Speaker 1: Back to sports talk. Maybe off the Bench.
Speaker 2: Welcome back in off the Bench.
Speaker 3: A Landra played my favorite country singer to ever walk
this earth.
Speaker 2: I mean, just.
Speaker 4: It's not just Morgan Wallen, it's also Florida Georgia Line.
Speaker 2: And I know you love both of them. That's very true.
Speaker 3: Massive fans of both of these, well, all three, I
guess I should say talented musicians that we are currently
listening to. Hey, look, I teased going into break a
little bit unless you. Baseball was out there in Frisco, Texas.
They played three games this weekend against three different opponents.
I'm gonna kind of just give you a quick recap
of all three games. Then we're gonna kind of get
into the biggest overall takeaways. So Game one, Tigers take
that one, eight to five against Kansas State. This was
a ten inning game and it was it was tight
down the stretch. It was really the bats late in
the game that led l the Shoo to victory. Daniel
Dickinson with a huge game, two for four, a three
run home run. He's finally starting to show off that power.
Six RBIs game. He was tied five to five in
the bottom of the tenth inning and who got things started,
Steven Milem He did that multiple times this weekend. We've
been waiting for him to kind of get hot, get
back into the form we saw last year. He's finally
starting to do that. So he starts things off in
the tenth inning with a single. He was able to
advance to third actually due to an error. And who
came up in a big moment. It's Josh Pearson once again.
That's why he's in these spots. You hear you heard
it a lot coming into the season. Well, you have
so much young talent, whether it's outfield, whether it's dh
you know, does Josh Pearson get lost in the shuffle, No,
because he steps up in big moments like this. He's
done this his entire career. So you have Milam on third,
Josh Pearson comes up, he launches a single into center field.
He scores Milam for the go ahead run, makes it
six to five. Then Daniel Dickinson he had a two out,
two run single later in that inning.
Speaker 2: It made it eight to five, and that's all she wrote.
Speaker 3: Late in the inning, in the bottom of the tenth,
they were able to shut things down, and just like
last weekend, eight and a tight game. Who does Jay
Johnson go to? It was caseon Evans. He threw the
last two innings in this game, just like he did
a weekend ago. And uh look, two shutout innings, no runs,
three hits, he had a walk and he also had
three k's as well in that Friday game.
Speaker 2: Game two, no other way to say it.
Speaker 3: Anthony Jonson started out, he struggled, but we've seen this
before from Anthony Jinson week one. I mean if anybody
had control issues week one, it was Anthony Jonson, right,
but he was able to battle back. He did that
as well, so he allowed five runs in the first
three innings. However, over his next three innings he shut
the doors on nebrasket. He didn't allow a run in
his final three innings. That's how you battle back when
you don't have your best stuff to start a game.
He ends with seven k's. He only had one walk
through six innings. So look Alashi trail by five runs
in the fourth inning of that game. They played four
runs or three runs in that fourth inning. Again, Steven
Milam got it started. He had a double, He scored
a run in that inning. Kate Aaron Beatty had an
RBI ground out Chris Stanfield with an RBI single. I
mean it came from everywhere. He added another six runs
in the seventh inning, and then Zach Cohen and William
Schmidt closed this thing out. We're gonna see that a
lot from them this year, as well as far as
Game three goes yesterday, unless she takes down Sam Houston
twelve to eight. Chase Shores five innings, didn't have his
best off, gave up four runs, He had five strikeouts.
Louise Hernandez was a big guy in that game, three
for five from the plate. Ethan Fry and Steven Milam
both hit home runs in that Game three. So you're
seeing it from a lot of different guys, and it's
the guys you wanted to step up, right. Can we
see Josh Pearson delivering big moments like he has. Can
Steven Mylam get that batting average up where it was?
Can we get hitting from the catcher position. Look, Louise
Hernandez started Friday and yesterday's game. He had hits in
both of those games. He went three for five in
a Game three. Kate Aaron Beatty had that RBI, that
big one down the stretching Game two that was a
position that everybody was looking at and said, hey, what
kind of production can you get offensively?
Speaker 2: You kind of got two guys now that are really
neck and neck.
Speaker 3: I thought that this game here showed a lot of
what this team was made of, because what did we
see in the opening weekend and really the second weekend
as well. It was Man, this pitching staff is dominant.
They're not walking batters. I mean they walked three batters
in the first four games of the season. The starting
pitching it was good, but they didn't have their best
stuff this weekend, right, they weren't dominant on the mount.
What happens when one area of your game is not
doing well, another area of your game has to elevate.
That's what the LSU bats did this weekend. Alandra, I
was super impressed all around. What's kind of like your
biggest takeaways of this weekend?
Speaker 2: Just just overall?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, it would help to turn my own mic on,
but uh so it's a thing. So biggest takeaway from
this weekend was that, uh, Derek Curryell one hundred thousand
percent needs to be your lead off yet Yeah, has
to stay there.
Speaker 2: Did amazing.
Speaker 4: And you know, Anthony Aronsen got touched up a little bit,
and even Chase Shores, they were hitting him with like
some just balls that were just getting through the gap.
Like it wasn't even like good hits, they were just
getting through the gap. So the bullpen on the back
end of the weekend kind of struggled a little bit,
but especially on Sunday. But you gotta remember this was
like a five game week that they had, Like they
played Nicklas Nichols, Dallas Baptist, and then four of them
were on the road, So you've been in Dallas the
Dallas area the entire week. So I'm not too concerned
about how Sunday went in terms of like the bullpen.
Chase Shores is struggling with his command a little bit,
I feel like, and we've seen it a couple times
in his last outings. But we said that before the
season started, to like not be too disappointed with how
Chase because he was so hyped up. But I mean,
I still think that he's gonna do well. And then
I think Cason Evans needs to be your closer.
Speaker 2: We talked about that last week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like Gavin Gudri, everybody was like, oh, he's going
to get the first opportunity. You know, he has the advantage,
he has the experience, he's injured. But I mean we
look last weekend, he went to him in a close game,
he threw two shutout innings. On Saturday, he goes to
him in a close game, he throws two shutout innings.
I mean he's the ky Rine.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And we also talked about how you know, the
thing that everybody says at the beginning of every season
is like, oh, well.
Speaker 2: Who have they played?
Speaker 4: And we laid it out for you before the weekend,
like these weren't teams that are just whatever. And you
saw that with Nebraska. They got up five early on you.
You came back from it. But I mean we said it.
They beat a ranked team already, and the test, the
true test, was like, are you going to be able
to go on the road be your first ranked team
that you're going to face on the season, and are
you going to be able to like consistently keep up
with our competition? And they did, Like so I don't
really want to hear like the competition aspect of it
going forward, because this team, despite not playing quote unquote
great competition at the beginning of the season, Like you
can just tell that something's different about this team and
they're clicking in a way that to me is reminiscent
of like the twenty twenty three team. And even Jay
said that himself that like last year, it wasn't the
same as like this year, and we're not sure what
it is. I mean, they all ran together and jumped
in the Lazy River yesterday, like it just something about
this team feels different. And to me, it's like, you know,
Michael Braswell's not gonna get a lot of love, but
he had a lot of team at bats where like
he sacrificed and ran it got runners in scoring position,
So he's not gonna get a lot of credit for that.
But they're out here taking team at bats too, not
just like swinging for the fences every single time, which
was I feel like they were doing last year.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you mentioned this team just looked different. I
one hundred percent agree with you, and like, sure you
brought up twenty twenty three, but you can see it
in every sport. Okay, So twenty nineteen LSU football, they
opened the season with Georgia Southern. It was the last
time they did not open with a top twenty five team.
They win that game forty nine to three or forty
nine to ten, whatever was. But you looked at it,
you were like, this offense is different, Joe Burrow is different.
All of these guys are going to make plays. And
then the confidence was there, the team camaraderie was there,
and Lounger started talking about them jumping in the lazy river.
If you remember, before they went on the road to
Austin against a top fifteen Texas team, they went up
to Texas as coolers before the game. They were drinking
the gatorade. They were stealing it from Texas. Like that
team knew that every time they walked out on the
field they were the more talented team. I see it
with this team as well. Like to her point, Chase
Shores has struggled, but guess what, Your offense has picked
it up when they've needed to. Your bullpen has picked
it up when they needed to. Anthony Ionson hadn't had
his best stuff, but he's got out of multiple jams
in multiple starts this year. And also, guys, you have
a dominant left handed Friday night starter. That is one
of the most important things Kate Anderson again. He goes
five and a third innings, strikeouts, allowed only two runs
on three hits. If he could continue to do this,
you're going to have a chance to win every Friday night.
And if Chase Shores gets the control under if he
gets that under wraps, you're going to have a pitching
advantage every Sunday that you play as well if the
bats can come around. Like, look, I made a few
notes of like what I liked overall this weekend, Like
as far as my standouts, she mentions Derek Kurry at
the top of the lineup, he absolutely has to stay there.
Daniel Dickinson. We saw the power that we were promised
when he came here. I mentioned the three run homer
that he had earlier in the weekend. Look, he goes
five for thirteen. He had seven RBIs this weekend. Steven Milom,
he had six hits, five RBIs, He had a home run.
Josh Pearson was actually named tournament MVP yesterday. Six for
nine on the weekend, two RBIs, and he's a guy
that's fighting for a spot. He's not even an everyday
player right now. That should tell you how deep and
how talented this team is also I have talked about
the catcher battle number of times. I'm not gonna mention
it anymore because I'm okay with the two catcher system.
Speaker 2: Multiple times this year.
Speaker 3: We've seen Louis Hernandez in game one in Game three
and Kate Aaron Beady in Game two. They are both
performing offensively and defensively. Aaron Bed's gotten better behind the
plate than he was in the opening weekend. Look yesterday,
Louise Hernandez goes three for five from the plate. Aaron
Beadi had a huge RBI in Game two to kind
of get things started in extra innings. We've seen Jay
Johnson do this before. Look whether it was with Alex Malazo,
Hayden Travinsky, a lot of guys. He's had two catchers
a number of years. They won a national championship that year.
I definitely think Hernandez is probably your most complete catcher
right now, only because of two reasons. He's a little
bit better defensively and he's got that experience. But I'm
okay with Aaron Beadi. If you need to throw Aaron
Betty in there, I'm fine with it. Coming into the year,
I kind of thought catcher was a question mark. It's
still a question on who's starting, but it may not
be a concern anymore like it was when the season started.
I was very impressed with the way this team won
because again, we've seen them shut down opposing teams. Right,
you hadn't had to score a lot of runs. This
weekend was different. I remember when we came back from
the College Football Playoff it was Texas Arizona State. Everybody
was clowning Texas saying, oh, you almost lost to Arizona State.
I came away more impressed with Texas in that game
because you found a different way to win. What did
we talk about with that team, Oh well, if they're
not able to run the ball and quinn Ewers has
to make big plays, they're going to lose the game.
Arizona State shutdown their running game. You forced quinn Ewers
to make big brews. He delivered in that game, and
they were a better team because of it. LSU's going
to be a better team because of this. You're not
always going to shut down every single team he played.
There were some talented, talented hitters in the SEC. LSU
showed that they can win the game in multiple ways.
All right, Look, we're going to take a quick time
out when we get back. An article came out about
five potential breakout stars for LSU football in twenty twenty five.
I like the list overall, I do have a few
concerns with it. We'll break that down when we get
back here.
Speaker 1: On Off the Bench, Off the Bench, Welcome in to
the best morning sports. This show around Off the Bench
with Hester and T Bob.
Speaker 3: Love me some, Luke Bryan, We're coming in with it
this Monday morning. Taylor Sharper with you one of for
five ESPN Battery. You're on off the bench in all
week long in the big boy chair for TEA Bob
A Bear and Jacob Pesser. Jake out there on a cruise.
T Bob right now partying with Mickey and he's up early.
We know this because he made some unfortunate remarks at
our lack of love for Marty Girl Parade. We see
you out there at T Bob, go have some fun,
enjoy the family time. So I tease that going into
break a little bit. Death Valley Voice. This is actually
put out by Nicholas Rome of Death Valley Voice put
out five potential breakout Stars for LSU in twenty twenty five.
I like the list overall, However, I do have a
few concerns. So the first name he brings up is
Tradees Green. I love the thought. However, as far as
I'm concerned, Tredees Green has already broken out well. We
saw from him in the bowl game against Baylor as
an every down player was eye opening.
Speaker 2: He was really up to that point.
Speaker 3: He was kind of a spot guy, right You'd put
him in at the red zone, you'd put him in
a goal line. Mason Taylor was your everyday tight end.
Mason Taylor didn't play in that bowl game. Trades Green
had to step up. He was excellent. I mean he
was on the field every single snap for you in
that game. I don't know how much tight end Tradees
Green is going to actually play. I don't think he's
going to need to. One, you have Bower Sharp coming in,
who is a really solid all around tight end. And
then if you need a blocking tight end, you brought
in Donovan Green from Texas A and m Trades Green
struggled in blocking.
Speaker 2: So you have two guys right there that.
Speaker 3: Right now, we're more complete, more traditional tight ends than
trade As Green, but making a mistake about it, Trades
is going to be on the field. He is such
a mismatch out wide. He is six foot seven two
and forty five pounds and he's got some wheels on him.
You line him up out wide, you line him up
in the slot, there are not a lot of guys
out there that can cover him. Tredees is going to
have a heck of a role on this team. I'm
excited to see where he carves out again. I think
he's actually gonna play more out wide, more in the
slot than he is in that traditional tight end spot.
I think that's a better spot for it because I
think you're actually really talented and pretty deep at tight
end this year. So as far as I'm concerned, like, yes,
it's a good choice Tredas Green's already broken out on
this team. As far as I'm concerned. The next thame
you mentions is Gabriel Releford. I like Gabriel Releford. I
think you saw flashes from him last year as a freshman.
With Braden Swinson and Savian Jones headed to the NFL,
both of your defensive end spots are up for grabs.
I just don't know if anyone at this position can
break out, not just Releford, anyone. Look at who LSU added.
They had a Jack Pieburn from Florida. He's a solid
pass rusher. Patrick Payton from Florida State, Jamari Butler from
m Z State comes in. This is a very very
talented room. As thin as you were last year, Like
sure you had Saveon Jones and Braden Swinton. Outside of them,
you didn't have a ton. You had Deshaun Willmacker, who's
no longer on the team anymore, and he had freshman
Gabriel or Eliford. That's all you had. Honestly, all three
of the guys you brought in are more experienced than
Gaber and Reliford, who's one of your only returning players
at that position. Reliford's certainly going to have a role,
and you know, roles adapt evolved. Players get more playing
time as the season goes along. Maybe late in the
year we look back and say, hey, Gabril Releiford did
have a breakout season, he wasn't every down player. I
don't know if any of these guys are going to
be quote unquote every down players. Patrick Payton's going to
rush the passer Jack Pieburn. You know, he came here
to be a pass rusher. He talked about that he
wanted to play more on third downs than what Florida
was allowing him to do. Jamary Butler has been a
good pass rusher in college. All of these guys are
going to have different roles. He's definitely going to have
a role, but Relevant's probably going to start the season
as a situational player, just like every other person in
this room. The next position they mentioned on death Velly
Voice as far as a breakout player is.
Speaker 2: The Shawn Spears. I love this choice.
Speaker 3: It was probably my favorite pick they chose on this
entire list. I know he was a freshman last year.
I thought he should have played a lot more. Safety
was a liability, to say the least with Say Dryan
and Jordan Gilbert a year ago. Say Dryan is gone,
Gilbert's coming back. But look, Deshaun Spears is six foot three,
he sees two hundred and ten pounds. He could do
a lot of things for you at that size. You
only brought in one safety in the transfer portal. He
brought into Marcus Cooley to Marcus Cooley has really good
numbers you believe he's going to slide right in there
and be one of your starting safeties.
Speaker 2: Another spot's up for grabs. Who's it going to be.
Speaker 3: Is it going to be Jordan Gilbert who struggled a
year ago? Is it going to be Joel Rodgers who
red shirted last year? What's his role going to look
like in the spring? Does he even stick around? Do
you move mansword?
Speaker 2: Delanne?
Speaker 3: Do you move one of these corners that you brought in.
You brought in a lot of corners. Do you move
one of them to safe? I think DeShawn Spears has
a good shot at taking one of those spots. Look,
I mentioned it. He's tall, he's rangey, he's sixty three,
he's two ten. He has good coverage skills as well.
He could fly to the football. You saw it in
flashes last year. He's a year older, he's another year
in this program. He's with Corey Raymond. I really think
DeShawn Spears is Keep an eye on that name when
spring football starts this Saturday.
Speaker 2: Keep an eye on the name DeShawn Spears.
Speaker 3: I think you're gonna hear it a lot because look,
even with Tamarcus Cooley again, I think is a good safety.
He's hovering around six foot Shawn Spears sixty three two
ten pounds. He has the range to go all over
the field. You can move him around, you can put
him in the box as a box safety. You can
move to the nickel, to the star, wherever you want
to move him. The ability of the Sean Spears to
move around is going to get him on the field
a lot. I expect we're going to hear his name
a lot. I love that choice.
Speaker 2: The last two names.
Speaker 3: I saved them for last because they're at the same
position group they listen Dominic McKinley and a mod Bro.
Two weeks ago I would have said these are great choices.
The bo Davis departure changes things for me a little bit. One,
who will LSU hire? Can they coach McKinley and Bro
and get through to them the way bo Davis did
Number two? Well, these two guys even stick around, because look,
that is certainly a concern for LSU. What if, even
if Llowshoe makes a great Hire, what if Bro McKinley,
both of them, none of them, but like let's say
one of them doesn't doesn't mesh well with your new coach.
For whatever reason, you got a spring portal window coming up,
both of those guys can enter, and as soon as
they enter, both of those guys are going to get
snatched up probably the next day. Bro played a ton
of snaps last year as a freshman. He's only going
to get better because he's only going to get more
familiar with the defensive tackle spot. If you remember, he
was recruited as a defensive hit and he signed, he
was about two forty five two fifty. He put on
about forty pounds of weight between the spring and the fall.
He played at like two eighty five to two ninety
from two forty five two fifty in high school. The
more he plays there, he's going to get more comfortable.
I love what I saw from him. I thought he
looked like the most talented guy as far as freshman
go on that defensive line of year ago. Now with
Dominic McKinley, he was a little bit wrong, but you
saw flashes of his potential right. You saw what he
could be. Also, not everyone is sixty six, three hundred
and fifteen pounds. He's a guy that under the right coaching,
could be incredible because you just can't teach that kind
of size you bring in side there. Mitchell from Texas,
he's six four, he's three hundred and forty pounds. You
signed freshman Zion Williamson, He's six four, he's three hundred thirty.
So you have a lot more meat on the bones
in the middle of that defensive line this year. But
the fact that Dominic McKinley was on this team a
year ago, sider Mitchell and Zion Williams were not. You
gotta believe that Dominic McKinley has the inside track of
being that one technique of being that big body in
the middle, strictly because coaches are familiar with it. They
know what they're going to get from a player like
a Dominic McKinley. Look, I really love the potential of
both of those guys, whether it's Dominick McKinley or a
mod bro. Again, the main problem I have is who's
going to be coaching them. Who LSU hires is a
D line coach and how quickly they hire their D
line coach is going to tell us a lot about
the futures of Dominic McKinley and a mod bro. Keep
an eye on both of those names. In the spring.
The more you hear them, the more you hear good
things about them. I think the better chance that one
or both of these guys stick around for fall. A
couple guys I probably would have put on this list,
maybe like breakout players instead of who death ally voice
put out. Keys is a guy that I am just
so fascinated by because last Weeks is coming back. He
didn't play a ton this year because of injury. Wit
Weeks going to be one of the best linebackers in
the country.
Speaker 2: He's the hot name.
Speaker 3: He is coming off that broken fibula. He bob sits
in this chair and talks about that's the easiest injury
he's come back from.
Speaker 2: Great. I'm all for it.
Speaker 3: He's still not going to be there during the spring.
Devon Keys has a chance to step up and prove
that he belongs and grab one of those linebacker spots.
Because with wit Weeks down or likely most of the spring,
you moved Harold Perkins from inside linebacker to star, there's
a spot up for grabs. And what we saw from
Devon Keys and Spurts last year was something to be
excited about. I mean, he had the scoop and score
in the bowl game for the touchdown. He made some
nice plays and spot duty all throughout the season. He's
another guy. He was just a freshman last year. He's
a year longer in this program. He's a year under
Blake Baker already. He's entering year two. He's a guy
that I'm keeping.
Speaker 2: An eye on. Also, DJ Pickett.
Speaker 3: DJ Pickett will be here for spring this heck use
a video of him practicing with LSU during bowl practice
preparing for Baylor. He's a guy that while he's a freshman,
he's six foot three, can he grab one of those
corner spots. We've seen LSU and Corey Raymond in particular,
not be scared to throw a freshman out there. Derek
Stingley did it. A couple of freshmen have done it.
Speaker 2: PJ.
Speaker 3: Woodland played a lot in that USC game. He didn't
get the start, but he played a lot. If you're
good enough as a freshman, Corey Raymond and the LSU defense,
they are not afraid to throw you out there. DJ
Pigott was the number one cornerback in all of high
school last year. He's coming in. He's got a big body.
He's a physical guy. He is physically ready to play
right now? Can he grasp the mental part of it
because body wise, athleticism wise, he's already there. Also, what
about Harlem Barry and JT. Lindsay one of those guys
or the combination of both. Caden Durham is back. Caden
Durham will be your lead running back, There's no question
about it. He was very, very good as a freshman
last year. But Josh Williams meant so much to this
football team a year ago, whether it was in short
yardage situations, coming in in passing situations to pick up
a blitzer or really catch the ball out of the backfield.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 3: Caden Durham stole all the headlines with his flashy play,
but Josh Williams was a huge part of your offense.
Speaker 2: He's gone.
Speaker 3: Somebody is going to have to step up and be
that number two back. Can it be Caleb Jackson We've
waited two years for him to really break out. Or
what if one of these freshmen passes him up, whether
it's Harlan Berry or J. T. Lindsay or both of
those guys. That's a possibility as well. Also to Ron Francis,
he's a guy that a lot of people are not
talking about. This guy's a big time receiver. He's six
foot one, he is already two hundred pounds. He has
the frame to do it. He was a guy that
rose drastically from his junior year to his senior year.
He had an incredible senior year right here in the
state of Louisian. You bring in him, You bring in
Philip Right. Philip Wright's a little light. Toron Francis looks
physically ready to play right now again. You bring back
some receivers. You bring back Aaron Anne, you bring back
Xavi on Thomas. You got Barry and Brown and Nick
Anderson coming in who I both think are going to
be really good players. LSU constantly rotate receivers, and outside
of those front line guys who you believe are going
to be your starters, there's a lot of there's talent,
but it's unproven talent. Can Tron Francis come in and
grab one of those spots? I certainly think he has
the ability to do so. Look, we'll see. That's just
kind of a quick spring breakdown. Look, Spring practice for
LSU starts this Saturday. Every day of this week, I
want to mention either position, group or something. We're gonna
kind of slowly preview get you in the mood for
some spring football.
Speaker 2: All right, we're.
Speaker 3: Gonna take a quick time out when we come back.
LSU was on the hard wood, both men's and women's
as weekend. Uh did not go well for either team.
We'll break it back and we get back here on Off.
Speaker 1: The bench, Off the Bench. Welcome in to the best
morning sports this show around Off the Bench with Hester.
Speaker 3: And T Bob coming in with all the right tunes
here this morning. A Landra killing it on the bump music.
I'm sensing a little bit of a pattern, hadn't quite picked.
Speaker 2: Up on it, but uh, I'm broke for you. You know,
I appreciate it. I'm trying to of the host.
Speaker 3: Look, you know, when am I the biggest fan of
bro Country? Doesn't matter? That points irrelevant because when people
look at me, they're probably like, man, that guy listens
to bro Country.
Speaker 2: Do you not?
Speaker 3: Not as much as I used to a more traditional
country than anything. But I mean, look, she's country by
Jason Old incomes one. I'm cranking up the vo that's happening.
Speaker 2: Country.
Speaker 3: I'm loving it, and there are no complaints here. All right, look,
teas did a little bit going into break. I want
to mention a quick Saints segment here because Mickey Loomis
early last week said the Saints' plan is to roll
with Derek Carr, despite Loomas saying that the media did
something very smart. They did not take Mickey Loomis at
his word. That's just like blanket advice across the board.
If you do that, you're right more times than not.
So despite Loumas saying they're rolling with Derek Carr, Justin
Fields is continually continuously being linked to the New Orleans Saints.
Multiple articles came out this weekend saying that the Saints
could be one of the top fits for Justin Fields,
and the reason they mention it is because of the
hiring of Kellen Moore. I am here to tell you
that I think this is an awful idea if it's
a quarterback you want to win with, if you want
a tank, which I don't think the Saints to do.
We're just talking with Grant. They're still restructuring salaries. They
still seem like they're in win now mode, even though
they don't have the roster to do it. But that's
just perpetually kind of what the New Orleans Saints do. Sure,
Kellen Moore had success with Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley,
which is why this whole conversation started to begin with, Right,
Jalen Hurts is a very good runner. Justin Fields is
a very good runner. So he wins the Super Bowl
with Saquon Barkley, and uh, Jalen Hurts. Can't he do
it with Justin Fields and Alvin Kamara. No?
Speaker 2: And here's why Justin Fields is not Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, Jalen Hurts is a borderline top five
quarterback in this league, which as a Cowboys fan, that
is super tough for me to say, but I mean,
reality is what it is.
Speaker 2: What makes Jalen Hurts so good?
Speaker 3: Look, he's obviously improved drastically as a passer since he's
been in the NFL. He was kind of a liability
at times in that area in college. He's gotten so
much better at it. But what makes Jalen Hurts so good? Look,
it's not his improved ability as a passer. It's Look,
he has a great ability to run. Jalen Hurts does
not turn the football over. And everyone is going to
point to this past season when Justin Field started six games. Look,
he started six games, they went three and three with him.
He had five passing touchdowns, only one interception. And when
you look at that off the top of your head,
you're gonna go, oh, hey, well, Justin Field stopped his
turnover issues. Bring him in with Kellen Moore, who did
good things. With Jalen Hurts, who also limits his turnovers.
That seems like a match made in heaven. A turnovers,
a turnover doesn't have to be an interception. In the
four years that Justin Fields has been in the NFL,
he has forty four fumbles forty four, including six last year.
So you could say, okay, well he threw one interception
in six games, hits six fumbles in six games. Now,
did he lose all forty four of those fumbles. No,
nobody's gonna lose all forty four of their fumbles. But
to me, it doesn't really matter. A fumble kills the
play you drop the ball, that play is dead right
there where you drop that ball because you got to
jump back on it. So I don't really care whether
he lost the fumble or not. It's either at worst,
it's a turnover. At best, you get it back and
you kill that play. Most of the time, as a quarterback,
you're now behind the chains because you lost you alartage
on that fumble. Some of these are articles are also
pointing out the Saints are not a great second chance
spot or not a great landing spot for second chance
qbs due to the roster. Yeah no, kid, but let's
take Kellen Moore to consideration. Kellen Moore has been the
offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Chargers,
and the Philadelphia Eagles. Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Jalen Hurts,
three very different qbs. That's kind of the guy that
can do a little bit of both. Hurts is known
as the runner Justin Herbert pretty much your typical traditional
drop back pocket passer. Kellen Moore's had success with all
three of those guys as his starting quarterbacks, and he's
done it with three different style qbs. That tells me
the Kellen Moore's offense is very QB friendly. The Kellen
Moore knows how to adjust and call plays to work
to the strengths of his quarterback. Because what do you
hear all the time, well, this coordinator is trying to
get his quarterback to fit his system. No, no, no, you
get your system to fit your quarterback. That is what
Kellen Moore's excellent at. When you could say, okay, well,
the Saints have never been good at second chance QB's.
They weren't under Dennis Allen. But Sean Payton did this
multiple times. When Breeze was getting hurt late in his career,
he put teddy Bridgewater in there. Teddy Bridgewater went four
and one as a starter and it helped the Saints
make the playoffs that year, and even post Breeze a
little bit before Peyton left. People may not remember this.
Taysom Hill is six and two as a starting quarterback
in New Orleans. Everyone thought it was going to be
Jameis Winston when Drew Brees went down, Peyton said he
was rolling with Taysom Hill. Tasom Hill go six and two.
I would take that all day. And then even with
Jamis Winston, he was ephishing. He only had thrown two
interceptions when he was starting. Now his is a little
bit different because I personally believe Sean Payton was scared
to let Jameis Winston throw the football, and rightfully so,
because that was right after Jameis Winston was coming off
his thirty interception season. He was twenty eighth in the
NFL in terms of pass attempts per game. So Peyton
really wasn't letting him throw the football. But he still
played through the strength of his team. He leaned on
the running game. He had an elite defense that year
with Dennis Allen as the defensive coordinator, and he put
Jamis in there and said, hey, don't turn the ball over,
don't make mistakes.
Speaker 2: We'll win this game.
Speaker 3: Good coaches find a way to make different quarterbacks work
in their offense. He saw it with Peyton, Breeze Bridgewater,
Taysom Hill, Jamis Winston, Kellen Moore's done it.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: It's been at three different stops, but with three different quarterbacks.
Dak Prescott justin Herbert Jalen hurts, why can't he do
that again? And I get it. The Saints roster's not great.
I understand that, but they still have an opportunity to
turn things around at least a little bit in the
NFL Draft. Now do I have confidence they're going to
do that? Not if Mickey Loomis is solely in charge
depending on how much influence Kellen Moore has on draft day.
Speaker 2: Sure, why not?
Speaker 3: Because I trust Kellen Moore's ability to put together a
good offense and put together a system that helps his
quarterback because he's done it everywhere and he's spent so
all this talk about, oh well, if you're a second
chance quarterback, I mean, look, Justin Fields is listed, Sam
Darnold's listed, Daniel Jones has listed. The Saints have not
done it in recent years, but that was with Dennis Allen,
who was an awful head coach, who was in over
his head, who had no idea what he was doing. Sure,
Kellen Moore is a first time head coach, but if
he runs his team the way he runs his offense,
he's going to be just fine because he's done it
in multiple spots with multiple different styles of quarterbacks. Cowboys
didn't have a ton around. I mean, their roster was
better than the Saints, but they didn't have a ton
around dak at least not outside Ceedee Lamb. You look
at the Chargers who did. Justin Herbert at he had,
Keenan Allen had an aging Austin Eckeler. His offensive line
wasn't great, Kellen Moore still made it work. Sure, the
Eagles roster's stat I get it, Jalen Earth, Saquon Barkley,
DeVante Smith, AJ Brown, Dallas Goddard. I understand that. But
the two previous spots, I wouldn't call them stacked rosters.
The Cowboys had a good roster and I actually the
Chargers had a below average roster.
Speaker 2: The Kellen Moore made look good.
Speaker 3: I wasn't a fan of Kellen Moore when he first
came to Dallas, but that was his first coordinating job.
When you go look at what the shape of the
Dallas Cowboys are in now compared to where Kellen Moore left,
maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was dak Maybe it
was the Cowboys. Maybe it wasn't Kellen Moore quite as much,
because he did a heck of a job with the Chargers,
which is why he was only there for a short
period of time, and he just won the Super Bowl
with one of the most efficient offenses we've seen in
recent years. So I don't think this was a Saints issue.
I think this was a Dennis Allen issue. Peyton had
no problem doing it. I have no reason to believe
yet that Kellen Moore can't do it. I need to
see it, but he's done it so far in his career. Also,
before we go to break, it has been reported that
the Saints are expected to lose defensive end, Chase Young
and free agency.
Speaker 2: I'm okay with this.
Speaker 1: Look.
Speaker 3: We were just talking to Grant about Cam Jordan getting older.
His production may not be quite what his contract is worth.
Speaker 2: At this point. Chase Jong is a big name.
Speaker 3: I think Chase Young is going to command a lot
of money on the open market. Someone's going to overpay
for him. Make sure it's not you.
Speaker 2: Look. I think Chase Young had a.
Speaker 3: Solid season with New Orleans thirty one total tackles, five
and a half sacks, eight tackles for a lost, twenty
one KB hits.
Speaker 2: He was good.
Speaker 3: You played in all seventeen games. That was a concern
that are the injuries going to catch up with him?
He was healthy for the most part, but he wasn't outstanding.
He was Okay.
Speaker 2: I think you can get a guy in the draft.
I think this is a very deep draft. I get it.
Speaker 3: Everyone's going to talk about Abdul Carter and Mike Green
in the first round.
Speaker 2: I get all that.
Speaker 3: Jack Sawyer is projected late second, early third round right
now out of Ohio State. Braden Swinston from Lshoes going
to be a day two, day three pick. There are
a ton of guys out there in this draft that
can help you that you can get on rookie deals,
because let's not forget you're still in cap Hill. I
am okay with letting Chase Young walk one. I know
a lot of people have a lot of different opinions
about that. Again, Chase Young was good. Somebody's gonna overpay
for him. If you're the Saints, you literally cannot afford
to overpay for it. You're already trying to cut down contracts.
Don't overpay for somebody else just because you're blinded by
some late season success. Move on from Chase Young, rebuild
that position in the draft. It's a good draft for
defensive ends. It's a deep draft for defensive ends.
Speaker 2: Go get one.
Speaker 3: It doesn't even have to be in the first round.
There's going to be quality guys, as I just mentioned, second, third,
fourth round.
Speaker 2: You'll be fine. Move on from that. I'm good with
it one hundred percent. All right, Look, we're.
Speaker 5: Gonna take a quick time out on me Blinds dot com,
kto z Blinds dot com and I just I can't
tell you enough and actually like daring. The last couple
of weeks, our shade has just consistently stayed down that
we have in the back of our home and that's
where the sun. Kind of before we got it, just
really ruined TV viewing during the day. You're trying to
watch like a big NFL game or a big baseball game.
Else she's got an early one today and you couldn't
get it done. Just wasn't the same, right you got
this huge galare on the TV.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: I didn't think putting something on the exterior of our
home would changed the interior of our home, but it
has certainly done that. Now it's done its original job.
Speaker 2: Like Harlowe loves.
Speaker 5: Going out to our little patio, we dropped the shade
down there. She plays out there, absolutely loves it. It's
not as hot, it's not bright, but it has changed
the dynamic of our entire home.
Speaker 2: The house is cooler.
Speaker 5: Whenever we have the shade down. They'll do it for
you as well. Ktooz Blinds dot com.
Speaker 2: I know going into break there at t's LSU basketball.
Speaker 3: But uh, turns out I have a lot to say
about that, so we're gonna save that for a segment
later on. I do want to mention, Look, we were
talking baseball a little bit earlier. There's another team on
the diamond here in ben Ruge that is also really
really good. And of course I'm talking about Beth three
and in the LSU softball team. Look, they lost their
first game of the year on Thursday to cal State
Fullerton by one run. They responded in a big way.
So they played a three game series this weekend as well.
But they played two Friday, one Saturday. Let me show
you what they did this weekend. Two games on Friday.
Your first game was a two to nothing win over
Utah and then the second game was a ten to
nothing run rule against Notre Dame after five innings. Saturday
was great as well, nine to one over Weber State
pitcher against Utah, Jade and Heavener, the freshman eleven strikeouts,
Sydney Burzon against a Notre Dame seven strikeouts. That it
wasn't a dominant pitching performance in terms of strikeouts, but
Emily Casanova and Ashley Valeo combined in Game three, again
a nine to one win over Weber State. The stoopball
team is dangerous for a number of reasons. Number one,
your pitching.
Speaker 2: Staff is a lot deeper than it was a year ago.
When this team played.
Speaker 3: Last year, when Sidney Burzon was on the mound, you
were almost unbeatable. When Sidney Burzon had her off days,
you struggled a little bit. You were still a good team,
you were not a great team. You bring in Jaden, Heavener, Casanova,
and Valeo have stepped up. All three of those are
young players. You have so much more pitching wise this
season outside of Sydney Burson than you had a year ago. Also,
getting Danica Coffee back is huge. Last year, LSU was
a top five team in the country and hadn't lost
a single game. Danica Coffee goes down, you lose your
next six. Everything fell apart because you had Sierra Daniel,
you had Maddox McKee. You had to throw in two
freshmen at third base, which is a really hard position
to play, and they both struggle. Speaking of Sierra Daniel,
she is taking a big step forward this year. Now
she's not at third that belongs to Danica Coffee. But
she's at second right now, when she's hitting the cover
off the ball, you still have Danaker Coffee at the
top of that lineup again.
Speaker 2: At third base.
Speaker 3: I don't know how far this team can go, but Guys,
every time I watch them play, I hear about them play,
and I see a box score, I get more and
more excited because everything this team was lacking a year ago,
outside of Sydney burrs On, outside of Danica Coffee when
she got injured, they filled in a big way. You
have Rudi Ye out there in the outfield, she's been
there for a number of years. You got two young
players next to her. They might even be better than
she is. I mean, both of them had excellent, excellent weekends.
Bethrina has done such a good job of putting a
team together that is good in all areas of softball.
Whether it's pitching, whether it's base running, whether it's fielding, hitting,
They are good at every single thing. Right now, they
can win games in multiple ways. We just talked about
it with the LSU baseball team. I think the softball
team has the ability to do that as well.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Right now, they're beating the crap out of everybody and
they don't need to, but they certainly have the ability
to do so.
Speaker 1: I look.
Speaker 3: Coming up in our number two, we're gonna be joined
by Grant Sacheray from Crescent City Sports. He's gonna hop
on with us, talk to New Orleans Saints. We'll also
preview Somemelosu football because he will be out there at
spring practice.
Speaker 2: We'll talk a lot of NFL.
Speaker 3: And maybe we'll get into the Oscars as well, because guys,
I just hate every time a movie wins this movie
of the Year that I've never seen. Saw that coming
up in our number two, Stay tuned. You're on one
O four five ESPN.
Speaker 1: Ben Rouge off the bench,