Speaker 1: Off the Bench. We to Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go where.
Speaker 3: The plays get broken down and science gets denied it I.
Speaker 2: Gotta come off the bitch.
Speaker 1: Hour two of.
Speaker 3: Off the Bench, Live from the Raising Kanes Studio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome in out number two.
Speaker 4: Here on a Wednesday edition of Off the Bench, Taylor
Sharper with the Elandra Villarrial Braxton Risuto along for.
Speaker 2: The ride as well, and in studio today.
Speaker 4: He was nice enough to come in his weekly Wednesday segment,
Doctor Steven Ethridge.
Speaker 2: Doc, how are you doing great?
Speaker 4: You were telling us during the break about like we were
talking about the whole COVID thing about like you remember,
like the whole birthday thing.
Speaker 2: I was telling you.
Speaker 4: My brother actually graduated high school in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Didn't have a prom.
Speaker 4: They had to do graduation on the football field in
June in South Louisiana.
Speaker 2: And I mean he started college.
Speaker 4: That screwed ups old freshman year Arcane Ida hits and
that pushed back a year. Like poor dude's been in
school like six years because he didn't go basically his
first two.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 5: It was such a crazy time, and I mean how
it affected so many things. And you know that was
actually when when I started doing a regular setting with
Jake back then because of all the crazy COVID are
we not? That was literally we talked about every week
the update on on the COVID.
Speaker 6: You know, are we gonna play football? Is this gonna
happen this year?
Speaker 2: House?
Speaker 6: This season gonna look what are the rules going to
be like?
Speaker 5: And there were things like, you know, I remember on
the sideline having to wear a mask and we're outside
and and the thing that all I didn't realize is
we're getting COVID tested multiple times throughout the week.
Speaker 2: We had to.
Speaker 5: That's part of the policy. And I'm like, can't we
just put a little disclaimer on the bottom of the screen.
You know, we're outdoors, I've had a COVID test literally today,
you know, I'm negative wear a mask here.
Speaker 6: But it's it's it was a crazy time.
Speaker 2: Look that that's better. Let's just start there.
Speaker 4: We weren't even gonna do this, but like, how did
that impact y'all, like not just during game day, but
like week to week, like training room straight any anything
like that. It was it was probably so many precautions
you can do anything.
Speaker 5: It was it was very significant. I mean it was
just the money, you know, I think I don't remember
the exact numbers. Sa'll probably butcher it. But so one
of the requirements I had to get tested the the
SEC had an independent company that would come in. We
had to be tested three times a week everybody that
was on the travel roster. So I'd have to go
up there like on a Tuesday and get swapped and
all this stuff. And that was what they had decided on.
And I think just to do that just in season
was over a half a million dollars just for the
football team, just for testing, forget all the other stuff.
Speaker 6: We had to take extra buses so we could be
spread on the buses.
Speaker 5: We had to have extra rooms the hotel, you know,
I remember the first away game we had was at
Vandy that year, and they had people with the front
because they didn't want people's families to come in. So
they had like secure at the front because they didn't
want family to come to the hotel.
Speaker 6: And as the season went on.
Speaker 5: You know, we got more and more loose with things,
and things kind of slored went back to normal. Really
was never normal because remember we played Florida at Florida
at the end of the year. That was the Shoe
Game was that year, and I mean that stadium was
maybe half full, you know, And and we played in
like late December because we started later in mid December.
It was just but there was a lot the day
to day that just was very different. The staff had
to wear a mask, at least the play didn't. Originally
had talked about that or gonna make the players wear
a mask. And at least they didn't have to. So
that was something, you know, I mean, there was It
was crazy though.
Speaker 4: Olympics are going on right now, and you know, I
know a little bit last week, you know, I talked
about Lindsey Vaughne.
Speaker 2: She shuffled.
Speaker 4: The break in the leg, well came in a couple
days ago. It's actually a lot worse than originally projective.
So trying not to butcher that she has something called
a complex tibial fracture in her left leg. She's already
she had four surgeries in Italy. She just got back
to the US about to have a fifth surgery. I mean,
it obviously sounds like a huge deal with five surgeries.
What goes into that?
Speaker 2: I mean, can you recover fully from something like that.
Speaker 5: I think, I think, yes, you can, I mean all
things relative to say that it will never affect her again,
I think that's impossible, you know.
Speaker 6: I think, let's just be honest.
Speaker 5: And then you factor in that she's had multiple injuries,
that she was already dealing with the knee injury where
she had a ligament injury acl the knee already. H
you figure all these things out. You know, it's a
big injury. You know, lot of times you have to
go in and you can only do so much at
one time. You have a lot of swelling you have
to account for. You try to stabilize the more important
pieces first and then gradually kind of get yourself. But
you know, a complex fracture would indicate that she'd had
multiple breaks. Typically, what you're gonna see is it's bone
that just shatter and you got to try and align
everything put it back together. I think that, you know,
one of the things she mentions she's got an X fix,
which is an external fixator, which is one of the
case things that you see. It's a metal like, almost
like shield that goes around the leg on the outside
of the skin. It's that the X fix, and it
holds everything in place, so you got to go take
that off later. And it's just I mean, realistically, I
can't see that's not effecting your moving forward. I think
best case scenarios, she has a really good recovery, fairly
normal life moving forward, can probably get back to skiing
at her age and everything else going in.
Speaker 6: I don't know competitively, but obviously hope the best.
Speaker 4: Right, I mean, she's forty one, this was probably her
last Olympics anyways.
Speaker 2: But I mean, like everyday life, like what is what
does that look like for?
Speaker 4: Like, like if if you and I were to were
to have that injury, like, what would it I.
Speaker 6: Think, like I said it would you would you would
feel it every day? You know.
Speaker 5: Now in a best case scenario, could you get to
walking normal and everything? I think so, you know, if
if all goes well and you rehab good, and she'll
have the benefit of having a lot of resources, you know,
just to help her recovery, and I think she'll be
able to get back. You know, you'll probably have down
the road more arthritic problems with the joints around that
that injury, said, the ankle and the knee, the two
joints on each end, you know, it might be something
that you know, you'll have some scarring and some muscular
weakness and things like that chronically. So it's it's it's
a pretty big deal for sure.
Speaker 4: Moving from Olympics kind of over to the NFL. You know,
there's been a lot of off season, like franchise tag
is this week, free agency's coming up draft. One of
the biggest players, Patrick Mahomes. I mean, you know, there's
updates on him constantly. He tore the ACL and LCL
in December. He's already had his surgery, but he said
his goal is to be ready for preseason.
Speaker 2: He's Patrick Mahomes. He's not gonna play in the preseason.
Speaker 4: But I mean late December, could he be ready for
early September twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5: With today's surgery and rehab and the fact that he
had it so quickly after, I would say yes, he
could be, But I mean I also feink that's lofty,
you know, I feel like that's if everything goes perfect,
if his rehab goes well, if he doesn't have a
lot of didn't have a lot of swelling after surgery,
if he's able, and again kind of we had mentioned Lindsaymond.
They're gonna have the resources. I mean, this guy's, you know,
one of the best players in the world. I mean
some people say the best, and you know, he's gonna
have every resource to help him get there. But that's
everything's got to go perfect, you know, really I think
in my opinion for that to happen, but it does,
it's a possibility. Especially I don't think he's had any
history of major I think he had the knee tell
Er dislocation, kneecap dislocation I think he had back around
five six years ago. I don't think he's had a
lot of other injuries to that knee. Big surgery, so
that helps as well. There's not gonna be as much
scarring an old injury. So but I mean, yeah, it's
that's gonna be the best case scenario I think is
he's ready to go at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 4: So recovery wise, like you know, just for me watch
him from Afar. I think the quickest I ever saw
somebody was Adrian Peterson. He did it in I think
nine months actually, like was an MVP consideration is really good,
but that was only one ligament.
Speaker 2: He did it in nine months.
Speaker 4: I mean, like everything goes perfect, you know, no setbacks
anything like that. What is like the absolute quick is
like you would advise someone back out there.
Speaker 6: I think that's probably about it.
Speaker 5: You know, that nine month mark is kind of eight
nine months is probably for an ACL injury, what we
normally expect on the short end, you know, you might
see hear or hear of a few rare exceptions. And
again getting back to some sport like football, but I
tell people anywhere from that to about a year is
kind of the normal range, and sometimes even a tad longer.
And again we've gotten better with the surgeries, we've gotten
better with the rehab, we know the things to do.
So again that the shorter end is more common than
it used to be. It used to pretty much be
a year. You can pretty much count on it. So
I think we're getting better with it. But again at
multilegment to your point with Mames, that that adds a
little bit to it.
Speaker 4: Speaking of that, like you hear the ACL so common, right,
and you got you got the four ligaments, but like
the LCL the PCL, you don't hear about them as much.
Is it just strictly location or the stronger like, why
why the ACL so much more than the others.
Speaker 5: So a couple a couple of reasons. One is the location,
the frequency with which the injuries happen, the mechanism with
how you get there. You're gonna see more ACLS, acn
MCL is seed to be the ones we see the most.
LCLPCL are less common sometimes don't require surgery if it's
isolated to those ligaments too, kind of like the MCL
as well. But you know, if you talk about the ACL,
you pretty much know it's gonna be surgery if you
tear the ACL, whereas an LCL injury or PCL injury,
even if you completely disrupt the PCL. There are guys
playing in the NFL right now who don't have a PCL,
and they're able to rehabit. It's just not quite as
important for that louter emotion.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: Sometimes if they have some other components or base in
their anatomy, that may not be the case. But so
it's not as critical, it's not always fixed, it's not
as commonly injured.
Speaker 6: So it's a little bit of all the above.
Speaker 4: Transition in a little bit into baseball, I mean baseball
season fully underway and any fan of a baseball team
hates to hear up they got the elbow injury right
the old UCL because a lot of times you do
see Tommy John surgery, So kind of a two point order,
like first, like how do you decide is it heal
on its own or is it Tommy John? And then
why such a long recovery? Because I mean I feel
like that injury, like you mentioned, you know advances ACL
you can get back a lot quicker than normal. It
seems like any picture that's out is like a year,
year and a half a minimum, Like what goes into
the surgery?
Speaker 2: And like why so long of a recovery?
Speaker 5: So so I guess the first part when do we
fix when do we maybe treat it more conservatively? And
typically the two things you're going you're going to base
that on or imaging. So we're obviously we're gona get MRI,
especially these high level pictures. We want to know how
big the injury is. And then in physical exam are
they unstable? So the ligament is is a ligment on
the inside of the elbow. It's the owner collateral ligament
is the name of the ligament that's injured. We always
talk about the Tommy John injury, but that's technically what
it is. So is it completely disrupted as a partial tear?
Are they unstable? Is the elbow loose? How how much
pain are they having? All those are variables to go
into it. Typically, if it's a full disruption of full tear,
we're gonna repair that. You know, that's going to be
almost always. There's a few exceptions, I suppose, and I
used to the sport too. If you're not a thrower,
we may not worry about it. We've had you know,
football players who are you know, defensive players or non
quarterbacks with the UCL, we just reha them and you're
not as worried because you know that's more of a
traumatic injury. That's not You don't need the UCL to
do just about everything as sports cause ever throw So
if you're a picture, if you're a quarterback, if you're
a javelin thrower, you're gonna prepare those.
Speaker 6: So I guess that's part of the discussion as well.
What position do they play?
Speaker 5: Then if it's a big tear, you're going to go
in And unfortunately it's kind of like the ACL where
you historically have to reconstruct a whole new ligament, So
you actually take a donor tend and use the Palm
Mayris longest, which is one that's kind of an access
reliment at the risk, and you make a new ligament.
Now with advances now there is also a procedure where
you do what's called an internal brace, where sometimes you
can repair the old ligament and then put some extra
bracing with it, like a kind of almost an internal
stitch or wire.
Speaker 6: Those are a little quicker. So if you've ever hear.
Speaker 5: The guy, oh, he had the internal brace, and you'll
see why, some guys do come back a little faster. So,
especially with the younger athlete, you might do that. You
sometimes know you're gonna have to go back down the road.
Though if it's a picture and he keeps pitching, if
you do that when there's a good chance he may
tear that one too, it's not quite as as sturdy historically, So.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of variables.
Speaker 5: Long story short, and you're right, it's one that we
haven't gotten a lot faster, at least with the primary repair.
And I think it's just because there's so much torque
on that internal elbow when you're throwing that you just
have to let that thing really heal in Well.
Speaker 4: Why why pictures though, and not like because like it
could happen in football share, but like you did, it
is so much more common with a picture, it seems
like than a quarterback.
Speaker 2: I mean, is it just strictly the throwing motion.
Speaker 6: One hundred percent?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And in fact, even when you look at quarterbacks, most
of the UCL injuries, like you know, quarterback for San
Francisco entered his Georgia. That was the injury that their
guy had. I can't think it's them guys in Miami
this past year. Beck Yeah, yeah, a his injury had
And if you look at both of their injuries, they
were traumatic injuries. Their arm kind of got pulled behind
them and so it wasn't a throwing injury, but you
still needed to throw. Whereas pitchers, there's so much torque
that's put on that inside elbow with that pitching motion.
That's why you don't see a whole lot in position
players either. It's mostly pictures. It's just the velocity, the torque,
the stress you put on that medial elbow over and
over with pitching. It's more that repetitive wear and tear.
Whereas if you look at most quarterbacks, it was more traumatic.
It was something happened like they got tackled funny or
hit funny when they were throwing or something.
Speaker 4: So I was looking at the you know, the Major
League spring train and it's coming up and everything, three
different players. I had never heard of this injury. And
there's so much crap in your hand. You know that
the average person doesn't know about. They have all suffered
a broken hammet bone in their hands.
Speaker 7: What is that?
Speaker 5: So if you think about you have your carble bones
in the hands. If you ever look at an X
ray or a skeleton, you have the long bones in
your forearm that come down and form the wrist, and
then you have these small little bones that are kind
of between those long bones and the wrist and the
long bones in the hand. Those are all your carpal bones,
of which one of them is the hamdmate. It is
one that you'll see injured a lot in sports different mechanisms.
You see it in throwers, You'll see it a lot
in golf when people sometimes kind of if they come
up short and they kind of hit the ground with
the club, sometimes you'll see that injury. That's one of
the kind of classic textbook questions we see. So it's
one of those small bones you have, you have two
rows of those small carbal bones and pretty pretty commonly injured.
It's one of the more common ones. We see that one,
and you know, they can be anything from just a
mild you know, hey, you got to rehabit, brace it.
So sometimes we got to go in and fix some
of those, depending on which one where it is.
Speaker 4: Going back to knees real quick before we break, you know,
I mean, anytime there's a knee injury, everybody fears of
the ACL. But I hear hyper extension all the time,
and I'm not quite sure what that occurs, Like.
Speaker 2: What is what does that involved?
Speaker 5: So hyper extension is so you know, when you straighten
your knee, that's extending it. When you bend it back,
that's flexing it. So if you are fully extended, and
then sort of if you think about if the knee
goes backwards a little bit, that's hyper extension. Sometimes you
can tear something with that, including the ACL. Sometimes it
will tear. Now a lot of times what you're hoping
for is just a bone contusion where the two winds
of the bones hit together.
Speaker 6: Bruise each other.
Speaker 5: That's your best case scenario with that injury, you can
tear structures inside the knee. Unfortunately, with the hyper extension injury,
you know, I think Willis McGahee is the one. I
always close my eyes and see he had a foot
planted guy hit the front of the knee caused hyper extension.
So that's when I think of just you know, back
in the day when I was younger and something. Don't
probably know who he is, but so yeah, that's that's
based the mechanism it overextends.
Speaker 4: All right, well, doctor Stephen Atherage, wealth of information here
and hopefully we'll try to figure out this whole leap
yer thing. Doc even pointed out that it's more than
three hundred and sixty five days in a year. It's
like three sixty five point two, so he even knows
a little bit about the months as well.
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming at today, Doc, my pleasure. All right,
we'll take a quick time out on the other side.
Speaker 4: We'll be joined by l s U Beach volleyball coach
Russell Brock for a quick segment. Their season begins on Friday.
We're talking about it next here on off the bench,
Off the bench.
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Speaker 1: Off the Bench presented by Hoodental.
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Speaker 4: They passed Welcome back in Wednesday edition of Off the Bench.
Taylor Sharp here with your filling in for Jacob Ester
and Matt Flann, Alanta hillar Real Braxton Erzudo here as well.
Right now, we'll go out to the phone lines. LSU
Beach Volleyball coach Russell Brock joins us this morning. Coach Barrock,
how are.
Speaker 7: You couldn't be better on this Wednesday morning?
Speaker 2: Great? Great to hear it.
Speaker 4: You know last time you joined me, it was before
you guys got out there to the NCAA Championships in
Gulf Shores. I know it didn't go the way you
guys wanted to, but first off, congratulations won't making it
that far. I know you guys fail to cal poly
out there, but coach, you come into the season ranked
number twelve, and I know you guys have turned into
one of the top volleyball programs in the country. But
how do you handle those expectations year in and year out?
Speaker 7: Yeah? The the funny thing about that is you know,
twelve is you know, as low as we've been in
a while. So you know, our expectations clearly are higher
than you know, the people who are out there casting votes.
So I think the pressure from within to be great
and honestly that comes from being a part of you know,
athletic department, particularly port that a sport that plays in
the spring, that these greatness all around us like this,
you know, that's that's the expectation and that's the reality.
Like we know that we're in a position with the talent,
with the training, with the facilities of the support, with
just a positive peer pressure that comes from being a
spring sport at LSU that uh, you know, you're you're
gonna be one of the top teams in the country.
Speaker 4: You got a lot of returners. I mean I think
it's something like eleven returners from last year's team.
Speaker 2: Now you got it. You've got a good bit of
freshmen coming in as well.
Speaker 4: But you know, you guys get started and you did
it last year, doing it this year like starting away
from home and I I realized you're not going far.
Speaker 2: You're going down there in New Orleans.
Speaker 4: But is it good to have a lot of veterans
on the team kind of rely on that experience early on,
like when you're starting away from home.
Speaker 7: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean every year is a little bit
different with the makeup of the roster, and this is
probably you know, one of the most returners we've had
since back in like you know, twenty twenty one, where
we had a bunch of people coming back to the COVID.
But it's also i mean half of our roster is
people in their first or second year of competition. So
we've got a great balance of being young and being old,
and I think that that brings, you know, a level
of expectation and an understanding from those older kids, but
there's excitement and there's energy from the younger ones that
it's a really good balance. It's been great for our training.
Everybody's pushing each other, and then obviously heading into the
first weekend, I think there's probably going to be some
people who are a little more comfortable and some people
who you know, have a little more uh, you know, jitters,
and and it's great to have a good group of
kids that can help people settle in and play the
way we've been playing in practice.
Speaker 4: Coach, whether it's Skyler Martin Tatum, Finnlssen, Cameron Chandelier. Like,
you got a lot of returners, but like, who are
some of the big name players maybe people keep an
eye on early in the season, like who are you
going to rely on to get this thing started?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think we've got you know, a couple of
those that you mentioned obviously are huge for us. Julius
Prucker is another win that was a freshman last year
and she's made huge strides to be better, more experienced,
really talented this year. With expect her who do really
great things. Aubrio Gorman as a senior who's kind of
on her last legs as far as her eligibility, and
she's played some pivotal roles for US in the last
two seasons. And then you know, Kate Baker is another
one that's been the lineup, has some huge wins. She
and Tatum pulled out a massive winning at USC at
home last year. So those are the kids that you
are returning who are experienced and who've won big matches
for us in the past few years that we expect
to do it again.
Speaker 4: I saw that you guys recently added two transfers. Emily
helm of Zeyana Meier, what do you expect from them,
like because they have college experience, but like you're one
here in ben Rouge. You guys are ranked twelve, you
talked about it, you're highly ranked every year. What do
you expect from them? You're one here.
Speaker 7: You know, one thing that we expect from them that
they've delivered enormously for us is just the leadership and
the culture that they've added, coming from story programs on
the indoor side and having a lot of success obviously
Emily's coming off on national championship. I mean, the things
that they're able to stay, the credibility that they have
when they even as newbies to our sport. You know,
drive high expectations around them and they have high expectations
for themselves. So I think the biggest thing they've done
so far is they brought in two blockers that we
needed in our training and they've grown in leaps and bounds.
It's crazy to see how fast they've grown, and there's
no doubt that they're going to play a pivotal role
for us this season.
Speaker 2: Coach, you were just that's that's actually perfect.
Speaker 4: You were just talking about, you know, kind of be
in a new be to the sport going from indoor
to beach. What does a typical transition look like? I mean,
how much different is that like for the average person
that you know, may not know that much beach volleyball
versus regular What does it What does a normal like
learning curve look like for someone that's making that transition.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's it's significantly more challenging than people
would expect. If you look at the spots on the
surface and they they look like they're the same thing.
I mean, it's you bump, your set, you spike, you know,
you serve like you have a blocker. You have people
casting and defending. But it really is, uh the way
that your body has to adapt to the surface and
has to adapt to the you know, just conditions the sun,
stand the wind, it really does. The court size is smaller,
you have to be well rounded, you can't just do
certain skills. And typically into a players that come off there,
they're pretty refined in the skill set that they need
to be great at. And then there's another skill set
that they really don't even happen master because somebody else
is going to do that for them. And so when
you step into the sand, and you've got to do
it all. You have to do it all excellently. That's
a lot of pressure. And then to do it on
a surface that is completely foreign to your body. Just
teaching your body how to jump and move on a
surface that is not solid like you've done for your
entire life, it's really challenging, and typically that process is
a lot of frustration initially, and then as your body
starts to catch on and your skill set starts to build,
you really hit a pretty quickstcent, but you have to
survive until until that kind of turning point. And so
they've done a great job of really grinding in that
in that first initial phase and super proud of them
for that.
Speaker 4: Post Beach Volleyball coach of Russell Brock our guest right now, Coach,
I understand it's it's not a ton of travel involved
for you guys going out to New Orleans, but I mean,
what does a typical week look like for you guys
going away from home? I mean, you play a ton
of games and it will be on the road, Like,
what does a typical week look.
Speaker 7: Like for you ll thankfully money grow is this past
weekend and not this coming weekend.
Speaker 11: It'll be a lot.
Speaker 7: More distraction heading down that way. But uh, you know,
we're we're going to head out tomorrow and we'll get
down there and we'll train in that facility, and then
it's it's a business trip. You know, it's not far
from home. But one of the reasons why we go
down there and we stay because we don't want to
have any distractions to keep us from really being focused
at opening weekend. And it's a great opportunity to do
that without having to hop on a plane and travel
down to the west of the East Coast, and so
it's a really good way to start. We can have
a lot of fans that are going to make that
trip or even families that live in that area, and
so we expect to, you know, have all the benefits
playing close to home, but also all the challenges of
being on the road and not sleeping in your own
bed and eating meals out, and also the benefit of
just being tight knit with just us. We're all together
all the time, and that's where our strength comes from,
is our ability to be unified and be great together.
Speaker 4: Coach one more for you before I get you out
of here. You were actually just talking about you know,
we go on the road, we practice any other team's facilities,
speaking out facilities, you know, I mean I had you
on once last year in the spring and I had
made it out to the Beach Volleyball facility for my
first time being out there, and I was blown away.
I mean, how does your facility right here in bed
Rouge compared to some of those other programs.
Speaker 7: I tell you, really, the only facility for beach volleyball
in the country that you ever go to is LSU's.
Then you're going to have your expectation for everybody else
is going to be ruined. We are so blessed and
fortunate to have Death volleyed our our space on campus
with bleachers and shade and great music and food and
drink and big scoreboard lights. All those things are premium.
And thankfully when the program was started, Ennis had just
moved out and so that that shell was sitting there
just waiting for So you know, if you come out,
you're going to be spoiled as far as beach volleyball
fans can experience, and pretty much every everywhere else that
we go and play has you know, maybe one or
two of those aspects, but none of them have all
of that uh sort of experience for fans or for
the teams to the brain and kind of live in
and we all a lot to this community and to
our athletic department for been willing to set us up
in a facility like that.
Speaker 2: Coach.
Speaker 4: Basically, what I just heard is everybody needs to come
play at LSU because we're the best at everything.
Speaker 2: That's that's what I got from that. Coach. Thank you
so much for your time today.
Speaker 4: Again, your season gets started this Friday the Green Wave Invitational.
Then you're back on your home court next week for
the Tiger Beach Challenge.
Speaker 2: Coach, thanks for your time today and good luck this
upcoming season.
Speaker 7: Thank you very much, appreciate the opportunity, and go Tigers.
Speaker 4: Absolutely go Tigers. All right, we'll take a quick time
album we get back. Miina Lande will kind of throw
out maybe some position players to watch tonight. We talked
pitching earlier, opportunity for a lot of guys that didn't
throw over the weekend to get some action today this
afternoon against Nichols. We'll kind of toss around maybe some
guys in the field. We might want to see you
that's coming up next you're on. Off the bench.
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Speaker 2: That's right, it is. It is Friday, it is the weekend.
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Speaker 1: Off the Bench presented by Hoodental.
Speaker 8: All right, go to Rolses dot com, go see our
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You'll be blown away. Right when you walk in all
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by Kingcakes and all these things that are so Louisiana, right,
and they are so local they're gonna have their own
stuff there. But when we say Louisiana, they're in more
than just Louisiana, across the Gulf coast. We just went
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Speaker 2: Go check out your nearest local rouses.
Speaker 4: All right, welcome back in Wednesday edition of OTB. Taylor Sharp.
Here with the Elandra Villarrial Braxton Rizzuto, your LSU Tigers
will take on the Nickels, State Colonels and Alec Box
at about one o'clock this afternoon, a little bit earlier
of a game as far as midweeks go, and earlier
in the show we broke down who could potentially started pitching.
Laundra and myself have both kind of throwing our hats
into the ring for Cooper Williams. But look, there's a
number of options. Zion Theopolis is an option. Danny Lochenmeyer
will see him in some capacity. Connor Binge has yet
to pitch, Like you're gonna see a lot of guys
that you did not see in the opening weekend, but
that kind of rings true to the field as well,
not just on the mound. And I wanted to kind of,
you know, real quick look at maybe some position players
to watch here against Nichols, because again, I think this
is a team that LSU can have a lot of
success against a lot of valuable in game reps. For
some players that maybe necessarily did not get in there
a ton over the weekend. Now, the first name I'm
gonna mention is Mason Braun, And I know what you're thinking, Yes,
he played a ton over the weekend, but he didn't
play a ton in the field. He was your DH
over the weekend, and he was great in that spot.
I would just really like to see what he's got defensively.
We've seen the performance at the plate. Remember this guy
was the number one first baseman in high school last season.
Now Zach York has that spot right now. But look,
I mean Mason Braun, he's a guy that can maybe
make some things happen for you. He's also listed his
outfield as well. He played there a little bit in
some of the false scrimmages. You have your outfield depth,
Like you know your starters. You know Derek Curiel, Chris
Stanfield when he's healthy, and Jake Brown. There's going to
be your three starters, some combination of those guys behind them.
Though it's a little bit of a question mark to me,
Mason Brawn could fill one of those roles if given
the opportunity. Look, there's so many guys to mention, Landro
will come to you real quick, like you know, whether
it's somebody that hasn't gotten it bad, somebody in the field,
Like who's somebody for Nicols?
Speaker 2: You're like, I want to see what that.
Speaker 11: Guy's get I'd like to see a little more of
Omar Cerno behind the plate and see what he looks
like back there, because Jay, if you've noticed, likes to
kind of like match up the catchers with the pictures,
Like did it with Paul Skeins. He gave him like
the little uh. It was usually Travinsky because he was taller.
Speaker 2: I think Aaron Beatty did it with.
Speaker 11: So he kind of likes to match up the catchers
with the pictures. So I would like to see a
little more from Omar Serna. I know, Kate, Aaron Beatty
has definitely made a leap this season from last season
behind the plate and at the plate. But what we
saw from Omar when he was in the DH, I
know he didn't do too well Sunday, but I think
it was either Friday or Saturday that he looked good
at the plate, So I would like to see a little.
Speaker 12: Bit more out of him.
Speaker 11: I agree that Mason Brawn I do want to see him,
but he could play in the outfield, right.
Speaker 12: So right, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think i'd actually prefer him in the outfield just
because you don't have any you don't even be proven
depth behind your top three guys. I mean, you have
bodies there, But what about Daniel Harden. Like he's a
guy that a lot of people haven't really talked about,
but you know, he comes from McLennon Community College out
in Waco. He had three fifty four last year on
the community college level, I mean sixteen doubles, three triples,
twelve homers. The guy had fifty nine RBIs. Again, that's
a guy that could give you depth in the outfield.
He got in there Sunday. He didn't get a hit,
but he did draw a walk and score a run.
Like that's a guy maybe maybe get his feet wet
a little bit against Nichols.
Speaker 11: If Chris Stanfield's not gonna play, maybe we can see
Mason Braun and maybe we can see someone like Daniel Harden, which, yeah,
he's intriguing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he's a guy that you know, it
was kind of a little bit under the radar, but
and I get it, I know it's the community college level.
He's coming up in competition, but and he's prove it
on the college level more than a lot of these
high school guys. The the guy I really want to
see gets extended out. And our guy that was on
the wrong side of the motor boat celebration, mister John
Pearson celebration.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I was so incredible.
Speaker 4: I saw a post yesterday and it kind of summed
up this state perfectly. It said, Louisiana sports and Louisiana
sports fans really don't care what other people think.
Speaker 12: At all, and I was like, not at all.
Speaker 2: Okay, was that the first home run celebration or the second?
Speaker 12: I think?
Speaker 11: Wait, so I think it was the second because Zach
York hit one. Then well, because wasn't it Jake Brown
Brown Zach had I think the first home run today?
Speaker 2: He well, Jake hab too that not No.
Speaker 11: I know, but wasn't I think Zach hit it before?
So I think that was the second celebration. I don't remember,
but it was hilarious.
Speaker 4: It was elite, unexpected, kind of subtle, as subtle as
you could be, but also everybody kind of knew what
was went on. So look, I mean John Pearson. He's
a guy that last year he played in twenty seven games.
He batted two thirty eight On the year, he had
a double, a, two home runs, seven RBI. Now he
can play third base. That's that's kind of what he
was listed at last year. But a little bit of
outfield as well. So that's a guy a lot like
Mason Brown could play infield, can play outfield. I got
a pinch hit, got in as a pinch hitter multiple
games over the weekend. He did come away with one
hit in those that bat. So you've seen a little
bit from him over the weekend. You've seen again a
lot more from him. Last year he played in twenty
seven games. But John Peterson could take that next step,
I mean Pearson, John Pearson. If John Pearson could take
that next step, I mean, I think Trink Carraway's got
third lockdown. But if you have to mix and match him,
you can. I mean, we saw Caraway play a little
bit of second base. You saw his versatility. John Pearson
just provides you with more depth outfield. Infield. We talk
about the depth of the pigeon staff. The depth of
the infield is there. You just need to get these guys,
some reps like Jack Rucker and Ethan Klaus. We talked
about them on Monday. They both got there an extended
time on Sunday, it was in the middle of the infield.
I think they're both interchangeable. Like Ethan Klaus was a
highly recruited shortstop a year ago in high school. He
played second On Sunday, they had Jack Ruckert in their shortstop. Well,
Jack Rugert on Monday against Kent State, he got a
little bit of action at second base. Those guys are interchangeable.
Like the depth of this team, the versatility of these players,
I like it.
Speaker 12: Now.
Speaker 4: I'll ask you this, Elantra. You know we didn't see
Curiel starting the season in lead off. They switched it Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Speaker 2: He's been there.
Speaker 4: Jay does like the tinker within the lineup in a
game like this early in the season, midweek game against
an end state opponent. How much Team Green do you
think we're gonna see tonight? Like as far as our
I guess this afternoon, as far as like who's in
what order? I mean, I think the normal guys will
get the start, but like where are they.
Speaker 2: Going to be?
Speaker 12: Uh?
Speaker 11: I think in terms of the lineup, I don't think
you'll see too much changing, just because it's been working
so well lately. Maybe some here and there, but yeah,
he does like to tinker. But I just I think
it's working so well that I'm not sure how much
of it you'll see moved around.
Speaker 4: To me, this is a game where, like, like you
mentioned Omar Serna, I would love to see you Amarserna
in this game. I feel like this is a game
Kate will get to start play maybe like the first
two innings Omar Serna the rest of the way, Like
the way Aaron Bed's hitting the ball, I mean he
could he could use a day off. He's called a
lot of baseballs. I mean, you played four games in
four days. This will be your fifth game over a
six day period. A guy Aaron Beidi needs a little
bit of rest. I think you're going to see an
extended outing from Umar Serna. I think you'll see Mason
Brawn in some capacity. You know, Landra both talk about him,
whether he fills in it at first. If they do
decide to pull Zac York at some point in this game,
because he fill in the outfield, Stanfield still dealing with
that injury. John Pearson a guy we saw last year
in twenty seven games a year ago. I was a
talented squad a year ago, and I get most of
them were midweek, they were non con games. But Jay
trusted him enough to put him out there. As a freshman.
You got to expect a year under his belt in
this program. Jay probably trust him even more. So that's
a guy to watch as well. And then again, kind
of going back to the pitchers before we break here,
the guys who did not throw over the weekend Freshman
Reagan Ricken and Zion Theopolis did not throw a single
pitch over the weekend. They are candidates to start this game.
My preference, Lundra's preference Cooper Williams for maybe like an
inning or two. I mean he threw two and two
thirds innings over the weekend. One hit, one run, five
k's no walks, pretty good. I want to see what
he's got as a starter, because whether it's a case
of Evans, whether it's a William Schmidt that in that
weekend rotation may not be set in stone. You also
have Connor bench. You haven't seen him. I think you'll
see him in some capacity Locke and Meyer. Can Santiago
Garcia and Zach Cowen get in there and kind of
get their confidence back after tough first out over the weekend.
A lot of things to keep an eye on again,
lsu Versus Nichols in the box one pm this afternoon,
we will take a quick time out. Coming back, we'll
wrap up hour number two here on a Wednesday edition
of Off the Bench, brought to you by hood Dental.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back in final segment.
Speaker 4: I were number two here on a Wednesday edition of
Off the Bench Tayler show up here with you Ladravilla
Royal Reactions Versuto on this Wednesday brought to you by
Hood Dental. Why do people hate Nate Yeski? Still I'm
reading I'm reading comments in the chat.
Speaker 11: I truly can't tell if it like they're trolling or
being for real.
Speaker 12: I just keep seeing one of them is being for real.
Speaker 2: He keeps seeing early season Yesky sucks. Like when Yesky
was hired, it was considered a home run.
Speaker 4: Higher and elandra all Nate Yeski's doll and has had
the staff lead the SEC in strikeouts his first two years,
and they won a national championship last year?
Speaker 2: What more do they need to do?
Speaker 12: He also was really good at Oregon State. Yeah, he's
won multiple Like I don't, he's been in multiple college ones.
Speaker 8: I don't.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 11: Like everybody knows, I've been like the biggest Nate Yeesky
supporter and defender since he got on campus. Even when
everybody turned on him. What was it a year before last?
Speaker 2: It was his first year.
Speaker 12: I was like taking bullets for him. I was like,
get behind me, Nate.
Speaker 4: I mean, I just I don't really understand what else
the guy has to do. You've led the you've led
the SEC and strikeouts as a staff both years he's
been here. You won a national championship last year. If
you guys don't remember those games, it was thanks in
large part to your two dominant pictures Kate Anderson and
Anthony Ions and and.
Speaker 2: Then you did a really good job Week one. I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't really understand what I'm missing here in terms
of all the Nate Yeski hey, but whatever, maybe some
people do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's a that's a troll. But I mean, look,
you hear it a lot.
Speaker 4: It's not just here like you've heard it for two years.
Speaker 2: Just it baffles me.
Speaker 4: This topic of landro so it last night and as
you've readden all over it like this is something I
could see you do in a deep dive in Okay, Okay,
I am g Academy in Florida Football power. Everybody goes
there throughout the country to go there and train.
Speaker 12: I feel like I saw something.
Speaker 4: IMG has agreed to pay a one point seven million
dollar settlement for accepting tuition from two students with ties
to the Mexican drug card.
Speaker 12: G Hey, I did see this. Why does this have
me written all over it?
Speaker 4: Because you love a good you love a good internet
rabbit hole, I mean, you love as problem.
Speaker 2: There has to be.
Speaker 4: There has to be more to the surface than what
we're seeing. Like so, basically, over five consecutive years, IMG
Academy repeatedly the number of transactions with two individuals who
have ties to this uh drug cartel organization. According to
IMG Academy's continued tuition payments, where the two students resulted
in eighty nine violations for counter narcotic sanctions and uh
they got to pay one point seven million dollars. Not
something I thought I would see. Uh, I mean was
this intentional? Was it not intentional?
Speaker 12: I don't know, but I could definitely read more about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw it last night.
Speaker 4: It looks like they were The two students were enrolled
from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two, so it had
been a few years now.
Speaker 2: But yeah, one point seven.
Speaker 4: Million for accepting tuition from a drug cartel. Yeah, one
of the two issans. It was a ninety eight thousand
dollars for one student and one hundred and two thousand
for the other. It was provided money and services from
the drug cartel. And if you're thinking that's a lot
of money, IMG is like like if you've ever seen
their athletic facilities, Yeah, it's incredible. So ninety eight thousand
dollars for one student, one hundred and two thousand from
the other. The names of the students haven't been released.
I don't know which sport this is for. If it's
for a sport, I mean it's IMG, so I would
imagine that it is soccer, sorry, soccer base. It might
be soccer base. Well we'll find out. But yeah, that
came out, came down the wire last night. New York
Post has it every I mean everybody everybody has it.
Speaker 11: Pro tip if you like, for people that want to
go down rabbit holes, you gotta go to like Reddit
or Facebook groups because that's where you get first hand
accounts from like people that like went to the school,
know the people that are involved.
Speaker 12: That's how you go down the road. Have you ever
seen the Netflix with.
Speaker 11: The people that know pet Like, you gotta get with
the people that know the people, or like are in
the school or work for the school.
Speaker 2: Get somebody in the note.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you need insider information.
Speaker 4: Have you ever seen the cat? The cat thing on Netflix?
I think it's like literally called like don't f with cats.
Speaker 12: Oh, I haven't seen it, but I've heard about what
it is. No, I would not, it's it's no, I
would not. The way the thing that people describe it
to me is like a guy.
Speaker 4: Is just killing Well they don't, they don't show any
of it, but I mean it's uh the way they
find this guy though, it starts as like a Facebook
group kind of one person saw the video, it goes
to the next and the next they start a Facebook
group and they like track down this guy to another country, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And like find him. He gets ready. Like the whole
thing is fascinating.
Speaker 4: And it's because they joined like a Facebook and Reddit
group to to figure.
Speaker 12: This guy out hand account.
Speaker 4: And then they did, they found somebody who like knew
who he was or something like that.
Speaker 11: You remember real fast, do you remember, like a couple
of weeks ago, there was a teacher in like West
Virginia or Virginia or something like that, and they were
looking for him and they couldn't find him. Yeah, and
like he was out in the forest. So you gotta
find like, you gotta go on.
Speaker 12: The Facebook groups. Okay, the people that know the people.
Speaker 2: Why would end into hour two of the show.
Speaker 4: We'll have hour three coming up next year on Off
the Bench, Off the Bench