Michigan State University Athletics
Inaugural ‘Spartan Dawg Con’ A Smashing Success
8/4/2021 5:21:00 PM | Football
Event brought former football players together back on campus to reunite with the program.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State football head coach Mel Tucker and the Spartan football program hosted the inaugural "Spartan Dawg Con" last weekend (July 30-31), bringing together nearly 130 former players from all eras back on the MSU campus and to East Lansing.
Players from as far back as the 1950s in Robert Popp (1954-58) and Albert Grimson (1955-56), to as recent as 2019 and 2020, were in attendance.
Darien Harris, himself a former Spartan player from 2012-15 and the current MSU Football Director of Player Engagement, coordinated and organized the event.
"This is something that we've never done before, something that we don't think a lot of places in the country are doing, and even more importantly than that, it's something we feel like we need to do," Harris said. "Former players are the backbone of this program, and they deserve to be a part of what we're doing today and in the future. From the moment Coach Tucker has gotten here, he's really made it a point of emphasis that all former players are welcome no matter what year you played, whether you won a championship or not, whether you're a walk-on or got a scholarship, whether you played or didn't play, it doesn't matter, you are welcome."
"Having relationships with our former players and connecting with them is a priority for our program," said Tucker. "It's been important to me ever since I arrived here. We've had a couple of virtual events over the past year with former players, but this was great to see everyone in person and back on campus. Darien has done a phenomenal job engaging our former players and bringing them together. There were a lot of guys who hadn't seen each other in a long time. But it was also about programming and trying to have them get something out of it to help them in their daily lives. It was definitely a great event, and it's just the beginning."
The weekend kicked off Friday night with a social event at Tucker's residence.
Saturday's activities commenced with several sessions in the morning at the Skandalaris Football Center, including the first on strength and conditioning with current associate head strength & conditioning coach/director of player enrichment Lorenzo Guess.
The second session was on financial literacy with former Spartan wide receiver Keith Nichol, who is currently a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual, while the third presentation was on nutrition with Head Football Performance Dietitian Amber Rinestine.
"It's always interesting and exciting going back," Nichol said. "Number one, I want to come back, it's just my way of giving back to the University and the program that's given me so much. And it was an honor to speak on things that I spend my life on now in the post-football world, so for them to value my opinion and to speak and that meant a lot."
The fourth and final session was on entrepreneurship with former players T.J. Duckett and Curtis Daniel III. Duckett is President and CEO of Duckett Enterprises, as well as owner of The Printing King, both based in Lansing. In addition, he is co-founder of the non-profit organization New World Flood. Daniel is the founder and co-owner of PatchWerk Recording Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
After lunch, the former Spartan players had a chalk talk with the current MSU football coaches, going over different offensive, defensive and special teams schemes.
Later in the afternoon, the former Spartans were welcomed and greeted on the field at Spartan Stadium in a special welcome tunnel. While on the Spartan Stadium field, video highlights of all of the former Spartans in attendance were played on the stadium videoboards.
"I've seen the progression of the program going in the right direction, with the facilities upgrades and Coach Tucker changing things up a little bit," said Andre Sims, who played at MSU from 2012-14, and traveled from Snellville, Georgia, where he is a high school football coach, just for the weekend event. "Any good organization is continuously innovating and I feel like that's what Darien and Coach Tucker's entire staff are implementing into this program of just being able to be innovative in the way we think, in the way that we communicate, in really a lot of ways."
Former All-Big Ten center and current Spartan Media Network analyst Jason Strayhorn was also impressed with the overall concept of the event.
"As a former player, it means the world to have the sitting head coach of your alma mater put out an invite, not just to come back to the spring practice and spring game, which was just outstanding, but to actually invite us to his home, his family home, to hang out, to have a reunion with other former players from different eras, who played for different coaches and can just all just get together, hugs and laughs, there were a lot of old stories and memories shared," remarked Strayhorn. "It's just a great event. I think it's a genius move by Mel Tucker and his staff to put something like that together."
All parties involved are already excited for the Spartan Dawg Con in 2022.
Additional Quotes – What They're Saying About Spartan Dawg Con 2021:
Darien Harris (Silver Spring, Md. / 2012-15 / current MSU Football Director of Player Engagement):
On why starting this event was important to the program:
"As we were able to really have people on campus, we wanted to really show them that what we're saying is true. I've always had this vision of every time former players come back in town, it's always for a game or a practice or a social, whatever it may be, and all that stuff is awesome and great, and we're always going to do that, but there's really something to be said about this is when you come to Michigan State, it's a four year decision for the next 40-50 years of your life. We want to make sure that that actually is true, so having educational breakout sessions for former players, giving them information that they can take and apply to their life.
"That's something that really makes this special, and the reaction we got out of the former players, saying things like 'hey this is stuff that I'm really going to apply to my life, to my kids lives, that's going to help me live longer, it's going to create more wealth for me, both physically and figuratively and literally'; that's the type of stuff that's priceless. And it was all free of charge to the former players, all they had to do was get here. We even were able to get some hotel rooms for the guys that were coming out of town at a discounted rate, so we want it to be accommodating to everybody, whether you live in Michigan or not, and we're just really looking forward to building on this year in and year out."
On what it means to form and build connections between Spartan players from all eras:
"There's nothing better than that…When you have a Bobby Popp that played here back in 1954 show up and be here for the whole time; a John Shinsky (1970-73), and all the great work he's doing with the City of the Children Shinsky Orphanage and in the community, all the way up to a Jeremy Langford, Lawrence Thomas or Greg Jones, champions here at Michigan State that took the time to come in for this event, it means a lot. To be able to hear from those guys on the former players panel I think resonated a lot, just because you can hear the passion come through their voice, being a Spartan Dawg is for life. That's why we talk about SD4L, and there's no better way to show that than to have this convention and have this conference, that it's not just about coming in for a Homecoming game or coming in for a big game, it's 'hey, on the last weekend of July, or anytime throughout the year we can put something on and get 120 former players here like that.'"
Keith Nichol (Lowell, Mich. / 2009-11 / current financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual in Troy, Mich.):
On what the event meant to him as a former player, to come back and contribute to a session and give a presentation:
"As far as what it was like walking back into the football building, one of the biggest things that I thought was interesting was that it's been a decade since I've played, and the building so felt extremely welcoming to my era, my generation, the Dantonio era, and seeing teams that have won championships on the walls getting represented, and seeing players that are still in the NFL that have gotten drafted from my teams that I played on still being represented, I think was really, really cool. There are so many coaches and support staff still there, when some new coaches come in, it's like they clean house, and it's all about them and they're going forward, but it's not like that with Coach Tucker. So, I thought it was really unique with how Coach Tucker has really embraced the past to help grow the future."
As a former player, on his impressions and perspective of Coach Tucker and what he's brought and meant to the Michigan State program with an event like this:
"There's a very deep passion and love for the university and for Michigan State football, and I think he's really, really excited to build a program, to expand upon what Coach Dantonio has done, and so I think Coach Tucker is doing a really nice job of embracing the new era of social media, embracing the new era of recruiting, and potentially a new era of how the game is played Xs and Os with his incoming recruits and things like that. It's football, so at the end of the day, you've still got to line up and beat the man across from you, but the game is evolving and changing, and I think he's a guy that's there to embrace all the change that the world is throwing at him within the game."
On listening to some of the other presentations:
"Saturday was a great experience, I got to listen to T.J. Duckett speak about his businesses and entrepreneurship, listen to the nutritionist talk, and I got to listen to Coach Guess talk about some strength and conditioning. I think Coach Guess's talk was really interesting because you experience as an athlete, all the craziness and busyness firsthand, but you almost forget about how busy and crazy things were, and how well thought out and well-ran things were when we were athletes, and so it was really kind of cool to listen to him talk about almost every single thing within a football player's day, is there for them in the Weave, much more now than we would have ever imagined, so it was pretty cool to hear him talk about that."
Jason Strayhorn (Indianapolis, Ind. / 1996-98 / Spartan Media Network Analyst | Real Estate Broker and Developer)
On what the event meant to him as a former player:
"It's genuine, it puts (Coach Tucker's) actions in front of his words, so that means everything to former players and I can tell you, if you talk to anyone else, they're going to say the same, if not more."
As a former player, on his impressions and perspective of Coach Tucker and what he's brought and meant to the Michigan State program:
"I love it. I remember Coach Tucker as a grad assistant, when I was playing under Nick Saban. And you can hear a lot of Nick Saban things, and see them in the way he coaches, but he's got a great mix of Nick, he's got a little mix of Tom Izzo, he got a little (Jim) Tressel in him, he's got a lot. While he's got a lot, he's just all about family and being genuine with that, but he knows how to build a championship program. He's won national titles with Ohio State and Alabama. He's been in the NFL for 10 years, was an interim head coach when he was with Jacksonville, so, he's got what people call 'NFL eyes,' it doesn't take him long to evaluate true NFL talent. And he knows what he's looking for and it's not just about just the family, he also wants people that can play the game and he knows that great players make great coaches. So that's why I feel like he's in the right spot and we love having him."
Andre Sims (Snellville, Ga. / 2012-14 / current director of player development and WR coach at his high school alma mater Brookwood High School in his hometown of Snellville, Ga.):
As a former player, on his impressions and perspective of Coach Tucker and what he's brought and meant to the Michigan State program:
"I just feel like it's a new era, it's a new way of doing things. It's a new look. I think for me, just seeing the program continuing, like I said, innovating and changing, adapting to the surroundings, but just to see the new coach, to meet him, shake his hand and then just to hear him speak on faith, family and football, and having that foundation set, it really lights my fire. For the past couple years, I've been trying to keep up with Michigan State…having my own football season is challenging, but at the same time I still put the TV on and watch the games on Saturday too, so just having him being so open to having us come back and then laying out that red carpet for us, it just feels so comfortable to come back and opening the doors and saying 'hey, anything in this building is available to you.' It's just such a blessing."
Players from as far back as the 1950s in Robert Popp (1954-58) and Albert Grimson (1955-56), to as recent as 2019 and 2020, were in attendance.
Darien Harris, himself a former Spartan player from 2012-15 and the current MSU Football Director of Player Engagement, coordinated and organized the event.
"This is something that we've never done before, something that we don't think a lot of places in the country are doing, and even more importantly than that, it's something we feel like we need to do," Harris said. "Former players are the backbone of this program, and they deserve to be a part of what we're doing today and in the future. From the moment Coach Tucker has gotten here, he's really made it a point of emphasis that all former players are welcome no matter what year you played, whether you won a championship or not, whether you're a walk-on or got a scholarship, whether you played or didn't play, it doesn't matter, you are welcome."
"Having relationships with our former players and connecting with them is a priority for our program," said Tucker. "It's been important to me ever since I arrived here. We've had a couple of virtual events over the past year with former players, but this was great to see everyone in person and back on campus. Darien has done a phenomenal job engaging our former players and bringing them together. There were a lot of guys who hadn't seen each other in a long time. But it was also about programming and trying to have them get something out of it to help them in their daily lives. It was definitely a great event, and it's just the beginning."
Spartan Dawg Con gave me the chance to meet so many Spartan Dawgs who are all a staple of this program. Always welcome back 👊🏾🐶 #SD4L pic.twitter.com/Ge42ZTb7ei
— Mel Tucker (@Coach_mtucker) August 1, 2021
The weekend kicked off Friday night with a social event at Tucker's residence.
Saturday's activities commenced with several sessions in the morning at the Skandalaris Football Center, including the first on strength and conditioning with current associate head strength & conditioning coach/director of player enrichment Lorenzo Guess.
The second session was on financial literacy with former Spartan wide receiver Keith Nichol, who is currently a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual, while the third presentation was on nutrition with Head Football Performance Dietitian Amber Rinestine.
"It's always interesting and exciting going back," Nichol said. "Number one, I want to come back, it's just my way of giving back to the University and the program that's given me so much. And it was an honor to speak on things that I spend my life on now in the post-football world, so for them to value my opinion and to speak and that meant a lot."
The fourth and final session was on entrepreneurship with former players T.J. Duckett and Curtis Daniel III. Duckett is President and CEO of Duckett Enterprises, as well as owner of The Printing King, both based in Lansing. In addition, he is co-founder of the non-profit organization New World Flood. Daniel is the founder and co-owner of PatchWerk Recording Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.
MSU legends Todd "TJ" Duckett and @FrittyLoc owner of @PatchwerkStudio leading our Entrepreneurship education session today! #GoGreen pic.twitter.com/WA8vITxXy9
— Darien Harris (@DHarris_45) July 31, 2021
After lunch, the former Spartan players had a chalk talk with the current MSU football coaches, going over different offensive, defensive and special teams schemes.
Later in the afternoon, the former Spartans were welcomed and greeted on the field at Spartan Stadium in a special welcome tunnel. While on the Spartan Stadium field, video highlights of all of the former Spartans in attendance were played on the stadium videoboards.
"I've seen the progression of the program going in the right direction, with the facilities upgrades and Coach Tucker changing things up a little bit," said Andre Sims, who played at MSU from 2012-14, and traveled from Snellville, Georgia, where he is a high school football coach, just for the weekend event. "Any good organization is continuously innovating and I feel like that's what Darien and Coach Tucker's entire staff are implementing into this program of just being able to be innovative in the way we think, in the way that we communicate, in really a lot of ways."
Former All-Big Ten center and current Spartan Media Network analyst Jason Strayhorn was also impressed with the overall concept of the event.
"As a former player, it means the world to have the sitting head coach of your alma mater put out an invite, not just to come back to the spring practice and spring game, which was just outstanding, but to actually invite us to his home, his family home, to hang out, to have a reunion with other former players from different eras, who played for different coaches and can just all just get together, hugs and laughs, there were a lot of old stories and memories shared," remarked Strayhorn. "It's just a great event. I think it's a genius move by Mel Tucker and his staff to put something like that together."
All parties involved are already excited for the Spartan Dawg Con in 2022.
Additional Quotes – What They're Saying About Spartan Dawg Con 2021:
Darien Harris (Silver Spring, Md. / 2012-15 / current MSU Football Director of Player Engagement):
On why starting this event was important to the program:
"As we were able to really have people on campus, we wanted to really show them that what we're saying is true. I've always had this vision of every time former players come back in town, it's always for a game or a practice or a social, whatever it may be, and all that stuff is awesome and great, and we're always going to do that, but there's really something to be said about this is when you come to Michigan State, it's a four year decision for the next 40-50 years of your life. We want to make sure that that actually is true, so having educational breakout sessions for former players, giving them information that they can take and apply to their life.
"That's something that really makes this special, and the reaction we got out of the former players, saying things like 'hey this is stuff that I'm really going to apply to my life, to my kids lives, that's going to help me live longer, it's going to create more wealth for me, both physically and figuratively and literally'; that's the type of stuff that's priceless. And it was all free of charge to the former players, all they had to do was get here. We even were able to get some hotel rooms for the guys that were coming out of town at a discounted rate, so we want it to be accommodating to everybody, whether you live in Michigan or not, and we're just really looking forward to building on this year in and year out."
On what it means to form and build connections between Spartan players from all eras:
"There's nothing better than that…When you have a Bobby Popp that played here back in 1954 show up and be here for the whole time; a John Shinsky (1970-73), and all the great work he's doing with the City of the Children Shinsky Orphanage and in the community, all the way up to a Jeremy Langford, Lawrence Thomas or Greg Jones, champions here at Michigan State that took the time to come in for this event, it means a lot. To be able to hear from those guys on the former players panel I think resonated a lot, just because you can hear the passion come through their voice, being a Spartan Dawg is for life. That's why we talk about SD4L, and there's no better way to show that than to have this convention and have this conference, that it's not just about coming in for a Homecoming game or coming in for a big game, it's 'hey, on the last weekend of July, or anytime throughout the year we can put something on and get 120 former players here like that.'"
Keith Nichol (Lowell, Mich. / 2009-11 / current financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual in Troy, Mich.):
On what the event meant to him as a former player, to come back and contribute to a session and give a presentation:
"As far as what it was like walking back into the football building, one of the biggest things that I thought was interesting was that it's been a decade since I've played, and the building so felt extremely welcoming to my era, my generation, the Dantonio era, and seeing teams that have won championships on the walls getting represented, and seeing players that are still in the NFL that have gotten drafted from my teams that I played on still being represented, I think was really, really cool. There are so many coaches and support staff still there, when some new coaches come in, it's like they clean house, and it's all about them and they're going forward, but it's not like that with Coach Tucker. So, I thought it was really unique with how Coach Tucker has really embraced the past to help grow the future."
As a former player, on his impressions and perspective of Coach Tucker and what he's brought and meant to the Michigan State program with an event like this:
"There's a very deep passion and love for the university and for Michigan State football, and I think he's really, really excited to build a program, to expand upon what Coach Dantonio has done, and so I think Coach Tucker is doing a really nice job of embracing the new era of social media, embracing the new era of recruiting, and potentially a new era of how the game is played Xs and Os with his incoming recruits and things like that. It's football, so at the end of the day, you've still got to line up and beat the man across from you, but the game is evolving and changing, and I think he's a guy that's there to embrace all the change that the world is throwing at him within the game."
On listening to some of the other presentations:
"Saturday was a great experience, I got to listen to T.J. Duckett speak about his businesses and entrepreneurship, listen to the nutritionist talk, and I got to listen to Coach Guess talk about some strength and conditioning. I think Coach Guess's talk was really interesting because you experience as an athlete, all the craziness and busyness firsthand, but you almost forget about how busy and crazy things were, and how well thought out and well-ran things were when we were athletes, and so it was really kind of cool to listen to him talk about almost every single thing within a football player's day, is there for them in the Weave, much more now than we would have ever imagined, so it was pretty cool to hear him talk about that."
Thank you @coach_mtucker and @dharris_45 for having me out to speak to fellow Spartans about Financial Literacy at Spartan Con. Always fun to be back in EL and I'm looking forward to a great football MSU season this year!#gogreen #finance #smartmoney pic.twitter.com/KRA3g4Ni7y
— Keith Nichol (@KeithNichol7) July 31, 2021
Jason Strayhorn (Indianapolis, Ind. / 1996-98 / Spartan Media Network Analyst | Real Estate Broker and Developer)
On what the event meant to him as a former player:
"It's genuine, it puts (Coach Tucker's) actions in front of his words, so that means everything to former players and I can tell you, if you talk to anyone else, they're going to say the same, if not more."
As a former player, on his impressions and perspective of Coach Tucker and what he's brought and meant to the Michigan State program:
"I love it. I remember Coach Tucker as a grad assistant, when I was playing under Nick Saban. And you can hear a lot of Nick Saban things, and see them in the way he coaches, but he's got a great mix of Nick, he's got a little mix of Tom Izzo, he got a little (Jim) Tressel in him, he's got a lot. While he's got a lot, he's just all about family and being genuine with that, but he knows how to build a championship program. He's won national titles with Ohio State and Alabama. He's been in the NFL for 10 years, was an interim head coach when he was with Jacksonville, so, he's got what people call 'NFL eyes,' it doesn't take him long to evaluate true NFL talent. And he knows what he's looking for and it's not just about just the family, he also wants people that can play the game and he knows that great players make great coaches. So that's why I feel like he's in the right spot and we love having him."
Andre Sims (Snellville, Ga. / 2012-14 / current director of player development and WR coach at his high school alma mater Brookwood High School in his hometown of Snellville, Ga.):
As a former player, on his impressions and perspective of Coach Tucker and what he's brought and meant to the Michigan State program:
"I just feel like it's a new era, it's a new way of doing things. It's a new look. I think for me, just seeing the program continuing, like I said, innovating and changing, adapting to the surroundings, but just to see the new coach, to meet him, shake his hand and then just to hear him speak on faith, family and football, and having that foundation set, it really lights my fire. For the past couple years, I've been trying to keep up with Michigan State…having my own football season is challenging, but at the same time I still put the TV on and watch the games on Saturday too, so just having him being so open to having us come back and then laying out that red carpet for us, it just feels so comfortable to come back and opening the doors and saying 'hey, anything in this building is available to you.' It's just such a blessing."
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