Michigan State Spartans Football Preview with Austin Smith & John Kirby Big Sports Radio S3 Ep 3

welcome back to the show folks this is Mike Kegley here with Larry Smith Brad sturdy we have producer Tony Cordo and little bit of a special treat you can find big sports radio on the believe podcast Network and we talk to a lot of the guys who are insiders across the Big 10 today we're going to be talking Michigan state with the two gentlemen who run the only podcast we have Austin Smith and John Kirby guys welcome to the show thank you very much for having us we're excited to be here thank you so as as we set up this big 10 season of course we got four new schools coming from the West Coast 18 teams we don't have divisions Michigan state is picking up the pieces after an interesting tenure tell us what are the expectation level that Michigan State fans and and more importantly what are the coaching staff with what's their level of expectation for this season I I could start um well I think uh picking up the pieces is a good way to frame it um it honestly I think for a large segment of the fan base it can't get any worse than it was last year that was about and listen I've been watching Michigan State football long enough to have seen some some previously Bleak times as well and last year was was about as Bleak as it got um but all of that being said you know with a with a new season and a new head coach and a whole lot of new players at important positions I think there's some guarded optimism um Jonathan Smith was I in my opinion probably the best hire they could have made Michigan State's brand has always been winning games with under recruited players and um you know when they've been at their best playing smart run heavy short passing game control the clock play good defense type football and uh that's what Jonathan Smith teams do you know if you look at what dju did last week with Florida State versus what he did a year ago with Oregon State you know it's uh gives us another reason to get excited that maybe there's some extra magic in this coaching staff so yeah I think guarded optimism is probably the the way that I would describe it yeah we're we're getting back to Our Roots here I think a lot of people uh Michigan State fans really identified with the mark Danto know years the way that the team went about things a lot of people you know had tied some of their self identity to that and then we CH transitioned to a completely different style one that was embraced by the community but certainly something that maybe we weren't you know we were trying to be something we weren't we wanted to be it and you know got a got a little out of our skis so uh some unfortunate other things happened but but as Austin said you find a guy that has you know kind of talking the same talk and walking the same walk as the last guy who had great success here so there's there's a lot of Hope being placed in that specific area you know college football has certainly changed in the last 20 years these days when you talk about a team you kind of have to start the quarterback and football games are still one lost in the trenches but these days if you don't have a quarterback you're really lost has that position been solidified do you think in this off season and are they ready to kind of move forward and you know make something happen on offense from that position yeah I think that's arguably outside of the coaching staff the maybe even because of that uh or maybe does outsize that but um the that's been the biggest acquisition of Michigan State's offseason from a Personnel perspective and it comes in the form of uh Aiden Charles who is um again it's a testament to what Jonathan Smith has done in his career that he was able to get to convince a top 60 overall recruit in his class just two years ago to go to Corvalis Oregon to not start but to back up uh another quarterback um and you know he came along with Smith to East Lancing Parton paral kind of a package deal um and I think again if you want to talk about why there's reason for excitement that's probably number one I mean Charles had offers from all over the country um probably could have gone just about anywhere he wanted when he put his name into the portal but instead you know chose to follow his head coach come to Michigan State and there's never really been a question that he's going to be the guy from the day that he you know signed the proverbial on the proverbial dotted line uh to become a Spartan um and I think what's awesome about it is that Smith has just placed such intense trust in him and there's such a great relationship there and we've seen again go back to the dontonio and Conor cook days to go way way back Antonio and even you know Kirk Cousins um lots of there was a great quarterback head coach relationship there when Michigan State's been at its best and and there's reason to to have hoped for the same this year lot of yeah a lot of um the season will rely on the ceiling of Aiden Charles and that's a big thing to ask when he's you have an 18-year-old uh who has never had a true start um as you Austin mentioned he was good enough to Warrant Series in real in almost all games third series I believe of every game at Oregon State behind dju and there were bands at Oregon State who despite the success of the Beavers that year wanted to see more of it because he just brings a completely new element to the field and so to get him as uh Austin mentions was huge and maybe even bigger um is that he was named captain at 18 years old old and so uh there's there's he is carrying quite the load here for the Michigan State SPS this year you've got a a totally different you know schedule that teams are dealing with and with the influx of talent from the West Coast you're not going to have a total amount of run focused beat you up at the line of scrimmage type of offenses what kind of defense is Michigan State going to have this year as it seems like in the Big 10 and I think maybe we USC will find this out but I don't think you can just play offense in the Big 10 no I I would strongly agree with that so the the what Michigan state did is they hired um Minnesota's defensive coordinator Joe Rossy to fill that same position at Michigan State um obviously really exciting for MSU to be able to to convince somebody like that who's had a really successful career in the same conference to take a lateral move to be a to to really take a career somewhat of a risk to come over and be a part of something uh something new uh Minnesota's defenses I don't have the stats in front of me but have been surprisingly stingy actually under Rossy he plays a little bit more um of a thre man front I think than MSU fans are typically used to seeing so there will take some adjusting there it's going to rely more on you know kind of the the the dment holding their gaps as opposed to trying to get up field which I think is what Michigan State fans are probably more used to so a lot of adjustments uh from a visual perspective um and if anything there there's probably is a little bit of concern as to what that defensive line Looks like again while they won't be probably facing as many run heavy offenses as they have in the past with the exception of probably like you know the michigans of the world um there's still just a level of talent that I'm not sure is there for them to compete with those you know upper upper echelon teams coming into the conference yeah all eyes will be on the defensive back field as well as it was one of the worst units not only in the country but Michigan State history so um anything is progress at this point uh fans are hopeful just to something fresh uh can only go up now you guys have been went to Michigan State love Michigan State cover Michigan State from an Outsiders perspective I have to ask is there any thought of the Michigan State fans wonder what could have been if you could have hung on to Nick stavin if he hadn't decided to leave does does that ever cross your minds about what might have been for for the Spartans I mean it's it we'd be lying if we said it didn't you know when you get to say I think we we've kind of always I we've kind of got like a running bit on our show where we love to claim people that were at one point in time associated with the university even if they didn't finish their careers there Nick FES is a great example went to Michigan State never really played won a Super Bowl we're celebrating that for for M uh just because we can um and I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Sabin for that reason as well uh you know getting just you know the old pictures of him and the big glasses and the starter jackets are uh you know kind of Classics in our Circle so yeah of course you can you can play that game but um you know when you go to go on to see what he did at LSU and Alabama it's you know you kind of feel like his story was always going to end up at one of those all-time universities as as much as I love Michigan State it's uh you know trying not to beat ourselves up about it too much yeah you saw that come to life very recently MSU as an organiz or university fan base said never again we're never going to be a stepping stone again and we will pay as much as it we as much as it takes to never be a stepping stone again even if it's the wrong move it turned out to be the wrong move but get that was the whole point is you know we are not gonna we're certainly gonna lose an alimer we can never let it happen twice yeah so if not for Sabin wouldn't have been Tucker contract huh you see how these things all come together Butterfly Effects I'm an line eye fan so we had to watch Bill self go to Kansas we don't have too much on each other the question that I have is from September 28th when Ohio State comes to town followed by a game at Oregon then a merciful week off and then Iowa comes to town for homecoming and then the week after the dreaded blue of Michigan on the road what are we going to find out about this Michigan State team during that five-week streak uh uh that's as brutal a five we streak as I can remember M outside of what I see Florida doing their last six games I've never seen anything like that bananas but this is about as C I mean thankfully there's a by week in there right yeah I mean I I think it actually to me play it it I'm going to learn more about where Michigan State's going before we even get to that stretch because they play Maryland before that they open with Florida Atlanta who was not a joke of a team Tom Herman has been a big head coach of multiple huge organizations or huge universities um they go on the road to play Boston College the week before they host Ohio State so I think we'll learn a lot before they even hit that streak or that stretch but if I'm looking for one thing in there it's hopefully at least one win um but it's also the I think one of the biggest issues with what happened with Mel Tucker teams is they just went the wheels fell off there was no coming back they' lose I mean I think they lost 49 to nothing to Michigan it was just blowouts I'm looking for a more narrow margin some level of you know uh discipline stti tutiven a game plan just something to hang our hats on that we can you know so we can hang in these games in the future but yeah I I would like one win out of there preferably against Michigan if I had to pick we'll see what Jonathan Smith's made of uh you know after that run you know you're going to have to pick up the pieces and can you put together enough wins on the back end of the schedule to make a bowl or will the team quit you know we're going to find out what Jonathan Smith's all about looking forward to it gentlemen I really appreciate you coming on to Big sports radio again we had Austin Smith and John Kirby you can find them on the believe network if you are a Michigan State fan you will want to find the only podcast that is something that Michigan State Michigan State fans don't have to have explained to them other people in the Big 10 might need to have a little bit of a primer but if you're a if you're a Michigan State fan you should be subscribing so thank you gentlemen for coming on the show and folks we will be right back after these messages