The following is a presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties. Well pleasant, good evening. It is Tuesday, June thirteenth, twenty twenty three. I'm your host, Jason Strayhorn, along my co hosts Otis Wiley and Jayu Chew Chew Culchrik and this is Sparta MSU. Thank you for tuning in. You're the first time. Don't forget to cook that like and subscribe button, and remember to follow us on all of our social media followers.
But don't forget awesome the live chat. That's where the party's at. Get in there, mingle and mix with all the people who watch the show, all the regular basis that we love it in there, you'll love it too. If you want to know how to follow our social medias, go to that link in our bio to see exactly how to do that. Guys, how are you guys doing today? As the homeboy teeth pain Tad, I'm good, You're good. We're here are tens of our said Is Crossing.
I was. This is my old stomping ground building eight. The club at Canda Crossing is where I lived on ball in college. Here you remember when we talked about this on a long time show. We were talking about housing, right like, Jay, you got the hearing where you can stay yeah, yeah, and there's a laundry list where anywhere around here here house seate real houses. Yeah, you know, we got the thing like Cherry Lane. That's this. This is so cospiracy because we had a full bedroom,
full bathroom. You said, I can hold back out of our own God everything and the volleyball court, backball court, the pool party and then I just seen the pool when I walked in here. There's that pool that but then this outdoors, DJ and everything. You take your car up, Okay, I'm apply anywhere. They made me clean that up. You want to talk about this a little later. That's actually allowable here and Tampa's crossing. But man, it's nice digs here, and absolutely I wish I had the
privilege. I'm coming here and hoop though I'll do some pickup basketball right there at the gen right next door. But this is a great property right outside of campus where you can get well. We used to be luhaws right here too. The houses right here, Maggie's was right there. That was the best thing about it living here was because you're still close to campus, but
yet you're a little off campus. You have that little you can you know, you have that economy of being away from campus, all that riga moro and then you come out here and you have your own life, your own you know, skill set everything. If those walls can talk, a whole lot of safe right thank god they can't talk. Uh, you know, we might not be hoiable right now, but guys, you know we're going to get to business little because we got a jampack show today. We got
to talk about a lot of things, cover a lot of things. Had a great show last week I talked about with Tony Mandrich. But cats Maddie Sosoko went over the host of Basketball Player. We want to see a video of Maddie here, if we can be angry with me when he went upstairs and said, listen, like you can't have this spot. You said, even that's a live coming back and you can tell you I want to see. I got to be there to understand the whole thing. I have no
idea. How how did that good at again? Let's talk about so Soco host a basketball clinic back in marrow. So we'll play the tap game and we'll I said, you give my life then in the last so if you know that, no, my god, but I ain't never know the million that is deserving. Maybe get like you know what's hurt, you know what things you still when you want it for you money, line and kill.
I really hate to say, but I gotta look. And that was given the last given as I'm like, you know people want to blow my heeling and that being band listen, I said, Okay, I gotta say I didn't. I did not expect those This otis really crush that he killed the olds crush. I think I had a bigger cloud than ODIs Hatch because you might what you get two or three people. Oh my god, I don't
want group being about. When I called you, I was like, first of all, when you step on stage right, you don't know the lyrics from lyrics? He was like, we want to seem I think I had a live band. I had a live band. Ois you had the words and I have the words. I know that my heart. That's why I choose. I choose the songs that I know where I can close my eyes and I'll just sing it from start to finish. But I like it.
It was a switching room because we don't get some real fans. But this was like who do you think one the Yeah, yeah, who did it bell? Who did it best? Who did that with best? That was that was classic Urays. Move over Taylor Swift, here comes o Dub and yeah, we'll we'll we'll go, we'll we'll what's the all fortunes? We'll go to crunches and set it really really will real good old sound like that dude from the movie Off the Space. Hey it was my it was my
auto te man. I had had a little muzzle on there. But go ahead, can we can? We may so Soco. He actually did host a basketball clinic in the Yeah, he actually did this. I don't know if we can there we go. So Mady obviously with his oh oh because a video, I'm good. Okay, yeah, so Mady with his his organization fundraising organization, nonprofit, say, uh, this is what good use
goes to the resources that he gets with obviously being on campus. But could you look at anybody in the country who's doing what he did right and this is his time where he can win anywhere else, you know, to spend his quality time in his off time, he's paying it back and paying it
for it, uh, to young kids too. Obviously, the game of basketball is global, right, and so they're able to make an impact back in his hometown and in building a school, like we talked about Lebron and his school, you know, back in Ohio with Madi has created his school out of the resources that he's received. So, I mean, this is one of those things where we have stand up guys who are truly not just walking it, they're living it fully, talking it, walking it whatever you
want to say, walk it like you talk it. But he's doing it very well. Yeah, I think that's really cool that Mady had the opportunity to do that. Being a kid that's from Liberia, West Africa, we didn't have football, you know, but what we had was basketball. You know, everyone had that, and it's something that's really cool that he gets an opportunity to, you know, come to the United States to live out history for one and play this game of basketball and then go back and share
it with these kids and give them the opportunity. And I'm telling you, for those kids that have the opportunity to attend that like camp, that is a life lasson. Uh, you know, event for them and that's something that's going to be with them the rest of their lives. And that's really cool that he had the opportunity to go back. And like you said, otis that is why you know, there's that nil. Without nil, he couldn't do that. He could he could not do that, you know,
And that's why Nils in place. And that's a guy put in NIL to good use. Absolutely, and being an international student, the fact that he's with Charitable Gift of America allows for him to be able to accept in IO and actually do these things that he's doing, which are great. And I wonder if he could do any scouting over there, because I'm sure we can
find us a couple more. Well we're talking about let's talk about just university like students, international students, where those kids at that age have now been like, hey, I see the green white, I see the spartan helmet, I see Mady over here in the States. Brand it's the brand of brand. In five it's seven ten years, you're gonna see kids in the
full influx of like international students coming from out of his hometown. That's the place of like sewing, putting the seed in and it's going to reap.
Go ahead. We got Spartan helmets over in Libery. I hope. The best thing about it is this, now that he's there, it gives relevancy to that green and white brand because back when I was in Africa, the only time you saw, you know, hell before I came to America after the Buffalo Bill's one for straight super Bowls because those those the loser super Bowls because they make both shirts. Oh yeah, then you get the losers get shipped back to Africa. So we wearing them. I was wearing a bubble
super Bowl Champions. So now there's a little different now that these you know, these kids, will you know see the Spartan logo on on a prevalent you know stage. That's great, guys. I mean, hats off to to Moday. What he's doing over there, uh, with his family and friends over in Molly. That's that's incredible. Guys. We gotta shift gears a little bit and talk about transfer portal news for Michigan State football. Terry Roberts is now coming to m s U a transfer from Iowa by way of
Miami. Yeah, Terry is a guy that went to Iowa and then went to Miami and he didn't even play at Miami, he just came right there. But you know, even going back, Terry's a kid had from a Cathedral Prep High school in Erie, Pennsylvania. I know this school very well because throughout East Lands and Michigan State we had a bunch of guys, you know, Tom Dance, Damian Terry, those guys were Cathedral Prep athletes there. And Iowa has a big pipeline of Cathedral Prep guy with Bob Saying and
all those guys. I went to Cathedral Prep for a day. Yeah, yeah, I graduate. Yeah, I graduated. My graduate class of twenty six kids, you know, boys and girls. And I was a public school and then Cathedral Prepples recruited me to go there. So I went there for a day. I look down and I'm in a suit and tie. I look right, there's a dude. I look left, there's a dude. I was like, man, there's twenty six kids in my graduating class, at least thirteen of them my girls. So I'm going back that way.
Of course, we have some players from there. We've had some players from Cathedral Cathedral Prep. It's a great school. They they've won over five state titles. Yeah, Damion, Terry Williams. Williams, Yeah, Palm dance. You know those guys were from a Cathedral prep. You know, great lineage in uh in football in the state of Pennsylvania. Lots of trip to Hershey, PA to play in the state state title game. Coach Mike
Mitchler there, really good guy. So I think this is a good a good gat that we have in these lands and right now with Terry and we know Iowa Hawk O dbs. Like the make of those dbs, they're gritty when you talk about just hard nose, like hard knack for the football. If you see highlights right now, like you know, this is what we we need, right We need turnovers, we need interception the way he can take it to the house. This is an opportunity where we're gonna add depth.
We just talked about mister Tatum. We asked like, there's fourteen dbs in room now, right, and so for us to have depth where someone goes down, we know that we're not going to lose any space of someone coming off the sideline. We're not going to lose that drop down of talent.
So this is good. We have guys who've had game experience, a little bit more like seniority to come in and give us a little bit more of different field, different flavor, and so good to see how he's going to fit into Coach Bartnett and our defensive scheme and so excited to add him to the dB room. Well, that question, I we're running the four two five defense of Michigan State does run. Now, it's imperative to have depth at that position because got a lot of guys and you know that's the
game now, it's a passing league. I don't care if it's college or pro football. That's what you're seeing. A lot of five wide received four wide receivers, and it got a lot of guys in a lot of different formations and insight adjustment routes that quarterbacks are able to eat up defenses. So having depth there from proven players like Terry Roberts is going to be critical for
the Michigan State this season and beyond. Now, now, when you look at the recruiting, I think it's interesting to look at the comparison this year, what is the mood of people now Spartan nation last year in this in this time during the recruiting process, which can say had a ton of visits, you know, official visits going on. There were zoo animals as Jayu likes to call in the stadium, farm animals, farm animals, dogs, guineas. We had a lot of cars, you know, g wagon g
wagons, lots of things. And this year seems to be a little bit more subdued. What is your feeling right now compared to last year where Michigan
State is from a recruiting standpoint with only three commitments so far. I think it's quality on quantity where there was so much, like I felt like we had to do so much to try to win over some of these kids from other schools and kind of getting back to just the DNA of culture, the scheme of coaches, the experience that our coaches have in the NFL, and then just an opportunity of just the future vision of our capital project of our
new facility, and then the campus itself, like you get on campus, which we saw the little stip in on WLNS and the coaches, they get a full experience with Coach Tucker, like time with him. We talked about this is last year's goat like man bt like Now this was a cold picture though from BT because years ago, right, but this was a thing that was different Pancake and yeah, into Miami. So a lot of things that we rolled the red carpet out for and these kids still didn't make that decision.
You know, you've got to go back to the drawing board and figure out, Okay, what are we doing differently to get these kids to fully say, hey, we're going to be in there top three versus we're in the top five where we're using us as clout to then build their full internal like my brand. So I think this is an opportunity. We're getting kids that are coming in where this is a desperate need. We're getting kids that we need to fill our room and our roster. You know. The big
thing is this all right? I Otis said it best. He said quality over quantity. We're going after guys that want to be spartans, you know, now, guys that are coming in to get those pictures and post it on Instagram, to get those pictures and you know, post it on Twitter and say hashtag blessed to have another offer all those different things. Yeah, yeah, you know, all those things we're looking We're going after guys.
It's a subdue thing. And you know what I compared to you. People are gonna like, you know, scratch their heads and give me ship for this. But I look at University of Michigan three years ago, all right, they had Jim Harball in that corvette in the rap video, Who's got it better than us? Doing all that? And they were not very good. He stopped talking, started coaching, started, you know, being there with the players and all those different things. And you saw the one back
to back Big ten titles. You can't take that away from them. You know. I think we're on the pedigree, We're on the path of where we're letting our on field play do the talking for us. There's a lot of you know, like it's good. You know, those glitz and glamours and everything like that you're gonna get. You're gonna get certain kids here, those kids that you're going to get for those things, Like you saw the picture of Pancake Conto. He was here for those, for those it was
a stepping stone for him to get bigger offers. Now, the guys that we have are guys that truly want to be a part of Michigan State football. Those are guys that truly want to be Spartans. These aren't guys that's going to use the stepping stone, you know, use this as leverage to be like, well, Michigan State offered me, what can you give me
to someone else? You know? So that's the thing. And for all those people, because I've seen the narrative and everything online, there's some panic in spartanation about we only have three hard commitments and this year we had this, we had that, but yeah, last year we had love. Last year we had a lot, and they flipped to one different places. This
year, we're getting the guys who want to be here. This year, we're getting the guys who feel they are true, true Spartans, and those guys that are the people that's going to help us to achieve that goal. In that one goal as every college football program is win a national title. That's well said, you know. You know I've seen it myself from not only this seat, but as a parent of a recruit. And we're going
to talk a little bit about this in more depth later on. There is a different vibe coming out of that building in Michigan State, especially from Mel Tucker and his staff, that recruits do relate to. I can assure you that I've seen it myself firsthand, and today was a very big attestment to that. We're going to talk more about that later, but guys like this, this is huge. I don't think that anyone needs to panic right now about how many commitments they have. I mean, signing day is in December
sometime, and then there's a second one in February. We have plenty of time to get the right guys. I think that when we've had guys like Corey Robinson from two four to seven sports on, he's talked in depth about going after the right caliber guys like you're saying, Jay, Michigan State guys, guys that really want to be here rather than go after the star because when you go out the start sometimes you don't necessarily land them because, as
you said, they could be looking for more deals. Yeah, and this great point here. I asked the question to you, what's your elevator pitch to recruit on why to come to MSU? And I simply say this, The elevator pitchs that I would tell a kid, you know that's choosing between a bunch of different colleges if you want to be part of something special. If you want to be part of building something really unique, and you want to be that fundamental, that foundation to getting somewhere, this is why you
come to Michigan State. If you want to have a great collegiate experience, you want to have a great social life, you want to have get a great degree, and at the end of the day, twenty years from now, when you're done and you come back and you're still being embraced and hugged when you walk in that football facility, you know you made the right choice. That's what I would tell a kid. If you want, if you want, if you're chasing them, if you want to get ten thousand a
month right now, this isn't a place for you. You know, Like, don't get me wrong, that's good, all that stuff is good. But if you want that foundation, if you want to go to Tokyo, Japan and walk in a bar and someone else go green and you yell go white back, you want that feeling. This is where this is where you come to school. This is something that will never ever be taken from you. That lineage, that title of a Spartan dog, that is something that
will go with you the rest of your life. So if you want to be part of that, that's why you come to MSU. If you want to be part of that organic growth and that organic feel for winning a Big ten title, for playing in a Rose Bowl, for having something prestigious, that's why you come to Michigan State. For opportunities like Trouble with a Snap, for opportunities like Little Giants, for opportunities like mouse Trap, Rocket Pass, all those place that live in history. I don't know how many schools
have big plays like that. But if you want to be part of something special, if you want to be a dog and wear that blue collar every day, that's why you come to Michigan State. Sign this man of the Missions right now, right here, all your recruits out there, listen to you. Choo. He'll get your head right. And you know what, We got to talk a little bit about this beautiful place that we're at, Chandler's Cross, and we're going to talk to Sarah Miller, who's the leasing
and marketing manager. She's going to join the show after this short message from our friends over at I Hop. At I Hop, we're introducing to you new all natural black Angestake Burgers, The Bourbon bacon jam and the halopen. You kick with a Frenchy for cheese chriss get a combo with fries and a dream starting at nine dollars only for I Hop Bundle upperber limited time only price and participation. Me there, your destrictions apply, all right, well,
Sarah Miller joins, This is Spot a NSU. Welcome to the show. Hi guys, how are you? Oh, we're great. We're great in this facility. Thank you for hosting. Of course you're welcome, Go ahead, go ahead. No, I'm just I'm just reminiscent. When I came in, I drove, I drove into the club entrance, I made a left, and I went all the way down, sat in there, looked at building eight. Yeah, I'm gonna have resident complaints, is what you're
telling me. It's a great facility. It truly gives a college student that now feel of freedom, you know, like that you don't get okay because you're not in the dorm. You have your own you know, washer dryer in the unit. It's your bathroom. You don't take It's that responsibility there and that what was the thought process going into this? And tell us about how far this place has come from when I was here. Well, I
mean, I'm not gonna aid you, so I'll see. We so we like, we just really want a family feel, but we want someplace where the students can come in and just kind of learn and grow, but at the same time have the freedom of our amenities. So the pool, the basketball court, this beautiful clubroom. They can come and use this. And we've seen everything from study groups to different organizations, to prayer groups during the
MSU shooting, like just everything coming to play over here. And so there are still rules to follow, but you do get the freedom end without living in a dorm where it's small and confined. And yeah, I love it here and I don't even live here. Yeah, we talk about the amount of student population. I know we've had on campus, you know, lack of housing for our kids, and so how have you used that as you know, an opportunity to obviously win some some new new tenants and new students.
So being located about eight minutes on a private bus route campus is actually really helpful, especially for students who you know may not have a car or a way to get around, but it offers them the freedom that you know, the bus may come five or six times, you know, throughout the day to come and take them to school. And with two locations around our community and all three of our properties have them, and a free bus pass
to offer on top of that, it's super helpful. And we are seeing an influx of people who are like, I've heard you from so and so in class, or I've seen you on social media or things of that nature. So it's so much easier and honestly, we are welcome to have anybody. Yeah, so one of the biggest you know, there's a ton of amenities here. There's the pool, there's a sand volleyball court, there's an indoor pool, the outdoor pool where back when I was say, there was
DJs out there. You sit, kick back and everything like that. But one of the biggest amenities that I take away from here being a guy that got four thousand, seven hundred and fifty six dollars and twenty four cents worth of parking tickets. That's free parking there. Yes, right, well we can you a little sticker, but yeah, you know that's that and uh and also to once you come in and and sign up to be a resident, you get a little nice little gift basket. Yeah. So right now,
we're actually offering a renewals special. So if anybody renews in the month of June, you not only get a cute little spartan basket that we're gonna show you here in just a second, but you get two tickets to a football game if you're choosing on us. So that as long as we get them, yes, you get them. We haven't here. We got a we got a nice little camera Tumblr tumbler over here. The way you get a shirt which you see some sweat channels. You got some branding so you'll
be walking ambassadors of channelers crossing. And then you got some beads and oh bottle opener you already know about. The time is right, look, go ahead, you know put it on perfect well fat Tuesday. So only on the month of gym, right in the month of June. Yeah, so in the summer you have kids that are obviously going back home. How are you managing that because I know people are like, hey, I don't want to sign at least and Jim, how are you combating that to get people
to sign their LEAs as early? Yeah, so we are actually filling up really quickly, but most of our residents are starting their leases in fall a couple I think a couple of days before school starts. It's actually our time to shine, is what we call it. It's our time to kind of fix up the place. So we have vendors that come in and professionally clean
paint, carpet, clean, cap replaced while everybody's gone. It gives us three weeks to make the property look as new as it can and then we get ready for our mass movement, which is honestly like a big party for us. We just have everybody kind of drive around, come get your keys, and then it's moving day. So it's a lot of fun. We play music, have a whole hang out. You guys can come up. Yeah, definitely. So if someone wants to sign, how do they go
about? Yeah, So you can just go to Channel crossing dot com pick which property you want to live at, just because we do have the three properties to the village, the club and the landings where actually we offer the play pass, which means that you can live here but play at the other amenities. So there's a movie theater over at the village indoor, so you go watch the Big Game on the movie theater with some pizza and not beer. Right guys, Right, So you know you said the village, the
Landing and the club. What are the different amenities that each one off? I know you you stay at one, you have a pass to play at all of them. But what are the different you said, the movie theater at the village and then you know, obviously the club has the indoor basketball indoor the sand volleyball court and everything. So what different amenities? So the Landings has a dog park and an outdoor pool as well the Landings, Well,
the Landings has the dog park in the outdoor pool. The village has the movie theater and outdoor pool and a skating rink that actually is a basketball court as well, so if you like ice skating, you can go over there. And then we of course have the indoor pool and the indoor basketball court. Wow, on top of so much more. Yeah, absolutely much much more. Tell me about these these phrases and facts. So live at
one and play it all is kind of our go to. So you can live here but play at the village or play at the Landings least now and live the Chandler lifestyle is more so just we have a certain life style like you were kind of talking about as far as freedom from dorms with the responsibility of a regular apartment. But we have so many different features inside the apartments itselves, granite countertop up, stealing steel appliances. Oh yeah, you lived
with granted, you live the lifestyle. So Sarah, you know, talk about what's the occupancy. I know, you know this is a hot, bad place for people to come, and it's grown immensely. I know, we were talking off air and you said, you know, seventy nine percent to capacity right now, so people need to go. There's that twenty one percent. I mean, there's that, you know. So like so if you want it, you got to get it there. Yeah, you got to get it. Oh yes, it's like it's a just you know,
a credit check. Da da da da da da. It's not even that. So mostly the students, well they are we do check it. But yeah, you just go online apply, We go through the whole process, takes about twenty four to forty eight hours and you're good to go. Welcome to Chandler Crossing. Awesome, awesome, Well you heard it man, Like this is an opportunity. Now we appreciate your partnership with Michigan State Athletics and
obviously you all and our partnership is very good for us. But I know the students love seeing you all out there in marketing but also trying to get them to, hey, become a tenant. So let us know how we can do better for us and for you all. But we appreciate you at least hosting us here. And you know, hopefully we get a little pass here, you know, to be able to come in. Promise y'all as long as we get tickets, you guys can come plain in the Thank you
so much, sir. We appreciate you. I appreciate you, all right, appreciate it. That's you know again, Sarah Miller, thank you. Uh Chamer's Crossing. It's a great place. Everybody needs to come down here. If you haven't been here before, you need to come check this place out. Guys, you know we're going to talk about N I L. But we're gonna do that after this. Another another message from my friends over at I I Hoppy Hour starting at six dollars at three pm only for my
hopp and join the rewards program today. All right, guys, look, you know there's been a lot of news about NIL talk all over the country and Texas. I know what's going on in Texas. You know, Hey, a lot of crazy stuff going on in Texas. They just have a they have a bill now for n I L that's being presented that essentially, this is the Governor Greg Abbott from from Texas saying that no matter what the collectives do that may or may not be illegal to the NCAAA, the NCAA
cannot punish them whatsoever. Guys, you know when you I don't even want to know, that just sounds yeah, basically trying to protect you know, the Texas A and m Texas and whoever else is in the Texas text, all the Texas schools from any kind of punitive damages from the NCAA if they don't follow the federal guideline. So there's that just outright just saying we are definitely breaking the rules, so we're going to go past this bill just so
we protect ourselves. Because clearly you're already admitting faults or they're saying they're being proactive saying that if you change your rules, you can't it doesn't affect us. So my question will be to you, guys, what's the last time Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A and m at some you Rice University of Houston won a national title when Vince Young was there right in bcsda's Yeah. So now they're saying we want a national title and by any means necessary,
by hook or by crook, we're gonna get this national title. And they're just they're saying, we want whatever school you at. You know, this is what Texas government. We want the state of Texas to be put on that platform because you're gonna see on in January the National title game. There's gonna be some school in Texas they want representing, you know. So that's the thing with that and the saying give all you can without any penalties. If you want to do something that you'd be like, eh, you can
now because there's no federal repercussions for it. So that is something that that's like I think overall, the NCAAA needs to take a look at this, you know, before it goes too far, because there's there is such a thing as crossing that line, and there is such a thing as too far, and I think that has to be taken a look at and monitored. Some guideline team to be put in place before this truly truly gets to the
wild wild West mentality. I mean it's getting there, you know, because Texas hasn't gotten into the national championship discussion since they got smoked by Alabama. I think it was Cop McCoy was in that ball game. Yeah, after the Vince Young days, and it looks like they want to double down and get back into the discussion. You know, otis when you look at this, you know you lived in Austin, right for a while. You know, he'll tell us that, yeah, you go whatever, Yeah, what
do you think this means for the sport? Listen? I just feel like there's bigger fish for fry and legislation laws in Texas, like been doing this
before, they do other things, right. I won't get on that that hot box, but I feel like it's an opportunity for other states to take notice that, you know, you got to be proactive and you got to take this into your own hands, because clearly Texas California kind of started the whole trend fully of doing what they're doing in our Texas and then you don't see these big states Georgia will be next Florida, Like you're gonna start seeing
the big, big state schools that are bringing a lot of the talent in college football and college basketball, just collegiate athletics. You go see these states trying to support their kids and getting all that they can in NIL. And so it's crazy, man, It's it's it's truly wid Waid West and it's just adding more AMMO to the Texas schools of like getting kids to go down to Texas because clearly, you know you can just whatever you can carry,
whatever you can carry, you can get money. You don't got to do quick poll qu but they don't care. Right, you can be on billboards with everything from cannabis to alcohol. Like, it's gonna be a crazy world win of activation and starting seeing our student athletes doing stuff that typically university and the collegiate athletics doesn't kind of mix. But you're gonna start seeing some new
things happening on that point. So what you're saying is right now the way that we know the rules to be, there are limits right that what players can market for personal game through the NIL structure. Right, so they can't do alcohol alcohol now they could but without marks. Right, Like if I'm just in a regular shirt doing whatever. I can do that. Alcohol, you can do it. I mean, you can do that. You can do anything. If they're paying, you're getting you know, you're doing the
service and they're paying to do that service. But with the power we talked about the power of intellectual property, is that marks and logos that helps drive brands, helps drive your brand, to be honest with you, and so you're gonna start seeing some like just some some battles you know that probably should be fought right now, but you know, I'm gonna I'm interested to see how it's going to kind of shay. So my one question is this, uh for you guys, and I know the answer for me? Is this
a good or bad thing for college football? Texas? Is Texas built? Yeah? I just think it's a typical Iceberg. It's Pandora's box, you know, because we know that there were several schools. I think there are sec schools. We talked about Power five that went to Washington, D C. Last week to lobby the Senate and the House on nil legislation to try to put some guardrails on this thing, as old coach Saban likes to say,
because it's getting out of hand. And I think what he's talking about is directly this thing we're talking about in Texas, because it's not equal footing for the entire college football landscape. And without equal footing, and how can you really have a competitive balance? You know, you look at the NFL NFL and it's competitive balance. Everybody gets the same salary cap. You know, you come in. If you're the best team, then you pick last. If you're the worst team, you pick first. You know, those
kinds of things bring parody if everybody ends up eight and eight? Are you know nine and eight now with seventeen regular season games, I think they're happy in the NFL. But the way things are going now, especially with a moves like this at Texas, it could shift all the talent to go to Texas or or Texas Cats to break away. Who knows, I mean what this thing can go turn into. It could turn into you know, some schools disengaging from the NCAA, and then what do you have You know,
does that affect the media rights deals? I mean you can speak to that artist like, there's a lot to unpack there with a move like this that's happening in Texas. So I think that I mean, we're just starting to see the tivitized where something's going to have to be done. I don't know how fast Congress moves, and my estimation they haven't moved very fast in the past on something like this, on even more important things so to speak. So how are they going to be able to get out in front of this
because right now it totally is going to be the wild wild West. Yeah, I totally agree with you, and I think I think it's a bad thing for college football if you if you're going to go to that side of things where you're monetizing the game, that you're going to go to this to the length of controlling salary cap and everything like that. It takes the purity, It takes the that out of the game of college football. I don't care who wins the national title if you're going to do that, because there's
going to be all about who buys the best team. I still love the fact about that old school recruiting that old school. You know, come to my school because of the tradition, come to you, come to exactly you won this player outright, exactly you've got into what do you think on it? From a devil's advocate standpoint, What about like baseball? How you know you have the Yankees, who I'll spend everyone else and they're still competitive balance
within that sport. What do you think about that where there's not a salary cap so to speak. Well, because it's gonna it's gonna be based on the states that have the highest wealth, That's what it's gonna be. But also not just that, you know, because majority of people, you know, like you've got spartans that live in you know, Texas and everything like that. But the root of it all, it's oil tycoons just boil money and everything. You see a little bit about that in the state of Oklahoma,
you know, you see a little bit. There's some schools that are public schools for public funding, and there's some schools that are oil funded schools. And these kids that are oil funded in the still Water region and everything like that have a bunch of they have advantage all those different things. But you know, so it comes to those things there and I just I truly,
you know, I want the purity of the game. So I want the sanctity of the of the game of the n c A A. If not, I don't know where we are where we're going to be get ugly. I just want to we're going to stay close to it because clearly it's still going to be ever changing. Right, But that's a huge chess move. Like that's a huge like, hey, we're ten spaces ahead of y'all,
to ten ten moves ahead of y'all. And they took it to like you said, took it, uh proactively and took it internally and saying, listen, we got to do something because you know, we do want to We want to win a championship at all calls, literally, at all costs. They want to win the national championship. And what if you see Texas go Live golf. Yeah, that's what there's a there's a great example.
Remember Longhorn Network when it came out, right, yeah, yeah, that was yeah first, like, listen, we don't make our own network. Yeah, we don't care what other things are happening in media rights. We're going to make our own network. Which then I feel like, start to see the Big ten network. He starts to see other stuff. But Longhor had their Yeah, yeah they were first. And this goes to show for all of college fooble and this is an additive in the SEC. Long before,
like Texas, the SEC played by their own rules. Yeah, it was always asked for forgiveness, that permission, and now there's that Now States leagues everything is given more and more of that leeway that they can start doing more of that now. Yeah, I mean, and there's a lot of people in the comments talking about it. You know, Hey, you know inn Il's ruined, ruining college sports, not in mature anymore. But you know, I don't think that that horse has left the barn. I don't
think that you're going to be able to do that. We just talked about Madi Sosoko having you know, a great turnout back in his hometown of Mali, you know, with Nil. But that's n IL done right exactly exactly.
So it's not just Nil's ruining the sport. I think when you don't have guard rails and there's people that can just you know, pass law legislation saying that I don't care what the congueror whatever happens at the NCAA level, We're not affected by it, you know, which is an incredible thing guys, and pay for play or taking care of current student athletes like on campus, like it's a collectors are to be aggressive and recruiting, Yeah, to
pay these players to come play for you. There's difference, and I think that's the opportunity. Like everything's messed together now and people don't know what's right, what's left, and you know, we're in a whole week of trouble. But I'm hoping somebody, I don't know who it is it is going to try, at least to your point, put guardrails on it to get
us back in the lanes of playing fair. Uh. And we understand other schools have bigger affinities and bigger resources because of alumni and this you know, price like money, right, But at the very least you knew that we could go compete with the kid because strictly off of who we are in the university. Like that's back in the day where we were able to do that
recruiting on just merit and culture in school. And now you're like, if you don't have a bag attached to what you're putting out there, there's really no way you're going to get put in the front forefront of their race of trying to select the school. And before we jump off this topic, these athletes better be careful, you know, like my grandpathy would say, here we go. Well, the grandpap he always don't let the smooth taste fool you. He said, talk is cheap. Good wisky costs money. All
right. What that that said is these athletes that are that are taking this money, you got to perform now because just us, just as much as the state, he can have this legislation that no rules can can go. They can say if you get this money and you don't perform, you got to pay this money back. So if you find mama them a house house and you don't perform, you're gonna have to find someone to give this money
back. And these kids are going to be in a buying there. So that's why there has to be some guardrail, some some rules and regulations to this and the taxation piece, because that's what what could trigger is we haven't seen nobody been long enough, but not even Yeah i RS just passed said that. You know, they don't think that, you know, charitable contributions are are right. So that's something we want to bring Tom Beaters back on
the show and talk about that. Yeah, you know, because he's you know, in that world of charitable gifts and the I r S is like, well, you can't just give money to collectives that solely are trying to recruit players for athletics and get a rite out for that. So there's there's a whole big bag. But you know, one school is doing a very phenomenal job at NIL and that's a messue. We're talking about the Evergreen Company. They won an award, a national award forwards an IL programs showing the
athlete de proper can't compete with the big boys. Yeah, and I think, you know, one got to give flowers to our own fellow Spartan Dog Deputy Ash Henderson, who has led the charge of really just brand awareness of getting the right people in the room to educate student athletes on how to capitalize on NIL. You know, we have you know, for instance, Leek Carr with his wrestling n IO deal, like he is one of the prominent
guys who truly has a good deal. And I think, you know you being a lovely avid wrestler fan and you know, I think you're in your past life you are a wrestler. So and then you have others like you know, from a standpoint of the League Hall and our gymnasts, like everyone's having the success stories and the opportunity is to celebrate the student athletes. It's an award that truly and people were questioning what was in issue doing? Why
are we doing this? Our kids are educated to capitalize, like they have every resource tips and it's really up to them to truly put a brand tied to their brand to help them elevate their whole thing. Yeah, and that's a good, very good point there you talk about and when people you know out there that are saying MSU doesn't do the NIL for the guys, they don't do this. What they're saying is this MSU isn't paying their guys. But ms U is really using an NIL for what it is their us.
And we had Darius Snow he talked about working with Harvard, you know, working with that's anil to work. You got Maddie Susoko going back and that's nil. You have Malie Carr with w W. When he's done playing, he's gonna go. He has the WWE contract waiting for him, just like those those Twins that played at Miami last week. W W NXT right now and the seasons work boom, they're they're there right now. So those are
the NIL deals that are setting these kids up for the future. Not the instant gratification that everyone wants, that bag everyone wants, those chains that everyone wants, the cars that everyone wants, that's not it's setting them up for life after the lead ms U. And that's what ms U is doing a very good job, the true spirit of NIL. That's what it's supposed to be branding, not pay to play, you know. And and that's that's an interesting topic. And we could talk for days on it, guys,
you know, to talk more about it. And Jayu brought this up in our production meeting today. He said, you know, look, we talk about NIL and what's going on all over the country, we need to talk to a recruit that's been around the country and here at home in Michigan State about this. So right now, what we're gonna do is bring on Caden Strayhorn, who has been around the SEC and now has just had an official, unofficial visit at Michigan State to the show. Let's bring him on now.
I'm gonna have to try to recruit, recuse myself a little bit here since this is my son. By the way, I was like waiting you to call him like Pooky or like Okay, but that's him. Kayden. Spray Horn joins, this is spot. How you doing there, Kayden? How are you doing that? Good? Yeah? Kaiden, I appreciate you on taking the time to join us here. And when we were talking in the production meeting about you know, recruiting and everything like that, and I
thought it would be a lost costs if we didn't bring you on. You've had the opportunity right now. You're a sophomore at IMG going into your senior year. This season coming up, you had eighteen uh scholarship offers and right now the start of you and everything, I was just in LA and I, you know, hung out with you guys. We went, we crushed some Popeyes chicken and all that. Your mom wasn't supposed to know that, but you know, we did all that. And then you guys hit the
recruiting trail the next day. So you were at Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee. Now you're here in East Lanson. You know, what is this recruiting process like, because it's a lot different from when any of us were recruiting. So what is that recruiting process like? For you right now. The recruiting process is definitely extremely unique. You know, we were just at Georgia,
then we went to Alabama, and then we went to Tennessee. Being able to see the difference between every single school even though it's the same conference.
You know, every school is very unique in itself. Georgia, I mean we saw really good facilities, and really what you want to look for when you go to a school is who who is down for you as a person in after football, not just as looking at you as a football player, and then you want to look at how has this coach developed the position that you play and how can this coach get you to that next level? Yeah that that's a that's a very good point there. And uh today you
were here at Michigan State. So how do the SEC facilities and everything compare to what's going on here in Michigan State. I would say, I'm trying to get that charge. Okay, Okay. I would say that in the SEC they have they have a lot of money, so their facilities are always going to be top notch no matter no matter what school it is. Georgia, especially, their facilities are brand new. I mean it's the best in the country. I would say Alabama has a brand new weight room now and
it's really nice. It's it's really like IMG a lot. But I mean being at a high school like IMG, they already have everything that you are going to have in college. And then going to Tennessee, you know, they have everything, and their strength coach is very position based with his list, so it's going to develop you as an offensive lineman and everyone's going to
be on a different program depending on what position they play. And then at Michigan State they're building a new facility and you know, their strength coach Will used to be at IMG, so he's very familiar with the way that I work out now. And you know, that's always awesome to see it. All right, Kay, talk about your visit today. You know you've grew up pretty much on campus here at Michigan State. You've seen this, you know, during the D'Antonio era. You know, been in the booth,
been on the sideline. You've watched guys like Le'Veon Bell on the sideline with his hand with holes. You're like, you've seen a lot of players up close, been in the locker room, the training room got more equipment than ju you know, which is impossible. Wow, what have you seen today that makes you feel like, you know, is Michigan State Park? Can they be on par with the SEC schools that you've seen last week? Okay, so today we watched the video of the new facility that's under construction right
now. They're they're their new program and their new facility that's about to be put in is top notch. Things that are similar to the SEC that they have that I saw in the video are they have a turf hill that runs up to the weight room, and that's exactly what Georgia had, you know, And so seeing you know, that's that's kind of where I go to
when I was trying to bring up the topic of the saying similarities. So when I see these similarities, then I can compare by the schools and what they have, and really they Michigan State's about to have everything that an SEC school has in as far as a weight room and a locker room and all the flood pools and the you know, the cold tubs and the hot tubs.
So it's all just formatted differently. That's really the biggest difference. And you know, really what it comes down to is the staff, and we need to figure out which staff wants you the mouth and which staff is ready to you know, go to bat for you no matter what happens. Yeah, Kadine, You you know, from a standpoint, people don't really understand you're a work ethic and obviously the commitment and sacrifices that you're going through right
now. You know, one, you're away from your family who live in California and you're in Florida, and you know, talk about just the opportunity to truly grow at a young age and able to prepare you for when you
do come to to whatever school you select. Is it an advantage? Talk about that full you know, resimeen and schedule that you're going through right now as you're living away from your family, and then I know you're back for the summer with your family, but just talk about the whole thing right there. So yes, sir, So basically what I would say they is, you know, moving away from my family as only a sixteen year old.
You know, it's a big move. And you know, when you do it so young, it's just like getting the ginners out on the first hit of a football game. You know, you do it and it's done. So when you go to college, it's easy and all you got to do is be prepared to grind because you already know what it's like to live on your own. So living on my own for three and a half years at the school like IMG Academy is perfect because you know when you go to college,
it's the same thing. So you know, football is a business and you have to be ready to contribute to that business. Damn, hey, this man, this man haven't been in a basement. We're pop stary life. I'm talking about like you've been watching him on Spartan Meet the Network, just talking on that radio and that video man like smooth, smooth, great? Is it right? So okay, so you talked about so the young guys come from IMG, Like we have Jordan Hall that's here and from his
time coming in in the spring, watching them in the spring game. And now I said, Jordan Hall is a kid that can go out there and play and contribute this fall, just with that semester at east Lands. And how does IMG prepare a kid for college? I know you went into that a little bit, but like from X's and O's waits and that that mental academic that mental side of things for football, How does that prepare a student to go to college? Okay, I'm going to be one hundred percent real.
You know, IMG is not easy. You know when I went to for example, my Miami University of Miami's spring practice, their first practice, and I watched my old teammate Francis Mago go through the practice. He was the only offensive lineman I was able to get through that practice due to the fact that he's trained just like that at IMG Academy. You know, you go, you know, team stretch is long, you know, it's twenty
minutes, same thing in college. Right then you're gonna go to inside run all these you know, based reach drills in the corner with your O line coach and andy all these things. Is the same thing as any program in college, you know, especially the elite ones. So when you go through this, and especially as a guy like me that's been to IMG for three and a half years and a guy like Jordan Hall, you know, when you go to college, it's easy and you're ready to just showcase what you
can do. You're in shape, you're mentally prepared, and you're physically capable. Yeah, and so with that, right, so I know, we talk to your dad, we give them grief, you know, we tell them, hey, you know, get your kids here. Le legacy, that's some word that's throwing around all the time. But at the end of the day, and he says the same thing your mother says, say is
the same thing. It's it's yours and your brothers and your sisters, because all three of you are talented and are going to play at the next level. So what advice do they give you. We put you on the spot, cater I would say, you know, it's not about you know, going to the national championship winning team. It's not about you know, setting records, even though you know we might be physically capable of doing that. What my parents have always taught us is to be the best version of you.
So when I'm going to go into a workout, right, I'm going to be the best version of me in that gym, and I'm not going to be outworked ever, because effort is not you know, you don't need talent to have effort. So when you have that talent and you don't work hard, I mean, then effort beats you. But when you have talent and you put that effort in you cannot be beat and you know, you want to be where your feet are. So if I'm in the classroom,
I'm worried about the classroom. If I'm at practice, you cannot be worried about homework or anything. You got to be where you are. You know, where your feed are. That's practice, So let's practice, you know. So you know, my parents have distilled that in us, and especially faith. You know, we have faith, me, my brother and sister. My dad he's taught that to us because due to the fact that his
dad was a preacher. So my granddaddy has always taught me that. You know, whenever you're in a rough time, when I'm at IMG and I miss my mom or I miss my little sister or my brother, I just looked to God, you know, and sometimes you just have to take a moment and breathe it all in. And you don't want to get too high or too low. You got to stay medium, you know, and and God and you know, family is you know the main two things in me
and my brother and sisters lives. So that's very important. And just being where you are. This is what Nick Saban always preaches. Be where your feet are you know, like, right now, I'm in this interview, so I cannot be worried about anything else but this interview, and that's where I'm locked in at. So yeah, so you have eighteen scholarship offers, So I wouldn't be me. I would lose my media badge if I didn't ask a tough question. It's MSU in your top eighteen. He I met
you. I met you when you were like, I mean littlejit, like you still have the fluffy baby fatter y'all were making the you know, the grins and football stuff, and you know, when did it click for you? Like when did when did it click where you were like listen, I know I have the pedigree. I know I'm a straighthorn, but like when it clicked for you where you're like, listen, I'm better, bigger, faster than obviously Michigan where you were living at and like you needed another challenge.
When did that click for you? You know when you were coming up playing football? Okay, So in ninth grade, we actually drove by IMG Academy and my mom had said, oh, this is school IMG Academy. I was like, oh, I want to go there, and she said okay, when we get back Banana's house, let's check it out. And so we've seen it, and you know, the tuition is not nothing to play around with. So my mom said, you could ask her. I
looked at her, I said, oh, I'm a dove. So during COVID in seventh grade, when we were doing online school, every day after school, I would go to Borrow's and now just work out, and I just got like extremely strong for a middle schooler. I went to these mega camps and just started blowing up. And you know, I heard from all these people that were interviewing me about my dad. Oh, he was so strong, he was the strongest on the team. He was the best,
the best player. You know, he did all these things. He would have been great. He was great. And you know, seeing all these things, I like to reflect on my dad's career and make sure all the mistakes I learned from, all the mistakes that he made, I'm not gonna
make because I had that. I had that mentor in my life, and that's why it's so important to have somebody that's been there for before, and so much of a blessing to have a dad that's been there before, because he can tell you straight up whenever you need like, no, don't do that, do this instead. And and I'm a very process driven guy, so when you give me a plan, you know, I'm glad. I'm
gonna do the work and I'm gonna complete it. So when I was given that opportunity after my freshman season at IMG for im Academy, you know, I jumped on it right away and I was ready to go. I was ready to work. And you know, it's been a blessing for me and my family. When you go to a school like that, you know you're gonna you're gonna have ups and downs, and there's gonna be times where they're messing with your head. But you have to be mentally smart and that's where
that faith ficks in. And you know, after this year and a half, you know, I'm ready to show the world that I can do this vious season. Yeah, Kayden, If we just took this clip and didn't do the intro and didn't say you're playing IMGs and you played this for someone, they would say, Wow, this is a guy in his junior year in college. You know, with how mature you are and everything like that, you're just sixteen years old. I just turned seventeen. Oh just turn
something. Okay, Yeah, but at the end of the day, you're still a kid. So what do you like to do for fun? Like, what's what's your favorite food? I know you can crush Popeyes, I know that strawberry biscuits. Yeah, I've seen that first fan. But what's music do you listen to? You know, me and my my dad has always like played like the oldies, like Biggie Tupac, all those types of guys. Recently, you know, I listened to like the Baby, Little
Baby, Little Dirk, all those newer generational guys. And then we always listen to a little bit of gospel as well. Okay, and what about movies. What's your favorite movie? What what genre? Anything like that. My favorite movie is Creed because I feel like sometimes I am him seeing you know, people say, oh, you're there because your dad. You know, your dad did this and that. At the end of the day, I'm the one on the field doing the work, and so I feel where
Creed is coming from. And that's why that movie, you know, I feel that that's a movie I look to for motivation. I will put you put you on the spot impersonation or your dad, No, no, no, So I want to ask him a question. So today, because we I was priven to be in the meeting today, you met with coach Tucker and you came away from that, you know, enlightened about his talk. Tell the guys here how that talk went and what the mall say to you
that spoke to you. So we all sat down and my mom asked mel He said, if Kaden was your son going through the recruiting process, what would you tell him to look at while he goes through these schools? And he immediately said, well, mister Horn, I would tell him to look at you know, every single every single school has trophies. Every single school has you know, the fancy things, the shiny things. Every single school has the best facility. They're always going to build a new facility every year.
It's just how it goes. But you need to look at the school that loves you the most, because if they love you, and you go to a coach that's willing to run through a brick wall for you, and and you know, he goes, who was your favorite literal league coach? And he goes, see how your face just lit up? He said, A player that likes the coach is willing to play for that guy, play his heart out. So and and he trust that guy. And it's important
to trust your positional coach. So he said, look for that coach that loves you and that staff that loves you where you feel like you can be the best version of Kyden that you can be. And hearing that, you know, it really touched my heart. And you know I've been thinking about that ever since I left the Canada. So, Kate, what we want you to do is we want you guys to pack up tonight, get back on your flight, go to don't visit any more schools. This is a
lot of stop for It's a process now. But Kat, seriously, though, really appreciate you jumping on your well wise behind your age better than me right now. No matter where you go, no matter what school you choose, you know, good luck to you and you're we know you're going to find success and we will always be rooting for you. Oh thank you guys. And I know I just wanted to give a shout out to my mom. It's her birthday today. He Happy birthday, Momay, happy birthday?
Should should we do that? We got a picture? Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah we did. Hey, hey we get a Stevie Wonder one at the pizza house? Should we did this Stevie Wonder Happy Birthday, Happy man, Happy man. Awesome. These guys have to rick the scale. A great job, son, as I know you always like to do. Man, Hey, look man, listen, I don't have to coach you much. Show man. I feel like you gave him something because this is how many interviews have you done today? This is like my fifth one.
Yeah, yeah, like yeah, so he does that? True, naturally, It's a great kid. Absolutely. You know. I'm not just saying that because I'm his dad, you know. And that boy can love your son. That boy can crush you see me either, check away. You just see this boy. He was like my mom watching just got cussing pop u. Yeah no, man, that was that absolutely great and if your well rounded kid. Kudos to you and Alicia, you know, for the family you're raising, not just Kayden, but Cody as well as Gabby.
You know, all three of them, and all three of those well are gonna be playing at the next level. You guys got something coming to you, don't watching you know, you know it's a process. Tell me where you feed seven girls that right now. Yeah, I know, we got fathers that come up man like, it's it's a beauty to see it and full out, you know, in front of everything where you're balancing a lot of stuff, working and getting man, you're putting basically you sat Ae
a lot. You and Lisha have sacrificed a lot to put them at this point, so one appreciate it. Potter the game go back there. Yeah, but we do whatever it takes to get them, put them in the best position to be able to succeed. And you know, and yeah it does hurt sometimes, you know, but we're willing to sacrifice. This isn't about me, It's about them, and so I'm willing to do whatever it is. And you know, Alicia, their mother, you know, my
wife is willing to do whatever as well. So it works that way. You know, as long as you got a good partner that we're all focused. Just like coach tell you got wrong, that's it, We're going in the same direction. Yeah, it was a great guys. You know, so I'm a great show. If you enjoy tonight's show, don't forget to hit the like and subscribe buttons. That helps us to continue to be able to bring you this show the best Spartan experience twice a week. Also check
out that playlist on YouTube. You know see you know you choose greatest hits. Rewind then check out that that you know see if he hit all the right the words. So that was a chicken fried chicken? Was the name of that chicken fry? You know? Did not? He's on stage. Hit up, Sarah Miller. Correct all the students. If you're watching following us, you see you need to This is the lis to stay is crossing one. Hit her up, you sent you that's right. You will get
zero percent off. She will smile. You'll have a great time. Maybe a keg by the pool, the indoor outdoor pool that make sure it's in the guidelines right, big volleyball or a great show tonight, fellas for for day you called otis Willy. I'm Jason Straighthorn. Have a good night, God bless you go. Right A a wheel on the brown eyes opecting the victims run in the Radio of Classy Pride.