Speaker 1: Wait, that's so weird. I can't hear you either, and
you're it's on. Is the button like in.
Speaker 2: Great starts off the Bench today? Oh gosh, I don't
know it's on. Okay, welcome into off the Bench. We
are having technical difficulties with Jake's mic right now. Is
it not plugged in? Jake's mike is not plugged in?
We have a great start to the morning.
Speaker 1: This morning, T Bob is out man had in the
hosts chair.
Speaker 3: Talking Taylor Tata sabotage me. He plugged in T Bob's
microphone and T Bob's Oh day, welcome in OTB one
of five ESPN better. You got to hear sabotage there
for the extended periods there was maybe maybe Elanda's just
trying to rock out my microphone's low. Beastie Boys, you're up.
I'm okay with Beastie Boys being up high. I'll let
it ride a little bit. I didn't know I was
gonna get sabotaged by today.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 4: When I switched the.
Speaker 5: Mics, I didn't switch the COLF buttons, so he was
still technically plug into the other one when I switched.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's okay. Look, I don't care. You know, you
can fumble the ball and still pick it up and
run for a touchdown. Yeah, and that's what we're going
to do today. Absolutely, we do have a big show planned.
Y'all know OTV We're not a big guest show. But
anytime that I'm solo, I don't like to talk for
three straight hours. You probably don't want to hear me
talk for three straight hours. So we do have some
great guests lined up today. Tata mentioned Bill Bender of
The Sporting News, Connor O'Gara of Saturday Down South, Blake Baker,
LSU defensive Coordinator. We've got Matt McCall, serious Xem Kendall
Rogers of D one Baseball. So we've got a lot
of great guests planned for you today. I don't know
if you heard this part. Jake, Alandra and Tatay here
with you today. Alandra, Tatay, how are you feeling?
Speaker 1: I feel good.
Speaker 3: They sound much better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel so much better than I did last week.
We're talking about it this morning. I was dying and
using like all of my energy to do the show
and then just passing out when I get home.
Speaker 1: But feel great.
Speaker 2: Great win from the Tigers last night to bounce back
from the series loss. So, Yeahja's got a big day today,
I do.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Today is me and Victoria's two year wedding anniversary. How
she managed two years is beyond me.
Speaker 3: We're coming up on our two year anniversary here, tatus
we are.
Speaker 5: We are coming up on our two year anniversary in
April and can't even plug in a mic correctly. So
we're going to see what happens today. Unfortunately, guys, I'm
working till like eight o'clock tonight, which is pretty unfortunate.
Speaker 3: But do you just what are you doing until eight o'clock?
Speaker 5: So I have a high school baseball game to do
with five. However, it got pushed back to five thirty,
which means we're not done until about seven thirty.
Speaker 4: So I'm probably not getting home till about eight.
Speaker 3: Then you do one last night?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's the district tournament. It was supposed to
be Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a rain out. They
pushed it back a day, which kind of sucks.
Speaker 3: But are you solo or do you have a partner
on this one?
Speaker 5: No, I have a Partnerctually wound up showing up yesterday
the game got moved from two to four, so he
wound up showing up.
Speaker 3: Doing baseball solo. Would have been it'd been to Yeah,
I didn't want to say that.
Speaker 2: It's one of those where like you need a color
analyst to like bounce off of and give you the
stats and everything. But he did, you know, do you
know what the second you know, how like every anniversary
has like China or like platinum or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, do you know what it is for the
second anniversary?
Speaker 4: It's not as paper first.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's first, but the second one
is cotton.
Speaker 4: Cotton.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you gotta get Victoria something cotton.
Speaker 4: I probably got some cotton balls this somewhere around the house. Yeah,
we're good. I probably find some cotton balls.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't go with cotton balls.
Speaker 2: No, I would go like a robe, like a nice robe,
maybe some pjs.
Speaker 3: So you're looking it up, like what anniversary means? What? Yeahkay,
I'm coming up on eighteen here, okay this summer, so
I know, I feel like there's a lot.
Speaker 4: Of for you.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see eighteen year anniversary gift. I need
a write additional.
Speaker 3: I don't even want to know it's.
Speaker 2: Porcelain for the eighteenth anniversary, So a new toilet, I
don't think appreciate that the anniversary here you go.
Speaker 4: Maybe I don't know if maybe.
Speaker 3: It's like a porcelain bowl. Will probably do there. If
it was, yeah, very much. So if it was Tea Bob,
he definitely would get a new toilet. Yeah, yeah, that's
where I would go to get said toilet. We do
have a ton to get to. Pro Day is going
to be taking place a little bit later on a
laundre and I I know we'll be out there, Taytay.
I'm sure you're working some kind of an extra job
or some job, so I don't think that you'll have
the opportunity to go out there.
Speaker 4: Slim. Odds are slim right now.
Speaker 3: Okay, who are we looking forward to watching out there
during prodight? Will Campbell's going to be the main attraction.
So Will Campbell's probably going to have every team I
would assume in the top ten in the building, and
maybe even outside of the top ten, top fifteen. I'm
not saying every head coach is going to be there,
but general manager, head scout, offensive coordinator, offensive line coach.
So there's going to be some names and faces in attendance.
Will it look like last year's LSU Pro Day? Probably not?
Probably not. You had Jayden Daniels, you had lague neighbors,
you had Brian Thomas Junior. That was a packed indoor building.
But there's still going to be, you know, a high
attendance level from some high up executives tate in the NFL.
So who is the most excited that you're going to
be to go out there and.
Speaker 5: Watch outside of Will Campbell Maybe not the most excited,
but maybe the most important for him.
Speaker 4: To me, it's Braden Swinson.
Speaker 5: He didn't run the forty at the at the NFL Combine,
and you and I talked about it like forty is
not as important as a ten yard split. He did
not do that at the combine. I'll be interested to
see what he does. A guy like him with a
good forty time, I mean, could move up the draft
board a good bit.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: I think that's a guy to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3: One I was watching. I think it was my guy,
Trevor Sikima, who does a great job for Pro Football Focus.
Him and Connor Rogers, who we've had on this show before.
They were talking about him maybe being one of the
most underrated players in this draft, and you're right about
him not doing anything in Indie, and I kind of
went off. And this isn't just Braden Swinston. I mean
it was more on campus Scativo. I went off from
the guys that didn't do anything in Indianapolis for the Combine,
And one of the reasons was because, like, that's it,
that's all you've got. We were talking about Xavier Verstrepo yesterday.
He goes out and runs a four eight two, and
I know he's like, well, my hamstring was tight. I
don't know what the situation was. But when you don't
run at the combine and you save it for Pro Day,
and if you run a four eight two, there's not
another day. There's no more Pro Day's, no more scouting combines,
that's it. That's your time. So you do run the
risk of if you don't have the time that you want,
that's going to be your official time the draft room,
in the war room, whenever they're making decisions. So it's
a big day for him.
Speaker 5: What they say about cam foot foot issue, calf issue,
something like that hamstring, hamstring issue.
Speaker 3: I believe he had a hamstring, so there's no official
time on him. So Swint, Like, Swinton's somebody that I
think actually is going to run a nice forty.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean you you're somebody who did this. I mean,
congrats to you, Jake. You're the only person I know
who has done a pro day. So that's a big
day for you. Do they care more about a slow
forty time or someone that didn't run it?
Speaker 4: Like, what are they taking to?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 3: What are they?
Speaker 4: They?
Speaker 1: They?
Speaker 3: They they have to have an official time. They want
eight times if they're using a high draft choice, okay,
they need something to go off of. Now if you're okay,
So if you're a quarterback, Jade Daniel's perfect example, what
do we think Jade Daniels could run pretty damn fast? Yeah,
I got don't four three four four, I don't know
what it is, but it's gonna be fast. Okay. But
he's a quarterback. So he didn't run a forty really
need to run a forty. We saw him pull away
from the Florida Gators and go eighty yards, so like
that part of his game is understood. What can you do?
You know, throwing the football like that's the main objective here.
So like if Jaydon Daniels doesn't run, okay, but like
Milieu Neighbors had to run last year, like Jamar Chase
at his pro day, Remember he didn't run one at
the count he had to run. You're not going to
spend a top ten pick on a receiver and I
don't have a time on you a running back either.
It's just not gonna happen. I don't know that you'd
spend a first round pick on somebody you don't have
a verified time on unless there's like an injury and
you know it's legit and you're like, okay, well I
know for a fact he couldn't run his forty. If
it's like I'm a hamstring site, that's red flags, right
wrong or indifferent, it's red flags because they're thinking, why
don't you want to run the forty?
Speaker 4: I guess that's my question about Scataboo.
Speaker 5: Like let's say, I mean, would that drop him from
like late second to possibly early four just because he
doesn't have a forty time? Because I mean I was
telling you yesterday during one of the breaks, like what
I saw Cam'scattaboo to do against Texas? I don't care
what its forty times, but like the only people.
Speaker 3: Do now I know, I'm with you in that, but
they're going to want to know at least cone drills,
like at bare minimum, he went to the combine, he
did vertical jump and the broad jump. That was it,
and they were both impressive numbers. But I'm gonna tell
you right now, there's not many times at the running
back position in the NFL where you're gonna stand still
and jump. It's just not gonna happen. Like I can
see that you're explosive, and that's why they do that.
But I need to know at least like cone times,
forty times, all those type of things. So that's what
pro days are for. LSU's having their pro day again today,
so we'll get a chance to see the Tigers that
have moved on one final time inside the indoor facility.
A little bit later on today again, A Landra and
I will be out there so we'll get some good
reporting hopefully done today kind of report back who did well,
maybe who'ston needs to try to do some more work
once they get drafted, once they sign that undrafted free
agent rookie contract, we'll give you a full list of
who's participating at the LSU Pro Day as well. Of
course we're going to get to LSU Baseball when we
come back, payback for Kganomics in a big, big way.
We'll have all that for you when we jump back here.
It is OTB off the bench. I go to go
Tommy's dot com g E A U X Tommy's dot
com of course, that is Tommy's Windows, Doors and Siding.
Go to the website today, and I always tell you,
the thing that's right there in front of you is
testimonials of past clients, the work that they've done in
the Greater Baton Rouge area. How satisfied all of these
customers are. And it's with all the things that they
do over at Tommy's. Listen to the community. They are
telling you the job that Tommy's doing. Also, you can
check out a gallery of work that they've already done
in the area. That way you can see it for yourself.
You can see the work they've done here in this area.
And I always tell you if you've got a custom job,
something that's just in your mind that you have dreamt
of and you think, I want my space to look
like this, have Tommy and the team come out. I
promise you they are going to do everything they can
do to get your custom job done as well. The
number two two five two five zero eight eight zero
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dot Com.
Speaker 6: Back at It where sports talk meets pure chaos off
the bench with Hesser and t Bob chill out.
Speaker 3: Big voice, lady. Did we have the wrong microphone plugged
in to start the show? Yes? Is that chaotic energy? Maybe,
but we're playing sabotage and that's what Taylor was trying
to do to me. Okay, sabotage the show.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just is what it is.
Speaker 3: It's fine, Tata. I actually appreciate the hustle.
Speaker 5: I mean I thought I came in here not everything
done early. You know, I was just sitting here and
chilling right before the show.
Speaker 1: At least. He didn't like, forget the mic this time.
Speaker 4: Well, it was just.
Speaker 3: Just the wrong one, plague Deck.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to say it, but I'm sitting here
and I can't hear Jake, and I'm like, Jake and
Laundro screwed something off.
Speaker 4: Like I was like, I don't know what they did.
Speaker 5: I did see it's kind of like it's me the
whole time I switched the mic over clearly wasn't me, No,
it was.
Speaker 3: It is all good, sir, all right, it is time
to get this thing started, all right. Tiger Labor and Staffing,
Locally owned and operated two two five two seven five
eight four three seven fine work. Find people when it
comes to TEMP Labor in bet Rouge, they have the
eye of the tiger. Tiger Labor dot Com is the website,
all right. LSU Baseball takes care of ULL in a
very big way. LSU wins seventeen to four over in
alec Bach Stadium and LSU has now improved to twenty
three and three on the season. UL has dropped to
eleven and fifteen. So not one of the UL teams
that we've seen in the past, but it was a
big way for LSU to bout bounce back after dropping
two of three in Austin to the University of Texas.
And look, you lost to Texas, you lost two games.
There's issues, certainly. The issues are something I think that
you can look at and say, Okay, here's the area,
and we talked about it the bullpen. We need to
get it figured out. You have some live arms down there. Now.
It's about as we always say, with Jay Johnson turning
the Rubik's cube, how does he make sure that he
keeps turning it until he solves it? But I think
you know, Elandra Tata, this is a nice bounce back way.
You score seventeen runs, the bullpen, got some action in
the game. You run role, so you don't play a
full game, obviously, but nice way to bounce back for
LSU baseball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to get a good win under your
belt whenever you drop two games back to back, but
and especially against Yeah, I mean it was not the
competition wasn't what it usually is with the Cajuns, but
it's still an in state rivals.
Speaker 1: So still a big win for the Tigers.
Speaker 2: And Jaden Newt went out there, got two strikeouts, no
walks in three innings pitch and then he did end
up putting William Schmid out there and no strikeouts for
the kid. But I he just you gotta find it,
you know, like sometimes it just kind of like the
command gets away from you. He needs to find it,
and that's why I thought that it would be a
good idea to roll him out there on last night
and ended up pitching two innings, gave up three hits,
two runs, both of them earned, so one walk, and
then connor Bine went out there. Dorsey and Maverick Rizzy,
we didn't talk about him yesterday, but he's another bullpen
arm that hasn't been consistently good whenever you throw him
out there. So that's on me for not mentioning him yesterday.
But that's another arm that you have that you can
rely on if you want to save Cowen for another time.
Speaker 3: Which it feels like he is going to have to
be the guy that you say for high leverage situations
and maybe your starters out there and not struggling, but
you can tell he's coming to the end. It's the
fifth inning, you got a one run lead. You want
to get obviously to the eighth, the ninth inning, and
he's got to be that guy that goes the sixth inning,
the seventh inning because he has been so good this
year in that role. And look, do I think he
could be a starter, Absolutely I do, but right now
you need him exactly where he's at and you don't
really have that luxury of doing that. And then getting
back to William Schmidt and I'll go back to uktay
Like I know that Jay said he maybe wasn't going
to pitch on Tuesday nights anymore, but he needed to
go back out there in this game right after giving
up the big home run against Texas. We know how
talented he is. He was going to be a surefire
first round pick. The talent is there, but you're still
a freshman. I remember being a freshman. I remember being
on the road against Florida. JaMarcus is making audibles. I
can't hear a word that he's saying. We're supposed to
be running toss right, I go, like, it is tough,
your head is spinning. Do you have the talent to
go out there and do it? Yes, so you wouldn't
be in that situation. But no matter how talented you are,
and William Schmidt's way more talented than I was, you
have to figure it out. And that's okay, that's what
you're supposed to do as a freshman. And so this
isn't going to be the best competition right uls down
this year, but it's still high leverage because it is
ull because you're going to have a more lively alley
box stadium because you're going to have an in state
rival opponent, whatever you want to call it, in your stadium.
And so the results were okay, they were okay. Didn't
have a strikeout. You mentioned, he does give up some
earned runs, but he went out there, pitched two innings,
and it's just going to be a process with him.
He's going to have to get comfortable. He's going to
have to figure out how to throw to college batters.
He will, and once he does later in the season,
you're going to be better because he's given you these
innings right now, Earl in the season, early in conference
play as a freshman.
Speaker 5: I love that he threw him out there. Matter of fact,
I would have been okay if j would have thrown
nine pitchers. I would have been like, Hey, we don't
want to run rule. We want one pitcher every inning.
You gotta find guys that can put strikes up there.
They'll stop walking batters. They can get you outs. What
I liked the most about last night, five different pitchers
for LSU, they combined for one total walk in five pitchers.
That was huge for me because that was your issues
on Sunday, right you couldn't get outs Chase Shore's struggled then,
you know, you struggle on Saturday of the back half
of the you know, we talked about it the last
twelve innings is what we had mentioned multiple times against Texas.
This team couldn't get runs across the plate, and they
couldn't get outs when they needed a most. You did
that last night as well, because if you look at
the offensive side of the thing, eleven hits, seventeen RBIs
you found the timely hits. Jerry Jones had a grand slam,
Kate Aaron Beadie had a two run homer. You had
another homer in that game last night as well. Everything
you wanted to see, I think you saw it, don't.
I don't care about the competition as much because when
i'm Jay John, I'm like, I need pitchers that can
get me out. I need timely hitting. You did both
those things last night.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm sitting there and I'm kind of watching the game,
and it is what baseball is. It's such a game
of failure. It's such a game of ups and downs.
And that's always I tell my friends that have made
it in the big leagues, like, congratulations to you. It
is so hard to be consistent in this game. And
if you get like vested in Major League Baseball, you
got to put in ten years. That is so difficult,
Like we do four for the NFL. Y'all got to
do ten. And y'all got a game of failure where
you can be a dude one year and the next
year you can just fall off the face of the earth.
And I was watching the game last night and Ashton
Larston pinched hit. He came in and with pinch hit situation,
I'm like, oh man, oh yeah.
Speaker 4: He was a guy that we were like, you gotta
find a way to get him in the lineup.
Speaker 3: Larson last year, yeah, Larson last year was like he
was the thing that kind of energized you a little bit.
Remember when he went into the lineup, you were searching
for something. He kind of gave you that, and it
really it lasts. And he had a nice regional in
Chapel Hill. It's like, and now he's pinch hitting on
a Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: We didn't see him all weekend. Huh.
Speaker 5: No, he did not all all weekend because we came
back after opening weekend and we were like, man, we
were kind of surprise that Eshan Larson didn't get the
opening day start at least at DH Like, yeah, been
so good in the fall, he was so good at
the end of last year. It's kind of got lost
in the shuffle a little bit. I mean, yeah, Pearson,
you got Brown, you got a number of other guys
kind of ahead of him right now. I mean, he
kind of got lost in the weeds a little bit.
But the good thing is we know what he can do,
right because he didn't really pick it up until the
back half of last year. If you could get that again,
that's another weapon in your lineup.
Speaker 3: Yeah, j Man, baseball is I know, I know, It's
just it is a game of failure. You have to
learn how to deal with it. You have to learn
how to bounce back, and that's how you last. And
so the Tigers take care of the Cajuns seventeen of
four in seven innings. Now they turned their attention to
Mississippi State. Remember this is a Thursday Friday Saturday series
inside the Box and that first pitch is going to
be seven pm on Thursday night. Looking forward to that
With Mississippi State right now one in five in SEC play,
so certainly trying to turn their fortunes around here in
Baton Rouge. All right, we will step away. When we
come back, gonna be joined by my guy Bill Bender
of the Sporting News, tar Cale NCAA tournament, probably get
into some spring football, maybe even some draft with my
guy Bill Bender. We'll be back more OTB off the bench,
all right, go to All Star Toyota off Batoniruge dot com,
All Star toytaf Baton Rouge dot com. We tell you
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Toyota off ban Rouge dot com. Welcome back to the
best morning sports show around sorta it's off the Bench
with Hester and t Bob all right, welcome back again
to OTV here one, O four five, ESPN, Ban Rouge.
Nice job Belndra with the wallflowers there. Let's go to
the phone lines now. Bill Bender of the Sporting News
joins us at Bill Bender ninety two is always to
handle on social media. Bill, I talked to you yesterday,
but it's never enough.
Speaker 6: How you doing, sir, Good morning, Jacob, Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 3: But I always wonder like this time of year, because
obviously for the Sporting News, I mean, you cover basketball,
you cover college football, I mean you do a lot
of different things this time of the year where basketball
is heavy, but you got spring football, You've got the
NFL Draft. How many different hats are we wearing there?
Speaker 6: It's pretty much. I was telling somebody last week I
went from a doing a March Madness story to teleconference
with mel kiper To and I was coming back from
Ohio State spring practice. So I was literally like, okay,
which sport. But you know what, it's my favorite time
of year because of that. I love the draft, I
love March madness, and obviously you always want to keep
your eye on college football and what's going on with
spring football. So it is a beautiful time year. And
the sun's up in Ohio.
Speaker 3: There you go. I talked to Bobby c Bobby Carpenter
yesterday and he was also excited that might be something
that happened in Ohio. So good for y'all. Good for
y'all that the sun is out there and hopefully no
more snow days up in Ohio. Look, hey, you know me,
we're gonna go across the gambit. We're gonna talk NCAA basketball,
We'll talk drift, we'll talk spring football, and we might
as well start with basketball, something you and I talked
about yesterday. But before we get to the tournament. I
am still so surprised right now, because I mean you,
right now on the Sporting News, you've got the coach Tracker,
where everybody's going who got fired, who's replacing them, And
there's so many big names and we saw one last night,
right Rich Patino is going to Xavier to now be
their next head coach, going from New Mexico. But Villa
Nova they fire Kyle Neptune and they are just they're
sitting there. They don't have a coach. The transfer portal
opened up two days ago, and I look, I know
the NCAA tournament is still going on. I'm sure that
the person they've identified as their next head coach is
still coaching right now. But that's kind It's a little
bit of a dangerous game, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Really? It really is, and much more dangerous than football
in some ways. Where football, if you missed that first
couple of weeks December, I mean, there's still time because
you have spring football. You can, you know, work with portal,
you can recruit a little bit longer. I mean you
might have to Villanova's potentially, you never know, and I
have to build an entirely new roster. That's the world
we live in. Where As we were talking about yesterday,
you know, you take a team like Arkansas, John Taalafari
has exactly one guy on his roster from last year. One. Yeah,
and now they got six from the portal, six freshmen.
Brought a couple guys from Kentucky with them and they're
on the Sweet sixteen. So yeah, it is definitely a
dangerous game.
Speaker 3: Well, the thing that is different in basketball, Bill, and
you kind of mentioned it there, like, so for football,
if I lose four guys, five guys, I'm not, you know,
in love with that, But the rosters are huge, right,
so I can kind of absorb that a little bit
and maybe I can add some more guys I give you, Like,
for instance, LSU a couple of days ago, they lost
three guys. You're talking about twenty five percent of your
roster just like in the blink of an eye is
gone college basketball when you lose three players, right and
so you lose those players. And if you're on Villanova's
roster right now, are anywhere I mentioned LSU and you
lose those three guys, it's like, man, we got to
try to find a way to replace these guys. But
for Villanova, they don't have a coach. So these players
that have already because we know how the portal works, Bill,
these players have already been contacted, These players already have
a pretty good idea of where they're going. And it
just feels like you continue to get behind the eight ball,
and I know you know that Mark Pope was a
little bit later last year for Kentucky, BYU obviously made
a move after that. But you're getting into dangerous territories
not being able to really get the roster that you
want day by day as it passes, and you don't
have a head coach.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and stability ism in college basketball. I saw my
editor Bill Troci sent me a Instagram post last night
that showed the starting five for all the Sweet sixteen
teams and the only one that had five guys that
actually started their career ever was Purdue. And I'd got
to give it to Purdue. They are known for stability,
right they don't. I think Matt Painter has done a
nice job there. And when you have the same coaches
for the kind of like the Steelers, They've only had
a couple of coaches my lifetime. That's really it's hard
to come by though. But you look at some of
that and I'll send you that post, but it's it's
very interesting to see how many schools don't have a
starter started with the school. Michigan's another example. Dusty may
being able to a one year turnaround there. I don't
know that Michigan. I don't know what they are. I
know they've played a ton of close games, but he
has done a phenomenal job in the turnaround and getting
them to the Sweet sixteen in a position play.
Speaker 3: Auburn this week certainly has done that bill last one
here in the NCAA tournament. Because I do want to
get some draft and football talk in with you as
now the Sweet sixteen is set, and again you do
a great job covering for this warning news. Do you
change anything your mindset who you had maybe winning this
entire deal, because it's been pretty chalky like even the
you know air quote. Cinderella is a ten seed Arkansas
team that has coach cal on their bench, and we
know what that roster looks like and who they brought in.
So anything changed for you as we sit here and
get ready for the Sweet sixteen tomorrow?
Speaker 6: Not really? I think I still think Florida and do
are the two best teams. But you know, sorting out
those seven SEC teams, I mean, what an awesome matchup.
Kentucky beat Tennessee twice in Tennessee's favorite in this matchup
this week. I'm really excited to see that one, you know,
you mentioned Auburn and Michigan. That's a you know, Auburn
heavily favored, but this Michigan team has been hot that
I threw at you yesterday. I'll throw it out there again.
Tom Izzo nine to zero against the SEC in the tournament,
and if you go back and look, it's not like
he'd beat good SEC teams in the tournament. So yeah,
Michigan State's very good and I'm excited to see it.
But I still got Florida in the championship on one
of my brackets says Florida. One of my brackets as dukes,
so I'll be happy either way.
Speaker 3: I went Florida versus Duke in the Natty as well,
and it pains me to say I went with the
Florida Gators to win the national championship, and so I
think what they did in the regular season. But also Bill,
when you have a conference that sets the mark at
fourteen teams never been done before. I mean, you beat
the record by a lot, and Florida dominated the SEC
tournament like they did. I think that's why I'm so
confident that they're going to get to that point, because
when you have a league that's that deep and you
dominate like they did and finish the thing. They went
into the tournament maybe as the hottest team.
Speaker 6: And they and they've proven they can win different ways,
like Yukon got them in a little bit of a
slow down game at least by their standards, and they
were able to knock out the defending chance. Walter Clayton,
the football got a right. You know. We wrote a
story about him a couple of weeks ago. Some Division
one offers as a safety as a sophomore, and he
kind of plays that game like a safety and very
physical point guard. They take Q from him. He's been
phenomenal in the tournament. So I do like the Gators chances.
Speaker 3: All right, catch up with Bill Bender of the Sporting
News here on OTB. All right, Bill, let's get to
a little NFL draft because today is actually LSU's pro day,
so a lot of us are going to be heading
over there to check out Will Campbell and others. What's
maybe the biggest storyline for you as we are. Look,
I think we're less than a month away now from
being in Green Bay and watching some new faces walk
across the stage.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think we're looking at the quarterbacks. I'm working
on a feature about Sam Ward, and you know, it's
what a path. We were just talking about the portal,
a guy that goes from playing it incarnate Ward. He
was an option quarterback in high school in Texas kind
of they ran the beer for those I know, you
know what the beer is, but they and he's just
now he's this guy that can throw it all around
the yard and I think he's a really interesting prospect.
How many guys does the Ohio State get drafted from
that national championship team? And of course opinions vary on
Travis Cunter. I don't know what position he's going to play.
I don't know that he can play both ways. I
think he's going to be a really solid pro. It's
just okay, do you really what are you drafting him
to play? I think all the questions around Travis will
be very interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then you know a team that's close to where
you live, I mean the Cleveland Browns. They feel like
depending on which way they go is how the first five, six, seven,
eight picks could turn out, because if they don't go quarterback,
that kind of changes it. But then you look at
the Giants, who sit there at three. They signed James
Winston to a two year contract. They signed Russell Wilson
to a one year contract, So they've got two veteran quarterbacks.
So is that point that them not going quarterback?
Speaker 6: You know? And who takes that dual carter? So if
the Browns take Shador, which I still think is at play,
then I mean, as you know, I live up here,
so I've seen Cleveland do it every way wrong. At
some point they got to get it right, you know,
So and either way we'll say they got it wrong.
If they take that dual carter, we'll say they should
have taken a quarterback. If they take Shador, we'll say
why did they take Shador? So that's just how we
do it up here. Very interesting about the Giants that
news yesterday. So they have Rust and they have Gamus,
so that I don't know that they'll go quarterback at
least for a year, especially if they don't like Shador.
So other than cam Ward at one, it could be
interesting out the top five, you know. And since you're
a running back, I think you'll appreciate this. I'm really
curious to see who takes ashion Gente. I think Amarion
Hampton's the first round running back, and then Cam Skataboo,
you know, maybe not a first round pick, but who
takes him, you know, his unique skill set after the
Great bullseason he had.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're actually talking about Cam Skataboo earlier in the
show because there's not a time on him yet. Right.
He didn't run the forty at the Combine, and so
we'll see if he gets that done at Arizona States
Pro Day. I think a lot of teams are wanting
to know what he's going to run. He doesn't have to, look,
he didn't have to run a four to four and
not with his running style, but I think that's something
that teams want to see. I'm glad you mentioned the
running back position though, I mean ashing genty somebody like obviously,
you know we're on here in New Orleans to talk
a lot of New Orleans Saints. That's a team that
has been kind of tied to him. I don't think
there's any way Bill that he gets outside the top ten.
I think when you look at the Raiders, they're going
to take a long, hard look at him. I think
the Saints, as I mentioned there, you know, does Dallas
want to make a move to add to their running game.
I don't think that he's going to fall out of
the top ten picks, which for a running back, now
that's news, like that is not the norm. Like when
you go top ten as a running back, they expect
you to not only be a starter, but to be
one of the better backs in the league immediately.
Speaker 6: Well yeah, that and not only that, but so I
asked no Kuiper this on a teleconference last week. I said,
you know, did say Kuan and Derrick Henry? Did they
change the way that running backs are gonna get drafted?
Get a great point, though, he said no, because those
guys were kind of the missing piece. Skuon was the
missing piece that Piperable were on and you know, Derrick Henry.
I would even argue, as you know, big big Green
Bay fan Josh Jacobs kind of changed Green Bay a
little bit the way that they run their offense. So
now with a rookie might be different. Ashton gent though, uh,
I mean everything was special this year and I think
he's going to do that. I think Amari and Hampton
is a guy I'm looking at two straight years fifteen
hundred yards in the ACC had a decent but not
great offensive line.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And you know, from the people I talked to that
are around that program, quiet like just an old ball
guy that you know not maybe not they say, you know,
maybe not the greatest interview to the media because he's not.
But that doesn't ever botherish. I mean, that's the guy
that you know. I kind of like it when my
running backs like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know EJ and I doing off campus every
single day. He can't talk enough about him, and so
I'm right there with you. I think he's certainly your
first round running back as well. One more draft question,
because I do want to ask you something about LSU
before we get out of here. Is Jackson Dart going
to be a first round pick at the quarterback position.
Speaker 6: I think somebody will pop themselves into him because inevitably
you'll see that next quarterback. I like col mcquarter a lot,
which is you know, I think the year that he
had at Syracuse was great and the experience he did
well with the combine. But I think Jackson Dart there
are some you know, we saw him make some ridiculous
throws at Old Mets, and I think an NFL team
could latch onto that. Maybe somebody later in the first
round that maybe not necessarily looking for a guy to
start right away, could take a bite out of him.
I thought that would be drafted him and pretend they
you know, Withustin Fields, I don't know, but you could
always draft a backup plan right away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is. He's one of those names that as
we get closer and closer, does feel like he is
going to find himself to be a first round pick.
All right, Bill, last one before we let you go.
LSU Tigers right now in spring practice, we know they
open up in Little Death Valley with the Clemson Tigers.
So Marquee matchup week number one yet again, what are
your expectations for this LSU football team bloom or bus.
Speaker 6: Team kind of you know, coming off last year. I
think Alabama and them projects very similar.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 6: The good news for LSU quarterbacks coming back. Everybody knows
that Jarcknussmer schedule's tough, but with the talents that they
brought in from the transfer portal and they were more
active than usual, at least I think they were. They
definitely brought in a bunch of guys and uh, a
big year for Brian Kelly. You I think, Jacob, you
need to sit down and schedule their opener though, you
guys got to stop with the Marqueel the huge opener
it'll win to start. I mean, that is a I'll
have my eyes on it. That's myer club mix at Clemson.
What a way to start the season that'll be if
they win that one. Certainly a lot of momentum and
a great tip to have in your back pocket in
a playoff.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, there's Look, you're not the only one in
that mindset. Maybe a directional school you game to start
this season. Like I'm a meadhead, Bill, So you know
I love the Marquee matchups. But trust me when I
say you're not the only one that has certainly brought that. Bill,
You're the man. I appreciate every conversation. Thanks for joining
us this morning.
Speaker 6: Anytime, Jacob, you a great week. I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3: Are you as well? Bill Bender of the Sporting News
at Bill Bender ninety two. As you can tell, he
does it all for the Sporting News. College Basketball, college football,
NFL Draft. Go check his workout again at the Sporting News.
All right, we'll step away close out our number one
of OTB. When we jump back here one O four
to five ESPN batter.
Speaker 6: Rouge off the bench.
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I swear if I ever meet you, we're gonna have
a talking like the way you say seventh, like it's
disappointing me. Morning shows there are across this country. There's
a lot, a lot probably. Let's see, I would I
would guess one, two, three, four, five, I would guess
at least six seven in this state alone, a right,
Shreveport's got one. I know my brother's on it. Monroe,
Alexandria has us so I didn't count Lake Charles, Lafayette.
Does New Orleans have a morning show?
Speaker 4: Is a sports thing?
Speaker 3: That's true, that's sad. I'm sure the values got one. Yeah,
that that whole deal. We got to find a way
to get back. We gotta find a way to get back,
because what are we doing now? It's way above mine.
All right, Welcome back in. As I said, LSU baseball
not the only team to take down the raging Cajuns.
Softball did it as well. They go over to Lafayette
and they win eleven to four. They continue to roll.
We you know, talked about it. They go on the road,
they take two of three from number thirteen Georgia. That's
what you want to do in the SEC on the road,
and now they get to come back home to Tiger
Park to take on number ten South Carolina. Because it's
an SEC softball series, so of course the team that
you play is going to have a number next to
their name. They're going to be a ranked opponent. So
another opportunity for Beth Terina and the squad to continue
to improve. They're number three in the country. I mean
they and I know we've said it and they've been good.
I mean this is this is a program that has
been good, but this one still feels different. And there
was like people that are upset, oh they lost on
the weekend. When you go on the road to number
thirteen and you take two of three, that's that's your objective, right,
It's sweeps and SEC baseball and softball. If you get
one man those are land yap two of three certainly
on the road, that's what they did well.
Speaker 5: Also, like they got run ruled in the last game
of that series. Sidney Burzon was on the mound and
just did not have it. Sydney Burzon always has it.
That's not going to happen weekend and week out. She's
going to be fine. There you have Jaden Heavner. This
team hits one through nine, which is very rare for
any college team, but especially softball. Like, this team doesn't
really have a weakness. Like if you ask me right now,
what's the weakness of this team, I don't know if
I can give you one. Because even replacing a player
like Taylor Pleasant, who was your shortstop for that seemed
like five years and was a stalwart defensively, they brought
in Avery Hodge from the transfer portal. She's been excellent
at shortstops, I mean just every single position. Having Danica Coffee,
who let's not forget unless she was undefeated, undefeated, dominating people,
Danica Coffee goes down, they really struggled. They had to
do two or three freshmen at third base. She was
also your leadoff hitter. Having her back, I mean that's huge.
If this team gets stay healthy. You didn't go as
far as they want to.
Speaker 3: Yep, right there with you. And again that is South Carolina.
That is Friday, that's at Tiger Park in first pitch
is going to be at five pm. And again great
opponent LSU number three, in the country going against number ten,
So go out there and win the series. Something else
that came across the wire a little bit later last night,
and well, if you're a team looking for a receiver,
there's one more off the board. Stefan Diggs agrees to
a three year, sixty nine million dollar deal with the Patriots. Tate,
I hope I didn't steal your NFL story of the
day day I saw this because well, I mean, if
you want to know, so the Saints signed bringing a Cook,
and I'm going to tie it back to the Saints. Well,
if you wanted a guy like Digs, it was going
to cost you more than the two years. What thirteen
million dollars Brandon Cook signed for three years? Sixty nine
million dollars seems like a lot of money. I mean
we're talking thirty what was a final guarantee number. I
had to go back twenty six million. I thought it
was thirty six twenty six men. Still, even at that number,
that's a big number for a receiver that Tete. He's
he's been on the other side of it for a
couple of years.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean he was hurt what seventy percent
of the season last year he barely played. If you're
the Patriots, though, first off, you waited too long in
free agency. You had to get some sort of receiver.
I mean what Kendrick Bourne's been their number one receiver
for the past like two years or so. As good
as Drake May looked at times last year, maybe they're thinking, hey,
we can bring in a veteran and he could still
give us a little something. It's at least a number
one option for Drake May. I mean, that's a lot
of money to pay for a receiver. But I don't
really know what other option they had.
Speaker 3: Kayshawn, I mean, actually had a pretty d year, a
good year, but they're not going to take a receiver
at four either, I don't imagine.
Speaker 4: So, like, I don't know what else they could have done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just bring I bring it up one because
I think it's a lot of money for a receiver
that's been injured. And also to kind of give you
an example if you're a Saints fan of just what
that kind of receiver is is going to cost.
Speaker 4: Thomas is available.
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