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00:00 Good afternoon everybody, glad everybody's here.
00:04 We have a really, another big game here, homecoming coming on Saturday.
00:09 We're looking forward to it with a good team and Maryland coming into town.
00:13 Looking forward to that.
00:15 We have another excellent quarterback coming in here, moves around in the pocket a lot.
00:21 And it's going to be a challenging force.
00:23 We've been playing this guy now for three years.
00:25 We need to do better as a coaching staff and as a team.
00:32 And we've been addressing that throughout this week.
00:35 And I feel like we'll be able to go out and play a much better brand of football on Saturday.
00:42 Our players and coaches have really been putting a lot of great work this week.
00:48 Just talking things through and getting things worked out to where we can go out and execute.
00:55 The word I've been using this week, focused on, is discipline.
00:59 If we're disciplined, we're going to give ourselves a chance to play a much better ball game on Saturday.
01:05 Less penalties and substitution errors and things like that.
01:09 We can't have those things, and we've talked about that a lot.
01:13 And so discipline is the key.
01:17 Any questions?
01:18 I hear a man.
01:19 Hey, Harmon.
01:20 I was wondering how you did all this with Melvin, the notice to fire him.
01:25 How you rallied the players and staff and all that amid this turmoil?
01:30 And did your experience at Florida State in a somewhat similar situation help you to go through this process?
01:38 Well, that's a good question.
01:41 Trying to bring that up.
01:42 Florida State, I am actually still meeting with some players in the 80s now.
01:48 Some guys yesterday who had a different experience from last week's guys that I met with.
01:53 Because now we've got a game experience and then the other things that are going on.
01:59 But the person that actually told me he wanted a good idea was to meet with all the guys.
02:04 Here's my guy at Florida State that became an interim coach, Odell Higgins.
02:08 And he's the one that actually said, "Man, I would suggest that you meet with all those players."
02:12 Because it really helped me.
02:13 He said the staff as well.
02:15 And it ended up being a really good idea by him because you get a lot of insight from the players, one-on-one.
02:22 They feel like they can share with you.
02:24 And so it's been really good.
02:26 How are you doing?
02:27 To say the situation you're in, the program is in, to say it's unique is an understatement.
02:32 But I'm just curious, though, what can you share with us about being a head coach that no one would know,
02:37 that you would not have known until you got the head coaching position?
02:41 Say that again?
02:42 You phrased that question?
02:43 Yeah.
02:44 What is it that you can tell us about being a head coach that nobody would know
02:47 and no one would understand until you're actually in that position?
02:50 I got you.
02:51 Come and see you guys every week.
02:53 Not everybody knows that.
02:54 Everybody knows that.
02:55 But there are things that you just don't anticipate.
03:00 Like, a position coach is just totally different, obviously.
03:03 You don't have to do these things like this and different, you know.
03:09 And then just the outside, peripheral things that you do with the program,
03:15 trying to--how you're going to run the team meeting, what you're going to do in the team meeting,
03:19 how you're going to set that up and talk to the guys about it, or the entire team about it,
03:23 what you have to say, the message you're trying to get across, things like that.
03:26 So you just have a different mindset as opposed to being a position coach.
03:31 I don't know if that truly answers your question, but a little bit.
03:33 All right. Thank you.
03:35 Looking back at Saturday's game, when you go over the film of a game like that
03:41 where both sides of the ball had their issues, I guess what did you take from that?
03:48 Is it a moment where you kind of dig in on that film, throw it out?
03:53 And how do the guys mentally put that aside as one game when you gave up 700-plus yards,
04:00 or when you didn't move the ball like you wanted to?
04:03 We attacked the details.
04:05 So just an example, and I'll give examples in all areas.
04:12 So you talk offensively.
04:14 You see you're supposed to run the route at 14 yards, and you run to that 12.
04:18 You did it all week at 14. Do it at 14. Don't get in the game.
04:21 You know what I mean?
04:23 Not because a back plays the ball one way in practice, a deep ball, but in the game,
04:28 you played it totally different, and you knew that was coming.
04:31 You knew that was something that was going to happen.
04:33 You get a guy on the punt team, you know, don't take the proper steps,
04:37 and you did it all week in practice.
04:39 So we're focused on the details, the discipline of everything right now.
04:42 And how do we get that accomplished in the game when the crowd is hollering 75,000?
04:48 We had a great crowd out there on Saturday.
04:50 How can you remain focused and disciplined to just do your job,
04:54 just like you did in practice?
04:56 That's the focus. That's what we're trying to get done.
04:58 And the mental aspect of trying to just shove that away?
05:02 Yeah, so we have to address the elephant in the room.
05:05 We definitely address that.
05:07 We got our butt kicked on Saturday. Okay, bam.
05:09 Now how do we improve from there and get better from that?
05:12 It was one game.
05:14 Coach Hazleton did a really good job with the defense.
05:18 A unit meeting on yesterday, he had the GAs pull up some scores
05:25 from NFL games over the last several years where a team that actually won the Super Bowl
05:30 or played in the Super Bowl gave up 41, the same number, right,
05:34 gave up 41 points throughout the regular season in one game,
05:37 came back the next week and got it right, and then went through the rest of the season,
05:42 won the Super Bowl.
05:43 He showed multiple examples of it.
05:45 So I think that helped the guys as well, seeing that, like, wow, okay, okay.
05:49 We're always talking about being a professional.
05:51 All these guys want to play in the NFL.
05:53 You got to be a professional about it.
05:54 You got to understand we got our butts kicked.
05:56 How do we learn from it, get better from it, and improve from it?
05:59 And then that's the focus now is the discipline of everything,
06:03 of doing everything the right way.
06:05 Hey, Carlin Beck here.
06:07 I'm your right-hand man, background, Jennifer Hammond from Fox 2 in Detroit.
06:10 I'm here to spend a few minutes. Nice to see you.
06:12 I understand that it sounds like you're saying, I mean, for most coaches,
06:16 a loss can really recenter a team.
06:19 How challenging is it, given all of the things that are going on on the outside?
06:24 And what is your message maybe to, I guess, Spartan faithful, to the team,
06:29 to everyone that it's football still and things are going in the right direction?
06:36 My message would be, first of all, we're two-and-one.
06:39 We have a winning record right now.
06:40 We're starting with the beginning of the Big Ten season.
06:43 We had a great representation last week of Spartan Nation here on the wall,
06:49 all the way to the game, to the stadium itself.
06:51 I mean, it was awesome, the energy, everything.
06:54 And I just hope that everybody come back this week with that same energy,
06:59 that same passion, and we will bring it as much.
07:01 We will bring it ourselves as a team, even more so.
07:04 We have to bring more passion out from our hand and, like I said,
07:08 the discipline thing.
07:09 So we want to bring the discipline and the passion and the energy,
07:14 just like the fans.
07:15 Let's do it all together.
07:16 Let's do it all together, work together, and let's cheer these young men on.
07:20 We love Spartan Nation, and we know that we want to go out
07:25 and give them what they want to see.
07:27 And that's a hard-working team, playing the right way,
07:31 tough, physical, aggressive football,
07:33 and that's what we know Michigan State football to be.
07:36 So I really would like everybody to come back out with that same energy.
07:40 We're going to have the energy, and let's go beat Maryland.
07:43 One little follow-up, if I may, to that.
07:45 To what extent do you feel like over the last nine days you've had to
07:48 also wear the hat of maybe like psychologist and mentor
07:52 and maybe big brother to some of these kids and students on the team
07:55 as much as football coach, and how do you balance that?
07:58 You know, that's what I've been doing as a coach, since I've been a coach.
08:02 That's part of being a coach.
08:04 You understand that it's not just about being out on the field.
08:07 It's about mentoring them through different things in life,
08:11 different things that can come their way.
08:15 "Coach, what do you think about this? What do you think about that?"
08:17 And that's the wisdom that we gather as older adults,
08:20 that we can give back to the young men.
08:22 So that's part of it.
08:24 In my mind, again, I said this before, I know my purpose.
08:28 My purpose is to help young men become men.
08:30 And so that's all a part of it.
08:33 It's just on a grander scale with a lot more going on,
08:36 but you got to do what you have to do.
08:39 "Age, when you broke down the tape from Saturday,
08:41 were there any position groups that escaped a failing grade,
08:45 and how would you assess the performance of a first game head coach?"
08:50 First of all, I didn't escape the failing grade.
08:53 So that starts with me, right?
08:55 And then everybody else.
08:57 I will say this, Jack.
08:58 There were some guys, there were some things you're like,
09:00 "Everything wasn't terrible."
09:02 You saw some hope and some light at the end of the tunnel.
09:08 It just wasn't consistent enough.
09:12 You need all 11 to execute.
09:14 And I always say this, all 11 execute, you win that down,
09:18 or you win that series, you win that quarter, you win that half,
09:21 you win the game.
09:22 If all 11 execute, you get all 11 that's on the field to execute,
09:26 which is hard to do.
09:28 11 people doing the right thing at the right time at the same time.
09:31 And so that's where the focus is.
09:35 We had some guys, we may have had 10 of 11 do right.
09:38 We had 9 of 11.
09:39 So it wasn't all just terrible.
09:41 There were some things to build upon.
09:43 We just weren't consistent in our all 11 executing.
09:46 One more thing, as a longtime DBs coach,
09:50 how would you compare Taliyah Tondavoloa with Michael Pettis Jr.?
09:55 Taliyah, man, this dude is all over the place.
09:59 He's running all over the place.
10:01 So he's different in that matter that he'll move out in the pocket of the
10:07 light or the ball from anywhere, whereas I think Pettis, he's more of a pocket guy,
10:12 although we've known him to be a runner years ago, Indiana,
10:15 and all that kind of stuff.
10:16 But he's trying to stay in the pocket a little bit longer
10:18 and throw from the pocket, where Taliyah, he wants to be in the pocket,
10:23 all of them do, but he don't mind getting out and running around
10:26 and still throwing it.
10:27 So he's going to be a challenge just trying to capture him
10:30 and get him on the ground.
10:31 That's the challenge.
10:33 Great.
10:34 Hey, Carl, you mentioned last Saturday night the idea of wanting to bring more
10:39 normalcy to the week.
10:40 Can you tell me how you do that?
10:44 And then also is there also the realization that nothing is going to be quite normal
10:49 and so you're going to have to navigate it without it being so?
10:52 No doubt.
10:53 So last week, like you said, we had changed a whole lot of things
10:58 because that's what they knew.
11:00 We already had the news, so we tried to just keep it as the times,
11:05 the meeting times, the practice times, the things we did in practice.
11:08 All that was pretty much the same.
11:11 And so they didn't feel like, "Oh, wow, this is a big change."
11:14 The changes that we did make were slight things that we did,
11:18 and they all seemed to like those slight changes.
11:21 But nothing that was so big that they were thrown off course
11:26 for what we need to get done.
11:28 And this week, kind of the same ground.
11:32 We kept it fairly normal to what we've done in the past
11:37 with a few changes here and there, and they all like it.
11:40 The main thing is the time.
11:41 As long as they know the time is the same, they can be on time
11:44 when they need to be.
11:45 We're good.
11:46 And then the practices and the coaches are the same as far as how we coach
11:50 and all that kind of stuff.
11:52 How about for you personally?
11:53 You talked about meeting with most of the guys last week and stuff.
11:57 How has this week been different than last week, I guess, for you?
12:00 Great question.
12:01 So I haven't been meeting -- like last Monday, I met with 27 dudes, man.
12:08 Yesterday it was like 11 or 12.
12:10 Big difference.
12:12 Big difference.
12:13 I also jumped on the Maryland film on Sunday.
12:18 I'm watching Maryland, Maryland, Maryland, Maryland,
12:20 other than we got the film ready on Saturday night.
12:23 That's how I do it after the game, no matter what time the game ends,
12:26 watch the film.
12:27 So Sunday I had a chance to really focus on Maryland and watch them.
12:32 And beyond what I normally watch was their offense,
12:35 and now I'm watching offense, defense, and special teams.
12:38 So I'm watching the entire group, and that was my focus on Sunday.
12:42 So I already feel more prepared than I did last week for Washington
12:46 because I didn't really get a chance to watch them like I wanted to watch them,
12:49 the entire group.
12:51 One more thing.
12:52 In hindsight, the CMU-Richmond, given their limited passing games,
12:56 going into Michael Pennix and those receivers and that coordinator,
13:00 was that in some ways the worst possible preparation for what you guys then
13:05 faced, and then is this in some ways the best preparation you could have
13:09 faced for Maryland dealing with what you did last week?
13:13 Exactly.
13:15 Yes, what you say, I totally agree with what you just said.
13:19 I'm not going to say it's totally worse because you got to respect everybody,
13:23 Richmond and Central, but they're different than Washington.
13:26 We all know that.
13:28 And so we might have got a little, you know, I ain't going to say complacent.
13:34 That's not the word.
13:35 Because we knew what Washington was and played them last year.
13:37 So it's not like we were surprised to see them guys back.
13:40 But, you know, the preparation of it and all that and how good those guys
13:46 really are, because we did have some guys that played this year's
13:49 and this year's game that didn't play in last year's game,
13:52 although we were playing them and they heard all the stuff about them
13:56 and everything.
13:57 But a lot of those guys didn't even play in the game last year.
13:59 And so they got a chance to see their real deal.
14:02 So it does help us for this one.
14:08 I covered my first Michigan State game in 1960.
14:12 So I've seen a lot of Michigan State.
14:16 I don't ever recall seeing the stadium as empty as it was after halftime.
14:23 How did you react to that and what did you think?
14:29 Well, we have to play better.
14:32 We have to play better.
14:34 We got to make them want to stay.
14:36 We got to make them want to stay, the Spartan Nation.
14:38 So that is the goal about playing better football
14:42 and being a better disciplined team and putting a better product on the field.
14:46 So they'll come back.
14:48 The Spartan Nation is strong and resilient.
14:50 And hopefully they'll come back this week and have that same energy
14:53 at the beginning and all the way to the end this week.
14:57 Saturday after the game, I noticed you used the keep chopping mantra of it.
15:02 How do you balance trying to kind of create the clean break
15:09 that MSU probably wants in this situation versus also kind of trying
15:15 to maintain some common thread between the two things?
15:19 I imagine it's a tricky balance.
15:21 Yeah, you're right because some of those things that we've had implemented
15:25 are good things.
15:27 They're good things for the guys.
15:29 Again, talking about some of them are mostly for the guys.
15:33 So like you said, it's a tough balance, but you work it out
15:39 and figure out when to say, how to say to the guys
15:42 and help them to perform at the highest level that they can perform.
15:46 But again, some of those things are really good things I thought
15:49 were good for the team and help us become a better team.
15:53 And how do you also try to implement or put your own imprint on the team
16:00 at the same time, again, trying to maintain some of the previous stuff?
16:06 Right.
16:08 Maybe in some sort of way, just maybe focus on some of the other things.
16:13 We talked about all the things that I'm even sharing, but even more so,
16:17 I'm talking about physicality and running through contact.
16:21 We talked about that stuff before, but that's where I'm coming from a lot
16:25 because that's my personality.
16:28 And I believe that you have a really good football team
16:31 when you can be disciplined and physical, very, very physical.
16:35 And I think that's intimidating.
16:37 But you have to be disciplined and physical, smart as well.
16:40 So those are some of the things that we're talking about to the guys
16:44 that may have been said but not emphasized as much.
16:48 Just like that.
16:51 Harlan, yesterday Allen addressed the team,
16:53 letting them know about his intentions of terminating Tucker's contract.
16:57 So I'm just wondering sort of if you felt like it was appropriate timing
17:01 for him to bring that up to the team and then also just yet again
17:06 their reaction to it all because at the center of all this,
17:08 it really does come down to the players and how they're handling things.
17:11 Absolutely, Audrey.
17:13 He hit me up the day before and said, "I want to meet with the team."
17:19 And he didn't say for what.
17:22 And so I said, "In the morning before practice or after practice?"
17:26 I said, "After practice. Let's get through practice."
17:29 And so he met with those guys at noon.
17:32 He met with the attendance assistants after them,
17:35 and then he met with the support staff after that
17:37 and shared the news with us.
17:40 And so I'd rather not for any news to come to the guys like that,
17:46 but let's just get it out there and go.
17:49 Let's get it out there and go.
17:51 And then the position coaches talked to the guys as well,
17:55 talked to our guys to see how they are and what they're thinking.
17:59 They've been good. The guys have been really good.
18:02 And then just one quick follow-up.
18:04 You obviously love this university.
18:06 You bleed green.
18:07 You mentioned it last week, and there's no doubt about that.
18:09 Not about that whatsoever.
18:11 So have you had to bring in any of the other assistant coaches
18:15 in a sense of trying to keep them on track
18:17 and to let them understand what Spartan Nation is in a sense?
18:20 Or what has their reaction kind of been like this week?
18:24 Just because you mentioned Scottie too has been really immersed
18:27 in getting things back on track after last week,
18:30 but just their general sense of it all.
18:32 They've been really good.
18:33 Jay Johnson, Cap, Coach Christopher, he's been really great.
18:38 All those guys have been great.
18:40 Anything you need, Coach, anything you need, I can call everyone.
18:44 Everyone.
18:45 I didn't say any names. Don't get mad at me.
18:48 But every one of them has come up to say something to me,
18:51 as well as the support staff.
18:52 Whatever you need, Coach, we got you.
18:54 Just let us know whatever you need.
18:56 And so they've been very, very supportive
18:58 and very professional in everything that they do.
19:02 So love those guys. Really good coaching staff.
19:05 [Indiscernible]
19:07 Hey, Arlen, I'm from here.
19:08 I know what you said last week about Belichick,
19:11 but I was just wondering if you had an update on Tyneal, Chuck, or Jaron,
19:16 and Jalen in the backfield as far as moving forward.
19:20 Tyneal, I had to remember, he said, "Tyneal, lower body injury."
19:25 Chuck, upper body injury.
19:28 [Laughter]
19:30 No, they'll be, "Tyneal, Tyneal."
19:32 I can say, "I'm not going to say this about Tyneal.
19:34 Tyneal, you know, he had surgery."
19:36 And I spoke with he and his mom a couple nights ago after the surgery,
19:40 and he's doing well.
19:41 He's in good spirits.
19:42 And so that's his deal.
19:44 Chuck will be fine.
19:46 He'll be fine.
19:47 There's nothing major with Chuck.
19:49 Who else did you ask?
19:50 The running backs, Jalen Berger and Jaron Mangum.
19:52 Berger and Mangum are probably still about a week or so away probably.
19:58 But they're working hard at him and looking to get back soon.
20:01 And then just offensively, things were going well the first two games
20:04 after a little bit of, you know, rocky starts.
20:06 But how does that group handle -- how do they handle what happened on Saturday
20:11 where really very little went right?
20:14 Again, the other guy back in the lab, so to speak, and with Coach Johnson
20:19 and talked about the details, attention to details.
20:22 Like I mentioned earlier, one of the things I said was, like,
20:24 I received a going to 12, I was supposed to 14.
20:27 And amongst other things, you know, that's just one example of things that
20:32 happened.
20:33 So, again, we have a really good coaching staff,
20:36 and those guys are getting everything corrected.
20:38 And we're focused on the details, the discipline and the details this week.
20:43 And I don't see a better product because of that this Saturday.
20:49 I'm wondering, I know you've got a lot to handle these last week or so.
20:53 But has there been sort of a discussion about the program's recruiting strategy
20:58 and how do you communicate with, like, seniors right now when the future of
21:02 this program is so unclear?
21:04 Do you focus more on younger kids that have time to sort of learn Michigan State
21:08 as a whole, maybe not specific to a staff?
21:10 What's sort of the general plan for recruiting right now without any clarity?
21:15 Well, fortunately, because I got a chance to speak with all the community recruits,
21:22 they've been really good.
21:24 They've been really good so far, especially last week.
21:27 And I'm going to do it again this week.
21:28 I'll get on actual FaceTime with those guys and talk with them.
21:32 And they've been good.
21:34 They've been good so far.
21:36 Everybody knows what has to happen and all that kind of stuff.
21:40 So they're hanging.
21:42 They're hanging.
21:43 They love Michigan State as of now, right now, and everything themselves.
21:47 And the parents are good.
21:49 So talking to the parents and the kids, and they've been good.
21:52 And our coaches talk to them as well.
21:54 I didn't talk to all of the parents.
21:56 I talked to all 13 commits, and they were good.
22:01 Does it sort of have to be more about selling Michigan State as opposed to any
22:04 single staff or scheme or structure, you know what I'm saying?
22:07 Yes, yes, it is about Michigan State.
22:10 And, yeah, it's about Michigan State for sure and what it means.
22:15 And I can definitely talk about that.
22:17 You know, as a player and now a coach for a long time, just the university
22:22 in itself and Michigan State football in the Big Ten Conference.
22:26 So it's a great place to be.
22:29 One other thing, if I could, you talked about the quarterbacks and the
22:31 differences.
22:32 I'm wondering just how Maryland, their offensive scheme, were they trying to
22:35 test you guys some of the same ways?
22:37 Are they more different than a week ago?
22:38 Are there some similarities?
22:40 Some similarities.
22:41 Not as many chuck them down the field.
22:44 They will.
22:45 They'll throw it down there.
22:46 They have some long receivers that can run and go get the ball.
22:49 And like I said, he stays alive.
22:50 He keeps things alive.
22:52 So, again, he's a capture guy.
22:54 We always talk about he's a quarterback, a capture quarterback or a kill
22:57 quarterback.
22:58 He's a capture quarterback.
22:59 We have to capture him.
23:00 And understand we have to stay on his up-close shoulder and not let him get
23:03 outside the pocket and make him step up in the pocket where we can, you know,
23:07 have bodies around and get him down on the ground.
23:10 Thank you.
23:11 With Coach Antonio back now for a full week, obviously,
23:14 he has said it, but what is his role and how does that kind of change now that --
23:18 or does it change now that he's kind of back here for a week and a little bit
23:21 more immersed?
23:22 He's been a real great resource as an advisory role deal.
23:27 He said he's -- you know, because he's trying to absorb and get it all in,
23:31 the terminology and all that stuff.
23:33 And so he's just watching, observing, and then he'll come and, you know,
23:38 say something to me or to staff even.
23:40 This is what I see because we all ask because everybody wants to absorb the
23:44 wisdom that he has from being the head coach and a successful head coach at
23:48 that.
23:49 So he's been very observant, watching, seeing what he sees, what we can do here
23:55 or do there, and he's been good.
23:57 He's been really good at that.
23:59 I'll return it one more time.
24:01 Just to follow up to Audrey's question about Alan meeting with the team
24:04 yesterday, what did you take from maybe what their spirits were,
24:08 what the reaction was to that news?
24:10 Is it something that maybe they can cut and move forward?
24:14 Was it heavy?
24:15 Can you just kind of summarize what the mood was in the room after that?
24:18 So he met with them individually.
24:20 He met with them himself when he met with the team.
24:23 Then he came up and met with us.
24:25 Saul wasn't actually in there with them when he said it, you know what I mean?
24:30 But they were good this morning when we had the team meeting and everything
24:36 because, again, that was after practice yesterday.
24:39 So other than that, I didn't get a chance to see everybody again
24:42 until this morning.
24:43 I met with some guys individually yesterday because they were on a schedule
24:46 to meet with me.
24:47 Did you get a sense of what their kind of reaction to that was?
24:50 When Alan came up there, he said, because we did ask him, we asked Alan,
24:56 the staff, and he said it was good.
24:58 He thought it was nothing major.
25:00 Nobody said anything, parted out anything or anything like that.
25:04 But from what he could tell, you know, young people,
25:07 sometimes you have no clue what they're feeling.
25:10 Anybody that has kids or had teenagers before you, like, what does he think?
25:13 I have no idea.
25:15 But I think they were good.
25:18 We have two more to go first, and Ryan, wrap it up.
25:21 Kind of on the lines of what Ryan asked a little bit ago,
25:25 now that you take up the coaching position, the top spot,
25:30 I imagine it's pretty difficult to try and make any kind of wholesale changes
25:34 at this point in terms of structure and scheme.
25:38 Where are you at with that?
25:40 Do you have to kind of go with what you install in the camp,
25:45 or can you tinker and toy with that to your liking at this point?
25:50 I see what you're saying.
25:52 It would be, you're right, I mean, you went to spring ball.
25:55 I mean, some of you guys here because they've been here with the same staff.
25:59 But we have a good staff.
26:00 We have a good scheme.
26:02 We did some things this offseason that we liked that we implemented.
26:08 And so if there were anything that I would suggest or tinker with,
26:14 it wouldn't be anything way out of structure from what we're doing.
26:19 It'd just be a minor little deal there, but, you know, it could be good.
26:22 So we'll see.
26:24 But right for now, we're moving ahead with what we have and how we do it.
26:29 Carl, whether it's you, Getson, or somebody else,
26:32 how attractive do you think the Michigan State job is, you know,
26:36 especially in the new Big Ten with the four added teams next year?
26:40 Extremely, extremely attractive.
26:44 Of course, I'm going to say this, it's the best job in America.
26:48 It's Michigan State in the Big Ten, go green, go white all day.
26:52 And so it's a fantastic place.
26:56 It always has been since 1985 when I first came up here.
27:00 I said this last year -- I mean last week.
27:02 So great place, great job, great people.
27:06 It really is.
27:08 And, you know, unfortunately we've got some things where people look down a
27:11 little bit on us, but, hey, it's an awesome place.
27:14 It is an awesome place.
27:16 We're going to wrap it up again.
27:18 You mentioned a couple of the community goings and support and so forth.
27:21 When you talk with him about the running game,
27:23 what are some of the things that he says need to be done details-wise to get
27:26 next step?
27:28 Detail-wise, we haven't gone into details with him, not this week anyway, Jim.
27:33 But he hit me up after the game and text and was like, "Coach, I'm going to be
27:39 better."
27:40 And I said, "I'm going to be better."
27:41 You know, that's how coaches are.
27:42 He just hit me up and I was like, "That's how coaches are."
27:46 All of us want to be better.
27:49 But he was one of them as well as some others.
27:52 He said, "Hey, man, we're going to be better."
27:54 And that's what I love about our staff because everybody takes it on themselves
27:58 to say, "Hey, we need to get this done.
28:00 We need to get it better."
28:01 He leads the coaching staff.
28:02 He really is a good coaching staff.
28:04 Thanks for your time.
28:05 Thanks.
28:06 Thanks so much, Coach.
28:07 Thanks.