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Couch: 3 quick takes on MSU football’s Friday schedule, players transferring to rival schools and Izzo’s ‘die trying’ promise

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5 months ago

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Couch: 3 quick takes on MSU football’s Friday schedule, players transferring to rival schools and Izzo’s ‘die trying’ promise

1. Friday night MSU football is here to stay

The news last week that Michigan State football is playing two Friday night games this season — neither of them, as of now, the opener — was largely met with a collective groan from MSU fans.

MSU plays Friday night, Oct. 4 at Oregon, starting at 9 p.m. (ET), and Friday, Nov. 22 — the week before Thanksgiving — at home against Purdue, with what’s likely to be a frigid kickoff at 8 p.m. Both games are part of Fox’s national primetime Friday night college football season package.

Initially, the prevailing frustration seemed to be that MSU playing on the road at Oregon on a short week, six days after hosting Ohio State, was a competitive disadvantage. While true, this might not be the season to worry about that. If this were a year MSU planned to be in contention, I’d say howl away. But in Year 1 of a new regime, coming off a 4-8 season, with half the roster turning over, it’s the Friday night game against Purdue at home late in the season, six days after playing at Illinois, that’s more likely to impact to the Spartans’ win-loss record.

The reaction, however, I sense is part of a larger feeling — the unenthusiastic vibes toward the changing world of college sports, the loss of control of football scheduling included, cherished norms (like Saturday games) discarded. All of it made worse by MSU football’s diminished place in the landscape at the moment (which is a big reason why the Spartans are playing twice on Friday).

This just feels like one more thing NOT to look forward to.

Buckle up. As MSU athletic director Alan Haller said recently, “With the new TV deal, the flexibility for schools is not what it was. A lot of this stuff is determined and we’re told when and where and what time to play.”

Given the revenue sharing with athletes that’s on the horizon, these media rights deals are important to maintaining a robust athletic department. Perhaps think of it like this: By watching on a Friday night — as directed by a callous TV executive — rather than tailgating on a Saturday, you’re helping MSU’s other sports exist.

Don’t like it? I don’t blame you.

MORE: Couch: MSU athletic director Alan Haller is undeterred by a challenging future, and unshaken by a difficult fall

2. Transferring to a rival? You should get used to it and athletes should get used to your reaction

When former MSU defensive back Jaden Mangham jumped in the transfer portal at the 11th hour this spring and shortly thereafter announced he would be visiting Michigan — where he ultimately wound up — MSU fans and former players took it personally. And one of Mangham’s family members took their criticism personally, which led to a not-so-friendly back and forth on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Here’s the thing: In this increasingly transactional and transitional world of college sports, this is going to happen more and more. Just after Mangham chose the Wolverines, Michigan transfer linebacker Semaj Bridgeman picked the Spartans.

The venom toward Mangham stemmed not just from him considering Michigan, but also because he was a starter who, a month earlier, sounded all in on the Spartans and their new coaching staff. But flirting with the Wolverines and ultimately choosing Michigan was his real sin. Former MSU players Felton Davis III and Tony Lippett were among those vocal in their displeasure. Fans were, not surprisingly, even less merciful.

This, in a college football world created by passion and fanaticism, was seen as a betrayal. The MSU fan community could come to terms with an athlete doing what’s ultimately best for themselves. Leaving to play for Michigan, however, to those who bleed green, is treason.

While I normally cringe when fans go after athletes, what Mangham — and any other athlete who crosses such a boundary — has to understand is that their sport is made by these intense feelings of community, by devotion to a school, by these heated rivalries. Without all of this, there’d be no major college football, no NIL, no interest. The venom Mangham felt is why he and other major college athletes are able to get paid and to live on campus as kings. The blowback is part of the paycheck.

3. Will ‘Died trying’ be on Tom Izzo’s grave?

Few, if any phrases from Tom Izzo in the dozen years I’ve been covering MSU’s basketball team have so seared in the conscious of fans as what Izzo said following his team’s NCAA tournament exit this March: “I’m getting back to a deeper run in this tournament, or I’m going to die trying.”

It was a refreshing statement to those who’d seen MSU’s program step back over the last few years, since the pandemic, and let the world know that middling NCAA tournament seeds and second-round exits weren’t OK by Izzo.

It was assumed — by me as well — that this meant he and his staff would add to the Spartans’ front court in the transfer portal, since the center spot wound up being MSU’s shortcoming so often last season.

But when the portal opened … crickets. Izzo and Co. eventually added needed size and oomph on the wing in Omaha transfer Frankie Fidler. But then, again, crickets. Finally, in mid-May, two weeks after the portal closed, they signed 7-footer Szymon Zapala from low-major Longwood. A helpful addition, perhaps. Needed depth. But was this dying trying?

MORE: Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State basketball adding big man transfer Szymon Zapala

Here’s where I’m at on this:

Izzo didn’t avoid going after a more acclaimed and expensive big man just to spite his fan base. That I’m certain of. He chose this route so he could keep his roster together — Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper and Xavier Booker. Kohler especially. I think he’s intrigued about the Kohler-Booker tandem. He was last year and, because of Kohler’s foot injury and Booker’s lack of readiness then, the staff never got to see what they saw signs of in August and September. They truly think there’s something there.

I think Izzo sees player retention and development as the best path back to contention, as long as the pieces in place are worth retaining and developing. He believes he can recruit to that, that he can keep a culture he’s worked hard to create by not bringing in a hired gun big man at $1 million-plus in NIL salary, a move that could lead to disharmony and distrust elsewhere on the roster.

In his mind, Izzo is dying trying, but also in a way he won’t regret. You and I don’t have to agree with every move or lack thereof. But that doesn’t mean he’s not being true to his word.

MORE: Couch: Six Michigan State head coaches are moms. It’s a life of ‘controlled chaos’

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.

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