Speaker 1: Merry Christmas from Off the Bench, presented by All Star Toyota,
joined Jacob Hester and t Bob Avery as we spread
some holiday cheer and talk all things sports live from
the Mercedes Benz of Baton Rouge Studio. Let's get this
Christmas party started, Santa, tell me.
Speaker 2: If till night with fund A Field.
Speaker 3: Y'all welcome back, get another week about TV. Hope y'all
had a fine, fine, fine weekend. Uh what a weekend
it was. Christmas, Roll around along christ in the air.
Everybody came to Nutcracker. I'm sure you are now infused
with the Christmas spirit, so we can talk about that
a bit more later. We got the whole crew back.
Jake is back from Army Navy, a fantastic game in
which Oh Horror, MAPVI and Hide and Wright came to
play them Naval Boys, the Jolly Rogers emerging Victoria in again,
a scene that is just as epic as it gets.
But I'm gonna run down real quick because we got
a ton to talk about on today's show a lot.
It's one of those weird days, right there were no
there's NFL, but there's no colleges. But there's still a
lot to get to. We'll get to the Saints game.
A very exciting one incredible comeback, us fell one play short,
little Christmas magic almost happened. You got Brian Kelly, the
million dollar man, as the coach has pledged his own
funds in the kind of a pseudo nil a. We'll
get that. We have a new Heisman winner. I want
to talk about what else Sho's roster is going to
look like for the Bowl game. As I mean, we're
talking about some major, major changes that they have to
figure out over the next couple of weeks. There's men
and women's basketball, there's portal additions. Jacob looks like you
got your yackle one of a few additions which should
be relevant if we got we winters. Whole story today,
So it's like it's going to be a very fun
and full show today. How's everyone doing, dude, how's everyone's weekend?
Speaker 4: I was great?
Speaker 5: Uh, you know, when you get older, you travel a
little bit. Yeah, tell go, you gotta shake deal webs off.
But you know it's great. Army Navy is my favorite
weekend of the year. It doesn't matter where the game's played.
The atmosphere is the best. Just to be around high
ranking officials like that and hear them speak, it's inspiring.
It just really puts things into perspective. And you know,
to do the show on Friday, we did it, uh
from the Arlington National Cemetery. Wow, I mean it was
it was incredible. Yeah, I mean our setup was right there.
D C was was awesome like that. That's a place
that should host that game more often.
Speaker 3: I actually wasn't aware that it moves around. Okay, so
is it gonna stay there? Do you think?
Speaker 4: No, No, it's still gonna rotate. But I'm saying like
it should be heavy in the rotation.
Speaker 5: So so Philadelphia is kind of like the main city
that it's always going to find its way back to.
Speaker 4: But last year was in Boston, this year was in DC.
Next year is in Baltimore.
Speaker 3: So it stays in the plastic Americans. Well, it stays
in that the Beltway area.
Speaker 5: It stays in the Northeast because the midshipman and the
cadets can bust in.
Speaker 3: Mmm. Okay.
Speaker 5: So that's so, you know a lot of people are like,
why not San Diego. That's one of the biggest, you know,
military areas that we have. It's like, well, you had
to bus all, you know, the cadets and midshipment across
the country.
Speaker 3: Uh. You know what's cool about that game too, is
no matter where you're watching it, if you're watching it
in public, chances are you can find some interesting conversation.
Like I've gotten over with the first Nutcracker performance, and
uh I kind of have like a couple hours with
the babysitter still the house where I didn't have to
Anything's just like you know what, I go to don Juant,
go go get a drink and watch his Army and
Navy game, and you know, next thing you know, I'm
sitting there talking to two Navy vets from from different eras, right,
one from the seventies, one of the nineties, and just
hearing old stories and and just going down memory lane
learning things I never knew before while watching them get
to cheer on uh, the the academy being ard. It
was just it was just a fantastic experience, even you know,
even here in just a little corner pocket of Baton Rouge,
shut up, Sean and Scooter man, it was it was.
It was very fun. So yeah, he definitely, he definitely does,
definitely does. But but so great another great Army Navy
experience overall.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, without question.
Speaker 3: Who was the highest ranking person you interviewed this time around?
Do you any challenge coins?
Speaker 4: Yeah, got some challenge coins.
Speaker 5: I mean we had everybody had the Secretary of the Army,
Secretary of the Navy. Wow, Joint Chief of staffs was
was there?
Speaker 3: Do you get this stick around post game? Does he
any trash talking?
Speaker 5: So both teams seeing like the album mater, win or lose, okay,
like they get a chance to and it is wild.
So like right after the game, like there's it's right
back to the ultimate respect like between the two teams. Okay,
So there's not like yeah, I mean there's some fun
stuff like maybe right after the game now and the
cadets and the midshipman, I mean they're you know, they're
talk contraction the stands. Yeah, But on the field no,
I mean it's immediately like right back to like being
poised and like, hey we lost. You know it's if
your army, like we lost, like we're going to there's
a way that we do things. We're all gonna sit
here for you know, Navy's alma mater. They're gonna sit
here for ours, and that's how we're going to do it.
Pathrick Ye actually had a couple of guys on the
army team too. Oh wow, yeah, very cool man, very
great experience. Very jealous, but glad that you got to
go do that.
Speaker 3: A Landra, What about you? How are you doing today?
Speaker 5: I'm doing good.
Speaker 2: Good weekend.
Speaker 3: Didn't do much, did the basketball game Saturday, but okay,
nice lights last night. Okay, but yeah, Taylor, I never
know what to say when I'm at I mean, I
don't know. You know, you have a wigion like you
do you have fun?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yes, how was zol like?
Speaker 4: It was good?
Speaker 3: Okay, you seem rather tepid in uh in that description, Taylor.
What about you? How's your weekend? Guys?
Speaker 2: That's how you do it, Holandra, not one the bread
I put the chef hat on. The last night, guys,
I made orange chicken. It was phenomenal.
Speaker 3: All the things you could have said a December fifteenth
orange chicken was not something that I had on my mind.
Speaker 2: Made orange chicken chicken.
Speaker 3: When you're is.
Speaker 2: Whatever the word is, illiterate in the kitchen as I am,
you find the things that you can make, and it
was easy to make.
Speaker 1: But you know what.
Speaker 2: It was good and it looked fancy.
Speaker 3: Now did you get a did you make the sauce
yourself or packet?
Speaker 2: I did make the sol that is the one thing.
I found the recipe about a year ago. This is
the second time I made it, and it's great. Tinkered
with it a little bit now. The chicken, nah, I
mean it was frozen chicken. I just baked that in
the oven. I didn't like toss it in breading or
anything like that. But no, I can get there.
Speaker 3: You can get there over time.
Speaker 2: And then we had broccoli with some soy sauce and
mince gari.
Speaker 3: Look on it.
Speaker 2: It was good too.
Speaker 4: Hell yeah, okay, I'm proud of you.
Speaker 3: Say nice work. All right, Let's go ahead then and
get this thing started.
Speaker 1: It's time to get to work courtesy of Tiger Labor
and Staffing, where they can help take care of screening, training,
pay roll and more. Now for starters.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and also, guys, it's playoff week. You know
here we are maybe first time ever, our first ever
college football like massive twelve teen playoff week is upon us.
Remember Tiger Labor Staffing, your local experts and for all
your staffing needs. I Remember we're not just fording resumes. Okay,
we're up five am, interviewing, dispatching in person every single day.
So whether you have long term short term needs is
only one to answer. Tiger labor and staffing. How about
them Saints, man, how about them Saints. That was a
great game. That was a great admittedly one that I
had completely given up on first happened if disaster Jaden
Daniels is incredible. The Jaden Daniels thing is still weird
where it's like, I still don't know how they actually
managed to stop him because it didn't feel like you
were really stopping him the entire time. But you did enough.
You did enough to win the game certainly. I mean,
what a second half you go from Hainer Spencer Rattler
comes in, He has one of those magical rookie runs
there where it looks like he's potentially gonna lead you
to this insane come from behind victory. You score time
in the clock, two boy conversion and win the game,
and you come up just short. Let's start with then,
the biggest question Jake was going for the right call
for the Saints there.
Speaker 4: I think it's always the right call. It's like especially
if you're at home home, I mean the moment, yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 5: You don't want to give the ball back to Washington
in there, and yeah, you're right, you have all the momentum.
Speaker 4: Just go ahead, go win the game right now.
Speaker 5: I'm always be a college, be a pro if you
have that situation and if you're the underdog and you
don't want to continue on because again, like the more
you give the ball back to Washington or any situation
where the favorite gets the ball back, it's out of
your control. It is no longer in your control, and
you're going to a flip of the coin. Go for two,
go for the win, go get it. I love the
decision to go for it.
Speaker 3: It Actually it's it's uh yeah, I mean I agree. Actually,
you don't even think it's much of a conversation. I mean,
even if you wanted to go into the deeper context
of you really have nothing to lose and you're in
a situation where a loss isn't even the worst thing.
I mean, so it's like so so also like whatever,
And it's indicative of what I think Darren Rizzy's tried
to instill this team with since he took over, which
is aggression and belief. Okay, I believe in you as
a player, and I'm going to show you that I
believe in you by being aggressive. It's a weird box
score to look at, Jake, Like the Saints had zero
business being in a position to have a two point
conversion to win this game. Obviously, the miss field goals
kind of thing that maybe opens up a bit of
a gap, but like, it's crazy. It's not like Washington,
like turn the ball over. I mean, they're nine to
seventeen on third down, They're over fifty percent. They only
allowed two hundred and forty five total yards for the
New Orleans States. They have the ball forty one minutes
to the Saints nineteen. And yet I mean they ran
seventy four plays Saints fifty one, and yet the Saints
almost made some Christmas magic happen in the Dome. It's
the eight sacks forty yeah.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 5: Obviously it was like one of the stats that probably
kept them in the game with an opportunity.
Speaker 3: Right. That's a huge oversight for me because that was
how you were managing to gate the Jade and Daniels
success because he was awesome for large swaths of this game.
What do you started like eighteen to twenty finishes, twenty
five or thirty one. You saw the legs picking up
third and seventeens. The scrambled touchdown to Terry McLaurin was
just like, well, I mean, what are you gonna do?
It's like, you see, it's funny too, Jake, because you know,
quarterbacks don't technically play each other, but they kind of
do in a weird way. So Jade Daniels comes does that,
and then Jake Hayner on third and four tries to
do his best Jade and Daniels, and again like principally
they're both breaking the same rules right kind of on
the run, throwing it up for grabs. But you see
one that's a Heisman winner, physical freak, just transcendent level player,
and then one that you know they probably like a
journeyman back up kind of NFL guy, And it did
not work out for Jake Hayner. And so it's It's
the thing about this loss, though, is it is a
loss that is about as close to feeling like a
win as you could get in that there's a lot
to be impressed with Spencer Rattler coming in and giving
you some excitement. I mean, obviously he's got to be
the star now going forward, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he gives you more of an opportunity.
Speaker 5: There's no question about it, saying he's gonna be great,
but like, yeah, j there's nothing that Jay Canner does
I think better than Spencer Rattler for you to be like, Okay, well,
you know, Spencer might have the higher ceiling, but we're
gonna we're gonna keep with Jay Caner because of this.
There's not this, this doesn't exist. So I say, yeah,
Spencer Ratler, go ahead, make him the guy. Allow him
to finish out the season, because you know, he was
somebody like during the draft process, we weren't sure where
he was going to go, but there was a lot
of teams that liked Spencer Rattler. You know, three years
ago he was thought of as a first round pick talent.
So you have a first round pick talent. Maybe it
didn't end up being that way, obviously selecting him in
the fifth round, but see what he can do say hey,
this is your team. You will be our guy moving forward.
That way, like Spencer Ratler doesn't have to worry about
Jake Hey and or he didn't have to worry about
Dereck Carr coming back because you know, ir and I
would like to see Spencer Rattler with the keys of
the car.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So so you got you got some kind of clarity,
maybe a bit of excitement there. As you point out,
you got to be impressed. I'm just impressed with the effort.
Right Like under Dennis Allen, this team was so listless
at time, so kind of lacked give a damn, I
guess you could say. And obviously nothing could have been
further from the truth because it would have been all
too easy to give up when you're down seventeen to zero,
right and just pack it up because you can't get
anything going offensively. Defensively, you're playing all right, I mean,
like I said, you're coming up the big sacks, but
they're still breaking through it sometimes like that you suck, right,
That was a game that it is what it is,
and yet the Saints dug deep fought in almost when
they it's another uh again, I think it's gonna I
don't think he's going to get the job, but I
would actually this as a positive for Darren Rizzy, Like
if we're doing the Ledger, the plus minus Ledger, when
do we try to make him kind of that bridge
guy to guide you through the rebuild. I think this
was a plus the fight that the team showed, the
aggression and then going for two again. I really liked
that decision. Of course, like any Saints game, it was
not without injury, as Alfa Kamara on an incredible touchdown
catch right, showing you again just how versatile he is.
Seems like that touchdown catch when he stretched out it
actually is what tweaked is growing a little bit, but okay,
silver lining Kendre Miller, Jake Little fleash nine caries forty
six yards. I mean he had a pretty good fourth
quarter there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you've been waiting a.
Speaker 3: Couple of plays like two three, Yeah, I mean you've
been waiting.
Speaker 5: He's selecting him in a third round, which for a
running back that is incredibly high. That's you know, you
always move up around with a running back. Yeah, like
wherever you selected him that normally would have been around
up for any other position, just because running back so
devalued in the NFL. So there's expectation there and it
was nice to see him over five yards of Carrie.
We've seen him in his college career. What he was
doing at TCU there. You know, he was somebody that
we were excited about, but there was I mean, you
talk about like a misconnect with Dennis Allen and like
everybody with Andre Miller in the whole ir situation, and
I mean, Dennis Allen would come out and say his
name and the media doesn't even trying to hide it.
And so it is good to kind of see that
cleaned up now that Dennis Allen's not there, and ken
Dre Miller is a talented player, So to see him
go out there average over five yards per carry, Let's
see what he can you know, kind of that that's
what you got to use this time for. I'm not
saying you take your veterans out, but you see what
young guys can do for you. If you think this
guy can help you moving forward as an organization, you
go out there and you play that guy, Spencer Ratler.
I think Kendre Miller is certainly a part of that conversation.
So uh, you know, I'd like to see him continue
to be part of the game plan.
Speaker 3: God the Saints. The Saints receiving section of the box
score is just true sicko stuff. Mark Wez Valdez, Scanning, Kamara, Foster, Moro,
Dante Pettis, Tiwan Johnson, Kevin Austin Junior, Cedric Wilson.
Speaker 5: These might as well be made up names. Yeah, it's crazy.
That's that's like they have to attack.
Speaker 3: I know that, I know that injuries have definitely played
a role there, But like, I don't know, how does
the front office look at that and they got to
just feel a little embarrassed or something. But again, I
I don't know, Am I crazy? I guess I don't.
I get there's there's there's there's no like true hardcore
Saints fans on our show anymore. I want to know
our true hardcore Saints fans. Are you upset today because
I I don't find I don't find that I am.
I find that I'm more like impressed with the effort.
I'm a bit excited to see, now that you have
a little clarity at quarterback, maybe what Ratler can do.
I don't have good expectations, to be clear. I don't
think he's gonna go out and light the world on fire,
but I am excited to watch. I want to see
a little bit of what Miller's gonna do. But yeah,
kind of where my head thought. I thought yesterday was impressive.
Impressive to say the least, just fell one play short
of a.
Speaker 4: Little wit to your point, yeah, it does look completely different.
Speaker 5: After you lost to Carolina that made seventh straight, we
were talking about getting a top three pick. We were
talking about just basically folding in on the season. And
since then you've won three of five. But even in
your losses, you lose to a Rams team that is
surging by a touchdown. Now, you lose to the Commanders
who were in the postseason right now by a single point.
You went for two to win the game. So like,
it looks better. It looks like a completely different team,
and you're five to nine.
Speaker 4: That part of it is what it is.
Speaker 5: But you still can take something from what you've done
the last five games. You can take a look at
the organization. You can feel better, BA, you can say,
you know what it was, Dennis Allen. Not that that
surprises any of us. Yeah, it really was, dude, I it.
Speaker 3: Was not, and that crazy. It really is crazy.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it is.
Speaker 5: The crazy part though, is that they hired Dennis Allen
after what he did in Oakland.
Speaker 3: The most disappointing part is when you look at those
weird stats that we would always pair it like Saints
have actually outscored their opponents and the only ones to
do so over two year period and not make the playoffs,
and they were like a bunch of stats like that.
It's like maybe you actually, you know, maybe you actually
had a playoff caliber team the last couple of years.
You just had the wrong man in charge. But you know,
spilled milk and all that. It does seem like the
Saints fans in chat are pretty cool. Big Meat says
not upset. Adam Fields is not upset all. I'm a
Sicico Saints fan. Bruta Cheese says, no, yesterday was a win.
Rat showed he got that stuff in his neck and
you didn't hurt his draft and you didn't hurt draft spot.
Yesterday was a w and my mind, so yeah it was.
It was good.
Speaker 5: No no no.
Speaker 3: Brutus is also t claiming none of us are grissin
shan As wild. No no, I said in this room
like Taylor's a Cowboys fan. Alandra likes Texas uh jakeson Chargers, saying,
and I'm I'm kind of the residences. But even I
was never on the level of a Mario or a
Danny back in the day. So I knew we I
know we have a lot of hardcore who At Nation
ers in the in the chat, but yeah, I mean
it is insane how many like injuries, players everything. The
Saints are down and they're still out there fighting and
still nearly winning. So shout out Darren Rizzy, he's doing
a hell of a job. All right. Uh, when we
get back here on OTB, let's talk a bit about
Brian Kelly, the million dollar man and uh coach putting
his money where his mouth is more off the bench.
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Speaker 4: Two two five nine two five eighty five fifty two.
Speaker 1: The welcome back to the ninth ranked morning sports show
in America.
Speaker 3: Off the bench, I made that, uh, that classic Louisiana mistake,
and we went all year to try to get these
winter fits off. A great new sweater, so excited where
it did not take the weather. This morning, it's gonna
be like eighty degrees today. I heard Hi, murphs him
Jody coming in, so I already started to become stressed.
So I was like, I guess They're just gonna see
if it works. Anyway, one take me to the show.
I was just sweating. So now I've dug into the office.
See what I have? I have a bat Rouge Triple
Xcel bat Rouge Symphony shirt which shout out to the symphony.
You know they they do, nut Cracker. I love going
to the symphony. I don't love the 'L sent me
at three XL. You know what are you trying to say?
It's very big? But I guess it's just Taylor. Have
you loked wins it? When? When? When can I wear
my new sweaters? Not? Not this week? Not this whole week?
Speaker 1: This week.
Speaker 2: I was checking last night because I was trying to
find what what to wear or.
Speaker 4: Not not this week?
Speaker 3: Did I wear?
Speaker 4: I wear the same outfit be at August or be
it February.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like the kicked in here yet or something
you don't get You.
Speaker 4: Don't get the full force because I got the two
fence right above your head.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Uh, thank you, Yes, Cerial Snuggler party guy number
three at the Saturdays you bm Nutcrackers good? Yeah, I
mean I heard it's pretty great.
Speaker 4: To be fair.
Speaker 3: I read some reviews where like people were talking about
there was just one party Dad, that kind of you know,
it took over the show in some ways. I don't
mean to stage Clara.
Speaker 2: What was his color?
Speaker 3: I think about the purple party. That is what I
is what I heard. All right, Okay, So have y'all
who's heard Have y'all heard about the Brian Kelly million
dollar match that he's doing here. So Brian Kelly and
meeting with the media, talked about how look, you know,
after my last press conference where he challenged the LSU
fan base from more of a grassroots perspective to get involved,
you know, going so far as to be like, look,
if you want a good team like you gotta pay
right which and again I don't I don't I get
I get where he's coming from and way of say
these things. I don't love it. I think I think
it is a tough time financially for a lot of people,
and so it's it's very hard to think about like, oh,
let me give twenty dollars a month to kids that
are already making way more money than me. But you know,
if you love LSU football whatever I mean, you get
enough people give two dollars a month that does become
very real money. So in an effort to spur some
giving here in this Christmas season, a pretty fascinating precedent
being set by Brian Kelly here he is going to
donate up to one dollars to TAF for all new
money coming into the into the Buy You Traditions collective.
So you go to Buy You Tradition's website, you give,
and he will match that money to TF. So his
money cannot go to he can't pay players, right, his
money cannot go to the collective obviously two A players,
but goes to TAF so it can be for coaches salaries,
facility upgrades, which also does remind me and I forgot
about this. In twenty twenty two he donated a million
dollars to renovate the football facilities. So again, yeah, this
is kind of like the Kenny Dillingham thing where you
may say, like you hear Kenny Delleham gets a two
hundred thousand dollars bonus and then he gives it all
to his assistants and everything. Everybody gets like eight to
ten k et cetera. And you're like, well, yeah, he
makes X amount of million, Like that's not much it
was like, okay, I get that, but people don't do
this right right, So yes, Brian Kelly makes ten million
dollars and we could all be like, oh well I
could make it on nine million. Yes, okay, but people
still don't do what Brian Kelly's doing here, and this
will be a second million giving up in order to
again try to put his money where his mouth is.
So yeah, I mean, I think this is a big
pr win for Kelly here. This is a pretty shrewd
move in that sense. I also think, I mean, look,
if this creates an extra million dollars of giving that
that could be a premiere player, that could be two
really good players. Like that's it's it's a good move
functionally as well.
Speaker 5: Jake No, I mean, I look, you give a million
dollars of your own money and you're gonna match like
up to a million, So two minion coming into the program.
Speaker 4: That's something that is significant.
Speaker 5: And when you go out and you do like you said,
say hey we need help, we need your help, well,
you know how far does that go then compared to
how far it goes now? It's like we're putting up
a million dollars like we want to help this program
we want to be successful.
Speaker 4: So I like that is significant.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for him to do that, and for him to
pledge it, and also like looks a good way to say, hey,
here's my million, put in your million, right, and it's
going to be two million dollars towards this program. So
you'll see coaches now probably do this across the country
like it, you know, in the ones that can in
the top ten.
Speaker 4: Kind of blue, blue blood type program.
Speaker 3: Interesting precedent for him to set for his other coaches,
isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure it is.
Speaker 3: I might be looking a little sideways if I'm one
of the other coaches. Come on, man, now, hold up now, now, now,
now you're gonna have to give me have to give
up a million as well, which good, good, hope. I
hope they all have to. But uh, I thought. Scott
rabble Ay raised an interesting point on this, Jake, is
that if you google Brian Kelly, though there's not a
lot of news results about this, it's still mainly like
him yelling and Florida players or Brian Kelly sucks articles.
And it's very interesting in that the the the college
football world at large has made up their mind.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, right, a long time ago.
Speaker 3: Well, they already knew that. Yeah, he was always kind of,
like I would say, generally disliked for whatever reason, even
though I always when we do interviews, I'm always like,
I don't know, I mean, look to like us here
so far, the results whatever, that's a different conversation. But
in terms of like how he's treated people and everything,
I don't know. It's been very good from my perspective,
But he's always been kind of been generally disliked, I
would say. But now it's also turned to people are
just convinced that he sucks as well, and I don't
think the actual numbers back that up. Has it not
been as good as you would have hoped at this point?
And was year three, like in a past failed binary system.
Speaker 4: Was year three?
Speaker 3: Fil Yes, right, we've said all this, but it's not
like the floor has completely dropped out. You managed to
rally after a god awful month.
Speaker 1: You did.
Speaker 3: You're doing some exciting like whatever. I've told you, I'm
bullish on the future. It doesn't matter. I guess The
point is I do kind of like being in the
shadows a bit here, right, Okay, that's fine, that's fine.
Take BK out of the best coaches conversations, have no
expectations for LSU or him, and uh, let's see what
can happen when when when you're kind of operating from
more of an underdog standpoint.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this this is an important, very important offseason. Oh yeah,
and none of we'll get to the portal additions and
what they've done. But you've made statements that you haven't
made before. And I think, like the transfer portal stuff,
and you know, they've brought in portal players. We're not
talking about Dabo and Clemson not bringing in any players,
but they never did like a full overhaul because they
wanted to try to keep the locker room. And I
think there was a misconception across the country. And I
just said, l SU, what portal players would do to
your locker room? And I even thought, like initially that
would be a problem. These players don't care. They don't care,
like they're pros.
Speaker 3: Like it's like.
Speaker 5: That's why, like when you see like a like a
free agent, so you see a player going to the
portal front LSU like all the current players like post
where he's going, like best of luck, good luck, like
like for us, like I'm sitting there in my mentime
like luck, I don't want you to do good at all,
like cause that that was our mentact because we didn't
have this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like if you transferred it out like you were
leaving us.
Speaker 3: I was talking to uh Jasn Collins the other day
about this, like Marie, the guy Peilan Jones in our
class signing class and we were all tight, all good friends,
and yeah, he turns her to Alabama. I don't think
anybody ever talked to him again. Yeah, it was like
it was like ex communicata, just just completely cut off.
So yeah, it's just not like that.
Speaker 4: That's a completely different situation.
Speaker 5: So with with all that being said, like just what
this all season means and what they have to do,
I think they realize it's very important offseason. Like now
you see how it's going, you see what the landscape's doing,
you see what everybody else is doing around you. You
look at the most successful teams for the most part,
they're spending money, and the ones that aren't spending money,
they're getting you know, double digit transfers in your Arizona
States and teams like that that had you know, a
major turnaround this year. So That's why this one's so important,
because you're gonna do things a little bit differently than
you have in the past. And do you know how
to handle the current landscape and are you going to
bring in enough compared to what you're losing?
Speaker 3: So sorry about the current landscape a bit. When we
get back, let's look at the portal additions made here recently.
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Speaker 1: Back to sports talk. Maybe off the bench?
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seconds left and then they crank it again. But it
definitely helped the same. It's an odd I didn't notice
it live either, and then I looked back at it
because there were comments talking about it. Yeah, I don't know.
Um all right, Uh, okay, So we were going to
get into We're gonna get into portal editions, right is
it we tease?
Speaker 4: Yep?
Speaker 5: Right, Well, you said landscape, so you're gonna get into
the current landscape when we get back.
Speaker 3: I guess that's what I meant. Yeah, landscape is what
we just laid out, right, You got to pay Yeah,
And I think there's something to be said for I
still think your foundation has to be high school recruiting,
but we're learning more and more that you're going to
leak recruits more than you have in the past, and
there's something to be said Jake, for like, if you're
talking about where do we want to commit the money,
is it actually better to commit the majority of money
to recruiting or to the portal because you are getting
more known quantities in the portal, are you not? I
think you are, Like high school players feel like more
of a risk than going after someone that you have
one year, two years, three years of college tape on
with which to evaluate how he'd fit with your team.
Speaker 5: I'm not saying that you like abandon high school recruiting,
because I think we all know how important it is
and what it means to what your program looks like.
Speaker 4: You still have to do it, but.
Speaker 5: You have to bring in veteran players because you're going
to lose players every single year and you have to
replace those with guys that have gone out there. You
can actually see them against similar competition. So I don't know,
you know, if is it fifty to fifties, sixty forties
at seventy thirty, Like, I don't know what that is.
But you're right as far as being able to trust
a player out of the portal to you know, from
day one when they get on campus to help your
program out more Now, I think high school recruiting can
just continue to you know, do what you do, but
you because you've done it for so long, you just
have to ramp up all of your transfer portal efforts.
Speaker 4: Like I'm not talking about just LSU.
Speaker 5: I'm talking about all these major programs like you're going
to see, like you've got departments that like that's what
they do. I think that even goes up even more. Yeah,
you're gonna have the book on every single player that
you think might actually go into the portal. So when
it becomes time, it's a little bit less of a
speed dating situation because you've got a staff of five
or whatever that number is. Hey tell me about this player.
Speaker 4: Can he play LSU well?
Speaker 3: And so even two years ago, I remember reading pieces
in the Athletic Jake where they were talking about how
they have a lot of the bigger schools have Yeah,
what you just said dedicated staff members who are looking
around the country and saying, Okay, this guy seems unhappy,
or this guy we loved out of high school but
for some reason not playing here. Maybe we getting on there,
or like we've heard through the grape vine through talking
to this guy's high school coach. Then even though he's
playing that he wants to move. So yeah, there's a
lot of research being done there. And think about Bill Belichick.
When Bill Belichick took you and see job, what he
laid out is, look, you're gonna give me a coaching staff,
and you're gonna give me a front office. Yeah, and
I want to college GM. He said specifically he wants
a a GM who is already doing that in college today, right,
which I thought was a bit surprising given that he
was always the GM in the NFL. But he's showing
a little respect to the Uh, he's showing a little
respect to the institutional knowledge and how different this kind
of wild West area is of college where he's gonna
go with someone that that that has already been doing it.
So uh, yeah, I mean, I'm right, you got to
staff up. You got to staff up on that front
for sure. Ada Field says, give me the portal players
that they're good players. Yeah, I mean the ones that
you don't love. Is kind of one of the instances
that I witnessed there or just reference where it's like, okay,
maybe you love this kind of high school he's not
playing for some reason somebody like uh uh oh, who's
the corner from a timber?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like that would be an example of that where
that's kind of like a bit more risky. But like
if you're gonna talk about Barry and Brown or like
Bower Sharp, like some of the guys you got over
the weekend, we'll get to those names more next segment.
I mean, yeah, I think those are safe plays. Like
guys that you think come in and you feel very
good about them contributing immediately.
Speaker 5: Yeah, those guys have played other places. You've seen them,
some you've played against, and you kind of you know
their skills because you've scotted them when you were getting
ready to play them, and so like it's not a
guessing game.
Speaker 4: It's okay, I know what this player can do. Here's
what I think he can do for us.
Speaker 5: Again, I know you have to do high school recruiting,
and you should because you're LSU and Louisiana is a
great talent rich state where you can go in and
you can dominate. You have advantages in the state. So
you still do what you've been doing. I just think
that you add if you're going to spend money, continue
to spend money on personnel to say, hey, you're not coaching,
you're not high school recruiting. It's not No, you are portally.
Speaker 4: That's what you do.
Speaker 5: That's why you were here. We're not asking you to
do anything else. And we want now we want this
database to be airtight. And when I ask you on
a player.
Speaker 3: In the Connor Stallion's level, like TISM database.
Speaker 5: When I ask you about this player and I say
can he play at LSU, I have to trust your opinion.
Speaker 4: If you say no, let's move on.
Speaker 5: If you say yeah, yes, I'm going to bring that
player in and that your job is going to be
based off if that player works out or not.
Speaker 3: When we get back here on O TB. Let's talk
about the new names joining the Elshet Tiger football team.
More goping up next here O t B Off the bench,
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Speaker 1: Yes, slap. Welcome in to the best morning sports This
show around off the Bench with Hester and t Bob.
Speaker 3: What good what bag to otb wrapping up Aroon talk
about the new port additions to this LSU football program.
Pretty exciting editions here, as Jake, every player we're about
to name, with the exception of a quarterback, I think
is in line to be a Day one starter and
that they fill roles that you have need. And it
starts Jake with I almost feel like they should have
when this package came under the tree. If you read
the tag, it would have said to j Kester, because
I think you got your yackle in Oklahoma tight end
Bowers Sharp.
Speaker 4: Do you not now?
Speaker 3: Now he actually led Oklahoma and catches last year with
forty seven No, you had forty seven catch No, But
I mean listen to Kelly talk about him, and he
talked about him blocking in the run game four times
in about a forty five second answer. So you're still
gonna have trade as Green as a kind of pass catcher,
and I think you're still going to get more tight
ends in that group, but Morey pimped out Mason Taylor out.
You now have a true blocking but again a blocker
who also had led the team with forty seven catcher,
so you know, very capable. This is a good get
at a huge vision of need.
Speaker 4: No, I think it is.
Speaker 5: As long as he didn't throw the ball. I think
that's gonna be a good situation. I'm sure they'll have
a great panic. I'm sure they'll have a great laugh
on that one.
Speaker 4: But no, this is good.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's a player to play for Southeastern as well,
so certainly ties to the area started.
Speaker 3: As a quarterback.
Speaker 5: Yeah it's south eastern, right, Well I couldn't tell, right,
all right, that makes sense. Last one I promised Taylor's cousin.
We won't say that again. Yeah, you're right though about
day one stepping in being the guy trades Green certainly
is going to have a role on this team. And
now he can kind of be your hybrid. Yeah, he
can be your f and line up a receiver as well.
And I also agree that you still need to add
another tight end. Like tight end, it has to be
one of the because you're a team that likes to
run twelve personnel.
Speaker 4: You like to go out there with multiple tight ends,
so you have to get anough the one.
Speaker 5: I would expect you to go get an even bigger body,
right because like you've kind of got a little bit
of the best of both with sharp A Green. I
think those are two players that are different enough. But
go get another guy that's even more of a of
a y. That way, you have three guys that are
all a little different and you can use them based
off what their skill set is, and I think that
would be the perfect combination at the tight end position.
Speaker 3: You got Florida cornerback Jaquem Jackson. This one that made
a lot of sense, as he was the number three
cornerback in the nation in twenty three class. He committed
to play for Corey Raymond at Florida. Cory Raymond ends
up at LSU, he's starting for Florida, he gets hurt
he Red Shirts this year after the injury, and now
he reunites with Corey Raymond. So now between DJ Pickett,
A Nandying Jaquim Jackson certainly still PJ Woodland. Ashon SAMs
like you got a good corner, you got a good
corner room. You got a lot of talent for court
Raymond throwgainst the wall and see who sticks is a
really big get. He could potentially be Day one starter
as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it was a position of need.
Speaker 5: Like we talked about, there's still certainly question marks in
the back end, but corners more solidified now than safety is.
You also have the star position and how are you
going to utilize that because at the end of the
year to we saw, you know, Devine Keyes actually play
the star position and major Burns went back to safety
and so that doesn't have to necessarily be a safety type.
I guess it's based off matchup and who you're going against.
So the safety room still needs a lot of help.
A corner is shaping up, you probably still add at
least one more there. But you know during this week
where we see a couple of safeties maybe adding themselves
to the fold, I.
Speaker 3: Think you'd have to very exciting offensive edition that again
could be a Day one starter. Wide receiver that is
Barry and Brown just from Kentucky, an absolute electric playmaker.
The Numbers took a bit of a hit this year,
wasn't you a freshman American? I think the Numbers take
a bit of a hitt. He actually has the SEC
record for most kickoffer turn touchdowns every five. Look at
this one against Florida if you're watching YouTube dot com
Slash one four five ESPN, this is one of the
most exciting plays you will ever see. I mean, look
at the speed there and this finishes in the end zone.
Guys like, like, you can't teach that vision, that speed,
that manipulation. I cannot wait to watch Barrion Brown in
a purple gold uniform where he gets to be a
part of offense and puts up numbers because he has
been wasted at Kentucky thus far.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's had really bad quarterback play.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know Brke, vandergriff or if it's
been Devin Leary, whoever, it's been like he's had bad
quarterback play. It's been an offense that's had a different
offensive coordinator basically every single year. So you're talking about,
you know, somebody now coming in with Garrett Nessmeyer and
an offense that was six in the nation in passing yards.
Speaker 3: Our number one in the books. We've got a couple
of players we can touch on, so a lot to
get to on today's show. Keep it locked right here
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