The Broadcast

HollenbeckGood afternoon from East Lansing, Michigan. Gabe Hollenbeck with you, Darnell Pryce to my left, Simone Ruiz is down on the field, and it is about as nice a day as this place gets. Seventy-one degrees. Almost no wind. Michigan State and Grambling State coming your way in about twelve minutes.

PryceI flew in last night and I forgot how green everything is up here. The trees.

HollenbeckThe trees are a real thing on this campus.

PryceI drove past a whole arboretum situation. I don't know if it's an arboretum. It looked like one.

HollenbeckAll right. Here's why anybody who isn't from Michigan is watching this football game.

HollenbeckTwenty-eight years old. Never played the sport. Not in college, not in high school, not one down anywhere. He was in the marching band at this school. Trombone. He built a following online making video breakdowns of draft prospects, he coached at a high school in Brooklyn, he was a head coach at that high school for one year, and now he runs this program. Offense, defense, roster, all of it. He calls both sides of the ball himself.

PryceYeah.

HollenbeckThat's it? That's what I get?

PryceNo, no. I've got plenty. I just want to say up front that I don't know. That's my whole position going in. I've had eleven people tell me what this is and I don't think any of them know either. My son is twenty-six. That's the part I keep landing on. If you told me my son was running a Big Ten program I'd want to sit down.

HollenbeckThey gave him everything, too. Recruiting, the NIL operation, the staff, the roster. He's got total control.

PryceWhich is either the boldest thing an athletic department has done in twenty years or it's, you know. We'll find out.

HollenbeckAnd there they are. Somewhere in there is the section he stood in. Third rank, I'm told.

PryceDo we know that or are we saying that?

HollenbeckWe're saying it.

PryceAll right.

HollenbeckGrambling State on the other sideline. Southwestern Athletic Conference, program with an enormous history, and they are going to run the football at you. Option stuff. Quarterback keeps, pitches, dive. They will make you be right eleven times on one play. And this defense has never played a snap together.

PryceThat's the whole thing today, honestly. Michigan State's got more players. Everybody knows Michigan State's got more players. Can they line up in the right spot four seconds after the ball's snapped, that's the game.

HollenbeckSimone's on the field. Simone.

HollenbeckCarrying the headset. Terrific. Thank you, Simone.

PryceThe Piwowarczyk thing is real, though. I want to say that before it happens instead of after. When you play a team that runs the ball into the middle of you forty times, the guy you want at linebacker is the guy who doesn't move when a guard hits him. Speed's great. Speed's not the problem you have today.

HollenbeckMichigan State's quarterback today is Leo Hannan. Redshirt freshman. First career start. He won the job in August over Alessio Milivojevic, who has been in the program longer, and that decision has been argued about in this state all summer.

PryceTwo very different players. Hannan, you watch the tape, he's not going to lose you a game. Milivojevic can make a throw Hannan can't make. That's the argument in one sentence and I'm sure I'll hear from people about it.

HollenbeckOther name for you. Cam Edwards at running back is the best player on this field today and it is not particularly close. Fifth year. If you watch one guy, watch him.

PryceHe could play anywhere in the country.

HollenbeckAnd one more. They have a six-foot-seven offensive tackle playing center today. Rustin Young. He's a tackle. He has played tackle his whole life. Mansour moved him to center in the spring.

PryceI have thoughts on that.

HollenbeckHold them. Michigan State will receive. Here we go.

HollenbeckKick is up, it's deep, it's out of the end zone. Touchback. Michigan State will start at the twenty-five, and the Nick Mansour era begins with a first-and-ten.

PryceWatch the line get set. That's all I'm watching the first three plays. Do they know where to stand.

HollenbeckHannan in the gun. Edwards to his right. Play action, he's got time, throws it short to the left, that's KK Smith, and Smith is dragged down after a gain of about seven. First snap of his career, completion.

HollenbeckSecond and three. Edwards up the middle for eight, first down at the forty.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the forty. Hannan back, he's looking deep, he lets it go down the left sideline for Braylon Collier and Collier has got it! Away from the defender, up the sideline, and he's finally run out of bounds at the seventeen. Forty-three yards.

PryceThat ball's in the one place it can be. Corner's playing him vertical, he's got a cushion, and the ball goes outside and low, away from him. Collier doesn't have to fight anybody, he just runs to it. That's a throw. I mean that's a real throw.

HollenbeckFrom a kid making his first start.

PryceFrom a kid making his first start, right.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the seventeen. Handoff Edwards, he's got a crease, he's through it, he's at the ten, he's at the five, touchdown Michigan State. Cam Edwards, seventeen yards, and this took a minute and forty-one seconds.

PryceThe left tackle. Murawski. Watch him on the replay, he seals that whole edge by himself and Edwards doesn't get touched until he's already past it.

HollenbeckExtra point is good. Liam Boyd. Michigan State leads seven to nothing and this crowd sounds like a crowd that expects the rest of the afternoon to go the same way.

PryceThey should. I'm not going to sit here and pretend otherwise.

HollenbeckKickoff, taken at the two, brought out to the twenty-four. And now we get the part that actually matters. Michigan State's defense, which has never played a snap, against an option offense.

HollenbeckFirst and ten. Grambling under center, two backs. Dive play, and that's stopped immediately. Loss of one. Number 44 in the middle for Michigan State, that's Brady Pretzlaff.

HollenbeckSecond and eleven. Option to the right, quarterback keeps it, and he's got nowhere to go. Gain of one. Piwowarczyk was there.

PryceSee, that's clean. That's a clean rep. Somebody's got the dive, somebody's got the quarterback, somebody's got the pitch, everybody did their job. If they do that forty times we go home early.

HollenbeckThird and ten. Grambling throws. It's caught. Number 9 on the sideline over Charles Brantley for a first down at the thirty-eight.

PryceBoxed him out. Brantley's in decent position, receiver just puts his body between him and the ball. That's a veteran catch. You live with that one.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the thirty-eight. Fake to the dive, quarterback pulls it, gives it to, is that the fullback? Give me a second. That's the fullback with the football and he is at the Michigan State forty-one. Gain of twenty-one.

PryceOkay. So what they did there, they showed you option one way and then handed it back inside the other way. The linebackers went with the quarterback. Both of them. Nobody stayed home on the counter.

HollenbeckMisdirection.

PryceMisdirection, and it's the same thing they've been running since the fifties, but it works because Michigan State is so worried about the pitch. They are all leaking that way. All of them.

HollenbeckSecond and eight. Option left, pitch, and that's dropped, no, he's got it, he's tackled for no gain. Andrew Brinson.

HollenbeckThird and eight. Play action, throws it, caught again, first down, and again it's over Brantley. Two completions on this drive, both of them on him.

PryceGabe, let me fix something I said a minute ago, because I looked at it again and I had it half right. It's not the linebackers going with the quarterback. I mean they are, but that's not the cause. Look at the front. Michigan State's putting six, seven guys on the line of scrimmage and everybody's coming forward at the snap. Every single one of them. So there's nobody behind it. The linebackers aren't chasing the quarterback because they're undisciplined, they're chasing him because they've been sent.

HollenbeckThey're loading the front.

PryceThey're loading the front and the second level is empty. And this offense is built to find exactly that.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the thirty. Fake, fake again, and the fullback has got it and he is gone. Thirty yards. Touchdown Grambling State. Nobody touched him.

HollenbeckWell. It's seven to seven at Spartan Stadium and you can hear what that sounds like.

PryceSame play. That's the same play. He runs it a third time and now there's not even a linebacker in the picture. Nobody's home. Nobody is home in the middle of that defense.

HollenbeckTen plays, seventy-six yards, and this building has gone completely quiet except for a section down in the corner that is very much not quiet.

PryceGrambling's got their whole sideline out on the field. Good for them. That's a beautifully coached drive.

HollenbeckKickoff, brought out to the twenty-two by Charles Brantley. Michigan State back on offense, and there is now a completely different feeling in here than there was four minutes ago.

HollenbeckFirst and ten. Hannan throws, incomplete, intended for Merlino down the middle.

HollenbeckSecond and ten. Hannan again, this one's short and it's dropped. That's McCray, and he'll want that back.

PryceWhy are we throwing it. Genuinely. You've got Cam Edwards. They just scored on you and the answer is three straight dropbacks?

HollenbeckThird and ten. Hannan, pressure, he steps up, throws it away. Incomplete. Three and out, and Michigan State will punt for the first time today.

PryceYou just got punched in the mouth and you threw it three times. I don't love it. Run the football. Make them line up and stop it and see if they can, and if they can then throw it.

HollenbeckRhys Dakin to punt. It's a good one. Fifty-two yards, downed at the twenty-six.

HollenbeckAustralian, by the way. Dakin. I had a note here about him and I've lost it. He's from Melbourne, I believe. Or near it.

HollenbeckGrambling back on offense at their twenty-six. And the question now is whether that was this whole afternoon or whether that was one drive.

HollenbeckFirst down. Dive. And that is met in the backfield. Loss of two. Piwowarczyk again.

HollenbeckSecond and twelve. Option right, quarterback keeps, tackled after a gain of one. Jordan Hall.

HollenbeckThird and eleven. They're going to throw it. And it's incomplete, well covered by Michael Richard.

PryceSomething's different on that series and I want to watch one more before I say what it is.

HollenbeckPunt. Fair caught by Crishon McCray at the Michigan State forty-one.

HollenbeckWhile they get lined up: this program has not had a winning season in a long time and it has not had the same man in charge for two Septembers in a row either. Mansour is the fourth person to run a game from that sideline in four years, if you count the interims, and I do.

PryceAnd nobody's been there long enough to be anything. That's the part. You don't even get to find out if a guy was good, he's already gone and there's another one.

HollenbeckHannan, first and ten. Hands it to Edwards, and Edwards has got room, he's to the thirty, out of bounds at the twenty-eight. Thirty-one yards.

HollenbeckCorrection on that, they've got him for thirty. Thirty-yard gain. He's at the twenty-nine.

HollenbeckFirst and ten. Hannan, quick to Paracheck over the middle, caught at the twenty, broken tackle, down to the twelve.

PryceBrennan Paracheck. Tight end. That's twelve of those yards after he catches it, and there's a linebacker who's got to make that tackle and doesn't.

HollenbeckSecond and seven. Hannan rolls right, nothing there, he tucks it and runs, and he gets to the four. Five-yard gain, and he slid.

PryceHe slid. Thank you. Nineteen years old and he slid. You have no idea how many quarterbacks don't.

HollenbeckThird and two at the four. Edwards. Stopped at the two, and that will be fourth down, and they're going to have to think about it. No, they're going to keep the offense out there, they've got the play in, and the quarter's about to expire. Officials are going to move it. End of one.

HollenbeckTeams have changed ends. Fourth and goal from the two to start the second quarter, and Michigan State is going for it.

HollenbeckHandoff Edwards, and he's in. Touchdown. Michigan State leads fourteen to seven.

PryceGive it to the good one. That's all that was.

HollenbeckBoyd's kick is good. Two-for-two.

PryceAll right, I've got it. Or I've got some of it. Watch the front on this next series, because it's not what it was on that first drive.

HollenbeckKickoff, touchback. Grambling at the twenty-five.

HollenbeckFirst and ten. Dive, and that's a loss. Loss of three. That's Piwowarczyk in there again and he was in the backfield before the handoff.

PryceThere. Look at that. Count them. That's three men with their hand in the dirt and two guys standing up on the edges. That's not what they were in.

HollenbeckThey were four down.

PryceFour down and everybody flying. Now it's three down and the linebackers are, hang on. They're not doing what I expected. They're slower. They're deliberate. They're staying square and letting it come to them.

HollenbeckSecond and thirteen, they get one back on the option. Third and twelve, incomplete. They'll punt.

PryceI want to be careful here because I've been wrong once already today. But the thing they changed is they stopped trying to win it at the line of scrimmage. First drive, they wanted to kill every play in the backfield, and this offense eats that. Now they're taking the middle away first and letting the ball get to the line before they commit.

HollenbeckWhich costs you something.

PryceCosts you the tackle for loss. Should cost you the tackle for loss. Except they're still getting them, which I don't understand yet. I might have this wrong. I'll keep watching.

HollenbeckPunt, fair catch, McCray at the thirty-three.

HollenbeckMichigan State's offense. Hannan is four-of-six for sixty-three.

HollenbeckHandoff Edwards, six. KK Smith on a jet sweep, eleven, first down at the Grambling fifty.

HollenbeckHannan, play action, throws over the middle for Paracheck, caught at the thirty-five, spins out of one, down at the twenty-eight.

HollenbeckEdwards for five. Edwards for four. Third and one at the nineteen.

PryceHere's where you find out about the six-foot-seven center.

HollenbeckQuarterback sneak. And he's got it. First down.

PryceFine. He got under him. I'll say what I was going to say pregame now, which is that a six-seven center against a nose tackle who's six-one is a leverage problem on paper and it's a problem you're going to see three or four times a year, not thirty. And he's a better athlete than everybody else on that line, so.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the nineteen. Hannan, quick game, McCray on the slant, caught at the ten, and he's got a step, he is in for the touchdown. Nineteen yards.

PryceThat's the third time they've run that formation and the first time they've thrown it. Alright. Alright, I see it.

HollenbeckTwenty-one to seven. Boyd is three-for-three.

HollenbeckGrambling's got it at the twenty-five. And the story of this game so far, in one line, is that first possession and then nothing.

HollenbeckDive, no gain. Option left, pitch, tackled for a loss of four, Jordan Hall came off the edge on that. Third and fourteen, and the throw is incomplete. Three and out.

PryceThat's four straight possessions with a negative play in it. And the thing I said I didn't understand, I think I've got it now. Watch the linebacker. He's not going forward at the snap anymore, but the second he reads which way the ball's going he's coming downhill like a truck. So they're getting there right on time instead of early. It's later, and it's a lot harder to block.

HollenbeckIs that a coaching adjustment or is that a defense settling down?

PryceIt's both and I'd be lying if I told you which one more. They changed the front, that's not settling down, somebody drew that up. But guys also stopped playing scared. Nobody coached that in four minutes.

HollenbeckSince that opening drive: three possessions, zero first downs, nine yards, three punts.

HollenbeckPunt is fair caught by McCray at the Michigan State thirty-nine. That's his third fair catch of the half.

HollenbeckEdwards for eight. Edwards for four, first down. Hannan complete to Collier for fourteen. Michigan State's moving quickly here.

HollenbeckHandoff Edwards, cutback, he's got the sideline, and he'll go all the way to the twenty before he's pushed out. Thirty-three yards, his longest of the day.

PryceSixteen carries, and he's over a hundred and forty. On a Saturday where they're probably taking him out at the half.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the twenty. Patterson for two. Hannan incomplete for Smith. Third and eight.

HollenbeckThird and eight, Hannan throws underneath and that's short of the sticks. Fourth and two at the twelve, and the field goal team is not coming out again.

PryceSecond time today. He's up fourteen.

HollenbeckFourth and two. Handoff Savoury, and he's stopped. Stopped short. Turnover on downs, and Grambling takes over at their own twelve.

PryceThe H-back on fourth and two with Cam Edwards on the field. I'd like somebody to ask him about that this week.

HollenbeckStill twenty-one to seven, and there's four and a half minutes to go in the half.

PryceHey, quick one. Michigan and Western Michigan is a close game in Ann Arbor right now, third quarter. I bring it up because Michigan State plays Eastern Michigan next week and everybody in this state just watched that happen.

HollenbeckFile that away.

HollenbeckGrambling at their own twelve. Dive for two. Option, keeper, gain of three, Piwowarczyk. Third and five, incomplete. Punt.

HollenbeckMcCray's got the punt at the thirty-six, and he's got a lane, he's up to the forty-five before he's tracked down. Nine-yard return, and that's four returns for him.

HollenbeckMichigan State at their own forty-five, two forty-one to go, and they've got all three timeouts.

HollenbeckHannan quick to Smith for nine. Hannan to Smith again for twelve, and Smith is having a day. Seven catches now.

HollenbeckHannan scrambles for seven. First down at the twenty-seven. Clock's running, they're getting lined up.

HollenbeckComplete to Merlino at the fourteen. He's down in bounds. Michigan State hurrying.

HollenbeckIncomplete for Moore in the end zone. Second and ten at the fourteen. Fifty-eight seconds.

HollenbeckHandoff Edwards to the eight. Six yards. Timeout Michigan State, and that's their second.

HollenbeckThird and four from the eight, forty-seven seconds, one timeout.

HollenbeckHannan, throws, complete to Savoury at the three. First and goal.

HollenbeckFirst and goal at the three. Thirty-three seconds, one timeout. They're going to run it. Savoury on the dive up the middle, gets to the two, and the clock is running.

PryceHurry. Hurry, hurry, hurry.

HollenbeckSecond and goal at the two. Sneak. No gain. Nineteen seconds and they're going to have to use the timeout, and they do. Michigan State's last timeout.

PryceGabe, where is Cam Edwards. He's standing right there. He's on the field. He scored from the two in this quarter, that exact spot, and they've run the fullback and then the quarterback.

HollenbeckThird and goal at the two. Fourteen seconds. Sneak again. No gain again.

PryceTwice! He ran it twice!

HollenbeckFourth and goal at the two, ten seconds left in the half, no timeouts. Field goal team is not coming out. Michigan State is going to run a play.

PryceUp twenty-one. Ten seconds. All right.

HollenbeckHannan under center. Trips left. Hannan takes it, it's a pass, back of the end zone for McCray, and he's got it! He's got it! Touchdown Michigan State, and Crishon McCray held on to that with a man draped on him!

PryceBoth feet. Both feet down and he's fighting for the ball the whole way, that's a real catch, that's a grown man's catch.

HollenbeckAnd they're going to look at it. Of course they are.

PryceReplayHere it comes. Watch. He's got the ball, he's got it here, his knee's down, and the ball comes out when his elbow hits the ground. That's after he's down. That is after he is down.

HollenbeckThe question is whether the knee is down before the ball moves or whether he's still going to the ground.

PryceHe's not going to the ground, he's caught it standing up and then fallen. Those are different. Those are two different things.

HollenbeckWhile they look at this. Michigan State would lead twenty-eight to seven with four seconds left in the half. This is not a game situation that anybody is going to remember in an hour.

PryceThey're going to remember it. Listen to them.

HollenbeckFourth down, incomplete, and Spartan Stadium does not agree.

PryceHe was a runner. He caught it, he had it, he turned. What are we doing.

HollenbeckThe standard is that if you're going to the ground in the act of catching it, you have to hold on through contact with the ground. Their read is that he was still in the act.

PryceI understand the standard. I've read the standard. The standard doesn't help you. Two people can watch that same replay and both of them can tell you they're sure.

HollenbeckThey looked at it for two minutes and forty-one seconds.

PryceAnd if they'd looked at it for eleven they'd have said the same thing.

HollenbeckGrambling takes over on downs. There will be a kneel-down. Twenty-one to seven at the half. Simone, you're down there.

HollenbeckThank you, Simone. Twenty-one to seven at halftime. Stay with us, our studio show is next, and we'll see you for the second half from East Lansing.

HollenbeckWelcome back to East Lansing, where Michigan State leads Grambling State twenty-one to seven, and the fourth-and-goal at the end of the first half is still the loudest thing that's happened in this stadium today.

PryceThey played it on the board at the break. Twice. Whoever runs that board is having a wonderful afternoon.

HollenbeckKickoff, taken at the four, out to the twenty-one. Grambling to open the second half.

HollenbeckDive, gain of one. Option right, quarterback, tackled for a loss of two. Third and eleven, throw is broken up by Brinson. Punt.

HollenbeckMcCray fair catches at the forty. Michigan State's offense.

HollenbeckHannan complete to Smith, eleven. Handoff Edwards, no, that's Jaziun Patterson, gain of six. Edwards is out of the game.

PryceGood. Sixteen carries is enough on a Saturday like this.

HollenbeckHannan on second and four, complete over the middle to McCray, caught at the thirty, breaks a tackle, gets to the twenty-two.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the twenty-two. Hannan, play action, throws for McCray at the goal line, and he's got it, touchdown Michigan State. Twenty-two yards. And McCray gets one that counts.

PryceLook at that bench. They came off that bench for him.

HollenbeckTwenty-eight to seven. Boyd is four-for-four.

HollenbeckAll right. This is a twenty-eight to seven football game in the third quarter, so let's talk about what everybody actually wants to talk about, which is the guy in the headset.

PryceSure.

HollenbeckI've been doing this a long time and I have never seen a hire like it. Not close to it. Coordinators get hired young. This is a man who has never coached a college practice.

PryceI'll be honest with you on the air, it's twenty-eight to seven, who cares. When they hired him I thought it was a marketing decision. Straight up. I thought an athletic department that had been embarrassed a couple of times decided to be interesting on purpose. That's what I thought and I said so to people.

HollenbeckAnd now?

PryceNow I don't know. That's not me softening it up for TV, I actually don't know. Because here's the thing that keeps sticking with me. In February I talked to two guys who played for him at that high school. Two kids. And they didn't tell me he was smart. Everybody says the guy's smart. They told me he called them.

HollenbeckCalled them.

PryceAfter he got the Michigan State job. Called both of them, still calls one of them. And I've been around a lot of coaches. Most of them don't do that.

HollenbeckThe thing I keep coming back to is the roster didn't leave. He gets hired in December, he's twenty-eight, nobody's ever heard of him. That is the exact moment where forty guys hit the portal and you're rebuilding from nothing. And they mostly stayed.

PryceCam Edwards could have gone anywhere. Anywhere. He'd have started for six teams I can name in the top twenty-five.

HollenbeckSecond and six, Patterson for three. Third and three.

HollenbeckSorry, that's Grambling with the ball. I've got the wrong team. Grambling, second and six, they lost two on the dive. My mistake.

PryceYou've been talking about a twenty-eight-year-old for four minutes, it's fine.

HollenbeckThird and eight, incomplete. Punt. Yes. Thank you. Grambling punts for the sixth time.

PryceCan I do the other side of it though? Because I don't want to sit here at twenty-eight to seven and turn into a fan.

HollenbeckPlease.

PryceIt's Grambling. I want to say that plainly because I think everybody watching this is about to spend a week not saying it. This is an FCS program that is not having a great year and Michigan State has better players at every single position on the field. If they'd lost this game we'd be talking about a national story. They didn't lose it, they won it by four touchdowns, and that's what they were supposed to do. I can't tell you a whole lot more than that.

HollenbeckNotre Dame in two weeks.

PryceNotre Dame in two weeks in South Bend and that's a different television show.

HollenbeckMcCray's got the punt at the twenty-eight, and he takes it out to the forty-one. Thirteen-yard return. That's five returns for him today.

HollenbeckHannan back out there. Handoff Brandon Tullis, gain of five.

HollenbeckSecond and five. Complete to Paracheck, and there's a flag. First flag on Michigan State today, and it's a hold. Number 72. That's Vincic.

PryceFirst penalty of the game for them. In the third quarter. That's not nothing, actually. Young team, new staff, first game, one flag through forty minutes.

HollenbeckIs that a coaching thing or is that a Grambling thing?

PryceIt's a coaching thing. You can play a bad team and still jump offsides nine times. I've been on teams that did.

HollenbeckSecond and fifteen. Hannan complete to Merlino for eleven. Third and four, complete to Smith, first down at the twenty-eight.

PryceHannan's at what, seventeen-of-twenty?

HollenbeckEighteen-of-twenty-two.

PryceEighteen-of-twenty-two in his first career start. Nobody's going to give him credit for it because of who it's against and I understand that. But you can go look at a lot of first starts and most of them do not look like this. They're eleven-of-twenty-six and two of the incompletions are lucky.

HollenbeckTullis for six. Tullis for four, first down at the eighteen.

HollenbeckHere's one I've been sitting on. Do you think he can do this part? The actual Saturday part. Because knowing football in a room by yourself in New York and standing on a sideline with sixty people and a play clock are not the same job.

PryceThat's the real question and today doesn't answer it. You find that out in November, when he's down four with a minute and a half left.

HollenbeckHe's used two today and both of them were in that sequence at the end of the half.

PryceWhich I still think he ran badly. I'm going to keep saying it. You've got first and goal from the three with thirty-three seconds and you run the fullback into a pile, and then you sneak it, and then you sneak it again. Your best player is standing next to you the entire time with his hands on his hips.

HollenbeckHe got the pass call right.

PryceHe got the fourth-down call right and it should have been a touchdown. I'll give him the fourth one. The first three were bad.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the eighteen. Handoff Tullis, off the right side, he's got a lane, he's to the ten, five, touchdown Michigan State. Eighteen yards for Brandon Tullis, his first of the year.

HollenbeckThirty-five to seven. Boyd, five-for-five.

HollenbeckGrambling at their twenty-two. Dive for three. Option left, pitch, tackled for a loss of one. Third and eight, throw is incomplete, and that's another three-and-out.

PryceTwelve tackles for loss now. Twelve.

HollenbeckPunt, fair caught at the thirty-four, and Michigan State will just run this quarter out.

HollenbeckSomething I meant to mention earlier and forgot. Rustin Young, the center, the six-foot-seven one, has not had a bad snap today. Not one. I had that written down before the game as a thing to watch and I never went back to it.

PryceHe got beat a couple times in the run game. He also got out on a linebacker in the second quarter twelve yards downfield, which a center does not usually do. He's been up and down and mostly up.

HollenbeckPatterson for two. And that'll be the end of the third quarter. Thirty-five to seven.

HollenbeckAnd here he comes. Alessio Milivojevic into the game at quarterback for Michigan State, and there is a genuine reaction in this stadium for him.

PryceThat's a nice moment. He lost that job in August and this place just stood up for him.

HollenbeckFirst and ten at the Michigan State thirty-one. Milivojevic, first pass, short to the right, incomplete. Thrown a little behind Moore.

HollenbeckThird and six. Milivojevic throws underneath, that's a drag route to Rowan Merlino, caught at the forty-one, and there is nobody near him. Merlino's got the sideline. He's at the fifty, he's at the thirty, and he is going to go all the way. Touchdown Michigan State! A five-yard throw for fifty-four yards!

PryceWatch this bench. Watch this bench, Gabe. That's the whole team on the field.

HollenbeckThey emptied it. There's an official trying to get eleven guys back and he's got no chance.

HollenbeckForty-two to seven. Boyd is six-for-six and he has not attempted a field goal today.

PryceMerlino, by the way, has been out there all day and that's his first real touch. Five-yard drag and he takes it to the house. Most of that's him. I want to be fair about it, most of that's the receiver.

HollenbeckThe throw was fine.

PryceThe throw was fine. I'm not knocking the throw. Fifty-four of those yards happened after the ball got there, that's all I'm saying.

HollenbeckForty-nine yards, actually. He caught it five yards downfield. Fifty-four-yard play.

PryceForty-nine. Fine. You know what I meant.

HollenbeckKickoff, touchback. Grambling's backups are in, Michigan State's backups are in, and we are going to play out about thirteen more minutes of football here.

HollenbeckDive, no gain. Option, keeper, and he's sacked, actually that's a sack, he never got outside. That's Dejae White, number 27.

PryceFifteen tackles for loss. In a game where the other team is trying to run the ball, fifteen.

HollenbeckThird down, incomplete. Punt.

HollenbeckMichigan State takes over at their own forty-four. Tullis for six. Tullis for four, first down. Bryson Williams in now as well.

HollenbeckMilivojevic complete to Fredrick Moore for sixteen. Handoff Tullis for eight.

HollenbeckFirst and goal at the seven. Tullis, off the left side, and he's in. Touchdown. Seven yards, and that is his second of the day.

HollenbeckForty-nine to seven. Boyd, seven-for-seven.

HollenbeckKickoff is fielded at the six and brought out to the twenty-four.

HollenbeckWhile they play this out. Michigan State opens Big Ten play in October, and next Saturday they have Eastern Michigan here at noon. Chris Creighton's team, in-state, and Creighton has been at Eastern for more than a decade and taken them to bowl games.

PryceWhich is a strange sentence to say on a day you've spent talking about a guy who's been a head coach for one year of high school football. Creighton's been doing this almost as long as Mansour's been alive.

HollenbeckGrambling three and out again. Punt, fair caught at the thirty-two.

HollenbeckMilivojevic complete to Whiting for twelve. First down.

HollenbeckHandoff Zion Gist for six. Second and four.

HollenbeckGist again, four yards, first down at the Grambling eighteen.

HollenbeckMilivojevic, play action, throws down the seam, and that is Eddie Whiting, and he's got it at the five, and he is in! Touchdown Michigan State! Twelve-yard, no, eighteen. Eighteen yards.

HollenbeckEighteen-yard touchdown. Eddie Whiting, tight end, first career touchdown.

PryceThat's a real throw. That one's on the quarterback. That's in a window, that's on time, that's the throw everybody in this state has been arguing about all summer.

HollenbeckFour-of-five, a hundred yards, two touchdowns.

PryceAgainst their third string, and I don't care. Look at his teammates. Whiting can't get to the sideline, they won't let him.

HollenbeckBoyd's kick is up and good. And I'm told that's the eighth extra point of the day. Fifty-six to seven.

HollenbeckGrambling's got it at the twenty. Dive for four. Dive for one. Third down, incomplete, and they'll punt for the seventh time today.

PryceEighteen tackles for loss. That's the number. Eighteen.

HollenbeckEighteen tackles for loss for Michigan State. I don't have the record in front of me but that's a lot in any game against anybody.

HollenbeckThank you, Simone. Good stuff.

HollenbeckMichigan State's going to run out the clock. Handoff, kneel, and the clock is running.

HollenbeckSix hundred and eighteen yards. Nine point four a play. Thirty-one first downs, seven of ten on third down, no turnovers, no sacks allowed, and one penalty in the entire football game.

PryceOne penalty. That's the thing I'll take out of here. Everything else is Grambling. That one might not be.

HollenbeckKneel-down. And that's it.

HollenbeckMichigan State fifty-six, Grambling State seven. Cam Edwards, a hundred and forty-seven and two scores. Leo Hannan, nineteen-of-twenty-three for two hundred and fifty in his first career start. Alessio Milivojevic, four-of-five for a hundred yards and two touchdowns in about eleven minutes of work. Nine tackles for Nikai Martinez.

HollenbeckMichigan State is one and oh under Nick Mansour, they've got Eastern Michigan here next Saturday, and Notre Dame in South Bend two weeks from today. Darnell, last word.

PryceI came up here today thinking I'd be able to tell everybody what this is. I can't. I know the first drive scared them and I know it stopped. Why it stopped, I'm still not sure. That's honestly all I've got and I've been talking for three hours.

HollenbeckFor Darnell Pryce, Simone Ruiz, and our whole crew, I'm Gabe Hollenbeck. Second game of the doubleheader is next on the Big Ten Network. So long from East Lansing.