Speaker 1: All Star to Yoda Presents Off the Bench with Jacob
Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go from a championship backfield to your morning drive Hamsday.
Speaker 3: Hester and Hester got it five out a five.
Speaker 1: Your Luck's in to Off the Bench West Control the
Live from the Mercedes Benz of Baton Rouge Studio. Here's
Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 3: Yo.
Speaker 4: Lords, Welcome in O TV one, O four five ESPN
Baton Rouge here on this Friday morning weekend.
Speaker 2: Vibes already all over this place.
Speaker 4: Jake Flynn, Alandra Tata, We're all here. The gang's all here,
excited to talk sports.
Speaker 2: I mean yelled it.
Speaker 5: Let's go Day five, buddy. Some said it couldn't be
done a lot like every mos said the hater's gonna hate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then next week.
Speaker 5: You said, I'm not gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: Good optics for you, but it's fine.
Speaker 5: Well, I got one week next week. Admittedly, we're gonna
have some tardiness. We're gonna have some absences. Were tardy
now too, Okay, maybe not tarties. We are definitely gonna
have some absences. They're excused though they are part of
the contract.
Speaker 2: You did run them up the principal's office.
Speaker 5: I did run them up the old flagpole. But five days.
Some said it couldn't be done. Some said it was
one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Was me
showing up five days, not even on time early? You
have been early? Yeah, I don't think I've walked in
put a foot in this building later than six twenty nine.
Speaker 4: How has it been so you're I mean, you're a weekend.
You've never done five straight days. I don't have you
ever have done two straight days?
Speaker 5: Maybe? Maybe? No, Well, I've never come in before eight
am at any point.
Speaker 4: You did once for me, you did, like when Teabo
was thatt One time you did because I remember, like
you literally you look like you had had a bender
in Vegas and you just walked straight in here even
though you had gone to sleep.
Speaker 5: Obviously, And I wasn't on a bender, just not a
morning guy, you know. But I've rewired myself completely. Some
say that can't be done either.
Speaker 2: I did it at almost forty years old.
Speaker 5: Power of the mind, people, I mean, we're what.
Speaker 2: Gosh, we're almost We're just like two weeks.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm about to enter two weeks from today, I'm
about to enter the second third of my life. It's
time to rewire second third. I think that's the way
you say that I'm gonna live the the way modern
medicine is going there days hitting me.
Speaker 2: No way, I woult to live to be one hundred
and twenty.
Speaker 5: What if it's super quality?
Speaker 2: Now, who's going to be super quality at one seventeen?
Speaker 5: You're saying you don't want to be doing the show
for eighty four years.
Speaker 2: No, oh god man, you I mean no.
Speaker 5: Running stairs right and stairs on the break.
Speaker 4: I can barely do that at forty okay, and have
the breath to come back here and talk.
Speaker 5: Just saying they are doing crazy things in medicine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get you.
Speaker 4: Look, I'll say you know better than I because you
actually do come up with a formula to go into
the body and better the body.
Speaker 5: Yeah, drink my hind. It is surprising, like how much
my knees and achilles are just not feeling great every day. Yeah,
some days they feel better than others. I've never even
had any injuries. Like people are always like as soon
as you get to forty, it's like it's like a
light switch comes on, Like you stuff starts to hurt.
I'm like, man, that's that's dumb. Gonna take care of
me stuff. I eat healthy, I stay crazy hydrated meats.
I go in spurts of healthy ause, of course, we
all have to live our life and enjoy it. What's
the point if we're miserable all the time. Laundry is
just well, you've got the juice cleans going awesome, it's great, terrible.
You can do that in spurts. We can do it
a little bit. I like to do Keto diets. You do,
but I only like to do it like once or
twice a year. But it's like a good mental challenge
makes me feel good, makes my gut feel good. I
just respond well to it. Yeah. I don't want to
live life like that. No, I want to have some
good chocolate. Yeah, I want to have a French fry.
I want to Dad tax the heck out of my children.
Speaker 2: What's the number one? Dad tax? Mine's usually going to
be some kind of like a shake or some Dairyes.
Speaker 5: I usually go, I don't. I don't Dad tax a
lot of the sweets I'm I like, like very specific sweets,
Like I used to eat all the candy I used
to like everything. If I could get us like my
sweet tooth fix on, I would like the older. I
get the worst. It kind of makes me feel so
I kind of pick and choose, like I look at
it dessert and like, are you worth it? If you're
not worth that, I'm not doing it because I just
don't want to, because I'm a man. Are you worried?
Are you worth this? But I like the dad text,
like the French fries. So if like we do, if
we do like a Chick fil a or something like that.
My kids don't like the crispy parts of things, which
is arguably, maybe not arguably objectively the best part of
the nugget is like the like the little crispy parts,
So eat around it, nose drop all the crispy parts
of the box. Okay, leaving the crispy stuff.
Speaker 4: See, I get all the turtleback fries because kids don't
like those.
Speaker 2: I love them.
Speaker 6: I don't like those them White Victoria loves the I
can't do it either.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've never even thought about somebody liking this. Those
are absolute trash.
Speaker 6: It's like it's like when you got like the n
piece of the corn bread at school and it was
hard on both sides. You didn't want that's like, there's
no there's no crisp to it, there's no like.
Speaker 5: It's the most undynamic bite you could have in.
Speaker 4: A fast food It's the best one if you're dipping
it inside them because it doesn't go through the holes.
Speaker 5: You probably like the old steak fries those potato wedges
used to get back in the day.
Speaker 2: Bad.
Speaker 5: It's better than it is better than no fry. Bad fries.
Speaker 6: It's like bad pizza, Like even the bad ones, you're
still you're still gonna eat it.
Speaker 5: It's true. So I don't want to poo poo all
over all the fries. But of like, if we had
a fry tier list, steak fries are not even close
to the second to last place. They are so far last.
Speaker 4: That's actually not a bad tear list potatoes potatoes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but there's so many different types of fries you could.
Speaker 4: Strictly there's are under seasons.
Speaker 2: One thing, though, you did say didn't have any injuries earlier.
It's kind of a lie.
Speaker 4: I remember you being so dramatic going into the locker
room getting shot up against Arkansas and like coming out
like dude, dude, you're not even hurt. You got the
fattest ankle braces I've ever seen on in my life
because he got bigging due Elandra.
Speaker 2: They were gigantic.
Speaker 4: It looked like he had two casts on the bottom
of his legs.
Speaker 6: People exercise with like Uncle Wade.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what they look like.
Speaker 5: The adversity I faced in that season, from start to
finish was just unheard of. Things like that or you
usually get books written about them. At an ankle sprain.
Speaker 4: I think we could put all our brains together and
write a book.
Speaker 5: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: I think we could, and then turn it into your plate.
Speaker 5: Can it have last full back?
Speaker 6: Yeah, pictures in it, because like, here's the thing.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna be very.
Speaker 4: There's the book that I put pick up and it
doesn't have pictures in it.
Speaker 5: That's a surprise, That's what I'm saying. Like I'm not
I'm not reading it. Well, we have to. We got
to put the X rays in the that shows slight inflammation.
Speaker 2: Slight And this man went into the locker room. All right, listen,
I had roar of the crowd for slightness.
Speaker 5: I had sprained a sea joint. I did for just
risking my body Tuesday diving for the high line for
a two point conversion. It is a great story though,
in that game where I sprained my right a sea joint,
I think it was in the third quarter in the
two point conversion, I dove for the pylon sprain the
a seed joint, and I'm like, wow, that didn't feel great,
Like I hate I'd hate to like hurt my right
arm in a two point conversion. And so they take
me in, shoot me up, numb it. Yeah, feels great. Right,
started dropping some dimes, playing great the old lighter Kane.
They put in the shoulder stops like starts wearing off right.
At the end of the fourth quarter and we get
the ball. I think we're tied at this point. This
is before we went to overtime, and we're like on
the fifty and like all right, let's get in there.
I'm like, oh my god, don't don't call Hill Mary.
Do not call Heill Mary, because I because I couldn't
lift my like like.
Speaker 2: This was like we did you knew he had one
more play.
Speaker 5: We knew he had one more play. It was a
tie ball game. It was like on our on our own.
Maybe I'm there forty five it was. It was Hill
Mary Territory. Yeah. Yeah. So I get there and I'm like,
I can't lift like my elbow like past month, my
chest right, like, oh god, it's gonna be bad. So
I get there and we I said all right, down,
said hut, And I was like, I already knew the
outcome of this throw, like what it was going to be.
I was like, oh, let's just let's just rip it,
let's give it. Hell I got, I roll out and
I throw it as far as I can and it
went like twenty yards. Oh no, and then a guy came.
This guy came and hit me in the shoulder to
insult the injury. That is why they took me into
the locker room and proceeded to give me two shots
of light it can at that point. Yeah, and then
that's when, of course we I was like, let's go
do this. Hopefully we win the coin toss and we
get the ball second, right, but I think we lost
the coin toss and we got it first. So they
were like they were throwing, scraping, scraping the needles against
my bone and stuff like get it in there. That's
when I ran out and I think y'all were already
in the huddle. Yeah, we were in the huddle on
the field first play of overtime and I run out
of the tunnel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so dramatic.
Speaker 4: It was the door, like waiting like parents out there
in the.
Speaker 2: And go, I wonder, are you talking about the Arkansas game? Yeah,
I need to re I need to kind of relive
that game.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't remember a whole lot about that game.
Speaker 5: First half we sucked. I remember like in O seven.
Speaker 4: I definitely remember like Virginia Tech, and I remember Florida
even kind of remember Kentucky more than I remember Arkansas.
I don't remember. I do remember you and I. We
hit a rail for like sixty five. They get called
back because.
Speaker 5: Early rail you out of You just had a like
offset full back. Yeah I play.
Speaker 2: Actually I never played fullback that year. I really didn't.
Speaker 4: And they put me a full back. I'm like, oh here,
they're gonna know something's coming. But Arkansas thankfully adjust to it.
Speaker 5: Was it was it early in Brandon early and Jared.
Speaker 4: I think it was early in Jojo. They get on
the line and yeah, it got called back for legal.
Speaker 5: That was tough for me.
Speaker 2: That killed a lot of momentum.
Speaker 5: Killed so much momentium and we would have gone out,
we would have obviously won. There didn't matter. But early
man that that was tough for him. He thought through
so much that you're seeing injury. So he didn't have
a lot of practice time. So it was like one
of those things we called a play was a brand
new play that we installed like two days before the
game or something like that. So they just had some
alignment issues mid line of scrimmage.
Speaker 4: I think, I mean hindsight, but I think we win
the game if they don't call that back because yeah,
we didn't score on that drive.
Speaker 5: I ain't no guess the linebacker.
Speaker 4: I do remember this, so you know, if I was
ever lined up at fullback, it was typically like to
get the ball thrown to me, yeah, and I'd go
into the flats or something and we try to run
like a post from the outside receiver.
Speaker 2: I'd run a flat and try to catch it hit
the corner.
Speaker 5: It was amazing back in the day, like old school
football is. Like you see an offset full back on
fourth and one or third and one, how many times
they would outflank the linebacker to get to the flat.
Speaker 4: I know for a two yard on fire and lightning
kind kind of plays. So this linebacker overflowed heavy thinking
I'm going to the flat, gotcha, And so as soon
as he like overflowed, I just sleep like kind of
slipped like right underneath him and then got back into
the route.
Speaker 5: I dropped that throw on you. We did old numb
numb shoulder, old shoulder over here.
Speaker 2: One of the few times you threw a pretty ball.
Speaker 5: I'd never felt better throwing though I couldn't feel it.
Let's go.
Speaker 2: I relived it the other day when I was looking for.
Speaker 5: Highlights, like sound bites of the highlights. The one you found, Yeah.
Speaker 4: It was like a really long highlight video on you
about that game.
Speaker 2: I no, no, the Arkansas No, just the Arkansas game brief.
Speaker 5: That would have been a very like four tuitous like
highlight for us to put in the intro maybe to
hester that ended up getting called back for Yeah.
Speaker 2: Actually perfect, you play the play the five.
Speaker 5: Second but it didn't.
Speaker 2: That isn't good. That is going to be your job
doing the breaks if you can find that.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm almost I'm almost to the flint Hill, Mary play. Oh,
I'm watching the full four hour game here.
Speaker 4: Mary, is it a hail Mary if it goes twenty yards?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know what you.
Speaker 4: Think it is, all right, we will when we come
back get this show started.
Speaker 2: But but something that I wanted to make sure we
got out there.
Speaker 4: Today Today marks the eighty first anniversary of D Day,
So June sixth, nineteen forty four, when more than one
hundred and fifty thousand Allied troops to the beaches of
Normandy and obviously one of the most pivotal moments.
Speaker 2: In world history.
Speaker 4: Their bravery turn the tide on World War Two and
helped liberate Europe from Nazi domination. And we remember the courage, sacrifice,
unbreakable spirit of those who fought in those who never
made it home. Their legacy lives on in the freedom
we enjoy today every day, and we always honor them.
So shout out to everybody that obviously had anybody involved
in that gosh, I mean, one of literally the biggest
days in the history of the world, and today is
the eighty first anniversary.
Speaker 5: I'm sure like everybody listening has some sort of personal
impact with World War Like they had a grandfather, a
great uncle, whatever it was that fought and served and goodness,
good lord, I mean, are we are we grateful? We thankful?
Are we blessed for that generation of those people that
that's sacrificed, who were brave enough to to answer the call?
So thankful for them. And it makes you I mean,
we just have a Memorial Day not too long ago,
so it makes you grateful for the people that were
fought in that day and that at that time, but
for the people that serve now. So makes us proud
to be Americans.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And if you like, if you want to catch
up on like exactly how everything went down, Bandon Brothers,
the Pacific.
Speaker 5: Brothers again, like so good, that's the best.
Speaker 2: All right, we will step away.
Speaker 4: We got our guy Ben McDonald about fifteen minutes from now,
we'll really dive into some L s U baseball. Glenn's
best friend ish sign Now finally it's officially official with
an NFL team. Who that is and where he's going
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Speaker 1: You from players to legends? Hester and Flynn breakdown l
s U Football like only champions can.
Speaker 5: What's Wrong's reach?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I'll get I'll get passed.
Speaker 5: I didn't even listen to that. I just blocked it up. Yeah, hey,
welcome back to off the bench here on a Friday morning,
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Speaker 2: Did I see it? I love the initiative.
Speaker 5: Good job. Those guys are here rattled apparently no go
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I swear.
Speaker 5: I swear. People. If you don't turn your caps on
in this chat, I'm gonna lose it.
Speaker 2: You want all caps?
Speaker 5: It's all caps Friday. Okay, all right, bring the energy.
Speaker 2: That's the thing. All right, it is time to get
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Speaker 4: Uh, your boy boy finally found a landing spot. Aaron
Rodgers one year deal Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 5: Are we surprised, not at all.
Speaker 2: I mean so.
Speaker 4: Surprising the fact that it's like it's just continue to
drag on so long.
Speaker 2: You're like, well, maybe this isn't gonna happen.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't really know, but you're trying to
find a landing spot for all these you know, the
quarterbacks that were out there, and Russell Wilson goes to
the Giants, Jamis goes to the Giants, Flacco goes to
the Browns.
Speaker 2: But Aaron Rodgers was like kind of the one.
Speaker 4: It's like, all right, well, wherever he goes, he's going
to be the starters. So it's a little bit different
than those situations I just laid out there. But you know,
for whatever reason, it took a long time, they didn't
draft a quarterback and then we're like, okay, well they'll
bring somebody and they're not going to go into the
season with Mason Rudolph as or starting quarterback. We didn't
know who it was, so you know, we thought it
would be maybe the Vikings because he just felt like,
you know, he was trying to trail Brett fav as
much as he could going from Packers to Jets and
the way that it all went down.
Speaker 5: But I mean, fairness, though, I would I would rather
go play for the Vikings. Feels me, yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 4: You got a pretty good out there, good receiver, got
a couple of guys out there, but a rod he
goes to the Steelers. It's just brutal division. I played
in the AFC my entire career. I didn't play in
the North, but we always ended up playing the AFC North.
I swear it's like, some way, somehow, either in the
regular season or in the postseason, we're going to play
the Steelers, we were going to play the Ravens, and
it was going to be hell. So it is a brutal,
brutal division. And you know, you've got certainly the Bengals
the Ravens that have championship aspirations right, and they've got
Jimmy's and Joe's all over the place, and even the Browns.
Speaker 2: The Browns aren't good, but the defense is good. The
well in the pass.
Speaker 5: Rush, I'll kill you with quarterback numbers. If five hitch
it down, I'll beat you down. When you think one
of them is tired, the next another fresh one comes in,
different QB every quarter coach.
Speaker 2: All right, so initial thoughts? What do you think?
Speaker 5: So initial thoughts? I didn't know what he was going
to do. Of course we're buddy, his friends, but I
don't ever talk to him like about football or about
like what's hey, what's your next move? Blah blah blah.
It's kind of a dumb, weird conversation for you know,
friends that have to think.
Speaker 2: But you're in sports media now.
Speaker 5: So I'm in sports media for day five and no
big deal. So people always ask me, hey, what's your
boy gonna do? What your boy gonna do? I honestly
didn't have any idea. But the more it kind of
like went on without a decision or without like something
official being signed, well, you know, maybe the writings on
the wall that he maybe doesn't want to go there.
Maybe he something always comes available during training camp and
maybe it's that kind of situation. But when you look
at like now that it's official, when you look at
everything that happened, do you not think do people really
not think the pundits out there that the Steelers and
Aaron had some sort of like gentleman's agreement this whole time,
Like people, the media has been driving me crazy, driving
me crazy about how.
Speaker 2: Now your colleagues, the Steelers.
Speaker 5: And Mike Tomlin are so stupid for waiting this long
and they've they've missed every other they didn't draft a quarter,
but they didn't do this. Blah blah blah. The Steelers
aren't stupid, Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 4: They're one of the best franchises in sports, right Yeah.
Speaker 5: And so it's it drove me crazy. And then oh,
Aaron Righter. He's so selfish. He just wants people to
talk about them. He likes the spotlight. He just does
all this. He does this for attention. Have you ever
have you heard him say anything? He's not driving, he's
not trying to get attention out there. He's like the
timing to me, he's signing a week before minicamp. If
he signed three months ago, he wasn't going to go
to tas No, right, not that many forty forty one
year Olds are going to tas So, like if they
don't think that there was some sort of gentleman agreement
that I think people are crazy, right because I.
Speaker 4: Mean it's been thrown with DK as well, Like yeah
on the side, which doesn't necessarily any meaning thing, but
when you're rumored to go to Pittsburgh, he got traded
to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but let me just say it's like for for
all the they like to paint Aaron and I get it,
I get some of the some of the optics, some
of his deliveries not the best sometimes, Like I get it,
but to pay them like trying to be this guy
like selfish and want attention and like and trying to
jack around the Steelers and not taking the seriously, that's all.
That's all stupid and lazy, like takes. Like, first of all,
you never know what somebody's going through right in their life.
But to think that he wanted any attention from it,
he didn't want any Yeah, he doesn't want that sort
of attention and he didn't certainly didn't do it for that.
But he goes there. I mean, I certainly don't think
it's the best place for him to land. It's there,
I was going. Of course, they brought in DK back
ew They just got rid of Picket. They are in
a terrible, terribly tough division.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Nazie Harris is no longer there running back. He's
with the Chargers now. So Warren's gonna be your your
RB one yep.
Speaker 5: But for the Steelers it makes I mean, it makes
a ton of sense. Even if he gives you because
you don't know what he's going to be. He's gonna
be good. He's not going to be a bad quarterback. Like,
even when there's a lot of negative stuff about him
in New York, he still was good in New York.
Look at his stats. He didn't have like they played
on People got a little fatigued from it because they
kept playing, putting him on primetime and stuff like that.
They didn't necessarily have the success that they wanted to.
They only won five games last year. The team was awful.
But you look at what he did and it stacked
up pretty good against it. Certainly it was low, it
was down for his like career stats, his career averages.
But if he can find a little bit of that spark,
I think there's only been one quarterback that's ever been
like worth anything after the age of forty, that's the goat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's far had you know, a nice mini run
there with Minnesota, but I mean the Jets was bad,
but then Minnesota was for what at least one year,
maybe two.
Speaker 6: They made the NFC Championship when the Saints. Well, and
somebody was talking about that this morning when Farv signed
with the Vikings. He signed in the middle of August, right, see,
because he had thought he's got a half shoulders certain Well,
you and I would talk about the other day and
I'm like, hey, if it's not the Steelers, like what's
his option? And you were like, hey, you can always
sign somewhere, like right before.
Speaker 5: If somebody decides they do a QB, it always happens.
Somebody gets injured, somebody underperforms. Let's just take a very
super hypothetical situation Week two training camp. JJ McCarthy sprains
and ankle or just isn't looking right, just something. Because
it's football, it's a collision sport. Somebody is gonna have
a tweak, somebody's gonna have something. Oh right, the Falcons
Michael Pennock, Well, I guess they got Kirk behind him.
But let's just say, you know what I'm saying, something
is always gonna happen, and I think that probably odd
say that a better situation potentially could pop up, but
you never know. The Steelers are Mike Toma. What he's
done there, I think he's been there for over fifteen years.
I mean, it's it's incredible. I know that Mike and
Aaron have like a super like a mutual respect and
admiration for each other. So from that aspect, I think
it could be a really good fit from a relation
relationship standpoint, And Aaron is very big on like having
a good relationship for the people he's working with, working for,
playing with, And you'll never find anybody that's currently in
the locker room with him that says he's a bad
teammate right now. You've had some disgruntled people in the past,
like you know, Greg Jennings, Ter Michael Like, You've had
some people come out and say some things afterwards, but
I mean who hasn't. But you've never found anyone that's like, oh,
that's a that's a bad teammate, or you probably wouldn't
find Anye on the Steelers that says, nah, we don't
want to yeah, yeah, no, because when he's great, like,
let's just say he finds the spark. Yeah, I mean,
people forget he won MVP three years ago. Yeah it
wasn't was it three?
Speaker 6: I mean I guess technically four didn't he didn't play
because he got hurt.
Speaker 5: But I guess four. Yep, So I mean it's and
he was thirty eight. Yeah, probably when he did that.
I think, I think when he did that.
Speaker 4: So, like the end of the day, Mason Rudolph was
a quarterback and now it's Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2: The team's better.
Speaker 4: He found a landing spot and it's the Steelers, so
they'll at least be nine and seven.
Speaker 5: Let's just say, let's just say he's got a ten
percent chance of finding his old magic, his old form
and I say old couple of years ago, his old
form and being playing at an MVP level. That's ten
percent more than Mason Rudolph. Yes, right, so it's a
better it's a good signing. It's a really good signing
for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But we'll see how it plays out, obviously,
but I'm excited to watch him. I'm glad. I'm excited
to watch him for another year. Instead of him not
playing and retiring like take it in. He's been one
of the greatest and most dynamic and talented people we've
seen play that position. So get over yourself people, there
you go and relax. Let that man live his life.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, we're going to live our life and
we're gonna be joined by Ben McDonald. LSU Legend are
going to be on the call for the super Regional
between LSU and West Virginia coming up on Saturday. In
the box and will have been when we jump back
here on OTB.
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Speaker 1: Five Tigers turn Talkers. This is off the bench, all right,
welcome back.
Speaker 4: In and it is OTB here on this Friday afternoon.
It is always our pleasure to catch up with our
next guess. It is Ben McDonald, LSU legend, gonna be
on the call there for LSU and West Virginia super
Regional action in the box.
Speaker 2: Ben, always a pleasure. Hope you're doing well.
Speaker 3: My pleasure always good to chat with you guys.
Speaker 4: Man last week. Uh, look, the box was rocking. I
know you had a chance to call that regional as well.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 4: You know, it was an interesting regional because LSU looks
like they were on cruise control. But this team, man,
Little Rock, they were fighting and scratching and clawing, and
they take down Dallas Baptists, after they take down Rhode Island,
and they came into the box on Sunday with all
the confidence and so it was one of those situations
on Ben on a Monday, like, man, their ultimate you know,
confidence is showing if you're LSU or you stunned a
little bit because you had the four seed kind of
punch up. And I give you a lot of credit because,
as you know, in the game of baseball, when you've
got momentum on your side like Little Rock did, it's
hard to close out and continue on.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, baseball is a separator for our major sports,
right and this could never happen in football. Ever, it
could never. Little Rock doesn't even have a football program,
But if they did, LSU could play them in football
one thousand times and LSU football would win a thousand
out of a thousand that's just the truth. It wouldn't
happened in basketball either, but it can happen in baseball.
That's to me what makes baseball the greatest game in
the world. It looks with all the upsets that we had, guys,
and I know y'all been following it, but think of
it like this. Texas A and M and Virginia where
unanimous pre season. When the season begins, the number one
and number two teams in the entire country, nobody was
even close. Odds are in Vegas, A and M was
gonna walk away with the national title. None of those
two teams don't. It's not gonna win it, teaches, they
didn't get in the field of sixty four this year.
And then you fast forward to the top eight national steeds,
the best teams in baseball, Vanderbilt and of course you're
the Bergs at Tech. The don't even get out their
own regionals this year. And so that's what kind of
year it's been in college baseball. We had seven of
our top sixteen national seeds go down in regional play,
which has never happened before. It's been a wild ride,
and so it could happen in baseball. But I was
proud of LSU the way they fall back. Look, they
got down five to one in that deciding game in
Game seven and found a way to come back. You know,
obviously Cason Evans was the biggest part of that, and
he came in out of the bullpen and started stacking
z ros and was phenomenal. You know, in LSU ploub
back in it. But this is what has to happen
in baseball to be able to advance the next level.
And now they're going to play West Virginia this weekend,
who've been the Big twelve record season champions the last
two years in their second Super Regions. So this is
not gonna be an easy weekend.
Speaker 5: But the Tigers, No it is not.
Speaker 4: But and before we move forward, I do want to
get back real quick to Little Rock in that last
game because I am going to assume that the lineup
that we saw in the last game against Little Rock
is going to be the same one that we start
off with here against West Virginia, because honestly been I've
been saying it all week. If you don't make those changes,
I'm not sure that LSU's still playing. Because you move
Ethan Fry up to the two hole, he goes four
for four, has two walks on base six times, two doubles,
a home run, and then having Luis Hernandez in the
eight hole, he hits two home runs. I mean, Jay
did a lot of tinkering with the lineup there in
that last game, Game seven of the regional and it
all really worked out incredibly well. And if you don't
make those moves, I'm not sure you're still playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, look, I give a lot of credit
to Jay two because most coaches aren't going to do that, right.
Most coaches are not going to take a guy that
hit twenty eight homers last year. They probably should have
left for pro ball and didn't. And Jared Jones and
he's been scuffled a little bit, so he kind of
shook the lineup and dropped him down to the five
hole moves Eathan Fry up and you'll brought Steven Mile
up and Nickas. It really just shook up the whole
lot in Stanfield. But hit nine hole to hit the
entire year. He hit seventh hole in that ball game too,
so he shook it up. It paid off. Now most
probably Lu's go to face a left handed pitcher in
game one, So I don't know if that things or not.
We know furiy Ll hits about two hundred and fifty
points better off of right handers than he does left handers.
At the top that hit left, he's very well. I
could see a scenario where they shake up the line
up even again and maybe just put a right hander
to lead it off and drop Kuriel down a spot
or two. That could happen as well, but it very
well could be the same amount up that you're talking about.
You know, I just don't know what exactly what Jay's
don't do just yet. But that's what one thing I
like about Jay is he not as afraid to tak
her a little bit when he feels like he needs
to tink.
Speaker 5: Her a little bit. Ben, we all know the and
we're all witnessing and get to see firsthand like the
greatness of Kate Anderson and Anthony Aysen right now. But
I want to hear from your perspective because we all
see the big picture. We see the results, we see
the strikeouts, and and we see him being good. But
I kind of want to hear like a scouting report
from from you on what makes this guy's good? What
Why is there stuff different? Why is it great like
the more movement? What is their position with the pitches?
What is your kind of scouting report on each of
these guys on what makes them so good?
Speaker 3: Well, if you talk about Kate Anderson, you talk about
a kid. Remember this is just a second year on campus.
And if you go back and look at what he
did last year, the kid had a twenty seven e
r A at SEC play. Like he didn't pitch well
as a freshman at SEC play. And you want to
talk about helium and the draft, guys, I mean this
to me, Kate Anderson has the most helium out of
any baseball player coming up in the draft next month.
I mean he was a projected into the second round,
mid the second round pick when the season begins. This
you know this year back in February, and now some
publications MLB dot Com Jim Kallis has him going three
overall in the first round of the Seattle Mariners. And
he had shot up the draft boards as a drafta
well sophomore, and I think there was a lot of
folks thought he was coming back to LSU for his
junior year next year. He ain't coming back, Guys, he's
they better enjoy him now because he's not coming back.
And what makes him good, I think there's a lot
of things. One on the mound, you can't ever tell
if he's up, free or down. Like we just got
the hit factor. You know, he's blocked in all the time.
He's down. An extremely emotional guy, he stays locked in.
I think what's really happens growth in one season, and
as a scout and as a GM, that's what you
want to see. He picked up that new pitch, the
slider that he didn't throw last year. Last year was fastball, curveball,
change up. This year he added a slider to the
mix too, and it's been his most used secondary pitch,
you know, right behind the fastball. The velos picked up
a little bit. His composure on the mound is elite.
And let's not forget he's left handed and that always
helps too, you know. And in the year we're talking
to some gms and scouts. The draft overall, you talk
about the entire the entirety of the draft, it's a
little bit weaker than what it has been in the past,
Like it's a weaker draft, and so that's another reason
why he projects out Anderson does as a starting picture
at the MLB level, and I think that's why they
like him so much and why he shut up. He's
talk about Anthony ianson. Look, when you get a guy
from midweight major and imthin k from UC San Diego,
you never know how the stuff is got of translated
in the toughest conference, kind of like football, you don't
know how it translates until you get them on campus
when you start running out there. But Anthony Ias and
I'm telling you what, guys, the fastball to me is
a good one Holkser hitting two ninety two off of it.
But the difference maker for him is his all speed pitches.
In other words, his slider, his purve ball, and his
flip finger fastball are all elite. I'm talking about They
hit like one fifty or lower on all three of
the all speed pitches, and that's just separated for him.
He could really spend the breaking balls in there, and
so he's adapted well. And I would I always like
to look, Okay, how do you perform against the best
competition in the country. And I went back and looked
at Ayenson's numbers on an SEC play alone. His ten
stars guys. He had a two point eight era and
those ten stars and sec plays. So this dude is
just a sign of assassin. He's out a huge emotional
guy either. He just goes out and gets it done.
And you talk about Look you talk about Anderson number
two of the country in strikedoffs right now, I Anson
right behind him at number three in the country. Liam
Doyle leads it from Tennessee. And the only reason he's
ahead of both those guys because he's got two more
appearances than both of them have, you know. And so
that's how dominant this staff has been. It's one A
and it's one B, and it's the reason why LSU
should be in Olma Hall here in about a week.
Speaker 5: Ben.
Speaker 4: When you look at LSU and Kate Anson and Anthony
Ansen like you just laid out, I mean, obviously the
best for me one two punch in the country. But
if you get to a game three, because we saw
in game seven of the regional right you start Zach Cowen,
but here comes Evans in and he strikes out nine
straight guys.
Speaker 5: He was electric.
Speaker 4: What do you think happens if you get to a
game three again, do you think it's going to be
the same situation because you know Cason Evans, maybe it's
you know, he needs to.
Speaker 2: Come out of the bullpen.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's the juice that he needs, whatever it might be,
even though he has starts against Tennessee, Arkansas and others.
Because Zach Cowen, although he started at another place, that
was his first start of the year for LSU, how
do you think game three would go right now if
you do in fact play one.
Speaker 3: Well, look, I mean LSU need Zach Cowen to be good.
And if you go back and look earlier in the year, man,
this guy come out of the bullpen, was out that
if you mentioned he was at Watford last year, got
fifteen starts at Watford last year. That's how Jay Saul
Calvin when you know they went to the Chapel Hill
Regional and Calhen was pitching for Watford and he talked
him into coming over to LSU. Obviously he was really
good earlier in the year. He had scoffed a little
bit as a lake, but he's used to starting. If
you go back to last year, it was his first
start this year, but he started a ton his last
two years prior to coming to LSU. But I think
that's gonna be your two guys. I mean, you know,
Evans is a guy that I think you could start him,
or you could bring him out of the bullfit, whatever
you think it's best. Now here's a wild part of that.
You guys know this. If there's a chance to close
out in game one and our game two, Evans is
gonna beat the guy like he's the rover back in football, right.
I mean, he could do a little bit of everything,
and so if you need to close him out tomorrow night,
he's gonna be your guy. He's gonna come close out
game one, or he could close out Game two, and
then you got to back up a punt and figure
out what you're gonna do. Having said that, if he
doesn't pitch him one or two, I could definitely see
a scenario where he is starting and Jay's not messing around.
He's starting Game three and then you have Calvin and
the boys behind him. But that's a concern for relusue
right now. When you get to the back end that
bullpen minus those two guys, you don't really know what
you're gonna get. And that was on display, you know
in Game one against Little Rock when LSU got beat.
They walked eleven and eight of those eleven walks came
around the score. So that's a concern fail issue because
you know, we talk about shore wars sometimes of William
Schmidt and Rizzy and those young guys back there learning
how to pitch back there if you get sideways from
time to time, and sometimes it does.
Speaker 5: All right, Ben, we're talking about who's gonna be on
the mound and different strategies there. But let's talk about
who they're facing. We got West Virginia coming in game
start tomorrow. Kind of give us your breakdown of West
Virginia and how they match up with the LSU pitchers
and the LSU LSU lineup.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, if you talk about West Virginia, you
can you know a team that really wasn't playing well.
I mean, they did rid the regular season Big twelve championship,
and they did it back to back years as well,
you know, and so they are a really good team.
Having said that, they struggled a little bit coming down
to I mean, they only won I think there were
four or nine to the last thirteen games. If I
look at their overall numbers, I was breaking down they
hit for a good batting average. They're right there with LSU,
right at three hundred, you know, and they do scot
from runs right at eight runs per game, same as LSU.
The difference for them is it's more of a small
ball approach. They only got fifty five homers on the year.
L she was approaching one hundred home runs this year. Now,
the one thing they do better than LSC, they're gonna
press you up. They gotta over one hundred stolen basis,
so they're gonna get on. They're gonna run a little bit.
And so if your Luis Hernandez whoever's catch it for LUs,
you could be air and bad. You got to be
ready to throw some guys out, because I think that's
what West Virginia does best, is they get up and
they go. And this is only their second Super Regional appearance,
and they've done it in back to back years. Now,
you know the Mountaineers, and so it's a team that's
not expected to come in here and win. I think
that's dangerous. As you guys know, sometimes, like you like
Little Rock, you know, when you don't have expectations that
you're kind of free and easy, it opens you up
to be able to just go play the game and say, oh,
well we did our best wed and win. But those
are the dangerous teams to me, you know, And so
LSU will have their hands for if you look on
the mountain, they have a a couple of veteran guys
that's gonna pitch for them this weekend. This gripping Karen
is a kid that's a red shirt senior who's been
around a little bit. He's got over three hundred career
collegiate innings in he's a really good picture. I mean,
he didn't win but five games that didn't score many runs,
but the era is outstanding and just a shade over three.
He can strike you out and got more strikeouts than
each pick. But he's a left hander, and look, left
handers have given LSU problems this year, that's no doubt.
You go look at the batting average and the runs
per game versus left these versus righting LSU not nearly
as good versus left handed pitching. So that worries me
in some ways. And then they're gonna face partsna the
right hander who is older too. Now he's twenty four
years old and these guys are a little bit older,
and they got a lot of the experience under their belt,
so I don't think they're gonna be intimidated by the
environment and eleven or twelve thousand in the box when
you have those veteran guys on the mound, and that's
what West Virginia has, and so it's gonna be interesting
to see the small ball versus big ball. Now we
know at the box this time of year, anything could happen.
I mean, look, Little Rock came in with not many
homers them the year, and they hit seven of them,
you know, And so when the wind starts flowing out,
they can they can get a little bit sideways on
you from time to time. But LSU certainly should come
out of this super regional, that's no doubt about that.
But it will not be I feel like West Virginia
is gonna give them everything they want.
Speaker 4: All right, there is our guy, Ben McDonald, LSU legend
gonna be on the call for ESPN in the box
starting tomorrow, LSU versus West Virginia for that super regional
to move on to Omaha.
Speaker 2: Ben, you're the man. We appreciate your time and look
forward to the next conversation.
Speaker 3: All right, appreciate you guys, take care all.
Speaker 4: Right, you as well again the great Ben McDonald. All right,
we will step away, wrap up our number one. When
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