Speaker 1: Santa's Little Helpers from jacob Hester and are taking over
off the Bench, presented by All Star Toyota. Tune in
for some naughty and nice sports talk this Christmas season
live from studio. Here's jacob Hester and.
Speaker 2: Mat from Well Done line Christopher.
Speaker 3: That might be better than the Halloween one. Halloween's good.
The robot was good. I wasn't expecting that.
Speaker 4: Though that was really good. That was good and it's
the banger of song. Though well done? Well done? Why
would we get doings?
Speaker 5: New?
Speaker 4: What? What change?
Speaker 6: Keep the just keep the holiday on?
Speaker 7: Yes, keep holiday ones? How you can put those together
so fast? Because we talked about it at six fifty
this morning.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was all right, we got ten minutes. I
mean the song like that, it's already done. I just
have to replace T Bob and the last sponsor.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm. I bet I don't know.
Speaker 3: I hadn't obviously we're on the same time tea Bob is,
but I bet he is peacocky around barstool today.
Speaker 4: I bet him and Megan making money or levitating.
Speaker 6: I haven't seen T Bob on Twitter, but I've seen
Meghan and she is.
Speaker 3: Oh, there's g let's get your We were sure if
she was going to join us tonight, GORDI rush shout
out to our guys to brave the.
Speaker 4: Weather in Norman, Oklahoma. Now, I was trying.
Speaker 3: I was trying to get him to close the old
window they're in the broadcast booth.
Speaker 5: Didn't.
Speaker 4: We didn't get that done.
Speaker 3: But it's okay because uh, Gordy had to sit there
in those elements and he had to watch that.
Speaker 4: The offense from Grapple was just really unlucky turn of
events for that offense.
Speaker 5: Gorse wanted both teams to run the football so we
could get out of there. I mean, it was a
beautiful day until every about two minutes.
Speaker 4: In a gust.
Speaker 3: I know it was all in pregame. You know the
machine that shoots the punts, right, the Jack's machine. I
knew when they were trying to do that and get
that done, and every time they shot it it would
end up in the crowd because of the wind. I
was like, oh, this could be a tough day because
I mean, neither one of those quarterbacks it's not going
to be able to push it through the wind.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Josh Allen not out there, so.
Speaker 7: I know you're not like real experience with too much
cold weather, so like, what's your go to like attire,
so how do you prepare to got not.
Speaker 5: True for Green Bay. But we played at Iowall once
it was a negative three, and then I played at
Northwestern Fair, which was two blocks from Lake Michigan, and
that was the first time I ever got hit in
cold weather and it's stung, so I didn't really want
to come on the field. We have those Packers jersey
and the hand warmers, the Packers jackets, yeah, those big jackets.
Speaker 4: But not a whole lot of use, not a lot
of experience.
Speaker 5: I like you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were talking about the game g right before
you came on, and you know, I know we'll get
to all the link if of stuff that is the
main storyline. But we were like, it would be disrespectful
not to talk about the defensive performance and what they
did and they were going to have to be perfect,
and they had one play where they weren't perfect and
it was the difference in the game. But still a
great performance by the defense giving you at least an
opportunity there to win.
Speaker 5: Incredible, incredible performance. There are two plays, right, I mean,
you know, the perfect call Oklahoma has that little slip
screen and you get the blitz and then you know
they were playing some sort of zone thirds and I
think DJ Pickett didn't get the call and he squatted
on that side and the wide receiver in right past him.
And you know, at that point, Corey and Blake, what
do you say to DJ Pickett? You really can't jump
as we're ends. As well as he's played this year,
you know, they realized that it was a bust. And
it's a shame. It's a shame. They played well enough
to win, played well enough to win a couple times
this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they did.
Speaker 3: And we were talking about right before you came on,
if you could pair everything you're getting now on offense
with what you already have on defense. I mean, you're
talking about one of the top scoring offenses in the country.
You're talking about an LSU defense that is fourth in
the SEC, only giving up eighteen points per game.
Speaker 4: I mean, on paper, it looks the part.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a headshaker. No, let's you guys talk more
because you're offensive guys. I mean, if not Smart's healthy,
what happens this season? Right? I mean, he's able to
stretch the football field at ole Miss. I mean there's
wide receivers running wide open.
Speaker 7: If the offense just looks like a shadow of itself
I did a year ago, and I can't blame that
completely on that injury. Like the foundation x's and o's
of this offense were just so flawed from the beginning,
and you've seen it now. They're trying to they're trying
to they're trying to implement some new stuff on obviously
they tried to.
Speaker 5: It's just you guys are offensive guys. To me, last
year looked like what Joe Slone wanted to do. Yeah,
and it was more pass oriented, less run. But it
was one thought. This year just was too many cooks
in the kitchen.
Speaker 4: Gosh.
Speaker 5: And it was just a collection of plays. It did
a scrow. It was just stuf.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the receiver screens was wild because they weren't like
Matt talks about this often. They weren't like real receiver
screens like you saw Oklahoma. You got a blitz, you
play the blitz with the ball and a screen. You
got two linemen out front tunnel screen and then like
l shoes were hey, we're gonna throw it to a
receiver and hope he wins the one on one and
gets as much arts as he gay.
Speaker 5: You tell me, Matt, when you get to the line
of scrimmage and you've got all you know, you've got
trips out there and all three DB's are squatting, right,
at some point, you gotta be able to check out
of that, right, Yeah, there's there's I mean, I'm not
gonna throw this. Throwing the screen in.
Speaker 4: The numbers, Yeah, it was. It was. It was banging
your head on the wall.
Speaker 7: Frustrating for offensive people to watch the offensive play all
year because of decisions like that they had. They had
rps when there shouldn't be rps, which which affected the
lineman block into the second level. And you have, you
have your answer. So every place should have an answer
to it. Every run place should have an answer to it,
every pass place should have an answer to it. And
it's usually but like there's different answers to every test,
like it's and the answers made no sense. There was
like you said, there's no there was no ability to
check out. And even in this day and age, where
like college teams looked at the sideline, like every time
they looked at the sideline, the play that was called
in or relayed in was usually wrong and uh, and
it was just they were so you know, they got
out of running plays early on so fast at any look,
at any like deception that the box might not be cleaned,
that the count might not be cleaned to the right
side of the running.
Speaker 3: And that was all those timeouts that you saw where
nuss Meyer and Brian Kelly would argue about it because
he was saying, just run it. Just go out there
and run it. It's not gonna be perfect. Sometimes Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7: There was like, oh, well, the safety's kind of coming
down or the the wheels, you know, shaded over the play.
Speaker 5: The plays were getting in too late, and there was
no other you know how many times this year, Jake,
I'm yelling play clock, you know, playlock nine. We're breaking
the huddle. It's at nine. Yeah, you got a rookie
quarterback in Van Buren that's on the road at Oklahoma,
and you're gonna get him in the line of script
to nine, knowing that he's got some sort of he's
at least got to read half the field, got this
play and half or do something. It was it was
frustrating to watch this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we don't have to worry about it anymore. No,
we got Lane.
Speaker 3: No, and one thing, Lane's always, no matter where he's been,
no matter what the situation, he can call a game.
Speaker 5: No, no, no.
Speaker 4: I mean one of, if not the best in college football.
Speaker 3: Gordy, You and I talked about it on the broadcast
this year when we were doing the Old Miss game.
We were like, Oh, he's gonna come back to that.
Oh he's gonna he' setting that up. He's gonna come
back to that, And every time he did, but you
didn't know when it was gonna happen. And I remember
like he utilized a tight end so much in our game,
like that was the thing that he saw that he
tried to exploit. And when they needed to close the game,
I remember us both being like tight end, Like watch
a tight end, and it was a unique way he
got him free and boom, tight end game over.
Speaker 5: It was he set up all that misdirection and sneak
the tight end out. Look for me watching Lane over
the years, he's always scripted the first three or four
series better than anybody. Yeah, I mean, unbelievable. Would I
worried about for it was a good thing for L
Shoe back to the Matt Crow years is that he
got away from some of it and then he kind
of freelanced a little bit. Yeah, it made more sense
and more rhyme into things we talked about he's doing
a to set up B and NC and things like
that was more consistent what he's doing. So I think
it would be fabulous. It's can fascinating. I should see
the watch the moves he makes now and recruit him.
We got what two days left.
Speaker 4: And there's a lot of movie going on, crazy, right,
I mean.
Speaker 3: I guess see the good thing So Penn State when
James Franklin leaves, they had seventeen guys dcommended, no doubt
girl who's only had two two and he.
Speaker 5: Got people talking about flipping and then two old miss
guys flipped out.
Speaker 3: And even like some of the ones that have flipped,
like you kind of felt like they might not get
to the finish line from Lshoe's perspective, like maybe maybe
you should look elsewhere at least in one of them.
And so like that staff's done a great job of
keeping the whore together and the job that Frank's done
and the entire assistant coaching staff over there, and so
really right now, the good thing for Lane, he's got
a top fifteen recruiting class and you saw him meet
with the top guys. Lamar Brown's there, you know, in
the office last night, and so I know that it's
two days away, but at least the foundation was held
together so well by the staff, and now Lane can
kind of come in and be the closer, like you said,
maybe get one or two guys that he committed at
ole Miss.
Speaker 5: The gallon from Oklahoma was committed to Oklahoma over from
Lafayette Christian. He decommitted. He was here. He actually saw
a video come in last night. Like I said, it
was a receiver and offensive lineman from Ole Miss that
decommitted yesterday. So it's going to be a fast and
furious forty eight hours. I know you guys are just
you're twenty four to seven on the recruiting I'm joking.
I'm like, that's going over. I think the interesting and
then you know what sort of quarterbacks. This is a
different sort of quarterbacks which he's looking at. You know,
there's all these rumors out there Seller is going to
put himself in the transfer portal. You're going to get
a top tier quarterback that wants to come. Chamberliss up
at ole Miss has requested for another year. Yeah right,
and hasn't been approved for that. So it's it's gonna
be a fascinating month of December before we get to.
Speaker 4: The port Yeah.
Speaker 7: That's the thing about with this lane higher. It brings
so much excitement from the offensive side of the ball.
You're gonna have You're gonna be able to cherry pick
a quarterback in the transfer portal. You're certainly gonna be
able to cherry pick quarterbacks out of high school just
because of the recent success LSU's had with quarterback in
two heismans in the last six years. And now you're
gonna Addlane kit. I was just kind of looking at
random Lane Kiffin's stats earlier and his last year at
Florida Atlantic. His quarterback was Chris Robinson. Twenty nine of
force two hundred and ninety one a four to seventy
one for thirty seven hundred and one yards, twenty eight touchdowns,
six interceptions.
Speaker 4: Florida Atlantic. Not bad, right, And.
Speaker 3: You know me, like I usually know everybody, I got
no idea.
Speaker 4: Who that fell is?
Speaker 7: Chris Robinson? No, that was that was Lane's third year.
I think they went eleven and three. That kind of
like sprung him into the old miss job. So take
that and you look at the like we just brought
up chamber It's like, who who's trying at Chamberlas.
Speaker 4: We said it before our game.
Speaker 7: I was like, I watched one game of him play
and I'm like, I don't think he's that good. Like
this first game playing, he just wasn't that good. Yeah,
so that's why I went pretty heavy and like this,
she was gonna win this game. The defense is too good. Well,
every single week, kid got better and like I'm not
talking about just like making plays on accident, like being
able to be out athletic people and like someone pops open.
I'm talking about reading one, first, second, third options, tacking
the middle of the field. Like these things that he
did better was absolute quarterback, professional type quarterback play got
better and better every week. And you see that with
Lane kiffin offenses, which is something that we should be
really really excited about.
Speaker 5: I think for me, the question offensive side of the
football is the offensive line. I mean this question we get,
you know, are they struggling? Are they they they that bad?
My answer has been No, yeah, to the to the
point how much of it's skiing? Yeah, how much of
it is what they're getting asked to do? And you
guys played more off side of the fuck.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean you know this too though, Like
and Matt pointed out immediately, like the RPO can be
a change up, it can't be your foundation and your
run game, right that gives the offensive line it's a
roads a tool to use.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's not a foundational thing. And scheme is like
one thing. I think people over emphasize the words scheme
a lot because it gets you brought it up already.
The way he designs the first fifteen, the way he
played calls like he's he's telling a story with his
play gone, it's just as not like what we saw
the LSU.
Speaker 4: Oh this, let's try this play, Let's try this, let's
try this.
Speaker 7: Scheme is one thing, and his scheme is great, but
the way you coach that scheme, Like I could take
two teams that run the exact same place, one team
might be ten times more successful because they do it better,
Like they run their routes for more of a purpose.
I saw LSU blocking their offensive line block this year
with no real rhyme or reason to what they were doing.
Like the coaching techniques they have on the top of
their routes. How they're running steam routes versus cover three
versus cover two, How they run a seam routes for
vers cover one. How they're running comeback routes in different covers.
What they're outside receiver. How how he's releasing versus cover
two with an inside stick route. Like there's different things
I think well coached, well coached schemes, Like I think
the word scheme gets.
Speaker 4: You so much, but how it coached coaches.
Speaker 7: Yes, basically, there's only so many directions receiver can run,
you guys, And.
Speaker 5: That's why I love this talk, because you guys are
offensive guys. But I can tell you one of my
favorite conversations was twenty eleven after LSU beat West Virginia
and I had to do the Last Miles TV show
for the first time, and so that meant least was
going to take a good hour to shower and put
a suit on and.
Speaker 4: All different than what we have now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, I mean the horn's going
off and yeah, and I sat downstairs a friend of
a mutual friend between Dana Holgerson and I when sat
down in Dana and then Shannon Dawson was the OC. Yeah, Hammond,
who's down in Miami now, and you know we're talking
ball and he's talked about that. You know how good
Lsu was defensively, We never see that many big guys
while blah blah, and I asked them some offensive questions,
like Gordy, we really run six or seven plays and
that's all that we run. But I can do five
things out of them, but we run them over and
over and over again, and you know, we had an
eighth play, but we felt like it took too much
time away. And I think that you know, that's when
you hear the simplicity of some of that stuff. So
many times people overthink offenses and just how sharp you know,
Ole Miss runs their stuff, Yeah, precise, And that was
a problem with La Shoe. I mean everything was clunky.
Every nothing smooth.
Speaker 7: And that's the thing, Like, that's why people always have
success when they go two minutes before half, like they're like, well,
they haven't done anything all game. They just went down
the field. Well, because two minutes is day one install
and it's stuff that you repped rep repped Oklahoma hit
a big play because what do they what do you
do with the struggling offense? You get you up the tempo?
Oh yeah right, and you confuse the defense and you
run a base you're gonna he hit a seam route
like how many They probably ran that plate ten times
that game already, But you rushed.
Speaker 5: And no one the primary route. I mean that was
he just came back to tier, did a nice shot.
Speaker 4: He saw it.
Speaker 3: And also the thing about Lanes offense that we've talked
about a ton here on the show when we're talking
about old mess, but certainly we'll get more into it.
The thing I love about the run portion of it
is he wants to run the football and he's very
diverse in.
Speaker 4: The run game.
Speaker 3: It's not going to be inside zone eighty nine percent
of the time. It's going to be power which LSU
football didn't run one this year, which is fascinating to me.
We couldn't go a series without running a power when
we played counter, inside, outside zone, stretch lead, I mean,
everything's up.
Speaker 5: One thing I would say, one critique I've always had
for Kiffin's offenses. His quarterbacks take hits. Yeah, I mean,
Matt Corrall Dart got to us, was limping, ran it
for like eighteen nineteen times at Tennessee. Jackson Dart took hits.
You know, Champ is not a big guy. I've surprised
the amount of hits he hasn't taken this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know if we can blame Kiffin for
Jackson Dart yet. From what we see from Jackson with
the Giant so far, that's fair. That is completely fair.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 4: Shout out to Verge Ostbury as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, Verge had a target, was not going to
be denied, stayed on the target, was calm in the process.
I mean, uh, you know, I had had the chance
to fly up to the to the game with him,
and man, there was no panic. It was smooth sailing
and he felt confident and what was going to go down.
And I was impressed, just you know, sitting a couple
of feet from it and watching it all play out. Gee,
And Verge said he's like, we're gonna get the best
coach in America. And he had one guy and he
honed in on that guy and got the guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Shout out to Verge as good of friends as he
is with Scott Woodward to go through that and all
the all political and everything else, to stay focused on
that target and being around it. Last weekend at the
down the locker room for you know, the Western Kentucky game,
Buddy felt confident that they were gonna get Kiffin. They
felt like there was Kiffin and in their minds there
was a big enough drop and to be able harder
sell for Drink, who we both like, Yeah right, I
like you like Drink would so I think it's fantastic
football coach. Would it be a hard sell to say, here,
we're gonna pay you Eli eleven million dollars a year
after we've paid Brian Kelly fifty three to fifty four
million to come down here and pay us.
Speaker 4: Five everybody let me know what they felt.
Speaker 5: I like Drink, I think he's a good coach.
Speaker 4: But to your point, it was it was Kiffin. Then
there was a drop and a lot of.
Speaker 5: People so I think they were we got to have Kiffin.
Speaker 4: We're all in on it, which I can appreciate. You're like, hey,
this is the guy. I'm not going anywhere else.
Speaker 3: This is the only direction I'm going in because I
feel confident enough and look, Verge is a new athletic director.
He's been doing you know something here at LSU for
thirty years. After he's done playing like, he's been in
every aspect of the athletic department. He has seen how
things play out. And so yeah, he's new to the
athletic director title, but he's been involved in this for
a long time.
Speaker 5: No, absolutely, he's been involved. He has a great relationship
with Jimmy Sexton and kudos to Verge for that. But
it was a fascinating week from everything from Drinkwitz to
taking the Missouri deal. Once once the chips start to
the fall, you felt better and better about Lane coming here.
And I just shake my head at the Auburn situation.
I mean, you know, I mean John Somerrell's wife went
to Auburn. Yeah, I think I believe. Yeah, it's from Huntsville.
Auburn's much a more attractive job. And just apparently John
Cohen wanted them to take DJ Diurkin and staff and
what have you. And when the market is that demand,
you know, you have a low supply of coaches and
you have that much demand on them, and then for
them to pull Alex Golish out at one am. They
made up call it one am on Friday. Hey, would
you take the job. It's kind of a headshaker.
Speaker 3: There, I know for some reason, and I've heard from
from all the Auburn folks that like Cohen just never
wanted to fully give himself over to John Sumraw, which
is it's fascinating to me. I mean from what he's
done and multiple remember Troy had kind of falling off
from what we know Troy to be. As soon as
he got there, they started winning games again. So it's
not only a two lane.
Speaker 5: There was a gap after Neil Brown left. Absolutely yeah.
I mean he coached Kentucky.
Speaker 4: In the sec I was Kentucky doing.
Speaker 5: And even waiting this late no idea. Look be happy
we got Lane Kiffen and a couple of headshakers. And look,
I love Pete Golding. I think Pete's a great guy.
You know, is that emotional play at this point you
have to give the permanent title, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he's the head coach.
Speaker 3: Is interesting, it is. I mean I played around the
golf of Pete. I like, Pete, you don't even play
I don't play golf.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 7: Do want to ask you, like I know we're late
for a break here, but like I do want to
ask you the you know there everything kind of rushed
and just everybody nationally except for in Louisiana because we
don't really care because we got our guy. But everyone
natually talking about like the college football schedule and how
it's like because of this, how sloppy this was, how
messy this kind of was, Like, is there any fix
in your mind to the college football just timing of
signing days and is there any fix that anyway to get.
Speaker 5: This to move something? Are you're going to have every year?
I know every year when it comes down to you know,
now we're seeing it for the first time that the
signing day is on the Wednesday after the last regular season,
before the championship game. Yeah, the transfer portal is where
it is right there. I mean you're forcing coaches hands
right down, disrupting seasons and ultimately the biggest loser of
the student athletes. Yeah, I mean student athletes. And you
know you feel for the kids at Old Miss, Yeah,
that are put in that.
Speaker 3: Spot we were talking about earlier. Of all people, Rick
Patino had a great point. Yes, he's like, y'all got it.
Messed up in football. That would be like us getting
the one seed in March before the March madness and
then saying we got to go. It's the same thing, Like,
that's what you're telling these coaches, because, like LS, you
wasn't gonna wait until January, No, couldn't. You got to
have a leader, right, You had to have a leader
for signing day. You had to, like you don't want
to have an interim coach, no matter who it is,
for six seven, eight weeks, right, So you had to
have a leader in place to get everything moving in
the right direction.
Speaker 5: Coming back to Pete Golden, and he very well may
do a great job and be the guy at Old Miss,
but almost forces Old missus hand. Yeah, if I don't
stabilize this ship right now, I've got recruits coming on Wednesday,
I've got this game that's coming. I'm trying to hold
this team together. I got a transfer portal. I almost
have to make a play right now.
Speaker 4: Yep, for sure.
Speaker 3: Gee appreciate it, brother, it's been a it's.
Speaker 4: A long day studio.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 4: Anything it look warmer last time I saw you? What's
it look warmer?
Speaker 5: Thanks a lot, By the way, I took my fifteen
year old son. So I took Jackson Alumnia, and I'm
getting crushed right now because his seats were in section two.
Twenty eight. He made it the halftime. He made it
the half time. Twenty eight was the upper up. Absolutely,
he went back to the pre party and sure kid
was shriveled. And so if I get a call for
child abuse or something today, I might need you all
to bail me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hey, I'll vouch for you. They vouch for you.
Speaker 3: I'll actually I'll throw it on Lou and the equipment
staff or not getting him a parking.
Speaker 5: It's his fault.
Speaker 4: It's all Low and Maule. It's their fault. Do you
appreciate it? Brother? All right, we'll take a break.
Speaker 3: We do have Ross Dellinger joining us in about ten
minutes from now. I mean Ross had this story covered.
I mean he was boots on the ground in Oxford.
So looking forward to that conversation with our guy Deli
coming up in ten minutes more OTB when we come
back here live from the Raisin Kine studio.
Speaker 1: Off the bench.
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Speaker 1: From the locker room to the airwaves. Gets off the
bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 3: Sit in your hardy waiting on some beautiful boy to
to save you from.
Speaker 8: Your own ways.
Speaker 4: You play for gymnas watching them he comes.
Speaker 3: Jesus body, all right, welcome back in oh t B.
Want to remind you by our friends over at Rouses
rouses dot com. And yeah, we're giving you a website
for a grocery store because we want you to go
there or find the one that is nearest you, and
also check out those weekly specials they've got going on.
Hopefully you took full advantage of all the things they've
got for the holidays and Thanksgiving, but obviously they're gonna
have those same things for Christmas, for New Years and
all the great traditions we have during the holiday season.
I mean, today's a Monday. You know what we do
here on Mondays in Louisiana. Food Yeah, what kind of food?
Speaker 4: Good food? Alandra Mondays in Louisiana.
Speaker 6: Red Beans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you, welcome.
Speaker 3: I'm glad one text AND's paid attention the whole time.
Speaker 6: You've been here longer than me.
Speaker 3: Wow, dev I'm sorry if you heard that. I know
that probably just hurt your heart, but yes, we red
beans here on mondays.
Speaker 7: Oh, my god, that's a terrible take, I said, I
prefaced it with all due respect, with all due.
Speaker 6: Respect, my god, respectfully, that's a trash opinion.
Speaker 4: Thank you for the same. Respectfully, I appreciate that. No,
we'll not get mad at.
Speaker 7: You, so I said respectfully because you said respectfully, So
that works. Sorry, dev I respect those that love it.
Giving you my opinion. I'm entitled to it.
Speaker 3: Real quick here, like I said, we are going to
get to Ross Dellinger Yahoo, who was literally boost on
the ground and had most of the updates here during
this link given situation in the SEC and we mentioned
some of it with Gordy there. But just a quick
recap of what happened with the coaching carousel. So Ryan
Silverfield goes from Memphis to Arkansas, Alex Golish goes from
South Florida to Auburn, John summer All goes from Tulane
to Florida, Pete Golden goes from defensive coordinator to head
coach at ol Miss and Mark Stoops, which you'll hear
a little bit later on. And Mark Stoops is my guy, okay,
but he gotta let go a Kentucky. So you know
what that means there's gonna be a eulogy for Mark Stoops.
St Bob would say, I don't know if I get
through it, but I can't even say it.
Speaker 7: I can't even say it. Don't don't do that to yourself.
The questions we got a lot of show left we
was Kentucky doing though that?
Speaker 6: Why would you wait until everybody already know their coaches?
That's wild?
Speaker 3: Well for sure, Yeah, but the summer all part, like
he played linebacker there, Yeah, like he would have I
would assume love to go back to where he played,
and he was one of the hotter names on the
coaching trails.
Speaker 4: So I don't.
Speaker 3: I think Kentucky is a good job. We like, you
can do enough to win there. The expectations are set
eight wins and you're like, I mean, that's why Mark
Stups was the most tenured SEC coach before yesterday.
Speaker 7: I think a lot of times, like when we when
we're fans of something like the Kentucky fans, in any
fan of any college or pro team or whatever it is,
I think you take for granted, like people in the
high seats, like you're always like, you know what, they
know what they're doing. They got it under control. Like
when I got to the NFL, that's what I thought too.
I know other people in the NFL, they got it
under control. You soon realize like nobody has anything under control,
Like nobody really knows what they're doing in any job.
They're just trying to figure it out as they go, right.
That can be said for anything the higher ups in
any business, government, certainly university athletic programs. Like you think
people take it for it when you have all these
followers and so many highs on something and everybody's like
they got it, they know what they're doing, let's just
let them do it.
Speaker 4: But when you see things like this, you.
Speaker 7: Just realize that people really don't know what they're doing. Yeah,
all the way across the board and that. And you
see that with Kentucky right now, like there's no rhyme
or reason, there's no explanation for it. The people in
charge screwed that one up. Yeah, big time.
Speaker 3: All right, So there is a report real quick here
and it's what we talked about here. After talking with
Blake last night, it does look like he is l
SUDFS coordinator. Blake Baker will stay on staff and baton
rouge I'm trying to see who had this first. CBS Sports,
CBS Sports. He know, CBS Sports knows.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Like I said, when Blake told me that last night,
I'm like, if you get my hopes would be real bad?
Can we play?
Speaker 3: I would look, I would assume with this news like
it's pretty much like yeah. I mean because because Blake
and that staff have a really good relationship on that
side of football.
Speaker 4: So this is incredible news.
Speaker 3: Blayane Kiffin, Blake Baker, Let's ride, Let's ride.
Speaker 4: Are you kidding me? That's awesome.
Speaker 7: I'm so excited. That was like the one thing we
wanted all coaches, any coach coming in. We kind of
understated it here because we didn't really know. Yep, oh,
here we go, come on, turn up.
Speaker 4: Lake Bankers staying baby per CBS.
Speaker 8: Ooh, I'm.
Speaker 4: He does.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's like the most shocking thing I've learned about you.
Speaker 3: I know he's always had some different music tastes, but
like a funky Friday, this guy's all for it.
Speaker 4: My music taste is very eclectic, guys. I mean, we
gotta take a break, same.
Speaker 3: But celebrate everybody, all right, Ross Dellinger When we come
back here on otb off the bench. All right, we
are so excited to tell you about the new Valley's
Baton Rouge. I mean, this thing is incredible. You will
not notice what it used to be when you walk
in there. And it doesn't matter how many times you've
been in there, because Matt and I did a lot
of events there.
Speaker 4: It is not a distant cousin to what it used
to be.
Speaker 3: It got an upgrade and it is really something that
is bringing firepower to downtown Baton Rouge.
Speaker 4: And I cannot wait for y'all go check it out.
Speaker 3: The casino floor, I mean twenty five thousand square feed
Vegas style casino. They've got five brand new restaurants in there.
They've got an incredible every room has been touched hotel
and upgraded and renovated.
Speaker 4: They've got suites that overlook Tiger Stadium.
Speaker 3: You will be blown away by the new Ballet's casino
and hotel in downtown Baton Rouge.
Speaker 7: Sorry, you can actually go follow them on Facebook, Instagram,
whatever at Bally's Baton Rouge.
Speaker 4: Like, we got to take a walk through it. It
is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 7: Renovated, fully renovate ten story Ballet's Baton Rouge Hotel right there.
Speaker 4: There next to the casino.
Speaker 5: Go check it out.
Speaker 8: Ballets, ballets, ballets, talkers.
Speaker 3: This is off the bench, all right, welcome back in
OTV here live from the Raisin Caine Studio. It's always
our pleasure to welcome on our next guess it is
our guy, Ross Dellinger. Yahoo's sports at Ross Dollinger's to
handle on social media. And hopefully you were following him
over the last couple of days because he was all
over Lane Kiffin and him finding his way from Oxford
to Baton Rouge.
Speaker 4: Delli, what's going on? Brother? How you doing good? How
are you all good?
Speaker 3: Do we have you back home yet? Like, are you
actually able to go back home? I know you were
boots on the ground there in Oxford. Like, where in
the world is Ross Dellinger right now?
Speaker 9: I'm right down the street from me, buddy, I'm in Uge.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 4: You in the bushes?
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah, no bushes, no bushes right now?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Three three three cities, three days, one coach.
Speaker 3: I actually, you know what, as soon as I asked that,
I was like, there's no way my man's back home.
He's probably right here in Baton Rouge and so well,
I'm glad I'll get to see you a little bit
later on today. Ross this entire time, I mean, again,
you did a fantastic job covering it and kind of
going over every detail. Now, it always felt like it
was LSU because LSU was very confident and everybody you
talked to felt like they had a really good grasp
on how it was going to play out. But you
never know in coaching searches, certainly in college football, and look,
you don't know with Lane and the situation that he
was in. So as you're covering this, like, what was
your thought maybe throughout the entire time, Like did you
think that it would get to where he got and
actually get to the finish line? You know, you never know.
Speaker 10: With Lane, you never know, And I think that was
sort of Lshoe's worry. I think LSUE officials were pretty confident.
Speaker 9: Since probably about a.
Speaker 10: Week and a half ago.
Speaker 9: I think they got really confident that Lane would be
coming after the after the season, and but you just
sort of never know, and I don't I don't necessarily
think anything was signed, but there was sort of a
I think kind of a wink and a nod, maybe
as far back as a week and a half ago
that that he was very seriously considering this and probably
gonna end up coming.
Speaker 10: But but again, you are talking about a very unpredictable person, and.
Speaker 9: And so there were there were some plenty of LSU
officials who, especially during and after the Egg.
Speaker 10: Bowl last Friday, were worried that there could be some
kind of change of change of heart and all that.
Speaker 9: So there was always that in the back of think
everybody's mind in Baton Rouge.
Speaker 10: But he obviously followed through in.
Speaker 9: The meeting Saturday night, where I wasn't quite in the bushes.
I was in my car and I was in a
parking lot looking over the bushes, I guess you could
say at the Chancellor's house where they were meeting. It
was after that meeting that really things got more finalized.
Elis scheduled at the two planes to come down and
come up and pick him up in Oxford, so everything.
Speaker 10: Sort of kind up.
Speaker 9: That's when you sort of knew that that Saturday night
that it was.
Speaker 4: A definite.
Speaker 7: Rossty like as messy as everything kind of seemed to
be from us just kind of watching from the outside,
do you think that, Yeah, of course Lane wanted to
be here and that was that was pretty understood as
everything kind of unfolded throughout this whole process in the
last couple of weeks. But do you think that he
honestly believed he was going to get the opportunity to
continue to coach his team even though he was going
to leave.
Speaker 10: I do.
Speaker 9: I do, which is for many hard to believe because
I don't know that when I called round and talked
to agents and coaches and other athletic directors around the country,
there's not many, if any at all, that would allow
a coach who's leaving for a conference rival to continue
to coach and a post the team their team in
a in a postseason.
Speaker 10: It's it's a.
Speaker 9: Different situation than what's going on at Tulane with John
Summer all in Florida, in him getting the coach through
the playoffs that say advanced, we're talking about two bitter rivals.
Speaker 10: You know that go This rivalry goes back, you know.
Speaker 9: Decades, and it's pretty short of nasty already. And so
I in this it was never going to happen where
he was going to be allowed to coach, and in
Elmus had made that decision a long time ago that
this was not going to happen. And in Lane, I
think that's the last bit tried to convince them of
that in that meeting at the Chancellor's house Saturday night,
to let him do it, to let him coach some
of the players.
Speaker 10: I think did want him to stay on and coach.
But again.
Speaker 9: I think Lane's in his interview before he left Oxford
yesterday with the ESPN, is that Keith Carter, the ad
at ole Miss, has to live in Oxford and he
has to continue in his job. And I think it
would be difficult for Keith Carter if he allowed a
coach who's leaving for a conference rival to continue coaching
the team. It would be difficult for Keith Carter to
perhaps even remain in his job in Oxford.
Speaker 3: Now, Ross, you've covered LSU for long enough, and you
know that, like when you say rivals for LSU, it
kind of changes with generations, like for Flynn and I
like it's Florida like that was our rival.
Speaker 4: You know, depending on who you asked.
Speaker 3: You could have asked my grandfather he goes tou Lane,
maybe my dad goes Old Miss. My son's probably go Alabama.
So it's forever changing and we talked about for Texas
A and M. It took seven overtimes for that to
become an actual thing because before it felt forced like
for a lot of generations, they're you know, LSU Ole
Miss doesn't mean as much to them as it does
to others. I think this now gives every generation a
reason to call this a true rival and it's a
permanent opponent, Like do you agree with that that? Yes,
they've you know, not liked each other for a long time,
but now this brings everybody to the table.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 10: And I think, you know, LSU plays at ole Miss
next year.
Speaker 9: And we saw what happened when Lane Kiffen returned to
Tennessee and is maybe his second year, third year in
Oxford when he returned there for the first time since
he had left maybe ten years before, and that was
a ten year gap, and we saw that get pretty
nasty were.
Speaker 10: Thrown at him on the field.
Speaker 9: You can imagine less than a year later him returning
to Oxford. You know that that's that's gonna be quite
a spectacle. And I think this rivalry up there. If
there was any kind of doubt that there was this
rivalry between these two programs, uh I think.
Speaker 10: That's out of the window now. I think that the
Lane has made made.
Speaker 9: Sure that in his his sort of actions and words,
that this rivalry will continue on and get.
Speaker 10: More intense.
Speaker 7: So yeah, ross this old situation has been so polarizing
and it is so glaring because of how this is
all unfolded like it brings. Usually it takes something like
this for change to be brought about. And of course
there's debate all over the country about like how to
fix what's the what's the fix for college football to
scheduling the calendar year college football?
Speaker 4: In your mind? What needs to be fixed? And is
it even possible?
Speaker 9: Well, it's it's hard. I know everybody wants, uh, you know,
fix is done in the calendar, but it's it's not
that easy and uh And partly it's not that easy
because you have an entity in major college football that
is evolving into a professional entity, but it's still tethered
to higher education in a university, and it's still tethered
to a university's calendar, an academic calendar, And that's what
makes makes things really different difficult. That plus the fact
that college athletics resist the urge to completely evolve professionally
by having a collective bargaining agreement for example, or or
any kind of more binding contracts and things like that
with players, and that that that sort of impacts.
Speaker 10: All of this as well.
Speaker 9: So I don't know what they can really do. They
have changed a lot in the.
Speaker 10: Last few years.
Speaker 9: They moved back to transfer portal to January from December,
and they were hoping that that would sort of slow
the what had become an accelerated coaching firing cycle and
firing cycle.
Speaker 10: It didn't work, right.
Speaker 9: This is the this is the most accelerated it's ever been.
And I think part of the reason behind that is,
you know, despite the transfer porting moving moving to January,
that you know, the signing day is still Wednesday. This
Wednesday is still in the first week of December. And
let's face it, you know, after the season, moves and
player moves and decisions happen, and you're not even if
you put it off to January, the portal opening, that's
still not going to.
Speaker 10: Change when players make decisions. So teams are.
Speaker 9: Being arranged and remade right now, even when even though
the portal is moved to January.
Speaker 3: Cauz Omber, the guy Ross dellens Aer here on OTB
all right, ross last one before we let you go
from a on the field perspective, right, So you have
Lane Kiffin now the offensive staff. There's a report out
there that Blake Baker is going to be retained as well.
So you got Lane Kiffin on one side, Blake Baker
on the other. Do you think in your opinion that
this gets LSU back to where they want to be
as soon as next year?
Speaker 9: Well, I think if you just look at the results
of Lane Kiffin in what he's done with programs in
his coaching career, especially the last you know, sort of
few years, you know, you you usually don't have to
wait too long for him to show success. Even even
years ago, at his time at Tennessee and USC UH
they were pretty it was pretty quick success. I mean,
I think his second year at usc won ten games.
His first year at Florida Atlantic he won eleven games.
His second year at ole Miss he won ten games.
His first year at ole Miss was five or five.
It was the COVID year though, so there's a little
bit of an outlier there. So it's virtually everywhere he's
been pretty quickly.
Speaker 10: He has taken a team.
Speaker 9: To a double digit sort of win mark And you
know he's got the players here on the team now,
but he's certainly going to be recruiting.
Speaker 10: To LSU and LSU as we all know, kind of
cruits itself.
Speaker 9: And so he will have the best players he's probably
ever had, even though you know he has been at
Tennessee as being at USC and Olmos did a great
job with nil and with player acquisition. But I think
it's safe to say that he'll have the best athletes
he's ever had here.
Speaker 10: And so you would think, based on his.
Speaker 9: Past success who he would have a lot of success
with those really good athletes. And it's one of the
reasons he took the job.
Speaker 3: All right there, He is that guy, Ross Dellinger, I mean,
had this thing covered from every angle.
Speaker 4: Does a great job for Yahoo Sports.
Speaker 3: As you already know at Ross Dellinger is the handle
Gama follow there on social media. Ross, we appreciate it,
and I'll see you here in a couple of hours. Brother,
all right, guys it the elater, all right, man, Ross
was not in the bushes in his car behind looking
at looking over, he said, bushes the bushes today. Coyble
would never my guy was boots on the ground, to
say the least, stopping traffic just sitting there middle road.
Speaker 4: Great videos, great videos. I mean the zoom on that
camera alone.
Speaker 7: I swear like, don't if you're a coach, if you're
in that building, don't pick your nose.
Speaker 4: You're gonna get caught. Oh it really was.
Speaker 3: I mean shout out to O Gotka. I mean he
did a great job of I mean, you weren't gonna
be in that building.
Speaker 4: He wasn't. He wasn't gonna see you. All right, we
gotta take a break for a break. Sorry, off the bench, all.
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Speaker 1: Locked in on LSU Football twenty four to seven. You're
listening to Off the Bench.
Speaker 4: Wait did you have for you?
Speaker 10: Hello?
Speaker 8: My bad?
Speaker 3: Thirty second segment here, that's my bad. Look I've told
you today, I warned you, and we've been pretty good
except the segment.
Speaker 4: Ipol you today. It's Gordy's fault.
Speaker 3: Boss were along with Gordy w we had down here
two I mean and you know he was like all
over the story gets some coffee. So this is the
only one we're going to have today. I do apologize.
We'll be back better than ever for the next hour.
I promise she's going to be the best hour you've
ever heard of.
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