Speaker 1: Off the Bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn asday.
Speaker 2: Hester and Hester got it five out of five.
Speaker 1: From carrying each other to and Natty to carrying each
other on the.
Speaker 3: Air were there's prop Control.
Speaker 1: Live from the Raising Caine Studio.
Speaker 3: It's Off the Bench.
Speaker 4: Welcome in our number three, a Friday edition of Off
the Bench.
Speaker 3: It's been a long week, y'all. We're here.
Speaker 4: We've been hanging out with you all week long. In
place of Jacob Est and Matt Flynn. They'll be back
on Monday. We got a picture from Matt Flynn yesterday
talking about football weather and he was sitting there and
what appeared to be like twenty degrees with his old
ski goggles and ski cap on. So Matt over there
on the child's loop, probably learning how to ski.
Speaker 5: Here.
Speaker 4: Ross is going to call us. He just sent me
a text saying if we had issues.
Speaker 3: He could call in.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I just texted him.
Speaker 4: So we'll get to Ross in just a second. But
we got Doug Thompson coming up at nine thirty. Next segment,
after we have Ross College Football put out they ranked
the SEC incoming transfer quarterbacks. One team is not on
the list, and it all boils down to an NCAA
decision surrounding Joey Aguilar, which I really want to get
into because Joey Aguilar is still waiting on a decision
from the NCAA, which I think is absolutely crap because
you look at some of the other guys they have
been eligible and it took a while on and mainly
uh Trinidad shambless if you could believe that. But uh,
we'll get into that a little bit later on we
get Ross on.
Speaker 3: Ross has put out a ton of articles.
Speaker 4: I mean, you go to Louisianasports dot net every single day,
Ross has multiple articles.
Speaker 3: Want to break that down.
Speaker 4: I mean, we talked yesterday about the possibility of a
Travis ETN and a Breeze Hall and free agency. Those
were Ross articles. We'll get an update from him on
all of that. We'll talk Teddy Bridgewater, We'll talk Alvin
Kamara's future in New Orleans. We'll get him on in
just the second to break all of that down. And
it looks like we actually do have Ross so joining
us right now Louisiana Sports dot Net. You can also
catch him locked on Saints our guy Ross Jackson, Ross,
how are you this morning.
Speaker 7: Hey, Hey buddy, doing great, doing great? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Rals, thanks for hopping on.
Speaker 4: You know, I've been I've been breaking down a lot
of your articles this week hosting on OTB, and I
wanted to kind of, you know, break them down a
little bit further here with you. I was looking at
your articles about you know, Travis et and Bresall and
all this, and maybe maybe not even those guys in particular, Ross,
But what are the chances that the Saints target a
running back in free agency? We hear a lot about
Jeremiah Love in the draft. He's been kind of a
hot topic of conversation. But could the Saints go a
different route and bring in a more experience guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that they could if that's a position
that they're that they're interested in addressing in maybe a
larger way, right, Like, there's kind of this two way
path that you kind of have to play, the running
back position to where the things could use some more
talent injected into that room. Obviously, they feel really good
about where things could potentially head with Alvin Tuera, but
Alba Babara's also been dealing with injuries here recently. Devin
Neil came in had an impressive rookie season, but overall
that room still has a lot of question marks in
terms of, you know, long term planning. And so I
think that's the that's the other piece, right, It's not
just about hey, what can you do to help them
make this team better for twenty twenty six, but what
investments are you able to make to potentially get you
ready for sort of the post Alvin Kamara days in
New Orleans at and running back And that's where sort
of these young free agents like Breist Hall, Rico Dowdell
I'd throw into that category as well, who would be
a pretty good confidence album Kamara in the meanwhile, you
know Kenneth Walker of the Third who I'm I'm you know,
I wouldn't be shocked stays in Seattle right, and other
running backs that are out there, ETN and others. It
gives them an opportunity to be able to invest in somebody.
It's going to help them bolster their room right now,
not necessarily replace talent, but both of their room right now,
and then be ready to replace talent at a later time.
And so with there being this sort of wealth of
young veteran running backs in this year's free agency class.
That's a place where they could play. Otherwise they could
wait until the draft, where there's still pretty good talent,
particularly at the day one, day two range at the position.
Speaker 4: Just think I'm with the running backs you just mentioned
Alvin Kamara. What is his future look like in New Orleans?
And not even whether or not he's with the team
or not. I imagine most of us believe he's going
to be here, but like, what does his role look
like moving forward?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, it's going to be really interesting
to see. I think you know, they were interested in
him being returning to a little bit more of a
judicious usage last year as opposed to being more of
a bellcow guy like what we saw post Latavius Murray
here in New Orleans, and so I think you would
probably want to continue to go that route, especially if
you're going to end up being without Taystom Hill, who
also helps to contribute or has helped to contribute to
that running game over the course of his years in
New Orleans. His contract is set to void on March tenth.
If he's not back in New Orleans, then I think
you're looking at Alvin Kamara and trying to find maybe
a second and potentially third back, including you know, you've
got guys like Kendrick Miller coming back off injury, you
have Devin Neil going into a second year. They've got
some talent there. But I think that's the way that
you maximize Alvin Kamara, and he's talked about this as well,
is finding to utilize him a little bit more specifically, right,
and so it's utilizing him as that, you know, third
down back that you can throw the ball to if
you need to, but also utilizing him in a you know,
more expansive role estimately that can run both between the
tackles and outside the tackles, working on getting him out
in space, all those other things. So I think that
when it comes to Alvin, the role for him is
probably one that utilizes him a little bit more uniquely
and specifically, as opposed to one that treats him as
a bell cow back.
Speaker 4: At this point, well, shifting away from running back, you know, again,
Jeremiah Love keeps being a topic of conversation. So let's say,
you know, for the hypothetical here, they do take Jeremiah
Love as far as free agency, goes o line wide receiver.
There's a lot of big name wide receivers that could
hit that free agency market. Could you see the Saints
potentially reaching.
Speaker 2: Out to some of them, Yeah, I think so. And look,
I think offensive line is a place where you spend
in free agency this year. There's especially on the interior,
there's a lot of talent in this year's free agency class,
and so you know, if you can't sign the big
names like a David Edwards that's coming out of out
of Buffalo, then you know there's there's other guys that
you could roll the dice on that you could look at.
You could look at bringing at Ingram back to Louisiana
from Houston. There's a lot of talent that in that spot,
and so wide receiver then becomes maybe a little bit
more of a secondary position to target. And I also
think that wide receiver is the deepest position in this
year's draft class, along with maybe edge rusher, and so
you can also wait until Day two, day three at
wide receiver and get somebody that's going to be able
to contribute to your team. When it comes to that position,
you don't have to necessarily go with the big X
receivers like a Jordan Tyson out of Arizona State or
a Carnel Tate out of Ohio State. You could go
for players that give you maybe eight yards after catch threat.
Go for players that give you maybe you know, secure
possession receiver types like a Ted Hurst or like a
male Thai Fields out of Notre Dame. There's a lot
of these different sort of archetypes of receivers in the
draft class that, yeah, you can go and do that.
In free agency, guys like Romeo Dobbs coming out of
Green Bay. You could look at guys like Alec Pierce
who could potentially go and be on his way out
in Indianapolis, though he seems likely to stick around and
Indy you could go that route there. But even if
you don't, and even if you don't address wide receiver
in the first round because you want to go Jeremiah
Love or you want to go with one of those
edge rushers or whatever it might be, you're still in
a really good position at wide receiver to add a
player with an elite trait. It's not necessarily going and
finding a specific archetype of wide receiver, but can you
go and find that pass catcher that can bring an
elite trait that you otherwise don't have in that room,
and I think you can do that into day two
or day three of the draft as well.
Speaker 3: Speaking of the dravel, let's go right there.
Speaker 4: The Saints sit at aid and my thought's always been,
you're inside the top ten and it looks like you
have your quarterback in the future, so you're kind of
sitting pretty You could go a lot of different ways.
If Ross Jackson is a GM of the New Orleans Saints,
who do you draft at eight overall?
Speaker 8: Or what position?
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, look, a position would be irrelevant to me.
Everything would really be all about, you know, who is
the best player that's on the board. And so if
I'm sitting there at eight and Jeremiah Love is on
the board and he's the best player on my board,
that's who I'm taking. If it's safety Caleb Downs, who's
one of the other best players on you on the board,
if he's the best player on my board at that time,
that's the player that I'm taking. That's kind of the
thing about this upcoming draft class for New Orleans is
that they're in a very similar position. I don't want
to say that they're in a similar position because obviously,
like they had Drew Brees at this time, right, but
they're in a similar position in terms of need when
it comes to that, like how they were in twenty seventeen.
So they have the ability to be able to address
what it is that they need in free agency and
then go into the draft and be able to just
go best player available as they go through. That's what
general manager Making Limis said and is interviewer press or
alongside Kellen Moore, head coach, that that's what they were
planning to do going into this draft, that they're comfortable
going best player available. And so for me, like there's
positions that maybe I wouldn't invest in at eight, Like
I don't know that I would go into your offensive
line at eight. Kind of think the Saints have a
need at tackle that's enough for them to go offensive
line at all at eight. Obviously there are the obvious
positions you're not going to in the top ten, but
you know, outside of that, like if I can get
an EDG rusher, if I can get a wide receiver,
if I can get a running back, if I can
get a safety, that's as long as I'm getting somebody
that is a playmaker, and that's kind of my big
thing is like ppa best playmaker available, that's the player
that I want. And so like for me, the top
guys that are probably hovering around and available in that
cloud at eight are Premia Love out of Notre Dame,
the safety Caleb Downs out of Ohio State, and then
you know, maybe David Bailey, the Texas Tech edge rusher,
could potentially be there at eight. And then you have
that pair of or really that trio of wide receivers
in Jordan Tyson, Carnealtate, Makay Levitan. Any of those guys
I think would be able to come in and contribute
for your team immediately and therefore would make them as
quote unquote shore fire, you know, short things as you
can get in anfield draft.
Speaker 4: Russell Jackson our gush right now, luisanosports dot New locked
on Saints Ross. Let's shift back to players that are
currently on the roster but we don't know a ton
about their future. What are the chances of the Saints
bringing back Cam Jordan and.
Speaker 3: To Mario Davis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I personally think that would be a wise move
for New Orleans. It helps out in a couple of
different ways, right, Those are guys that are on avoiding contracts,
which means there's some acceleration of funds in future years
that ends up impacting their salary cap. If you extend them,
you could potentially knock a little bit of that down.
I'm not talking about massive cap savings here. But you're
also bringing back talent is a thing. I mean, look,
Cam Jordan just had ten sacks last season. To Mario
Davis just had a career high in tackles last season.
So you're not bringing back guys just for the sake
of being sentimental. You're not just bringing back guys for
the sake of aiding yourself a little bit. When it
comes to the salary cap. You're bringing back guys that
are produced for you. The tricky part is, I don't
know how many times a team has to go into
negotiations with a player that's both thirty seven and just
had a ten sax season. How many teams have to
go into negotiations with a player that's both your thirty
seven and just had a career high in tackles. That's
really unique. That's a unique negotiation to have to embark upon.
Speaker 9: It.
Speaker 2: So I think for both those guys like they should
want the money that makes sense to them, and it's
going to be all about whether or not the team
and the player can figure out a way to make
sure that the contracts make sense on both sides. Can
the things help themselves, Can the players get what it
is that they need to feel valued, and then can
you bring that talent back? And look, Camra Jordans just
had ten stacks on his second fewest defensive snaps in
his career this past season, and so it's not like
you have to bring this guy back to play one
hundred percent of your snaps. If he's playing about fifty
percent of his fifty percent of your defensive snaps, it's
clear that something works when it comes to him and
defensive coordinator Brandon Staley system.
Speaker 4: Ross one more for you before I get you out
of here. You think Todd Graves is going to buy
the Saints?
Speaker 2: No, I don't.
Speaker 7: I Well, let me say this way.
Speaker 2: I don't think that that's going to be the case
anytime soon. Gail Benson said in an interview back in
November very clearly that the Saints nor the Pelicans are
for sale. That she's not intending to sell any of those.
Now what the future holds and what that means for
the potential of a guy like Todd Gravees to potentially,
you know, invest in and be able to do that
that we don't know, that we can't we can't project.
But as of right now, no, I wouldn't expect that
to be a tomorrow or even within the next few
years kind of a situation, because it sounds like Gail
Benson has has consistently made her intent clear, her intention clear,
that she's not selling the teams.
Speaker 4: Ross Jackson, you can catch all of his stuff at
Louisianasports dot ned locked on Saints and follow him on Twitter.
Ross Jackson, Nola, Ross, thanks so much for hopping on
with me this morning.
Speaker 2: Of course, thank you all very much.
Speaker 8: Talk to you soon.
Speaker 4: But yeah, absolutely, that is our guy, Ross Jackson. We'll
step aside on the other side. Look at two quarterbacks
A lot of people think can take the next step
in college football, and I just absolutely disagree with that.
Speaker 3: So we'll talk about that next yere on OTV off
the bench.
Speaker 10: All right, So you heard Flynn the other day, I mean,
he loves do Sekis. You know that we hear on
the OTV team love Dose Sekis. It is the perfect
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Speaker 11: It's not just beer.
Speaker 10: It is the beer of champions, or at least the
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because Dose Sekis will make you a champion. So the
next time you're watching the game, grab a do Sekis
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Speaker 11: Is it going?
Speaker 8: Is it going?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 12: Yeah, Looking.
Speaker 1: From the locker room to the airwaves, gets off the
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Speaker 3: Senior jet switch.
Speaker 2: It of.
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Speaker 4: Welcome back in Friday edition of OTV just about half
an hour to go with you here on the work week.
Speaker 3: As we are working towards the weekend.
Speaker 4: CBA Sports put out an article yesterday the top ten
players in college football.
Speaker 3: Did they expect we'll have.
Speaker 4: A bounce back year in twenty twenty six? A lot
of big time names on there. Ryan Williams, the wide
receiver out of Alabama. Yep, that makes a lot of sense.
I'm good without him, and he burst onto the scene
as a freshman. Do you know he's only seventeen years
old as a freshman. I'm totally kidding. They said that
like ten times every broadcast last year. Jeremy Bernard really
kind of became the top target for ty Simpson down
the stretch. Ryan Williams struggled with some drops, but he's talented.
I mean, we know what Ryan Williams can doom. New
quarterback coming in him and Tysimpson just never really could
find that consistent connection.
Speaker 3: I'm good with that. That totally makes sense to me.
Speaker 4: Like McKay hughes running back at Houston, he's on this
list again, makes a lot of sense. Fifteen hundred yards
rushing a two lane two years ago. It was a
big time transfer for Oregon. Last year he kind of
fell out of favor in their running back rotation, didn't
do a whole lot for it. He's had a change
of scenery in Houston under Willie Fritz. So there's that
two lane green wave connection there.
Speaker 3: I get it.
Speaker 4: I think McKay Hughes is going to thrive you to Houston.
Nick Anderson, former LSU wide receiver, transferred over to Kentucky.
He'll be one of their top targets over there. He
was in a crowded wide receiver room at LSU a
year ago and was still recovering from that injury head
at Oklahoma and had a couple nagging ones here as well. Again,
great choice. There's a few names on this list that
are head scratchers.
Speaker 3: To be nice.
Speaker 4: The first name on this list, DJ Lagway. What is
DJ Lagway bouncing back from. In order to have a
bounce back season, you gotta be good. Let's look at
what DJ Lagway did in two years at Florida as
a freshman in twenty twenty four, played in twelve games,
fifty nine percent completion, nineteen hundred yards, twelve touchdowns, nine interceptions,
virtually nothing on the ground one hundred yards rushing, no touchdowns.
And I heard all off season long, oh, get ready.
DJ Lagway is going to take that next step. And
my old my question was.
Speaker 3: In what area?
Speaker 4: I mean, where is what did you see from DJ
Lagway as a freshman that can show you that he
can play good football? And so many people were just
so confident. No, Dj Lagway, He's so talented. Is arm talent?
Everybody at this level has arm talent. I hate that, Saint.
I think arm talent is stupid. Look what the arm
talent got him in year two in Gainesville. Twenty two
hundred yards receiving, I mean passing, sixteen touchdowns, fourteen interceptions,
sixty three percent completion. As bad as he was last
year for Florida, he was actually better completion percentage wise
than he was as a freshman. Braxton, you watched LSU
a lot this year. You remember the LSU Florida game.
How many interceptions the Dj Lagway throw against LSU.
Speaker 11: Was five, wasn't it?
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter if your response is a crap tone,
then you would be correct. It Probably it was five,
and it probably could have been even more than that.
So many people just keep saying, well, this guy's so talented,
he's he's too talented.
Speaker 3: He has to be good.
Speaker 4: Can anybody out there tell me what DJ Lagway can
do that thirty other quarterbacks in college football camp.
Speaker 3: DJ Lagway, let's call it.
Speaker 4: Like it is, is getting the hype that he is
getting because he was a five star coming out of
high school. If DJ Lagway would have been a walk
on at Florida and performed like he did for two years.
He wouldn't have been a hot commodity in the transfer
a perto. Nobody would have given it a second thought.
So many times we look at hype, you turn hype
into potential potential that may or may not even be there,
and then you're just determined, Hey, this guy, he's going
to be the next great thing. Like I thought arch
Manning was great the second half of last year, but
so many people came into this season and we talked
about it on OUTB and we all predicted it. He's
going to struggle on the road against Ohio State because
it's his first start being the guy on the road
in a hostile environment like the Horseshoe, and if he
doesn't perform well, people are gonna crucify the kid for it.
Speaker 3: And what happened.
Speaker 4: He got trolled basically the entire season. The fact of
the matter is, maybe arch Manning actually is a good quarterback.
Maybe he was really over hyped going into the season
because of his name and he needed to get his
feet wet a little bit. Playing the quarterback positions hard.
It's kind of the same thing here with DJ Lagway,
except the flashes haven't been there.
Speaker 3: He's a former five star that so.
Speaker 4: Many people will not admit that, you know, whether it's
recruiting experts, whoever got it wrong in high school and
they're like, well, he was a five star, he's got
to be good, So.
Speaker 3: Stars don't matter.
Speaker 4: A guy that normally sits right here in this spot
every morning, who was a two star recrup coming out
of high school and he's one of the best running
backs in LSU history. Nick Saban Les Miles cared what
star ranking Jacob Ester was coming out of high school. No,
it doesn't matter. It matters what you do once you
get there with your opportunity. Now, the thing about DJ Lagway,
the only reason I could see him being on this
list he transferred to Baylor. He's in a new system,
he's under offensive coordinator Jake spabatall look, Baylor ranked number
four nationally in passing offense. So maybe you're thinking, hey,
there's a change of scenery. DJ Lagway's in a new conference,
a new coaching staff, a fresh start under an offense
that had a lot of success.
Speaker 3: A year ago.
Speaker 7: Cool.
Speaker 4: I'm good with that. I can get behind that for
a little bit. I'm a little tired of the DJ
Lagway hype train. But I can get behind that. But
the next name on this list is Leonoris Sellers.
Speaker 3: Leonora Sellers.
Speaker 4: Lenora Sellers, as far as I know, is still at
South Carolina.
Speaker 3: What did Leonori?
Speaker 4: How did Lenora Sellers' situation get better than it did
a year ago. Yes, they did a good job in
the transfer portal. On the offensive line, they brought in
j Carry's Peak, they brought in Emmanuel Poku. Both of
those guys are going to be starters for South Carolina.
I get that they had a bad offensive line last
year and they improve that, but is that enough to
help Lenora Sellers?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 3: I mean he gets a Nick Harbor back. Great.
Speaker 4: I waited three years for Nick Harbor to do anything
in college and he had six hundred and fifty receiving
yards last year. That's your leading returning receiver. And in
the article on CBS Sports they mentioned, oh well, they
added four receivers. Jayden Gibson, Nitro toggle DJ Black, Jaden
Gibson he was injured. He's been injured for the past
two years. Last time we saw Jaden Gibson on a
football field was twenty twenty three for Oklahoma, three hundred
and seventy five yards receiving five touchdowns. Nitro Toggle coming
from Purdue. Thirty four catches for five hundred yards last year,
CJLA or DJ Black two hundred and seventy three yards
last year, two touchdowns. You added guys, But are any
of these guys gonna make Lenora's Sellers be able to
throw the ball?
Speaker 3: They go through his progressions.
Speaker 4: No, We were talking about it during break and you
know a lot of people will say, Okay, well he
had a good year two years ago, did he Yeah,
he had a sixty five percent completion percentage, which is good.
But twenty five hundred yards, eighteen touchdowns, seven picks, it's fine.
And he regressed last year just sixty twenty four hundred yards,
thirteen touchdowns, eight interceptions.
Speaker 3: I understand the DJ Lagway is.
Speaker 4: I mean, Leonora's Sellers is a good runner, but at
some point that it's gotta not matter. Again, the offensive
line was bad last year. You look year one to
year two for Lagway at South Carolina six seventy four
rushing and seven touchdowns. Year one, last year two hundred
and seventy yards on the ground, five touchdowns. He kind
of got worse in pretty much every category. And yes,
the situation had a lot to do with it. And again,
great job on South Carolina and the portal getting these
offensive linemen. But are these receivers that I mean put
up decent numbers? Are they enough to turn Lenora Sellers
completely around? No, Lenora Sellers can't throw the football. I
don't know how that drastically changes this year in Columbia
South Carolina.
Speaker 3: All right, look, we're gonna take a quick time out.
Speaker 4: We got two segments left coming up on the other side,
we're gonna switch back over to LSU baseball. Former Tiger
pitcher Doug Thompson joining us. Next, you're on off the bench.
Speaker 1: Off the bench.
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Speaker 3: All right, welcome back in.
Speaker 4: I remember three here on a Friday edition of Off
the Bench, Taylor Sharp sitting in for Jacob Hestor and
Matt Flann. We got about twenty minutes or so left
here in this work where you want to go out
to the phone lines.
Speaker 8: Right now?
Speaker 4: Bring in LSU National champion pitcher Doug Thompson. Doug, how
are you this morning?
Speaker 8: Doing good? How you guys doing?
Speaker 3: We're doing good?
Speaker 8: Man?
Speaker 4: Look five games into this thing, the former picture, I mean,
you had a lot of success at LSU. Just kind
of overall thoughts, pitching staff, starting rotation. I mean, what
have you seen from this team five games in?
Speaker 7: Well, First of all, these guys are way better than
I ever thought of, being lots of depth, There's lots
of arms.
Speaker 8: Coming out of the ten.
Speaker 7: Not everybody had their best outing the first outing, but
that's usually the case anyway, right, So lots of new faces.
Of course, the Saturday pitcher, Cooper was off the charts,
I mean might have thrown too many strikes. I mean
he threw his change up twenty eight times twenty five
times for strikes. So lots of town, lots.
Speaker 8: Of big arms. And then in terms of.
Speaker 7: Offense, you know, obviously a huge spot that you had
to fill was the loss of Jared Jones and bringing
in the notorious Zac Over at first basically a big papa.
What a great guy to fill those shoes.
Speaker 8: I mean, he takes the big hack. He's going to
hit the ball hard.
Speaker 7: I've seen him hit it literally throughout the course of
the preseason all over the field. But that's the big
takeaways is those new faces seem like they're really actually
going to be able to contribute, and uh, there's there's
there's a lot of talent in terms of the new guys.
Speaker 4: As far as the bullpen goes, it just seems like
everybody LSU is going to i mean, you know, buy
and large if you you know, iffy outings here and there,
but by and larger.
Speaker 3: This bullpen looks nails early on. What have you seen
from them.
Speaker 7: I've seen the same thing you've seen. I mean, there's
been a there's been a couple of little, you know, hiccups,
but again, like that's part of baseball, Like every time
you go out, you can't have a good outing. But
for the most part, most of the guys that came
out of the bullpen did their job. And I guess
the one that has to stick out is Gavin Gidgry,
not only because you know he's returning from an injury
and that's not easy. I literally missed an entire year,
but that guy was number eight and that that means
something to that team.
Speaker 8: That's kind of the team captain passed down from year
to year.
Speaker 7: That started literally a decade ago, if not more, and
it's special and and to have that type of kid
back on the field with your team is a huge
boost to the team. And then the way he's pitched geez.
I mean, like Gavin Gidry is looking like he should be,
you know, maybe one of those weekend guys if once
he gets up up to where he can get to
seventy eighty pitches, But so far he's been outstanding out
of the bullpen. Of course, again there's there's several others.
I mean, you can ask me about specific guys, but
there's there's so many that it would take me a while,
you know, to pick through each one of them, just
trying to you know, pick out the ones that have
kind of stood out to me.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you mentioned Gavin Gidry because you know it
like on this show, other shows we've said, you know,
people kind of forgetting about Guidry and Devin Sheering just
because they didn't pitch last year. And I mean, that's
another guy. It was exciting to see him. I mean,
electric stuff over the weekend from Devin Cheron, no question.
Speaker 7: And you know, as a former player athlete, you know
that's that's been injured and had some good buddies be injured.
It's hard not to pull for the guy that's been
out for so long and recovering from that injury, because
you know that as an athlete who's trying to progress
and continue playing, whether.
Speaker 8: You're twelve years old or you're.
Speaker 7: You know, a freshman in high school or not or
at LSU, that that's adversity and that'll test the will,
your will to compete and to get back out on
the field and to see those kids come back. It's
just so awesome and it Sharon, I mean, that guy's
a ninety nine miles an hour.
Speaker 8: Like he's just not back.
Speaker 7: He's like an explosive arm that could be huge, Well
will be huge, would.
Speaker 8: You would think for LSU this season?
Speaker 7: So yes, I would imagine, you know, Coach Johnson, Coach
Esky and and all the others must be tickled, tickled by.
Speaker 8: The way those guys man have showed up so far.
Speaker 3: Do y'all concerned, know you with Zach Callan?
Speaker 8: Not at all?
Speaker 7: I mean the guy look the inevitable too. Coach Bertman
used to remind just as starters in the bullpen before games, say,
look the first inning. Don't forget it's the toughest, the
first and the fifth because that's where the team score
the most runs.
Speaker 8: The pictures, you know, running out of gas.
Speaker 7: Traditionally in the fifth inning of the first inning, there's
several factors against the starting pitcher. Number one, usually you
don't have your stuff.
Speaker 8: Like, not all of it.
Speaker 7: Like it'd be great to come out of the bullpen
with your you know, feel for all three or four pitches.
But the truth is you usually come out of the
bullpen with one or two, one or two of those
pitches that you're feeling good about, and as the game progresses,
you find those others.
Speaker 8: That's number one.
Speaker 7: Number two, you're facing the best hitters in the lineup.
Speaker 8: Number three.
Speaker 7: They're all as focused, as well rested, and as excited.
Speaker 8: As they're going to be.
Speaker 7: The intensity is there in the first inning.
Speaker 8: And then last is the umpire right like he doesn't know.
Speaker 7: The strike zone yet for you, he doesn't know where
you are, and there's this kind of feel out situation
that goes on. So I think that's kind of what
Zach ran into. I have the track man strike zone
next to me in the in the booth, and Zach
was he didn't throw his change up over much, but
I'm telling you he was not missing by much. I
mean they were small misses, and sometimes, because of the
nature of the game and the beauty of the sport,
just a couple misses in an inning can lead to
a bad inning. So Zach count as a veteran like
I saw Zach Collen pitches.
Speaker 8: Wafford at the UNC a couple of.
Speaker 7: Years ago, and you know last year in Omaha, you know,
a big start, Zach Collen does listen. In college sports,
what matters the most, almost even more than physical talent,
is innings under the belt, his experience, right, like, how
old are you? How many pitches have you seen? How
many pitches have you thrown in the big moment, So
don't write off that count.
Speaker 8: That guy's got a.
Speaker 7: Lot of experience and he'll be just fine. He's a
strike thrower that just didn't throw that many strikes. But
it wasn't like he was throwing the ball up against
the backstop, So no concern for me.
Speaker 4: Dog switching from the pitching staff to the position players.
I mean, obviously you mentioned Zach Yorke, you know, the
big body god as we like to call him, said
Dard Arms, looking really good to start the season. Jake Brown, though,
is tearing the cover off the ball right now.
Speaker 3: I mean he is. He is seeing it so well.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously, you know you're not going to expect
this pace throughout the entire season.
Speaker 3: But I mean, what is the ceiling for Jake Brown
this year?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 7: The ceiling?
Speaker 8: Wow?
Speaker 7: I mean I thought Jake Brown was the best player
on our team last year. I mean, he's big, he's fast,
he's strong, he's got a he's got a great arm
re member. He's like the you know, top one of
the top pitchers in the country coming into l s U.
And uh, and he can hit. And so no surprise
again for Jake and and now like the role he's
or you know, was on there right in the middle
of the end of Game three and in the beginning
of game for four straight homers and four straight at
bat I mean that's like Bay brute type stuff, right,
so uh show hey, you know, and that happens every
now and again. But you know, I could easily see
Jake Brown walking away with more than twenty home runs
and over eighty RBI.
Speaker 8: After this season. Like I could easily see that because
he's a stud.
Speaker 7: He's going to be one of the better hitters in
that LSU lineup, and he'll be one of the better.
Speaker 4: Hitters in the league, transitioning into this weekend, getting a
preview of you know, today's game. In the weekend as
a whole, LSU will be out in Jacksonville for the
Jacks Classic one PM first pitch against Indiana.
Speaker 3: They released the pitching lineup.
Speaker 4: It kind of started to leak out a little bit
as far as the starting rotation yesterday evening. It looks
like it's gonna be Case and Evans again on Friday,
Cooper more on Saturday. Now Sunday was TBA. I mean,
do you expect it to be William Schmidt again? If
it's not William Schmidt, who's some options out there for
that Sunday roll.
Speaker 7: Cooper Williams could be an option, I guess. I mean,
I don't know where Gavin Gidry is in terms of
his pitch count.
Speaker 8: But he's pitched so well. I mean, like, wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 7: I'm trying to think of some other guys.
Speaker 8: Of course, it's so early in the season.
Speaker 7: You're kind of putting me on the spot a little bit.
Speaker 8: But I would say my.
Speaker 7: First guest would be Cooper Williams, right, And it would
have to do with the lineup, Like if that Sunday
opponent is like heavy lefty, that I could see it
being Cooper Williams. I don't know the reason for the TVA.
I don't have that information to share.
Speaker 8: What the lineup is.
Speaker 7: I guess maybe I could call and get some more
information later this day, but they probably who is the
Sunday opponent?
Speaker 8: Okay, So they're gonna watch UCF can swing it right.
Speaker 7: They scored surrounds if I if I recall you so,
I would imagine that Jamie Tutco and Nate and the
entire staff is going to be watching UCF like a hawk,
and they're in the games on Friday and Saturday. And
I would imagine the the information they gather, we'll have
a lot to do with who that is that they
announces that as that force that third starter. But it
wouldn't surprise me if it was if it was Cooper Williams.
Speaker 4: As far as in the field goes Chris Stanfield, he's
been dealing with a nagging hand injury. Jay the other
day actually said he's getting close to returning. No word
yet on if it's this weekend or not, Like I say,
available the whole series if not. Tanner Reeves has kind
of been the go to guy out there in left field.
You know, he's he's been hit or missing the field,
but he's been such a good bat. Like is that
Jay's thinking, like, sure, I'm gonna sacrifice a little defense
without Stanfield being out there. But it's kind of hard
to take Reeves out of the lineup the way he's
been hitting right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do
with the offense. But he's got multiple options, yeah, right,
And he's already showed that with Simpson and some others.
But I think Tanner Reeves he probably has a lot
to do with offense.
Speaker 8: He's an athletic kid. He can move.
Speaker 7: The play that he made, you know, on the line
drive that was awarded an error. You know, mister Brian
Lazar has been up there forever.
Speaker 8: He's one of the best in.
Speaker 7: The world at keeping scoring baseball. And every now and
again when those those ones that are that are tough decisions, uh,
we'll we'll meet in the hall and talk about him.
And and for me, that was a tough one because
if you recall the play I'm talking about, it was
a line drive kind of in the gaps thinking and
and Reeves was running hard to his left and toward
the infield, uh to catch it, and and it and
it kind of hit the heel of his glove, which
I mean, I've seen that put it this way. I've
seen that be given a hit many times before. Right,
it was a it was a difficult play, but he's
an athletic kid.
Speaker 8: He can swing the bat.
Speaker 7: Uh, he's older again, lots of reps, lots of inning
under his belt, lots of abs.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 7: So I would imagine, uh, you know, Coach j probably
given those guys.
Speaker 8: Uh the the early looks.
Speaker 7: But honestly, I think early on it looks like he's
got a lot of options. And I tell you another
thing he has as an unusual number of left handed
bats on this year's offensive roster and even more usual
number of left handed hitters that throw right handed. So
that opens up a lot of different, you know, options
for Jay Johnson. And I know that he really grinds
on that lineup every day and it has a lot
to do with what the other what they expect from
the opponent.
Speaker 4: LSU National Champion pitcher Doug Thompson. You can also hear
him on the baseball broadcast LSU Sports Radio Network.
Speaker 3: Doug, thanks so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 8: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 7: Taylor.
Speaker 3: Have a good weekend, yep, absolutely you as well.
Speaker 8: Again.
Speaker 4: The Tigers will play Indiana today at one pm before
taking on Notre Dame tomorrow. And then, as we were
talking to UCF, that Sunday opponent for the LSU Tigers.
All right, guys, we're gonna close this thing out. We
got one more segment left.
Speaker 3: We're doing. Ask the Bench coming up here on O TV.
Speaker 1: Off the Bench, all.
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Speaker 9: Geitgordon dot com, Tiger's turn Talkers.
Speaker 1: This is off the bench.
Speaker 11: All right.
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Speaker 4: Away Welcome back in final segment here on a Friday
edition of Off the Bench. Guys, this has been a
heck of a week, but we had a lot of
fun today. Today has been a pretty fun show. You
could tell the Friday vibes. We're to hear all of
us pretty much ready to get out of here. If
you asked the bench questions and here the first one
was asked the bench, did they get a chicken mini yesterday?
Lunda was nice enough to actually save a few brought
them out. I did have a couple had a long
day yesterday and they hit. They hit yeah, I mean
then there was there was a box up there and
I grabbed it for you. They were pretty goods from
Daniel Basham asked the bench, how was Braxton's first week?
Speaker 3: Braxton I gotta tell you, man.
Speaker 4: Full disclosure, I didn't know how this week was gonna
go because you've never done well, you've never done O
TB before, And like they Kate told me, He's like,
oh yeah, we got Braxtit coming in.
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, to the fair. O TB might
be the easiest show for sure.
Speaker 4: For sure, it's it's more laid back. But dude, you've
crushed it. You've knocked that out of the park. I mean,
I know you were. You were killing yourself about the
lower third thing, and that was that was on me.
You're good like you Actually you actually killed it. I
mean you were, you were awesome this week.
Speaker 3: Man, I was gonna more than he did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, I screwed up two or three times today
and we do this show every day. We do this
show every day. I think you're in the lead, if
for the first for me for the least number.
Speaker 3: Of that was funny.
Speaker 4: Actually really, I actually really enjoyed that we should do it.
We should do it Monday, just to screw with them.
Speaker 6: Six minutes of commercials for your Friday morning.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean you were you were alsome. Yeah, Braxton,
thanks for thanks for hanging out with us.
Speaker 3: Uh you your paternity leave, dude?
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, We'll have a well paternity leave coming up
in July. So, uh, dude, you you nailed it. It's
always nice to have somebody come in and grind with
you in the morning. You were uh, you were great
this entire week.
Speaker 9: I just.
Speaker 6: You can't hear it.
Speaker 3: I can't know, Braxton, you dea is his head phone?
Is it the weirdest set of it always cuts in
and out.
Speaker 4: You know, it's you know it's weird. Mine, don't do
that one else over there?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I don't have the adaptor.
Speaker 3: Dude, there's one like right behind you at the one
of my truck.
Speaker 4: You guys, being an adult, it's so weird when like
your friends text you like a buddy.
Speaker 3: Mine text me earlier and goes you busy tonight.
Speaker 4: I'm like, hell, yeah, you want to get beers with
the boys, Let's do it. So I said, uh, I said, no,
what's up? If you have some availability, I could use
some help picking up a freezer tonight.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, okay, here we go, just adulting.
Speaker 4: He did say, though, and then help drinking some beer
out of my garage whenever we're done. So you know,
there's a little bit of fun involved. But he's the
one that actually just had a kid in December, so
happy to help. I'm sure him and his wife actually
going through a lot. Uh guys, fun week, Jacob Matt
will be.
Speaker 3: Back on Monday.
Speaker 4: Matt Flynn probably freezing in his quote unquote football weather
that he sent us last night wearing the ski goggles
and ski cap. And then Jake took the week off
to be with the kiddos. Can't blame either one of
them for it. Shout out to LSU gymnastics coach at
Jay Clark. Shout out to a Landro for setting that
interview up forward thinking there on your part. I'll Ross
Jackson Louisianasports dot Net. He hopped on with us at
nine am. There's a lot about to happen with the
New Orleans Saints. It's kind of like the calm before
the storm. He got free agency coming up. You got
to decide what to do with some key veterans and
then of course the draft will be here before we
know it. And then former LSU national champion Pittrick Doug
Thompson was just one with us last segment. You can
catch him on the YELOSU Sports radio network as well.
Big time series coming up for LSU. They'll play Indiana
today at one pm. They'll play Notre Dame on Saturday,
UCF on Sunday. Should be a really good challenge, step
up in competition in a big way for the Lshot Tigers.
I expect them to knock it out. Alandra Braxton, y'all
were both awesome this week. The mix up were actually
kind of fun today. So go Tigers. We'll see you
guys same time on Monday.
Speaker 3: Here on off the bench, Off the bench, all right.
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