User:JT1216/sandbox

= The Spartan Beat = The Spartan Beat is a weekly radio show centered around Michigan State athletics, hosted by 247Sports reporters Justin Thind and Corey Robinson. The show provides a vast array of team-centric coverage including roster breakdowns, off-season developments, game previews & recaps, along with a heavy dose of recruiting coverage. In addition to their own analysis, the SpartanTailgate.com insiders routinely interview key Michigan State coaches, players, recruiting targets, and alumni, along with influential local figures throughout the college athletics recruiting scene.

The show is produced by Spotlight Media Studios and is based out of Lansing, Michigan. Spartan Beat airs every Wednesday at 2pm on YouTube, Facebook, Spreaker, and Spotlight's app. After the live premiere, each episode gets uploaded to all of the mainstream streaming services like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more.

The current structure of the show features a notable guest coming on and chatting with the two co-hosts for the first segment, followed by a second segment where Thind and Robinson break down all the recent happenings with MSU football and basketball recruiting. These recruiting developments typically include recent verbal commitments, new official visits that got scheduled, reactions from previous visitors, updates on MSU's recruiting board, and analytical breakdowns on various prospects. This portion of the show is also where some team coverage is sprinkled in, which is much more prevalent during the season as opposed to the offseason months.

History
The Spartan Beat radio show originated in 2013 with host Mike Griffith of MLive and aired on 92.1 FM in Lansing from 1-2PM every Monday through Friday. Mike's unique perspective and access to all things Spartan Athletics proved to be very popular and the show enjoyed tremendous success covering Spartan football and basketball. It foreshadowed the rise of the MSU football program under legendary coach Mark Dantonio. In 2018 Mike Griffith left MLive to cover the Tennessee Volunteers for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Long-time Detroit area radio personality Rico Beard took over the show and also enjoyed a very successful run until he joined "The Mike Valenti Show with Rico Beard" on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit.

As of May 2021, the current iteration of The Spartan Beat is now hosted by Justin Thind and Corey Robinson, who also cover the Michigan State Spartans for 247Sports, a subsidiary of CBS Sports.

Current Hosts
The official website of the Spartan Beat lists the following biographies for the two current co-hosts:

Justin Thind: "Justin Thind graduated from Michigan State University in May 2021 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As an escape from his monotonous STEM curriculum, Justin started writing for Fansided’ s Michigan State website a couple years back. In June 2020, he broke into the recruiting industry with a gig at Rivals.com, where he first started working closely with Corey Robinson. Then, in February of 2021, Justin and Corey transitioned to 247Sports where they now cover MSU news & developments for SpartanTailgate.com. In addition to being a Michigan State reporter, Justin also works as an engineer in the automotive industry in Southeast Michigan."

Corey Robinson: "Corey Robinson is a recruiting analyst for SpartanTailgate.com, where he has been working since February 2021. Prior to his arrival with 247Sports, he covered recruiting for the Rivals network. He has extensive knowledge about the Michigan State football and basketball programs and shows a strong ability to break-down film and explain what the eye in the sky is telling him. His vision for The Spartan Beat is to keep it informative, while having fun with it like the show’s predecessor, Rico Beard!"

Recent Guests
A significant part of the Spartan Beat model is inviting notable guests onto the show for the first couple segments. Through the first seven episodes, here's a list of the guests that Thind and Robinson have brought on since they started hosting the show (in order of appearance):


 * Rico Beard (97.1 The Ticket)
 * William Peagler (MSU Football - running backs coach)
 * Chris Kapilovic (MSU Football - offensive line coach)
 * Anthony Ianni (Former MSU basketball player w/ autism)
 * Ike Reese (Former MSU & Philadelphia Eagles linebacker)
 * Stephen Brooks (247Sports MSU beat writer)
 * Allen Trieu (247 Sports Midwest Director of Recruiting)

(Work in progress, do not touch)