Speaker 1: Let's all start to it. You to present off the bench.
This is what we have been waiting for. Off the bench.
Speaker 2: I got to come off the fitch.
Speaker 1: Now here's Jacob Hester, yod.
Speaker 2: And welcome in to OTB one O four five ESPN,
Baton Rouge ninety four to seven ESPN and Alexandria and
eleven thirty am the Tiger up into three to one,
Great Jacob Hester.
Speaker 3: That felt weird, Jay Kester.
Speaker 2: Alandra Taty all here with you here on this Monday morning,
a Landra new oping that you.
Speaker 4: So I didn't make this one, nor did I hear
it until like fifteen minutes before the show started.
Speaker 2: So I was like, I don't love it making abrupt.
That's just for like this little.
Speaker 1: Bit right now. Two week.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we got something.
Speaker 2: Else coming, twilight Zone kind of situation. I think we've
got going on where I'll be here for a week
and then I'll be in spring meetings and Tatay is
going to be taken over before we get our new
co host, Matt f in In here on June the second.
But that was not the work of Alandra.
Speaker 3: No. I promise you that it's going to be clear.
Speaker 2: I did too. I want to make that clear right
off the top. Here we'll have something, you know, more
extensive for you. That felt a little blunt.
Speaker 6: I didn't like it.
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't great. It wasn't great. It's okay, it's okay.
It is okay.
Speaker 3: Drum type situation.
Speaker 2: It gets us on the show, and we've got a
ton to get you. And look, we got a ton
of guests, as you know when I am solo dolo,
that's what it's going to be. We got Ross Jackson,
Bill Bender, Roddy Jones, Devin Snow, Eric Sorenson. I mean,
we have got a ton of great guests lined up
for you. Let's go around, get a little vibe check
of the room. Alandra Tate, how was the week in Alandra?
I saw you with a sword and a champagne bottle. Explain.
Speaker 4: Okay, so my dream came to you and I savored
a champagne. I actually saw tea Bob yesterday we had
brunch and oh fancy, Yeah, it was a little brunch.
But Rivers has like a savoring sword for this specific
kind of thing. Why wouldn't you have like on a
shelf displayed. It's not in a glass case, but it
is like on a like I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, wait, it's like displayed.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's displayed like on a shelf.
Speaker 6: And she's open and she's like a logic could get
my dagger.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So she was like, I'm gonna teach you how to
do it. So then I did it and it was
super fun. Okay, yeah, so now I.
Speaker 2: Feel like that's still drink the alcohol.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we still drink champagne.
Speaker 3: That was a fancy way to open.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just a cool.
Speaker 2: Way to do it, all right, How.
Speaker 5: Was he was good? Yeah?
Speaker 4: All the kids were there, so I was like, thank
y'all so much for the birth control.
Speaker 5: Like those literally.
Speaker 3: Did not I did not think that's what you're about
to say.
Speaker 2: Like you said thank you, and you know we've been
so you know, celebrating Tea Bob as we should. I
did not think that was about to happen.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: There's five children and they kept like and they were
my house alone, I know. Yeah, and they're so cute
and I love them, but they kept like doing plays
for us.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and you're like, the first three were cute,
you got you. It's fine, it's fine, love them though. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Taita what'd you do this weekend?
Speaker 2: How was it? Well?
Speaker 6: Made? T bop proud? Guys had steak feet this last night?
You did picture?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, you know, probably maybe we had to
get away from the chicken.
Speaker 6: Too many margaritas though, guys.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, I'm never in my life thought Tata to
have too much of.
Speaker 6: Any sort of So we're at the Mexican restaurant right
like you're yours.
Speaker 7: It's like, oh, nine ninety nine for a small, like
fourteen ninety nine for a medium, and a large is
like twenty three dollars. And I was like, I'm getting
a large. Victoria's like all right, well, ill get a medium.
And then I looked and the picture the margerita pictures
twenty seven. Like what hell, that's like twelve dollars cheaper,
Let's just get that.
Speaker 6: So we got the picture and it held like six
or seven margaritas. We finished it. And when I mean
me and Victoria finished it, we finished I finished it.
She had like one and a half.
Speaker 2: I do not mean to lp you because I can't
have some country words as well, like they'll slip certainly
here for the next couple of days. But when you
said picture, I thought you meant a picture, but you
were just saying a picture. Yeah, yeah, there's a picture,
but not an actual picture of Mark.
Speaker 6: A picture of.
Speaker 2: That's what got it. Okay, I got it now.
Speaker 6: Watermelon Margarita's good.
Speaker 2: Watermelon.
Speaker 7: I do love a water I wanted strawberry. But see,
y'all know I like them frozen. Victoria doesn't. Yeah, but
she goes if we get them frozen, we gotta go watermelon.
I was like, all right, that's a fair that's a
fair compromise. But I mean in the picture, frozen works better.
Speaker 6: Anyways.
Speaker 2: Can you be from LP and get a frozen watermelon margarita?
Speaker 7: I mean it's some Mexican restaurant they now they do
have like a h they have a Corona rita and
a dos a rita. They literally just don't do the
corona you get and it's great. I've just had it
like ten times, like I.
Speaker 6: Never have margarita. So fair enough, good, it's a good time.
Speaker 2: I have some people inside the chat, and look, I
am going to try to be in the chat as
much as I can over the next week, even though
we'll be up here solo. So if we don't get
to your questions, we do apologize, but one of the
first things that I did see was no hoodie and
asked about the AC. Well, that's the only reason I'm
over on this side. Now. If you're like an og
and you watched Hanging with Hester, like way back five
years ago, this is the side that I sat on.
Hadn't sat over here in a very very long time,
And I can already tell the difference of the AC
when you sit over there, and I know it's like
right there across the table. Trust me when I say
that is the frozen tundra of guaranteed media. And if
you've ever sat on that side, you know exactly what
I'm talking about. So yeah, maybe, just maybe I won't
have to wear a hoodie every single day, because when
you wear a hoodie into the studio here in June, July,
and August, as I do and I go out, it's
instant backsweat as soon as I walk out of here.
So hopefully that's one perk of my Man Team Pop
not being here, is that I can steal his seat
and sit over here on this side. All right, as
we get into it, you probably guess that all of
the first couple of segments here will be about LSU baseball.
Speaker 3: They win two of three from South Carolina.
Speaker 2: We all know because we reacted to it somewhat as
much as we were going to. On Friday, they drop
that game, but they get Game two and game three.
On game two they win eight to one, Game three,
seven to three, and sure we could go back. We
can kind of break those games down. Kate Anderson was
Kate Anderson, Anthony Jins and not as sharp as he
has been, but still really good. I think he spoiled
us because it was like, wait a minute, he gave
up an early run, Like what's going on here? That's
how dominant your first two starters have been. But they
do exactly what we think they had to do as
far as LSU winning at least two of three there
in Columbia South Carolina.
Speaker 3: So we'll go around the have they done enough?
Speaker 2: Has LSU baseball done enough to be a national top
a ceed Delandro?
Speaker 4: I think they have, And I think we talked about
it last week going into the weekend, like if they
win two of three at South Carolina, then they're basically
a lock, and I think they still are.
Speaker 5: They did that they win two or.
Speaker 7: Three, so hey, Tay yeah, I think they could go
I think they could go one and done in the
tournament and still be in.
Speaker 6: Yeah. And I don't think they need to win another game.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so the SEC and it's like this, I guess
in other conferences, but certainly in the SEC baseball tournament,
it's a little bit like the basketball tournament sometimes where
you want to win. I mean, you're out there, but
you're cautious in that approach.
Speaker 7: If you already have a spot locked up, it's kind
of pointless. Yes, And that's it's one of those where
it's like, if you need to win the tournament to
get in, win it, but if not, now.
Speaker 2: We'll throw that on the flip side. And it's the
thing that I really love most about Jay Johnson. He's
gonna go for victory. Like midweek game, he throws Paul
in a regional against Tulane when a lot of people
thought he'd throws somebody off and Paul would go later
on in the regional. So when he typically does something,
it is to go win a baseball game. Now, you've
got to be smart in this approach as well. But
it does feel like they have a top eight seed
locked up and d one baseball dot com. They released
their field up sixty four and they did this. I
think it was late last night. So this as up
to date as you're going to get. And here are
your top eight national seeds again according to D one
baseball dot Com. You've got Texas at one, Arkansas two,
Vanderbilt at three, North Carolina at four, Georgia at five,
Auburn at six, LSU at number seven, and Oregon at
number eight. So LSU again according to D one Baseball,
still a top eight national seed, but they are right
there on the fringe, right they're at number seven.
Speaker 3: It has them, which this would be a great storyline.
Speaker 2: It has LSU Arizona obviously, where Jay Johnson came from
Miami and then Miami of Ohio, so to Miamis and
Arizona right now projected to be in the Baton Rouge Regional.
But Tatay, you said you were watching something with Kendall
Rogers last night that said that's where he thinks the
committee will place them, but maybe LSU gets even higher.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he was.
Speaker 7: It was a clip of like a live stream that
he had done over the weekend. You know, it was
only about a thirty second clib but yeah, essentially, Kendall said,
I think this is what the committee's going to do.
He's like, however, I could easily see them getting into
the top four. He goes, we just placed them here
now based on what I've heard. He's like, but they
could easily be higher. So I mean, yeah, you're basicallying, oh,
they're on the fringe, but maybe.
Speaker 2: Not so the teams that you know they projected being
here as well, Like, we don't know what that's going
to look like. You don't know if Miami, who seems
like a pretty tough three seed, but there's gonna be
tough three seeds across the country because there's some teams
in major conferences, certainly ones that have been there four
that are projected to be three seeds right now.
Speaker 3: Like this is just across the country all right.
Speaker 2: In the Austin Regional USC Southern cal is expected to
maybe be a three seed. In Atlanta, it's Arizona State.
In Fort Worth, it's Oklahoma, you keep going on down
the list. In LA for the UCLA Regional, it's UVA Virginia.
We've seen them make big runs. Obviously. You've got in
the Auburn Regional, Troy who's been like a top twenty
five baseball team all season long. You go to Tallahassee,
Mississippi State right now projected to be a three seed.
That's a team that's as hot as anybody right now
in the SEC. So if you're Florida State, it's kind
of like LSU Softball, which we'll get to, it's like, thanks,
we appreciate the teams you put in our regional in
Baton Rouge, just Miami in Conway, South Carolina for Coastal Carolina,
the Kentucky Wildcats in Corvallis, Oklahoma State in Eugene, Notre Dame.
So this field is going to be incredibly strong, and
not just because they're named brands, but because they've made runs.
Like a lot of those teams that I'm talking about,
they were thought to be on the outside looking in,
but they made the run and now, like would either
one if y'all want to play Mississippi State at this
point as a three. Then you got West Virginia, who
won the Big Big twelve regular season as a two.
Speaker 7: There's a lot of tough regionals, like you just mentioned
the LSU softball regional. I mean, you had four conference
champions in one regional. I mean that's you. You don't
hear of that. And like LSU was the top sixteen seed,
you think they'd get a little bit favorable matchup in
the regional. No, I mean you talk about the one
projected for LSU, LSU, Arizona, Miami, I mean forget.
Speaker 6: About Miami, Ohio, who's had a good season.
Speaker 7: But like just those three teams names alone, Like that's
not a tough that's that's a tough regional.
Speaker 6: There's no cakewalking. You're projected to be a national seed.
Speaker 2: And typically LSU would get just like they didn't softball,
they would get whichever Louisiana school made it.
Speaker 3: But right now, like you don't see that.
Speaker 2: Houston Christian went and had a little bit of an
upset in the Southland Conference tournament, so they won that
and so they're in the Austin Regional right now. So
typically you'd have the Southeastern, the ull who's certainly on
down year, Northwestern State whoever kind of came out of
the Southland. But that's why you see Mayam Ohio, who
can hit bombs. I mean that is what they do
really really well. So that is what the latest projection
is again, LSU does what we all think they had
to do, win two of three in Columbia, South Carolina,
and throughout the show we'll break that down, and throughout
the week we'll continue to break it down. But it
does look like LSU has done enough to be able
to host a regional and then if they move on
a super regional here in Baton Rouge, which we all
certainly would look forward to. All right, we will step
away for the first time and when we come back,
we're going to have a laundra a breakdown the SEC
Baseball tournament and really just the SEC standings where everyone
sits what have they done over the last couple of weeks.
Because you have some teams that are thriving right now.
You have some teams that I know I did, and
I want to speak for Landra and Taylor I left
for dead.
Speaker 3: I thought they were done.
Speaker 2: They have done enough to not only get into the postseason,
but maybe get a two seed into the postseason, not
like last team in kind of scenarios. So we'll break
it all down when we come back. It is OTV
here on one, O four five, ESPN.
Speaker 1: Off the bench, all right, go to.
Speaker 2: Go Tommy's dot Com g E A U X Tommy's
dot com. That is Tommy's Windows, doors and siding where
you will clearly see the difference. We always talk about
the work that they have done here in a greater
Baton Rouge area, but one of the best things to do.
So you can see it for yourself. Go to the
website we gave you. Go to the gallery. It's in
the top right corner of the website and you can
see what they have done and you will see a
lot of different projects. You can go to the website
see testimonials to kind of describe how the process went,
how it was working with Tommy and the team, because
that is one of the best parts about it. The
quality work right and we know they win awards every
single year, so the quality of work is great, but
also the people that you get to work with. I've
had them come in my home. It is an incredibly
easy process. Go to the website today to see what
they can do for you. Again, that is go Tommy's
dot com. That phone number is two to five two
five zero eighty eight zero eight.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to off the Bench. How do you.
Speaker 2: Explain they ever following in a little bit of a
guy like me in the first place, turn around saying
that we back in OTV what.
Speaker 4: Way, So I totally forgot that they did that to
that rejoined But last time they did that, I asked
them to take it off. So I don't know why
it yeah, but it's right, okay in mind.
Speaker 2: Sorry, we'll get there by June the second, whenever Matthew
Clayton Flynn joins us, we'll have all that worked out
out it gosh, by the way, by the way, like
before we get to the baseball segment, like thank everyone
so much for like being fired up for the new
show the kind words that we got. Because replacing T
Bob is it's impossible t Bob and you've heard it
throughout the last couple of days.
Speaker 3: He truly is one of one.
Speaker 2: That's just I've never met anybody like T Bob because
I've never met Jack Black, which I assume that's about
as closest we possibly could get. But T Bob has
been that way since I've known him. I've known T
Bob now for almost twenty years, and that's how T
Bob's been. So when we were looking for someone to
replace him, like again, I said it on whatever day
that was Friday Thursday. I don't know.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of different people.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of different names, Like a lot of
people threw a lot of different names out there, and
thank god Alandra threw Matt out there, which we just
had no clue that that would work out. And Matt
was kind of looking for something like this, and because
like replacing T Bob was going to be very, very difficult,
and we didn't want the show to change drastically, like
did not want no disrespect, did not want a writer
in here, like a sports writer who only wanted to
talk sports and wanted to stay on schedule. It's not
what this is. It's not what this is like. This
is a morning drive show. We want you to have fun,
we want you to laugh, we want you to get
some sports news without question, and it's probably going to
be more sports than it was, but it is certainly
going to be sports ish. That is Flynn's vibe, that
is our vibe. We're gonna have a lot of fun.
We want you to not be angry that you have
to go to school or go to work. Try to
give you some last try to let you have some fun.
So I'm excited about it. We are very excited that
you're excited about it. Walking around town, walking around the
ballpark this weekend, nothing but man, we're fired up for
Flynn to start. We're gonna miss t Bob like crazy,
but that's the only person that could replace him that
makes any sense. And like we agree. Thank god Elandra
said his name out there. There's some concern about a
shot in the dark.
Speaker 3: It was that's what you got to do. There was
some concern.
Speaker 2: A lot of dads this weekend out at the ballpark
were like, hey, over under three days a week, that
Flynn's going to be there on time or be there.
I said, look, we're expecting three and a half and
if we get four, that is land yap. I think
that's fair.
Speaker 5: I think that is also three and a half.
Speaker 4: And I was going to message in the chat the
other day and be like, Okay, Flynn, I need you
to know that people are already doubting you. So you
need to like get your get your life together, and
just know that people already don't believe in you.
Speaker 6: Traffic in the city goes.
Speaker 2: That's what you have to do too. With those quarterbacks,
they they have a different mindset. Now, some take it
way overboard, like Russell Wilson, Like they take it way
way way overboard, right, Like we're not what do you mean, Yeah, well,
if you ever met it, we're not. Like Matt's not that.
But like you got to challenge the quarter Hey, people
said you suck.
Speaker 5: I really said you're not going to be So you
think I should say that.
Speaker 2: In the he knows it, he's got to voice it. Okay, Yeah,
you gotta challenge those guys to play quarterback at the
level that Matt did, which ten years in the NFL
College National champ the whole deal. You got to have
some ego, Like we're not going to stroke his ego,
that's not the way, but we're going to try to
damage it a.
Speaker 5: Little bit, just kind of like manipulate him.
Speaker 2: Exactly, which he can be. He was my roommate was
very very easy, very easily. Can you manipulate Matt Flynn?
Speaker 7: Flynn seems like the type that's like, guys, I'm not
doing it in no way, And in like two minutes.
Speaker 6: He's like, yeah, I mean can do that.
Speaker 2: As you saw by the last couple of texts, Yeah.
Speaker 5: That is how he is and that I've gotten so far.
I'm like, this is so Matt Flynn.
Speaker 6: We were throwing out show name ideas you said something.
Speaker 7: He's like, actually, Jake, like I'm actually good with like
these three things, or like we could just keep off
the bench good.
Speaker 6: I'm like, can you make a decision?
Speaker 2: I know that that was so that was probably the
hardest decision, was like the show name, Like we do
we change it? Because you know it was it was
Jordan and T Bob and then when Jordi left, it
was me and T Bob for five years, and you know,
the connective tissue was T Bob because he was here.
It's like, do we change that? But we threw a
bunch of names at that, which I think would have worked,
but it would have been like, you know, a growing process.
But I'm like, you know what, like I've been on
OTV for five years, Laundre and Tate, you'll have been
here for a long time now, and so we decided
to keep it. That's what it's going to be. And
so very very excited for June the second, also excited
for the SEC Baseball tournament. Let me give you kind
of some final stats, the rundown of how everyone finished
conference play, and then I'm going to turn it over
to a laundre it again, to go through the SEC
Baseball tournament where everyone's seeded, what the matchups are going
to be. Texas ends up winning the regular season twenty
two and eight. In conference play, it's Arkansas and second
at twenty and ten. You had two teams at nineteen
and eleven, including LSU and Vanderbilt, the Georgia Bulldogs eighteen
and twelve, the Auburn Tigers seventeen and thirteen. The Old
miss Rebels kind of quietly had a winning record in
SEC play sixteen and fourteen, same record for the Tennessee
Balls and the Alabama Crimson tied at fifteen and fifteen,
the Florida Gators and Mississippi State Bulldogs. And then you
get into your losing records. You got Oklahoma fourteen and sixteen,
Kentucky thirteen and seventeen, lost their last three, really struggling
down the stretch. You've got Texas A and M eleven
and nineteen. Yeah, I mean eleven and nineteen. You were
a number one team in the country, South Carolina at
six and twenty four, Missouri at three and twenty seven.
Speaker 3: So that is your final standings.
Speaker 2: Alandra what does the SEC baseball tournament look like as
far as seeds and matchups and all that.
Speaker 4: So Tigers earned the three seed. They had a tiebreaker
with Vanderbilt, but they end up winning it. So Vanderbilt
obviously the four seed. But they won't play until the
quarterfinals on Friday, and they're gonna win, or they'll play
whoever wins Game eight, and that's Auburn versus whoever is
the winner of Mississippi State versus Texas A and M.
So Mississippi State has been hot the past couple weeks
after firing Chris la Monas. They won their last three series.
So there could be like an Auburn rematch where if
you remember, during the regular season, we unfortunately got swept
by Auburn, so I look.
Speaker 5: Out for that.
Speaker 4: But on Tuesday, it all gets started tomorrow at okay,
ten thirty Eastern time, nine thirty, nine thirty Central time,
So nine thirty here, Okay, hang on, number nine. Alabama's
gonna face number sixteen Missouri. So I think we could
oh single elimination this year. I remember it's all sixteen
teams now, which.
Speaker 2: Me too, like let's go yeah and let's do drag
this thing out.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of people that kind of don't like it,
Like I think Jay still wanted double elimination, But I
like this, and I like having all sixteen teams there
just because it's more baseball. But nine Alabama's gonna face
sixteen Missouri, so I think you could basically count Missouri out. Yeah,
Oklahoma's gonna face Kentucky at twelve thirty, and then Florida
is the ten seed facing the fifteen seed South Carolina
at four thirty, and then Mississippi State, like I mentioned,
versus Texas A and M at eight pm. And that's
the one that you're gonna want to watch because that's
who's gonna play Auburn on Wednesday, and whoever wins that
game again is going to play the Tigers. But that's
your kind of your first look at tomorrow and the
SEC Tournament.
Speaker 5: But I can go through the rest of it if
you want.
Speaker 4: Why not, Okay, Wednesday, Game five, number eight, Tennessee versus
the winner of Bama versus Missouri, so probably gonna be
facing Bama. Georgia is going to play whoever wins Oklahoma
versus Kentucky, and then Ole miss will play whoever wins
over Florida in South Carolina and then again Auburn. We
already went through that Thursday, Texas, which okay, I saw
this thing, Jim Schlasnagel said on Twitter, and he said
that it's harder to win the SEC championship or a
SEC title during the regular season than winning a national championship.
And I can kind of respect getting out in front
of not winning the Natty before it happens, like, let
me just get this out the way, just in case,
so people are already gonna start saying stuff.
Speaker 5: But Texas will face the.
Speaker 4: Winner of game five, so the winner of Tennessee versus
whoever wins game one, and then Vandy versus the winner
of Game six, and then Arkansas versus Game seven on Friday,
and then on Saturday, that's when the semifinals are, so
hopefully LSU is going to be playing on Saturday at
four pm. Approximately four pm is a tournament, so things
can change, and then obviously the championship game on Sunday.
Speaker 2: The weather in Hoover, Alabama, always terrible, always off, just terrible.
Speaker 3: Love Hoover, loved the venue.
Speaker 2: Actually played high school football game uh against in the
stadium against against Siver. We did not Hoover's tradition. Are
down here, We're down here. We lost in the state finals.
That year was definitely a down year. We played like
burn South Carolina. We played Daylya, South California, that team
that they made the movie about. We played Hoover, we
played Long View. I think maybe you're Louvekett. I don't know.
One of those East Texas teams, Chad Jackson was their receiver.
Called a questionable touchdown in the corner of the end zone.
Speaker 3: Looked like he was out. Didn't matter though. We got
the ball back.
Speaker 2: We're driving, We're down by six, We're on the one
yard line already. I had I think like one hundred
and eighty yards rushing in the game on the one
yard line and our offensive coordinator calls a pass. Oh now,
an interception.
Speaker 7: I was about say, I was gonna, I was gonna
thirty little shade. I'm like, Jake, you score on the one.
Speaker 2: But you know how mad I was. I'm still I
think that was two thousand and three. I'm still mad
about that yard line.
Speaker 6: Pulled a Pete Carroll.
Speaker 2: What are we doing? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Before that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're the original Actually evangel versus Hoover throwing
not even like a fade like you. They're like one
of those comebacks where you go into the end zone,
you come back to the front pilon.
Speaker 6: Okay, so you want to hit it at the front court?
Speaker 2: I intercepted it stepped out of bounds. Game over. That's
hor bomb.
Speaker 3: Why would you call the exactly.
Speaker 6: I'm back at All the corner has to do is
nothing I know. Just stand there.
Speaker 2: What are we doing? Smartest guy in the room. All right,
LSU is gonna play on Friday, Game twelve of the
SEC Baseball Tournament. What a good feeling it is this
year not having to go to Hoover needing to win
at least one game, probably multiple games like it was
a year ago. And look, you want to win, but
it does feel like you are solidified right now as
a national seed. You're going to be a national seed.
We're gonna be a top eight national seed. But one victory,
they will certainly do everything to lock that up. All right,
we will step away, and when we come back, let's
catch up with our guy Ross Jackson to talk a
little New Orleans Saints as it looks like they are
not interested in bringing in a veteran quarterback, and we'll
do that when we jump back here on OTB.
Speaker 1: Off the bench.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, the phone lines for this company are
wide open because t bops no longer going to be
using their services. That is, of course Central Plumbing two
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Speaker 1: This is off the bench, all right.
Speaker 2: Welcome back in OTB one four or five, ESPN, baton
rouge always our pleasure to catch up with our next guest.
It is our guy, Ross Jackson, host of Lockdown Saints.
You know he's doing big things over at Louisiana sports
dot Net as well.
Speaker 3: Ross. What's going on, man? How you doing?
Speaker 8: Hey, Boddy doing great?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 8: Thanks so much for having me on Good morning to
see you.
Speaker 2: Did I hear Landra ask you how you were doing
in a time zone that's not the Central time zone.
And I feel really bad for calling you this early.
Speaker 8: Oh dude, No, no worries at all. I'm always up
this early the same thing. Hey, I'm over in I'm
over in Salt Lake at the moment, last day, at
my trip, getting away for a little bit. So six
thirty am this morning like this, think nothing.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, we call you at six point thirty
when you're trying to get away from sports.
Speaker 8: Ross, you could just tell me, oh no, no, no, not
away from it's away from.
Speaker 3: Heat, okay that part.
Speaker 2: Look, I was outside at a baseball tournament this weekend.
Speaker 3: I can fully get behind that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Ross, we always do appreciate the time, and
I want to have you on because it looks like
the Saints will not be adding a veteran quarterback and
I think that is very newsworthy. I mean, certainly, if
it's not Aaron Rodgers, you're trying to think what veteran
would it be, because now, like we know, you've got
a very very young quarterback room. But it sounds like
the Saints are going to roll with that young quarterback room.
Speaker 8: Yeah, sounds like it. This has been sort of building
to this point here for you know, since pretty much
the retirement of car and even even before that, when
many of us were pretty certain that he was not
going to be a part of the twenty twenty five
plays at least in some way or another. And look,
you've got young guys in that room right now. Your
eldest is a third year quarterback, and Jay Hanner, You've
got a second year guy, and Spencer Ratler, and you've
got a pair of rookies, you know, one drafted and
Tyler Schuck one undrafted and Hunter Deckers. And it seems
like that's the position group that they want to roll with,
at least going into training camp. We'll see how things change,
because obviously, you know, look, you have a young room.
You have a winless room on top of that, which
isn't shocking when you have a young room and you
have your thirty six year old head coach that you
know has one with guys like yes, Jalen Hurts, Dak
Prescott and Justin Herbert, but he's also one with guys
like Tanner McKee, can you Pickett and Cooper Rush right,
And so the Saints feel really confident in what it
is that Kellen Moore, you know, should could be able
to do with this young group. I'll throw you know,
Doug Nasmeyer, the offensive coordator in there, who's been at
each of those other previous three stops with Kellen Moore
as well. You add in Scott Tolzen, the quarterback coach,
who's before all three of those guys former NFL quarterbacks.
So maybe they feel they're the veterans in the room
until proven otherwise. And so we'll see, but I think
that's the definitely the direction they want to go right now.
Speaker 3: Oh man, you just made me feel really old. Ross.
Speaker 2: Not only did I turn forty a couple of days ago,
but Scott Tolzen was like a young quarterback that came
to us and see how ago and now he's like this,
you know, very well respected quarterback coach.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, well remember he's still a young quarterback. Don't
make yourself feel too bad. Yeah, this will be the
first time that's by you know, I'm separated by one
year to a head coach that I'm covering, you know
what I mean, Like it's it's it's kind of a
wild situation that like you have that sort of influx
of young coaching talent, but then you also have sort
of this kind of variety of coaches in different places
is in their careers too, Like it's a really uniquely
built coaching stuff and raws.
Speaker 2: I mean when you look at Tyler Shuck as well,
like he is like is a rookie. Like I don't
care how old you are, You're a rookie. There's things
you're going to go through. But also like with him
turning twenty six, when the season starts, like the NFL
no longer has it where it's like, okay, look we're
gonna draft this quarterback. We're going to ease him into
the situation. We're gonna have this veteran quarterback kind of
start the first six games and then this guy's going
that's no longer the NFL either, Like we saw in
last year's draft class, like those guys outside of Michael
Pennix who ended up being the starter, like they were
the guy from day one. Even JJ McCarthy when he
goes down with injury, he was still going to be
the guy. Sam Darnell was going to be the backup.
And so that's really that's what it is now in
the NFL. And so when you've got this young coach
be it head coach and the quarterback coach and then
very experienced off as the coordinator, like I would assume
like Tyler Shuck is going to be the front runner
certainly in this job. Like do you have it any
different right now? Like do you see Spencer Ratler maybe
being even with Tyler Shuck.
Speaker 8: I think that he certainly can be. I think that
the seven games of experience that he has, the six
games of starting experience that he has definitely means something
and I think that he deserves a shot. But look,
I think this is Tyler Shuck's job to lose. I mean,
he was the handpicked guy by the head coach in
Kellen Moore, And I think that that means a lot
more than maybe people might expect it to mean or
whatever that might be. Like, I don't know that I
would necessarily call this a fair fight, you know what
I mean? And you're right, like, you know, the idea
of him being a rookie and needing to sit and
have time, that's just not how the NFL works anymore.
There's no discernible difference in you know, success or lack
of success between the quarterbacks that start right away and
the quarterbacks that sit behind right away. I mean, it's
easy to point to guys like Patrick Mahomes and say, well,
he sat down for a while before he you know,
jumped into a jumped into his starting role. But then
you know, you can always pull out Jaydon Daniels and say, look,
this is the guy that started right away to Castevee
to the NFL championship in his first year, you know, yeah,
And so there's not really a discernible difference, Like there
are examples of success and lack of success in both
approaches waiting to start a quarterback or starting a quarterback
right away, and there's not enough of one or the
other that has found any success or that haven't found success.
So I think that the best thing that the things
can do here is a of course, pick the best option, right,
so who looks best during training camp, who looks best
during the portion of the preseason, until it takes you
to get to the point where you make your decision
and to let Kellen Moore choose his guy and you
know whoever it is that he decides to be that
week one starter. And I think as long as those
two things happen and you check both of those boxes,
I think that that's what will determine whether or you're
going to find success in that.
Speaker 2: Quarterback or not catching up with our guy Ross Jackson
here on ot B. One of the other things that
came up over the weekend to step away from the
quarterback position. There was some rumors like these are social
media rumors, but there were some rumors maybe like the
Steelers and Chris Olave and maybe a potential trade there,
which I just would not be in favor of because
you need weapons if you're the New Orleans Saints. Does
that rumor have any legs?
Speaker 8: It has legs in one portion of the conversation, which
is that the from my understanding and the people that
I've spoken to that that have knowledge of the situation,
the Steelers reached out to New Orleans to see, you know, hey,
is Chris Olave available? And I think that tells you
a couple of things. I think it tells you one
that obviously Chris Olive has value across the NFL. I
know he's dealing He's dealt with the concussions last year,
and he dealt with concussions through his career and everything.
And people will often make the comment that, oh, he's
won concussion away from retirement. We don't know that. No
one knows that, like that's that's that man's decision and
his decision only. And so I'm not going to lot
lobby any type of accusations like that against Chris Olave.
But I think that it does show you that there's
value in this player around the NFL. I think that's one.
I think number two, it gives you a little bit
of the idea of the perception of the New Orleans
Saints around the league. Right, Hey, let's check and see
if they're rebuilding. Right, they lost their car, they don't
have the starting quarterbacks as they thought they were going
to have. They have a winless quarterback room, a very
young quarterback room. You know, they have a first time
head coach. Maybe they're willing to move off from some
of their young foundational pieces. And the third thing that
tells you is that they're not right. The things aren't
ready to do that because they're not interested in trading
Crystal Abe. And so what you're going to hear a
lot of is that the Steelers reached out, the Saints
wanted a high price, and therefore the Saints were, you know,
at least willing to deal. But really, if you have
a player that you're not willing to move, you never
walk into a negotiation and say this isn't happening. You
just set a really high price for that player, and
if that team is willing to beat that high price,
then you have the opportunity to say, now I was
just playing, or yes, we'll take that deal, you know
what I mean. But that's not how a negotiation works.
You don't walk into a negotiations.
Speaker 3: They go.
Speaker 8: And so it has legs from the standpoint of the
Steelers were reaching out and that the Steelers were interesting,
but the Thints weren't actively shopping Chris Olave. This was
a reach out by the Steelers and the things effectively
saying like, we value this player very highly and we're
not willing to move off of him for you know,
pennies or anything like that, showing that they're not into
the idea of that whole you know, well rebuild, that's
the you know, chip off some foundational pieces, pick up
draft capital. They're not in that mode.
Speaker 2: Yet.
Speaker 3: Another position that certainly is going to be intriguing.
Speaker 2: Do your out, you know, training camp and even now,
I mean certainly how it plays out throughout training camp.
Speaker 3: And I want to ask you this.
Speaker 2: Okay, so not today, but if we were September the
first left to right on your offensive line, what do
you think that's going to look like? Because I mean,
you look, you've got so many pieces and draft capital
into this offensive line with first round pick, second round picks.
Speaker 3: But what do you think it's going to look like?
Left or right?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I've been I've kind of gone back and forth
on this, if I'm honest with you, Jake. So for me,
I'll start with the tackles. Kelvin Banks junior me plugs
in at his natural position left tackle, kalas Plong moves
back to his natural position right tackle. That's an easier
shift for you than teaching Calvin bankst and you're a
new position. You could just put these guys back in
their natural positions, which I think is the benefit of
talasc FLA. So that's why I see the tackles shaping up.
The two other guys that are absolutely sure Eric McCoy
at dinner, and then right guard is going to be
Caesar Reis. I'm jumping around. I'm not going left to right.
I'm building the suspense. I'm sorry at left guard though.
That's from my big question market. Two weeks ago, I
would have told you Dylan Raiden's But the more that
I have gone into digging into Kevin Moore's offensive scheme
and the run schemes that are working in the NFL
right now. You look at Philadelphia, you look at you
look at Baltimore. Big guards are a big part of
that success, and typically converted guards that were tackles that
moved inside. These guys are being asked to pull, They're
being asked to run those stutters, those weak side counters,
get up ahead of the rusher. All those those things
starting now to lean a little bit more towards Trevor
Pinning at left guard, which is something I've pushed back
about a lot, because I think if you have a
guy at tackle and then you move them inside, sometimes
it works, sometimes it doesn't work. There's no guarantet that's
going to help Tever Pinning. I think it's worth a shot.
I think it's worth a shot with Trevor Pinning because
you'd probably like to keep one of your first round
pick investments on your starting offensive line, and that might
be the best way. That might be the best way
to do it. And so three hundred and twenty five pounds,
good mover, a great run blocker, aggressive player. That's actually
a pretty nice set of qualities to have as a
pulling guard. Like you probably like that guy in front
of you right, like that would be a guy you
would you wouldn't mind running behind. And so I'm kind
of leaning now towards the idea of the converted tackle
to guard. Much like Makai Beckon in Philadelphia last year.
Baltimore has a similar player last year, and these guys
were three fifty, you know, enormous players. Trevor Pinning is
not that guy, but at three twenty five. He's one
of the biggest offensive linemen they have, right and so
if they can do that get him pulling and get
him active in that run game that way, I think
that that might be something that helps him with his
career and maybe explains a little bit about why the
Things weren't willing to pick up his fifty year options
at a tackle because now if they can get him
converted to a guard, that contract becomes a guard contract
instead of a tackle contract.
Speaker 2: Yeah, then that is going to be a completely different contract. Obviously,
tackle is going to make more than guards. I know
this because fullbacks make less than running backs.
Speaker 8: Yes, Unfortunately, I to ask Kellen. I haven't asked Kellen
yet what the role of fullback is in his in
his offense. But you know, when we get back out
there for I have that written down as one of
my questions because I really really want to know, because
Adam Princess is still on that roster, yeah, and so
I'm really curious to see what he what he feels is,
you know, the use of that position.
Speaker 2: Just hold it down for us, Ross, That's all we
can ask. Just ask the question and at least somebody's
talking about fullbacks. Ross, Hey, you're the man. I know
you're out there. You're in U in the mountains, woke
up a little bit earlier, already up and doing work there.
Speaker 3: So we appreciate your time as.
Speaker 8: Always, sir, Always a pleasure man. Think switch for having
me on you. Take care of say safe and I'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 2: All right again, the great Ross Jackson locked on Saints
also does big things for us here Louisianasports dot Net.
Check out the website. He's always always got a new
article up and sounds like the Saints are going to
stay with young quarterback room, which is certainly something I
want to continue to talk about. We'll take our final
break of our number one and we'll come right back
here on OTV. Off the bench, all right, Go to
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to off the bench.
Speaker 2: Shut five guys in time, win ahead and win alive.
Don't mess up this great song with that glass breaking
or whatever that was.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's spoon cold open.
Speaker 2: Whoa Now if we added like to the song.
Speaker 4: Cold like wait, that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 2: No, that theme music's great. Yeah, yeah, ready to raise
some hell that for an hour open? No, I don't
hate it's like more than just the glass sound.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so're keeping sabotage for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: Can't get away, But I don't hate. I don't hate
me neither. We need one more of those.
Speaker 2: To something. When you hear the glass that's your ass
or something something like that was stone cold. I don't
figure that. I like that too. Look at you, Tay
well done all right. Twice you've had least two yeah,
at least Saints quarterback situation. Tyler Shuck as we know, rookie,
second round pick, Spencer Rattler, second year, Jake Hayn, third year,
Hunter Deckers, undrafted free agent, rookie had to try out,
made the team. Cool story. He's on the roster, so
we're gonna mention him, don't know, you know obviously where
that ends up. So you've got a couple of different
strategies that you can have. You can go ahead and say, hey,
you know, not right now technically, but you can down
the road. Hey, Tyler Shuck's our guy. We selected him
fortieth overall. That's why we did that. He's our guy
moving forward. You can have the open competition. Hey, we
got three guys. They've all had starts in the nf
It is going to be a competition. We'll name a
starter the second week of training camp, which is not
typically how it works in the NFL. That's more of
a college vibe. But you have three young guys that
are fighting for at the same job. You also can
still consider a veteran option, you know, and Aaron Rodgers
is still out there. It doesn't even have to be
like an Aaron Rodgers. It can just be somebody that's
a fifth six year pro. They've got ten starts under
their belt just in case it hits the fan. So
I want to go around the room. You tell me
what you think the best case scenario is for the
New Orleans Saints. Elandra will give you first crack.
Speaker 4: I think the quarterback room that you have right now,
your best case scenario to me is probably Tyler Schuck
just because of and I get that Spencer Rattler and
Jay Caner have already been in the league for a
couple of years now, but his experience feels a little
more because he's twenty six years.
Speaker 5: Old, and like, I don't know how old Spence Ratler.
Speaker 6: Is, twenty eight six.
Speaker 2: Not toenty six.
Speaker 5: I'm giving too long of an answer. Tyler Shuck.
Speaker 7: That's good, No, you're good, he tek Yeah, I mean
it's it's gonna be Shuck. I think that, Yeah, there's
gonna be an open competition, but I think Shuck's gonna
have to lose that competition. Like, I think, if you
know him and Rattler Neck and Neck, Kellen's gonna go
with his guy. Everyone says, well, the Saints still haven't
drafted a quarterback in the first round. Chuck's still the
highest since Archie Manning at forty overall. I mean, they
invested a lot of draft capital in him. I think
it's going to be him. If I'm Jay Cayner, I
am looking over my shoulder at Hunter Deckers. He's a
talented player. He's six two, He's two hundred and thirty pounds.
Hayter's a little undersized. I mean, if they're keeping three qbs,
I think there's a chance Hayter doesn't make this roster.
But I definitely think it's gonna be shocked, followed by
Spencer Ratler.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if you're going to select Tyler Shuck
at forty, you're not gonna bring in a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 3: You would have already done that.
Speaker 2: Because like this is a great time for that quarterback
to get the locker room. You I've had some OTA's
different things already, So if you haven't done it, I
don't think you're going to Tyler Shuck's different than the
other quarterbacks on this roster as well, Spencer Ratler, Jay Hayner.
Not big guys, not tall guys, you know, small frames.
Tyler Shuck is every bit of six'. Five he's the
difference maker at the quarterback. POSITION i truly think it
is going to be his. Team we'll probably not hear
it in the, media but it is going to be the.
Case SO i agree, There Tyler shuck looks like he
will be The saints quarterback all. Right Bill bender kick
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