Speaker 1: I'll start Toyota Presents off the bench with Jacob Hester
and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 2: Hester and Hester got a fine.
Speaker 1: Of fun from carrying each other to and Natty, to
carrying each other on the air to Live from Downtown
Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3: It's off the bench.
Speaker 4: One Flynn And that third voice here is Trey of
course owner here at pro Dreams pro dash Dreams dot
com is the website.
Speaker 3: He good enough to let us come.
Speaker 4: Hang out and do the show here every home game
on Thursdays during the football season, trail.
Speaker 5: What's going on?
Speaker 3: How we're doing?
Speaker 5: Good morning, Good morning, I've been good, Everything's good.
Speaker 4: How was How was the l s U Florida game?
Because I was here in the shop that morning.
Speaker 5: Very cool?
Speaker 3: Uh College game day was on. You had people all
around you.
Speaker 4: Set up the car off your bar for us, which
was very very cool. So it was a great vibe
in the store. How was setting up for one of
those big time LSU Florida games.
Speaker 6: We are very blessed with our relationship with LSU. We
have seven locations on campus. On a day likes last Saturday,
so we were wide open with employees running around setting
up locations and stands. And we did more sales in
a four hour period than we did all last months.
Speaker 7: Where do you where do you pull from your talent
pool for employees? I mean, I'm sure you kind of
got to like beef it up a little bit for
game days, but it's not like an everyday deal where
your pulling the talent from LSU.
Speaker 5: So there you go.
Speaker 6: It's a very easy hiring process, uh politically, just you're hired.
Speaker 3: Yes, can you hey lift that box? Yeah, you got
in the air.
Speaker 5: You're hired. Very easy, ready to go.
Speaker 4: I got sent us like a ton of pictures like
over the weekend, people on social media that had bought something.
Speaker 3: Uh from one of the booths.
Speaker 4: Helmet with a certain inscription on it made its way
from front. I think, hold on, sign this out. It
is like the inventory in Trey's brain. Matt like he's
you know, he's got it, like it's in there or whatever.
And I was signing some stuff on Saturday and there
was three guys came in from Colorado and they're like, hey,
we want something, but we were on a plane. It's
Ray's like going through all the different things in his head.
He's like, oh, blah blah blah, blah, we got football,
all right, we got three go get three in the
back there, and it's like the inventory you have in
your head is impressive.
Speaker 6: Well, I appreciate you saying that that was cool to
have those guys around of town that never been to
a game before and they heard us talking about this
on the radio and they came and bought something.
Speaker 5: So advertising dollars are working. So how did he go with?
Speaker 7: So we saw the Florida, the ugly Florida helmet, a
Tim Tebow slid? Did you get did you have a
lot of Gator fans coming in and buying some Florida stuff?
Speaker 6: So we use a an artist, Becky Fall. She's probably
the number one artist in New Orleans and Baton Rouge
right now and she paints a big Gator.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 6: So that that was a very popular art item. So
we did sell to a lot of Florida flans this weekend.
Speaker 5: Nice. That's great.
Speaker 6: Hey, they're bringing dollars here to pro dreams like that's right.
Get money is green, you should get care where it comes.
Speaker 4: Does she get Marco Wilson to sign him throwing a
shoe and then sell that?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know if Florida fans or LSU fans would
buy that. But LSU fans for sure, right, So how
does it work?
Speaker 7: So they come in at at the tables around the
stadium or in the shop here, and and they're from
out of town. They they pick the items they want,
whether it's the inventory is in your brain or whether
it's sitting right here, and you ship and they they
pay any you shipping.
Speaker 6: So we kind of have a little bit of both.
We have options for all customers no matter what they're buying.
They could either take it right then and there, they
can get a ship to them or pick it up
at our brand new retail location here at thirty nine
to thirty Burbank driving Baton Rooms.
Speaker 4: Who are some of the current lshoe guys that y'all
are working with because of them, when Matt and I
were playing, like we had to wait, oh my gosh,
like don't you dare sign an autograph that you think
is going to be sold? And the landscape changing in
al it's great and players can come in and really
this is like the true spirit of what NIL was
supposed to be for sure was memorabilia and autograph signings
and come hang out so like, what are you currently
doing with Thilhee right now?
Speaker 6: Yesterday we had Barryon here in the store, we had
Trey Dez here. They signed a couple of helmets and
footballs and stuff. So we're really excited about the new
class coming in and just some of the new talent.
Speaker 5: But it is cool to see specifically.
Speaker 6: Bary On yesterday was walking around looking at our Michael
Jordan jersey and he was just in awe, like he
just stared at it and it couldn't he couldn't get
his brain passed, like that's twelve thousand dollars, Like he
was in shell shock, and he just kept asking me,
like someone's gonna buy that.
Speaker 5: Two hours later we sold it. Wow. Yeah that one
right there. It's got the lights on it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's got a little led around it. So it's
cool to see young players excited about memorabilia and just
putting a little money in their pocket for something that
they've built on the field.
Speaker 7: Oh for sure, he's probably staring at me like he's
too young to realize. I mean, he knows who Michael
Jordan is, probably wears the shoes and everything, but like
people that got to see him play live and person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he knows he might know Michael Jordan through the
Lebron versus Michael debate. Yeah, exactly, and me and me
and myself.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah the first one.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Let me ask you, so when you were I'm curious,
like in this whole like in il landscape, I'm so curious,
like the fine details of like the business side of
working with an athlete.
Speaker 5: So how do you get to these players?
Speaker 7: Do you have to call three people that connect to
these players?
Speaker 5: Have agents? Do they have friends and family?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 5: How does all that get even started? So? How do
I get to players? Is the secret? Sauce?
Speaker 6: Right, I'll tell the very first time I ever got
to a player. I was so excited right after the
Saints won the Super Bowl. Never met a real player,
like a real professional anthlete at the time, and they
made this huge advertisement that they were going to have
this after party for the Saints at the hotel in Biloxi.
So I walk into this after party and I'm so
excited that I see Pierre Thomas walking and I the
crowd was kind of not paying attention, so I ran
after him. We flew through this door and I'd go
to ask him for his autograph. I said, mister Pierre,
can I have your autograph?
Speaker 5: Please? He said, can I finish using a restroom?
Speaker 6: No, my very friend of autographs that I was looking
for tackled Pierre Thomas in the restroom and it just
kind of went from there through Instagram, DMS, through social media,
just reaching out to players and then either they handled
me or they passed a lot of them, and especially
the new guys as the parents or maybe you know,
an agent. And then once you treat a customer or
a client, well they kind of passed your name to
the next guy and we go from there.
Speaker 5: I thought, you're about to have any the secret sauces.
Wait outside the bathroom. Everybody's gotta go.
Speaker 3: Yeah two bro, what is wrong with it?
Speaker 5: Just fell? Just how much time I have?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: But all right, next topic, Oh, some of the how
the how you know some of the Saint stuff. Obviously
it's like we were talking about it. You're looking for
a face maybe face to the franchise right now it
is look, I mean all the great stuff like Drew
still sells really well, you got you got Manning, Ricky
Jackson taking down close.
Speaker 6: But if if you're talking about Saints as a brand.
You're selling ten to one l SU to Saint stuff, right,
Oh wow, Yeah, it's that drastic tend to one.
Speaker 5: Tend to one is when the Saints are good?
Speaker 2: What is that number?
Speaker 6: It's still probably heavy? I mean three probably. I mean
I don't know why, just them as a brand. I
don't want to talk bad about the Saints because they're Saints,
but yeah, Saints show no, yeah, good, it's it's tough
if it's not, if it's not Drew.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I got a question just from like cause you know,
we've talked about Tester and I kind like into the
sports card world and there's like, like you sell the
hype a lot in the sports car world before, like.
Speaker 5: That the hype of potential.
Speaker 7: Is that kind of the same in the member billy world,
because like, was you sell the wave for sure?
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: One of our biggest example was Mason Taylor when we
beat Alabama in overtime. Yeah, we had a signing already
lined up. It was just a stroke of luck that
we had wow on Wednesday. So by Friday we had
a next home game, we had product on the table
of the photo of him diving in the end zone signed.
Oh yeah, we sold six thousand of them pictures of them.
I mean it was a lot like it was crazy timing. O. Now,
like I can't give I love Mason. He was awesome
in great family lineage. But I can't sell a Mason
Taylor autograph to save my life right now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know. So it's it's just timing time, just timing.
Start getting saying that.
Speaker 4: That that Florida picture down there in the corner.
Speaker 6: Like timing of last week. I won't sell it one
until next year.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: But if I, like in two thousand and seven, if I.
Speaker 3: Would have been a thing, we could have had a
lot of them on yer Man.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, and we still have. We've done well. Yeah,
you know for sure, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: But you know, when I was trying to check the
couch cushions to see if we go to the movies.
Speaker 5: The one thing that I needed it.
Speaker 6: You know, you keep asking about the NIL situation, and
the thing that I just keep going back to is
a guy like both of y'all that by the time
you got back to Baton Rouge, were you an accessible
athlete that had already passed NFL.
Speaker 5: You had already passed.
Speaker 6: Now you're in retirement age, people still want it, but
it's not as sure that guy on the field. So
in the era of like a Dylan Cruz when he
was hit a home run, I already had product on
the table. They'd walk by and go, I want that
jersey now because he just walked it.
Speaker 5: Off, you know. So it was that instant gratification in
that instant that's.
Speaker 4: A great point any think about that because yeah, even okay,
so like no matter what your career is at LSU,
if it's a really good one, you go play professionally.
And so when you go play professionally, like you know,
you don't have the time, Like you just don't have
that Like you can't come back to batteries for a
signing and you can't really sign one hundred jerseys or whatever.
So like back then, by the time you came back,
I mean you're still it's still popular, but you lost
that timing that we're talking about. But now that timing
can go away because like if you know Nushmeyert, those
for four hundred yards and four touchdowns, well you got product.
Speaker 3: In here right now or whoever you know, you know
what I.
Speaker 6: Mean, he hadn't signed yet. No, but a guy, especially
in baseball. He'll go play in Middle of Americans in
the Cape Cod League for four years, chasing the dream,
and he didn't want to come back to Baton Rouge
for a couple thousand bucks and sign autographs Like that
doesn't make sense. So and then on the second part
of that, the nil has kind of hurt us a
little bit because they're seeing the big revenue dollars for
someone serving chicken out of a window for two hours
that is worth thirty thousand.
Speaker 5: Dollars to them.
Speaker 6: Well, they have an infinite amount of inventory that they
could use. They could put it on publics ad, they
can put it on a shirt, they can put on
a billboard. We have a finite number of inventory that
we have to break that down for what that cost
per athlete. So it's tough to ask an athlete to
come here for X amount of dollars because we have
to divide that by how many pieces we have for
the fair market value for that item for a customer
to walk through the door and pay for that autograph.
So it is a tough memoraile. You ask for an
ail right now, Okay, I guess it makes sense too.
Speaker 4: And then for you, I mean, look, you got to
cost the helmet, you got to cost to the athlete
that had to come in here.
Speaker 6: They say a lot with the new conversations of what
is fair market value for that athlete's autograph that has
to be divided by what's on the national market, what
I can sell it on eBay for, what I can
sell it in the store for, Like I can't ask
a customer to pay one thousand dollars for a guy
that's barely eve improved on the field yet.
Speaker 5: So we'll see. It's definitely a moving target.
Speaker 7: So I know one of your big things that y'all
do here are the silent action. It's a different events,
whether it's a charity event or a big group raising
money or a corporate event, things like that.
Speaker 4: Y'all were doing one at the event we spoke at
last Friday, I believe at like cook Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7: So what you got anythink cool plan, any any events
co or that you just did that that stuck out
to you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we have a big event tonight actually Thursday night
that we're raising money for. We're a no risk opportunity
to where we bring all the items that you see
here in the store, set it all up we're a
full service provider for an auction company. So it takes
the risk out of a company throwing an auction or
having to go buy items somewhere and having to resell
them and hope they get more money for them.
Speaker 5: If your silent auction.
Speaker 6: This is probably an unpopular statement, but if you're a
silent auction chair for a fundraiser and that's your main
source of revenue, you've already lost like your real ad,
your real dollars should come from ads or sponsorship or
table sales or alcohol sales.
Speaker 5: Like. So we kind of took the guesswork out of
out of auctions.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a lot of times it'll ruin a relationship when
you're a business owner and all you do is, man,
they're calling again for that soap basket. Like, we're not
gonna take that call, you know, so you have to
basket no risks.
Speaker 7: So you'll come in there they call you and and
it's really basically you're going in there and like you're
you're setting everything up on your on your dime and
then actually giving part of the proceeds back.
Speaker 5: Yes, whatever it sells. We use a unique bidding style.
Speaker 6: It's called every bid Wins That means every person that
write their name down wins one of those items. So
we can sell three, four five of those items instead
of just one interest and the charity will raise three
times as much and more. However many times you'll sell it,
That's why I need to go. You have six hundred
jerseys that one time.
Speaker 4: Okay, so you have so you have like a starting
bid and if you write your name down, you.
Speaker 5: Get the first one.
Speaker 6: If you're the first one to bid on it, you're
taking that item home tonight.
Speaker 5: Oh cool.
Speaker 6: After that up, it goes up in twenty five dollars increments, right,
and then so the next person will just have to
ship them one.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it encourages people to go be the first one.
Speaker 6: To be the first one because you pay the lowest
price and you take it home tonight.
Speaker 7: Interesting. Yeah, wow, I've ever seen that before. I'd be right,
I'd be like, it gets them every time.
Speaker 6: It gets them every time because they're like, oh, I
want this, this and this.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: It prevents a couple of things too. Throughout the night,
you know how much money you're raising. Yeah too, it
prevents the old line after an event that you see
fifty people trying to check out and yeah, nobody wants
to do that anymore. Yeah, yeah, I know it.
Speaker 7: Does it look like when they when the event starts,
does it look like the shoppers at Target like on
Black Friday? Like they're off the door like I'm trying
to pull the door open.
Speaker 3: Maybe sometimes?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Sometimes? Uh sure.
Speaker 5: Jacob Hester autographs for sure. People raising.
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, I mean whatever, I don't see you in
the wall here.
Speaker 6: You're saying I don't have a single Matt Flinn autograph.
Maybe we should change that.
Speaker 3: Okay, what do you want to sign Florida helmet t
the kicking? Uh yeah, do you have a Saved by
the Bell picture?
Speaker 4: He'll sign that he loves Saved by the but we
love Saved by the Bill Blood.
Speaker 5: Off camera, he did commit wearing I'm fully com.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you gonna aware of the same by the bench
show sleeveless shirt.
Speaker 5: I'll wear that to the office.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Tray, we appreciate it, bro, We appreciate you having
us here every single Thursday.
Speaker 5: Thanks guys.
Speaker 3: All right, we'll take a break.
Speaker 4: When we come back, Chef Michael Johnson will join us
to answer your monchy questions. Go ahead and get those
insides by U four chat and we'll do it right
here on O TB off the bench, all right, go
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Speaker 8: Can you see to like cooling doors to cooms.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and seven Shamps purple and gold to the core.
This is off the Bench with Hester and Flynn Matton,
Rouge's go to for all things Louisiana sports.
Speaker 3: All right, welcome back in.
Speaker 4: It is OTB here live from pro Dreams in the
shadows of Tiger Stadium right here on Burbank. I want
to remind you about LSU snacks as well, the officially
licensed snacks of the Tigers. Every bite supports LSU athletes,
so you can cheer on the Tigers while enjoying great taste.
Try the wind Bar. It's a blend of crunchy granola,
wholesome almonds, and chocolate chips packed with protein in lower
end sugar. Or you can grab wind Bites, gluten free
bite sized chocolate chip cookies with the perfect crunch. Find
LSU Snacks now at guesswhere Rouse's or online at LSU
snacks dot com LSU Snacks where every bite supports l S.
You go Tigers, Go Tigers, all right, speaking of great taste,
speaking of snacks, Speaking of LSU, it is now time
for munchies with our guys chef Michael Johnson who joins
us now, Chef, How you doing, sir, Glad to have
you back on as always.
Speaker 2: I'm great, brother bilin Blest this morning.
Speaker 5: Man, how was the Gator?
Speaker 4: I saw beautiful, beautiful pictures of Gator everywhere on social media,
and I know that you enjoyed some good old Gator
this last weekend.
Speaker 2: I mean we smoked that thing, two of them. We
smoked the two smaller ones for five hours and we
consumed one and a half. And you know what was
the kids loved it first of all. You know, we
carted it out on the table and everybody was doing
and on over and I mean it tasted delicious, right,
But I think I think the better part of it
was yesterday. I had some bits and pieces left over
that I pulled off the car and we made. I
made Gator sauce.
Speaker 5: To coant with the bakery.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean it was just another It's one
of those things that just he was given right, So
it was it was it was a good few daysier.
Speaker 7: So so, Cheff, you kind of told us that like
during the games, at your game day, at your day
to kind of go home and chill, relax a little bit.
What what are you cooking for yourself or your family? Like,
what what are you doing at the house getting ready?
Are we kind of like snacking on dips all day
like a lot of people enjoy game day or are
you making like a big like long meal?
Speaker 2: Not too many long meals. You know, my fiance likes
to cook, and so we cook in the kitchen together
a lot, and and you know, like dinner, there's lots
of pasa because my kids like pastas during the day.
It's I think it's like, you know, fruits and vegetables.
I really love fruits and vegetables and eating them fresh, right,
So I kind of snacker. You know, like in the
kitchen you're not allowed to sit down and eat too
terribly often because it takes you away from your time
a lot. So uh, you know, we it's it's a
lot of what we call eating over the trash cans,
tasting foods and throwing spoons away and so it's it's
almost a healthier way of eating too. You know, your
blood sugar doesn't spike it heavily, so I'm constantly kind
of snacking and grazing, and so you know, it's yeah,
I do have a softness for cheese, but yeah, there's
lots of lots of kind of snacky foods, fruitualgebles.
Speaker 4: Chef to go back to the Gator real quick, how
many players did you have to maybe like try to
talk in to try and said gator, Like, was there anybody,
because you know, there's players from all over the country,
Like certainly the guys from Louisiana, they've they've probably had gator,
they've certainly tried that before, maybe this around Mississippi and Texas.
But from the guys that are from you know, the
West coast or up north or whatever, like, did you
have to do with some real selling to them?
Speaker 2: I think the ones that you have to do selling
to are kind of from the inner cities sometimes, And
to be to be honest with you, it's I don't
go and seek with trying to convince them. I first
go and seek with convincing my employees who are like,
oh no, I'd never eat that because if I can
convince them to eat it and they like it, then
that I that I have a team of people who
are also saying, oh, no, you should try it. It's
actually really good. Like I don't eat that kind of stuff,
But you know, chef knows what Chef knows what he's doing.
And I've built trust with a couple of people I got.
I got a couple of kind of stubborn ones in
my kitchen that they don't like trying new stuff, but
they trust me enough to try stuff if I asked
them to. And it's usually a win, you know, very seldom,
isn't it. Now I didn't like that, you know, it's
sometimes it's oh that's interesting. You know, I'm not in
love with it, but I would probably eat that again,
or they've had a bad experience with it before. So
my first approach is to approach, you know, the ones
that and kind of test the waters with the more
with the more uh not with lack of better word, stubborn,
uh you know, tasters in my kitchen and and kind
of work for them to do the same thing. And
that usually that usually works really well for me.
Speaker 7: Chef, I hope you can help us, like settle a
great debate we have here between Hester and I. If
you close your eyes and just picture the perfect taco.
Speaker 5: Oh is it?
Speaker 7: Is it a tortilla or is it a hard shell taco?
Speaker 2: No, it's like a street taco, you know, like a
corn soft corn corn tortilla made from maize. You know,
like I like street tacos. I like linguis. I like
tongue in my top, you know, tongue tacos. I like
pork belly tacos, and lots of lots of accoutre monts, right,
like pickled pickled onions and cheese, and and probably five
different types of salsa. Right. But and and I like
I like the double up the tortillas too, you know.
And some people don't do this, but I'll take those
corn tortillas and put them on a flat grill and
toast them a little bit, just to warm them up
and give them a little bit of structure. Because people,
when you steam them, they get a little too soft
and tear too easy for me. So I like to
put them on a grill and and toast them just
just real slightly. I think they hold together better that way.
And I like the the you know, like the browning
that that that browning flavor. You know, it just adds
to the texture and the quality of the suit.
Speaker 5: Thank you, chef.
Speaker 7: This uncultured swine that I have to sit next to
every single day thinks that a hard shell taco is
the only type of taco.
Speaker 3: I didn't now.
Speaker 4: I said, like, y'all are you were like baffled that
we have hard shell tacos. They're incredible, Okay, another heartshell
since I was like, Katie will take like a flower
tortilla and fry it up and like that's the taco
shell and it's incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sound good, chef.
Speaker 4: I was just saying there's other options where this guy
speaking in absolutes, like having a soft tortilla was the
only way you could have it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Truth being known, I've never met a tackle I
didn't like.
Speaker 4: Thank you, chef. It's like it's like a piece of pizza.
It's like I like pizza from here.
Speaker 5: I don't really like it.
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, maybe, but I'm gonna eat it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That's kind of the different pizza of calzo. Right,
Like somebody just tripped and fell.
Speaker 3: And no question about it.
Speaker 4: Uh, chef, you know you told us about this kind
of get away just real quick from the food portion
of it, because I'm starving now.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: You told us like this team was was special as
far as like the meals they had together and the
time they spent together and just kind of some of
the conversations that.
Speaker 3: That you were hearing.
Speaker 4: And I think last week was like a great example
of that because you know, we you know, for playing
football too hard, gets kicked out of the football game
and then like Wes, his brother steps up and then
he goes down and then here comes another week's brothers
and Devon Key's played in credible so like those things
that you told us, like you're seeing it play out
in real time, like on the actual football field as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I didn't say this before, but you just said
something that touches on it, and I think it's it's
to be said. There's I think three sets of brothers
on this team, man, And you know, like as a brother,
you know, I know how much I care for my brother,
even though we don't always agree on everything. You know,
like with if my brother's on that football team, I'm
fighting tooth and nail. Like my brother and I may fight,
but damn the man that gets right and that that
builds an even larger I think kind of a passion
towards what you're trying to do. And we've got three
sets of brothers on this team. That's that's pretty special, man.
And you know, watching them interact and kind of pick
on each other a little bit but also protect each
other a little bit. As a human being, I think
that you have to appreciate.
Speaker 7: That, Chef. We just came off a big week. It
was four a week. Now we're playing Southeastern, so we
kind of all know that's kind of a little bit
of a purple jersey game.
Speaker 5: But you're you're with these kids.
Speaker 7: You see these kids every single day, and Jake and
I talk about how when we had the kind of
the purple jury, like the the the dip and I
guess competition if you will, the week was like you
had to rely on leadership. You had to like really
be cognizant of the fact that I got a prep
just like I did last week for the big game.
So like, you get to spend every single week with
these guys and you've seen them all week, Like, so,
how are how do these guys, how does this team,
how does the culture react to these types of week.
Speaker 5: Have you seen anything different?
Speaker 2: No, this ship doesn't steer differently. Brother. These kids stay focused, man.
And that's the beautiful thing about it. Brother. You know,
like there's no reaction or or unreaction. You know, they
come in, they eat the same that, you know what
I mean like it And that's what I love about
them is they're not reacting in that way. They're not
overreacting in any way, you know, like I media is
everywhere now and and I'm kind of baffled at the
fact that they can maintain that, to be honest with you,
because it's to to be emotional as to be human.
But I think they managed it exceptionally well. They're super
resilient and and you know they have a brotherhood of
teammates around them, you know, to support you know when
they're struggling, and you know, it's it's it's something pretty
special to watch, you know that.
Speaker 4: Jeff, What we got on the menu today? Have we
already laid it? I don't think it's nine thirty. I'm
sure you've already had to feed a ton of people
already today.
Speaker 2: And yeah, chicken and offls for breakfast. We have salmon
for lunch. I'm trying to think what I've seen because
I've been kind of in the office this morning a
little bit. But gosh, you just me, what's going on?
Speaker 3: What's on the menu today? Actually that I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't know, man.
Speaker 2: You know, they're doing really well with.
Speaker 3: It, so it's going great. Everything's going great there.
Speaker 4: Look, Jeff, you look, you had a big assignment last
week with the Gator, so we'll give you a pass here.
That was that was you know, that was the main thing.
We had to make sure that we had Gator. This
is a show full of Gator haters, and the team
got to enjoy Gator.
Speaker 5: So you're good.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what it is is. I went on
I went on a high fence ranch hunt with some
of the guys back six months ago, and and one
of the one of the videos was released today and
and uh it, I've been kind of really in that
because for the first for the first time, I cooked
heart and it was a gins Bach heart and it
was an extraordinary experience and I got to share that
with some really incredible people. And so you know, my
mind has kind of been with that heart this morning,
because you know, when you kill a creature. I think
there's the spiritual side of it as well. That you know,
I consume as much as that of the animal as
I can, and the heart more specifically, you know. And
so that was one of the that was one of
the times I one of the first times I cooked
heart for you know, like it was a wild game
heart and it was I was feeding some of the
guys that I worked with on a day to day
basis in the in the football team. So it was
a really special moment.
Speaker 3: Man, all right there he is our guy.
Speaker 4: Chef Michael Johnson joins us every single week, always gives
us just great insight, not only what's on the menu,
sometimes you know what's not on the menu because we're
trying to figure that out because we're worried about Florida.
We had we had a lot of caters we have
to take care of last week, Chef, I mean, always
our pleasure to catch up with you.
Speaker 3: We appreciated every single week.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: I love that guy the best. He is the best.
Speaker 7: Although I saw that when you when you when you
kill an animal, you're supposed to eat the heart raw
still beating.
Speaker 5: I don't know you doing that.
Speaker 7: No, I know that when I first my first year,
my dad did put like blood on my chee.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, don't hate. Don't hate on fish sticks either.
Speaker 5: I'm not hating on fish delicious. Okay, I didn't hate on.
Speaker 7: Fish I don't know, Okay, So this is what I said.
Speaker 5: I just made this point in the chat.
Speaker 7: Like hardshell tacos, they're kind of equivalent to fishticks to me, like,
sure they taste good and they taste fine, but at
some point in life.
Speaker 5: You gotta grow up to just grow up.
Speaker 3: I don't want to grow up.
Speaker 5: I'm a toys the kid, and.
Speaker 7: I grow up to be like like your age or anything,
but get past nine.
Speaker 3: I still eat cereal every night.
Speaker 5: That's true with the cartoon character on the mark.
Speaker 7: So the hard show Taco thing tracks like cereal is
great and I'll eat every now and then. I love
a fishtick. I love a chicken like I love an
animal shaped chicken nuggy may it's fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't know your pallet was so mature.
Speaker 7: But I'm not eating you know. It's not like my
go to, but I dabble. But at some point you
gotta grow up and just eat normal shaped chicken nuggets.
Speaker 3: Some of you didn't grow up rednecks in the shows.
Speaker 5: That's okay. We're ball on a budget.
Speaker 3: We made the most of those fish sticks and they
were delicious.
Speaker 5: I ate so many fish that I like to dip
in mustard. Kind of weird.
Speaker 7: What Yeah, but I look back at like when he
as an adult, you do you fish with a lot
of sauces and the same thing as mustard.
Speaker 3: Frozen teqtos.
Speaker 7: That's well done, Matsi Thirtino's pizza, well done. Oh yeah,
that was the best. Yeah, Totina, don't try to give
me another cheap pizza.
Speaker 4: That's the one, the one I want. Flavor, that's the
one I want. And hey we agree there you go.
Look at that, look at us. Would have thought, all right,
we will.
Speaker 3: We'll get you some.
Speaker 4: Big dealer, no big deal when we come back here
on O TV.
Speaker 3: Off the bench. You know what goes great with frozen pizzas?
Speaker 5: Yeah, sure too, lots of them.
Speaker 3: I mean think about it. Elite combination, little.
Speaker 7: Cold pizza, little do sequis, chilling at a tailgate.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you can get your do sequis and be
ready to go for the tailgate this weekend. Go for dose,
enjoy that ice chests full of dose, Sekis.
Speaker 5: It's gonna get you right for game day.
Speaker 4: You're gonna enjoy sitting there and watching all those games
that we talked about a little bit earlier. Right before
you head into Tiger Stadium. At the tailgate, it is
always a great time to go for douce.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you ever likes as a man like you know,
packing the car up perfectly is awesome. But like another
great feeling is a beautifully packed ice chest, like when
you line it all up with the ice, put up
a good layer of ice and put another that's even
better when it's dose seconds when I say a beautiful
green bottle, beautiful green can with the two xes on it. Man,
go for dose. We know we got another home game.
We got to show up, We got to show out.
Delete some beers do it responsibly.
Speaker 5: Go for dose. Stay thirsty with my.
Speaker 9: Friends waiting for you. Ass away from you.
Speaker 1: Broke from the locker room to the airwaves.
Speaker 3: It's off the bench. Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn, Welcome
back in.
Speaker 4: It is OTB here live from pro Dreams on burbankprodash
dreams dot com. Check out their shop and the memorabilia
they've got here. Come see them this weekend when you
try and watch the Tigers play. All right, let's do
a little big deal, no big deal, and I know
that you know we're here, Our great producers are back
in the studio, so it's okay, we can still get
this done.
Speaker 3: I'll go first, and Flynn can go.
Speaker 4: We'll turn ourselves down and then you all can answer
there back in studio. You don't have to worry about
the sounder here because you know what, we can't hear
it anyways. And so we'll go ahead and we'll get
this started and I'll start it off. Big deal or
no big deal. The NCAA eliminates this spring transfer portal window,
so college football is officially moving to a single off
season transfer portal window.
Speaker 7: That's a big deal, certainly is. I guess this is
probably the Tennessee UCLA situation, kind of the knee jerk
reaction from that. But I'm sure that any anytime you
put restrictions on something, anytime you start to tighten up
the rules, I think coaches around the country breathe a
sigh relief because what they don't want is the wild,
wild West. And every year it gets a little bit
tighter and tighter, and I think that's what they want.
As long as a coach and an organization knows what
the rules are and they're clear and they're fair, then
they know how to work. And I think this kind
of helps that, Like they get their roster secured and
they know their roster is going to be their roster
at an earlier date, which helps coaches, what helps planning. Now,
it puts a little limitations on the player and his
options at some point of the year if things don't
go their way. But you know, I think the coaches
and organizations, but we're probably a big catalyst and getting
this push through.
Speaker 3: All right, Landra Tata.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think this is a big deal. Yeah, for
all the reasons that Matt just said. I mean, it
has kind of just been the wild West in terms
of not only an IL but the transfer portal as well,
and just everybody was kind of allowed to do whatever
they wanted. So in terms of there being a role
in place, finally, even though there were some like, yeah,
this is a pretty big deal.
Speaker 5: All right, Well, I hate to go chalk, but yeah,
big deal.
Speaker 11: I think it's a big deal because I think it
kind of puts a control on things that. Frankly, I
think needed to be a little bit controlled. I understand
a lot of people said, oh, well, you know, this
gives more power to the players. Players kind of had
all the power. Now, whether you're four or against that
is entirely up to you. But like Matt said, it
helps you kind of plan out your roster a little
bit better. You know what you have at an earlier date.
I mean, look, you had the spring portal window, you
had the fall portal window. The players at Virginia Tech
and UCLA are able to enter the portal now that
their coaches are fired. I mean, it was a free
for all everywhere. This kind of controls stuff just a
little bit. So I think it's good for the game.
I think it's a big deal.
Speaker 3: All right, Matthew, what you got there, sir?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 7: Big deal, No big deal. Chicago Bears head coach Ben
Johnson stated recently, after this past week they started Bears
that started owing two, that the practice habits of his
team has not yet been reflective of a championship caliber team.
Players not finishing going through the football, doing things that
are tight, that are that are taught at a high
school level.
Speaker 5: Is this a big deal? No big deal.
Speaker 3: That's not good. I think it's a big deal. That's
not good.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: That tells me you're far away, you aren't even close.
You aren't in the realm of where you need to be.
And that tells me that you know the person that
left you that obviously didn't have a great culture either.
But the more troublesome thing is you've been there long
enough to create your own culture and try to implement
your own culture, and it hasn't stuck. Like the players
aren't taking buying what you're selling right now, it's a massive.
Speaker 5: Well, it's weak. It's weak too.
Speaker 7: When I was looking at this, I thought to myself,
do I like him saying this publicly in a press conference?
And I think the answer for me is yes, because
as long as he said it to his team first,
like if as long as his team's not getting that
message through the media or watching it on TV in
like the team dining hall and hearing that from their
head coach, sending a message early of your expectation for
a team, sending it loud and clear, making no qualms
about the kind of kind of organization that you want
to run, and that they're not hitting those marks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you could see.
Speaker 7: Frustration on him at the at the end of the
game this past weekend against the Lions too. So yeah,
to your point, I think it's okay because he's setting
a culture. He's telling what's it expected of them and
they're not hitting the mark and he's letting the world know.
So if you're a Caleb Williams and that's your team, man,
you better the message better be received loud and clear.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there's nothing to guarantee that Caleb Williams is
going to be a b R C.
Speaker 5: And those flashes and he did improve from week one
to week.
Speaker 3: Two his college had he had flashes in college.
Speaker 4: The flashes are great, but to be an NFL dude,
you've got to be consistent those flashes.
Speaker 3: Like I'm trying to let me think.
Speaker 4: Of a of a quarterback like okay.
Speaker 3: Brock party like Brock Party.
Speaker 4: Like the flashes aren't flashy, but the consistency is there.
So like you got to be careful falling in love
with the flashes, as you know.
Speaker 7: And I'm a big believer in Ben Johnson's offense. I
think he's really too. Detroitans were incredible last year. Their offense.
Speaker 4: I love, Love Love, but also to the point the
players that were running that offense have bought into Dan
Campbell's mentality is for sure.
Speaker 7: So that he's got to set that mentality too. And
Caleb oys is being asked to do things he's never
had to do before. So there is gonna be a
little bit of a wearing curve there. Wondre tey what
y'all think.
Speaker 11: I think it's a big deal. You know, talking about
bad habits. Ben Johnson like all that. That was the
reason I didn't like Cayleb Williams coming into the NFL,
because I thought he had some bad habits. But you know,
we're talking about Caleb in all this. Go back and
look at Lincoln Riley. Everyone talks about Lincoln Riley as
kind of this QB guru, but look at the ones
that have succeeded in the NFL. Baker had a coach
before Lincoln Riley. Jalen Hurts had a coach before Lincoln Riley.
I mean he taught Caleb Williams, and I mean they
did good things together in college. Caleb kind of regressed
under Lincoln Riley from year one to year two, So
I mean it's kind of an indictment all the way
around on a lot of different people.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it feels like a big deal because it's just
a bad culture a vibe over there because of that.
So that yeah, big deal.
Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, I think it's I think it's a
massive deal. They the Bears.
Speaker 4: I know it's early in his tenure, but they feel
like they got to change some things.
Speaker 7: And when you're an NFL team, when you're an NFL
team and your team gets called out for effort by
your head coach.
Speaker 4: After when when high school gets thrown out there this
effort that is not good. That is not where you
want to be. And yeah, they a lot of people
think they might.
Speaker 5: Be the worst team in the NFL right now.
Speaker 4: It's bad shocker their defense and not the worst roster either.
Speaker 5: Who's gone her defense again. I think he's a naggy. Yeah,
he's got no cakes.
Speaker 3: No cakes, weak chin, mister Dennis Allen.
Speaker 4: All right, we'll take a break and when we come back,
we'll wrap it up like we do every single day,
answering your questions. Will ask the bench here to close
it out. On a Thursday edition of O T Beat.
Speaker 1: Off the Bench, Off the Bench, all right.
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Speaker 1: From Flayers to Legends, Pester and Flynn breakdown l s
U football like only Champions can.
Speaker 4: Mexico Oh TB. One final segment here. I'm gonna get
to your questions real quick, though. I want to remind
you about All Star All Star twyter Batuge dot com
buying new leasing renting. Every single thing is available. Go
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Speaker 5: They see me rolling. I don't know why I'm saying that.
They hating patrolling there, trying to catch me red and dirty.
Speaker 3: That's what you're thinking.
Speaker 5: Yep, I got the Toyota.
Speaker 3: Nope, all right, ask the bench. What's more?
Speaker 4: While Flynn mocking Hester's hard tacos or tea, Bob mocking
Tampa Tay's chicken fajitas.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he did hate.
Speaker 4: On Taylor because Taylor liked to get chicken fajitas and
not steak. I get I switch it up. I go
steak and chicken. I get the combo do that too?
Speaker 3: Gets the surfing ter. Sometimes if I'm building fancy, yeah.
Speaker 5: Fill the little shrimps on there. Yeah, shrimps, Yeah, chicken
feed is isn't a weird take?
Speaker 3: Tea Bob thought it was.
Speaker 7: No, that's not a weird take at all. Yeah, Taylor,
you're cool man. Way it's I mean, it's way more
normal than like thinking that hard shell tagos are the
only taco.
Speaker 5: In the world. I don't remember saying that.
Speaker 4: I just I found it fascinating that you were, like,
people eat hard tacos.
Speaker 5: Yeah they do. It's crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, as the bench, should the chat organize our
own OTB tailgates in some moscona won't let y'all do one?
Speaker 3: Let's do one here here, all right here pro dreams. Yeah,
I mean seriously, why not?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 3: We got great space. They can will in and out
the memorabilia here so we can kind of move it.
Speaker 5: What if my parking pass isn't near here, I.
Speaker 3: Don't give a damn about your parking pass. My guy
touch grass walk a little bit. I do it like
a night game.
Speaker 4: Let's just do it early, Like how about like we
just come watch college game day here or something.
Speaker 3: I did that last weekend.
Speaker 5: It was left on. Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 7: We do need to organize an OTB tailgate, though, that
would be fun.
Speaker 5: South Carolina. Can I interest you in that?
Speaker 3: I was thinking more Western Kentucky?
Speaker 4: Okay, because more relaxed, more chill, more chill, guaranteed night game.
You know, one of those ones where you can like,
you know, we're sitting here, we're shooting the bull, We're
talking about how great things are, but we're not really
worried about, you know, the outcome of the game. Maybe
I'm wrong, I mean, because you know me, I'd actually like,
I'd rather do.
Speaker 3: It against A and M.
Speaker 4: That'd be awesome because I want to, like, I want
to have that feeling of playing a major opponent.
Speaker 5: So it took to you all. I'm just I'm giving
you options.
Speaker 7: Western was like with your job on Western Kentucky a
little bit low, like can you have a couple more pops?
Speaker 5: And what I was thinking, you have a couple more pops.
Before that you might have decoded.
Speaker 3: What I was trying to steer.
Speaker 5: You just want to drink more? Got it? Perfect? That's cool.
Speaker 7: That's why you want to go early too, so you
have some breakfast beers, go take a little napski in
the afternoon. Yep, smart, I got it. You got me,
You got me? Okay, fair fair, we'll do here pro dreams.
Speaker 5: That was my thought.
Speaker 7: Well O TB Tailgate, Well we'll pick a game. Maybe
we'll get a little yeah, get a little voit in
the chest. Stop talking.
Speaker 5: We love you. We'll see you tomorrow later off the bench.
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