00:04You know, the one thing about the Michigan-Michigan State game this year
00:09is that while both teams have not excited their fan bases
00:16with the way that they are playing,
00:18as your goals start to dissipate,
00:22one thing that can happen is that you zero in on the goals
00:27that you can still achieve,
00:30which might mean rivalry games take up even a bigger importance
00:35here in the last month of the season.
00:37For Michigan State, this is obviously it.
00:39And for Michigan, you know, this game and the one at the end,
00:45I've seen some pretty disappointing seasons salvaged by winning a rivalry game.
00:51So at least in the eyes of the fans.
00:54With that said, you know, these two teams focusing in on this game this weekend,
00:59we talked a little bit about Michigan State and have asked Spartan fans,
01:02what is the path?
01:04For Michigan, you know, it's been interesting because there's not a lot of guys.
01:10In fact, there's nobody on the Michigan roster that's played in a loss to Michigan State.
01:20One of the goals Blake Frazier has said this week, he said for the seniors,
01:23they want to go through their career sweeping Michigan State.
01:28But, you know, with a new coaching staff,
01:30there's not a ton of people that have coached in this game.
01:34Kyle Whittingham's brought in speakers and former players.
01:38And, you know, Jay Hill, the defensive coordinator this week,
01:43had a chance to talk to him.
01:44We do the show prep stuff for the game, and he is fired up.
01:49Like, he is jacked.
01:51And I asked him back in his days as a player at Rick's College
01:57who their biggest rival was.
02:01And they had two.
02:02They had Snow College and Dixie College.
02:05Big games.
02:06Rick's versus Snow and Dixie.
02:07Yeah, sure, sure.
02:07But the Utah rivalry, the Utah-BYU thing, the Holy War,
02:12it's sort of, I think, almost everybody in college football that loves college football
02:16knows about that and knows that it's kind of an intense,
02:20very regional but intense rivalry.
02:22And that's similar to this one for sure.
02:27But the question on Tommy Carr, you know, he was on Jansen's podcast this week
02:33and, you know, he said the biggest thing he learned in the Anteana game
02:37was how easy it is to get careless with the football and that he can't do that.
02:42And then in the Rutgers game, there were two things.
02:46One was he was disappointed when he slid short of the sticks
02:51and said, I got to do better with that.
02:53But, and as Coy Detmer said, when you're a quarterback,
02:56you don't want your quarterback to take hits.
02:58You're trying to get him air, space, or, I love this term,
03:03find a cave to dive into.
03:05And, you know, with that particular play, he slid foot first
03:08and it goes where the slide starts.
03:10The ball gets spotted there.
03:12That was a cave to dive into, dive forward with the football
03:15and get the first down.
03:16But, and the other thing was, on the deep ball, you know,
03:20there's, he's got a lot of, the timing is bigger
03:23and, and as he put it, um, Marsh is faster than he thought,
03:27than he thought.
03:27Uh, but, um, he told an interesting story.
03:31Jansen asked Tommy, you know, when the game is over
03:33and you're talking to Grandpa Lloyd,
03:36is he Grandpa Lloyd or is he Coach Lloyd?
03:40And John, John's like, cause I don't know Grandpa Lloyd.
03:44I know Coach Lloyd.
03:45And I can't wait to bring it up on the broadcast
03:47with, with John and, and Jason Avant.
03:50And apparently right after the games,
03:53he's full on Grandpa Lloyd.
03:56He's Papa.
03:57But the next day.
03:59He's going to coach him up.
04:01Okay.
04:01So on this play, what did you see?
04:03Coach Lloyd comes out on Sunday,
04:05but it's Grandpa Lloyd on Saturday.
04:07But that's kind of cool.
04:08Yeah, I mean, look, um, it's freshman quarterback.
04:13You never know.
04:13So it's interesting, you know, you bring up Jay Hill
04:16and the defense coordinator at Michigan
04:17and had been to DC at BYU,
04:20but it also coached at Utah for all those years.
04:23So he clearly knows rivalries.
04:25Played at BYU and coached at both Utah and BYU.
04:28I actually played at Utah and coached at Utah and BYU.
04:33Uh, did I get him backwards?
04:35I might've.
04:35Yeah.
04:36Okay.
04:36My bad.
04:37Um, and then you have Nick Sheridan over at Michigan State.
04:41Yep.
04:43Who played at Michigan.
04:44Yep.
04:45As a quarterback there, local kid from Saline.
04:48Uh, and, or actually, I'm sorry, he's from Maine,
04:53but he, uh, he coached at Saline.
04:54No, he played.
04:55I thought he played at Saline.
04:56Yeah, but he coached at Saline.
04:57Yep.
04:57Uh, but also now the offensive coordinator at Michigan State.
05:00And I know a lot of people were a little concerned about that.
05:03You can't have a Wolverine coaching at your staff and all this and whatever.
05:07Let him, let him do what he's going to do.
05:08I mean, if he was good enough for Alabama, I think he might be good enough for Michigan State.
05:11And we'll see how, how this coaching staff comes together over the next couple of years.
05:15But I just think it's interesting that you've got two coordinators, one offensive, one defensive,
05:21that a lot of questions are asked of the head coaches this week.
05:24Like, do you know enough about the rivalry with Michigan and Michigan State?
05:27Because Pat Fitzgerald from Northwestern for all those years, Whittingham at Utah all those years.
05:34No, but do they know what rivalries are?
05:36Sure.
05:37Yeah.
05:38Well, and the, and the rivalry, the personality of this rivalry under these two coaches might be way different than
05:44what we've seen.
05:45Um, because there seems to be a lot more respect and, and, and they, they seem to genuinely like each
05:51other.
05:51They were both Under Armour coaches, uh, when Fitzgerald was at Northwestern and, um, and Whittingham was at Utah and
05:59Under Armour coaches ended up at Under Armour events together.
06:02Kevin Plank would put these things on the president, Under Armour, and they would end up, uh, at these events
06:06together.
06:07So they kind of got to know each other that way.
06:08Well, here's something else that's new in the modern era of college football.
06:13Alex Whittingham is Michigan's linebacker coach.
06:15And he said in the room to get a sense for this, for his guys who haven't played in it,
06:20they went to Ice Moa, who just transferred from Michigan State to Michigan to play with his brother, Selesi.
06:27And he, and he could tell what it was like the Spartans counter with Fred Moore, who played for Michigan.
06:33So I, I don't know if the Spartans had Fred Moore, you know, speak to his group, but I know
06:38that Michigan had Ice Moa, you know, speak at least to the linebacker room a little bit about it.
06:43So there's a lot of, a lot of, you know, weird things to get used to in the new world
06:47of, new order of college football.
06:49And this is, this is one of them.
06:51248-539-9797.
06:53Matt, you're on 97.1.
06:54Hello, Matt.
06:56Good day, fellas.
06:57So the way I see Tommy Carr is to me, he reminds me of J.J. McCarthy, you know, not
07:05five-star quarterback coming out of high school, but he looks like he has that winner mentality, leadership mentality.
07:15And, you know, it's very difficult with high school kids and their rankings, especially quarterbacks, case in point, Bryce Underwood.
07:24But there are so many other ones that they just don't live up to that billing because you jump from
07:30level to level, and then you jump from perhaps college to football, or college to the NFL, and the quarterback
07:37position is hard to play.
07:39And I can't remember what Brad Holmes said a couple years ago, something like, you know, it's a lot worse,
07:45it's a lot easier to get worse at your quarterback position than it is to get better.
07:50And I think that, you know, at any level, it's the same thing.
07:55Well, it's funny because Tommy, again, was on with Jansen this week on his podcast, and he said he, you
08:02know, the biggest adjustment when he first got here and got to the collegiate level was, oh, my God, everybody
08:08is huge, and everybody is flying around.
08:12And he, for perspective, he went back and watched this, I think during the bye week, he said he went
08:17to a Saline game, and he looked out there and he's like, everything seems so slow, and everyone seems so
08:23little.
08:23He's like, it's like night and day when you make the jump, and it's really difficult.
08:28If you go back and look, and a lot of people have done this, and I don't have all the
08:31names in front of me, but the top-ranked quarterback recruits, and this isn't a reflection on them, okay, but
08:38the top-ranked quarterback recruits from two, three, four years ago, very few of them have made it.
08:44It's a reflection on how difficult it is to project this.
08:48The kids don't show up and say, I'm ranking myself number one.
08:51Other people do it, and it's hard to do.
08:55It's hard to do.
08:57Now, there's a lot of positives that come out of it, too.
08:59You get bigger NIL deals in this world when you're a highly regarded recruit, but I think that is a
09:04reflection of how difficult it is to predict.
09:10But, as far as the comparison to J.J., I mean, the only time will tell if he can play
09:16the game at that level.
09:17Is there some similarities in the way they play the game?
09:20Yeah, they're both pretty fleet of foot, and they both, J.J. probably at this point maybe had a little
09:26bit of a stronger,
09:26the first Michigan-Michigan State game J.J. played in, Michigan State won it.
09:31That was a Kenneth Walker game.
09:34Was it the last time State won?
09:36Yeah, yes, it was.
09:39From BMW on Twitter,
09:40watch out for this game being a field goal game like 2012 unless Tommy can command the game.
09:49At Michigan, right?
09:50Michigan didn't score a touchdown, but they got the field goal at the end.
09:53Yes.
09:53The Blair-White game from Michigan State, I think he caught the only touchdown of the game.
09:58Let me go back and look.
10:00Is it Kirk Cousins?
10:00I feel like Drew Dillio had a big catch late to put Michigan into field goal range.
10:09Let's see.
10:10The only touchdown of the game, passing touchdown from Andrew Maxwell complete to Paul Lang.
10:19Paul Lang?
10:20For a two-yard touchdown.
10:22Okay, I went way off.
10:27And let's see here.
10:28Did Dillio have a pass completion?
10:30Denard Robinson to Drew Dillio, 20 yards to the Michigan State, 21.
10:35And then they kicked the field goal with five seconds to go.
10:38Matt Wild.
10:38248-539-9797.
10:44Spartan fans, do you see a path?
10:46Wolverine fans, what do you think of Tommy Carr?
10:47It is Carson Anderson here on 97.1.
