Intro it is T-minus 10 days until the start of the 2024 college football season ladies and gentlemen I'll admit to you right now I have never been this excited for a season of football in my life granted maybe starting the channel when I did gave me a much deeper appreciation for the boys than I've had before but I think if I didn't start this channel the level of excitement would still be the same because there's so many new things so many new elements to this season that are going to kick off this week ladies and gentlemen it's week zero all right we don't play until the 30th but there are a couple games kicking off this weekend I will definitely be tuning in It's Just For the Love of football but in this episode guys we're going to be talking about one of the biggest questions for the Spartans it pertains to the defense will we see an improvement and one of the ways that we can gauge that is by taking a look at some of the guys that we got in the transfer portal in the off seon now when I was looking at the list I was surprised to find out that it was mainly defensive guys that we got in the portal so it looks like we're going to get an immediate answer to that question on the defensive side so what I want to do in this episode is just share with you four guys that have caught my attention on the defensive side of the ball who I think are going to have a pretty huge impact probably right away just based on you know their their previous performance with their previous teams now number one guy here and if you're Ben Roberts new by the way my name is Wade I want to thank you for tuning in we cover all things Spartan football all the time and first on our list for incoming transfers to watch on the defense is Ben Roberts from Oregon now when you look at his stat sheet not very impressive however he was playing behind the juggernauts that the Oregon Ducks have produced over the last two to three Seasons they've gone 22 and five since Dan Lanning showed up their defensive coordinator Tosh lupoy has NFL tenure not to mention he was a defensive lineman himself in the early 2000s for the Golden Bears so what has me so excited about Roberts is his tutelage the education that he's received in the last two years yeah on the stat sheet it may not be blowing anybody away but this is the type of brother who's been sitting laying and waiting he's been learning his role he's been you know waiting for that opportunity to open up and I think that lended to why he made the jump to East Lancing in the first place and he isn't alone there's another guy on this list that probably did the same thing and the difference is well not did the same thing but thought the same way biggest difference is that his numbers were Sensational so for Ben my biggest thing is coming from what has become any Elite system over in Oregon I think that education is going to serve well and that's what has me excited about his contribution and again he was playing behind Superstars and I'm sure he feels that he's a superstar too and he's going to be more motivated to show that off out here in East Lan now next to him another guy that caught my attention dcoin du out of Georgia Tech Savannah Georgia guys so you already know they play football differently in the South now granted he was on a defense Georgia Tech defense that was bottom five in the AFC for the last few years last few good years but among the rising stars he was one of them all right three and a half sacks in 2022 alone he was also a key component on the defense with another gentleman whose name slips me in the moment but even though Georgia Tech's defensive production overall wasn't the best he was among one of the top performers on that team and now we have him in East Lancing so looking forward to see what he can do man he's definitely got the size he's got the experience Four Seasons out there another question that you have to ask here though obviously going from the ACC to the Big 10 level of competition is vastly different so there will be an adjustment maybe in those first few games look out for that now outside of dcoin this is a guy that I think is really going to turn hits he was actually one of the earliest transfers that we got he signed in December of last year so he's been able to develop rapport with the team as a matter of fact let me just uh kill the anticipation for you talking about Jordan Turner Jordan Turner from Wisconsin linebacker guys and I was so taken away by the story that I read this morning as I was putting this episode together he recently hosted a football camp this summer in my hometown the place I was born I reside in East laning but I was born in the Motor City ladies and gentlemen east side of Detroit and when I read that he had hosted a football camp at Farmington High School I was sold I was sold this man can do no harm in my opinion and I know he has he had that one incident that got him suspended from the school the OWI he doesn't have a track record of that behavior so I feel like we can't hold that against him especially when you look at this guy's numbers let me check my sheet here in his three seasons at Wisconsin and recorded 135 tackles what was that five sacks and three interceptions and when you watch the film yeah not only can he play in space he's a ball Hawk he also can drop back in the coverage and I think Dylan Tatum nikai Martinez who is another transfer from UCF those gentlemen they're going to love that extra support not to mention at the linebacker spot this guy was putting up numbers just like Cal Halliday was putting up numbers last season so with him on the one side Halliday on the other side this linebacker room is going to be Sensational ladies and gentlemen absolutely nuts going into 2024 right and lastly outside of Jordan Turner at the line backer position we have a Wayne Matthews III gentleman by the name of Wayne Matthews III from Old Dominion this is one of the top tacklers in college football ladies and gentlemen top three if you're just counting assisted tackles playing in the Sun Belt yeah the level of competition again is a bit different but this was this guy was a top tier athlete in that conference which again is a similar story to Mr Roberts that talked about at the uh top of the episode where he was on a team with other superstars on the defense like if you look at defensive leaders throughout all college football when it comes to tackling you'll see three of his teammates in the top 10 right so all of the defensive tutelage aside the education what they're putting together at Old Dominion on the defensive side of the ball it seems to be absolutely St stunning because they were wrecking stuff in the Sun Belt last season now that we have him at MSU it's really a situation where I know I'm a top star and I'm F to show y'all right so now at the linebacker spot we got Wayne Matthews the third one of the top defensive tacklers uh one of the top tacklers in college football next to Jordan Turner who has insane numbers Cal Halliday also insane numbers this is going to be one of the toughest linebacker rooms in the Big 10 I'm sorry will be able to compete we can argue about it all day we can argue how we match up against Michigan's linebacking corpe or Ohio State's linebacking Corp or hell even Oregon's Lineback in core I think though with these guys we are going to be able to compete I don't see any other way around it ladies and gentlemen again Ben Roberts dcoin Duce on the defensive line Jordan Turner Matthews I third at the linebacker spot and when you add in guys like nikai Martinez who will be coming uh as the corner defensive back position man I'm really thinking that the answers that we were looking for on the defensive side of the ball will be answered this season again when we talk about what metrics we need to hit on the defensive side of the ball ball Jonathan Smith has a history of taking the Beavers from obscurity to notoriety and he did it by particularly focusing on the defensive side of the ball he's got his defensive mind with him that help him do this so having these high performance players these high impact players that he can put into the system and know that they will perform again it's hard not to be optimistic about this season ladies and gentlemen now if you want you can check our community tab guys because I'm running a poll now of players who will be the most impactful among these transfers I believe we have nikai Martinez on the list uh dcoin Duce Ben Roberts and Jordan Turner so I want your thoughts on that head over to the community tab uh leave your vote as well as leave a comment too make maybe we missed a guy I don't know but if you have your eye on a particular star that' be the spot to let us know with that we also talked about incoming transfers on the offensive side of the ball in our uh episode last week that'll pop up right here feel free to watch that if you got some time with that though I want to thank you for tuning in to another episode as always I'm Wade teamer go green go white go Spartans I'll see y'all in the next one Spartans said they were [Applause] [Music] thiser at the 20 he's at the 15 at the 10 he's into the end zone touchdown MSU