The Drive with Jack
* Mike Griffith, Georgia beat writer for DawgNation.com
(upbeat music) - Jack, I believe you're my good friend, Matt Sloatt, grab a Volcomist, lots of excitement at the two dealerships. What's new with Chevy and Nissan? - Well, Jack, great question. At Nissan, everybody seems to be talking about interest rates. We're offering 0% financing on new vehicles, and we have the all new completely redesigned 2025 kicks on the lot and ready for delivery. It is fantastic. At Chevy, same thing. People are talking about interest rates. Guess what? We have 0% financing on new, and as low as 1.99 used. You gotta come check it out. - Great time to get a car and great place to do it. Grab a Volcomist. Happy 2025, and welcome to the drive with Jack on the Spotlight Radio Network. Jack Eblin' here with my producer, Boston Rob. On Thursday afternoon, 23 degrees, and feels a lot colder than that down in the low teens. That's what the temp is supposed to be to your skin tonight. If you are going to Michigan State, Wisconsin, hockey, if you're staying in to watch the Sugar Bowl rescheduled at four o'clock, I guess you can do both because the MSU hockey aim is also gonna be on BTN. So you can probably catch a major part of both of those events. And we have a big show planned for you. Seven guests for our first show of the new year. Rob, let's go right out to our guest line. Very happy to welcome in a guy who covers the Georgia Bulldogs for Dog Nation. Mike Griffith, the Mayor of Lansing. Mike, how are ya? - I'm doing well, Jack, thanks. - Well, can you describe the madness in New Orleans and what that was like yesterday? - Oh, man. I mean, it's kind of hard to describe it. I mean, it's obviously tragic, tragic turns. - No, I think I can think of was like the Olympic bombing in Atlanta and everyone's there. They're all gathered for a big event, but I'm frankly amazed that we've had more of these kinds of things in connection with big sporting events. - Well, I mean, just in general, you know, I mean, the whole, I mean, when you look at a lot of the, you know, I guess I don't want to get too political, but I guess I won't, but clearly there's, you know, some reform coming in a lot of different areas that, you know, might lessen the chances that, you know, the things occur, but I guess my big takeaway, Jack, is, you know, for those that are old enough, they remember, you know, 9-1-1 and how the security restrictions were heightened and upped. And, you know, I know a lot of people get frustrated by the security in airports and games and things like that, but it's just a reminder of, you know, how important our law enforcement officers are and our security forces and what a thankless job they have. And I always, you know, think that to myself when I'm waiting in line, they're going through check-throughs, and I know that it may seem like any convenience at the time, but I'm so thankful that we do have so many safeguards in place, and to your point, probably why we haven't had as many potential, you know, tragic situations as the one that played out, I, you know, I think everyone can, you know, Google what happened in New Orleans and realize that we're probably a few more safeguards that maybe could have or should have been in place in hindsight or for whatever reason, weren't applied, but, you know, the randomness of it, you know, there's only so much you can do, unfortunately. - Right, that's right. - You know, you'd like to see-- - Talk with a lot of law enforcement people, Mike. They say that we are vulnerable, and whatever safeguards you want to put in, you know, if you are walking just around in day to day and someone wants to hurt you, there's a pretty good chance they're gonna be able to do it. - Yeah, yeah, it's one of those unfortunate things. You know, I don't know if there's ever been a time in history when we haven't had some dangers, but, you know, we could go on and on about it. It's unfortunate, it's sad, you know, it's effective to get in price. I was looking, you know, you can get tickets to that game for $5 today, obviously. It's effective to a lot of people's travel schedules, and, you know, just pray that, you know, everything goes off safely. I did see they opened, reopened Bourbon Street today, and, you know, people are back down there, and that city relies on that commerce and that tourism. It was very important in the oil to get that going again for their citizens and, you know, shop owners, and, you know, those people trying to make a living, so, you know, yesterday, though, you know, went out and walked around a little bit the morning after. I guess I was out there just three or four hours after it, you know, had played out, you know, they had it cordoned off, perimeter blocked out a couple blocks, but you could see down the street, and I did some pictures and video for our news agency and send it back. You know, tragic is what it was, and unfortunate, and just kind of a reminder, like you said, Jack, I know you and I have gone to so many of these large sporting events and kind of keep our head on a swivel aware of what can happen at any time, and, to your point, you know, you know, 15 lives were lost, and, you know, truly, it's sort of amazing that there weren't more considering the circumstance and, you know, the speed of the vehicle and the narrow nature of that street and the amount of pedestrian traffic, even at 3.15 in the morning, I mean, just, you'd hate to imagine what had happened if that attack had played out three hours earlier at midnight when the streets were, you know, packed with people, I know we've seen these issues with parade before, and things like that, it's just such a dangerous time to your point, absolutely. - Like a lot of people may not realize how compressed the French Quarter is, and you think, oh, it's French Quarter, gigantic. Well, it's not, it's a very confined area in there, and you just say, when it would have been midnight, I mean, you would have had wall to wall people, I think, back to Charlottesville, and we're all used to having automobiles as our friend, and they are, there's no question about it, they've changed the way that modern society operates, but they're also killing machines if you choose to make them that, and you get a car going high speed and people can't get out of the way, you're gonna have carnage. - Yeah, I mean, you know, you're talking about streets that are, you know, only half the width of, you know, the streets in East Lansing, or Mason, for that matter. I mean, our streets, you know, we're pretty fortunate with our traffic flow in Mid-Michigan, as you pointed out to me before, I mean, it's a different animal, you know, like you said, when you get into the French Quarter, one of the older cities, you know, really designed, you know, before, you know, the auto had really taken full go, so yeah, it could have been a lot worse. I'm really thankful, really thankful that it wasn't, you know, prey for the folks that were affected by this with the deaths and the dozens of people that were injured. - So Mike, how do you think this affects the football game? We're gonna see, which has been pushed back 20 hours, I guess, right, but they're gonna play it, starting in about 20, 25 minutes, and we're gonna see Notre Dame and Georgia go at it. What do you make of this game? - I think it's a rock fight, you know, I think it's two teams that, you know, are gonna be determined to, you know, run the football and avoid turnovers and play field position, to, you know, the best of their abilities, you know, and get mobile quarterbacks on both sides. You have, you know, really strong at the line of scrimmage, you know, both teams have some special teams questions. I know the Notre Dame kickers struggle a little bit before that Indiana game. I know in Georgia is gonna be trotting on a new punter and haven't punted in a game before. They've got a backup quarterback making their first start. I think he's probably on par with Tyler O'Connor, for the Michigan State fans that remember Tyler O'Connor and the big win that he had at Ohio State in that inclement weather with his mobility and strong, but strong armed kid maybe wasn't able to layer it like an NFL guy, but certainly could get it where it was supposed to go, a really bright kid that executed the offense really well that night in Ohio State or that afternoon. I can't remember, it was raining. It sure felt like night 'cause with that rain, remember, Jack? It was about as dingy as Ohio gets, which seems like it's always dingy in that stadium. But, you know, that's kind of the kid he is, you know, like Tyler O'Connor, a really good student of the game. The guy that's worked really hard for his opportunity. I think he'll be ready to execute what they're gonna ask him to do, it could play out like that Michigan State, Ohio State game did, and what was that, 2014, or is that right, Jack, or 15, 2015? - Are you of the belief, Mike, and I've heard this from enough people that made me stop and think, well, maybe, normally you got a quarterback, like Carson Beck, who's projected to be a top five draft pick, and you think well, losing him is gonna have a major impact, but could it actually help the Bulldogs? - Well, I mean, it's what you make of it, you know, I think any time you lose a great player, you know, there's a little bit of a step up effect from the other players on the team, you know, they recognize everybody has to do a little bit more, I think that I think sometimes the genius is in the simplicity of planning. Sometimes I think teams can overload their quarterback and their offense with a lot of adjustments, and you lose a little bit of execution when you do that, when you're trying to call so much at the line of scrimmage or make too many adjustments or have too many read option routes, as we call them. So they can work in your favor, in George's case, you know, they've had some issues with their receivers holding onto the football. They like to run a double tight end look. I mean, any tight end look with Brock Bauer's work form pretty good, but, you know, Brock's gone now and set a rookie record, and what an incredible young man and player he was, same with Lad McCocky and other thousand yard receiving rookie and other incredible young man, and, you know, they lost a lot in the receiver ranks, and the guys that replaced him have had some inconsistencies. So, you know, this kind of plays into George's strength a little bit. Now, they're not as multiple, so perhaps they're a little bit easier to defend. You know, but without those receivers catching the ball, I think they led the nation in drops with, I don't know, 38 or 39, which is an incredible number. You know, I still think they have the danger of the pass game. You know, you've got probably the fastest guy in college football lining up for him, number 11 here in Samantha, he's probably gonna run about a 4-2-1-40 to combine, form a track guy, and Notre Dame still has to account for him. They're not gonna just let him run free, and say, "Oh, we're counting on him to drop it." So, they still have the threat of the deep ball, so you'll probably single deep a few times just for the sake of it. You keep that defense stretched out a little bit, but you've got really good coaches here, too. I mean, Ben Brock, the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, developed a Heisman Trophy winner at LSU, he's a veteran, he's seen Georgia a couple times. You've got Al Golden on the other side. Max Bullah, you know, I had a chance to do an interview with Max Bullah, and, you know, he's the linebacker's coach there now, and I'm so proud of Max, and I tell him that every time I see him, you know, you talk about a guy that was really at the heart of those Michigan State teams finishing the top 10, and, you know, he was a guy that was, you know, the Bullah family obviously means so much to Michigan State, and Max is a guy that understood what it meant to be at Spartan, and how it was Max that said, "Hey, the narrative's got to change. "We've got to do things differently. "He was truly, truly the heart and soul "of the Rose Bowl team. "Albeit, you know, Kyle has stepped in "on the Rose Bowl game, but, you know, without Max Bullah, "I don't know that we see that resurgence "of Michigan State football. "He was such an incredible leader, "and it's a joy for me to see him now leading young men." I mean, he's truly made for this. It's exciting to see me, or it's exciting for me to see him rising up quickly through the coaching ranks. You know, he spent a year at Alabama there under Nick Saban, and now he's hooked up with Marcus Freeman, who's truly a rising star in the coaching ranks, and I wouldn't be surprised if Max Bullah wasn't the Michigan State Head Football Coach one day. - How about that? That's a name that no one ever talks about now in terms of that, but we had him on the show when he got to Notre Dame, and, you know, sometimes the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. You think about his dad, Shane, was such a terrific player when George Perla started here, and then, of course, you think about Henry and the Bullah family really is, probably has more tackles, Mike, than any family in Big Ten history. When you think about, you know, you've got, what, six Bullah's played for Michigan State, pretty sensational stuff, yeah. - Yeah, you know, I really, you know, to me, that was, you know, getting to cover Michigan State in that air, and I know you've done it for several decades, and you got to see most of all the Bullah's, Jack, and, you know, it was just such a treat for me to get to cover Max and Riley and the Dantonio era. It was also interesting to hear Marcus Freeman talk a lot about Notre Dame, and a lot of the things that he does there, and sounded pretty familiar, and as it should, because he played for Jim Trussell, and of course, Mark Dantonio had coached under Trussell, and so a lot of the things that those Spartans of yesteryear did under Dantonio. Marcus Freeman's doing right now, and turns to how he scouts the opponents, and a lot of the practice things, and the way they approach things, and, you know, makes me realize, you know, I think maybe Jim Trussell, we probably underestimate the influence he's had in college football with his coaching tree, and even though Ohio State, you know, only won one national title under him, he still wielded quite a bit of influence, of course, you know, Bobby Bowden only won national title, won national title. I mean, national titles are, they're hard to come by, man, and not on this day and age, you know? Yeah, well, there you go. I mean, probably the greatest example there. I mean, Tom, the champion every year for me is a Michigan State graduate with the sort of ambassador, and what he means to Michigan State. The image of the program, the university. Boy, I'll tell you, Jack, I just, I hope Tom stays as long as he can, 'cause I'll miss it when Tom is able to not represent the Spartans anymore. Let's talk for a minute, Mike, about the other games and what we have learned. Maybe we read too much into bowl games. Maybe it's not the best barometer for strength of conferences, but what do you make of the ACC? Well, I think you said it, you know, I mean, I remember talking with, oh, gosh, what was Jim Black's name? The offensive coordinator, Bowman. Jim Bowman. Jim Bowman. I was speaking of Ohio State, and I remember when Michigan State talking to Bowman one time about, gosh, why couldn't Ohio State beat the SEC and all those bowl games, right? Back in the '90s and why they struggled so much and Bowman, who never really was much for a quote, but he did give me a good answer on this one, I won't forget. And he said, well, bowl games are like their own season. He said, you know, every year there's so much going on behind the scenes with coaches that are leaving for jobs and players trying to make decisions about their futures and a kid that's injured, sort of, maybe he's able to play, but he needs to get healthy for the combine. And if it's not a national championship game, what does the game really mean? You know, some coaches like to use a lot of the bowl prep to get kids worked that they're counting on for next year. So maybe all their focus isn't really on the game like it normally would be if it was a playoff game or a championship game. So bowl games really are their own season and they're really not a good read on conference strength, generally speaking, or even the team that you just watch play throughout the season because so much is going on. So I don't make too much out of the conference records. When it comes to the non playoff bowl games, I think the playoff bowl records kind of speak louder and more accurately as to what the teams are. But even then, you know, the trend we've seen, it'll be really interesting to see today. The teams that had buys, obviously they all lost, but they all got really slow starts. And they all gave up, I want to say two touchdowns in the first quarter, each of the three teams that have already played. And Georgia's been a slow starting team anyway. You know, Georgia trailed at halftime at six of their games this year. And the three games they played where they didn't play a game the week before was the opener against Clemson. And they failed the score touchdown in the first half. They went on to win 34 to three, but it was only 63 and a half time. The Alabama game, they trailed 20 to seven at the half. And that was after a bi-week. And then against Florida, they were down 14 to six at half and didn't score touchdown in the first half. So I think Georgia's aware, though, that they're going to need to be a little bit more aggressive. I think Georgia's one of those teams. I mean, all teams like to make halftime adjustments, but I think because of the amount of talent Georgia has and relatively good defense, they're pretty comfortable waiting until halftime to do most of their adjustments. 'Cause, you know, you just, you do some things in the first half and the team can go in the locker room and adjust, but if you wait until the second half to spring some stuff, there's really not a lot of time for adjustments on the fly. Now that the iPad technology has certainly helped in that capacity, teams are able to diagnose things much quicker, defensive coaches are able to pick up tendencies much quicker before they had to rely on their eye talent, so to speak. Now they've got the iPads where they can really study things quickly and diagnose, especially with all the analysts that they have work and form. So, but we'll see if Georgia changes that up. You know, they're not going to be a team that can come from behind easily. I don't think Notre Dame is easy either, for that matter. I really haven't had to, even in the game with Northern Illinois, it wasn't like they'd fallen behind in that game a bunch. So, if Georgia can put pressure on Notre Dame, I think this is a game that, you know, they should win, but, you know, it is on turf, usually a little faster. Surface, Georgia usually scores a few more points indoors, I'm not sure how that'll affect Notre Dame. I know they beat Georgia Tech earlier. In Mercedes-Benz Stadium, I'll be at Georgia Tech, didn't have their starting quarterback for that game. But the Irish weren't able to run the ball on tech. And to me, that's going to be the early barometer. It's Notre Dame can run the ball effectively. If they can't run the ball, I think this is a Georgia win, hands down. But that Jeremiah Love Kid is dangerous, so we're running back as I've seen all year. You know, I'm going 98 on Indiana, but that's a former state champion track guy from St. Louis, he ran at 10, 600, and he's built like an NFL back. I've got a lot of poise. I had a chance to visit with him, Riley Leonard, a really bright kid, a fourth year senior from Duke, and one year at Notre Dame. But he picked up the offense and got much better as the year went on. So when that coach is in his helmet now, he's not having to say as much. And Riley's a little bit further along in his progressions and ability to pick things up. So it's a much better Notre Dame team than we saw early in the season. - Two more things for you, Mike. With a possibility of a Notre Dame win, if that does happen and the top four seeds all go down, do you think this is going to impact the way people look at the playoff? Is it going to suggest even more reforms than we're liable to get after year one? - Well, I mean, it's hard to say. You know, I don't know if anybody would not want to buy. I mean, there's trade offs. I mean, Notre Dame, you know, lost, you know, their sack leader by playing that first round game. Of course, Notre Dame also had the benefit of not having to play in a championship game. So they got the same mileage on them that Georgia does in terms of number of game play because they didn't have to play in a conference championship game. And they had the benefit of playing the week before. So I think Notre Dame's kind of living, you know, they've kind of got the best of both worlds in that sense, not being in a conference. I'm sure somehow or another will continue to cater to them. Did I read somewhere the Big Ten changed the rule where Ohio State gets a touchdown before the game kicks off against them? - I don't think they needed one. - Yesterday, they were out so fast, it was 34 zip. - Oh, you didn't notice that they were playing with 12 guys? That was another one of the Big Ten rules. - I like to take on the Big Ten for, but you're right. Ohio State doesn't need any more. Everybody said, boy, look at Ohio State. They're better than the SEC. I said, well, Ohio State needs us to not use the game plan. The Michigan coaches hand them before the game. - Well, I said, well, hell, I said, half their key players are from the SEC. What are you talking about? They got the Alabama Safety Caleb Downs, maybe the best defensive back to college football. They got a former SEC rushing champ in the backfield. They found this Kansas State quarterback that's, you know, hooking up with his receivers. I mean, even if his team meets Alabama. - Hey, Alabama got Jameson Williams from Ohio State. So, you know, it goes both ways now with this stuff. - Oh, wow, that was good. - He was a reject, though. They didn't want him. They didn't want Joe Burrow either. Don't forget that. - Yeah, one other question for you, Mike, before we let you go, Alabama fans right now. - Yeah. - How much are they missing, Nick? And, what are they thinking about Kaylin DeBore? - Well, I mean, didn't Nick Saban say he'd be available to help him out. I don't remember when they said that. I mean, they keep them in an office like, - It didn't ask for help or something. - I'll tell you what, yeah, flat commercials. - I think we can ask plenty of Michigan State fans about how Nick Saban exits programs. I mean, that was all about Nick. That certainly didn't help Alabama. And DeBore lost a lot. He lost a lot of talent when Nick left. A lot of guys hit the portal. And when you play in Alabama or you play Georgia, you know, there's a different standard in everybody's aiming at you. They got a whole lot of feet in the corner. - And when you play Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. - Well, I mean-- - Or a Michigan team that couldn't get out of its own way for most of the year. - Well, I guess if Michigan plays in a typhoon every week, they're gonna be in pretty good shape. But let's give Michigan some credit though. I mean, they're on the upswing. I mean, they got a big win over how they-- - And they gained 190 yards in that game. But they still couldn't get out of way to win because Alabama kept wetting itself. - Yeah, well, I mean, it's tough when kids don't wanna be there, you know, when you missed, and that thought happened with Georgia in 2018. You missed the playoffs and that's it, you know, but for Michigan, they're fighting and scrapping to make everything they can out of this season and to their credit, you know, they went out there and they played a good football game. They deserved to win. They were the better prepared team. And Michigan State fans should be excited 'cause now we know that coach is gonna be around another year or two, right? - Michael, let's get ready for your kickoff. We'll talk to you a little bit later in 2025. Thanks so much. - Go forward to an happy New Year's T, Jack, and everyone else in Mid-Michigan. - To everyone who wants a meal made just for you, let our team member, Arish, share what makes Culver special. - We know the best meals are the ones shared with the people you love. Like our cook to order butter burgers and our real Wisconsin cheese curds and our creamy, fresh, frozen custard. 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We preview Georgia vs Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff