00:00Jump, Carson Anderson, 97.1.
00:03Doug Carson, Scott Anderson, 248-539-9797.
00:07Interesting story on the Lions I want to talk about here coming up
00:10just after we do our championship nominations today at 10.35.
00:14Of course, the Lions' preseason debut last week.
00:19And we, you know, I mean, there's a lot to digest still moving forward
00:23with that team.
00:24Tiger weekend, suboptimal is one might say.
00:27But the breaking news this morning is that Dan Bartholomew,
00:30who is at Western Michigan, is the new athletic director.
00:34Pete Damel is the first I saw to report it, so give him credit.
00:37But he is the new athletic director at Michigan State.
00:43And, you know, I mean, on his resume, the most important thing
00:47for an athletic director in college athletics is probably now
00:51spearheading fundraising movements.
00:54And, you know, it's certainly tougher to do at a place like Western Michigan
00:58than it is a Big Ten institution like Michigan State.
01:01And Michigan State set up a whole bunch under J-Batt,
01:04and we'll see if he can just continue momentum that they were building
01:10under the previous AD.
01:11But then the next thing is you've got to get football right.
01:14You always have to get football right.
01:16They have entered into a new era of Michigan State football
01:18with Pat Fitzgerald.
01:20But he appears to have gotten football right with the hiring of Lance Taylor
01:24at Western Michigan, who seems like a good young coach
01:29with an exceptionally bright future.
01:31They were a bowl team last year, won their bowl game,
01:34and predicted to win the Mid-American Conference this year.
01:38Now, is he going to have to hire a football coach anytime soon?
01:41Doesn't seem particularly likely that it would be anytime soon,
01:44as Pat Fitzgerald is just getting started.
01:46But getting football right is always a high priority.
01:50Other stuff, the hockey program at Western Michigan won a national championship.
01:55Western Michigan was part of the new Kalamazoo Event Center,
01:58in which men's and women's basketball and hockey is moving into.
02:02He also has an outdoor hockey game on the schedule this year,
02:06as Michigan is playing at Waldo Stadium in an outdoor hockey game.
02:10So a lot of the stuff that, you know, people look for, he seemed to be on top of.
02:15So, you know, he was considered a strong candidate when the job opened up.
02:19And sure enough, he will land at Michigan State.
02:23Spartan fans, you want to give your thoughts?
02:24Seems like a solid hire and a good fit.
02:26It does seem like a solid hire and a good fit.
02:29But with Michigan State, look, all you want is for someone to be able to communicate
02:33and get their vision across and cut through the muck and mire
02:38that is the Board of Trustees.
02:40And hopefully people can work together and you can have a successful relationship
02:45for many years to come because that has been the big problem
02:50at Michigan State forever.
02:51It's been the Board of Trustees and not being able to see eye-to-eye on things
02:56and politics play a role in it and all that.
02:59And hopefully you can cut through all that red tape and just do what you have to do.
03:04You know, be great is all we want.
03:08I mean, we had a great athletic director for a long time with Mark Hollis
03:11and obviously the way things ended up.
03:14I mean, he fell on a sword, walked away.
03:18So did the president at that time.
03:20And it's taking forever to try to recover from that.
03:24You know, thought we lost Jay Bat.
03:27It did.
03:29I think we lost Guskowski and didn't.
03:32It's all kind of weird how things are working there.
03:36I figure I'm going to live my life this way when it comes to Michigan State
03:39and the president slash athletic director.
03:43If Tom Izzo's happy, then I'm happy, I guess, because I trust Izzo.
03:48And if he gives a stamp of approval on something, then I'm going to be okay with it.
03:54So I'll wait to hear what Tom Izzo has to say.
03:56Well, and here's the other thing.
03:58That's probably going to be the first thing that major move he's got to make
04:07is hiring Izzo's replacement.
04:10You know, Izzo isn't – how many more years is he going to coach?
04:16So this guy is most likely going to be the guy that is charged with hiring Tom Izzo's replacement.
04:24And, you know, that will be a huge priority, right?
04:30And, you know, you'd have to think that he will have the assistance of Tom Izzo on that project.
04:38Well, that's the thing, yeah.
04:39Whenever Tom decides that he's done coaching college basketball, I imagine that he's going to have an heir apparent
04:46or he's going to have a real strong opinion on who the guy is supposed to be.
04:50So I don't worry about that.
04:51I just worry about getting this program back on track, making sure that they can –
04:57This program, I mean –
04:58Michigan State's just athletic program.
05:00Let's get back to, you know, being innovative, staying on top of the NIL world,
05:07staying on top of the transfer portal world, understanding the rules,
05:11try to keep yourself way above ground here.
05:15Let's just, you know, work towards being great again.
05:18Like, we're under the football program in the D'Antonio years, you know,
05:22the athletic program with Mark Hollis years.
05:26There's a lot to work with in Michigan State.
05:28Their hockey program is spectacular.
05:30So this guy coming from Western where he built up a pretty good program there
05:34and they end up winning a national championship.
05:36I like that.
05:36That sounds good.
05:37Michigan State's hockey program seems to be doing just great.
05:41I love the hire of Pat Fitzgerald with the football program.
05:44Izzo's got basketball humming along, you know, and then there's all the other sports,
05:48the non-revenue sports that we'll see where that goes.
05:51But, you know, until I see otherwise, I don't have a strong opinion either way.
05:57I tend to be feeling better about this because of the pedigree at Western.
06:03Okay, great.
06:04It's a, you know, those programs are going to be stepping stone programs to get to the
06:07bigger programs like a Michigan State.
06:09Well, that's the other part of this.
06:10Yes, and certainly there are a lot more Michigan State fans out there than there are Western
06:17alumni fans.
06:19But there are Western fans out there that are like, damn it, we lost our AD.
06:24And I would imagine he was well-liked.
06:27Maybe some Western fans could provide some context on that.
06:31But now Western Michigan will be in the market for a new athletic director, which impacts
06:36all sports fans in our state as well.
06:38Yeah.
06:38And it looks like, hey, you know, as far as Western's athletic department, you know, for
06:46a MAAC program, they're humming along between the hockey program, which I guess isn't in
06:53the Mid-American Conference, but you get the point.
06:55And football, they've been really, really good.
07:00All things considered.
07:02So, but yeah, they're not Western.
07:05They're like when they had PJ Fleck.
07:06You knew it wasn't going to last, but it was.
07:09No, because he was too good of a coach to be kept in the MAAC.
07:14You know, he was going to expand.
07:16Yep.
07:17But, you know, it's just a, it's just the reality of what it is these days.
07:22And I guess it's always been that way.
07:23If you, you got a program that's like in the MAAC, it's having success.
07:29You're probably not going to keep your guys.
07:31No.
07:31Central had to go through that with football coaches and, you know, Cincinnati went through
07:35that with football coaches for a while.
07:37And now Cincinnati is no longer a MAAC school.
07:40So they can handle their own.
07:42So 248-539-9797, if you want to get in on that.
07:45Seems like a solid addition for Michigan State and one that makes sense.
07:50In the meantime, Gator, the Tiger weekend.
07:56Well, there's, there's, and there's also, hey, there's still only a game out of the playoffs.
08:03Like it was disappointing for sure, but I'm trying to keep things in perspective.
08:11They, they're still in this thing.
08:13Of course.
08:14Yeah.
08:14But, you know, going into the weekend, I'm touting this team, you know, I, I feel foolish
08:22because I, I said, look, this isn't going to be easy, but hopefully they can win this
08:27series.
08:27But, um, you know, I, I think this team going into the weekend, I said, I think this team
08:33is going to win the division.
08:34And, and it's with a couple of days before the season comes to an end, they're going to
08:39lock things up.
08:39I, I like where this team is at, um, I did have my skepticism.
08:45My skepticism was not about Troy Melton, not being able to pitch out of the fifth inning.
08:51My skepticism was a little bit about Jackson Jobe and can he repeat what he did in the
08:55first outing?
08:56And he did not, which is, look, I, I'm not knocking him because I, I, I go in with some
09:03hesitancy with Jackson Jobe to begin with, because he's not a guy who had that track record
09:07in the minors where he was just lights out for 15 starts in a row and demanded to be
09:12promoted from, you know, this level to this level.
09:16He showed some nice growth, uh, here and there, but he wasn't that kind of guy.
09:20And, and what we saw so far in two starts is exactly that he's got all the arm talent
09:25in the world, triple digits on the gun.
09:28The spin rates are fantastic.
09:29But if he's not commanding those pitches, that's a problem, you know, control, get the
09:36strike zone.
09:37Yeah.
09:37He knows the strike zone, but can you command where you want that pitch to go in the strike
09:41zone?
09:41That's what separates, uh, the good from the great and the bad from the good, frankly.
09:45And he struggled with that in his start over the weekend.
09:50And as a result, he got absolutely shelled.
09:54It doesn't matter if you throw a hundred miles an hour anymore because today's major league
10:00baseball player, the younger ones in particular, they're used to seeing it.
10:03They see it all over the place.
10:04Every team's got like three guys.
10:06It seems that can throw triple digits.
10:08So they're used to it.
10:10And if that pitch isn't moving anywhere or worse, if you're just going to throw it straight
10:14across the middle of the plate, that's where a guy's going to barrel it up and, and do
10:18damage.
10:18And they certainly did that.
10:19It was, it was the hard hit rate and the frequency, which the ball was hit against Jackson
10:25job.
10:26That was just startling.
10:27Uh, cause it didn't stop.
10:29It just didn't stop, but he'll learn from it.
10:32I think he's got a ton of talent and he'll be better for it.
10:35Just getting started.
10:36Yeah, absolutely.
10:37So, uh, I look forward to his next start and, and, and trying to correct that.
10:41But from the weekend standpoint, getting swept by the team that you're
10:44chasing when you were two and a half games out going into the weekend and now you're
10:48five and a half out, that's, that's tough to take.
10:51Um, and yet you only lost one game in the standings and in the wild card.
10:55So two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97 champion.
10:58We'll have our nominations today at 10 35.
11:00Want yours?
11:01Get them in Carson Anderson, 97 one.
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