Speaker 1: Off the Bench. We have to Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go where.
Speaker 1: The plays get broken down and science gets denied to
come off the bitch. Hour two of Off the Bench,
Live from the Raising Kine Studio.
Speaker 3: Welcome in our number two here on a Friday edition
of Off the Bench, A Taylor show up here with
the Elandavella, Rial, Braxton, Rosuto. Those asease while they look
like ours to me, that was a hectic first hour.
I mean I told you during the break, I was like, Braxton,
I applaud you because you're the only, like none everyday
member of the show and you've screwed up the least
between the three of us. So I shout out to you, ma'am.
We uh had a great time. I enjoyed the long
commercial break. Actually it was fun. I mean we sat there,
we were laughing about it. Wanted to talk about in
that segment. We just combined too, No big deal. We
made it work. You got to watch some SpongeBob like
I Honestly, that was a good first hour, guys. That
was That was a That was a Friday first hour
if we've ever had one. Okay, a little bit more
sportsy here in the second hour, do you want to
talk a little LSU football? Do you want to talk
some Saint's? LSU gymnastics coach Jay Clark will be with
us at eight thirty, and then the nine o'clock hour,
We're we're pretty busy there. Ralse Jackson'll be with us
at nine o'clock, nine to thirty. Former LSU pitcher Doug
Thompson will join us. I gotta get his thoughts of
what he saw on the opening weekend, what he expects
to see this weekend in Jacksonville, And of course we'll
close everything out like we do with ask the bench
right now. Though Paul fine Bomb was going get Up
earlier this week. Now, you guys know how I feel
about Paul fine Bomb. Typically, I would never bring up
anything Paul fine Bomb had to say. Only if I
was anonymously calling into his show would I ever interact
with him in the all likelihood. But he was asked
on Get Up and their college football segment of who
won the offseason, and fine Bom said, Lane Kiffen, how
many times do I need to say that he dominated
the end of the season with his move and then
he managed the college football chaos look at what he
brought in in the portal. He said he made major
acquisitions there. But I think even with a difficult schedule,
LSU is a college football playoff team. I mean, I
gotta tell you, I never agreed with anything. Paul Finebaum
says he nailed this one. Lane Kiffin did win the offseason.
Lank Kiffin won the off season before he has ever
won a game here. Because you have to admire what
Lane Kiffin's done. Whether you're the biggest Lane Kiffin fan
in the world or whether you were at aim In
Lee against him coming to this program, you gotta meyer
what he's done. There was so much chaos surrounding his
decision to leave Ole Miss, so many attacks on him.
Everybody in college football painted Lane Kiffin as this villain,
even though other coaches have done this multiple times. He
didn't care. He came in, he went to work. I mean,
everybody you know talked about, Oh, Lane Kffin's gonna be
so great for the media. I see anything really spoke
to the media, and I'm I'm I prefer it that way,
even as a member of the media, like we hear
want Lane Kiffen to go out and add transfer portal
players and retain your coaching staff and retaining key players
from a year ago.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what he did.
Speaker 3: I mean, Lane Kiffin had his opening press conference and
you didn't really hear from him again until two weeks
ago when he was recapping his signing class.
Speaker 2: That's it. So all this chaos surrounding his decision.
Speaker 3: To move to Baton Rouge and leave poor little old
old Miss, everybody made a spectacle out of this. You know,
you're the only person that did not make a spectacle
out of this coaching change situation.
Speaker 2: Was it was Lane Kiffin.
Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin's not in the national media pushing this on
TV every single day. Lane Kiffin's not one of these
unhinged old Miss fans who seemed to can't understand the
fact that, uh, Lane Kiffin left you to go to
the prom with the prettier girl. That's exactly what happened.
If you're an old Miss fan and you can't wrap
your head around that Lane coming to Baton Ridge, ignoring
all that outside noise coming in, putting his head down
and getting to work, That's exactly what you wanted as
an LSU fan, because if you look at the end,
of the Brian Kelly era and all the rumors and
news and reports that came out around Brian Kelly maybe
not having the best work ethic. Lane Kiffin seems to
be the complete opposite. Lane Kiffen seems to be somebody
who's like, hey, I came here to win. I know
there's massive expectations around me. I don't want to let
myself down. I don't want to let the people of
Baton rouge you down. I don't want to let LSU down.
I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna work my butt off,
and I'm gonna symbable what could very well be the
best transfer a portal class of all time. You brought
in forty two guys. Find me a position did LSU
needed that LSU did not address in the offseason. Everybody
was waiting on offensive line. You got multiple guys who
I think are plug and play. I mean, Jordan Steeden's
is gonna start on this team. I talked about it
a little bit the other day with Aliu Bah kind
of an under the radar guy, but started twenty four
consecutive games at Maryland at guard. He's a plug and
play guy, can play either guard, spot. You were able
to retain Brayland Moore, You're able to retain Weston Davis,
whatever that means to you. Trey Dez is back, like
you didn't lose any major player in the portal by
and large. I mean we've talked about Carrius Kerrent. I
think Kyle Parker's actually a pretty big loss.
Speaker 2: To me.
Speaker 3: That one's gonna hurt more than Kerrn, just because I
Thinkyle Parker's gonna be great next year to Ohio State
next to Jeremiah Smith, with Julian saying throwing him to the football.
But again, whether you're the biggest fan of Lane Kiffin
in the world or whether you despise the guy and
thought LSU should have looked elsewhere, you have to admire
what he's done, Like hand up. If you had asked me,
like if I would have been the athletic director and
you'd have said, Taylor, who you're going to hire? I
probably would have hired Knny dialing him one. I didn't
know how gettable Lane was too. I didn't know how
long you were gonna have to wait. I wasn't sure
if Lane Kivin was going to pull that trigger before
the early signing period he wound up doing it wound
up working out perfectly. My thought was always if you
can get Kiffin, yeah go get him. Don't put all
your eggs in that one. Bask have a backup plan.
But you know what, it is worked out as good
as anybody could imagine, way better than I could have
imagined at this point. So shout out Lane kivin everything
he has done in the off season, everything I believe
that he will continue to.
Speaker 2: Do in the off season as well. Want to stick
with LSU.
Speaker 3: I kind of switching topics here before we take this
first break. Folks over at LSU Wire put out an
article of why this LSU football player can be an
All American in twenty twenty six, and the guy they
mentioned is DeShawn Spears. I think this is a great choice.
I think DeShawn Spears has all the potential in the world.
He's not a household name in the SEC YEP, but
he could be. They mentioned his PFF grade. Spears graded
out at ninety point one on PFF that was top
five in all of college football among safeties, a ninety
point three in coverage that was fourth in all of
college football. He was the second highest rated defensive player
on LSU's team last year, behind only Mansword Delane, who's
about to be a top fifteen pick in all likelihood.
I love the versatility that he could bring to this defense.
He's six foot three, he's around two hundred and fifteen pounds.
Speaker 2: You get him up to two.
Speaker 3: You could slide him in there at the nickel or
the star position that our guy Matt Flynn loved so much.
Haryl Perkins was around sixty three to two hundred and
twenty pounds, and I actually thought he did a pretty
good job for the most part at that star position.
I've been highled on this guy's as he stepped fot
on campus. Look, he's from my neck of the woods.
I'm born and raising Walker, Louisiana, and I still live
there to this day. He's right, he's a stone star
down the road in Denham Springs. So I was a
little bit biased, But I also saw the guy play
a lot in New York. Goodie could be and you
saw the flashes a year ago. Again, he wasn't an
everyday starter in the secondary now, he said, behind aj
Hawsey and Tamarcus Cooley, which no shame in that both
are those guys were stud for you a year ago.
But on the season last year, twenty nine tackles, three
tackles were lost, two interceptions. Both of those interceptions came
in that Florida game. One of them he took fifty
nine yards back to the house for a pick six.
I think he's losing with potential, which is why I
love the Tide benefit signing out of the transfer portal
so much. Anytime somebody asked me, favorite transfer portal addition
outside of the obvious, so you had to get your
quarterback and you had to get the offensive line, favorite
player might be Tid Benifield because of the versatility he's
going to bring to this defense. Bennfields a three year
starter at Boise State. Last year one hundred and seven tackles,
eight and a half tackles for a lost, two interceptions.
He can play at the line of scrimmage. He can
drop back deep and kind of be that center field
or at the back of your defense. The year before that,
eighty two tackles, five tackles for a loss, again, two interceptions.
Tid Benifield can do a little bit of everything. Tamarcus
Cooley's going to start in safety on this team. I
don't think there's any question about it. I thought he
was really good a year ago. Who's going to be
that guy next to him? All of a sudden, you
have a lot of options, And honestly, whoever's not the
starting safety next to Tamarcus Cooley's probably going to slide
down there into that star role. I would like it
to be Deshaun Spears because of the again, six foot three,
can he get up to two hundred and twenty pounds,
You're gonna have options there. I think Bennifield would be
great there. Even though Bennfield's a little bit on the
smaller size. He's hovering around six foot but he's physical
enough to do it. We saw it at Boise State
Cjjim Coyly. He didn't get a ton of reps in game,
but he repped the star position a lot during fall
camp a year ago. They're in the media viewing portion
of those fall practices. We got to go out there.
He was kind of the number two star at times
behind Harold Perkins. Got a lot of reps there. He's
a big bodied guy. He could play safety, linebacker, star
wherever you need him. But the talent of a Deshaun
Spears perrying that with a tie Benifield. Those guys are
basically interchangeable.
Speaker 2: At this point.
Speaker 3: I think the sky's the limit for this team. I
mean I mentioned, you know the potential of a Deshaun Spears.
People forget he was SEC Defensive Player of the Week
after that game against Florida, and he was Bronco Negirsky
National Defensive Player of the Week as well.
Speaker 2: That was the two interception game. He was incredible.
Speaker 3: Now he had the privilege of playing against a DJ Lagway,
who I don't think is a very good quarterback. Unl
you picked him off five times that game and probably
could have had another one in there somewhere. But he
was awesome in every opportunity he got. And yes, people
want to point out like when I mentioned he was
his second highest rated player on your defense, Well he
wasn't at every downstarter guys, he played over two hundred
snaps on this defensive year ago. That's enough of a
sample size. And think about the other players on that defense.
DJ Pikett was really good. AJ Halsey was awesome, so
Marcus Cooley was great. He greted higher than all three
of those guys that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to
translate into a big time role, and just because he
was great at high a year ago means he's going
to be an All American. But I think the potential's there.
I think the talent's there, and I think he's gonna
have every opportunity to make a big impact on this defense,
whether it's at star, whether it's at safety. I'm excited
to see what tomarcut school he can do next year
one Blake Baker's defense.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll take a quick time out when we
get back.
Speaker 3: Rals Jackson put out an interesting article on Louisianasports dot
that about the possibility of Teddy Bridgewater actually returning to
the New Orleans Saints. I'll give you my thoughts on
that next. You're on off the bench.
Speaker 1: Off the bench. Uh.
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Speaker 4: I'm a.
Speaker 6: What that was?
Speaker 2: Welcome back? Ye here Friday attorney? That was Gordon Guy.
I knew I was gonna say I'm attorney, but I
couldn't remember. Okay, shut out, Gordon, what's up?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: Get Gordon right?
Speaker 5: Speaking of Will Helmer's part of the G team is
gonna come on next Monday.
Speaker 2: Talk a little baseball.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Will Helmers. Man I remember when they
had to start him at third base that one game. Actually,
you know what, that might have been my first baseball
game working for RELASHU because it was Manary's last year.
And I think that's right, Like I always remember, like
I started working on I moved from Talk to ESPN
Oars rounds last year. I started working over at LSU
Minaris last year. It always kind of lined up that way.
But yeah, you had to start at third base. He
had the rough out, and you know, people wanted to
wanted to crucify the dude, and like he's playing third base.
He was too good of a picture. And then I
mean he was a great pitcher for Relashue for a
number of years. Shout out Will Helmers. He'll be year.
He'll be here Monday.
Speaker 2: Right He'll tell you that straight up too. He'll be
here Monday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he'll be here Monday.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 3: I want to talk a little New Orleans Saints because
I got Ross Jackson, who's going to join us at
nine am. Put on an article on Wednesday talking about
the New Orleans Saints potentially bringing back Teddy Bridgewater this
year in free agency. He mentioned, you know, the Saints
have never been shy about bringing back players from the past.
They reacquired mark Ingram in twenty twenty one, They brought
back Jimmy Graham in twenty twenty three. Number twenty twenty,
they brought back Malcolm Jingins. Like, there's a lot of
guys that had been on this team previously did they
have brought back? And you know we're else right, Bridgewater
makes sense as another rekindled flame, especially if the team
sees veteran quarterback Taysom he'll leave after his contract voids
on March tenth, or if he'll retires. I don't think
Taysom Hill is going to be back with this team,
whether he retires, whether he goes somewhere else in free agency.
I just I just don't see that happening. I don't
know how much sense it makes for the Saints. And
I hate saying that because I love Taysom Hill, but
I'm just I'm not quite sure how that would work.
So would you want Teddy Bridgewater back? I absolutely would.
Teddy Bridgewater was a great locker room guy. He was
loved by fans. The problem is Teddy hasn't played in
a number of years now.
Speaker 2: He's been on rosters.
Speaker 3: But the last time Teddy Bridgewater threw a pass he
threw fifteen passes a year ago from Tampa sixty two yards.
Before that, it was all the way back in twenty
twenty two, he attempted seventy nine passes for the Miami Dolphins.
Remember he kind of retired, and then he unretired, went
to Detroit to try to help him during that playoff run.
B Jared Golf's backup Detroit for two years, and then
last year again fifteen total passes on the year for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he's thirty three years old.
It'll be thirty four, so he still got some tread
left on those tires. And again, I would welcome Teddy
Bridgewater back with open arms because I think he is
valuable as a backup quarterback in this league.
Speaker 2: He could help Tyler Shuck out.
Speaker 3: He's been in this league for a number of years
with a number of different franchises in a number of
different roles. When he went to the Minnesota Vikings, he
was their starting quarterback until injuries caught up with him,
came to New Orleans, he had to fill in for
Drew Brees when Brees had that thumb injury, and Teddy
Bridgewater went five and oh as a starting quarterback here
in New Orleans. Nine touchdown, Stoneley two interceptions. So he
was really good here and I would welcome him back.
But that also begs the question should the Saints trade
Spencer Rattler?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: I think they should trade Spencer Rattler. And this is
not a shot at Spencer Ratler. I think Spencer Radler
is valuable on this team. I actually think he's so
valuable that you could get some trade value back for
a guy like Rattler. I'm not saying second third round pick,
but could you get a fourth a fifth for a
guy like Rattler. You could take advantage of a lot
of quarterback needy teams. I'll tell you that that could
be desperate. The Arizona Cardinals. You mean to tell me
Spencer Ratler couldn't go in there with Arizona with a
brand new coaching staff, and that franchise seems keen on
moving on from Kyler Murray. Spencer Radler could go in
there and be a bridge quarterback for him at the start,
and who knows, maybe he could develop into something there.
What about the Las Vegas Raiders? Could he go there
with Clint Kubiak who coached him a year ago in
New Orleans. If you don't want Fernando Mendos that I
have to start as a rookie, or you want somebody
to come in and mentor him, that's a really good
locker room guy. Spencer Ratler could be that guy for
you there. I think there is value in trading Spencer Ratler.
Now the pushback will be Rattler's too good of a backup,
you have to hold.
Speaker 2: On to it.
Speaker 3: The reality is, if any team has to rely on
their backup, you're already kind of screwed.
Speaker 2: And again that's not a shot. It's Spencer Rattler.
Speaker 3: Like when you look at his record, he has a
one in thirteen record as a starting quarterback for the
New Orleans Saints.
Speaker 2: Now, not all of that is his fault.
Speaker 3: I mean you look at what he did last year
over sixty seven percent completion, eight touchdowns, five interceptions, fifteen
hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: So Spencer Ratlers are doing his part.
Speaker 3: He's just like you're not losing because of Spencer Rattler,
but you also weren't winning with him either. He wasn't
elevating the players around him. He did a fine job.
He played his role. I thought he did a good
job leading that offense at times. But think about the
difference in that offense when Tyler Shack stepped in there.
It just felt different. He kind of elevated the players
around him. Look at Devn I mean, Devon Veley had
career games like I know. I made the joke on
this show saying, oh, Devon Veley rode to one hundred
yards when people always say road to one k. It
was road to one hundred. Devon Veley wants Tyler Schuck.
But game the starting quarterback really thrived. I mean that
was Shuck's third down go to guy. Him and Jawan
Johnson made play after play. There was a game Tyler
Shuck just ripping it down the seam on third down
for those first downs, throwing it up to Veyle, throwing
it up to Johnson, and Chris Olave had some of
the best games of his career with Tyler Shuck in
their quarterback. He just seemed like Shuck elevated the players
around him. It's not a shot at Spencer Rattler. There's
a lot of guys in the league that play their
role and they do it well and unfortunately they're not winning.
That's kind of where I'm at with Spencer Ratler. Ratler
goes one to thirteen. Tyler Shuck had the same team
Rattler did a year ago, and he went five and
four as the starting quarterback. If you do trade Tyler Shan,
I mean Spencer Ratler and you signed Teddy Bridgewater, that's
a good It's a step in the right direction. How
comfortable are you with Bridgewater at this point in his career?
I mentioned he threw fifteen passes a year ago. Then
he hadn't thrown a ball since twenty twenty two. How
comfortable are you with him being your primary backup? You
may have to actually bring in a third option. That's
where he gets a little dicey for you. You look
at some of the unrestricted free agents right now, and
I'm gonna be realistic with this.
Speaker 2: Like Marcus Mariota thirty two years old, had to start.
Speaker 3: A number of games for Washington last year due to
those Jade and Daniel's injuries. Mariotas still got it.
Speaker 2: I mean he looked.
Speaker 3: He looked good in a number of those games. Now,
Washington was terrible and they had no weapons on the outside,
they had no running game, so Mariota was kind of
on his own, but he held up well. Mariota's played
a lot of games in this league. He is set
to be an unrestricted free agent unless something changes with
franchise tags and stuff like that. But a guy like
Marriott is probably not getting franchise tag at this point
in his career. I mean, Zach Wilson's out there, and
I get it. Everyone likes to clown Zach Wilson for
his year with the Jets. One, nobody does well Jets two.
You're not bringing him into be a starting quarterback. Zach
Wilson still got some talent I would welcome. If I'm
cheering for any team, I would welcome Zach Wilson. And
as the backup quarterback, why not. He's still got talent.
He doesn't have to go in there and start sixteen
games for you a Lesha hope. Not Mitch Traubisky. He's
been in Buffalo for a number of years, but he's
a former first round pick. Started a bunch of games
in Chicago. Now Jimmy Garoppolo is a free agent. That's
that one's more wishful thinking than anything. I think the
Saint should be a tough sell for a guy like Garoppolo,
not because he doesn't like the city of New Orleans
and the Saints, but like, Jimmy Garoppolo is gonna have
teams out there that want him to be a starter,
like where it is, teams like Miami. You've already reached
out to him to like be that guy for this year.
So I don't know if Jimmy Garoppolo would turn down
a potential starting role to come to New Orleans and
be the backup and mentor Tyler Shuck. But he's a
name out there to watch who's currently a free agent.
You have some options out there. I'm okay with signing
Teddy Bridgewater. I'm okay with trading Spencer Rattler, but I
think you have a little bit more work to do
in the quarterback room if that does in fact happen,
all right, we'll step away. We'll take a quick time
out when we get back. Transition away from football. LSU
gymnastics coach at Jay Clark joins us next here on
off the bench, Off the bench.
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Speaker 1: Yea from the locker room to the airwaves. Gets off
the bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, welcome back in Friday edition of OTB Taylor Sharpy
with us sitting in for the time being for Jacob
Messer and Matt Flynn. They will be back on Monday.
Right now, let's go out to the phone lines. Big
meat coming up. LSU Gymnastics coach at Jay Clark joins
us right now.
Speaker 2: Coach Clark, good morning, How are you?
Speaker 6: Good morning? How are you this morning?
Speaker 2: Doing quite well? Coach?
Speaker 3: You know your your your team's always one of the
top programs in the country.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows that.
Speaker 3: Like y'all the rank number two right now, your you're
six six and one overall in the season. And yes,
I mean you know it seems like it's reload instead
of rebuild for you guys every year, but specifically this team,
Like what has made your squad so tough to beat
this year?
Speaker 6: Well, I mean I think we had a lot of
kids come back from last year and a lot of
kids whose roles expanded that we all that we already
knew would be there even last year. But when you
have a Leah Finnigan and Haley Bryant and Sierra Ballard
and those guys leading the way, there's not a lot
of there's only so many opportunities to compete. So we
knew we had some kids coming in that, you know,
returning this year, that with their role would expand and
they'd be able to do the job. I think more
than anything, though, we've got a group that that really
seems to be bought into the way we like to
do things, and and they they they cared genuinely for
each other, and they're doing it for the right reasons,
and that's that's always a key to any anybody's success.
Speaker 3: Could you talk about all the all the veterans you
have back and certainly, but you know, when you anybody
that's watched this team, you see a gymnast like Nina
Baloo out there freshman, I mean, what maybe you know
her specifically, some of the younger gymnasts on the team,
what stood out uh to you about them?
Speaker 6: Well, Nina in particular, Nina been coming to our camp
since she was about eight years old. I think she
had her mind made up she was coming to LSU
before we knew even who she was. She's uh, she's
been a mainstay in our summer life for a long time.
And you know, she just that kid is She's a
She's an alpha in every way, and she she brings
so much energy to everything that she does. Even as
a freshman, she has been one of the more vocal
leaders in the room and uh and willing to participate
and willing to put herself out there in terms of
giving her opinion about the way we ought to be
doing things. And and she's been an incredibly good impact
so far. And UH just couldn't couldn't be happier with
with the role that she has played so far. Over
the years, she will do a lot more in terms
of just sheer gymnastics than she's done so far. But
but she's already contributed in massive ways.
Speaker 3: Coach, you're talking about gymnasts have contributed in massive ways.
Let's go ahead and name the Gymnasts of the Week
award after Caitlyn Chio. I mean, she wins there last week.
You know, she got this a number of times as
a freshman. She's only built on that as a sophomore.
That was her twelfth Gymnast of the Year of the
Week award. You know, early in her sophomore year she
had a record all around performance on Friday. It was
thirty perfect ten on the floor. I mean, how is
she built on that great freshman year? What have you
seen from her?
Speaker 6: I think more than anything, she's just shown a lot
of growth in terms of maturity and the way she
carries herself, the way she communicates with her teammates. I
think last year it was sort of just sort of
organic the way it happened. She just came in and
did her job, didn't say a whole lot, and and
and at times when things didn't go well for her,
which wasn't often, you know, her body language would reflect that.
Now she's she's she's really changed the way that she
approaches things. She's done an amazing job of being a
better teammate and and just shown a lot of growth.
When things aren't going well for her, you don't know
it anymore. And that's and that's that's the time of
a good leader, because she's she's focused on what's going
on with everybody else around her. You know, you always
worry when somebody has a freshman year like that that,
you know, things can get sideways if they're trying to
duplicate or or repeat something that they did in the past.
And I think she's done a really good job of
managing that expectation that she has for herself and also
really turning the focus away from that and onto her teammates.
And I think that's been the key to her success
so far.
Speaker 3: Oh, judym Nasik's go to Jay Clark joining us right now. Coach,
your team has been awesome the last two weeks. I mean,
you set your season high mark one ninety eight point
three two five against Auburn last week. You guys have
won eighteen straight inside the p MAC, haven't lost a
home meet since January sixteenth of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: I did not realize it had been that long.
Speaker 3: Like you, when you're at home, you know, people always
ask me what's the best environment you've ever seen in
the p MAC and coach for me. I don't know
if it was twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen, but you
guys were taking on Florida inside the p MAC. That's
the loudest I've ever seen that venue. I mean, it
was a top ten matchup at the time. You guys
pulled off a big win. What is it like knowing
like you have that kind of fan support at home,
It's got to be a big advantage.
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, that meat was twenty fifteen. It
was the first time we had sold that building out
and we'd been on a pretty steep trajectory of growth
at that point, and you're right, that place was unbelievable
that night. And look, it's different, you know, That's what
everybody's saying. Now. I've been saying it since I got
here in twenty twelve, So Layne can't have that all
to himself, but it is different here and we're just
so blessed to have that kind of support. It's there's
nowhere else in the country that you can walk into
an arena and have that kind of just amazing, almost
vitriolic support for your team. And in our sport. It
happens in other sports. It happens in football and basketball
and others, but the arena, the peedback on Friday nights
in Baton Rouge is unlike anything else in our sport,
in gymnastics, and it's it's an incredible blessing. It's as
part of what draws kids to want to come here
and to experience this as they go into the tail
end of their careers because there is no PROS, there
is no NFL, there is no NBA, and so they
want to experience the bigness of what LSU has to offer.
And it's a tremendous advantage for us when our fans
are packed in there and as loud as they are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that.
Speaker 3: I saw a graphic over the weekend else you put
it out. It was between your meat against Auburn, the
women's basketball game against South Carolina, and opening weekend at
the Box. It was three events over the weekend, all
eleven thousand plus fans inside that venue. I mean, it
was something. It was just really incredible. Coach, Again, you
guys have been great the last few weeks, but you
have been at home Penn State and Auburn. Now you
go on the road into a hostile environment. How is
that different for you guys going into a meet because
obviously at home, I mean I just mentioned eighteen straight
inside the PMAG. But when you're in a hostile environment,
is there a little bit extra you got to get
your team ready to go. Or is it just hey,
it's business as usual, just a different atmosphere.
Speaker 6: Well, in general, it's business as usual, but there are
adjustments that you have to make. I mean, everybody's equipment,
even though they meet the same specs and everything, it
feels a little different. Takes us a little bit to
adjust to that. I don't know what to expect in
terms of a crowd. I anticipate, since it's one versus
two tonight, that it'll be be a big crowd. But
you know, we learned we'd much rather compete in front
of a large crowd that's against us than nobody. So
you know when we go some places and it's it's
vapid in there because it's you know, there's nobody in there.
But you know, for us, it's really it's really not
about the other team that's on the floor with us.
It can't be. There is no defense. We can't tackle them,
they can't tackle us. So it's it's a it's a
it's just a different approach. We have to stay true
to who we are. We're still in a growth period.
We're still trying to become a finished product. And I
tell them every week. You know, we set a new
floor for ourselves every week. Hopefully, if we're doing things
the right way and we're moving forward and we're getting
closer to where we want to be in terms of
what our ultimate potential is, then every week we should
see improvement and we should set a new floor for
ourselves in different ways. And so, you know, we certainly
understand that this is a big meet here, and we
know where we are, and we know that Oklahoma's been
the gold standard. They won seven of the last eleven
national championships in our sport. But there's a nice, little
respectful rivalry between the two programs right now. We were
able to share the regular season title with them last
year and then beat them at the SEC Championship and
then unfortunately we came up short of making finals at
the end. But we know who we're competing against tonight,
and we just got to go in there confident and
really do everything we can to put pressure on them
and see see where things come out.
Speaker 2: Courch you were.
Speaker 3: Talking about the battles you guys have had with Oklahoma.
Obviously one versus two, you guys already faced them once
this year.
Speaker 2: It was your first meet of the.
Speaker 3: Year correct, And I mean it says, you know, one
point five for both teams, but OU wins in a
six score tiebreaker.
Speaker 2: How does that work?
Speaker 6: Well? In our sport, we put six up on every event.
You count five of them, you count the best five,
and so when you get into a tiebreaker situation. They
don't normally do it in a regular season meet, but
ESPN runs that according to championship rules because it's a
it's an ESPN event, and so they go to the
six score on every event. And our sixth score in
two spots was lower than theirs, and I think we
end up losing by a quarter of a tenth or
half a tenth based on that. But it goes in
the record book as a tie and they just break
the tiebreaker and they do the tiebreaker to decide the
champion of that meet. And that's the same way they
would do it in the postseason.
Speaker 3: Well, coach, speaking of that tie the last time you
guys face the Oklahoma Sooners, what's it going to take
to get this team over the top tonight?
Speaker 6: As I said, we just got to go in there
and be ourselves. You know it's there. It's tough to
beat them. I think the last time they lost here
was in twenty fourteen. You think we have a street
going into PMAC these guys and the team they lost
to was us, was in back in twenty fourteen when
Reagan Corville and Sarry Morrison. We're still on the team,
you know, but it's different times now, and they're they're
tough to beat at home. It's really for us, it's
just about going in there and staying true to the
identity that we're creating for ourselves and and go compete
hard and and you know see where see where we
end up. We're gonna see these guys again down the road.
We'll see him at the SEC Championship and if everything
goes well, we'll see him in the NCAA Championship. So
this this meet, while it's it's big and it's exciting
and fans love it and it'll be great for TV,
it's not going to define a whole heck of a
lot for us either way. So we just got to
put it in its proper place and go compete hard
and try to win it.
Speaker 2: One versus two, LSU versus Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: That is LSU Gymnastics coach j coach, Thanks for hopping
on with me and everybody back home is gonna be
pulling for you guys.
Speaker 2: A good luck to you tonight.
Speaker 6: Thank you, buddy, You'll have a great day.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. That was LSU gymnastics coach Jay Clark. The Tiger's
taking on the Sooners in Norman the Lloyd Noble Center
tonight at eight p m.
Speaker 2: Central.
Speaker 3: We'll take a time out. We're closing out out on
number two. Next you're on off the bench.
Speaker 1: Off the bench, all.
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Speaker 2: I'm tirely all, I got it home. I'm at the time,
and all I got a whole minute. I'm all, I
got it. I'm love Simon.
Speaker 1: All I got from the locker room to the airwaves.
It's off the bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 5: All right, go to Rosses dot com go see our
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Speaker 3: Come on, this is this song exactly four minutes long?
It's a good question because that would be a missed
opportunity if not, the song has to be four minutes.
Speaker 2: It says four minutes and five seconds. But I'm sure
it's just like the end of or outro whatever. I
was hope, but it wasn't like that praxing. We were talking,
uh treing shoes in the in the break Do you
have a pair of hate dudes? I don't anymore, but
you did?
Speaker 4: I did?
Speaker 3: Okay, last time I said I had hay dudes, people
said they were old man shoes.
Speaker 4: No people wearing for like.
Speaker 2: Just like my dad loves hay dudes.
Speaker 4: Nothing wrong with.
Speaker 2: Anything wrong with them, but they're definitely dead bad boys.
Here huh the navy blue. I just bought these. These
are like two weeks old. Those are fresh. Yeah, look
at these, look like your dad.
Speaker 4: Now, look at these da shoes.
Speaker 3: At these you had to get look at them. Look
at them pearly white, right, they looks great. The problem
with these is though they don't make half sizes. What
size do I wear? Of course it's a ten and
a half, so I gotta buy the eleven. It's just
a little floppy and they kind of they kind of
flop right off of me. But do their comfy? I mean,
it feels like I'm wearing slippers. And see She's like,
you know, they're duteo.
Speaker 6: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not Chris Marley wearing loafers with no socks into
the office. Okay, and high waters. I at least I'm not.
I'm not wearing the loafers. Okay, We're just we wanted
to be. Chris is listening. He's gonna text me immediately
after hearing that the man had high water. I love
my guy.
Speaker 3: No, look, I was tired. I uh had to work
the women's game last night. I walked into my back
door at eleven fifteen last night.
Speaker 2: The back door. Yeah, we'll go into your house from
the back door. Well, so our back.
Speaker 3: Door, Now, I could pull it up on Zilla if
I want to just price still there, don't do that.
Speaker 2: Our back door.
Speaker 3: Our back door is, uh, it's kind of like on
the back corner and then we have a long driveway.
So I pulled right up and then the door's right
there at the back corner. So yeah, I mean we
don't We don't ever use our front door. The only
time our front door's ever us is when Frankie's barking
at the Amazon guys dropping off packages. That's pretty much it. Yeah,
so I've walked in the back door at eleven fifteen.
Speaker 2: We're a little tired.
Speaker 3: Luckily I got this brand new shirt so we didn't
need to be ironed or anything like that.
Speaker 2: And honestly, how long did you have one of these?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 2: These are the sports don net shirts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 3: Matt had a few, actually, he was passing them out.
I guess it was Wednesday. A little bit seat through.
Speaker 2: Hanging up in my closet.
Speaker 3: I could see my hand on the other side. That's
why I had to wear an undershirt. I thought about
giving y'all show this morning. I was like, we could
be a little seed through on a Friday, a little scandalous.
But I was like, a, you know what, I don't
want people to get too excited. We're gonna we're gonna
chill out a little bit. We're gonna rein it in
a little bit on this Friday. Call a call a
flag football tournament tomorrow. Yeah, Elton Gonzales. The range is
gonna be from four to fourteen. Kind of a wide
range there. A lot of people got their COVID years
of eligibility still remaining. Like the guy at mont You've
all seen the guy at Montana. There's a guy who
plays football at Montana. I say, guy, he's probably an
old man now. He got his ninth year of eligibility
the other day.
Speaker 4: I mean the dude from Miami, Miami. He was a
tight end, Like I don't know if he graduated.
Speaker 2: He had he had a couple he had a couple
of injuries, like this.
Speaker 8: Guy year still it was eight years probably.
Speaker 2: Like, what in the van Wilder are we doing? This guy?
Speaker 3: He like nine years? His name is uh Solomon, No crap,
tu lea to tupu. No way, I didn't nail that
last name.
Speaker 2: Huh he uh. He was granted a rare ninth year
of NCAA eligibility. Oh yeah, Matt was saying his name
the other day and it was making me laugh really hard.
I'm not at Tempet's. It'm wanting done on that one.
He graduated What were you do you graduate high school?
Speaker 4: Brexton, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: O laundry. You were probably fourteen or fifteen or six
fifteen or sixteen? What in twenty twenty three? No, like
graduating class high school? Oh sixteen.
Speaker 3: This guy graduated high school in twenty eighteen, and he
would be playing college football next year.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 2: He had a number of injuries. He did have multiple injuries.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: It forced him to miss at least five full seasons
of competition.
Speaker 4: That's a lot.
Speaker 3: That's that's just bad luck at that point. And like
I feel for you now, what you'd do eat? Like, Bro,
you're gonna be collecting aarp here soon you're thirty years old. Yeah, like,
I'll be thirty in September. This guy's guess twenty six
because I graduated high school and fourteen. Yeah, he's played
twenty six, twenty seven somewhere in there, depending on where
the birthday falls. Like, my god, there's grad assistant coaches
on the staff older than younger than you by multiple years.
Speaker 8: How far do you think it's TJ. Finley?
Speaker 4: Is he a senior? Finally, he's on his seventh year.
Speaker 3: Seventh year, Yeah, but only six schools because he went
to TWU Lane. He never actually played at Tulane and
then like he enrolled at TU Lane in the spring,
left after the spring.
Speaker 4: When in the falls, has it been injured?
Speaker 2: I don't no, not really.
Speaker 4: I don't know how you getting that many year.
Speaker 3: His first year here was the COVID year at LSU, right,
so that didn't count. I think he did have an injury.
One year, red shirted, another year played in less than
four games. It's probably the Auburn year when bow Knicks
was there, and so I mean it just it kind
of snowballed on it a little bit.
Speaker 2: And uh, yeah, he's still in college. So was Max Johnson.
People forget about that, he really people talk about TJ.
Speaker 3: Finley, Max Johnson's playing college, but I have no idea,
but he's there. They were in the same they were
in the same high school class.
Speaker 8: I love the interview with Carson Beg. I guess leading
to the Nasauar champion ship. They said like they were
talking about classes in finals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, graduating.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you said Howard classes and he said, oh, I
don't say any classes.
Speaker 3: Right, he teaches the classes, MAXI Johnson, Max Johnson greaton papers.
Has been tough for this semester. I'm not gonna lie
to you. Max Johnson at Georgia Southern, so back in
his home state. But all right, that's gonna wrap up
our number two coming up Busy Hour number three or
Roster Jackson nine o'clock, nine thirty Doug Thompson.
Speaker 2: Then we're wrapping this week up here on off the bench,
Off the bench,