaches talk about nil, what is your opinion on how this state and how Michigan State can be dominant and navigate through this in this current market. Yeah, that's a good question. Straight. I honestly want to know, like what what is considered
a good quarterback? Because a good quarterback making one or two like that, we're talking like that's crazy, right, but like we're talking about the great quarterbacks, the ones that have proven and played and have success. And I have entered, you know, the portal. You know, you think about you know their market are their marketable, their full selling of what they may like Clearly they're not going less than what they were making where they're leaving.
I think there's an element that here in Michigan State is we have a lot of education. It's obviously we know what it has to do. We know, we know, we know what has to be done. I think there's an element of like we can no longer sit and say like, hey, guys want to be here, they will be here, like because that's that's definitely like not the case, because we've seen it. We have all three of our quarterbacks are in the portal, and there's an element of like,
well, we got to bring we got to bring somebody in here. And and it's crazy to think that this guy is gonna make more than a lot of employees internally on his campus combined. But this is it, this is how it's been built. So for us, I just want us to be
strategic. But clearly, you gotta you gotta open up the check book because you've seen Dion coach Prime start like we're not an ATM, Like don't you're not gonna come here and just try to make bank right, and then on the flip side saying, hey, donors, we need we need more money. And so there's a give and take, like you gotta be able to compete, like and it's if you don't compete, you don't get the players. It's a it's a it's gonna be a really big arms race to get
the right players in here to be able to win games. But I was talking to someone with someone today and and you know, we brought up the education piece, like this is no longer by education anymore, Like this is no longer about your degree, Like it's sad academia. It's just sad that we're not saying, hey, who has the best college program for me? No, it's like, this is time to make all your money now so you can this is generational wealth. Now we're talking with these kids who some
come from nothing, some come from good stock. But that's money that can really help troject and put them in a good spot after football is done, because clearly the percentage is low of going to the NFL. So why not make your money now? I mean, you have you got you got quarterback of USC's quarterback Williams. Right, he's like waiting on the last day deadline. Shit, I come back because I'm making money, Like I'm making more
than anybody, like not anybody. He's making bigger than league minimum, So why sit there and go to the league versus like I can see if I can win a championship next year. So like there's the element of like people are guys are now deciding that I will make more in the collegiate level than I will make in the NFL right now, and that is mind blowing. But that's what this, this this landscape is. So for us in Michigan State, we gotta be we gotta be aggressive because we gotta we gotta do
what we were saying we want to do. We gotta go out and do it. And it just is what it is that this is the football race right now. Basketball Coacho has he has a product, he has a brand that's consistently year in, year out. He has. That's coach Iso. Though right now with these new coaches coming in, they can't they can't do what that is because he's been here for so long. You gotta go out and get the players, and you gotta mean what you say, and you
gotta you know, ow up to your commandment. We need you, all right, this is our this is our price, or hey, this is you gotta be Now's gotta be aggressive because if not, we are gonna be without a k B if we can't get nobody in here. Apparently we're seeing this right now from Oregon States, you know, rumors of him coming you know, to Michigan State entered in the portal and it's basically you know, we're talking about Aidan Charles right, oh Ayden, So yeah, let's get
specific on that. We're talking about different positions of me because you talked about Deon Sanders kind of doing it about face a minute ago, saying hey, we're not going to be an ATM for players, but then after he got his butt kicked by Utah, he says, we definitely need giving. You know what I mean. It's unfortunate to say this, but some kids cost just can't sit here and talk about great coaching and great this and that and that all we want, but it's going to be a credit card swipe with
all these guys going to these playoffs and I understand that. So what you're saying it is a a talent acquisition business as pure as you know the driven snow in America right now. It is about capitalization. And when you talk about education academia, if you are a player who is Power five worthy, who is being recruited by Power five school typically the power five schools, academics
are you know, on par, especially in the Big ten. You look at sec pack well, the now defunct Pac twelve as my broadcast partner calls it, but Big twelve, acc all the pack two. Let's listen to two dollar bill too, dollar bill, y'all. You know, we appreciate guys who sent the collect you know, we put that collection plate last week a couple of days ago. That would be Steve Smith and Cal Ferret. We appreciate that. Didn't want to miss that. But listen, Look,
it's a different it's a different world now, you know. And what do you do Like academics are are are on par everywhere, But what's the difference, Like do you want you know, I've seen a tweet the other day earlier today we saw it in our chat that a three star player had an offer of two twenty five from this school, two hundred from that school, and one seventy five. These are hundreds of thousands of dollars right, Okay
from three different schools, and they named the schools. They wouldn't name the player that is. So look, you know we hear this right. We have guys and players and kids all over the country that talk about this and this is where college football is right now. You said Aiden Childs, Okay, there's a lot of rumors about him potentially coming to Michigan State. He's the freshman quarterback that just played a season in court Vallas. I'm not sure
if he was able to keep the red shirt or not. I know that he played. Also, you look at their starting quarterback dj Ui Angalalay dj Yeah, you know, so you know that's the five star from Clemson goes over to Oregon State, specifically for Jonathan Smith. His father, Dave is a lightning ride of an individual. He's got a younger brother at ore again. Okay, so that there Saint John Bosco kids, same school that produced kyten Hauser. Okay, so yeah, so there we go, tony details
right there. He played in five games, so he did burn his red shirt, so he only has three years of eligibility. Okay, yeah, unless he petitions in some way. Hey, child's at this point. Again, this is not eight pm for us. We did take this show a little earlier. Today has not hit the portal. You saw DJ's father being outspoken. He was upset about how coach Smith left. I haven't seen a coach leave a school where the school that was Yeah, yeah, everybody picked
off. I remember, we're pissed off that Hal Saban left and we're crying about that. And I know that, you know, with Perlis he was fired. I know that John l was fired and Mel you know, was fired for cause as well. These are different situations. But when a team lures another school lures your coach away, seemingly for money and a better opportunity, as we just described in the graphic earlier in the show, people are
upset. So you're you get this feeling like, okay, well, maybe DJ is going to stay and stick it out in court of Allas, and then boom, here we see Dj Ui Angla Lay's intent is to enter the portal. You like that it's in the portal and he's also available. Now what say you about that, like you have these opportunities to talk about what
is a good quarterback? You have a proven guy who's been at two schools now right now, the pro scouts say that DJ is probably a fourth or fifth round pick if he does decide, and that's what his decision process is going to be, whether he's going to go to another school or go into
the NFL draft. Yeah, I think there is uh, you know, do we have time to bring someone in fresh and and hope that they can convert to this level like you're going after like a freshman uh in this next class and then you know automatically beat you freshmen, or you go find someone who's proven, who's shown that they can play in big games. I don't know, it's it's it's a toss up because like, yes, we know
we're gonna be in a rebuilding year. But when you look at our schedule straight you look at it where there's there is an opportunity depending on who all comes back, who's in the locker room by the time we signed, and they were like, we have an opportunity to go seven and five if you look at the games, like there's four games that are like primetime power games for US matchups, but if you look at the rest of the schedule,
those are winnable games. Those are games that, like this past year we have we were in so this could be an opportunity to like, hey, let's go and just find our guy starting from the ground up freshman class and
throw them out to the fire like other schools. Do you know Alabama will started two freshman quickly, right, like find someone who has the mechanics and you're able to groom them to what you need them to be, knowing that year one we're going to have some trials like not saying that this freshman quarterback could be better than what we had this past year and all three quarterbacks or just know you had to come up with a pretty penny to go get a
top star quarterback in the portal and you got to commit to that. There's a happy medium there. So that's I think there's an element where coach Smith has to make that decision as she's out on the road recruiting. You got to think about he's gonna recruit young young kids, seniors you know, coming to the next class, but he also is going to recruit some maybe top five to ten guys in the portal that can help truly jump start what they
are built at, what they're trying to get done here. Yeah, looking at that, you see it around the country. You're seeing it from a lot of well respected coaches, well respected programs. You know, they may
be a great, great at developing players. But you see that that quarterback market, that secondary quarterback market, it's just like shoes nowadays, you know, like people used to do trading cards, now they do Jordan's and all kinds of different sneakers right the secondary market like Jordan's may retail at I don't know, three hundred dollars, but secondary market they're going for fifteen hundred dollars,
okay, or more. It's the same way you have a recruit that comes in as a quarterback out of high school, but and his value may be x, but when you see him play as you've seen Aiden Child's play or better yet, dj uyangali Le play, where you know, okay, this guy is a plug and play guy. He knows this system. He's played in huge games all over the country. You see them putting the premium. There was a tweet a couple of days ago. I saw that there
was one quarterback. I believe the Washington State quarterback at well Zoo quarterback got ten ten million offers. You know, yeah, yeah, and and you know when you when we getting back to that point about a guy like Caleb Williams, Caleb's like he's right there on the fence, like you did. The number one pick. Everybody says he's a consensus number one pick in the NFL draft. I don't think that's right. I don't think that's true though,
unless you trade up. Clearly somebody's gonna trade up. But as the mayor's got the number one pick, like we can talk about that another situation. Ever So, but the boy Marvin Harrison was a good But see the value. Here's the problem with it because I and look, receivers are getting there because the receivers value in the free agent market, they're that they're they're above twenty five twenty five to thirty million dollars per year. Quarterbacks. I
mean you're talking close to sixty million dollars per year. So this is why if you have a quarterback that is very good as a rookie and you can get him on a rookie deal, and you're only say it's the number one pick. You're you're paying him. It's the forty last year number one picks,
the forty one point two million dollar contract. That's a five year deal, right, that's eight million dollars a year now, chump change in the world of quarterbacks in the NFL on their second deal and beyond the free agency market, but still much more per year than what he's even getting in commanding at USC. I know it's you know, team is saying that, you know, hey, we can hold that hold out and go back. I
think he's in that four million dollar range right now at USC. Still like a message to those guys that from the Williams commercials, Man, he can't come back. He ain't commercial bro Heisman commercials like real deal. Yeah, not the local car company now, but guys like the dude down the road number two, little boy, a little little corn blake running back decides to come back, right he clearly I think he's in the two million dollar range
or something. At Michigan. He clearly is making more than he would in the pross you know, and selling vacuums to door to door Stallion that what are you doing, oh little guy hanging out with old Stallions. You know, it's all I love, not really, but it is so look, I mean it is mind boggley to see where this thing is, how it's unfolding. But look, quarterbacks, we saw it happen two US a year ago with Peyton Thorn. He goes into the portal and is a starter.
You know, it was up and down for him at Auburn, but he was right there on the cusp of beaten Alabama and the Iron Bowl just a week ago. You want guys who have been battle tested, and yeah,
those guys command a lot of money. As you put it there. You know, I don't blame Keon because Keon is a different breed, right like Keon had you had to get out of here, and you see this man's All Conference, first Team All ACC and close to trying to get that bid and playing the a SEC Championship, but also trying to get the bid to you know, win the blending call with him compete with Marvin Harrison like that would not I mean, he would probably put up some numbers, but the
numbers he put up in Florida State, So that's a that's a situation that's different. I think these guys saw that too. Being here. It's like man Keon got out and got to a system that fit him when like to your point, highlighted his expertise, his skill set to get him to be a first round draft pick. Now it's not like that for everybody, but when you see it, you clearly got It's like, oh my god, you got to take a chance. Like if you're feel it in your gut,
you gotta take a chance. You got to do the opportunity because this rule the NIO allows you. It's afforded you the opportunity to do that. But at all, it ain't like where you seem bad. You seem good, you seem great, and you just don't want to be a guy who's gonna get in that portal and you're so prideful that you're not gonna get picked up and then you on the streets. And that's what I don't want to happen to any of our guys, right, So you got to be strategic.
You gotta be strategic in this situation here where you know you got a full ride scholarship and you can you can go to work in all season and be able to have a ball out here this next season with a new coaching staff resurgence. Think about that outcome versus I'm sitting here just hoping and praying that somebody got a spot for me on the roster. That's a difference.
There's a huge difference. And look again, this show is taped, and I know I can feel it in the group right now, there's somebody saying, but had better stats in Michigan State than he did down there in Florisa. I guarantee somebody, maybe Trevor somebody like that. It's probably saying that right about now. The look, it's a lot about you know, trusting
the player and and you know Keon wants to be featured. And he went down there and there was already a number one receiver that first game again to LSU. You know how the NFL scouts looking nothing else that game. Right there, I was solidifying care what conference I am? I'm the best dog out here. That's the element like, yeah, you know he had stats or less than one he was here, but not touchdowns. But also primetime games is where he bought out to UH and you're in the a CC Championship
and you win and you're almost in that college football playoff. Depending on how it plays out. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So for at first, yeah, man, I would love for him to be in the green and white. We know that guy to get out and be able to say, hey, I got to proven quarterback. We talked about, I got a proven quarterback who can get me the football, who give me that skin? And Georgeown's giving him that. Yeah. Unfortunately, Jordan got hurt,
so he's he's not going to be playing in this. He got hurt two weeks ago. But he look, he don't look bad. A little slow, but you know, he got going. He got going. But you look guys like ke Kean. Now, yes, he had big games against Michigan and Ohio State. He because there was nobody that could stop him. But for whatever reason, we went away from and like we may go scratch our heads, say why why did they not go to him? He was you know, but if you are that person and you do have options,
maybe you just think about it a little different, you know. So you know, again to the nil discussion real quick, you know, we we'll get out here in a minute. But there's a quote in the article from The OutKick that said, here's a donor at a program a Power five donor told Oalkick, I've got the university reaching out to me to help the facilities, while at the same time NIL group is looking for cash. Because of Nil, I'm being pulled in a different direction. Whereas in the past,
I would just donate to the athletic department. But we're in a different world now. He goes on to say, we need the players to compete. So I've changed how I support football. I want to see my team winning on Saturday. So if that means donating to the collective to get a star player, that's how I choose to help the program. Now what was this? They just said Power five donor, one Power five donor. They didn't say where. But it's the attitude. And I know, look,
we got a passionate fan base and we've got donors galore. But it's just getting everybody on that same page and say, you know, whether whether they want to say let's wait till we win to donate eight versus you gotta this is the this is the mindset that we're competing against. That's all I'm gonna to get across. That's all we want to do is give you the facts, the ideology that we're competing against. Is that That's why you're seeing these
quarterbacks make these moves, and you're seeing players test the portals. They want to test the waters because they're hearing that and they're getting that from other coaches around the world. And we can get into the tampering discussion another day. Look, I don't care. They just must not be able to force enforce the tampering, you know, because I think the portal doesn't truly open until
December fourth, but man, we're seeing fireworks already. Yeah, that's that's it's unfortunate that, like you're gonna have to hire people to go and make sure that they're monitoring like in season tampering. Like it's just crazy, Like it's crazy. It's crazy that it's almost like you got to report every transaction in your DM, so every interaction just like complying like you're legit, Like hey, if you get if you get an owreach to anyone, like you've
got to document it and you got to purport that. Or there's there's some there's some violations, you know, like you cannot. I don't care if it's your uncle, it's your analysts or whoever it is one of your high school coaches in the coach contact your high school coach, heyd is in the call straight see if you want to make the switch, make you can't like you got to clean it up, man, because this happening every second of
every day. But see some of this. It reminds me of a quote I've seen from a guy in one of the recruiting analysts who said that, you know, there's been these coaches that are always complaining in the high school level because it's happened in high school too. Just coaches poaching players left and right. At these large high schools, you see a lot of movement.
Michigan is one of the most strict states in the nhs a A, but other states it's very There's a lot of movement out there and people always complaining. I mean, you hear fights between coaches, but when they broke it down, they say, look, I ain't reaching out to your players. Your players reaching out to me, and what you The same thing is happening, and I everybody thinks tampering a lot of times. But there's what they
call back channeling. Back channeling. What that is is players that go to their high school coach rather than the coach from a Power five going to the high school coach. The player goes to the high school coach and says, hey, I might be looking. You know. That's more accurate as to how this unfolds until the player publicly announces what you've seen. This is basically
inviting coaches to slide in the d ms when they put that. You know, we've been seeing a lot of these graphics, these nice ones with the right you know, all the writing, you know, all glory be to God. You know they got the h my gosh, there's a lot of plag is the trend of like an ai a bot of like writing your stuff like yo, you always got I gotta first think the Lord, my lord saying with Jesus Christ. But I'm leaving, you know, like like I
always love you, my heart, I'm looking for that. It's not go green, it's go cash, right, go green. And to me, I just gotta as a as a young man knowing like you not you. There's some guys that are buttoned up and they financially know what they're doing and they're smart, but like it's got to be exhausted mentally, bro Like just
just the weight of like the uncertainty, the security and the future. Like it's got to be exhausted man mentally that these guys, like there's so many options, there's so many like just free will the versus like you know, it is your, it is your the world's your oyster at this point, like from every situation versus like, man, I'm just glad I got here and I'm gonna stay here regardless, and like that mentality is long gone. So it's it's it's sad, it's unfortunate. But it's got to be a
tough battle. These guys go through any student athlete. I bought the male, the female, the women of the man. It is a tough battle to understand, like sticking something out versus like hitting the exit button as soon as one thing happened. You know. I think that's an element of like it's tough. It is tough, but this is up there living in and this is the opportunity for them to do what they feel and pleased to do.
But it's got to be exhausted mentally. And I pray for these guys mentally mental state because you know, yeah, you want you don't want to switch, but you've got opportunities to so like you'll be a fool to turn down this money right like it's it's it's crazy. Money is the root of all either but the love, the love, the love of money. There the love of money we always love because you need money to about now.
So it's not everything my father says, but it works. You know, you brought me to Chuck Brantley. You know how we had him on the show when he was deciding to come back, and how scary it was for him to go into the portal and what it's like being in there at that time. I think as this continues to progress and evolve, players are getting less and less apprehensive they're going in there. They know because they can put your left foot in, put your right foot out. They can get in
and out pretty easily now if they so choosing. You know, I think that there's a lot to be learned from this, and as we continue otis I mean, look, man, we're going to break down more of this and world follow this total trend. Obviously, this is where you get the news. Like I said, this is the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted by Spartan Dogs, so we're going to always bring you the real deal. We're going to have recruiting analysts on We're gonna have people from Oregon State once
they are are so inclined to join us. After we can you know, the dust settles a bit in Corvallis. We're gonna have current players and former players to discuss this in more depth on Tuesday show. We've got to get into the exces and up and find out like where what positions of need because right now it's hard to see. We know quarterbacks, we absolutely need those
guys in offensive linemen. They've been pillaged for now. But we'll see how this thing shakes out and get into more of those details as it unfolds, as we always do. So until next time. For Otis Wiley, I'm Jason Straehorn. This is part of MSU. Have a good night, God bless you and go gree Go Whight. This is part of MSU is a combined presentation of PLAYFLA Sports Properties and Michigan State Sports Properties. The show is
produced by Tony Le Barbara Tony Gastella and Process Driven Consulting. Additional supports provided by Brendan Durabage. On location technical support provided by Good Fruit Video. Sure to follow our host Jason Strayhorn, ju Culprit and Otis Wiley on social media To stay up to date with all the latest this is part of news. Please like and subscribe by visiting our link tree and tell a friend to do the same. Thank you for your support and as always, go green.