The Drive with Jack
*Steve Waite, Journalist & Author
(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. - Wanna bring in Steve Waite. He is in Mississippi, believe it or not. You listen to him, you think, well, he can't be in Mississippi. He's gotta be in Mississippi. Oh, he is in Mississippi. He just spends most of his time thinking about Michigan. And he's doing all the time. That's right, whether it's Ferris State, or whether it's the high schools around here, or MSU women's basketball. Rob, Spartan women are playing, and I'm working on the television show, but I don't have to watch the game because I'm getting updates from Steve about every four minutes on what is happening in this game. And same thing with the Spartans in the GLI or whatever. And you are watching today with some interest as SEC representative went down to one of the strangest defeats I think we've seen in a bowl game. They allowed 190 yards and lost. - Yeah, well, at one point during the game, Alabama had three turnovers and two total yards of offense. And that kind of explains what happened in this. What really tweaked me is that Alabama didn't appear ready for the conditions today. Rain was in the fork, and they didn't have the proper cleats on, and so their first offensive, not just their first offensive series, but their first quarter series, they were slipping and sliding all over the place. They finally changed cleats, and that made a difference, but by then Michigan's up 16 nothing, and Michigan's defense is still stout and to come back from that hole. - Yeah, and I'm wondering in SEC country what the reaction is now, knowing that Tennessee got boat raced by the Buckeyes, and Alabama, mighty Alabama, that thought it should be in the college football playoff, lost to a five lost Michigan team. It's not good for tailing the board, 'cause Alabama fans expect much more than that. Just in game prep, and you could even question some of the play calling in that game. So between that, the big 10 is three and one against the SEC right now, and Illinois's leading South Carolina 7-3, so that could be four and one. And two of the three wins right now were dominating victories. Michigan, Alabama ended up 1913, but Michigan really controlled the whole game, so. - Yeah, well, and South Carolina was another pretender who thought it should be in the playoff, right? - Correct, correct, and Illinois's defense is doing a well of a job on them right now. So it's kind of fun to watch. What I'm really more surprised by than anything is the ACC being one and nine in the poll, well, in the postseason, it's called the poll season, with three more chances to lose. And they very well could lose all three. Washington and Louisville right now are 21 all. - I'm wondering if any conference has ever lost double-digit bowl games, and the ACC could lose 12 of them. - Oh yeah, oh yeah, easily, because Ole Miss should win this game against Virginia Tech, so. - How many conferences even get 12 teams in a bowl game? (laughs) - Exactly, exactly. - So, Steve, I was thinking about this the other day, Georgia, the number two seed as the SEC champion, right? And it's a two-loss team, lost to Alabama. But Georgia could have been in the college football playoff as a four-loss team, do you realize that? - Yeah, yeah. - If it lost to Georgia Tech, right, which it took them, what, eight over times to figure out how to win it, that could have been a loss. And even though the game was a blowout, let's say Clemson had won that game. And it could have still won the SEC, and been in more losses. - That's right, that's right. A lot of the, well, I was gonna say, in the NFL, the playoff strategy has to change, 'cause there shouldn't be two 14-win teams or one 15, one 14, and one have to, one not get a buy, right? In the college football, I guess, you know, when you're giving automatic births to the conference champions, at least the power four conference champions. - Right. - You know, you can run into this, where you're gonna get a four-loss team. I don't think that will ever, a four-loss team will ever win the big 10, but Ohio State, with their first two games next year, could happen. - All right, give me the four winners in the college football playoff quarter finals. What do you have tonight? - Ohio State, Ohio State. - Okay. - Arizona State. - Whoa, okay. - I love that, yeah, I love that team. And they're playing their kill fear. - Yeah. - Huh, yeah, they're playing their kill fear. - Yeah, that's okay. - Can Scataboo is... - Yeah. - I think he's just an excellent running back, and so difficult to stop. - Yeah. - I like Boise, and I like Notre Dame, and I like Notre Dame. And then I like Ohio State over Arizona State, Notre Dame over Boise, and Ohio State, Notre Dame for the National Championship. - So you have the four lower seats. You have the eight over the one, the seven over the two. Oh, no, you don't have the lower seats, because Boise and Arizona State are the three and four. But those are significant, those will be significant Vegas upsets. - Correct, correct. - Okay, okay, gotcha. All right, very interesting. As far as where the Lions are right now, Steve, if you had to guess, did they lose next week to the Vikings? Do they lose in the playoffs? Do they win the Super Bowl and not lose again until 2025 in the regular season? - They beat the Vikings, and they win it all. And of course, this is a long-time lion fan who has PTSD, but there's just something about this team that they figure out how to win. You know, Kirby Joseph is the first lion's safety to have nine or more interceptions and a pick six in the same season since Jack Christensen in 1957. And we know what happened in 1957. So, to me, that's a great omen. - I love that stat and that's the kind of thing that Steve Waite specializes in. Hey, how far is your place from New Orleans? - I can get to New Orleans in two and three quarters hours, under three. So, would you go to the Super Bowl? - If I could afford a ticket, yeah. But the ticket prices are so exorbitant for that. It might be fun to drive down and spend a couple of days and you'd have to get a hotel like in Gulfport or Gulf Shores or Ocean Springs, Mississippi and driveover. But yeah, it would be fun to go down and at least experience the atmosphere if you couldn't go to the game. - Well, there are a lot of people who go to Final Four's and never go to the game. - Yeah. - They go and they take part in all the hoopla and everything that goes with it, but they watch the game in the bar. - Yeah, and I wouldn't be opposed to that. Again, if you could find a bar where there's just a ton of lion stands, you couldn't get in, 'cause that would just be so much fun and I know, I think I would have the same emotions I did at the 2013 Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis sitting in a section with a ton of Spartan fans and it had been so long and I'm not, I can admit, I cried and I wasn't the only one crying in that section when Michigan State won that game. - Well, you're crying because you knew that there was a Rose Bowl trip and all those years of frustration were gone. - It was more the relief that all those years of frustration were gone and just the smack that Ohio State fans were talking before the game. - Yeah. - And so it was, you know, it was that experience and it was interesting because after that game, I was in Columbus in 2015 when Matt Geiger won that game and the Ohio State fans' attitude towards Spartans then was so much different. They had so much respect. - Respect. - And yeah, yeah, exactly right. And that came from the 2013 win. - Rob, do you know what the problem with Michigan State football was in 2024? We didn't have Steve wait at the games. - The beat shown up here, who knows? Spartans might have beat the Buckeyes, right? - I gotta say that Urban Meyer was 0-2 with me in attendance. - Wow, okay. - Now, sadly, sadly Jim Trestle was 6-0-6-0 when I was in attendance. (laughing) Oh, I'm not sure how that, how that factors out. But I need to get up for some games. I'm gonna come up more regularly. I'll be up in, well, I'll be with you in Los Angeles in early February, I'll be in East Lansing in late February. I'll be back up for the Izzo Run Walk stroll just because not to be a competitive walker or runner but you get to see so many people and use the walking time to catch up. And it's just a great experience in that. And it's a good benefit, I mean. - Steve, it's always great to talk with you and appreciate all of your support with this show and everything else through 2024. Can't wait to see you and we're gonna have a blast on that trip to Southern California. - Thank you and one last thing, Jack, and thanks for having me on. But Andy Katz yesterday said, Michigan State men win the big 10 title. Did he really? - Yes. - Well, he was there in Hawaii. I saw him at the Lahaina Civic Center and when Michigan State beat North Carolina, I think that opened a lot of eyes and Michigan State's been a different team ever since. And I know you had to have a big smile on your face last night when a look at the pass quo who joined us at the beginning of the show came out of nowhere, at least a lot of fans said, who the hell is that guy? And he gets a second shout out of the year. He's had four games and he's allowed a total of two goals. - I couldn't have been more happy for him. Just a great, I mean, a heartwarming story, right? You can't write a script better than that. And so, yes, last night was huge and they really didn't let themselves get behind like they did in St. Louis last March, so. - Right, right. You know, I was thinking about this, Steve, no school has hockey, men's basketball, and women's basketball teams with as many wins as Michigan State. Now you're talking about, well, the 37 victories between those three teams. - Right, right. And the only school really that could compete there, of course, Michigan's in the running, but you can, right? You can, men and women's teams are both strong and they have a decent hockey, yeah. - Ohio State could. - Yeah, yep, yes. - Yup, not many, not many. I guess Notre Dame could, right? - No, yes they could, they could, but Notre Dame hockey is down this year. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Notre Dame men's basketball is down too. - Yeah. - Quite a bit, yeah. - Yeah. - All right, thanks so much for joining us, I really appreciate it, we'll talk to you in the new year. - Happy new year. - To everyone who craves a sweet treat with a little something special, let us tell you about our concrete mixers at Culver's. - There's so many reasons I love fresh frozen custard. It's so rich, so creamy, it's the perfect treat. But when I handcraft it with all of your favorite mix-ins and see your smiles after every spoonful, it's clear what makes our concrete mixers so special to me is making them just for you. - From Wisconsin with love. - Welcome to Delicious. - Hey Spartan fans, when you want the largest and best selection of Spartan gear, Alumni Hall is your ultimate shopping destination. Come get your officially licensed gear, Nike, Champion, Columbia, Yeti, new era hats, tailgating gear and more. 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