Aaron Brule, Nathan Carter open up on how Michigan State's season is preparing them for life after football

It’s been a tough year on and off the field in East Lansing for Michigan State‘s football program. Their head coach Mel Tucker was fired for cause last month while serving an unpaid suspension amid sexual harassment allegations, which he’s followed with plans of filing a wrongful termination lawsuit. And on the field, the Spartans have lost five straight games after a 2-0 start against non-conference competition.

It’d be may seem hard to find a silver lining in the way that Michigan State’s season has transpired so far, but linebacker Aaron Brule and running back Nathan Carter found one when they were asked how this season has tested their leadership within the team.

“People say once you’re done with football a lot of people like to hire football players due to the fact that they’re pretty stable in what they do, they’re pretty consistent in the work that they do. And I think moving forward, Nate could probably piggyback off of this too, we just want to do everything right,” Brule said. “We don’t necessarily want to do anything different, there’s nothing much that we need to change in what we’re doing. It’s just executing and being more physical and I think that’s what we’re gonna continue to do.”

Brule has led the Spartans in sacks this season with three and has helped lead the team as a senior leader, but even as a sophomore, Carter also shared some words of wisdom regarding this particular season passed down from his position coach Effrem Reed.

“I think this goes beyond football, I think this is a principle for life. In life you’re gonna face adversity, they’re gonna be tough times that you’re gonna have to get through,” Carter said. “So you have to be able to not just fall down to your adversity but to continue to fight and Coach Reed tells us every single day that he fights and that he was born to fight — he put that on the running backs as our mindset. I believe that’s just a lifestyle, you have to be willing to fight because when life, the world throws crap at you you gotta be able to stand up and fight. And where we are right now, we have to continue to fight.”

Carter has impressed this year as Michigan State’s leading rusher with 565 yards and four touchdowns this season along with three 100+ yard performances on the ground. And he revealed that he has no intentions of giving up despite how this season has transpired as he looks for that message to resonate with the rest of the team.

“We can’t lay down, like we said, we’ve got five games left this season. We gotta continue to finish strong, we’re gonna continue to go out here and play our butts off because this may be the last season for a lot of us and nobody knows what it is. So how do you want to be remembered?” Carter asked. “Do you want to be remembered as a guy who quit on the team, the guy who laid down, just let adversity hit them? Or do you want to be remembered as someone who fought and finished it though it all?”

Their circumstances may not be ideal, but the Spartans are making the most of them, as Brule closed out the press conference by adding a refreshing perspective on the situation as a whole.

“I think this is really some of the easiest stuff we’ll face in life. Once you get into the real world, as we all may know, life is way harder than just football. So I think what we have going on here, if you can’t get past this, you’ll struggle when this is done. I think just doing what you can here and I guess practicing for the real world and with the adversity we’re having now is going to lead to better things after football is done,” Brule concluded.