News and Notes From Around the Spartan Nation

News and Notes From Around the Spartan Nation

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MSU

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1. There is no doubt that Javon Ringer’s body has paid a price this season. The frustrating thing is that no one has stepped up and “took” that number two RB spot so he can get some relief. AJ Jimmerson is the best backup at catching the ball out of the backfield, Ashton Leggett is the best pass blocker and Andre Anderson is the best north\south runner. If someone had stepped up, we would have seen more of him this year.
2. The lack of an emergence of a true #2 back this fall, may not be good news for those three next season. Edwin Baker will be coming in as an Army All American and Larry Caper has looked fantastic and both of them are sure to get long hard looks. Ideally one of them would red shirt, but with the lack of an emergence this season all bets are off. RB will be very interesting this off-season.
3. I briefly mentioned that the new election of two trustees was going to have a big impact on the MSU BOT. It is no secret that the BOT is always interesting at MSU and it certainly will only get more. I will have an article coming soon, but keep your eye close come January 1.
4. Not playing a 1 AA team this season could very well put MSU in the Rose Bowl as it is one of the tiebreakers. Next season they play Montana State. Something that has made a lot of people angry. Well, there was another poor scheduling decision next season that has a lot more people upset. Every season the Spartans play four away Big Ten games. They rotate with Notre Dame so they can usually have seven or eight home games. Those are big economic games not only for the University, but also the Mid Michigan area with all the influx of people. Home games literally have millions of dollars in economic impact. Next season would have been a seven game home stand, but they gave one of them to WMU for a game at Ford Field. The attendance will help WMU meet attendance demands of the NCAA to stay at 1 A levels, but it will cost Mid Michigan a lot of money.  I understand the principle of the game, but they should have waited until they had an eight game home schedule to do it. It was a shortsighted decision (in my opinion) that has alienated a lot of people that MSU seems to overlook from time to time.

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Lions

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1.     I spoke with two players yesterday that told me that Culpepper has taken the reps with the ones all week. If Culpepper doesn’t turn the Lions season around (and he won’t) how does that weigh with the players and the rest of the organization? This was a desperate move that if it pays off has big upside, but if it doesn’t the Lions fall deeper into the abyss and this team spirals more out of control. One player told me, “How can coach talk about not giving players positions and making them earn what they get and just give it to Daunte?” Good question.

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Pistons

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1.     The trading of Mr. Big Shot for Mr. Practice (Billups for Iverson) was made for no reason other than LeBron James. The Pistons and Joe D covet King James and the will clear a lot more space with AI and others going off of the cap before he enters the open market. If the Pistons are able to get LeBron, then this was a great move. If they don’t get him, it was a colossal failure. Anyone that thinks this team is going to win a championship is delusional. Iverson was just a big enough name to make it look better than what it is.Â