The following is a presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties. Good evening, everybody, Welcome to another show. Today's Thursday, January nineteen, two thousand and twenty three. I'm your host, Jason Storying Gorn along with our co hosts Otis Wiley and jay U. Shoot Shoot, Go Chrick. This is Sparta. But you guys already know that, so it's time to get into it. You know, by the way, thank you for
watching. If you are watching live, don't forget to hit the like button. Not watching live, hit the like button anyway, and don't forget to subscribe, and then do follow us on all of our social media platforms. And this is how thanks for tuning in to This is Sparta. MSU. Interested in hearing more from us, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even TikTok. Click on the link in the bio to head to our link tree for more information. Help us grow our following
by hitting the like and subscribe buttons. Tell your friends and family to do the same. Have an idea for a future episode, let us know in the comment section below. And now back to the show. We're going to right into it. Because we have a special guest guys for the show. You know a guy. If you're a Spartan fan, you absolutely know him. He played on the office side of the ball, fast guy, very successful guy, man to the NFL, and now is in the coaching world.
We are talking about none of it then, Herb, Hey good? What's going on? Herb? Hey not much? Man, appreciate you guys having me. What's up? Coach? How you doing doing awesome? Jay? Should we address you as coach? Hey good? Is that what they call you? Yeah? Well, we got a couple of the ones that you know from the Creole called me coach Herb, and I gotta get him just to speak coach. Hey good. You know I'm not right, but yes, coach good. But today it's just her Man, you know,
teammates and Spartan for life. That's right, O, Man. I was thinking about it. Man. So when we when we were playing, you were you were you? Boy? Was George Western scholarship back getting finishing up? Which one was it? No? I was actually as a student coach because I left school, Yeah, go and go into the NFL. So I came back to finish my degree during that time. Yeah, and that
was with us. That was John Allen or coach first year. Because god, I'm trying to think you know that's what because I remember seeing seeing like hanging your kicking it. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's about two thousand and six of two thousand and seven somewhere around there. So that was that last John. Yeah, it had to be, because you know that's where I make a bunch of other guys. Definitely, definitely, definitely I got
it. I gotta before jumping in, I gotta say thank you. You know when you were back there as that student manager, as the student coach, you didn't because John had a rule you couldn't go to the bars during the season. And all these other gas we will we would go as players. We will sneak out, we go to the bars and these gas and
not you. That's what I'm thinking. You all these gas will be in line, and they'll be in line, and we'll be we'll get them in, we'll get them drinks, and then they're go telling us the next day were yeah. Yeah, you know college. You know you're supposed to enjoy your time, make sure you stay out of trouble the right exactly. I appreciate you for not telling on us. Yeah, you're doing what you need to do on and off the field. Man, I ain't have no problem.
Yeah, and I'm trying to think. I know you were talking about land sharks. Man. I think the dirty dollar was a thing. Yeah we uh yeah, the silver dollars salu. Yeah, funny story, man. We were at the hockey game last weekend. One of our partners, the Army National Guard and uh Tony and Barra. He uh he brought it up. He was like, yo, I used to manage to shill with dollar. We all looked at it, like, man, we just was talking about Yeah. Yeah, I told her for got, Man, there
was a guy. Man, if you't know him, Man, you wasn't getting in. Oh yeah, probably was a l A. It was l A l A. You had to be LA. Where is l A. That's gonna know like he's a legend in l A. Yeah I do. I do remember hearing the whispers of the name l A. Yeah, Man, you had to know him. Man, not getting you're gonna waiting that
thing into it clothes right exactly. Speaking of that, he brought up that big brawl that happened that then caused JU to get his first start as a start because someone was suspended because of this fight at said bar dollar that, so you always at an affinity for the bars. It ain't doing anything to me. So literally, do we know he was out there too? Out there? I was, I was, I was at home. Are you looking at Yeah? Yeah, so I know when I was. When I
was coaching UH in Indianapolis. I know you're not connected, and I was trying to get some boys from UH from Naptown over to to you. Uh when you took over the job of Madonna Man and uh, you know, one, it's obviously good to see one of our own UH in the coaching rings but also leading the program. And you know, you you hit on
it before we started. Man, it's like, you know, no one really knows what it takes to truly build a program, like we're talking from scratch, like they announced it, Hey we're going to have a football program, and you are the man that's leading this charge. And you know, man, send some light into what you're dealing with and what you're managing right now and obviously building a future for about university. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
And actually I'm actually the second head coach. We had a coach here previously and then he chose to take another job down to Capitol University. So my current president, former ad you know, came to me and asked me, you know, if I was in our expanding head coach, and I took it over from there. It's a little bit different where Anyia. Even though we offer scholarships just like Division two, the difference is they have thirty six. We have twenty four and try to spread those among the one hundred
and thirty plus kids that we're trying to have on a roster. But yeah, going from you know, ordering helmets, you know, finding a place to play. We're in in a conference called the Mid States Football Conference. It's football only with schools here in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. But you know, building program from scratches. It's not only you know, bringing in football players, but you also got to start a band, you got
to have cheer and dance. So that's added you know, probably three hundred plus students to the university, you know, So it's a lot that goes into it. Wow, man, I know, I was at the National Football Foundation and running corporate partnerships and they had this campaign that was called Football Matters and it was. It was more so of attacking I guess the stigma of you know, you you get hurt, you get cushions, and you
know, mothers were not letting their sons play. But they put this campaign together and it starts off with like the band on the field, and then it says, so what happens if football is no longer being played and they just shut the lights off and it's showing like the band, the cheers of the dance, you know, athletic training, everything that goes under that football truly supports. It's kind of crazy to obviously hear you you're doing that day
to day to build up, build it up. Yeah, yeah, definitely when you say that, we do so much. And a lot of people say football is a front porch or the front porch of any university and in building that is truly that's true. We've had people that come to games that homecoming. Our homecoming used to be at a soccer game, and this year was the last two years have been where we had many people come back. This year will be the first year that we actually have homecoming on campus.
With the new stadium being built with partnering with a gold Star Mortgage so yeah, a ton of stuff goes into it. You know, my job is to keep pushing and and and take what I learned. And really, if you look at my program, it's similar to what we were talked by coach Saban no gray area. You know, you go to work every day and that's what we're doing here. Yeah, talking about that. So obviously you
came from ses Soda, right, correct, Florida. Yeah, the best best player to come out of Sarah so that that played in Michigan State. Yeah, we got a ton of we got I felt like I feel like the folks. I feel like the players that came through from Braandington always claimed that they were Sarasota to like you know me and my wards. They do. But you know a lot of people don't remember. The first one to come was actually it was not imp it was Luke Vinson. I don't know
if you remember that name that straight. Oh yeah, he was a the quarterback turned safety safety. Yeah, like defense, the the problem defense right now, selling secret. I don't know what Luke's doing. Yeah, he was always entertaining dude, man. Yeah, Luke, it's the first an you got amp camp to come up. And then me and then of course, you know, said Henry Marcus Waters, Jason Bradley, Neil my Award. I mean I can keep going on on all the guys that came out
of there. So wow, that's incredible. Man. Family to all family, well, because that's my cuz, right. So talk about like the preparation that you've had, because I haven't you know, you know, guys who coach football you see as it go all the way up and down the ranks of it, but never have I really seen. I don't. It's rare to see somebody that actually builds a program from the ground up that has your experience, the NFL experience. Obviously you played for Nick sab and still
have a great relationship with him. Talk about how that time prior to getting into this role as a coach has prepared you, because this is like a CEO on steroids in my opinion, Yeah it is. And I just take it back. You know, from my beginning of portional play for been all around, playing in the CFL, NFL, CFL, NFL, Europe Arena football, and then my wife like, hey, your career started up here, so like you're going down here. I think it's time to go back
to school. So I went back to school, and I was fortunate enough to be under you know, coach Tredwell, who was one of my mentors, you know, so kind of followed him around and believe it or not, my I started all of at college, but my my first full time position was at Saginaw Valley and it was through coach is. The coach is Tho's roommate in college was a guy by the name of Randy Orri who was
the head coach at Saganaw. So this was where the relationships come in and the how you are as a player or student at your current you know, school or whatnot. Coach is Tho, you know, you know, thought about me. He knew I was getting the coach and knew coach or He was looking for a receivers coach. So I went down there for a few years prior to coach tread while getting a head job at at Miami of Ohio.
So Saginaw to Miami of Ohio, then left there, went to Indiana University with Kevin Wilson, who most recently was not head count but offense coordinated Ohio State. Left there and spent five years at Eastern Michigan university. And really the time I spent at Eastern Michigan kind of groomed me for this position here. I say that because Eastern was a place where you haven't won for
a long time. Coach Crayton came in, you know, started a thing where we had to find players that have believe in what we were trying to do and started from scratch where really no one in Michigan wanted to go there, so we had to go outside of Michigan to recruit kids. And if you see my roster, I kind of took that same blueprint and went outside to get football players to come here to Michigan. What we we're looking for, same thing. Coach Savan kind of taught us guys that want to compete
on and off the field, that loves football. Really is that simple. We found those guys, so we got our core pieces right now, and now with the stadium being bill, we're starting to get more of the local talent that wants to time and try to join us to build a statement. Wow, that's my mind. That's crazy, that's for sure. Yeah. So you you know you're talking about, you know, going out and finding these kids, and we all know we've been in this position here and something.
You know, like you said, you played it and you came back and you got your degree and everything like that. You know, from through conversations you and I have talked about, you know, coming in and working with your athletes and everything like that from more of the career side of things, like can you just explain you know, because these kids, you know, they're coming in and playing an nai A, you know, that's still
good football. That people still have to understand that you're if you're playing at the next level, you're still playing good football. But you know, why should a kid come to you know, this program here, because the way I see it is you're you're molding these kids for everything for on the field and off the field and after life. Yeah, definitely, definitely I would say this. So I love my time at Michigan State. One of the things I look back on that I wish I would have did more was things
outside of football. So not it wasn't just football, training, training table, study hall, hung out with the boys now here at and Madonna. What we try to do it is a family, a huge family, a lot of support from administration. But my thing here is I wanted to make this one of the greatest experiences of their life. Prior to those guys that getting married and having kids, what does that look like? We just had a marvelus king event. I want our kids there, you know, doing
all of that. I want our kids. We we played Missouri Baptists, so we stopped at Indiana State to practice. We went down to Saint Louis to the Golden Arch, or not the Golden but the Arch, Saint Louis Arch because some of those kids have never experienced that stuff linked. So finding
different things that they can do outside of football. And then on top of having internships since we're in a great location, kind of helps me in recruiting, kind of helps me, you know, broading each kid or each individual to do better things. So location wise, two hundred and thirty thousand student students in the thirty minute ratus, twenty five minutes from Canada, so there's a lot of great things that they can accomplish here, on top of having
a job when they leave or graduate here. I was waiting on Jayu to tell you something about when you said Canada, man, I was like I was, I was looking for my flag. It's not within arms reach, right, now, well, when I when I literally say that we recruit from all over, I can have a kid from Hawaii, a kid from Alaska, kid from Las Vegas, a bunch of kids from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana. We recruit all over, so we find a guy that loves
football and want to compete. That's what we're looking for. And be quite honest with It's quite easy for us now because of the transfer portal. The transfer portal has allowed smaller schools to get better players and better students, you know, moving forward. So that's where we are right now, is getting those students and players to add to our guys that we have. Yeah, I guess, oh yeah it is man. So you know the ever changing
landscape of now. You know, we always talk about an addressed n L and you know, when you're going in and recruiting and you know, talking to families and you can talking to these kids and you know, selling a pro around. You know, what are some things that you are are dealing with on a day day basis as you kind of change your pitch and sales pitcher to get these guys to come and commit to Madonna. Yeah, one of the biggest things is if I come to your school, can I come
there and transfer out? You know, really like they usually as a stepping stone versus like yeah, long term? What to sell that? Yep, yep, you so kids, you know? Or can I can I make it to the NFL from here? And answer? Of course you guess you know to both those questions. If you're good enough, you can either you know, people can come get you if if you're one of those players,
but you can make it to the NFL from here. Just the other day, you know, from an NFL team looking at some of our players, who has the ability to play at the next level, be quite honest with you looking for film, They got to be able to play. So one of the things I guess I sell is the opportunity to play early and be quite honest with you and stray. I don't know if you experienced this from Coach Saving and recruiting, but you were a pearlist guy, right Yep.
Well, one of the things Coach Savan told me and I recruit just like this, So it doesn't matter if I'm Division one two or ANYI I literally tell my players this. This is what was told to me by Coach Saving and I'll never forget it. He's like, I'm always gonna be looking to replace it. So some people running from that. I told my team that I'm always looking to replace you. But then he came back and said, in high school, there's always a no recruiting class. In college is all
well, in high school, there's always a new freshman class. In college, there's always a recruiting class. In the pros, there's always new draft. So if you're not doing everything you can on and off the field to be the best player you can be, you've got to get replaced. So competition, and I know it's sraight you've been around coach. He talks about competition all the time. So if our players know that, yeah, I took pride in that. You know, I host Plex, I host Charles
Rogers. You know t right, They'll tell you. I didn't care who I had the host. I wanted to make it make sure our team was good. I lined up next to Gary Scott and Charles Rogers every day in sprints because I wanted to compete. And that's how I'm trying to build this team here is to compete. Compete, compete, So that's one of my
selling pictures. I tell parents we're going to be looking replacement, but I go into the whole situation of why, and a lot of parents, you know, they like the fact that I'm being honest, and you know, well, if you work your butt off, you won't get replaced, right, So exactly fact the recruiting pitch here and everything like that, Like you know, you you've been in there. Now you you got your legs under
you there? What are you what are you running offense? Because an offensive guy, you know, being a wide receiver, are you just air raiding or you're like, Okay, I gotta take a step back. I gotta run the ball in order so I can throw it. What what do you do offensively? Yeah, I would tell you. The first year, you know, I was more, you know, I wanted to throw the ball because of course, the linemen that we had, we didn't really have time.
Man, we had to get that thing out quick. Now I have a new coordinator as of last year, Coach ed Stolts, who ironically I work with at MIAs Ohio with coach Stratt, so he was our old line coach there and you know, uh, he was gone to retire and he's like you know, everybody come up there and help you get things severed down and organized. And I do two things. It's really it's about the players, but it's also about the young coaches that we have on our staff.
So I tell guys that they should now want to be here forever. My job is to get those guys to elevate to the next level. And Coach still sees that. So we're trying to coach up our young coaches and give them nuggets as well. So offensively, we're more of a pro style now, so we do a little bit of both. You know, we'll spread them up we have to, but we want to run the ball. And then defensively, we switched from a three four to a four to three and uh, this year is going to be more of a mixture. So I
want to keep out two mins in CA. Yeah, elevan three income come look, don't give up the trade. So we'll be multiple defense, whatever fits and personnel or the game we'll get into. The biggest thing is it stopping to run. You know, we couldn't do that a year ago, but now we're recruiting to make sure that we stopped to run and afford in that fashion. So you bring up an interesting then we brought up coach Saban,
right and how what he said to you at that time. And you know a lot of people, even myself included his style originally, especially talking about the young Nick Saban back back then, right ninety five, you know to ninety ninety thousands. That was a different Nick Saban than you see today. But talk about like how that like, hey, look, we're looking to replace you versus the guy that you we all know now that will do anything for his ex his former players, including helping out you want to with
with the coaching staff. Yeah, I'll tell you this, not only coach Saban, but coach Coach D. Coach D came down here last summer and spent about three hours on campus. But Coach Saban every summer he meets with our staff to talk about if you're talking about football, he would go on and on, Like we were supposed to meet with him for an hour, he d being like two and a half hour. So if it's talking about football and nothing else, he'll do that all day long. And then currently
hopefully uh he hasn't said no yet. Uh He's gonna be the key, you know, speaker slash player in our golf out here, uh this year, so kind of waiting to hear back on that. But he does everything. And a little funny thing about coach is this, Uh he used to
call me missus Hagen. I used to call him a saving and straight you'll you'll know that he loved his Florida guys starting with Iran, right, Mark Nard, you know those guys, right, So if he walked past me, I wouldn't allow him to just walk past me like he's he's busy, miss saving you on that today. Yeah, yeah, you get his attention.
I am miss You're gonna be like that, uh, I think, Yeah, I didn't know that that was actually a rule, you know, because when he was in Michigan State doing it, everybody thought he just had an attitude problem, right yeah, yeah, yeah, And now we found out that it's some kind of a rule that he has with his teams that he tells me. Well, people tell them, hey, don't talk to
coach when coaches in the hallway. I couldn't do that. So yeah, it's just like you know, like, you know, j just learned that you know, I played played running back right, and uh, funny story about that. My first visit here was to Michigan State warmers. Heck right, in December, go down to Ohio State. I'm with Seawan Springs and Orlando Pace. Right, they're taking me around, they're guaranteed for and my host was Mike. Whiley take me around, they got me waiting in the
snow. I go back to the hotel. I called coach Saban and say coach is a warmer Michigan in Ohio. He's like yes, And then of course am't gonna back them up, you know, back yeah, man, you'll be good. So you'll be good. Oh that's right. That is that is the true inside, you know, because a lot of people like these stories. You're talking about coach saving and stuff. Like a lot of our listeners, you know, from the outside looking in, he looks like,
you know, just a scowl, hard ass kind of guy. But it's really cool to hear the inside stories that, you know, how he can relate to his players and everything. You know. I I tell people this, and I tell my my my players and our staff did. There was no gray area, right, So you either win the class or you didn't. You either went twelve yards or you're in a gap where you're supposed
to be or you didn't. It's like you knew if you went outside of that, there's gonna be consequences, you know, unless you uh Hubert Thompson boo boo man or uh well, anybody on that D lie. You know, I'm always the d liven that because it all they try to tell you. They don't deny it. I just noticed we had a guy man that hurt his ankle in preseason and said I'm not playing anymore and still drafting first
round. Yeah right, still drafting first first round. Or we're doing the one tens in coach saving his own Robert smells you need to run, and he's like, huh man, well, you know, I know I've talked about this all the time, but you really you know that they cut all that out now cause yeah, so you don't do any conditioning to us. Oh no, we do it, we do it, we do. We're
still doing the fourth quarter program. When I say I am, I'm down to the deuch Manning right, yeah with coach Manning and you know Lorenzo's up there. He's been helping me out. We can't keep our guys over the summer, so I have to have something for those guys to come back and shape. So we do absolutely have to do the test because they could be out there fluffing. We do the one ten tests, one ten, We do the one tangent in sixteen sixteen? How much? What's the time?
Yeah, what's the time? Forty five seconds? Five different than that sixties sixties you know, say it again, sixty seconds, No, it's forty five. Big man got eighteen. Then it goes down. I think I think the skill is it's fourteen or fifteen. Yeah, skills fifty Yeah, So we do skill break. Just all mind I made all minds, so don't you I was not doing that. The next day it was fourteen fourteen, right, so you know it's skilled, big skill power and do this.
So what if you have a what if you have a tweeter? Right, you got to tell back, who's like, you know what? Two fifty five can't run with the big boy skill, the big big boy. Yeah he knows, he knows. So but I will tell you this. The first year, we may have had five people passing mm hmm, you know, and I actually had to cut it short. You know, they wouldn't want to catch a case. That's what you didn't want to catch a case. So it was it was bad and I had had my president out
there, you know. And this year when they came back, they knew, right, you know, some of the freshmen that came in they didn't, they didn't take it as serious. But the core group they passed a thing with flying colors and it's mind over matter, right, So our guys know even now today was the first day of the fourth quarter program. You got that manual. You got that manual. Oh man, if you look
at coach Saban, they got shirts just like it. When I say, you know, it is the same, Yeah, you know what I mean. Look at yeah, you look at coach saving shirts. It's the same he got me. And I think it's a model that that that's working pretty
well. So why not you know, you know it intrinsically like the way that the way that you do now you know, talk about like, so you have this new program, you've got a stadium that's being built, if I'm not mistaken, right, So you got a lot of things you're doing from the name of fundraising something that people that are listening out there that may be able to help, or something fund that people can contribute to Yeah,
we always looking for the thing I think about smaller schools. You know, you gotta raise money, and it's it's for things like you know, we don't do We don't give them any travel shoes. So I got to find a way to do that, you know, travel suits. I have to go out and raise money just for all of my guys who look the same.
Right. This is the first time since Madonne didn't have football. Even when we do team meals, you know, got to raise money for team mills when we go on the road so we can eat, as you guys know, and and we kind of, I guess as players didn't even think about, you know, where are the money coming from and all this stuff when we go to hotels. I wanted these guys to have the same experience
I have in Michigan State to have here. So we do everything at the hotel before all the other teams they go to Golden Corral or you know, get him to his money and just let them go off, you know, in the streets. And imagine having a you know, eighty kids on away game. Just hey, here's twenty one dollars and go find you something to eat, you know, so and you get about thirty five of them back at thirty five and you know, don't know what they're eating, right,
so raise the money, you know for that. The stadium is unique. So about a year ago, like tonight, we got a basketball game going on tonight, our men's soccer coach coach Z and say, hey, man, I got a guy that, uh that wants to build a stadium, but I need to get him meet with the president. Of course, my ears perked up, like that meeting next week, and they say, what, yeah, we'll have the meeting next week. And he thought I was joking. And to the credit of our president, President Ian Day, Uh,
we set that meeting up. And it's been a year process, uh, you know, meeting and trying to figure out what's best for both Madonna and gold Star. And the team is called GoldStar Detroit and they also have a team over in Spain, so so it's really unique. It's actually no money from the university, is it's all, you know, funded by gold Star. You know, he got a billionaire and similar to that issue. Man, if you're listening, come on over, but I need you you
and my team, man, come talk to our team. Yeah, you know, we got a whole nother building that football wasn't that we need to get finished and wait for things. Uh. But this billionaire came in and he's building the stadium. So they'll have a team here, uh, starting here the next couple of months. And it's good for the university. Not only it's good for football, but well we'll start and have our our graduations
here on campus instead of having to rent out different places. When you're thinking about winter condition, how much money in the universe is putting out for us? We got twenty two teams where each team has to find somewhere to go practice in the winter time. Now we'll have this building here this time next
year where they'll put a bubble on top of the stadium. So it's saving up the universal a lot of money, how you said, as a former as a former fundraiser obviously at Michigan State, got start there and crossed over to go to SMU, and you know, you know how much capital projects, you know cost. You know, it's not just putting the stadium up. It's about the land, it's about the digging, it's about everything else
under the sun. But like, how much how much was the total you know, process of evaluate that that project and you know, yeah, it's going there, like go ahead, well it's one donor. Yes, what I'm saying, one donor, but like it allowed him to do everything. But like what was that total ask? After you guys kind of walked through it, you know, it's it's twelve to fifteen million, you know,
twelve to fifteen million and actually still growing because we just met yesterday. And there's all the things that we need to add to make sure that it's it's it's not just a soccer saying a football need right small things so for instance, roll away or we have to remove the gold posts, right, that costs pretty painting to remove the gold posts. Every time. We have a
machine that's gonna paint the other field called turf team. You know that's like yeah, yeah, but that's about sixty seventy thousand dollars there you have that. You got another machine that needs to wash off this stuff. So that's another fifty thousand or so to get that machine. But in the long run, it's gonna save us money. So making sure the feel is good for us as well as them. Again, we have a football building in the
back that's not complete. Uh, and I'll say this. Before football got here, there was not a weight It was a fitness center, but it wasn't the racks and stuff that football players need uh to get to get built. So what do you have to do? We had to go raise we football had to go raise that money to get tim racks in here. You're going to be meeting with you know, some Michigan State people. See, yeah, I was about to put that plug for you because I know it's
coming up. Yeah. Well all that equipment is about to be new equipment coming in. So that's the opportunity to you. We need all of that. So whoever's listening, we we would love to have it. We'll come pick it up in the U haul. Coach when you said when when you said you had the you know the guy, the soccer coach came up to you, what the what the idea of this guy wants to build a soccer stadium? And your ears perked up. He said, how much convincing the
university did you have to do? Or what? Was it just an easy ask and say hey, this is what's gonna be. It wasn't much that the biggest thing was what do they want? Right? Why would this guy want to just you know, put this money towards this pro this process. Well, the biggest thing I do you know, you're not paying for the land, right, So we got to deal with him where you know,
they're building the stadium. It's I think beleave is a fifty year least, right, So he has he has a lot of ben Now if if the program or the soccer program doesn't you know, you know, gain what they think he's going to gain. Uh. There's a by clause that is beneficial for Madonna to own the stadium out right. So there's a lot of benefit on both parts of it. Uh. And it saves them a ton of money and in and again if it doesn't work out, it's a huge writer
for for him. Right. So is this terf for grass It is. It's actually gonna be turf. The turf is actually going to be eight inches thick. Uh. It's the only one in America. There's only two other stadiums in the world that has it. So when when Dan does things, he does it to the best of his He wants to make sure this is a showstop. There's some details I can't share with you, but when you see the stadium, like God, that that's that's different, but it's unique.
It's going to be one of a kind of stadium once it's done. Yeah, that's incredible. Man. When you look at the profession, right, like, coaching is tough, it's a tough way to go. I mean they have a lot of friends that are former players that are in it, and so you know, going through battles just kind of raised, you
know, their level, their profile as they continue through their career. What is it that you see yourself as do you what's your goal, let's say in coaching, is it to grow Madonna into a power or or do you look at like, okay, what my skills may be best suited in other levels because he's played in them all and coach by the way, Yeah, yeah, definitely. And the crazy thing is like once people found out that I was here, I've been offered other position, making probably three or four
times that I'm making here. You know some of the stuff in the beginning, I didn't talk to my wife about it. I just turned it down. So that wasn't a good at all. But you know, for for me, my wife and actually it's going to be twenty years here on March first. Congratulations, my wife has has sacrificed so much of you know, moving to Denver, moving to Andy, moving to Kansas City, moving to Europe, going to Canada. Uh, doing everything I can to to make
my dream come true. Right Arena football. As I started going down, say babe, you got to quit your job. We're going to Tampa, you know. And she she's done all of that stuff. And then even with coaching, you know, just moving different places. Uh, this is the longest place we've been. And she's currently she's she's she's at the other school Michigan, working in HR and she's in her dream position right now.
So and ultimately, I wanted to be a head coach, and I didn't originally wanted to be at a startup program, but you know, why not, right, why not be here? And why not you know, make this into a place that everybody wants to come to. And it's starting to happen. You know, I think we can win here. We got great support here, we got great degrees here, we got people from mentioning Terricane in our business department. Uh, just so many professors, man, that
absolutely love Madonna and what we have to offer. Sister Nancy, who who just pours into too, all of us. And the thing is, you know, even though it's a Catholic university, you don't have to be Catholic to be here, you know, as long as you you know, you're doing the right things and you believe in some of the stuff that we're trying to trying to do here. So I want to be a head coach. If it happens at another university sometime later, you know, we'll look at
some of those things. But right now we're trying to build the thing into a powerhouse, and I believe we can do it. You know, runs the Canadian get the support, we raise the funds to make sure that my team is uh not wanting it for anything. Well, is there any yeah, is there some way that people can get a hold of you if they want to donate, Yes, if they want to donate, of course. My email right away is just first initial, H. Hey, good,
last name at Madonna dot edu. We'll put that in the link right there so people can see it. It will be right there. Yeap. Our number here is seven three four there it is yeah really quick. Uh yeah, yeah h A good at Madonna dot E D is probably like the easiest way to get a hold of me. Yeah, and then we put your number out there, people be calling him. I know, it's like I'm
hiring a defensive coordinator. Man, it's it's it's blowing up. So but but yeah, any support that we can have, you know, I love it. And end of the day, man, I just want to make sure our guys have a great experience and you earn a degree and hopefully one day get invited to their weddings. So one thing that you that you said, you know that you're stuck with it, and it's been sticking with me for a second. Now. You said your your your wife, you know,
works for the school down there. She mm hmm, Like she's not doctrinated in that. She still we tell We tell people all the time man, you know, uh, blue and yellow makes green and if they don't hear it from that, we always say they still pay in green and white. So we let people know that right away. Okay, you know, we just went to the women's basketball game is saturday, Michigan State in U of M. I. Yeah. It was hard because our boys was cheering.
It was a good time, but they were cheering from wrong. Yeah, so we're like, but we want them to have a good time. They're six and four right now, right, they don't know, man, I know my youngest he's the Lions fans too, right, so he's been going yeah, he's been going crazy. So no, man, she she she's over there. They actually our neighbor used to be. My wife worked at Indiana when we're there in HR and then our neighbor was at Michigan and
she recruited my wife too to come. Mm hmm. That's incredible man, and man like that. You know, we don't want to take them a lot of your time. I know, you got to go meet with the musicipalities and you know we're always fundraising, man, always fund raising. This is the part that people don't don't see that the head coaches you have to go out and do it. But I enjoy right, I enjoyed it.
And a lot of that stuff has come from being around you know, coaches, seeing how you move straight and just wanted to, you know, to do that. So appreciate all you guys. Man, I'm proud of what you guys are doing, and like super proud of what you guys doing. You know, we're super proud of you. Man. Definitely, we might come up to the game. Now we're want to come up to the game so that support support. Man, you're gonna you're gonna have to. Man,
you're gonna gonna have to. Man, we'll love get that sideline passes. I would I guess I can say this. We will have vi I P suites, will have vi P suite and it'll be a unique experience in those VIP suite because you haven't seen them the way they're getting built. Oh man, important question, are y'all serving are y'all servant beer one in the venue? Probably not not at our football games, but at the soccer games. They will. Now we do have a tailgate where we don't see we
do off Red, gotcha, we have we have a tailgate. There's this is what's really crazy about Donne. There's been guys that have been working here twenty thirty years that's been hoping for a football team. And we got a guy that's on campus man that he he has a a trailer in the back decked out. This is his his theme. Right, So the parents, uh, anybody that want to come. It got so big. So it started off about four people, right, threw the two three hundred people and
now the university is behind it in the parking lot. Man. And so we did it here. You know, we were down at a high school. So we did it here. Then we bust people down there. I can only imagine how it's going to be here now. One thing I didn't share was our Spartan walk. We have a state of walk. Okay, so how long a walk? How long? It's about the same distance from main campus over to our athletic complex. Right. People didn't understand why I
was doing it. I knew there was a stadium coming. You know, I didn't know how I was gonna get it built, but I knew we're gonna have a stadium. Now people can see, Okay, this is why he did the walk. This is why. Like we start, we stop at the Spartan Stadium, we stop at the grotto right behind the mother house. You know, give our little prayer, come in and back, and we're walking into the stadium. Town. Everybody understands, Okay, oh,
this is what coach is talking about. Tradition, man, think about starting the program like we have our spurned dog handshake. I'm telling our guys, right, I'm telling our guys man, what y'all got y'all come up, it's gonna be forever, right, our fight songs, right, how we sing it right? Because straight and I do a little bit different than you guys won't do all that that, right, We just yeah, we just we just straight up. So you have to be I try to you know,
give that handshake to somebody. What you doing man, That's the first thing we learned when we got in there. Was like, right, So yeah, I'm teaching our guys that stuff. Man. You guys got to have a handshake of something that you do that every Madonna football player would know. We we have not showned the fights on yet because we haven't won yet, right, So what does that look like? How is that gonna sound? You know what I mean? So there's a bunch of like stuff that's
gonna be new and fresh. I got to ask, like, I just like I want to play that hey man, you know, you know we're only ten months man, I mean, you know, or or you get ten semesters right to play you know, four or five, right, So it's not it's about the year. So you can go halftime, full time, halftime, full time to get those years in. M hmmm. It's crazy, Like I got guys that have senior because of COVID and because we didn't and they red shirt. They still got two years left even though they're
seniors. Oh that's love. That's love that they just keep playing that. It's love. But you also got to be We got a kid, Assan Cars's name right, came in. He has another year to play, but at the same time a sign as account major. He has a great job. That's he's making more money than I'm gonna be making. And in that sense, you got to be like he sign you know, third train quarterback
or go make one hundred thousand dollars. I think he should go do that, right, Yeah, So yeah, we got a lot of interesting things going on here, and be more than happy for you guys to come down and spend some time with our team and you know, telling them your experience and you know, just a spout ball and hot student athlete anytime, even if it's practicing spring ball or whatever. Just let us know we're there. We're coming to see it. Bringing this is Spada to Madonna University. Man,
yes to say this. Man, So we're right there, Friday, We're there, right, You're still in the family. You're definitely in the family. Always really appreciate your time. Coach. Hey, good, appreciate
the coach. Thank you, guys. Man, I appreciate y'all. All right, brother, yeah, man, boy, that's that's very interesting, you know, I mean I never think about how much he's learning, like who is going to be able to have a resume like that on the plank, But you think about all the other school yeah, schools like you know, think you know, you think about the last chance use of the world, right like where you got to be the ad, you gotta be the
academic counselor you got to be the president. I mean, you got to do a lot of stuff where you know you won't be able to touch that if you're at other other universities because people are doing those jobs. But for him to straight up and say, hey, I'll call him president right now at this meeting, Like that's where I feel like that is like that's a that's an opportunity to be really dangerous because you're getting that experience that, like
you said, no one's getting. And so to kudos to him because clearly he could use this as a stepping stone, but he's thinking about his family, but also he's building. He's building something that you know, he's bested, Like you don't want to get that to the next man right now, like you want to see this. No one come to fruishing. And so you know, definitely that's what spartan old way. Man. I'm happy he he's the leader of that program and those kids got a good leader and a
good player who knows what it takes. I feel like it's almost like a prime two point oh type too, right, like yeah, it's awesome man. So yeah, good stuff, guys. That was a great interview, and you know, really excited for coach hey Good there. I think he's really like everyone said, he's turning it around, making it his own,
putting his stamp on it. And that's something that's you know, no matter ten twenty years from now when he leaves, you know, there's gonna be that legacy that he started that's there that you know, other coaches are going
to pick up that tradition. And guy say, it's going to be like wow, remember we're the first ones to play in this stadium and it was all you know because of what coach hey Good did and uh, you know for that university and for those kids and you know building, given that those kids that experience that he had a Michigan state, like having that dinners together as a team as opposed to you know, just going out, those things
are gonna start stacking up. And he talked about they haven't sang the fight song yet, but I think this year it's that's when all those things are gonna come with fruition. They're gonna sing that fight song because they're going to be an actual program in building and winning. Yeah, gotta love it, man. It was awesome to hear from him. You know, we have to cover what happened with the news that broke a couple of days ago. Was a developing story in ann Arbor. But first, this message from our
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enjoying the rewards program today. Well, guys, we got to cover this story that broke it out of an Arborg just a few days ago. Coach Weiss off. Co offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is on leave. It looks like there was a raider. The police came into both the shim Beckler Hall for some kind of a computer crime. And also there was reports of a neighbor who saw him his home being raided by unmarked police or something. So, guys, this is a very disturbing story. We don't know exactly what the
fraudulent activity is, but something that it looked like. Again, we have Michigan knowing about something, putting a man on the lead, and then you know, it finally comes out. You know, thinking about the Massie Smith situation that happened just a few weeks ago where we didn't know anything about it, and then and then you know, and then to go so hard against our program for the tunnel incident. There seems to be a lot of smoke
around the program right now at the University of Michigan. Yeah, no, one straight, noah, Look, we don't even want to touch it because we know what's happening over here, and I just feel like we've both been down bad man, so like that juju, I want to make sure we just a racer from ours because you know, you just never know what's happening.
But you know, it's one of those things that as a head coach, but as a program, as an ad as a leader, you know, you can only do so much in your staff and holding you know, character, having integrity through and through when they leave the building where they walk there, the you know brand ambassad of your your leadership and your program and like, you know, just they could wake up one day and just decide, you know, that's all out the window and you can't control that.
But it's also to the point of, like, man, it's it's unfortunate that they keep taking these these big l's in the public, and you know it's always stemming from like the criminal investigations, and we're gonna let the law enforcement, you know, do their do their justice and do their due diligence.
But you know, it's so much it's a weird thing to have this massive energy and motivation off of end game incident and then you turn to flip the page to you know what's happening, and you just don't feel that same energy, you know, and it's like, I know they're all scrambling right now, but like I said, I don't even want to touch it because
like I don't want to be out here canceled culture like out here. So you know, I'm just gonna pray for them, and uh, they'll be on my prayer list, similar to what we do in praying for us internally. Right on. Notice, you know, when you know this came out, just like everyone that's listening to this, you know, this was one of those things like there's those guys down the road and there's that sense of,
oh, you know, that's what they deserve and stuff like. But at the end of the day, I'm not gonna say that's what they deserve. I'm gonna actually reframe from saying anything till more news comes out, really because like right now, it's just all these reports that are out. No one knows exactly what the crime is and everything like that. So until you know everything's fully out, I just say it's an unfortunate situation and just wait
till more comes out. The continent professionals, otis Wiley Jay, you cochrit. Guys. Look, it's tough. It's a tough one. You have to tow the line on I mean, because we don't know. What do I know that you guys don't. I don't know anything different. I don't have any inside or information on this. I just read from the newspapers and the twitter, you know, comments or whatever that happened that everybody else has a chance to look at. So to me, we need more information.
But it does seem very very fishy. You know that. You know, you have a player driving around with loaded weapons with extra bullets over the plays, driving twenty plus miles an hour over the speed limit at whatever time that was in the morning, on the eve of the game. There's no it took ten weeks to come out after you know, they went to Bitten Championship for it to come out. This one was much faster. We all know about this, this blue wall theory that's out there. Here's an example another
one. It just didn't take ten weeks for it to come out. This one is egregious enough for it to come out within twenty four hours. So this one, I think, guys must be somewhat serious. If unloaded weapon on campus isn't serious. So that's all we can do. We can't come go any uh in further in depth into that because we don't have the information. But one can assume that it's more serious than speeding down the road with loaded firearms might drop. That is a job. Hey, listen, man,
I I've I've personally witnessed being the neighbor. This is in this is Indianapolis, this is off this is off of this is off of sixty second Street, and uh and guy, guy, and roll right and you know where that's at the hood. Man, I didn't say that's the hood. But my neighbor, my neighbor. I'm in the house, I'm chilling with with my baby girl. My wife comes home. She uh, she's thinking that these unmarked cars and are in our coldor sack is like after our crib.
And I didn't know what was going on. And then she pulls in, She's like, are you here for our household? It was our neighbor and they went in and did they do dialing? Just but I've never seen so many unmarked black cars and one like quick in the point, were you like this? And the window? Absolutely I was out here, liked I
had that I had that. I had that, Malcolm X. Look like we're starting up with men and then so like I'm thinking about, like, man, I could have been that neighbor, Like these guys over there are doing. It's like, man, look that is their property, that's their crib. Just don't come over to my line and property. Do do anything but do what you do man. You gotta pay mortgage. My and I. It was kind of those kind of raids. I understand what you're saying.
I don't even I don't even know. I don't even want to find out, that's what I'm saying, Like this Shiit story, I don't even want to fully know. Like I'm just gonna move along, keep my head to what we need to focus all over here, right, I love it. I love it. Guys like, hey, it was a great show. You know, we can't cover anymore of that, but it was a great interview with her coach Hey good man. Nonetheless, So guys, you know this is a wrap on this one right here. Good job once again
for ODIs Wiley, j You Colca, come, Jason Strayhorn. This is Sparta. Have a good night, God bless and go green. Right. This is part of MSU was a bind presentation of Playfly Sports Properties in Michigan State Sports Properties. The show is produced by Peteman with additional support from Tony Costella Operations and Social media support is provided by Alicia Strayhorn with support from Cecily
Max Brown on location. Technical support is provided by Good Fruit Video. Be sure to follow our hosts Jason Strayhorn, j U Culchrik and Otis Wiley on social media to stay up to date with all the latest This is Smarter news. Please like a subscribe by visiting our link tree and tell a friend to do the same. Thank you for your support and as always, go green.