Speaker 1: Man a Wednesday edition of Off the Bench. Taylor Sharper
with the filling in for Jacob Pester and t Bob Abear. Look,
there's a lot to cover the LSU baseball team and
men's basketball team. We're both in action last night. Both
left a lot to be desired. We will certainly get
into that in our next segment. We got a Landra
Villa real on audio. We got Casias Bazali on the
video board. And look, as we do every day, let's
go around the room and get a little vibe. Check
how we doing this morning at Laundra.
Speaker 2: Baseball game and did a little too late for my liking. Yeah,
and I'm feeling I'm feeling the residual effects of.
Speaker 1: It that happened with twenty runs. You know that that
tends to happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and also, uh, three and three hour and forty
five minute game, ish, I would say, Yeah, And then
the pre or the postgame didn't enduntill like eleven o'clock.
Speaker 1: So you didn't, you didn't. You gotta let Doug and
Buzzy know, like, guys, wrap this thing up. I tell you,
what are we doing?
Speaker 2: So they they actually all did a pretty good job
of like trying to get out of there. Like Doug
and Buzzy degreat, Bill and Jay. They didn't go too
long on the interviews, so it was just a late one.
Speaker 1: Cassie, how are we feeling? Are we in a better
mood today than Monday morning?
Speaker 2: I'm in a better mood, but like, I'm still tired.
Speaker 1: I'm just not like I'm in a better mood, just
not a good one. No, I'm in a better mood.
I'm just tired. It's like it's not a bad mood.
I'm just not a morning person. Hopefully we can we
can have a little fun today. Something I want to
do at eight thirty. So look, I'll just go ahead
and lay out the entire show in just a second.
I want to hit on the the position breakdown that
I've done every day leading up the spring practice, which
does we get on Saturday? I want to hit the
wide receiver room. There's a lot to be excited about there. Obviously,
we'll recap Lasue baseball isuy basketball. I want to look
at the NFL combine winners and losers. There's a lot
of discussion on guys that maybe the Saints are even
targeting where they could fall in this now and then
in hour number two, I want to do a would
you rather Wednesday on eight thirty. So this is something
we used to do a long time ago on OTB.
We kind of got away from it for whatever reason.
But I want to have a little fun, kind of
get away from the sports a little bit at eight thirty,
and then at nine o'clock we're gonna talk more Saints.
T Higgins was franchise tagged by the Bengals. I'm gonna
tell you why they should not sign him to a
long term deal, and then of course we'll close things
out with ask the bench. All right, right now, though,
I do want to get into a little bit of
LSU football. But before we do that, let's get the
show started. Like we do every single day.
Speaker 3: It's time to get to work courtesy of Tiger Labor
and Staffing where they can help take care of screening, training,
pay roll and more. Now for starters.
Speaker 1: Okay, So, like I mentioned every single day here, you know,
through the rest of the week, I want to do
one position breakdown going into spring practice. Today, I want
to hit the wide receiver room because guys, I think
there is a lot to be excited about if you're
looking at just deepest position groups on the field because
you have a lot of returners there as well. This
time last year, wide receiver was a big question mark.
You had Kyin Lazy coming back, but he was kind
of that wide receiver three behind my league neighbors and
Brian Thomas Junior. You didn't have a guy where you
were like, hey, can we go out there and count
on this guy each and every Saturday. You have some
of those guys this year. Obviously. The first name I'm
going to mention is Aaron Anderson. He's your leading receiver
returning in terms of yards, like he had eight hundred
and eighty four yards five touchdowns a year ago. Xavian Thomas,
he caught some nice balls. You actually used him in
the backfield a lot in the running game as well,
and we know what he can do in special teams. Obviously,
Chris Hilton's back. That's a big one. Late in the season.
We were waiting all year long for Chris Hilton to
get healthy. He did that, and he did it in
a big way. If you remember, in that Oklahoma game,
Garrett Nelsmeyer came back from that injury. He hit not one,
but two deep touchdown passes to Chris Hilton Junior. That
was the main problem with the offense a year ago, right,
you didn't have that bona fide deep threat. Kyle Parker,
who is also coming back, kind of became that guy
a little bit. I mean remember the first long pass
for a touchdown that Nel Smyer hit last year was
against UCLA. It was down the right sideline that was
to Kyle Parker. But after that game, he goes down
with an injury. He does not return for the remainder
of the season, So you're really like, Okay, Kyle Parker
just got injured. We're waiting for Chris Hilton Jr. To
come back from an injury. So you didn't really have
a deep threat in this offense. I think that's entirely
different this year because again Chris Hilton is back. He
has the ability to take the top off of defense,
as he had another touchdown against Baylor. He was excellent
in that game as well. So Hilton's going to be
your guy. He's going to be the first crack and
being that deep threat receiver. I think Aaron Anderson lives
in the slot lot like he did a year ago,
so kind of the four guys in terms of experience
do you have back from last year's team. Aaron Anderson
and Xavion Thomas, Chris Hiltner an obvious three, and then
Kyle Parker showed a little bit of promise early in
the year before he got hurt. If he can fully recover,
that's another guy that can give you some production. As
far as the transfers go, this is where I get excited.
You have Nick Anderson coming in from the University of Oklahoma. Look,
ye have Bower Sharp his teammate coming in as well.
Aaron Anderson. I mean Nick Anderson didn't play I mean
he didn't have a single catch. Last year. He played
in one game, didn't have a catch, was injured, had
to sit out the entire season. But going back to
twenty twenty three, that's basically the only year he has
played at Oklahoma because as a freshman in twenty twenty two,
he played in three games. He didn't have a single catch.
He carried the ball twice. That was his stat line
for his freshman year. In twenty twenty three, with Dylan
Gabriel as his quarterback. A guy that can stand back
there that's known as a gunslinger, a lot like a
Garrett Nosemeyer. Nick Anderson showed out in a big way.
He had thirty eight catches, seven hundred and ninety eight
yards and ten touchdowns for reference, that's twenty one yards
per reception. He's a guy that can beat you deep.
He's a guy that can catch the ball across the middle.
Because Nick Anderson is sixty five two and twenty pounds,
you don't have anybody else in your receiver room like
a Nick Anderson. That is a guy that I am
keeping an eye on. Look, whether it's spring practice, whether
it's summer workouts, whether it's fall practice. And Nick Anderson
is a guy to keep an eye on. I think
he could potentially have a big year. We talk about
treydeds Green all the time being such a matchup problem
on the outside because he's six foot seven, because he's
two hundred and forty pounds. Look, you have a guy
in Nick Anderson that had twenty one yards per catch
in twenty twenty three, double digit touchdowns in an explosive
Oklahoma offense. And you bring that guy in who's six
foot five, he's physical, he's fast, he can catch the ball.
We know he has a nose for the end zone.
I love everything about Nick Anderson. I think he is
waiting to be a breakout player on this offense. You
also brought in Barry and Brown from the University of Kentucky.
I mentioned that you didn't really have a deep thread
last year until Chris Hilden got healthy. You certainly got
him this year because not only is Chris Hilden back
and appears to be fully healthy, you have one of
the fastest guys in the SEC joining your wide receiver room.
Barran Brown has played three years of college football, so
he's entering his last year of eligibility as a freshman
at Kentucky. Fifty catches six hundred and twenty eight yards,
four touchdowns, basically the same thing in twenty twenty three
five hundred and thirty nine yards, forty three catches four
touchdowns last year three sixty one three touchdowns, So you
get it. He's kind of that wide receiver too, that
wide receiver three mole at Kentucky. However, he was catching
passes from Devin Leary in Brock Vandergriff. He was not
catching passes from a Garrett no Smeyer. This offense is
going to be a lot better in the passing game
than any offense he played in Kentucky. Look, I'll give
Mark Stoops credit for one thing. Mark Stoops always has
a solid running game. He always has a physical defense.
His passing games have struggled. That has been his achilles
heel at Kentucky, which is why he's lifted Kentucky. He's
never gotten them over that hump though. That programs kind
of remained stagnant a lot of the reason because he's
never found that passing game. A guy like Barrion Brown
coming in with a quarterback that you know can make
all the throws, he has the arm to do it.
In Garrett Nosemeyer, he can make a huge impact in
this offense. I just talked about Nick Anderson twenty one
yards per catch. We saw what Chris Hilten can do.
We saw the kind of connection him and Garrett Nosmyer had,
which and some a lot of people don't talk about
like the connection they had late in the year. It
made it look like Nuss and Hilton had played an
entire season together, but they really didn't. I mean, you
go look total number of snaps, it's probably four or
five games total. In terms of in game live reps
and what they have done together on the field, that's
only going to improve. And then you stick in to
Barry and Brown. Barryon Brown set the record for return
touchdowns in the SEC. He's going to be one of
your returners. We talk about about a month or so ago.
Like Lsu all of a sudden has an embarrassment of
riches at the returning game because for a while now,
like you haven't found anybody that can be a returner.
Basically what you wanted for the past three years, with
somebody that could just go up there, fair catch the
ball and not drop it. I mean that's what you had,
whether it was Greg Clayton back there, or a Jack
Besh back there or Javin Nicholas. I mean, these were
guys that weren't exactly burners, weren't exactly going to return
the long ones, but you just hope that they would
be sure handed. You have Zavian Thomas, Jelannie Watkins has
potential to do it. He read shirted last year. We'll
get into him in a minute. And now you bring
in Barryon Brown. Aaron Ama Anderson had a return touchdown
as well against Oklahoma. Like all of a sudden, you
go from having no returners to three or four guys
who you feel pretty confident, and there's going to be
guys battling for that position. That tells you a lot
about the talent in this receiver room because most of
those guys are receivers. Okay, so I mentioned the top returners.
I mentioned the top transfers. Oh also Destin Hill coming
in as a transfer as well. He's a Louisiana guy.
He was at Florida State. Hasn't played a ton because
he has been injured basically his entire career at Florida State. However,
this was a guy who was a four star recruit
coming out of high school. He's a guy that everybody wanted.
He's six foot two. He's a guy that got a
little bit of height on him as well. How much
can he do, How healthy is he? We'll see, but
we'll see if he can add something. That's another body who, well,
he hasn't played a ton, He's still been in the
college game for a number of years. The newcomers, I'm
also very excited about. You have Philip Wright, you have
tran for I love Toron Francis. He was one of
my I remember when we were sitting here on National
Signing Day. T Bob asked me, Hey, pick a guy
that not a lot of people are talking about that
you think would be a breakout player. My answer was
to Ron Francis, this guy is over six feet tall,
he's already two hundred pounds. He had an incredible senior season.
I mean had double digit touchdowns, he had over a
thousand yards. He's the reason he rose so much in
recruiting like he did was because of that senior year.
I mean, he was a guy that was committed to
LSU early, and then there was a lot of talk
of hey, can LSU actually hold on to this guy
or is he a guy that because he's gaining so
much attention nationally from other programs, may look elswhere he
ultimately decided to stay. I think he has potential to
be a really, really good football player. So you have
to Ron Francis, you have Philip Price. Both of them
have a chance to be good. Look, don't forget about
Jolannie Watkins. He's a little bit on the smaller side,
which is part of the reason why he read shirted
this year. I mean, there's rumors that he might be
the fastest guy on the entire team, and that's saying
a lot when you have Thomas and Caden Durham on
that same team. Also, Kylon Billiott's a guy that Red
shirded a year ago. Lsuvans were excited about him when
he signed. Can he break out? Can he give you
some quality depth? You have an embarrassment of riches here
at the wide receiver position. This is a big reason
why in all the preseason Heisman discussions, Garrett Nosmeyer is
sitting right there in the top three because you saw
what he did his first year as a starting quarterback
and how much more comfortable he got down the stretch.
It was his first year with Joe Sloan, it was
his first year starting in the SEC, and he had
a lot of unproven weapons. This year, when you look
at Garrett Nosemeyer, he has the same offensive coordinator, he
has an entire year starting under his belt, and he's
probably got better weapons this year than he had a
year ago, even with the loss of Mason Taylor. It's
all going to depend on the offensive line. If Brad
Davis could get that unit right, Garrett Nosmeyer could have
a really big season. In large part dude, all the
talent that you have in this wide receiver room. All right, Look,
we're going to take a quick time out when we
get back LSU base of all, uh struggled a lot
more than a lot of people felt they would. And
then the basketball team just an atrocious performance on the hardwood.
We'll break both those down here on the other side
on off the bench.
Speaker 4: Off the bench Boudroselectrical dot com. But also just type
in in whatever your you know search engine is. You
can type in Boudros Electrical and you'll see the reviews
that they get, right, five out of five. There's no
four stars, there's no three stars, there's no two stars.
Speaking of recruiting, it's only five stars. And we did
this i'd say three weeks ago and it was like
I had like forty nine reviews. It's over seventy something
right now, just three weeks later. Because you're hearing about Boudros.
They've been doing this for so long, and you know
what you are going to get every single time.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get a.
Speaker 4: Five star effort and a five star player every single
time from Budro. So check those reviews out on Google.
Also go to their website. Boudroselectrical dot Com. You can
set up your you can see their contact information. It's
right there in the bottom right corner of the website
Boudroselectrical dot Com.
Speaker 1: More Power, More Protection.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the best morning sports show around sorta,
it's Off the Bench with Hester and T Bob.
Speaker 1: Welcome back in Wednesday edition of Off the Bench Total
Trumper with you filling the in for Jacob Ester and
t bove Abear crap I went early. I never like
to cut off the beat. I went early. That's on me, guys.
It's it's the rough start to the morning. Apparently that
that one's on me. Okay, look, teas are going in
the break there a little bit. LSU baseball and basketball
were in action last night. We'll get to baseball first
because unfortunately, it was a lot more interesting of a game,
so we talked about it a little bit in the
opening segment. LSU wins that game eleven to nine in
a game that they were basically trailing for about eighty
to eighty five percent of that game. If you missed it,
we'll give you a little bit of a recap. So,
like he has most of the midweek games, Connor Waer
gets the start, and it's about as bad of a
start as you could have In the first inning. It
looks like it's going to be pretty clean, right you
have that out, he gets a strikeout. Cater Embiati drops
the third strike. He throws it the first it's a
throwing error. Not only does that guy get on base,
he gets all the way to third on that one
throwing error. You wind up giving up three runs in
the first inning. The errors are going to become an
issue later in the game. What did we see? We
saw Steven Mila make a great play at second. He
tries to throw the relay the first he won, hoped
that he got by Jared Jones. That guy advanced to base.
Chris Stanfield, probably the fastest guy on the team, he
underran a ball. It went over his head in deep centerfield.
That allowed runners to go Jake Brown and right field
kind of slowed up. Like I guess Jake Brown thought
that the ball was deeper than it actually was because
he tried to like speed up at the last minute
grab it. That was another era. I mean, it was
blunder after blunder for this LSU team. They wound up
being down seven to one after like the first three
innings of this game. I mean, it looked like it
looked like North Dakota State was going to absolutely run
away with this game. But a few things happened. One,
they pulled Kate Aaronbdi who was behind the dish, and
they put in Louis her Nandez in the fifth inning.
I think Kate are Embidi is a talented player. He
actually hit a home run to get LSU back in
this game. He kind of sparked them offensively. I think
he's a good hitter at times. I think he has power.
I think he has a chance to be a talented
player right now at this point in his LSU career.
He's not a very good catcher. Defensively, we saw a
number of pass balls and even the ones that were
borderline wild pitches. At this level of ball, you have
to make those stops. Multiple runs were scored last night
because of Kate aar Embiedie not stopping if you want
to call it a wild pitch, pass balls, whatever you
want to call it, Kate aar Ebidi did a poor
job of that last night. When you put in Louis
her Nandez, it was a lot cleaner. I think that
Louis R. Nandez is going to wind up being the
every day weekend catcher, which is weird because I came
in here Monday and was like, Hey, I'm okay with
two catchers. If you want to play Cad Aaronbidie on Saturday,
I'm okay with I'm still fine with it as long
as he doesn't have a performance like he did last night.
When you look at Louis Hernandez, it makes sense, right.
He's an older guy, He's been in college for a
number of years. He's a lot more polished behind the plate.
Sure arbid, he had the home run, but he struggled mightily.
So in the fifth inning they put in Louis Hernandez.
Also they put in Chandler Dorsey. So the first time
we saw him this season, he threw two scoreless innings
and his LSU debut, Zach Cohen comes in. He took over.
He fired two and two thirds innings. He had shut
out ball, just one hit. That's when LSU kind of
started to settle down a little bit. Now a couple
more runs would be plated from North Dakota State, but
LSU stepped up and it was the usual suspects, right.
Stephen Milam came up for the second time in that
game and delivered in a big spot. This was two
innings after he had that double that found the center
field grass to tie the game. In the sixth Mileam
comes up, he hits that ball down the right field
line for a bases loaded to run double that gave
LSU the final margin of eleven to nine. So look,
as far as standouts go, because we were just talking
about all of the number of blunders in this game
from veteran guys, a guy just mentioned it, Garrah Jones,
Stephen Mylom, Chris Stanfield, Jake Brown, like, these are guys
that you don't think are going to make these errors
in a midweek game where they just not focused. I
don't know. Here's the good news. They win a game
in a game that they probably should not have won
because they didn't play well enough to win, and they
get to immediately flush it because they play the exact
same team tonight in the box. Once again, if you
have a good performance, you can completely flush this one.
And also, connter Ware had a really bad start, yes,
no question about it, but Connorwaar has been good in
the midweek. This is kind of a one off at
this point. These were more mental mistakes by Yellow and
just going out there and being like, hey, maybe this
team's not all We had them up to beat, they
had an off night and they were still able to
beat this team, which is good because this team was
one and nine coming into last night. I get it.
Midweek games, you don't take a lot of stock in them.
You gotta beat North Dakota State teams. You have to
beat teams that are that are this bat because what
are we talking about, Like North Dakota State's pitching staff
coming into the game last night had over an eleven
era as a team. It wasn't like you were up
there striking out and they were. It was the defensive errors.
It was the pitching. It was not stopping the pass balls.
They didn't really have to do anything. You hit a
number of batters, you walked a number of batters. That's
becoming a troubling trend. We saw it a little bit
in the weekend. If you convix the errors and all
the mistakes that you made, you're fine. You're still I believe,
one of the most talented teams in the country as
far as the standouts. Steven Milam I mentioned him. He
came up with a number of big RBIs. He goes
two for four, three RBIs and he gotta walk. Daniel
Dickenson is becoming the hitter that we expected him to
be when he transferred it. Daniel Dickinson goes three for four,
he had a home run, he scored three runs, He
had two RBIs. One of those hits was a drag
bunt single, so he shows his versatility at the plate.
Jared Jones he goes one for two. Derek Curiel at
the top of the lineup. He only goes one for three,
but he got walked twice and he scored two runs.
Lsu pitching only allowed six hits and only two win
for extra bases. Again, it was the free passes that
hurt you so much. Look at Chandler Dorsey. I mentioned
he came in the fifth inning and kind of calm
things now. Two innings, no hits, no runs, one walk,
one kit, thirty six pitches, twenty two of them were strikes.
Loved what I saw from Chandler Dorsey. Very similar situation
with Zach Cohen. Also, I said it a little bit
on Monday I'm gonna say it again, you had found
the closer on this team. Look and Gavin Gidrey gets
healthy when we finally start seeing him, Gavin Gidrey is
going to have a role on this team. I want
Caseen Evans with the ball in his hand laid in
close games. We have seen it five or six times
already this year, when it's a one run or a
two run game in the last few innings, time and
time again. Jay Johnson has went to case and Evans
a young freshman, and what has case and Evans done.
He has delivered time and time again. This is his
third save already on the year and where eleven games at.
I think that Cason Evans is only going to get better.
You have found a staple in the back end of
your bullpen early in the season. Before I move on
to basketball, Alandra, what was your overall takeaways from last
night's game? I know you had to do the game
and okay, for those who don't know, before she gets
into it, our girl a Landra was going through it
last night. So in the studio at LSU, they are
two separate rooms, but it's just glass separating and I
look over and Lundra's standing up at times, and then
she comes into like the studio, just walks through the
door on my side and goes, you know, like, I
think they got to take Kaye Aaron beat out. He
has too many pass balls. This was before the home run.
She's like, oh yeah, turns around. Then he lets another passball.
She looks over at me. I don't care that he
hit the home run. You gotta get it, guys. The
I wish I would have had it on video. The
range of emotions that I witnessed last night was equal
parts hilarious and I felled for our girl fills in
this game.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I didn't know that you had,
like noticed that I was going through it yesterday. I
noticed that first inning was like, that's what it's like
watching a game with me. By the way, it's not
like I'm not calm, that's what it's like.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: I know that, you know, there's all those errors in
the first four innings, and it wasn't like the cleanest
game that we had. But there are a lot of
positives that come out of this because, like we've said
this so many times before, good teams find a way
to win and that's exactly what Elisu did last night.
I mean, like I said this on Twitter last night,
but I love seeing your three hole guy lay down
a bunch a perfect bunt that where you move the
runner and you're safe at the same time, like you're
doing exactly what the three hole is supposed to do.
Maybe you're not like knocking it out the park, but
you did exactly what you were supposed to do in
that moment. And Jay Johnson talks a lot about like
their thing this year is big Team, little me and
he this team is like really embodying that they're not
doing it for themselves. And I feel like last year
we talked a lot about how like everybody's going out
there to swing it and grilla ball is great, it's
so much fun, but you gotta find a way to
win these games when you're down seven. I think was
like the biggest uh yeah after like big right, like
you got the life knocked out of you early in
the game, Like immediately chip away little by little as
much as you can. It doesn't have to be a
grand The two run bomb by Kate Aaron Betie's great,
but it doesn't have to be that every single time.
I Yeah, so I think that there's a lot of
positives that came out of this insane game. Not the
best game from Connor ware, but like you said earlier,
he's been okay in the midweek. And then you have
Chandler Dorsey, who we haven't seen the entire season, and
like Jay was asked about it, he was like, well,
we just have a really good offense. And he was
getting touched up in the fall and in like the
preseason scrimmages, and they asked him like, what do you
think worked for Dorsey and he was like, he wasn't
facing tigers. So Chandler Dorsey is a big plus. And
like you said, Cason Evans just continues to impress your close. Yeah,
he's a freshman, so zero e r A by the
way through However, many games that he's pitched.
Speaker 1: A kid played in six something like that.
Speaker 2: Wait, I had it yesterday. I think it might have
been eight, eight innings pitch. So yeah, but it just caseon.
Evans continues to impress, and then Zach Cowen also Jay
says that if every single game they put him in,
they win, and if the game's on the line, that's
a really good middle relief Remember we were talking about
like beginning of the season that was like a big
question that he's a great middle relief and he has
been every single time you put him out there. So
crazy game, not exactly how we thought it was gonna go.
But like I said, there are a lot of positives
that come out of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and okay, and the.
Speaker 2: SEC just had an insane night of baseball last night.
Like everybody was getting upset, including the Aggies.
Speaker 1: Well, like you, well, I'm not even gonna call it
an upset at this point. To your point, though, we
talk about it all the time, and I talk about
it in football. Look, I keep going back to the
college football playoff when you say, hey, good teams find
different ways to win games even when you may not
have your best stuff. And that's what LSU did. I
don't really care about the opponent. I get it, North
Dakota State's not good. These were mental errors. But what
do you do when the games on the line? Can
you do it when the pressure's on? As far as
two outs go, LSU last night six two out RBIs,
North Dakota State won. I mean again, your back is
against the wall. But when it came time to step up.
You did. And if you would have told me, hey,
Chandler Dorsey came into this game and really settled things
down for you, I'd have been like, oh, yeah, I
forgot he was on the team. That's awesome. You got
a perfect mix of young guys that you think you
can now count on and the guys you know you
can count on stepping up when needed. I know Jay
Johnson loves the tinker with the lineup. I'm leaving one
through three in that lineup the same all year long,
because look, Daniel Dickinson, the power he's showing behind Jared
Jones not only protects him. When you look at the
box score, though, you're gonna say, well, your leadoff man
went one for three. Yeah, but he got walked twice
and he scored two runs. He's finding different ways to
get on base. Cury all at the top. I love,
I love Curiyel Jones, Dickinson one through three. I'm not
touching that he can mix and match the rest of
the order all he wants. All right, Look, we actually
went a little long there, so we're gonna take a break.
When I come back, I'm gonna do a quick recap
of LSU basketball and I do mean quick because there's
not a ton to discuss there. And then we're going
to get into combined winners over the weekend, the winners
and the losers, and uh, which one of them may
be able to fall to the Saints. That's coming up.
You're on, off the bench.
Speaker 3: Off the bench.
Speaker 1: For those wondering when Jake said don't like the energy
coming out of some people, I'm pretty sure that was
right after the NFL story I brought up with Ian
Rappaport and Jordan Schultz went Rappaport back down, okay.
Speaker 2: And it was major soft energy from Ian Rappaport.
Speaker 1: Also, thank you for this week pulling the jacob Hester
Goodwood live read and not Ta by bea Bear. I
just don't feel like sitting here catching strays when he's
gone and being like, are you wep like Tyler Woven
get good will I t bub I'm just sitting here man,
any like these live reads?
Speaker 2: Are you just never yelways out of context and it
just is what it is.
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Getting too off the bench Wednesday edition, Taylor
Trepy with you sitting in poor jacob Hester and Ta
Boy b a Bear? Okay, we were very LSU heavy
in the first and second segments. Broke done a little
spring football and recapped LSU's on you. Usually, thrilling victory
is what we'll call it over the North Dakota State
Bison right now, though, want to look at the NFL Combine.
There were a lot of winners and losers over the weekend,
and some of them are tied to the New Orleans Saints.
I'm gonna kind of give you my three winners and
how high I think their draft stock may have went,
and then I'll give you one loser who I think
his stock is going to plummet unfortunately, because I do
think he is a very good player. My first winner
is Texas wide receiver. No, not Isaiah Bond who said
he was going to break the combine record and didn't
come close. I'm going with Matthew Golden. Look, he had
the fastest forty yard dash time among any wide receiver
at the NFL Combine with a four to eight. Also, guys,
this guy's college numbers speak for himself. So when when
Matthew Golden burst onto the scene. So he was a
Houston transfer. He played two years of football at Houston
and he was okay. I mean, he had about nine
hundred and fifty yards and thirteen touchdowns in two years
at Houston. Not bad. He came to Texas last year,
everyone myself included, thought, Okay, Isaiah Bond's going to be
the number one. Everybody else is going to fill in
like that, and you know, beginning of the year, that's
kind of what it looked like. Yeah, Matthew Golden was
catching these long balls, but everyone kind of said the
same thing. Okay, Matthew Golden's going to be your deep threat.
Nothing more than that. No, he's one of the best
route runners in this draft. He became a complete wide
receiver for Texas. If Matthew Golden was six foot two,
I believe he'd be the first wide receiver taken in
this class. It's not his fault that he's only five
foot eleven. Look, here's what he did last year in
sixteen games, fifty eight receptions, nine hundred and eighty seven
yards and nine touchdowns. That's seventeen yards per catch. Again,
I mentioned the deep ball, but it's what he does
across the middle. He came up with some big time
clutch catches in big time situations for Texas when they
made that college football playoff run. I am very impressed.
I continue to just come away more and more impressed
with Matthew Golden. You've seen the draft boards, you've seen
the mock drafts. All the insiders say that TETROA. McMillan
out of Arizona State is going to be the first
wide receiver take. I'm good with that. Tedrowe McMillan is
sixty four, two hundred and fifteen pounds, he's got good speed,
and he was super productive in college. I am good
with that. But who will be the next receiver taken
a lot of people believe Let Luther Burden. Some people
believe in say Matthew Golden. Now look Luther Burden. To
his credit, he had a good combine as well. He
didn't have quite the numbers his final year. But two
years ago, you remember he was an All American at Missouri.
That was when they had pretty cook Yeah, I mean
that was that was the entire when they went they
got ten wins under Eli Drinkwitz for the first time.
He took a little bit of a step back this year.
But something about Matthew Golden, he is such a smooth athlete.
I actually think Matthew Golden should be the second wide
receiver taken. I think he has played his way into
a first round pick based on his performance at Texas,
he made him big moments and his excellent performance at
the NFL Combine. My next winner is going to be
Baschule Touton, the running back for Virginia Tech. If you
don't know that name, that's fine. If you remember coming
into the season, Virginia Tech had a lot of hype
around a lot of people said, Hey, could this be
the year that Virginia Tech challenges for the ACZ Championship.
I know I was on that train. I know Jake
was kind of on that train as well. It didn't
work out. For whatever reason. Kyrien Drones was not quite
as efficient as everyone hoped he would be taking that
jump as a year one starter to year two. But
Baschule tutten, I mean he led all running backs in
the forty yard dash a four point three to two.
He was first among running backs and vertical jump with
forty and a half inches. He was tied for second
in broad jump. He ran a four to four to
one in the twenty yard shuttle. You get it. He
was basically first or second across the board and everything
at the combine. I'm one of those people that's not
super worried about what your combine performances unless it's really bad.
I just don't think a combine is going to make
or break you. However, if you go look at what
he did in Virginia Tech this year, when again I
mentioned Kyrien Jones was not as dominant as you thought
he was going to be. But Shoal Tutten was their
offense pretty much by himself at times. Because in twenty
twenty three, that was his junior year, he had eight
hundred and sixty three yards rushing, five yards per carry,
ten touchdowns, not bad, solid numbers. He blew that out
of the water this year, almost twelve hundred yards, six
point three yards per carry, and fifteen touchdowns behind a
Virginia Tech offensive line that wasn't necessarily bad, but it
wasn't anything to write home about. I mean, Braylan Moore,
who is going to shoot up for the Tigers of
this fall. He was a really good player. But outside
of that, I mean, they didn't have any standout guys.
He could also catch the ball three hundred and twenty
career receiving yards for receiving touchdowns. He's got the size
as well. He's over two hundred and ten pounds, he
stands about six feet. Everything you want in a running
back is this guy. Now, I'm not saying draft Tutton
in round one, you know, take a leap, But when
you look at the kind of second group of running backs,
because that first group's always going to be the same,
It's going to be Ashton Genty. Amarion Hampton looks like
he may sneak into the first round. But outside of
those two guys, who's going to be that next guy up?
Ali Gordon continues to fall down boards.
Speaker 3: R J.
Speaker 1: Harvey's had an excellent combine. He was super productive. He's
a little on the light side. Who's RB three in
this class? Can it be? But Schuel Tutten, I don't
see why not. I think he was one of the
big winners this weekend at the NFL Combine. My last
winner is a guy that people here in Baton Rouge
are very familiar with. It's Landon Jackson out of the
University of Arkansas. If you remember, Landon Jackson was here
for two years, struggled with injuries, couldn't really get on
the field, was pretty raw. When he came out of
high school, he went back to his home state school
in Arkansas, and he really shined. And this is a
guy that has always had the size. He's six foot six,
two hundred and sixty four pounds. He ran a four
to six' eight and had a forty and a half
inch vertical. Jump at six foot, six two hundred and
sixty four, pounds let me tell you just how rare that.
Is jackson is one of just four players since two
thousand and three to weigh more than two hundred and
sixty pounds jump higher than forty inches in the. Vertical
the other three Players Mario williams who was the number
one pick in two thousand and, Six Miles garrett who
was the number one pick in twenty, seventeen And Shamar
stewart At TEXAS a AND m this, year who's a
projected first round. Pick that's the company that Landon jackson's
In and when you go look at what he did in,
college his numbers back it. Up you're, saying, okay sixty,
six two hundred and sixty five pound guy ran a
mid four to. Six what's he going to do off
the edge a. Lot his career in college speaks for.
Itself his first year At arkansas three, sacks four tackles
for a, loss but he got even better his next
year twenty twenty, three fourteen tackles for a lost six
and a half. Sacks pretty much same thing this, year
ten tackles for a lost six and a half. Sacks
he had sixteen sacks in three years At. Arkansas that
is super productive when you have a guy like that
at that size able to come off the. EDGE i
if he puts on a little bit of, weight can
maybe slide inside depending on your scheme and that Athleticism
Landon jackson's going to continue to rise up draft. Boards
is he going to be a first round?
Speaker 3: Pick?
Speaker 1: No can he be a round three maybe even a
round two? Pick? Sure if he continues to trend upwards
like he Hit, now my weekend loser is going to
Be oregon Quarterback Dylan. Gabriel AND i hate this BECAUSE
i Think Dylan gabriel is a very talented. Player here's the.
Problem Dylan gabriel is five to, eleven two hundred. Pounds
that's obviously undersized FOR nfl, Standards but he struggled at
the combine in the throwing portion with ball. Players, man
he didn't have. Consistency his accuracy was kind of all
over the. Place that, Happens but if you're coming in
at five, eleven you gotta have you gotta be almost
perfect in the passing, drills and he, wasn't and unfortunately for,
HIM i think that's going to cost him draft. Position
SO i think, two maybe three quarterbacks are going to
go in the first, round depending on what happens With Jackson.
Dart so your top three is going to be Cam
ward should Or Sanders Jackson. Dart that's pretty much consensus
across the. Board where Did Dylan gabriel. Fall he's a
lot Like, tutten who helped his stock in that second
tier of running. Backs gabriel's kind of dropped because could
it Be Quinn? Ewers is it going to Be Will?
Howard who's going to be in that second? Group Dylan
gabriel was right there in that, group but, unfortunately because
of a really bad, COMBINE i think he's going to.
DROP i think you're going to see other guys that
were maybe a little bit lower on draft. Board it's
like A Max. BROSMER i think he could get drafted
Before Dylan. Gabriel Max brosmer's six foot, three six foot.
Four he had a good showing at THE Nfl. Combine
so as productive As Dylan gabriel has been at three different.
Stops he was great at Uc he was in The
Heisman trophy conversation At, oklahoma they moved on from, him
and he was A heisman finalist and played for the
number one team in the country for the majority of
the year At. Oregon so he's been productive in three
different offenses at three different. Places, unfortunately he's undersized and
he had a bad. Combine you can do one of those,
things doing both is really. HARD i think his draft
stock is going to, struggle which is unfortunate BECAUSE i
Think Dylan gabriel is actually pretty talented. Player all, Right,
look we're going to take a quick time out when
we get back a guys that keeps getting worse for
The Dallas. Mavericks got a little bit of an. Update
maybe we'll get into some mellowshie basketball as. Well that's
coming up on the other side here on off the, Bench.
Speaker 3: Off the, bench back to sports. Talk maybe off the, bench.
Speaker 1: All, right welcome. Back in final segment our number One
wednesday edition Of off The, Bench Taylor sharp here with
you a little bit of a shorter segment. Here, LOOK
i want to recap real. QUICK lsu basketball don't want
to spend a ton of time on it because, guys
they lost by thirty one points last night to The Kentucky.
Wildcats some idiots set up here yesterday and, said, man you,
Know kentucky's lost three of their last five. Games they
haven't really looked. Good LSU's not gonna. Win can they
make it a game or. Whatever idiot said that couldn't
have been more. Wrong they got absolutely blown. Out it
was a twenty seven point lead For kentucky at, halftime and,
honestly when you look at the box, score it's actually
worse than the box score tells, you if you can believe.
That so they finish with shooting twenty seven percent from.
Three they were zero for eight at halftime at three.
Pointers Cam carter actually came out in the second. Half
it went four for six from behind the. Arc he
was actually really good in the second. Half it was too,
little too.
Speaker 3: Late.
Speaker 1: There you saw a good bit From Robert miller that
might be the only positive TAKEAWAY i can have because
look as good As Cam carter, is it doesn't really
matter if he plays good or bad at this, point because,
one you're so bad around him that his performance really doesn't. Matter,
secondly he's gone after this. Year at this point the,
season you're looking ahead to the future because there are
no postseason aspirations for you. WHATSOEVER i, mean that ship
has sailed a long time. Ago Robert miller is a
six to ten. Freshman he shot seven of, Eleven he
had fifteen, points and he poured in eight rebounds as.
Well he's a guy that hasn't been in the starting
line up a. Ton he did get the start last
night and he played the majority of the. Game that
might be the only POSITIVE i can take away from this.
GAME i, Mean Damian collins is usually a somewhat consistent.
Scorer he had two points last. Night you only had
three guys in double. Figures you Had Robert miller with,
Fifteen Kim carter with, Fourteen Jordan seers who only played nineteen.
MINUTES i still really can't figure out why they're doing.
That he had thirteen points off the. Bench that's it,
now for what it's, Worth Corey chess Than Victoria's miller
did not play in this. Game chess actually didn't play
On saturday as, well But Victorias miller And Corey chesz
missed this game due to. Injuries matt McMahon said that
he expects him back On. SATURDAY i don't know how
much it, matters but as far as the young guys,
Go Robert miller by far the biggest bright. Spot Curtis,
gibbings he struggled. Again he went over five from the,
floor over three from behind the, arch with two points
outside Of Robert. Miller, again there's not a ton of
positives you can take away from a game like, this because,
again Wal kentucky is twenty and, ten they're nine and
eight in, conference they're number nineteen in the. Country they
came into this game. STRUGGLING i mentioned that every game
for of the last five, games they're two and three
in the last five. Games but for out of last
five games they've allowed eighty points or more. Ls you
put up sixty. Four they had twenty three points at.
Halftime just an abysmal shooting performance from what is frankly
not a very good basketball. Team, okay before we get
out of here for hour number. One want to mention
a quick story coming out of The dallas. Area you,
KNOW i just hate to pour on to The Dallas,
mavericks but Uh Nico harrison is proving just how bad
of a deal That Luka doncic trade. Was, look we
talked about An Anthony davis twenty six points in the
first half of the first game he's. Played, yeah he's
been out ever. Since Derek lively has been on the.
Bench they might shut Down Daniel gafford for the rest
of the. Season he's won one of the best young
centers in THE. Nba jordan talked about it a little bit, yesterday, saying,
Hey kyrie's hurt right, now we don't know the extent
of the. Injury well we do. Now yesterday afternoon it
was announced That Kyrie irvan has torn his Acl he
is out for the remainder of the. Season this is
one of those trades that people knew was going to
be bad as soon as it was. MADE i think
we may have all underestimated just how bad it. Is
No Anthony, davis No Daniel, gafford No Kyrie, irvin No Dereck,
lively No Luka. Doncicche here's what you have on your
team right. Now you have an Aging Klay thompson who's
in and out of the. Lineup you got A. Pj
washington who's in and out of the lineup you hadn't
played in a. While you Got Max, christie who's actually
been pretty, good who you got in That lakers. Trade
and that's about. It that's about all you got if
you're The Dallas. MAVERICKS i saw a funny thing last
night on. TikTok he was a guy waking up from
a coma and he was A mavericks. Fan he's, like,
hey tell me The mavericks were doing, good and guy, goes,
Well Derek lively And Daniel gafford are both. Out Kyrie
irvin just tore HIS. Acl we Traded Uka doncics For Anthony,
davis And Anthony davis has only played one game and
he might be done for the year as. Well the guy, goes,
CAN i CAN i just go back and do a coma?
LOOK i like to make fun of fan. Bases you
got to feel for those, guys, Alright like coming up
in our number, two we're gonna do a little bit
Of New Orleans saints. Talk, ALSO Lsia football's projected win
total came out last week and actually went down after
the transfer. Portal we'll talk about that as. Well that's
all coming up here On off The, Bench
Speaker 3: Off The, bench