Speaker 1: I'll start to you to present Off the Bench.
Speaker 2: This is what we have been waiting for.
Speaker 1: Off the Bench. Now here's Jacob.
Speaker 3: Past Welcome into a Wednesday edition of Off the Bench.
Taylor Sharper with your filling end for Jacob Pastor. Elandra
Villareale here as always, and as you heard by the
wonderfully put intro, Jordan Kitchens is here with us as well. Elandra,
you texted me this morning said, hey, I'm gonna be
coming in a little hot had power hour. How was that?
Speaker 2: It was good?
Speaker 4: But I'm just still I don't know what just happened. Yes,
right before the show.
Speaker 3: We were we were gonna start with with baseball, but
where we're gonna get there? Okay, Jordan leaves the studio
two minutes for the show starts. All of a sudden,
he's running back in. We look up. Elandra goes to Jordan,
what's going on? His pants are like unzipped, like way down.
We're trying to figure out what's going on, Jordan. Ory, Okay,
that's aggressive.
Speaker 5: You know, we have to set the table. We can't
just come out here and be like, oh, this guy's
around with his pants off. No, that's not what's going on.
So let me set the table everybody. So what happened was,
you know I'm making the YouTube thumbnail, Well, why not
making a YouTube thumb Now I forgot I have to
put the YouTube thumbnail in. So I'm sitting at my
desk and I'm like, oh, snap, it's five fifty seven.
I gotta go do this real quick, you know, put
the titler in whatever. So I go run and do that.
I look at the clock. Six point fifty nine. Keep
in mind, guys, I have to go. I don't like
to drink coffee, so I had to drink me a
nice doctor Pepper this morning. Give me a little pepper
my step and now Dr Pepper just went straight through me.
So I'm looking at the clock. I'm panicking. I'm in
the bathroom. I'm like, okay, you know, I got like
thirty seconds at this point, so I you know, you
gotta do what you gotta do. Do what I do.
And I'm thinking I'm out of time. So I'm like
running back in the studio and everybody's like, why you're
running back? What's going on here? What's going on here?
And I'm like, well, in my mind, I'm out of time. Yeah, yeah,
you're right. So you know, Land had to hold the
four down. You know who hold the line. Let me
get set up first, let me get the weather together.
So that's what happened. I'm not a maniac running with
my pants off everybody. No, I just a bad look.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I'm a team player. I'm a team player. Yes, did
you did?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: There?
Speaker 2: Turned into he's a team player?
Speaker 5: But team player?
Speaker 3: Did you get your p in at least?
Speaker 5: Oh bro?
Speaker 3: Because like, like you know this, Yeah, there's nothing worse.
It's a guy like you're halfway through that pee. You
gotta like y'all try to clench it. You can, you
can't do it.
Speaker 2: And I just know he didn't wash his hands.
Speaker 5: Listen, you know when you have hand sanitized. This is
that I can't lie. Y'all't hear y'all, don't hear a
foster running. We're not stupid, We're not stupid. Nobody heard
the fowtert running. But but I was able to get
in right for the show start, able to drain the
main vein. We're all good, we're all settled. We're here
for three hours locked in.
Speaker 3: Are you doing good this morning?
Speaker 1: Jordan?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I neglected to ask you that with all the uh,
you know, things going on when you came.
Speaker 5: In, things happened, things happened. But you know this, this
is the whole point about being a Foxhold guy. You know,
you find yourself back against the wall. You gotta find
a way to get to get out.
Speaker 3: Would some would say fox all member wouldn't wait till
forty five seconds before the show to pee, But it's
a fair see.
Speaker 5: Instead of doing that, you do it before. So you're
all the way locked in now you're all the way
locked and there is no there's no excuses, there is
no I gotta go pee real quick. No, it's gone.
You gotta worry about that.
Speaker 3: A law Draves power power was great.
Speaker 4: I was just telling Jordan before all that chaos happened
that the finisher today was one hundred walking lunges with
a kettle bell in each hand. So yeah, I'm pretty
dead right now. And Jordan was like, I'd have to
go back to bed, and I was like, no, trust me.
I took a shower and my bed was made and
I looked down my bed and I.
Speaker 6: Was like, ooh, I would love I would love to
be all.
Speaker 2: Up in you right now.
Speaker 3: Okay, man, we are wild in this morning here on.
Speaker 2: I would love to be in my bed.
Speaker 3: So speaking of kettle I think what makes this even yeah, okay,
this is what makes this even funnier. Speaking of both
of your actions here early this morning, did you'll ever
hear the story of p Diddy with the kettle bill?
Speaker 6: No, and I'm not sure seven o five am.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, it's not a it's not a sexual story.
So his son, he had a son, and I'm trying
to find out where.
Speaker 4: He.
Speaker 3: Okay, Justin Combs was his son. He was a defensive
back on UCLA's football team. This was years ago.
Speaker 2: I remember this.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, Jordan, if you haven't heard this story, day
let his father Seawan Combs obviously.
Speaker 4: Well, I've never heard this story. I remember his son
playing at A Well, I don't know this.
Speaker 3: He was like working out in the weight room or whatever,
got mad at an assistant coach and threw a kettle
bell at him. What didn't hit him, but threw the
kettle bell at him that some strength that might have
been a sign, might have been a sign.
Speaker 5: Did he get kicked off the team?
Speaker 3: No, not, he he was working out in the in
the weight room through the kettle bell at the coach.
Speaker 5: That's why was he even there? What's going on here?
Speaker 3: He was a celebrity father in Los Angeles, so famous.
Speaker 4: Whatever can you imagine if Deshaun Foster was the coach
at the time and he did he threw a kettle
bell at him, he would have nothing to say to him.
Speaker 3: Okay, here we go, here, here's a sorry, I gotta
put up. So an assistant coach, sal Alosi had apparently
been ripping into Justin Combs during a recent u c
l A practice that did he attended unhappy with the
treatment of his son? Did he decided to visit Alosi
in his office? Words were said, a scuttle, a scuffle ensued,
and then things escalated. Did he took a kettlebell of
an undisclosed weight into his hand? And reports are unclear,
but they seem to involve uh, did he swinging the
kettlebell and throwing it in the general direction? Okay, so
this wasn't even in the weight room, But.
Speaker 6: I'm trying to imagine how I would throw a kettlebell.
Speaker 3: Must have been by a handle, like.
Speaker 2: Pretty heavy, like five pound. I don't use.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you're also not using it as a projectile either.
Speaker 5: So well, hold on, So Taylor, what did you tell
me is this man had the secret kettlebell on him
in the in the meeting, like he was probabilitated.
Speaker 3: I'm assuming, I don't know, you know, I'm assuming that
there was probably a kettlebell nearby in the office. Like
maybe this guy was like a strength coach or whatever.
But what if he just went on I don't think
did he showed up knocking on the door with a
kettlebell in his hand and you let him in the office.
Speaker 5: I don't know, a trench coat on. It was like
in the trench coat, it's got a kettlebell weight, like
premeditated sex. You say something, kettle belt to the head
right there. I respect that a little bit, don't. Okay, don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 5: It's not respect. I respect. I respect audacity to do that.
Speaker 3: To do a lot of things. I wanted to start
this show with some college baseball talk, but Jordan, it's
it's eight minutes after we'll we'll combine both of our
college baseball segments into one. This is what we'll do.
We'll do that next stay up and watching the NBA
game last night, oh man, of course, maybe I couldn't sleep.
My blood was pumping like this was. This was one
of like the so like really as far as like
locked into playoffs, it's really me you and Hester. That's
kind of it as far as like like everybody has
their team, like Landre loves the Spurs, you know, but
like even when the Pelar aren't good, like you and I,
we watched the playoffs. Yeah, man, I remember being freshman
in high school is really when I fell in love
with the NBA playoffs. Like it was because I was
I was at summer football workouts, like it would be
in the morning, that afternoon, whatever, enjoy your summer to.
Speaker 1: Come home that night.
Speaker 3: NBA playoffs every single night during the summer. I mean
that's when. That's when I've had. This was one of
those peak like back to back, full court, just hard
nosed basketball because it's weird. It's like it was one
thirty one to one twenty or one twenty two, whatever
the hell it was, but like there was also defense
in that game as well. It was just like dude,
I mean it was.
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 3: It was phenomena. Like I didn't sleep last night because
of it. Okay, look We're just gonna go ahead and
take a break since that first segment was not at
all we thought it was going to be. But uh,
we'll come back. We'll have an extended second segment. I'll
get a Lunis thoughts on this as well. The betting
nods for the favorites to win the College World Series
is out. LSU Tiger's high on that list. And then
I also I want to talk about maybe the easiest
regionals and the hardest regionals across all of college baseball
as we enter those this weekend. Both of those coming
up next. You're on off the bench.
Speaker 7: Off the bench, all right, go to Boudroselectrical dot com.
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Speaker 3: More power, more protection.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Off the Bench.
Speaker 3: Welcome back in second segment here on a Wednesday edition
of OTB Taylor Trophy with you filling in for mister Jacobs.
So we got a Landra, Villa Reale and Jordan Kitchens here,
and we have already had a lot of fun here
on this Wednesday morning. We talked about a Landra's Power Hour,
Jordan walking in with his pants on zipped, and uh
an old story of uh P Diddy swinging a kettlebell
at a UCLA assistant football coach. So we've burned through
a lot of topics already here on this Wednesday morning.
Wanted to actually start the show with a little bit
of college baseball. But sometimes, look things happen. You gotta
tell a couple stories. That's kind of where the opening
of the show went. But right now, want to look
at the odds to win the College World Series because
they are out and your LSU Tigers are six to
one odds. That's the second best odds in the entire country.
The favorites are the Arkansas Razorbacks at plus four hundred.
I get it. They're forty three and thirteen on the season.
They finished the SEC with a twenty and ten record
a won a game in the SEC Tournament. I understand,
but haven't we seen this before? Look, I think Arkansas
is a great baseball program. I think Dave van Horne
is a really good coach. But it just seems like
time and time again, Arkansas every year looks prime to
win it all, only to fall short. I mean, when
was it twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen, something like that. They're
a foul ball catch away from winning the College World Series.
Their infielder's completely with there's three guys standing there, nobody
catches the foul ball. They ultimately lose in the College
World Series finals. Just stuff like that happens to Arkansas
time and time again in the College World Series. We
get it. They're a great team. They've been good all year.
I know everybody hates the University of Texas. I think
they've been the best team in the SEC all year long.
Texas would have been my betting favorite to win it all,
just strictly based on what we've seen so far this year,
I would go with Texas, not Arkansas. But look right
behind Arkansas, it's LSU. It's six to one odds, So
can the Tigers get it done? They certainly have the
pitching to do this. Look, I love what I've seen
from this staff lately. You have two top flight starters.
It's funny after the first game in the SEC Tournament
where both Anderson and Ianson pitched, Jay Johnson was asked
about Kate Anderson. He goes, look, he's the best pitcher
in the country. The only person he might be tied
with is ant of the Ions. And I mean it
doesn't really matter to me. You can say, Okay, Kate
Anderson's your ace as far as I'm concerned, Kate Anderson's
your day one starter. Ions in your day two. You
have two aces on this staff. They have both been excellent. Also,
it's looking like you may have some solid options for
your third and fourth starter. Everyone on this show has
always talked about, Look, when you get to Omaha, you
may have to dip in a little bit, start a
third a fourth arm, A guy like you see it
every single year, right You saw it with Nate Ackenhowison
two years ago when LSU won the National Championship. He
wasn't a weekend starter in that rotation. But because of
rest for Paul Skins and some other factors like Nate
Ackenhow's another step up and start a game in the
National Championship. What arms can you rely on out of
the bullpit? Because we know Anderson and Ionsen, in my opinion,
best duo in the country. As far as starting pitchers,
I throughout the names that I know for sure this
team can count on. Zach Callen, Cason Evans if he's
not starting, Chase Shores if he's not starting, Connor Ware,
Jacob Myers, Cooper Williams, Jaden Newton. Those are seven guys
right now I feel comfortable with. Now in Landro have
three more names. I'm gonna throw them out to you
and you tell me if you'd feel comfortable throw them
out there. They're talented, they've done some good, they've done
some bad.
Speaker 2: To start, No.
Speaker 3: Like that you'd feel comfortable with out of the bullpen,
because like we we know the starters. I just named
seven arms that could either be maybe your third starter
out of the bullpen? Did everyone knows? Okay, how about
this name Maverick Risey? Can he count on him? Yes? Okay,
that's a but still you can DJ Primo, Yes, okay,
that's nine. William Schmidt this was my biggest question mark.
Speaker 2: I don't know, he's very hit or miss. I would
say no.
Speaker 3: I would say no as well. Okay, that's kind of
the point of this exercise is that no, you're look,
he's a freshman. He's a freshman. He's going to get better.
But I just listed Callen Evans Shores where Myers, Williams Newt,
and then Landra said yes on Rizzi and Primo. That's
nine arms. Now, of course a couple of them are
going to have to start, Like as Jade Newt going
to be your third starter? Is it going to be
case and Evans? But look, earlier in this season it was, hey,
you're starting anderson Ians and Chase Shores. You can rely
on two guys out of the bullpen and Zach Collen
Case and Evans. Everybody else is a giant question mark.
We've talked about the struggles of this offense. It's been
flipped completely. As far as this LSU pitching staff. I
think there's multiple guys that you can count on, But
the bats are a concern for me. Now. The good
news issue is great at home in hitting, and they're
going to be at home and the regionals and the Supers,
which they got to go through in order to get
to Omaha. It's so weird, like this team is a
night and day offensive at home and then on the route.
Not very long ago, they scored nine runs total at
Texas A and M. That's a team that didn't even
make it into this tournament. Nine runs. Then they come
home against Arkansas, who's now the betting favorite to win
it all. They score twenty two runs that weekend. What
happens when they go to Hoover away from alex Box,
they score four runs in two games. It's I can't
figure out why this team cannot hit away from alex Box.
It's one of the bigger questions for me. So getting
to Omaha shouldn't be a problem. My bigger question is
what are they going to do when they ultimately get there.
Because you're at home in a regional, you're at home
against a super regional. You've been able to hit inside
alec box. I'm not concerned with that whatsoever. And your
pichon has been good enough to carry you anyways. But
once you get to Omaha, what's the batting going to
look like? I mean, you have Ethan Fry who's been
on a tear, and then I mean, you know, you're
top three or four in the order, Curiel Dickinson, Jared Jones,
I mean they are who they are, right, Jake Brown's
out there as well. But the bottom part of your order, now,
coming into the season we talked about, oh you have
talent one through nine in this order. The bottom part
of your order has not stepped up in quite some time.
All right, look who you have down there, Luis Hernandez,
Stephen Mylem, Michael braswell, Chris Stanfield, depending on where you
want to put him. Those guys need to step up. Now.
Stanfield's been the best of that group by fault. He's
been really good at the bottom part of that order,
but Islem Hernandez braswell. Those guys have to step up
in order for you. Took a beat in Omaha. Going
back to the regionals, though, I was looking at the
brackets yesterday and look, we talked a lot yesterday about
how easy the LSU Regional was. We're gonna take that
out of the equation. I kind of wanted to look
at the hardest regionals and the easiest regionals across the country.
For me, just out of the gate, looking at it
surface level, Hattiesburg Regional has to be one of the toughest,
at least for the host site. The Southern miss is
the host obviously, be of Miami and Alabama also there.
Look at Alabama, they're forty one and sixteen on the year,
sixteen and fourteen in the conference, and in my opinion,
their top three batteries are as good as any trio
in the country. Kate Snell's batting three sixty six. Richie
Bonomolo is at three to twenty, and we all know
how great of a two way player Justin Lebron is.
He's at three fifteen. And it's not just that they
hit for average. So Kate Snell has twelve home runs,
Justin Lebron has eighteen, and Richie Bonamolo has eight, So
all three of those guys hit for power and average.
That is a dangerous, dangerous one two three at the
top of that lineup. Their pichon's been below average. I mean,
they have a five to one to one ERA on
the season as a team, but most of the usual
weekend arms have actually been pretty solid. You have a
couple guys in Alabama's bullpen who have like a twenty
two EER that's bringing up the team. Ert the guys
you see on the weekend, they've actually been better as
of late. And then you look at a team like
Miami about two seventy eight. As a team, they have
sixty eight home runs on the year, but a five
point h three e RA, and they have a decent
starting rotation. As far as their their three weekend arms
of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they're thirty one and twenty four overall,
fifteen and fourteen in the ACC. Now here's where it's
going to help out Southern miss At home, Miami is
twenty two and nine away, they're seven and fourteen, so
that is going to play in Southern missus favorite because
they are the host team. But I just look at
that regional. I'm not sure Southern Miss makes it out
of there. I mean when I look at Alabama and
you know at least the top arms in their weekend rotation.
I look at their batting line up top to bottom.
I mentioned snell, Lebron and Bontomolo. I kind of think
Alabama is going to make it out of this region.
And I get it. Southern Miss is a great team.
They have earned the right to be a host site.
They're a HOS site most years because they're a good
baseball program. But I just think Alabama battle tested. They
have a winning record in the SEC. We know how
tough that conference has been all year long. You've won
forty one games this year. I got it like Alabama
to come out of the regional. I don't know if
Southern Miss makes it out of their own regional. I
think that is a very difficult draw for the Golden Eagles. Now,
as far as the easiest regional goes, I think, far
and away it's the Athens Regional. Georgia is the number
seven national seed, but I think they got a good draw. Now,
again we're excluding LSHU from this equation. We broke down
that regional yesterday. Everybody knows that the Tigers got a
favorable draw. So outside of that, I like what the
Bulldogs at Oklahoma State's there. They're only twenty eight and
twenty three, fifteen and twelve in the Big Twelve. Also
just five and twelve record on the road, and they're
going two Athens. Cowboys do come in hot. They've won
eight of the last nine in the Big Twelve. However,
on the season, they are hitting just two fifty four
and they only have two guys over three hundred as
far as batting average, but their staff is actually pretty good.
A four to thirty three ERA is a staff, so
they're good on the mound, they just can't really hit.
Then you have Duke thirty seven wins, seventeen and thirteen
in the ACC again under a three hundred batting average
is a team two eighty nine. The ERA is four
ninety one. And then Binghamton is the four seed in
that regional. That's a team that a lot like Little
Rock because like you look at Little Rock in this
LSU regional, you're like, Okay, they have a losing record,
but they went on a run. They won their conference tournament,
they got into the postseason. It's similar with Binghamton. They're
twenty nine and twenty four overall, just thirteen and eleven
in the regular season in their conference, but they won
the America East Championship over Bryant, so they earn the
right to get here. A two ninety four batting average,
so they can actually hit the ball pretty well, but
their ERA is six forty six this season. As a staff,
they struggle on the mound. I think Georgia is going
to have an easy time with that. So you look
at Duke, Binghams and Oklahoma State. Two of those three
teams don't even have thirty wins on the season, and
the best record between the three in conference is Duke
at seventeen and thirteen. I think that's one of the
easiest regionals landro as far as like easy hard, where
do you fall? It's like like tak an l issue
out of the equation. Like when I looked at the
Athens Regional, I felt that one like, oh, I think
Georgia is gonna have an easy time, Like out there,
who do you think got a good draw? Bad drill?
Speaker 4: So one that I was looking at and if you're
looking at it in terms of like for the host
the Conway Regional hosted by Coastal Carolina, or I mean,
I guess if you're looking at it through like an
SEC lens, because Florida is gonna go up to Conway,
and uh, that's gonna be a tough regional because East Carolina,
Coastal Carolina, and Florida are.
Speaker 2: All in it.
Speaker 4: And we know that East and Coastal Carolina always makes
some runs in the postseason.
Speaker 2: So I think that was gonna be a little tough.
Speaker 4: If we're looking at it through like Florida's lens, it'll
be tough for Florida to get out of that because
I mean, they made it into the postseason, but they
had a rough regular season, so that one's gonna be
tough for them. And another one that to me kinda
so like Tennessee snuck their way into hosting a regional.
Speaker 3: You and I were talking about it yesterday. We were
shocked that they got the.
Speaker 4: Host, Yeah, which is I think that's kind of BS.
Speaker 2: But they get an easy one too, Like they host, they're.
Speaker 3: Getting the benefit of the dow to be in the defendition. Yeah,
is what they're.
Speaker 2: Getting, that's true and fair.
Speaker 4: They're getting wake Forest, who we faced in the College
World Series, and they're a good program, but thirty six
and twenty on the season. And then they get Cincinnati
who's thirty two and twenty four and Miami Ohio thirty
five and twenty one. So the Knoxville Regional is also
pretty easy to me. Another tough one that we were
talking about in the break. I had a confus used
with another one. That's why I said it was easy
at first. This one is tough. The Austin Regional.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Houston Christian.
Speaker 4: Thirty two and twenty three on the season, but they's
still a solid team. And then Todd Walkerson is on
the team. Shout out Todd walker UTSA forty four and thirteen,
forty four and thirteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there conference records like what twenty two and four.
Speaker 2: I think that's what.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then they're in the American right yea, yeah,
so they're they're pretty good in that conference. And then
you get Kansas State who's only thirty one and twenty four.
But still, like I feel like that's kind of a
tough regional, especially with UTSA and Houston Christian.
Speaker 2: But That's how I was looking at it.
Speaker 3: Any host site like I don't. I don't think Southern
MISI gets out of the regional. I really don't want.
I mean between Bama Miami and Southern Myss, like those
teams are gonna beat each other up. I think that
one's up for grabs. Is there any host team that
you think, Hey, I don't know if they're getting out
of their regional?
Speaker 6: Good question. I didn't think about that one.
Speaker 3: But because I mean Texas that's a tough regional. Texas
is going to get They're too good of a team.
They're going to get out of their regional.
Speaker 4: So if Oklahoma North Carolina is a really really good team,
so this is going to be like a very big stretch.
But if anybody can knock them out their own regional,
I think it'd be Oklahoma. That's probably a bad answer, though,
because I still think you and c is going to
make it out, and I think they're going to make a.
Speaker 2: Pretty deep run in Omaha.
Speaker 4: But let me see, Bandy's making it out of theirs,
Arkansas is making it out of theirs.
Speaker 2: I think Auburn will too.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I gotta tell you the Tallahassee Regional. Yeah, in Florida State,
that was tough because you got Mississippi State there, and
since Mississippi State fired Crystal Monas, like that team's been hot,
I mean hot hot, Like you saw what they did
end that season. Mississippi State could win that regional.
Speaker 6: That's somebody that I wouldn't want to see in my regional.
Speaker 2: I know that they had like.
Speaker 4: That ru but once, especially once they got to Lamonas
just went to another level. So yeah, that is somebody
that I wouldn't want to see it. The Tally Tallahassee
one is tough too. That's another one that I was
looking at, like ooh, but I still think Florida State
will make it out of that. The only one like
Bethune Cookman might be an easy one. But yeah, Northeastern
and Mississippi State are gonna give you some challenges. You
know what, bold, I'm go a little bold here.
Speaker 3: Let's hear it.
Speaker 4: Georgia Tech might knock all Miss out their own reach.
Georgia Tech is a solid team, and Ole Miss might
not make it out of Oxford.
Speaker 3: It's weird. Ole Miss is one of those teams that
like always gets hot late, right, now that can help you,
but it could be you're playing over your head, like
we were talking about it yesterday when they won the
national title a few years ago. They were the very
last team in this tournament. They went on that crazy
run they win the title. It's like there's such an
up and down team it's hard to get a read on.
But no, I'm with you. Like Georgia Tech kind of
the opposite of Ole Miss. Like Ole Miss has been
hot late, Georgia Tech's actually been pretty steady all year long.
Speaker 4: We also won the ACC tournament, so they're a good team.
Speaker 3: All right, that's kind of our baseball talk for today.
We kind of wanted to combine it all in one
segment because it was supposed to be two separate, but
we we left the rails a little bit in the opening. Okay,
we're gonna take a time album we get back. PFF
has ranked the top quarterback rooms in college football, and
the Tigers are at the top of that list. We'll
break it all down next. You're on off the bench
after bench.
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Speaker 3: You know that.
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Speaker 3: It's not just beer.
Speaker 8: It is the beer of champions, or at least the
beer of guys who.
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Speaker 1: This is Off the Bench.
Speaker 3: Coach up.
Speaker 1: I'll be down soon, you know, tell me down? Giving
everything inside.
Speaker 3: Love strange, all right, welcome back in Wednesday edition of
Off the Bench. Watch a movie with that song in
a Yesterday No, I did not watch the Breakfast Club.
I watched Pitch Perfect where Jesse showed Beck of the
ending of the Breakfast Club. So that's that's what my
afternoon consisted of me laying on the couch in and
out of consciousness watching Pitch Perfect. That's that's uh, that's
how Taylor spent his Tuesday afternoon. Okay, right now, I
want to talk a little bit of LSU football, as
PFF put out the top ten quarterback rooms heading into
the twenty twenty five season. Now, keep in mind, this
is not individual players. This is a room as a whole,
starter and backup. I'll run through the top ten here
pretty quick. Number ten, it's Ohio State. Makes a lot
of sense. There's talent there. You have Julian Sayan, Tavian
Saint Clair, the red shirt freshman. Lincoln keen Holes is
there as well. He was a top fifteen quarterback or
creed back in twenty twenty three. I think that's Julian
Sayan's job to lose a lot of talent between him
and keen Holes. However, neither of them have the experience,
so I get that right there. Number nine, the Alabama
Crimson tied. I think this is a terrible spot for
them on the list because I don't think they should
be on the list. You have red shirt junior Ty Simpson,
He's likely your starter. I'm not saying ty Simpson can't
be good. What I'm saying is he's been at Alabama
for three years now. He's had opportunities to take the
starting job and he couldn't do it. You guys know
how I feel about Jaylen Milroe, and Ty Simpson couldn't
even beat out Jaylen Miler. Now you do have Keelan Russell,
the five star coming in. You have Austin Mack the
red shirt sophomore. He was a four star in twenty
twenty three. So I mean there's talent, But I mean
when you're telling me Ty Simpsons the leader of the clubhouse,
that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me until
he proves it on the field. Number eight eight is
the Auburn Tigers. I may actually put Auburn even a
little bit higher on this Listen, Jackson Arnold's going to
be the starter. I don't think there's any question about that.
But Ashton Daniels will be the backup. He started at
Stanford the last two years, so he comes in true
freshman Deuce Night looks like he could be the future
of the program. He was a five star in this
last recruiting class. That is a quarterback room with the
heck of a lot of talent. You have Penn State
at seven, Miami at six, Clemson Tigers at five. You
know Florida at four, Arizona State three number two. You
have the SMU Mustangs because Kevin Jennings is back at
quarterback after taking over at the early part of last
season and really never looking back. He led that team
to a College Football Playoff appearance. And then Tyler Van Dijk,
very proven backup six years senior. He's going to be
the backup to Kevin Jennings this year over there in
ford Worth, and the number one quarterback room in the
entire country according to PFF, is the LSU Tigers. Obviously,
Garrett Nelsmier is, in my opinion, five quarterback in all
college football. He's a legitimate Heisman candidate. He threw for
the fifth most passing yards in the nation last year,
but he's the leading returning passer in college football, meaning
no quarterback coming back this year. Threw for more yards
last season than did Garrett Nosmeier. Also behind him is
Michael van Buren. And we saw Michael van Buren last
year in Mississippi State. It was his true freshman season.
He was thrown into the fire after Blake Shapin went down,
and he did some nice things. Now, at times he
looked like a freshman, but he showed the ability to
go in there and make plays for you. Completed about
fifty five percent of his passes. He had almost two
thousand yards, eleven touchdown passes, seven interceptions. And that's being
thrown in there as a true freshman due to injury.
And let's be honest, he didn't have a lot of
talent around him over there at Mississippi State. So you
bring in a guy who's a veteran. I mean, this
was a surprise when LSU got him out of the
portal because when Blake Shapan announced he was returning the
Mississippi State that appears to be Jeff Levi's guy. Michael
van Buren's on the move and you're like, Okay, he's
going to go somewhere where he believes he can be
a starting quarterback. But he trusts Brian Kelly and Joe
Sloane enough to come here, sit behind Garrett Nelsmeier for
a year and maybe be primed and ready to take
over in twenty twenty six as the starting quarterback at
LL shoot van Buren though, Like you can break down
his numbers all day long, that's fine. But he had
eight starts in his true freshman season. But get this,
his first two came on the road against big time
defenses Texas and Georgia. He had a seventy nine passing
grade according to PFF, no turnover worthy plays in either
of those games. So he did a really nice job
early on. And it wasn't like he was eased into it.
I mean, you got to go on the road to
Texas and Georgia in your first two starts. That's about
as tough as it gets. You also have Collury. He
was a four star in last year's recruiting cycle. Now,
if you remember, Colin Hurley reclassified, so he essentially should
have been a senior in high school last year. Can
Hurley make that jump now? He wasn't here the entirety
of spring. He got into that car accident that hopefully
it appears like he's fully recovered from We'll we'll see
what happens there as more comes out about that, But
Colin Hurley is a guy that this coaching staff was
very excited about. And then, don't forget you moved Juwan
Johnson to a quarterback in the spring because of the
absence of a Colin Hurley. Now, is Juwan Johnson going
to go in there and throw passes down the field
to win a game for him? Probably not. But look,
when it was the decision was made to move Juwan
Johnson a quarterback, we sat here in this spot and
just talked about all the high school accolades for Juwan Johnson. Right,
he was statistically one of the best high school quarterbacks
in the state of Louisiana. Ever, as far as high
school football goes, he's going to be your change of
pace guy. If you need a quarterback to go in
there and run, he can't cause Van Buren he doesn't
really run either. Colin Hurley, again, we haven't seen much
of him in action, and we know Garrett Nosmeyer isn't
much of a runner. If you need a running quarterback,
Jwan Johnson is your guy. So he's kind of the
wild card in this room. But quarterback isn't the issue
for this team, like even if PFF would have played
LSU at one or ten, don't care what to change
my opinion about this room whatsoever. You could poke a
lot of holes in this team. You can look at
the defense and you can say, oh, they're a little
inexperience on the defensive line, even though I think they
did a nice job in the portal. Offensive line is
a question mark. You lose four of your five starters
from a year ago and you're not even sure DJ
Pikett's going to play the same position. But if you
look Garrett Nulsemeyer coming back his second year in this
program as the starting quarterback, you have Caden Durham next
to him in the backfield. Cayden Durham, his impact on
this team was underrated, if that makes sense. Last year,
the first three games year, you couldn't do anything. I
mean it really went until South Carolina on the road,
where Caden Durham made himself known. And you can say, Okay, well,
the O line's a big question mark. Yeah, but you
could run the ball last year for the majority of
the season. Cayden Durham's going to be better. If that
offensive line can be a decent run blocking team, you
might actually be better in the running it. It all
depends on what that O line looks like. That's the
big question mark for you on offense. Talked about this
a little bit yesterday when I was reacting to Joel
Klatt's list talking about, you know, Garrett Nelsemeyer cutting down
on the turnos. He did that late in the season.
We talked about it all season long. Last year's offense
was limited because you had no true deep threat because
Chris Hilton couldn't get healthy. Once Hilton got healthy in
the last three games of the season, Garrett Nelsmeyer seventy
two percent completion percentage, seven touchdowns, just one interception, and
Chris Hilton was a big reason why. Look at all
the potential deep ball threats here. Like the first deep
ball Garrett Neilsmer truly hit last year was against UCLA.
Was Kyle Parker down the sidelines for a touchdown. Still like,
in my opinion, the best ball Garrett Elsemeyer threw all
year long, and he threw some good ones. Kyle Parker
will be back. He actually didn't return after that game.
He was out the rest of the season due to
an injury. He's back. Hilton's back. Xavion Thomas, Aaron Anderson,
Barrying Brown. Johnnie Watkins is undersized, but can he make
an impact? We know how fast he is. You have
so many weapons to play with in this offense, and
that's just the deep ball guys. I mean, you have
a six to five receiver coming in and Nick Anderson,
who I'm excited about. Your tight end room top to
bottom might actually be better than a year ago. Like
I know, Mason Taylor was great, but you bring in
Bower Sharp, Tredez Green's a year older, and you have
Donovan Green from Texas A and M. That's a really
good room as well. The big question mark on this
team is offensive line. If the offensive line can hold up.
You have a second year starter, a fifty year senior
in Garrett Nelsemeyer. The last two times you had fifty
year senior two year starters at quarterback was Joe Burrow
and Jaden Daniels. They won the Heisman Trophy and Burrow
went and won the whole damn thing in the National Championship.
It's a lot of expectations to put on Garrett Owsmyer,
and I'm not saying he's going to do that. I'm
just saying that's the blueprint. We've seen it before. We
have seen him multiple times here in recent history. You
have all the weapons you need on the outside, more
so than you did a year ago. I think your
tight end room might be the most underrated group in
the entire team. I think your running backs are going
to be better. Caden Durham's going to spearhead that Caleb
Jackson's returning. You have two of the best running backs
in the country coming in Harlan Berry and JT. Lindsay
everything Garrett Nelsmyer needs to be successful. He has one
thing you look at is the offensive line. If that
can hold up, I think this offense could be as
good as any in the country. You're in twenty twenty five,
all right, We're going to take a time out. When
we get back, I want to mention an interesting race
that took place over the weekend leading up to the
ND five hundred. I can't believe I missed it yesterday
and weekend winners. We'll get into that next here on
Off the Bench.
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Speaker 1: This is off the bench if you need a friends
so look to a strange.
Speaker 3: Welcome back the Fiday segment. No, we're number one here
On a Wednesday edition of OTB Taylor Shop here in
the host chair for Jacob astro So. On Monday Memorial Day,
the Indianapolis five hundred took place and Alex Pullou won
his first ever Indy five hundred. Congratulations to him, but
this is not about you, Alex. Something occurred on Friday
that is a incredible It's one of the most American
things you'll see. This is a misstep by me from
missing it during weekend winns So on Friday at the
Indianapolis Speedway where they do the Indy five hundred was
the first ever Weeny five hundred. So these were hot
dog shaped cars that reached top speeds of a whopping
fifty miles an hour. And get this, it was six
hot dogs. All US regions were represented, so the Chili
Dog from the South, the Chai Dog from the Midwest,
the New York Dog from the East obviously, the Slaw
Dog from the southeast, and the Seattle Dog for the
northeast and then the Southwest out of hot dog as well.
So six different hot dogs and we had a little
bit of a photo finished. Jordan, why don't you just
go ahead and play this video.
Speaker 9: It will be the one hundred and ninth running of
the Indy five hundred, but the first Weenie five hundred,
and if you know one thing about India. On the
last lap, it's a dog eat dog world. As they
round the track for the final.
Speaker 10: Chi dog's still in the lead, but looks like maybe
a great run off of turn two here, Oh, I
think we might be having a race of the line.
Speaker 11: Musted many closing with the sloanog. Could she took up
the Weeni five hundred with a late pass on the
chineag less than a quarter miles ago with the Indianapolis
Motors Speedway for the inaugural Weeny five hundred.
Speaker 10: These hot dogs are hot, running it down the front straights.
Speaker 2: Email They're coming at us.
Speaker 11: Now maxed out at a whopping sixty miles an hour.
Speaker 1: Townsend.
Speaker 9: They're closing second places, closing with the run.
Speaker 10: Can the fans cheer them across the line, It's.
Speaker 11: Gonna be closer making the move, Sloanok making the move
up the inside on the run in to the yonder bricks.
Speaker 2: Head over the line.
Speaker 11: It looks like it's gonna be the slodok pile knows
slow dog.
Speaker 10: When and the closest finish and weedy five hundred.
Speaker 3: History, the closest finish in the first ever Weeny five hundred,
So it would have to be the closest in history. Guys,
this is what America is all about. I'm ranking this
right up there with the hot dog eating contest Joey
ches N Yeah, joy, Like Joey Chestnut should have driven
one of these dogs. Shout out to the slow dog.
Don't know if I've ever had a slaw dog, but
uh photo finish there in that race. So the Indy
five hundred was huge this weekend. Like Tom Brady got
to announce the Indy five hundred. He went there and
uh because Fox Sports had exclusive rights to the Indy
five hundred and Brady obviously with Fox Sports, and uh,
look he got up there and took a shot. He said,
you know, it's good to have one more good drive
in front of Indianapolis fans, you know, taking a shot
at the Colts Patriot drivery. They booed him over that
you got the Weenie five hundred here, like this is excellent.
I'll give Rivers Huey credit. She goes to the the
Starkville Derby every year in Starkville, which is right before
the Kentuck Derby. It's like a dog race. Really, I
don't know, is that only Corkies, It's only Wiener dog
It's only Okay, Okay, I need to see this. This sounds
because because I was like, I'm signing up Frankie next year.
He's super fast, but he's an Australian shepherd, so this
is probably absolutely going to.
Speaker 2: Go with her.
Speaker 4: But then that was the same weekend as Pearl Jam
and I ended up not even going to go see
Pearl Jam.
Speaker 3: So wait, what would you do? Is that the weekend
you got sick?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 6: But I just didn't feel like going, okay because.
Speaker 3: There was one weekend reasonably like really, say, I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I didn't know if that was sick, like back to
back that was insane.
Speaker 3: Well, the salaw Dog. Yeah, this is the most incredible thing.
I saw this yesterday at about noon, and I'm like,
how many hell did we miss this? Like all of
us missed it for weekend winters, Like I don't know,
I didn't even know the Indy five hundred took place
on Monday because AIG guess because like Memorial Day. Maybe
congrats to Alex Poulou. This segment's not about you, dude,
good job on your Indy five hundred win, but like
the first ever Weenie five hundred, Like this has to
be done more next year. I want to see like
an Oscar Meyer versus a Nathan's versus a ballpark, Like
we need different Weenie brand sponsorships.
Speaker 5: I want. I want ns on the Wienie machines.
Speaker 3: Yeah, fifty miles an hour a little slow, yeah, a
little slow for me. Like if you get professional drivers,
I don't see why you can't like the culture.
Speaker 6: They go that high is my thing. Like they might
not go.
Speaker 2: Per hour.
Speaker 3: I don't know how. I don't even know how many laps.
Then we saw everything I know about the Wii five
hundred you saw in that video.
Speaker 5: Yes, I know that it's great.
Speaker 3: I know that there was way more people in that
arena than I thought there would be.
Speaker 2: I do love that he said, the fastest finish in history.
Speaker 3: It's the first one I love coming up and our
number two. We got New Orleans Saints, we got a
little NBA Playoffs and Bryce Coon of two four seven
sports coming up here on Off the bench.
Speaker 8: Off the Bench, kt oz Blinds dot com is the website.
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