Speaker 1: A 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.
Speaker 3: Han'sday.
Speaker 4: Hester and Hester got it five out of five.
Speaker 1: Your luck's in to Off the Bench.
Speaker 4: Where it's back to troll for the inso.
Speaker 1: Live from the Raising King Studio. Here's Jacob Hester and
Matt Flynn.
Speaker 5: Welcome in a Thursday edition of Off the Bench.
Speaker 6: How we doing out there?
Speaker 5: Taylor Sharp here with the affiliate end for Jacob Hester
and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 6: We got today, we got tomorrow. We are here with
you all week long.
Speaker 5: Jake and Matt will be back on Monday at Landra Villa.
Reale and Cassie Spizzelli This morning, she decided to wake
up early for us one day and hang out with
us year guys.
Speaker 6: How we do? How we do in this morning?
Speaker 7: Oh good, Cassie.
Speaker 8: It always makes me laugh when we're both doing Hunt
show because he's like, that's a lot of vowels back there.
Speaker 7: It is, he says it every time.
Speaker 6: That is a lot of owls.
Speaker 5: I mean, I have a five letter last name, so
everything's a lot of owls for me.
Speaker 6: But uh, Cassie, how we.
Speaker 2: Doing I'm all right. I'm struggling with the yawns here.
It's a little early.
Speaker 5: I saw you walking down the hallway and I'm like, Cassie,
we got to wake this thing up.
Speaker 2: I've already on at least five times before the start
of the show. It's it's rough, but we're hanging in here.
I'm good, I'll be fine.
Speaker 7: He'll be low energy back here. The eyes are feeling
real heavy too.
Speaker 6: You were at the box yesterday.
Speaker 7: I did go to the bar.
Speaker 6: How did that?
Speaker 9: Goya?
Speaker 6: It was good?
Speaker 7: I mean it was fun.
Speaker 6: Okay, big crop. You got a Landra got her.
Speaker 8: Run rules for Oh my gosh, I did how about that?
Speaker 6: I was watching the game be very specific, I know,
and then in the.
Speaker 5: Eighth inning, John Pearson hits it and I'm like, there's
the run rule.
Speaker 6: Two years in the making. We got the.
Speaker 5: We got the L shoe run rule over Nichols. We'll
talk about that in a little bit.
Speaker 7: I'm just gonna start speaking things into existence.
Speaker 5: And now, you know you have to be specific. Yeah,
Like you can't just be like, oh I want this, No,
I mean we got to have.
Speaker 8: To say I need L s U Baseball to run
rule Nichols instead of the other way where I said,
I think I just said, like.
Speaker 7: So then Nichols run ruled this last season.
Speaker 9: Yeah, not LS.
Speaker 6: She's fine as well.
Speaker 5: You know what, though, I think y LSU had a
pretty decent ending to their season last year.
Speaker 6: I don't think they cared too much about that.
Speaker 7: LSU baseball will go back to back this season. Okay,
I like that, I'm doing it.
Speaker 5: I like that you specified team. You specified this season.
If anything screws up, it's not on you.
Speaker 7: So no, it's not. I was very specific.
Speaker 5: That you're you're good on that as I'm a little
fired up this morning. Luke Combs is opening a brand
new bar. Let's go so that one's already opened. Uh,
we visited that one back in November. This one's coming
to Orlando at the City Walk, right outside of Universal Studios.
And for those who don't know, my family likes to
frequent Universal. Yeah, now that's probably going to change in
the near future. We'll probably have to wait a few
years before we go back. But uh yeah, yeah isn't.
Speaker 2: He also coming out with a new album.
Speaker 5: No So a single came out last Friday. Yeah, it's
called be by You. Everybody go listen, dude, it's great.
Speaker 6: God. I should be Luke Comb's pr guy, you know,
I mean, I really should.
Speaker 5: I should get some sort of like give me some
sort of royalties from this. Uh No, And then is
the whole album comes out like the middle of March.
But so he's opening the category ten. First off, if
you're going too Nashville, go to Category ten.
Speaker 6: It's it's the best one.
Speaker 5: Like I I had loved Jason Alden's bar for a
number of years.
Speaker 6: I thought that was the best one. I visited the
new Gorth Brooks bar, I visited the new Eric Church bar,
I visited Lucombes. This Category ten by far the best one.
Speaker 7: Maybe you're just a barfly.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to Nashville this summer and I want
to go to all the bars.
Speaker 5: So it sucked for Victoria because I was like, I
love Luke Coms, I love air Church.
Speaker 6: Like, oh no, we got to go to the bars.
But luckily, like they said, launched.
Speaker 5: During the day, so we wound up just eating at
one of them. Yeah, but I had to go into
all of them. And this was two weeks after Victoria
found out she was pregnant.
Speaker 6: So I mean it not a whole lot she could do.
Speaker 5: She kind of just tagged along and cheered me one,
so probably not the best experience for her. But yeah,
so this thing is gonna be thirty three thousand square feet,
not a small boy. It's gonna be right there in
City Walk. I think the one in Nashville is actually
bigger than that. I could be wrong, but uh yeah,
I'm excited about that. My sister might even be a
bigger Lukecumbs fan than me, which is hard to do.
Which like, me and my sister don't agree on anything
music wise, except we are both big Luke Cums fans.
So maybe I need to reevaluate things like like maybe
that's where I'm at, But uh now I'm excited about it.
Speaker 6: He actually has three locations.
Speaker 5: He guys went in Vegas too, But I'll you can
bet in twenty twenty seven when this thing opens up,
the Sharp family will be up in that thing. You
guys are gonna like this. Victoria has this this little
app that like tracks how many weeks a long she
is and everything like that. It's a mango as of yesterday, guys,
a mango.
Speaker 6: Nineteen.
Speaker 5: Well, it gives you a bunch of different categories, so
like it's got like this one's fruit category, your baby's
as big as a mango.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then with snack category.
Speaker 5: Your baby is as big as a cheese stick, which
seems significantly smaller to a mango to me. And like
last week it was so it's half a half a pound.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I believe is the weight six inches long? Half
a pound? But so what cheese stick is six inches long?
Speaker 7: Huge? The ones that they used to have at walk ons.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's a log.
Speaker 5: Yes, what's the chilies when they have they're like the rectangles,
those are big.
Speaker 6: Two.
Speaker 5: It's as big as a cornhole bag, So we love that. Yeah,
we got the Olympics going on, We got a lot
of sports going on. Cornhole bag. How about this one?
It's as big as share cell phone used on Clueless, Cassie.
Speaker 6: Clueless was a movie.
Speaker 7: That came out Clueless.
Speaker 5: Okay, So I was picking on you a little bit
the other day, Yeah, asking Braxton if he had seen
Billy Madison because like his last names in the movie,
and I said, okay, I told him, like, thank you
for seeing Billy Madison, because Cassie has seen.
Speaker 2: No movie I was even born yet you were like.
Speaker 6: Seven years old.
Speaker 7: I don't think any of us were.
Speaker 5: I would and I was a year away. I was
born in ninety six. But I mean, I've seen a
lot of random movies. But the giant cell phone that
she used in the nineteen ninety three movie Clueless, Yeah,
it's as big as it's as big as the cell phone.
Speaker 6: So that that's pretty cool.
Speaker 5: Found out Victoria can actually hear or feel when the
baby hiccups. That's cool, it's cool, but that's also kind
of terrifying. Why it's just weird to me, Like something
growing inside of you still is just a foreign concept
to me. Yeah, Victoria's like, yeah, the baby's growing like
eyelashes and fingernails. I'm like, that's inside of you. Yeah,
I think about that's just I don't Apparently they were.
They were picking on me on the way back to
the Senior Bowl, saying I'm in for a rude awakening.
But uh, I mean yeah, Like she gives me updates
so she finds out how far along she is every Wednesday,
and this was the latest update. And last week they
said the baby was the size of a pickle. Again,
mingo doesn't seem bigger than a pickle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like a pickle is bigger than like
a cheese stick.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't. It may have to do with weight.
Speaker 5: I mean, I guess the pickle doesn't weigh that much
like a mingo's probably bigger.
Speaker 2: I like aile weighs more than a cheese stick.
Speaker 6: That's what I'm saying. Like a cornhole bag, how much
does a cornhole bag? Way?
Speaker 5: I don't know, but you're telling me a mango and
a cornhole bag way the same. I don't see it,
but yeah, that's where we're at. Where the size of
SHARE's cell phone with the size of a cornhole bag,
a cheese stick, not the giant walk on cheese sticks,
the small cheese sticks, and a mango. So we are
rolling right along nineteen weeks as of yesterday. We got
a lot to cover here on today's show. I mean,
we had a baseball game yesterday. Lundra spoke it into existence.
The right team got the run rule Lsu versus Nichols.
It was the one o'clock game yesterday in alec box.
We will break that down. We got Bill Bender of
the Sporting News coming on. Bill put out his entire
your sixty eighteen bracket for March Madness.
Speaker 6: March Madness is just around the corner, so we'll shake
it up a little bit.
Speaker 5: We'll talk to Bill about that spoiler alier, guys, Lsu
not in that round of sixty eight number we just missed,
just missed it. I mean one more sec win that
probably would have done it. But we'll talk to Bill
about all of that. We will do our big dealer,
no big deal at nine am.
Speaker 6: We'll bring that back for a little bit.
Speaker 5: Munchie's chef Michael Johnson, he's coming on and Matt Flynn
will be so proud of me. We might even do
a little little Olympic update for you guys. Kind of
excited about that. And Paul Fine bomb of all people
giving Lane Kiff and his flowers yesterday, which if Paul
Fine bombs doing that, I assume anything as possible. So
we'll discuss that a little bit as well. Again, a
ton to get to or the Saints in the market
for a running back. We're breaking it all down, so
we'll cut a little bit early here because we got
a lot of baseball to get to. We'll actually break
down Lsu versus Nichols next here on off the bench,
off the bench.
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Speaker 5: All right, welcome back in Thursday edition of OTB. Taylor
Sharp Here with you filling in for Jacob Esher and
Matt Flann Here in the Raisin Canes Studio. You'r LSU
Tigers to call on the Nickels State Colonels yesterday at
alex Baik Stadium. We're about to break it all down.
But before we do that, let's go ahead and get
this show started.
Speaker 1: It's time to get glowing courtesy of go Flow ivy Spa,
where hydration vitamins and a summer ready glow are always
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Speaker 5: Now for starters, all right, the Tigers take down the
Colonel's twelve to one yesterday afternoon at Alec Box Stadium.
The scoring went like this. Nichols actually comes out swinging.
They get a solo home run in the first inning,
and things looked a little bit dicey for the Tigers.
Speaker 6: However, LSU was able to get out of it.
Speaker 5: With limited damage one nothing deficit going into the bottom
of the first inning, and LSU played it a five
spot in that bottom of the first inning home run
by Trent Carraway a grand slam in that first inning
to really bust the doors wide open there for the Tigers,
and things kind of remain steady at that six to
nothing Mark LSU scores one in the bottom of the second,
doesn't score again till the sixth inning. They add two more,
making it eight to eight to one, and then a
one run in the seventh inning, and then a three
run spot in the eighth which the game early it
was it was John Pearson.
Speaker 6: The game ended in the bottom of the eighth. He
unloaded a three run home run.
Speaker 5: It gave the Tigers an eleven run advantage in the
eighth inning, and that's all she wrote. The Tigers victorious
twelve to one inside Alec Box Stadium. A lot of
things to like in this game. Jake Brown, He's now
batting five hundred on the season. He went two for
five yesterday. He had a double, two RBIs scored a run.
Jake Brown continues to just see the ball so well,
he's tearing the cover off of it. Steven Milom. He
bounced back after an up and down opening weekend.
Speaker 3: He was.
Speaker 5: He was one for three, but he scored two runs.
Trink Carraway I mentioned him a Grand Slam. He had
four RBI on that game, one for three. Tanner Reeves
hit at the plate. He's Tanta Reeves is hitting four
hundred on the season. Honestly, he just doesn't look comfortable
out there in left field. I know he's out there
due to the injury right now to Chris Stanfield, but
Jay clearly wants his bat in the lineup because there's options.
Speaker 6: We talked about it. Yesterday.
Speaker 5: You had a chance to see Daniel Harden coming up
from community college. He had a great year last year
at the JUCO level.
Speaker 6: He was coming up.
Speaker 5: We didn't see a ton of him, and we saw
him a little bit. But I mean, Mason Brawn's another guy.
He DHD yesterday. We didn't see him in the outfield,
we didn't see him in the infield. Clearly, Jay wants
Tanner Reeves his bat in the lineup. He put him
out there at left field, and you know he misplayed
a ball in the second inning. No run scored off
of it, but he just he just doesn't look comfortable
out there in left field. We'll see, we'll see if
something changes, you know, before Stanfield gets out. Hopefully Stanfield
not out for a tremendous amount of time. But yeah,
Tana Reeves just doesn't look comfortable out there at left field.
I think he's much more of an infielder. But he's
seeing the ball well. Again, he's hitting. Was he four
hundred on the season right now, So I understand wanting
that bat in the lineup right now. In non conference play,
the bullpen was excellent in this game. Dax's Day, Dax, Dothy,
Zion Theopolis, Santiago Garcia, Reagan Ricken. They combined for most
of this game and did not give up a hit. Now,
they combined for five walks. You gotta clean that up
a little bit, but it resulted in no runs, and guys,
theres a hole this bullpen. Seven k's no runs between
the four relievers. Again, gotta clean up the walks a
little bit, but you gotta be really happy with what
you saw from the bullpen. I just laid out what
we saw in the batting lineup. I really liked what
I saw from a Santiago Garcia. I thought that was
a good bounce back spot. I mean, Garcia goes in there,
he throws an inn and now he walks two batters,
but he gets two strikeouts. It does not give up
a single hit. Able to get out of that inning.
Reagan Ricken goes to the final three in this game,
and this was his first outing as a Tiger. He's
a guy we highlighted yesterday him and theopolis of You'll
probably see these guys because you didn't see him in
the opening weekend. Reagan Ricken three innings, two strikeouts, no walks,
no hits. That's about as good as you're gonna get.
I mean, I thought he was nails at the back
end of that bullpen. That's something you can build off of. Again,
I mentioned Santiago Garcia. He had the two walks, but
he had a big time bouncing back performance. Dax Dothy,
he comes in in a spotty situation. He goes an
inning in a third phase, four batters, struck out two
of them, did not give up a hit. Zion theophilis
an inning and a third phase, four batters, got a strikeout,
did walk three guys. He had a little bit of
control issues, but again he was able to get out
of it without a hit and without giving up any runs.
Speaker 6: There was a ton to like in this ballgame.
Speaker 5: A confusing part to me was you didn't see Connor Binge,
which you'll see Connor Binge at some point.
Speaker 6: You saw him last year. I think he had sixteen
outings a year ago.
Speaker 5: Jay Johnson kind of knows what he's got and Connor
Binge still know Danny lock and Meyer.
Speaker 6: Did not see Danny lock and Meyer at all.
Speaker 5: And I actually thought there was a chance that Cooper
Williams could have started this game. He threw two innings
over the weekend. And you know, whether it's Cason Evans,
whether it's a William Schmidt, you don't know if that
weekend rotation is set in stone, and a lot of
times Jay does like to put that left handed arm
in that weekend rotation. Cooper Williams probably the best candidate
as far as lefties to become a starter on the weekend.
Speaker 6: Thought we might see him, you know, maybe two.
Speaker 5: Innings kind of the opener if you will not even
necessarily a starter that's going to go four to five innings,
because you'll probably still use him on the weekend.
Speaker 6: But we did not see Cooper Williams there.
Speaker 5: That tells me, as of right now, they're kind of
comfortable with where they are in that weekend rotation, at
least for the time being. I would not expect any
changes over the weekend, and we're still going to see
Cooper Williams probably early this weekend, probably tomorrow if I
had to guess.
Speaker 6: But really good outing by the bullpen. The not so good.
Speaker 5: Zach Cowen with another another rough outing an inning and
a third, gave up three hits, gave up a run
which was just a bomb of a home run early
in that first inning. He only walked one batter, but
again an inning and a third, two strikeouts, face nine batters,
gave up three hits, gave up a run, had thirty
four pitches in an inning and a third. I don't
know what you do with Zach Cowen now, because me
Anda Landra talked about a little bit yesterday, we were
cool with seeing Cowen for an inning or in Santiago
Garcia to kind of get their confidence back, because really,
out of all the relief pitchers you saw over the weekend,
it was Cowen and Garcia that did not perform up
to their standard. Which Garcia was a big time transfer
from Oregon. We knew it's zat Cowen did a year ago.
You weren't super concerned with him, but you would have
liked to have seen him get back in the right direction.
I thought, Santiago Garcia did that again. Two walks in
an inning. You gotta clean that up a little bit,
but struck out two, didn't give up a hit, no
runs across the plate. You're happy with that for the
most part. I would call that a bounce back performance
for the most part. Zach Cowen, though, he gets the
start in this game, which came as a little bit
of a surprise to me. But he goes an inning
in a third and I mean, yeah, he gave up
You're gonna say, Okay, he gave up one run.
Speaker 6: I understand that. But he just never looked comfortable out there.
Speaker 5: And yes, there was a slight fielding error on trend
Carraway's part to kind of extend that first inning a
little bit. However, Caroway would make up for it in
the bottom of the first inning with that grand slam shot.
But elandra I'll throw this one to you. Is it
is it time to be concerned with Zach Cowen.
Speaker 8: Yes, only because you kind of saw it toward the
end of last season, right, like he did really well
versus Arkansas. But before that, I think it was like
during the SEC Championship versus or maybe even during the
Texas A and M series, like it just started to
kind of like lose a little bit.
Speaker 7: Of the control and maybe be a little concerned about it.
But I don't know.
Speaker 8: I mean, I guess just try to get him some
reps out there. I mean, we know he has it, right,
Maybe the am I going to come out the pen?
Am I going to start? Am I going to close?
Thing might have been a bit of a like a
mental thing for him because I know it's different for pictures,
like if they know they're going to start, if they
know they're going to come out the pen, it's different
for them. So maybe it was a little bit of
that and kind of still is that, like you still
don't really know where he's gonna be, but maybe just
a little bit of concern for Zach Cowen.
Speaker 7: But we know he has it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that it was it was
kind of like I guess it was like halfway through
the season, was it Oklahoma was it A and m was.
Speaker 5: It was one of those and where you know, he
kind of got touched up a little bit. He almost
wasn't the same after that. Like you mentioned, he was
great against Arkansas, which you needed that, but SEC tournament
and then even when you got to Omaha, like Cason,
Evans was the one that emerged. I mean that was
that was his coming out party. It was it was
Evans the freshman that you went to over Zach Cowen.
And yeah, you could say it's two outings, it's non conference,
I get it, but it's everything she just laid out.
It's not two out it's the back half of last
season or the back part of last season, less than
half the season, but translating into this season, that's not good.
You You would have liked the veteran like Zach Cowen
to put that behind him, and I think he can.
Speaker 6: He's a good pitcher.
Speaker 5: We saw him last year and he was nails as
your closer for the first half of last year. I
mean he was one of the most dominant guys in
the SEC. So you know the potentials there and like
she just said, get him out there, continue to get
him reps. This is the non conference, you should have
an advantage over everybody you play, and guess what, your
team's gonna score a lot of runs if these first
five games or any indication. So there's a chance to
go out there, let him work through things, hopefully it
doesn't hurt you too much, and get him going in
the right direction before SEC play starts.
Speaker 6: I like Zach cow and you know it's there. You've
seen it.
Speaker 5: Like, we're not even basing anything off of potential. He's done,
been out there and actually done it again. He gets
to start yesterday, he doesn't even make it out of
the second inning, and it's not what you wanted to
see as far as they bounce back performance. However, the
rest of the team really solid. Davey Theopolis, Garcia Ricken.
The four relief pitchers combined for seven strikeouts, no hits, obviously,
no runs given up. So really solid job there from
the Tigers bullpen. All right, we're going to take a
quick time out when we get back. CBS Sports put
out teams they believe could have the most explosive offense
next year in college football. I'll lets you obviously makes
the list. They're a little bit lower than you might think. However,
there's one reason for it, and I think it makes
a lot of sense. So we'll break all that down
next here on off the bench.
Speaker 3: All right, So you heard Flynn the other day. I
mean he loves do Sequis. You know that we hear
on the OTV team love do Sequis. It is the
perfect beer for any occasion. Lake beer, beach beer, shower beer,
bath beer, you name it, beer like ballpark beer.
Speaker 4: It is the go to, and we've said it, We're
going to continue to say it.
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on a Sunday, or just kicking back with your crew.
Dose Sekis brings that bowl flavor and smooth finish that
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Speaker 1: Two thousand and seven Champs Purple and Gold to the Core.
This is off the Bench with Hester and Flynn, Matt
and Rouge's go to for all things Louisiana sports.
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Speaker 6: All right, welcome back.
Speaker 5: In Thursday edition of Off the Bench, Taylor Sharp here
with you, Londra Villaril, Cassie Sizzelli as well inside the
Raising Kines Studio. CBS Sports yesterday put out their prediction
of the top ten offenses going into the twenty twenties
six football season. Run down him a little bit. They
have the Texas long Horns at number one. No surprise there,
I mean you have Arch Manning coming back.
Speaker 6: I get it.
Speaker 5: There was a lot of hype around Arch and I
was one of the ones pushing back saying, hey, he's
probably gonna struggle a little bit in year one, and
he did. But the back half of last year Arch
was really good. People like the pile on him and say, oh,
you know, he's overrated because he's a Manning. People are
gonna have to accept the fact that Arch Maning is
actually a pretty good quarterback, Believe it or not. It's
hard to play quarterback, and he was a first year
starter in the SEC. Shocker that he struggled through the
first half of the year, but he was good down
the stretch for the long Horns. They had Cam Coleman
number one ride receiver in the portal. You had Hollywood
Smothers and Rayleigh Brown into that backfield, which is good.
I mean, you lose Wisner, you lose CJ. Baxter, like
they were a big part of your running game. You
had some others and ray League Brown. That's huge. Texas
is going to have a good offensive line again. That
one makes a lot of sense to me. There's a
lot of proven there's very little unknown on the Texas offense.
Now they ring Miami number two. I'm not sure about that.
I mean, Darien Mensa's coming in. How good is Darien
Mensa going to be? I mean, was he was good
at Duke. Let's not make the mistake about it. But
we'll see Miami. There's a lot to like, like Malachai
Tony's coming back, you have Shannon Dawson back as the
offensive coordinator. I get all that, but they lose a
little bit as well. I mean, now Mark Fletcher does
come back, which is which is huge for the Hurricanes.
Indiana number three. We broke it down a little bit yesterday,
Josh Hoover stepping in at the quarterback role for Kurt Signetti.
I think the Hoosiers are going to continue to roll
next year. Then your usual suspects, right, Ohio State, Oregon,
Notre Dame, which makes no sense to me.
Speaker 6: But it's Notre Dame.
Speaker 5: They're gonna be over hyped every year like this is
a team that's losing Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price.
Speaker 6: However, CJ.
Speaker 5: Carr does come back ten consecutive wins to finish out
the regular season, so there is a little bit the
build off there. Coming in at number seven. It's your
LSU Tigers, a little ride up on them. They say,
when you assemble the nation's top rank transfer portal class
and commit every available resource to making year one under
lang kid In a success, the expectation is immediate production. Obviously,
they mentioned Sam Levitt coming in at quarterback, the quarterbacks
behind him. They said, the unit that we're most concerned
about right now is the offensive line. We actually projected
as a strength, but there is some unknown that is
totally understandable. Think about how bad this offensive line was
a year ago. You couldn't do anything to run the football.
On my argument's always last year was not the outlier.
I don't think you've been able to run the balls
since Brian Kelly was the head coach. Here, take out
Jaden Daniels. I'm not looking for Jaden Daniels to drop back,
see nothing and just be better and more athletic than
everybody else and take off running.
Speaker 6: That is a traditional running game. That is not a
designed run play.
Speaker 5: Jayden Daniels was just an alien and he was better
than everybody else. You take Jayden and Daniels out of
there and you look at the traditional running plays. They
really hadn't been able to do that for four years.
That's why Brian That's a big reason why Brian Kelly's gone.
That's why Brad Davis has gone, because he's offensive linemen
never developed in the running game, never got any better.
So sure, it is a huge area of concern coming
into the year, but I do like hell they said
it projects as a position of strength for us because
Elishu did a really good job in the transfer portal.
Just look at some of the transfers Jakwan Sprinkle Jacobe Jones.
Those are two of the lesser talked about guys, just
because Sprinkle comes from NC Central. Jacoby Jones's Kapia Lincoln
Junior College, so they step up a level. But you
got Darren Stray from Kentucky, William Satterwhite center from Tennessee,
Devin Harper, who a lot of people believe is going
to be a starter on this team. I actually have
some questions about Harper, only because I think there's gonna
be a lot of competition for him at gart Sure,
he comes over from Ole Miss, He's played under Lane Kiff,
and he's familiar with the Charlie Weiss offense. He does
have an advantage as far as the learning curve goes.
But there are some guys you've added that they have
some serious playing time experience, like Shawn Tompkins. When you
look at what Sean Tompkins has done in college, there's
a lot to like from him. Now he's going to
be more of a tackle, but he's sixty five, he's
three hundred pounds. Played at Baylor for three seasons. He
was just a three star but when he got there,
But in twenty twenty five, he appeared in ten games,
started the last five of them, and most of them
were were at left tackle. Now, he did play fourteen
snaps of right tackle in the year, but Shawn Tompkins
sitting there potential left tackle candidate. When you look at
the PFF, they graded him fifty point one on offense,
forty eight in run blocking.
Speaker 6: Not great. That is going to have to get better.
A fifty six percent in pass protection.
Speaker 5: And however, six of his ten pass protection grades on
the year were over seventy one. So he had a
couple pretty poor games. But he flashed a little bit
as well. So he's a guy that if you coach
him up a little bit under coach Eric Wolford, he's
a guy that can come in and start for you.
I mean he started double digit games in the Power
for He's a guy I like a lot. You add
Jamar Jones, you added Lubah Jordan ced and Adrian Lamb,
and then you look at your returners.
Speaker 6: You don't return a ton.
Speaker 5: Just about all of them outside of Salomon Thomas, have
some sort of experience, though, Weston Davis and Braylan More back.
Braylan Moore's I imagine is still going to be your
starting center. I mean William Sader, why he does come in,
he'll probably try to battle for that job. But about
Braila Moore went fully healthy, actually did an okay job
a year ago. And then Weston Davis, I get it,
he was probably the weak link on your O line
a year ago. But he's another year into this program
and I I always say losing a coach like Brad Davis,
to me, is a net positive for this offensive line.
There is no way the Weston Davis or any of
these other linemen can be as poor under Eric Wolford
as they were under Brad Davis, because to me, it's
almost impossible to be that way. I thought Brad Davis
was in over his head. It just it never looked
like it was working. And again, he was here for
four years under Brian Kelly. He was here under Argeron
a lot of people forget he was the interim coach
in the Texas Bowl when Joan drey Kirklan had to
play quarterback against Kansas State, and before Kelly actually got here,
it was kind of a carbon copy of what you
saw this past Texas Bowl.
Speaker 6: That was Brad Davis.
Speaker 5: He had been here five years Warsron's last season all
the way through Kelly and I mean the offensive line
never saw really a significant improvement. I think Eric Wolford
is going to be an improvement at that spot. You
bring back bow border line never been a traditional starter
for you, but he's played a lot of football.
Speaker 6: He's been in there.
Speaker 5: That the tight end spot that yak as Jacob Pester
wants to call it. I mean, you get Solomon Thomas,
who a lot of people forget about. It's kind of
like what we talked about with Devin sheer and and
Gavin Gidrey coming into the baseball season. These are two
guys that are as talented as anybody on the roster.
They're just kind of out of sight, out of mind
right now because they hadn't played any year. Remember, Solomon
Thomas was a big signing day flip for Brian Kelly
last year. He was a five stars committed to Florida State.
They flipped him on signing Day and there was a
lot of hype around him. He got hurt right before
fall camp started. He missed the entire season. Solomon Thomas
is a talented guy. His second year in a college program.
He's going to compete for playing time. I like what
you did with the freshman bryceon Martinez Ryan Murratt, who
was committed to Lane under old Miss Lane, was able
to bring him to Baton Rouge. So he's a guy
that's been on Keivin's radar for quite some time. Possibly
Lamar Brown. I know he's on the defensive line. I
prefer Lamar Brown on the offensive side of the ball.
I'm gonna keep banging that drum because I think you
need more help there, and I actually think Lamar Brown's
probably better on the offensive line.
Speaker 6: We'll see what they do with him. As far as
like immediate impact guys.
Speaker 5: Though, Jordan Seedon is going to start for this team,
is that left tackle, is at right tackle? It's going
to be somewhere. He's too talented of a guy not
to not. I do think people will push him. I mean,
whether it's Weston Davis, whether it's Sean Tompkins. I mean,
I think Ja Kwan Sprinkle could push for that. I mean,
there's gonna be guys pushing him for that spot. I
think Jordan Seeden does win out. I mean, he was
an All Big twelve player a year ago. They did
everything they could to get him into the Purple and Gold,
and it ultimately worked out for him. Jordan Seeden's going
to start on this football team in some capacity, at
least to begin the year. I truly believe that I'd
be really surprised if opening game of the year pull
up the little graphic with the starting five offensive lineman,
you don't see Jordan Seedens in one of those spots.
Speaker 6: I just mentioned.
Speaker 5: Sean Tompkins, kind of an under the radar guy, but
played a lot of football for Baylor. He hit some
ups and downs, but he flashed a little bit. He's
a guy that'll come in and play tackle for you.
Aliu Bah probably my favorite signing of the entire transfer
portal because as far as experience, as far as production,
boss the guy. I mean, he's sixty six, three hundred
and twenty pounds. He could play either guard spot, but
over his two seasons with Maryland, he started twenty four
consecutive games at guard for the terms. He also did
not allow a sack of the entire twenty twenty four season,
only allowed his quarterback to be hit twice over a
seventy two pass grade. Like anything you want as far
as a plug and play offensive lineman. Aliu bo is
that and I think he's going to win one of
those guard spots. So I mean, I think you'll have
Braylin Moore in the middle BA at either one of
those guard positions and Seaton. That leaves two spots up
for grabs. It's that other guard spot on the other
side of a BA and the other tackle spot. Weston
Davis probably has an inside track. But again, Sean Tompkins
could do it. Could one of these younger guys do it.
But I think three of your five spots, you kind
of have an idea of who you believe is going
to fill those spots. Keep an eye on Bryston Martinez
though I understand he's a freshman, but he has six six,
three hundred pounds and he looks ready to play right away.
Remember the highlight tape that came out of one of
the games that East dissension Bryston Martinez. First off, he
played tight end for this team most of the year
for the Spartans last year. That's how athletic he was.
But he can play tackle. He can play tight end.
He lined up a wide receiver and was running dig routes.
He threw a pass at quarterback, a long pass for
a touchdown. He lined up in the wildcat, took some
snaps and ran the ball. Like Bryceston Martinez is an
athletic freak, and he could come in and potentially push
for a starting spot.
Speaker 6: That's kind of your dark horse to watch.
Speaker 5: I understand everybody wants to look at the transfer portal
and say, oh, you brought in all this talent, all
this experience. I get all that, but a young guy
like Bryston Martinez sliding in there, I wouldn't be totally
surprised if that happened. And if this offensive line comes together,
like we're talking about, LSU is going to be higher
on this list of explosive offenses the number seven because
you have everything else. I mean, yesterday we talked about
the pass catchers, right like Jace Brown, Winston Watkins, Trey Wilson.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, look
at all the guys you brought in. I thought you
did well in the high school ranks with Jabari Mack Braden, Allen,
Corey Barber. Corey Barber I think has some serious talent.
You have Trey des Greenback, you have Harlan Barry and
Kaden Durham, and you have your quarterback figured out everything
you need to be successful on offenses. There your only
question mark is the offensive line, and that's a big
question mark. But I think this coaching staff did about
as good a job as anybody could have done as
putting this thing together, bringing in into a combination of
veteran experience, guys that maybe don't have the experience you
need but have a lot of upside like a Devin Harper,
familiarity with Lane Kiffen, and then you bring in a
big offensive tackle like Bryceton Martinez in the high school
rank who I believe this s guy's the limit for him.
Like that might be my favorite signing in LSU signing class.
As far as high school players go.
Speaker 6: Keep an eye on them. It'll be fun to watch
as we go into spring. We'll get more updates as
we get closer.
Speaker 5: But if this offensive line can come together, I think
the sky's the limit for this offense under Lane Kiffen
and Charlie Weis Junior. All right, we'll take a quick
time out when we get back. Closing out hour number one.
Speaker 6: Next, we got two more hours left with you you're
on off the bench after bench.
Speaker 3: Well, speaking of diving in to dive into a Russell pool,
because when you see what they can do for you,
you'll be blown away. I mean, they're gonna make the
pool of your dreams. In fact, that's their tagline because
they know it is factual. Let's build your dream pool.
And what better time to get that process started than
right now because you are going to enjoy it year long. Look,
this is Louisiana. It is always pull season here in Louisiana.
But this is truly a one stop shop. We're talking
about construction, maintenance, retail, all of that you handle with
one company. That company is Russell Pool Company, and you
can trust them. We trust them. Everybody they build pools
for trust them. Lshue, the Tigers trust them as well.
Speaker 9: Yeah, let them build your dream pool.
Speaker 10: They can do everything from design to landscape, architect to
finance and options.
Speaker 6: They can do it all.
Speaker 9: When you think of quality pools, you think of Russell Pools.
Russell Pools dot com.
Speaker 7: So Santamento Romantic not discussing it.
Speaker 1: Bow down blocked in on LSU Football twenty four to seven.
You're listening to off the Bench.
Speaker 8: March Madness is heading to Vegas, and Louisiana Sports dot
Net is sending one of you plus a friend with it.
We're giving away a three night Las Vegas get away
from Wednesday, March eighteenth through Saturday, March twenty first, just
in time to watch all the Madness.
Speaker 7: Hotels day and flights covered.
Speaker 8: And all you have to do to enter is head
to Louisiana Sports dot Net and click the March Madness
get Away link. Sign up now before our March Madness
pickam launches, get yourself entered, and you could be watching
the tournament from Las Vegas instead of your couch.
Speaker 7: Winner will be announced Monday, March second.
Speaker 5: Welcome back in final segment Hour number one here on
a Thursday edition of Off the Bench.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go back to Las Vegas.
Speaker 5: The problem is, though, it's gonna have to be with
something like that, Like it's gonna have to be a
March Madnis tournament, a sporting event or a concert, because guys,
I think I missed my Vegas window. Like we went
to Vegas. I took my senior trip after graduating in
high school to Vegas. I was eighteen years old. Couldn't
I mean you could go, you could walk into the casino.
You couldn't really do anything while you were in the casino.
I mean a lot of the bars out there you
were twenty one and up, and like, I'm not I'm
not a huge drinker.
Speaker 6: Anyways.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think we've talked about that a few times.
But you know, I went, like my whole family went.
First off, guys, we drove to Las Vegas, which I
do not recommend. It was a twenty six hour drive
or something like that, twenty six twenty four.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 5: I don't know why we chose to do. My part said,
we want to see the country as we drive across it. Well,
I can I tell you from West Texas pretty much
till you get to like Albuquerque, New Mexico, there's nothing.
Speaker 6: It's like, just just skip it. If you could just
get like.
Speaker 5: Halfway through Texas jumped straight to Las Vegas, that's the
best way to do it.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I mean we were there. My whole family
went senior trip.
Speaker 5: Again. I'm not even twenty one yet. And then I
always told myself I'm going to go back to Vegas.
But I mean I'm about to be thirty years old.
I have a child on the way. I kind of
missed my recreational Las Vegas when again, I would go
for a sporting event or you know, a concert or
something like.
Speaker 6: I would love to go to the Sphere.
Speaker 5: I just don't want to donate a kidney in order
to buy concert tickets to go to the Sphere. But yeah,
it's kind of a bummer. I kind of I think
I kind of missed my uh my Las Vegas window. Now,
the thing about Vegas everyone that has told me there's
been multiple times, Like again, I went once back in
it was like June of two fourteen. I think we
stayed there three or four days. That's about all you're
gonna do in Lose Vegas. Like, that's not a like
Elandra said she's going to New York. That that's like
I think my sister she goes to New York kind
of like you Landra, like she goes every year. But
like that that's a place I could continue to go. Unfortunately,
I missed my Las Vegas window. However, that March madness thing,
I'd be all over that. I'd I would love to
go see a sporting event there or the the uh
where the Raiders play. I can't even think of the
stadium name, but where they play, like where LSU usc
like I would have loved to have went to that,
but hated the flight home because the game was absolutely
atrocious and unless she choked that one way, but that's
beside the point.
Speaker 6: Upsetting. Kind of missed my Vegas window.
Speaker 5: All right, because we got two more hours to go
here on off the bench, we governed a lot. I
mean we we kind of broke down LSU versus Nichols.
Milandra two years in the making, finally got her h
run rule victory for the correct team. We figured out,
you just got to be a little bit more specific.
LSU does run rule Nichols twelve to one in an
eight inning yesterday at the box, we took.
Speaker 6: The little LSU football.
Speaker 5: CBS Sports put out their most explosive offenses coming up
in twenty twenty six. I think LSU is a little
too low on that list. They come in at number seven. However,
with all the offensive line concerns, I'm okay with it.
I just think LSU is going to exceed expectations in
that area, mainly due to the coaching change, but also
I think you brought in a lot of talented guys
coming up in the next hour. There has been so
much talk about the Saints going after Jeremiah Love, and
I'm kind of warming up to the ID.
Speaker 6: I think you still have a lot bigger needs.
Speaker 5: But Jeremiah Love is a really good player, So if
you grabbed him at eight overall, like I'm not like
Matt Flann, I'd be okay with it.
Speaker 6: I think it's one of those things where I think
the Saints are sitting in.
Speaker 5: A really good spot because they have the eighth overall
pick and it looks like you have your young quarterback
of the future, so you're in a pretty good spot.
But what if they don't get Jeremiah Love. What are
some other options to add to that running game. There's
a couple big name free agents, at least for the
time being, they have not been franchise tagged. Might happen
with one of them, but as of now that has
not happened. We'll look at how each of them fit
in the Saints offense. LSU record number of season tickets
sold for football, No surprise there, we're talking about that.
And then Bill Bender of The Sporting News will jump
on with us to discuss March madness. That Field of
sixty eight coming up here pretty soon. We'll break it
all down with Bill Benders to stay tuned. We got
two more hours left with you. On a Thursday edition
of Off the Bench
Speaker 1: Off the Bench